Here are the key developments on the 1,098th day of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Here is the situation on Thursday, February 27:
Fighting
Russian guided bombs killed five people and injured eight in east Ukraine’s Kostiantynivka, said the governor of the Donetsk region, Vadym Filashkin. Two more were killed in a separate attack on Kyiv, according to state news outlet Ukrinform, which said the deceased included one of its journalists.
Russia’s defence ministry said it had shot down 19 drones overnight across the country and in annexed Crimea, with other authorities reporting one person killed in the Belgorod region.
One person was killed in Ukraine following drone attacks on the Kyiv region, Governor Mykola Kalashnyk said. It was earlier reported that at least four were injured and several houses caught fire from the attacks. The deceased body was found in one of the houses that caught fire.
Ukraine’s Air Force said it shot down 110 of 177 Russian drones following an overnight attack. According to the Air Force, another 66 were lost and failed to reach their targets.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said Moscow’s forces reclaimed two settlements in Russia’s western Kursk region that had been previously seized by Ukrainian troops.
Ukrainian troops said they successfully gained control over the village of Kotlyne in eastern Donetsk after launching counterattacks. The village is located near a key transit artery and Pokrovsk, an important logistics hub for Ukraine.
Ukraine’s military also said it had attacked Russia’s Tuapse oil refinery on the Black Sea coast, and two military airfields in Russia-occupied Crimea. According to the military, 40 explosions were recorded from the oil refinery site.
Politics and diplomacy
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said officials from the United States and Russia are scheduled to meet in Istanbul, Türkiye to discuss the restoration of diplomatic missions in both countries.
Dozens of diplomats at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva walked out of a session to mark the third anniversary of Moscow’s invasion of Kyiv during a speech by Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal confirmed that both Ukraine and the US have prepared a final version of an agreement on Ukraine’s rare earth minerals. Shmyhal said the US supported Ukraine’s efforts to obtain security guarantees.
AFP reported that the latest draft of the Kyiv-Washington minerals deal dropped all clauses relating to the initial demand of $500bn repayment for US aid provided during the administration of former US President Joe Biden.
The US abstained from co-sponsoring a joint statement at the World Trade Organization that condemned Russia’s war on Ukraine, the Reuters news agency reported, quoting two unnamed sources. This is the first time the US did not support the annual statement since the war began.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the success of the minerals deal with US would depend on US President Donald Trump. He also said a framework economic deal with the US was ready, but that security guarantees had yet to be decided.
Zelenskyy confirmed that the final minerals deal does not include a “$500bn, $350bn, or $100bn” debt, branding such terms as unfair for Ukraine. He asserted that Kyiv would not accept even “10 cents of debt repayment”.
Following Zelenskyy’s comments, a White House official told Reuters an invitation for Zelenskyy to meet with Trump “did not make sense” if the Ukrainian leader did not think the deal was finalised.
During his first cabinet meeting, Trump said it was not up to the US to provide Ukraine with security guarantees and Europe should step up.
Trump again brushed aside Ukraine’s hopes of joining NATO, suggesting Kyiv’s aspirations to join the military alliance may have caused Russia to invade Ukraine.
