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28-02-2025
MOSCOW: Russia rules out any negotiations involving five Ukrainian regions annexed since its invasion despite not fully controlling four of them.
Russian and US diplomats meet in Turkiye to resolve disputes over the work of their respective embassies.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been invited to a special EU summit on March 6 to discuss possible European “security guarantees”, European Council President Antonio Costa says.
Russia’s Defe
nce Ministry says its forces shot down 19 drones overnight across the country and in annexed Crimea, with other authorities reporting one person killed in the Belgorod region.
Russia has ruled out any negotiations over the status of the five Ukrainian regions it claims to have annexed in recent years.
“The territories which have become subjects of the Russian Federation, which are inscribed in our country’s constitution, are an inseparable part of our country,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
In 2014, Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula following a brief military operation and a referendum that was criticized as illegitimate by Kyiv and Western powers.
After launching its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Russia declared the annexation of four more regions Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson in September. At a ceremony marking the event, Putin said Russia has “four new regions”, calling them “our citizens forever”.
Russian forces control most of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and parts of Zaporizhia and Kherson.
Ukraine has seized hundreds of square kilometres of Russia’s Kursk region, and Zelenskyy has raised the possibility of an “exchange” of territory with Moscow, a notion that Russia has flatly ruled out.
Russian forces have been pushing further into eastern Ukraine in recent months and have seized back some territory in Kursk.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen will attend a meeting in London on Sunday to discuss the Ukraine conflict and European security, a Brussels spokesperson has said.
Von der Leyen and Antonio Costa, who leads the council representing the EU’s 27 member states, will be joined by Zelenskyy and other European leaders at the talks hosted by UK PM Starmer.
Ukrainian Minister of Defence Rustem Umerov has appointed Major General Andriy Hnatov as deputy chief of the General Staff of the army.
“In his new position, Major General Andriy Hnatov will be responsible for force generation and cooperation with partners,” Umerov wrote on Facebook.
Umerov noted that Hnatov has more than 27 years of experience in the army and has served in key positions, including commander of a marine brigade and the commander of the joint forces.
“I am confident that his knowledge and skills will contribute to strengthening the defence capabilities of our state,” the minister added.
Russia claims its forces have recaptured the village of Nikolsky, which was taken by Ukraine during last year’s incursion.
According to the Defense Ministry, the village has been brought back under Russian control following an operation by the Sever (North) group of forces.
The ministry also reported launching a coordinated overnight strike on 142 targets, employing precision weapons, aviation, drones, missiles, and artillery. (Int’l News Desk)
