Published on: 02/23/2026 - 06:23 Modified on: 02/24/2026 - 05:03

According to a joint report from kyiv, the World Bank, the EU and the UN, Ukraine's post-war reconstruction will cost some 500 billion euros over the next decade. Slovak nationalist Prime Minister Robert Fico has decided to stop emergency electricity deliveries to Ukraine. Here is the thread for February 23, 2026.

See you soon !

This is the end of this live, thank you for following it. Our coverage of the situation in Ukraine continues on France 24 and France24.com.

Russian drone strikes on Zaporizhia injure five

Russian drone strikes on the town of Zaporizhia, in southern Ukraine, left five people injured, including a child, emergency services announced on Tuesday.

The strikes that occurred late Monday targeted several sites in the regional capital, on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the conflict triggered by the Russian invasion of February 24, 2022. “Five people, including a child were injured as a result of the attacks,” the national emergency services said on Telegram.

A drone crashed into a factory building near a nine-story residential building, triggering a fire that spread over more than 200 m2. Neighboring homes were also damaged, emergency services added. Another strike hit an area near residential neighborhoods, damaging five buildings and several cars parked in a courtyard, according to this source.

Emergency services said they had deployed teams and equipment to extinguish the fires and assess the damage.

Volodymyr Zelensky calls on Donald Trump to stay on Ukraine's side

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked his counterpart Donald Trump on Monday, during an interview with the American channel CNN, to remain on the side of Ukraine, which enters its fifth year of war with Russia on Tuesday.

The United States "must remain on the side (...) of a democratic country that fights against a single person", he declared in reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin during this interview conducted in the presidential palace in kyiv, on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the conflict triggered by the Russian invasion of February 24, 2022.

Is the American president putting enough pressure on Vladimir Putin to try to end the war? “No,” Volodymyr Zelensky simply replied to CNN. "We can't just give him everything he wants. Because he wants to occupy us. If we give him everything he wants, we will lose everything - all of us will have to flee or become Russians," he added.

Policeman killed, two others injured in explosion near Moscow train station

A police officer was killed and two others injured in Moscow on the night of Monday to Tuesday by "the explosion of an unidentified device" triggered by "a criminal" who also died, said the local branch of the Interior Ministry.

“Today, around 12:05 a.m. (9:05 p.m. GMT Monday), an unknown individual approached road police officials (...) who were in a patrolling vehicle on the Saviolovo station square, then the explosion of an unidentified device occurred,” the source said on Telegram. “The criminal died at the scene,” she added, specifying that one police officer had died and that two others, injured, had been hospitalized.

Despite a decline in 2025, Russian oil exports exceed pre-war levels

Despite a decline last year, Russia still exports more crude oil than before its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, shows a report from a Finnish think tank published Tuesday.

The volume of Russian crude exports remains 6% higher than pre-war levels, despite Western sanctions against the "ghost fleet", according to the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA). The Russian ghost fleet, estimated to number between 600 and 1,400 boats, is used by Moscow to circumvent Western sanctions against its oil sales.

However, Moscow's oil revenues, which fuel its war machine, fell below pre-invasion levels as Russia was forced to implement price discounts, the report said.

“Ghost fleet”: Russia wants to “destabilize” Europe, according to the chief of staff of the French Navy

Between sabotage of submarine cables and a “ghost fleet” of a thousand ships to circumvent sanctions, Russian “hybrid” warfare at sea constitutes a threat to the security of Europe, declared Monday Nicolas Vaujour, chief of staff of the French Navy.

“We meet the Russians at sea very regularly. You should know that almost a Russian boat or submarine passes along our coasts every week,” said Admiral Vaujour in an interview on the France 2 television channel.

“In the Baltic Sea, they are rather very aggressive with behavior against our units (...) which marks the limits of what is acceptable,” he continued. In response, “we go to meet them” and “we ostensibly show them our presence,” he continued.

Seven Ukrainian police officers injured in an explosion in Mikolaiv in the South

An explosion injured seven Ukrainian police officers in Mikolaiv, two of them seriously, authorities announced, two days after the death of a policewoman in a similar incident in Lviv (north-west) denounced by kyiv as a "terrorist attack".

On social media, the head of the Ukrainian national police, Ivan Vyguivsky, claimed that Monday's explosion took place at 6:10 p.m. local time (4:10 p.m. GMT) in "an out-of-order gas station" in Mikolaiv where law enforcement officers had "parked their vehicles."

Without providing details on the origin of the explosion, he denounced a "targeted attack" by the "enemy" to "kill Ukrainian police officers" and "destabilize the country" at war against Russia.

Trump is either “a traitor” or an “exceptional” leader, Lech Walesa tells AFP

Because he can be conciliatory towards Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump appears to some as a "traitor" to the Ukrainian cause, but he could also prove to be an "exceptional" leader determined to avoid nuclear hell, declared Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Walesa in an interview with AFP.

“On the surface, today, he seems to be Russia's lackey, quite simply a traitor,” but the White House tenant is perhaps an “exceptional” leader who “knows that if the United States joined the anti-Putin chorus, Putin would no longer have a choice and would have to use atomic weapons,” explains the former Polish president on the eve of the fourth anniversary of Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Slovak Prime Minister orders emergency electricity deliveries to Ukraine to be stopped

Regretting the interruption of the supply of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline which passes through Ukrainian territory, Slovak nationalist Prime Minister Robert Fico decided to stop emergency electricity deliveries to Ukraine.

“Given the seriousness of the situation and the state of oil emergency declared in Slovakia, we are forced to immediately proceed with this first measure of reciprocity,” Robert Fico said in a video message posted on Facebook and sent to the media. "It will be lifted as soon as oil transit to Slovakia is restored. Otherwise, we will take further reciprocal measures," he added.

The Slovak nationalist also threatened to reconsider "his so far constructive positions on Ukraine's membership in the EU" if Ukraine "continues to harm" his interests.

Russian security officers aboard the ghost fleet near European shores

Two employees of a Russian private security company responsible for monitoring the crew and collecting intelligence were on board the Boracay, the Russian ghost fleet tanker boarded by France in September and whose captain is on trial this Monday, AFP learned from two French sources with knowledge of the case.

"There were two Russians on board the Boracay", boarded by marine commandos off the coast of Brittany, a source who requested anonymity told AFP. Information confirmed by the commander's French lawyer.

Aged 34 and 40, Aleksander T. and Maksim D., a former police officer who worked for the notorious Wagner group, were employed by the Russian private military company (SMP) Moran Security Group, according to the first source. This company placed under American sanctions was founded in 2009 by former officers of the Russian secret service (FSB) and maintains close links with the authorities, according to this source and several experts.

Ukrainian refugees will now be able to submit claims for compensation for damages suffered

Ukrainians who had to leave their country because of Russia's large-scale invasion four years ago can now file a claim for compensation with a body under the auspices of the Council of Europe, the institution announced.

The Damages Register for Ukraine, established in 2023, aims to record human rights violations during the war, in order, in the future, to quantify the amount of reparations payable to Russia.

Ukrainians can already submit requests for reparations for around fifteen consequences of the war: forced displacement, death or disappearance of loved ones, destruction of their home, torture, loss of access to their region of origin... The Council of Europe indicates that it has already received 110,000 complaints.

Kaja Kallas calls EU's failure to agree on new sanctions against Russia a 'setback'

The lack of agreement on new sanctions against Russia, due to a Hungarian veto, is a "setback", on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, lamented the head of EU diplomacy, Kaja Kallas.

“It’s a setback and a message we didn’t want to send today, but the work continues,” she said after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.

International Paralympic Committee remains firm on participation of Russian athletes despite boycott threats

Russian and Belarusian athletes will be allowed to participate in the Winter Paralympics under their flag and with their national anthem, following a decision by the General Assembly of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), its president, Andrew Parsons, said.

The IPC's allocation of a combined 10 places to Russian and Belarusian athletes sparked a political storm ahead of the Games, given ongoing tensions over Russia's four-year, full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian drones hit oil pumping station in Russia's Tatarstan region, kyiv says

According to an official from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Ukrainian drones struck an oil pumping station in the Russian region of Tatarstan, 700 km east of Moscow, an area located more than 1,200 km from the Russian-Ukrainian border.

The station is an important facility for the Druzhba pipeline, which supplies Eastern Europe with Russian oil, the official said, adding that the attack caused a fire.

Ukraine talks possibly at end of week, Zelensky's chief of staff says

The new round of talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine could take place at the end of the week, the president's chief of staff Volodymyr Zelensky told Ukrainian media.

Kyrylo Budanov also said that the next exchange of prisoners of war between Russia and Ukraine could take place this week, and that it could be larger than the previous one, in which the two countries returned 157 prisoners of war each.

The reconstruction of Ukraine estimated at around 500 billion euros

According to a joint report from kyiv, the World Bank, the European Union and the United Nations, Ukraine's post-war reconstruction will cost some $588 billion (around 500 billion euros) over the next decade.

The sectors most affected are housing, transport and energy. The damage and needs are concentrated in regions close to the front - regions of Donetsk (east) and Kharkiv (northeast) - and in large Ukrainian urban areas, the report specifies.

With AFP, Reuters and AP

Keywords associated with the article

The content you are trying to access does not exist or is no longer available.