Hillary Clinton: If Trump thinks he can dominate the Western Hemisphere and give Europe to Putin, he’s mistaken — and Europeans must prove it.

If you want a just, lasting peace in Ukraine, you have to better equip them. That’s the only thing Putin understands. 1/ Clinton: One of the biggest threats we face is Trump and Putin forcing an insecure, unjust end to the war in Ukraine that favors Putin.

There is reporting about corruption among their allies and oligarchs trying to profit from the misery and death of the Ukrainian people. 2/

Leavitt: Yesterday there was a round of trilateral talks between the U.S., Russia, and Ukraine. Meaningful progress was made.

Both sides agreed to brief their leaders and continue working toward a peace deal. Another round of talks will follow. 1/ Reporter: Zelenskyy said it is not fair Trump is saying Ukraine has to make concessions and not Russia.

Leavitt: The President would say it's not fair that thousands of Ukrainians are losing their lives, and Russians too, in this deadly war. 2/

Ukraine’s former army chief Zaluzhnyi: Tensions with Zelenskyy began soon after the 2022 invasion over how to defend Ukraine.

It peaked when SBU agents raided my office. I called Yermak and warned: I will fight you. The 2023 counteroffensive dispute was especially bitter, AP. 1/ Zaluzhnyi: Dozens of SBU officers entered my Kyiv headquarters in 2022. I stopped them from searching documents and computers. I viewed the raid as intimidation.

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Stubb: Is it in U.S. interests that Finland, with its 1,340 km Russia border, has a strong army?

That Sweden and Norway defend the Arctic? That Russia creates no spheres of influence in Europe? Yes. Right now, interests matter more than values.

1/ Stubb: Europe and America’s interests sometimes align, sometimes don’t — values are complicated.

One strand is MAGA, which sees Europe as too liberal, “killing itself with immigration,” and attacks places like London as multicultural melting pots.

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Kasparov: Any real compromise removes the causes of conflict. Ukraine-Russia “peace talks” are cowardly and corrupt, openly corrupt on Trump’s side.

Europe isn’t ready to admit this isn’t just a standoff, but a real war. Even after four years, it’s still living in illusions. 1/ Kasparov: The cause of this war is Putin’s desire to destroy Ukrainian statehood, restore imperial influence in Eastern Europe, and revise the Cold War’s outcome.

A “compromise” just lets him regroup — his war is against the liberal democratic West.

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Ukraine recaptured 78 sq miles of land in 5 days — its fastest pace since summer 2023.

That equals Russia’s total gains for the entire December, due to Russian battlefield communications collapsed, The Telegraph. 1/ After Starlink access was restricted to verified Ukrainian terminals, up to 90% of Russian units reportedly lost connectivity — crippling drone coordination and command links. 2/

The war is hurting usual Russians' pockets. Food inflation in Russia is accelerating — now hitting households directly.

Alexander, a Moscow ad specialist, saw his monthly food budget jump 22% in one month — from 35,000 to 43,000 rubles. Even his daily Americano rose 26%, BBC. 1/ Rosstat: supermarket prices jumped 2.3% in less than a month at the start of 2026.

BBC’s 59-item basket in Moscow rose from 7,358 rubles in 2024 to 8,724 in Jan 2026 — +18.6%, in line with official food inflation of 18.1%. 2/

When will war in Ukraine end? The question is meaningless.

Viktor Frankl: The first to break were those who believed it would end soon, and those who believed it would never end.

N. Gumenyuk writes in NYT how Ukrainian soldiers treat the question of when the war will end. 1/ Capt. Mykola Serga, a former entertainer who joined the army in 2022, says those who endure focus on the task at hand.

Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning (1940s) is now a wartime bestseller in Ukraine and is delivered to trenches to sustain morale. 2/

McFaul: As an American, I feel ashamed of my country. I cannot look Ukrainian soldiers in the eyes.

I hope it is not too late to reverse this course and put government back on the side of democracy against tyranny.

I am a patriotic American. I want to feel proud again. 1/ At the 2026 Munich Security Conference, Marco Rubio did not mention Putin’s 2022 full-scale invasion in his speech.

The largest war in Europe since 1945 went unaddressed at a security forum dedicated to Europe’s security. 2/

Now NATO asks Ukraine to train their soldiers.

Germany signed a deal with Kyiv to send Ukrainian troops to Bundeswehr schools — to teach drone warfare and battlefield tech integration, Times.

German officer: “No one in NATO currently has more war experience than Ukraine.” 1/ After years of war, Ukraine has unmatched experience in drone use, counter-drone defense, and rapid command-tech integration. 2/

2,000 Ukrainian children returned from russia and russian-occupied land since start of war — The Moscow Times.

Zelenskyy: "Thousands of Ukrainian children are still held captive by russia, becoming victims of its crimes every day. The road ahead remains long and difficult". 1/ Russia accused of forcibly transferring around 20,000 children from parts of Ukraine seized by its army.

International Criminal Court in 2023 issued arrest warrant for Putin and his children's rights commissioner "for war crime of unlawful deportation" of children. 2/

24 hours with frontline surgeons.

Most wounded are missing feet or legs from mines and FPV drones. Surgeons have 5-10 minutes to make decisions that will save lives and change them forever — United24. 1/ Surgeon "Luher": "Main injuries come from FPVs and mines. Mud, grass, or dirty shrapnel in wounds leads to infection. When I talked to US surgeons about how we deal with tourniquets, they couldn't believe it. They have a lot to learn from us." 2/

French baker Loïc Nervi bakes bread in Troyeshchyna, Kherson, and Kramatorsk. Locals call him Vitalik.

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, he has been baking bread for elderly people in frontline and hard-hit areas, writes Hromadske. 1/ He is 43. In France’s Var region, he owns four bakeries and leads a team of 25 people. At home, his wife and two daughters, aged 7 and 9, wait for him. 2/

Ukraine recaptured 201 sq km in just five days last week — the fastest battlefield gains since June 2023.

Starlink shutdown crippled Russia's communications and drone operations across the front — The Guardian. 1/ The ISW confirms Ukrainian counterattacks are "likely leveraging the recent block on Russian forces' access to Starlink, which milbloggers claim is causing communications and command and control issues on the battlefield." 2/

Innovation → test → analytics → scale.

This is how the battlefield evolves in Ukraine’s fifth year. This is how a war of endurance works now.

Michael Kofman writes in Foreign Affairs that the war has shifted from maneuver to positional, drone-saturated attrition in 2026. 1/ In February 2022, Russia aimed to seize Kyiv in days. That failed. What began as a rapid assault has become Europe’s largest conventional war since WWII. Advances are now measured in meters. 2/

Former Ukraine PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk: The position of the American administration is to avoid involving the EU in negotiations with Russia on Ukraine.

Zelenskyy performed here to the maximum — everything that could be said and everyone that could be met, he did it. 1/ Yatsenyuk: We have to prepare for the next winter. Russia caused $65B in damage to Ukraine's energy sector.

Without long-range missiles, without Tomahawks, without Ukraine having the ability to retaliate, we will not be able to ensure energy security for the next year. 2/

Ben Shapiro: Russia has never quite entered Europe; it’s existed on the fringes. As Dugin says, “Atlanticist” ideas aren’t Russian ideas.

Integrating Russia into Europe has been a failed experiment. Europe and the U.S. must uphold shared values to sustain their alliance. 1/ Ben Shapiro: The Germans and the French fought for centuries. The French and the English fought for centuries.

The Roman Empire was its own civilization; outlying areas were “barbarians.” After Rome fell rose Christendom, ended by the Reformation and the Peace of Westphalia.

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Sanna Marin: We, as Europe, would be fooling ourselves to think there will be peace if Russia wins.

If a bully in a classroom is allowed to take whatever it wants, would we think it would stop? Absolutely not. The war would continue in the future. 1/ Marin: Long-lasting just peace cannot be made on Putin’s terms. I don’t see that Putin has any initiative to even come to the peace negotiation table with a serious mind.

He doesn’t want peace. The only way to stop this war is to support Ukraine. 2/

Zelenskyy: Ukrainians will never forgive me or the US if we cede Donbas to Putin.

Ukrainian people will reject peace deal that involves Ukraine unilaterally withdrawing from eastern Donbas and turning it over to russia — Axios. 1/ Main sticking point in Geneva talks is control of Donbas. Around 10% still in Ukrainian hands.

US mediators proposed Ukrainian forces withdraw from parts they hold and allow area to become demilitarized "free economic zone." Washington has not taken position on sovereignty. 2/

FT: Zelenskyy at Munich said he'd hold elections but only after two months of ceasefire and with security guarantees in place.

He's pushing back hard on US pressure to hold votes by May 15. 1/ Washington wants elections and a peace deal by mid-May, with security guarantees contingent on the broader settlement. Kyiv insists security guarantees must come before any peace deal is signed. 2/

Xi Jinping purged 5 of 6 generals in China's top military body over past three years. He reaches back to Maoist tactics of "rectification."

Only two members left in Central Military Commission: Xi and Vice Chairman who oversees purges — The NYT. 1/ In January, Xi called on China to remember Yan'an, where Mao transformed guerrilla fighters into disciplined force through campaign of political terror that eliminated rivals and cemented his absolute authority. 2/