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Morning Headlines
The Kyiv Independent: Russia launched a combined missile and drone attack across Ukraine in the early hours of Feb. 26, targeting Kyiv as well as Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Kryvyi Rih, where residential buildings and civilian infrastructure were reported damaged, local authorities said.
Politico: EU leaders are looking for ways to grant Viktor Orbán a face-saving win that would allow him to climb down from blocking funds for Ukraine while avoiding a full-blown legal fight between Brussels and Budapest.
ISW: The Kremlin appears to have been successful in enacting a reflexive control campaign aimed at influencing the decision-making of the British- and French-led Coalition of the Willing.
Politico: Russian air and missile defenses may soon be able to intercept British and French nuclear weapons, according to new analysis by the U.K.-based defense think tank RUSI.
More News
The Kyiv Independent: Four Ukrainian defense companies have signed partnership agreements with companies from Denmark, Finland, and Latvia under the Build with Ukraine joint production initiatives on Feb. 24, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Ukrainska Pravda: The next trilateral meeting between Ukraine, the United States and Russia has been set to take place in early March, Zelensky said.
Reuters: More than 1,700 Africans are fighting for Russia in its war in Ukraine, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on Wednesday, adding that Moscow was using deception to trick them into fighting.
The Moscow Times: Heavy battlefield losses are likely to prevent Russia from launching a major new offensive in Ukraine in the coming months, Western officials and military analysts told Bloomberg as the war entered its fifth year.
Reuters: Ukraine will accelerate the placement of anti-drone nets over roads in frontline areas, aiming to cover 4,000 kilometres of roads by the end of this year, Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said on Wednesday.
Politico: German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has taken a pointed swipe at Trump, accusing the U.S. president of sending the wrong signals to Putin and weakening Ukraine’s position in the war.
Reuters: The first Ukrainian drone production plant has started its operations in Britain, Ukraine's ambassador Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said on Wednesday.
United24 Media: Norway's total support for Ukraine in 2026 will amount to nearly $8 billion, representing about 20% of the support Ukraine is expected to receive this year, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said.
Reuters: Hungary's Orban on Wednesday accused Ukraine of planning to disrupt the Hungarian energy system and ordered the deployment of soldiers and equipment to safeguard critical infrastructure.
Reuters: Repairs to the Druzhba pipeline, which carries Russian oil to Eastern Europe, cannot be completed quickly despite requests from the European Union and protests by Hungary, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday.
Reuters: Croatia is assessing whether it can lawfully import seaborne Russian crude oil to supply to Hungary and Slovakia after the Druzhba pipeline supplying them via Ukraine was damaged, the European Commission said on Wednesday.
United24 Media: Drones struck the Russian chemical plant Dorogobuzh in the Smolensk region, a facility considered important to the production chain of explosive materials used by the Russian military.
Bloomberg: Russian and Iranian oil producers are offering deepening discounts as they compete for the same limited group of Chinese buyers after India retreated from purchases (archive).
Reuters: Four Belarusians and two Poles were detained and charged with attempting to smuggle to Russia devices used to automate the production of integrated circuits, used, among others, in the assembly of combat drones, Polish prosecutors said.
The Guardian: Russian companies have used Britain’s secretive island territories to conduct $8bn of trade since the invasion of Ukraine, according to a report that highlights the flow of goods ranging from oil-drilling equipment to luxury yachts linked to Moscow’s political elite.
Reuters: A Russian court has fined Alphabet's Google over 22 million roubles ($288,000) for distributing VPN (virtual private network) services on the Google Play app store.
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