Zelenskyy now calls out the US and US representatives in Riyadh for describing Russian illegal invasion of Ukraine as “a conflict,” and not “simply a war by Putin against us.”

“This softens it,” he says.

He says he had similar conversation with the previous US administration, when he “fought” against an official paper describing the war “as a conflict.”

“There was a[n attempted] shift in the policy to soften the terms to describe what Putin is doing against us, and we are standing up for Ukraine’s rights here. There’s nothing terrible, but we must recognise what’s happening,” he says.

Zelenskyy says the US “have helped Putin to come out of isolation” which he says was “completely fair because of their full scale invasion” on Ukraine.

He also rebukes Trump’s comments that most of Ukraine’s support comes from the US.

“The truth is somewhere else,” he says, but adds he remains “grateful for the support” and wants “the Trump team to have true facts.”

He goes on about the talks:

“This isn’t positive for Ukraine. What it does is that they’re bringing Putin out of isolation, and the Russians are happy because the discussion focuses on them,” he says.

He adds that Russia seems to be presenting itself “as a victim, and that is something new.”

Zelenskyy now responds to Trump’s comments overnight.

He says that he “never comments on popularity ratings, especially my own or other leaders,” but he points out that the latest poll shows 58% of Ukrainian trust him.

“So if anyone wants to replace me right now, that will not work,” he says.

He also calls out “a lot of disinformation coming from Russia,” as he says that these figures seem to be shared with the US.

“Unfortunately, President Trump, with all due respect for him as the leader of a nation that we respect greatly … is living in this disinformation bubble,” he says.

Zelenskyy says he will look into collecting more data on trust in key global leaders to counter Russian disinformation, as he says he warns against “the misinformation circle around President Trump,” which he says includes representatives linked with Hungarian and Slovak governments.

“This is all concerning. Everything they are doing is to make sure that Ukraine is weak,” he says.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is speaking now.

He says that there was “a strong message given to Europe from Ukraine” in his meetings with European leaders in recent days, and more meetings are coming, including in the UK, “in the next few weeks.”

He says the conversation focuses on “what Europe is prepared to do to help Ukraine if there is a reduction in the assistance from the US or something else,” as he stresses that “we must count on an allied position in Europe.”

He says there are plans for an hybrid meeting on the anniversary of the full-scale invasion on 24 February and gives comments on his conversations with the United Arab Emirates and Turkey, floating the suggestion that Ankara could potentially provide security guarantees for Ukraine.

I will bring you the latest shortly.

Sweden and Poland to sign agreement on civil defence

Miranda Bryant

Nordic correspondent

Sweden and Poland are today expected to sign an agreement that will see the two countries collaborate on civil defence in light of the worsening security situation across Europe.

The letter of intent, due to be signed by the Polish interior minister Tomasz Siemoniak and Swedish defence minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin in Stockholm later today, is expected to cover protection of civilians, Baltic security and hybrid threat resilience.

Meanwhile, in Copenhagen, Mette Frederiksen’s government, looking to prove its preparedness in the face of criticism from the US which wants to gain control of Greenland, part of the Danish kingdom, is expected to present a new 50bn DKK defence agreement.

Russian officials seize on Trump’s false claim on Zelenskyy’s approval rating

Pjotr Sauer

Russian affairs reporter

Russian officials on Wednesday seized on Donald Trump’s latest remarks, in which he questioned Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s legitimacy as Ukraine’s president.

Speaking on Tuesday evening, Trump falsely claimed that Zelenskyy’s approval rating was “at 4%” and described Ukraine as a country “blown to smithereens.”

While Zelenskyy’s popularity has declined in recent months, a fresh February poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) found that 57% of Ukrainians trusted the president, up from 52% a month earlier.

Pyotr Tolstoy, a senior member of Russia’s State Duma, called Trump’s remarks “significant” and suggested they would be “of great interest to those who call themselves politicians in Kyiv.”

Russia will be counting on Trump’s remarks to sow discord among Kyiv’s political elites and society at large, potentially weakening Ukraine’s ability to resist Russian forces.

Putin has previously dismissed negotiations with Zelenskyy, claiming his presidency is “illegitimate.”

Lavrov says 2025 marks 80 years since the end of the second world war as he goes on a rant about “manifestations of neo-nazism” globally, throwing false accusations against Ukraine, the Baltics, and Canada.

Following this aggressive line, he says that “there is no alternative to eradicating the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis,” as he repeatedly accuses Ukraine of a campaign against Russian culture.

No signs of softening his language after yesterday’s talks with the US there.

Lavrov now talks up the importance of the BRICS group of nations saying that Russia and the bloc are “stopping the West from imposing a Ukrainian agenda.”

BRICS consist of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.

He then moves on to talk about the importance of diplomacy and cultural diplomacy, as he claims many Russian groups “are having a difficult time because of the Russophobia unleashed by the West.”

Lavrov also speaks about Russia’s alliances with Belarus, North Korea, China and Iran, and countries in Africa.

He says the “comprehensive partnership with China” was “at an unprecedented level and exceeding any prior alliances of a classic type,” with both leaders attending important anniversaries in each other’s countries.

He also praises Russia’s relations with India.

He also talks about Russia’s plans to “replace the Euro-Atlantic model that is bankrupt,” with a new initiative “open to all alliances on the continent, including the European part of the greater Eurasia.”

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov is speaking in the Russian parliament in Moscow.

He says that Russian diplomacy is “carrying out tasks set by the President, who has talked about it in details at his annual press conference and in many interviews.”

But he talks about the broader change in global politics:

I will tell you something that is a key issue for us at this stage of international development, and that is our move towards a multipolar world. It is a historic process, and it is to do with the subjective trend of new power centres appearing on the world map.

He continues:

Our partners in the Global South and in the east are unique civilisations and religions and are members of various integration associations, but all of them are united by a desire towards development, progressive development without external pressure…

He then turns to attack the West, amusingly trying to portray Russia as the leader of “progressive humanity” revolting against the West’s dominance in global politics.

At the same time, we must state that the collective West, although verbally are in agreement and accepting the multipolar realities, in reality, they still want to preserve their former dominance in the West.

…

The collective West cannot unite and is unable to renounce the selfish habits that it was governed by in the last five centuries when it ruled the world.

He also repeats his verbal attacks on Ukraine.

New EU sanctions on Russia

Jennifer Rankin

in Brussels

EU sanctions against Russia will be extended to cover aluminium imports and dozens more “shadow” vessels covertly exporting Russian oil below a price cap imposed by western allies.

The approval of the package carries extra weight, amid fears in Brussels that Donald Trump will seek to lift US sanctions against Russia as part of his effort to make a peace deal.

The new package, 16th since the full scale invasion in 2022, includes a ban on imports of Russian aluminium into the EU, said by EU officials to generate significant revenues for Russia. A further 73 vessels believed to be circumventing the oil price cap will be banned from EU ports, although that does not cover all the ageing tankers thought to be helping Russia evade sanctions.

A total of 48 people and 35 entities face asset freezes and travel bans, although their names have not been revealed. The EU is also removing broadcasting licences from 8 Russian media outlets and excluding 13 banks from Swift international payments system.

In an earlier draft the EU planned to stop the sale of games consoles and joysticks to Russia, which are thought to be repurposed for use in drone warfare. Diplomatic sources did not immediately confirm if these items made the final list, ahead of the expected publication of the sanctions next week.

Jakub Krupa

Zelenskyy’s press conference has been pushed back, so we may have to wait a bit longer – but be assured that we will bring you all the key lines when it happens.

The Kremlin said this morning that any Putin-Trump meeting would take time to prepare, but could come before the end of the month, Tass and Interfax news agencies are reporting.

This will alarm European allies, after Trump was asked overnight if he could meet with Putin in February, and said: “Probably.”

UK prime minister Keir Starmer is the first European leader expected to meet with Trump in person at some point next week and European allies will hope this happens before the US president meets Putin.

Elsewhere, we have also hear from the Vatican this morning, as they issued a medical update on Pope Francis after his fifth night at the Gemelli hospital in Rome.

“The pope spent a peaceful night, woke up and had breakfast,” the Vatican said.

On Tuesday evening, the Vatican said that “the laboratory tests, chest X-ray, and the Holy Father’s clinical condition continue to present a complex picture,” with “the onset of bilateral pneumonia, which required additional drug therapy.”

US Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg has just arrived to Kyiv.

Speaking to reporters at the train station, he says the US administration is listening to Ukrainian arguments, and stresses the US administration understands the need for security guarantees.

“My mission is to sit and listen and say, what are your concerns, … then go back to the US, talk to president Trump, secretary Rubio and the rest of the team, and just ensure that we get this one right,” he says.

Asked how confident he is that a good solution can be found, he says he is always confident of everything.

Kellogg was in Brussels and Warsaw yesterday, where he met with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, European Council president António Costa, and Polish President Andrzej Duda.

And just before Zelenskyy speaks, we are getting reports that EU envoys agreed on the sixteenth package of sanctions against Russia, EU diplomats told Reuters.

Sanctions include a Russian primary aluminium import ban and listing of 73 new shadow fleet vessels.

We will get more detail on this soon from the EU, no doubt.

Jakub Krupa

We are expecting to hear from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy soon.

We will bring you the latest here when he speaks.

Morning opening: Trump confuses Europe, again

Jakub Krupa

You just never know where things are going to go with US president Donald Trump.

When he started talking about Ukraine last night, at first, he appeared to give his approval to the idea of deploying European peacekeeping forces there (“all for” and “fine”) and said he had no plans for pulling out US troops from Europe, despite some suggestions that Russia’s Putin would ask him to do that. So far, so good.

But the longer his statement continued, the worse it became for Ukraine.

Trump eventually said that Zelenskyy “should have never started it, … could have made a deal,” as if it was Ukraine who invaded Russia and not the other way round, and repeated Russian key demands for elections in Ukraine, with unfounded allegations on president Zelenskyy’s poor approval rating.

This will ring alarm bells in Ukraine and across Europe again.

The US president also said last night that he was “much more confident” of a deal after the talks, adding “they were very good,” and that Russia “want to stop the savage barbarism.”

(Whisper it, but they can do it quite easily, being the ones who invaded.)

As Sean Savett, who was the spokesperson for the White House National Security Council under then-president Joe Biden, said more bluntly in a social media post: “Sounds like Trump bought Putin’s propaganda hook, line, and sinker.

On Tuesday, US state secretary Marco Rubio debriefed the Quint – France, Germany, Italy and the UK – and the European Union on the talks, promising they will stay “in close contact as we work to achieve a durable end to the conflict in Ukraine.”

But EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas issued a pointed warning: “Russia will try to divide us. Let’s not walk into their traps.”

One issue that was discussed during last night’s talks was a proposed moratorium on attacks on the energy infrastructure of Russia and Ukraine. It was rejected by Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, who insisted at his press conference that the Russians would never do that anyway as they only attack legitimate military targets.

You will be shocked – shocked! – to hear that Ukraine reported overnight a Russian attack on energy infrastructure in the southern region of Odesa, leaving at least 160,000 residents without heating and power. It is -7 degrees Celsius there.

More European allies are expected to meet in Paris today after protests over their exclusion from the hand-picked group invited for Monday’s first round of talks. The invitees reportedly include Norway, Canada, the Baltic states, the Czech Republic, Greece, Finland, Romania, Sweden and Belgium. We are yet to formally hear about it from the Élysée Palace.

No doubt there will be more consultations taking place behind the scenes, and US Ukraine envoy Keith Kellog will be in Kyiv today.

I will bring you the latest.

It’s Wednesday, 19 February 2025, and this is Europe live. It’s Jakub Krupa here.

Good morning.