Russia

News of an investigation into Pavel Durov, the app’s billionaire founder, deepened a crackdown on what remains of the free Russian internet.

Central and eastern Europe correspondent Shaun Walker joins Jakub Krupa to answer readers’ questions about four years of war, and where it’s heading Zelenskyy says “we must be just as determined and strong as we were when the invasion began,” as “the threat hasn’t become smaller.” He says Europe can only respond to this war working together with the US, even as he remarks it “is not an easy task to maintain transatlantic unity and cooperation in the current conditions.” “So there must be no place in the free world for Russian oil, for Russian tankers, Russian banks, Russian sanctions …, schemes, or for any Russian war criminals. The time has come to fully ban all participants in Russia’s aggression from entire Europe.” Continue reading...

Leader says Vladimir Putin has not achieved his goals and visit by Trump might make clear ‘who the aggressor is’ Europe live – latest updates Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appealed to Donald Trump to visit Kyiv, in a video address on the fourth anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion, and said Ukraine would not betray its people in any negotiations with Russia. Zelenskyy said Putin had not achieved his original war goals or “broken the Ukrainian people”. “He has not won this war,” he said. “We have preserved Ukraine, and we will do everything to achieve peace. And to ensure justice.” Continue reading...

Claim of ‘abetting terrorist activities’ comes as Kremlin attempts to steer users on to state-controlled app Russia has launched a criminal investigation into the Telegram founder, Pavel Durov, on suspicion of “abetting terrorist activities”, further escalating the Kremlin’s standoff with the widely used messaging app. The state newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported on Tuesday that a case had been opened “based on materials from Russia’s federal security service”, which accused the app of being compromised by western and Ukrainian intelligence. Continue reading...

Four years to the day after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, we take a look at the state of the country's economy. The World Bank estimates it will take $588 billion over the next 10 years to make up for damage and destruction incurred during the conflict. The housing, transport and energy sectors have seen the biggest losses. Also in this edition: Panama takes control of two key ports on the Panama Canal.

President Volodymyr Zelensky marked the four-year anniversary of the Ukraine war by accusing Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin of trying to take over Ukraine, saying he had failed to achieve this and other war goals. In a video address that showed Ukrainians carrying out acts of resistance against Russian soldiers in the opening days of the conflict, Zelensky added that Ukraine was ready to do “everything” it could to secure a strong, lasting peace. Hundreds of thousands have died since Russia...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday (February 24) addressed MEPs at an extraordinary plenary session.

Speaking to Europe Today, Poland's top diplomat accused Budapest of escalating its blockade of a €90bn Ukraine loan and Russia sanctions package, warning that Europe must act decisively as US support falters.

With battle lines essentially frozen after four years of war in Ukraine, Russia has begun to use a new tactic known as a "thousand cuts" – simultaneous attacks by smaller groups that are able to advance deeper into Ukrainian territory by exploiting weaknesses in its defences.

Zelenskyy’s aide says talks are ‘not going smoothly’ but are ‘moving forward’ One other thing we will be keeping an eye on today is the latest on the EU-US trade relationship after last Friday’s US supreme court ruling on Trump’s tariffs. The European Parliament is expected to discuss what to do with the EU-US trade deal later today. Continue reading...