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Morning Headlines
Reuters: The Trump administration has signalled to Ukraine that U.S. security guarantees depend on Kyiv agreeing to a peace deal likely requiring it to cede the Donbas region to Russia, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
Kyiv Post: White House says Trump is not giving up on peace talks, but former US Ambassador John Herbst warns Moscow is only pretending to negotiate – and time is slipping away.
AP News: As Russia seeks to replenish its forces in nearly four years of war — and avoid an unpopular nationwide mobilization — it’s pulling out all the stops to find new troops to send into the battlefield.
Reuters: Indian Oil Corp, the country's largest refiner, has committed to buying more Brazilian crude in the fiscal year starting April, after reducing Russian oil imports, a company executive said on Tuesday.
ISW: The Kremlin is reviving its use of nuclear arms control rhetoric to push the United States to make concessions on Ukraine in return for normalizing US-Russian relations.
More News
Reuters: Russian drones and missile strikes on Monday hit Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, knocking out power to 80% of the city and surrounding region and striking apartment buildings, a school and a kindergarten, local officials said.
Euronews: Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán accused Ukraine on Monday of seeking to meddle in his country's upcoming elections and ordered Kyiv's ambassador to be summoned to the foreign ministry.
The Kyiv Independent: A new Russian law requires Ukrainian children in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine to obtain Russian international passports to travel abroad; experts say the move complicates efforts to flee the occupation.
The Moscow Times: Russia has cut the number of RSD59-class river-sea cargo ships to be built under its subsidized civilian ship leasing program, the Vedomosti business daily reported, citing a government order.
The Kyiv Independent: Moscow's propaganda machine has been hard at work depicting Europe as a "digital gulag," hellbent on suppressing free speech online. The latest campaign has targeted efforts by the U.K. and the EU to regulate X (formerly Twitter), even as the platform remains blocked in Russia, alongside Facebook, Instagram, and others.
Politico: Hungary and Slovakia will sue the European Union over its plan to ban all imports of Russian gas as soon as the law officially comes into force, the countries' foreign ministers announced today.
The Kyiv Independent: U.S. officials leading the talks are convinced that Russian negotiators have taken a more pragmatic tone behind closed doors than Moscow's public hardline rhetoric suggests.
United24 Media: Russian troops have left positions on Oleksiivskyi Island in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region after what Ukraine’s military said were active operations by Ukrainian forces, while Russia has begun regrouping and shifting units toward the Orikhiv sector.
The Kyiv Independent: Glasgow-based shipping company Seapeak led Russian liquified natural gas exports from the Arctic Yamal LNG project last year, hauling shipments worth 2.3 billion pounds ($3.2 billion), NGO Urgewald said on Jan. 26.
Reuters: Russian February Urals crude oil cargoes traded at close to the widest discounts against dated Brent in Indian ports since 2022 amid intensified pressure from Western sanctions.
The Kyiv Independent: Russia has not carried out a single confirmed launch of an Iranian-made ballistic missile against Ukraine during the full-scale war, Ukraine's military intelligence told KI on Jan. 26.
Reuters: Russia is withdrawing forces from an airport in northeastern Syria, moving to end its military presence in a corner of the country where the Damascus government is trying to seize control from Kurdish forces.
Politico: Drones are responsible for between 70 and 80 percent of those injured or killed on both sides of the war in Ukraine, according to a new report by a key Latvian intelligence service.
Reuters: Czechs have collected more than $6 million in just five days in a grassroots fundraising effort to buy generators, heaters and batteries for Ukraine, where hundreds of thousands are freezing in subzero temperatures after Russian attacks on power plants.
The Kyiv Independent: Russian forces are continuing attempts to expand their offensive around Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast, bringing up reserves and using infiltration tactics, Ukraine's commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Jan. 26.
Reuters: Finland's Border Guard hopes to prevent damage to critical undersea infrastructure in the Gulf of Finland with a maritime surveillance centre it plans to set up in cooperation with other Baltic Sea states and the EU Commission, it said on Monday.
LSM: Latvia's Constitution Protection Bureau: "Our information shows that Russia’s perception of Latvia is becoming increasingly similar to the one Russia had of Ukraine before the war. While Russia does not pose a direct military threat to Latvia at the moment, a number of signs indicate potential long-term plans."
Reuters: The first liquefied natural gas cargo from Russia’s sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 plant this year was discharged at China’s Beihai LNG terminal, LSEG data showed on Monday.
worth mentioning
Bangladeshi workers lured to Russia for jobs were forced to fight in the war in Ukraine
Russia’s Nornickel faces delay at Chinese copper smelter project
Despite sanctions and boycotts, some Western musicians return to the stage in Russia
Long flight delays in Russia doubled in 2025, Ukrainian drone attacks cited as the main cause
Russian outlets remove reference to 250,000 jobless soldiers returning from Ukraine
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