Summary of the Day: February 23, 2025
As Ukraine marks three years since Russia’s full-scale invasion, the battlefield freezes over while diplomatic tensions heat up. President Zelensky declares willingness to step down for peace as Trump negotiates directly with Russia, excluding Ukraine from talks. European leaders rush to Washington to advocate for Ukraine’s place at the negotiating table. Meanwhile, Russia launches its largest drone attack of the war, Ukraine emerges as the world’s top drone producer, and Germany’s political landscape shifts rightward. The next week may determine whether Ukraine’s sovereignty survives or succumbs to a peace deal many fear amounts to surrender.
Frozen Battlefield: Where Blood Meets Ice
The third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion arrives with a grim reality: the battlefield has quite literally frozen. Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief General Syrskyi reports that the frozen ground and iced-over water features near Chasiv Yar have become unwitting allies to Russian forces, allowing their vehicles to advance where mud once bogged them down.
Russian forces have seized Bilohorivka and its nearby quarry in the Siversk direction, another incremental victory in their grinding offensive strategy. Meanwhile, Ukrainian defenders achieved a small but significant advance in western Toretsk, a rare bright spot amid the relentless pressure.
Near Velyka Novosilka, Russian commanders launched what could only be described as a suicide mission: a company-sized mechanized assault with 10 armored vehicles. Ukrainian forces responded with devastating precision, destroying nine of them and sending a clear message that every meter of Ukrainian soil will exact a heavy price.
The Drone Swarm: Ukraine’s Digital Hornets Strike Deep
“We’ve become the world’s largest producer of tactical and long-range drones,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov announced proudly at a forum in Kyiv. The statistics back his bold claim: 2.2 million FPV drones and over 100,000 long-range drones produced in 2024 alone.
Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces have conducted 130 long-range operations into Russian territory this past year, striking 377 targets with drones capable of reaching 1,700 kilometers into Russian territory. One such operation took out a Russian Strela-10 air defense system in Kursk Oblast, the footage released as if to say: “Nowhere is safe.”
But Russia isn’t sitting idle. On the night of February 22-23, they launched their largest drone attack since the war began – 267 Shahed drones screaming across Ukrainian skies like mechanized locusts. Ukrainian defenses shot down 138, while electronic warfare systems disrupted another 119. Still, enough got through to spark fires across Kyiv’s residential neighborhoods and kill civilians in Kryvyi Rih and Kyiv Oblast.
The Deal-Maker’s Gambit: Trump Pushes for Peace on His Terms
“We’re signing an agreement, hopefully in the next fairly short period of time,” declared U.S. President Donald Trump from the Oval Office, approaching the Ukraine war like a real estate deal waiting to be closed. His administration has scheduled a second round of talks with Russia for February 25 in Saudi Arabia – talks that notably exclude Ukraine itself.
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff pointed to the 2022 Istanbul protocols as a potential framework – an agreement that would effectively require Ukraine to surrender its NATO aspirations, remain neutral, and severely limit its military capabilities.
President Zelensky’s response was both defiant and surprising: “If there is peace for Ukraine, if you really need me to leave my post, I am ready… I can exchange it for NATO.” But he drew a red line at Trump’s demands for Ukrainian natural resources: “I am not signing something that will be paid by 10 generations of Ukrainians.”
Europe Rises: Allies Rally as Trump Goes Solo
As Trump moves to negotiate directly with Putin, Europe’s leaders are rushing to Washington with a unified message: “No discussion about Ukraine, without Ukraine at the table,” as UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer firmly stated.
French President Emmanuel Macron plans to leverage what his staff called his “unique relationship” with Trump to convince the American president that appeasing Putin would be disastrous. “I’m going to tell him: ‘You can’t be weak with President Putin. That’s not who you are, it’s not your trademark, it’s not in your interest,'” Macron declared.
Thousands of Europeans took to the streets in Prague, Paris, and Brussels, unfurling a massive 262-meter Ukrainian flag in Paris as a symbol of solidarity. In Toronto, former Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland addressed a rally, declaring, “In this fight, we are on the side of democracy versus dictatorship.”
The Arsenal of Democracy: Ukraine’s Industrial Revolution
Three years of existential war have transformed Ukraine into a defense production powerhouse. The statistics are staggering: 1.3 million drones deployed to the frontline, with 96% of Ukraine’s military drones now produced domestically.
Looking ahead, Digital Transformation Minister Mykhailo Fedorov announced plans for drone swarm technology in 2025 – allowing a single operator to control multiple drones simultaneously. It’s the kind of innovation born only from desperate necessity.
Ukraine’s defense production funding tells another story: 40% from Ukraine itself, with Europe and the United States each contributing 30%. President Zelensky aims to increase Ukraine’s contribution to 50% next year – a statement of independence even as international support wavers.
The Dictator’s New Clothes: Putin’s Propaganda Machine
While Russian soldiers execute Ukrainian prisoners of war in Kursk Oblast – another documented war crime in a long list – Putin’s propaganda machine keeps spinning. Russia has introduced a new history textbook that brazenly redefines the war as a justified defensive action rather than unprovoked aggression.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s team, meanwhile, has been whispering into Trump’s ear that NATO expansion provoked Russia – a narrative Zelensky calls “dangerous” disinformation. “Is it not a risk that all the countries that became NATO members after various agreements between the Soviet Union and the U.S. could all be under attack or occupation by the Russian army?” Zelensky asked pointedly.
North Korea and Iran: The New Axis of Aggression
“Half of Russia’s ammunition now comes from North Korea,” revealed Ukrainian intelligence chief Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov, lifting the veil on Putin’s desperate search for weapons. North Korea has begun delivering 170mm self-propelled artillery systems and 240mm multiple launch rocket systems to Russia, with plans to provide 148 ballistic missiles in 2025.
Iran, meanwhile, has enabled Russia’s nightly drone terror campaign by providing Shahed drones and helping establish a production facility in Russia’s Tatarstan Republic. These partnerships represent a dangerous new axis of authoritarian regimes willing to arm one another against democratic nations.
The Mineral Prize: Ukraine’s Hidden Wealth Becomes a Bargaining Chip
Buried beneath the battlefields lies Ukraine’s true strategic value: $350 billion worth of natural resources in the Russian-occupied territories alone, according to Ukrainian Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko. These deposits of lithium, titanium, and other critical minerals have become Trump’s fixation, demanding $500 billion worth as payment for American support.
“The agreement that may emerge must meet the national interests of Ukraine and at the same time be interesting for our partners,” said Andrii Yermak, Head of the President’s Office, diplomatically navigating the pressure to sign away Ukraine’s future wealth for present security.
For Ukraine, these resources represent not just economic potential but sovereignty itself. As one Ukrainian MP suggested, sharing mineral rights from occupied territories could be acceptable, but only if the U.S. helps liberate them from Russia first.
Germany’s Rightward Shift: A New European Order Emerges
As Ukraine fights for survival, Germany’s political landscape has undergone a seismic shift. The center-right CDU/CSU won parliamentary elections on February 23, with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) shocking observers by securing 20.8% to become the parliament’s second-largest party.
Friedrich Merz, soon to be Germany’s next chancellor, has been blunt about Trump’s comments on Ukraine: “This is the Russian narrative; this is how Putin has presented it for years, and I’m frankly shocked that Donald Trump has now apparently embraced it himself.”
Unlike outgoing Chancellor Scholz, Merz supports sending medium-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine. But he’s also questioned whether NATO will remain intact by June’s summit, calling for an independent European defense strategy as American reliability wavers.
The Voice of the People: Democracy Under Fire
Despite Trump’s claim that Zelensky has a “4% approval rating,” a February poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found 63% of Ukrainians approve of their president’s leadership – remarkable support during wartime hardship.
Zelensky has pushed back against pressure to hold elections during the conflict: “How can we call an election in which half of the population of the country won’t be able to vote? How will military personnel be able to vote? There’s no way.”
The Ukrainian constitution prohibits elections during martial law – a legal reality that hasn’t stopped Trump from labeling Zelensky a “dictator.” The Ukrainian president’s response was telling: “One would be offended by the word dictator if he was a dictator. I’m not. I’m the legally elected president.”
As the war enters its fourth year, Ukraine stands at a crossroads between sovereignty and surrender, with its democratic institutions under fire from both Russian missiles and Western pressure. The next week may determine whether Ukraine’s defense of democracy was worth the terrible price it has paid.