Arya News - These are the key developments from day 1,462 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Here is where things stand on Wednesday, February 25 :
Fighting
At least 15,172 Ukrainian civilians have been confirmed killed and more than 41,000 injured since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago , on February 24, 2022, according to the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine. The actual extent of civilian casualties is likely considerably higher, as many reports of civilian harm have not been possible to verify due to the large numbers and lack of access to relevant areas.
Two people were killed, and five others were injured in a Russian attack on the Pokrovske community in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the regional military administration, wrote on the Telegram messaging platform. In Ukraine’s front-line Zaporizhia region, Russian forces launched 918 attacks on 36 settlements, killing one person and injuring six, Governor Ivan Fedorov wrote on Telegram. Russian forces bombarded Ukraine’s Kherson region, killing one person and injuring five, in attacks that also damaged two high-rise residential buildings and a gas pipeline, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said. Russian forces launched 133 drones and an Iskander-M ballistic missile at Ukraine in overnight attacks that lasted into the early hours of Tuesday, Ukraine’s Air Force said on Telegram. Ukrainian forces shot down 111 Russian drones, the Air Force added. In Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine’s Kherson region, Ukrainian attacks killed one person and injured two others, Russia’s state TASS news agency reported, citing Russian-appointed official Volodymyr Saldo. Ukrainian forces also killed one person in Russian-occupied Luhansk, TASS reported. In Russia, TASS said Ukrainian forces killed two people in the Belgorod and Bryansk regions. In Russia’s Belgorod region, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said that a “massive” missile attack by Ukrainian forces caused “significant damage to energy infrastructure”, with residents “experiencing power, water, and heat outages”. Russian forces shot down 152 Ukrainian drones in overnight attacks that lasted into Tuesday morning, the Russian Ministry of Defence said, according to TASS.
Politics and diplomacy
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the 107 members of the 193-member UN General Assembly who voted on Tuesday in favour of passing a non-binding resolution in support of a “lasting peace” in Ukraine. The United States was among 51 countries abstaining, while Russia was among 12 countries voting against the resolution. In a televised address, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine and its allies were “pushing themselves to the edge” in their resolve to defeat Moscow and that they would “regret” their actions. Putin also accused Ukraine of threatening Russian energy pipelines with the help of Western intelligence agencies in a push to sabotage peace negotiations. Ukraine’s ambassador to Washington, Olha Stefanishyna, said the US State Department had advised Ukraine to “refrain from… attacking American interests” after expressing displeasure that Ukrainian attacks on the Russian port of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea had affected US oil interests. “This reach-out was not related to encouraging Ukraine from refraining to attack Russian military and energy infrastructure. It was related to the very fact that American economic interest was affected there,” Stefanishyna told reporters in Washington, DC.
While on a visit to Kyiv, European Council President Antonio Costa said that Ukraine can expect “significant progress” in its accession path to the European Union in the foreseeable future. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, who was also in Kyiv on Tuesday, promised to deliver “one way or another” a 90-billion-euro ($106bn) loan, which has been blocked by EU members Hungary and Slovakia . German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said China has a “significant opportunity” to exert influence over Russia regarding its war on Ukraine, as he left for a trip to Beijing. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council that Russia’s war on Ukraine remained “a stain on our collective conscience” and reiterated calls for an immediate ceasefire, in remarks delivered by Rosemary DiCarlo, the UN undersecretary-general for peace-building. The US Embassy in Kyiv said in a statement that US “President [Donald] Trump remains committed to achieving a negotiated settlement and lasting peace that ensures Ukraine’s independent and prosperous future, with the United States as a strong and committed partner”. Ukraine has dismissed a Russian claim that Kyiv is trying to obtain nuclear weapons with the help of the UK and France. “Russian officials, known for their impressive record of lies, are once again trying to fabricate the old ‘dirty bomb’ nonsense,” Heorhii Tykhyi, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the Reuters news agency.
Sanctions
The United Kingdom announced nearly 300 new sanctions on Russian energy revenue, including oil exports and military equipment suppliers, UK Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Yvette Cooper said. Australia imposed sanctions on imports of Russian-origin energy goods, including petroleum gases, crude oil and refined petroleum products, aiming “to diminish Russia’s ability to finance its illegal and immoral war against Ukraine”, the Australian Sanctions Office said in a statement.