Grief, Anger, And Pride As Ukraine Marks Third Anniversary Of Russia's Full-Scale Invasion

That’s it for today’s live coverage of the Ukraine war anniversary. For more news on Russia’s ongoing invasion, updated every day, check out our Ukraine Live Briefing.

During a press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron ahead of their bilateral meeting at the White House, Trump said that Russian President Vladimir Putin would accept European peacekeepers in Ukraine.

"I have specifically asked him that question. He has no problem it," Trump said when asked by a reporter.

Macron said European countries "are ready and willing to provide" Ukraine with security guarantees "which could perhaps include troops."

Macron said such troops would be there to "maintain peace" and would not be placed along the front lines or a part of the conflict.

Ukraine stands a chance of becoming an EU member by 2030 if stays on tracks with reforms, says Ursula Von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, speaking in Kyiv.

In a statement during the International Summit on the Support of Ukraine in Kyiv on February 24, the third anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Von der Leyen said in a statement that "a free and sovereign Ukraine is not only in the European interest but also in the interest of the entire world."

"Europe is here to strengthen Ukraine in this critical moment," she said, adding that a new 3.5 billion euro payment for Ukraine will arrive already in March.

So far, the EU and member states have "supported Ukraine to the tune of 134 billion. That is more than anybody else," Von der Leyen said.

In a post on Truth Social, U.S. President Donald Trump said he emphasized the importance of reaching a U.S.-Ukraine deal on critical minerals and rare earths during a call with other G7 leaders, adding he hoped it would be signed soon.

Trump also said he is in "serious discussions with President Vladimir Putin" about ending the war and "major Economic Development transactions" between the United States and Russia.

He did not disclose any details about the economic talks with Russia, saying only they were "proceeding very well."

In a setback for the Trump administration, the UN General Assembly failed to approve a U.S. resolution urging an end to the war in Ukraine without mentioning Moscow’s aggression.

In her remarks to the assembly calling on states to back Washington's resolution, Ambassador Dorothy Shea, the U.S. representative to the UN, said approved UN resolutions over the past three years condemning Russia and calling on Moscow to withdraw its forces "have failed to stop the war."

Shea said the UN needed a resolution committing itself to ending the war.

The assembly included language in the U.S. proposal to emphasize that Russia invaded Ukraine in violation of the UN Charter.

The United States joined Russia in voting against a UN resolution from Ukraine and European countries demanding that Russia immediately withdraw its forces.

The amended U.S. resolution passed 93-8, with the United States abstaining and Russia voting against.

Is there a leader in Ukraine that Trump would rather negotiate with than Zelenskyy?

We do not know what Donald Trump's real attitude is towards Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Even before the inauguration of the U.S. president, one Ukrainian top-official said off-the-record that Trump respected Zelenskyy as a fighter. But Trump's latest statements about Zelenskyy suggest that attitude may be changing.

Trump called Zelenskyy a "dictator without elections", who had lost three years and did not achieve peace, and even that Zelenskyy was responsible for the war.

We don't really know whether Trump's insistence on presidential election means he is disappointed with Zelenskyy. Some in Kyiv believe that Washington wants Ukraine to have a leader by the fall with a new mandate of trust, won in elections, with whom it would be possible to sign a peace treaty. Whether it will be Zelenskyy or someone else, it is difficult to say now.

Zelenskyy's problem was that Russian President Putin insisted on his alleged illegitimacy. Now Trump also wants elections.

Is there anyone else in Ukraine who could be a negotiating partner other than Zelenskyy? Yes. Ukraine has always been rich in political talent, there are charismatic, strong-willed politicians, soldiers or volunteers even now.

Obviously, the Ukrainian people will decide, but the feeling is that elections in Ukraine later this year cannot be avoided.

Current Time has been speaking to people who fled Ukraine in 2022.

Oleksandra from Kyiv left her homeland in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Together with her son, then 5 years old, she was able to get to Latvia, where they live now. Even though they miss Ukraine, they no longer hope to go back soon.

"Our home is where our family is, so this is my home now. Life is no longer on pause. Before, there was a constant feeling: Soon everything will end, and we will go home. Now we understand that nothing ends, and we need to live here and now," says Oleksandra.

Ruslan together with his wife and young daughter fled to Croatia in 2022. The family is integrating by actively learning the Croatian language, while speaking Ukrainian and Russian at home. After three years of living abroad, Ruslan doesn’t know if they will be able to return: “We decided that we will go there for sure to see what is happening. We do not know how Ukrainian society has changed. Will we be able to reintegrate there? I don’t know.”

Is it feasible for Ukraine to slow or stop Russian advances without U.S. military assistance?

Russian forces have been making some nonstrategic advances in eastern Ukraine for many months. But they have failed to take the entirety of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions: the Donbas. Plus, Russia has not managed to push Ukrainian troops out of its Kursk region following Kyiv’s surprise incursion in August.

American aid is extremely critical for the Ukrainian Army. It is impossible now to imagine the Ukrainian Army without U.S.-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), Abrams heavy tanks, or 155 mm artillery shells.

Military aid allocated by the Biden administration is still arriving and the Trump administration has not suspended aid. Ukraine is holding on.

In addition, Kyiv can expect an increase in military aid from Europe. Ukrainian military strategists say that without additional help from the United States, Ukrainian forces could hold out until the end of the year -- but without U.S. support, serious problems would begin in 2026.

What will happen is unclear. Earlier, members of Trump's team threatened to increase aid to Ukraine if Russia resisted efforts to end the war.

How do you think this conflict will end? Will the U.S. be able to force a peace deal on Ukraine?

All wars end in peace. For now, it seems likely there will a cease-fire, possibly this spring, and then a peace treaty, possibly in the autumn. One thing Ukraine is adamant about is strong security guarantees, which it says are crucial to any truce or peace agreement.

Ukraine wants a just and long-lasting peace, so that Putin will not regroup and rearm the Russian military for a new attack. Among potential security guarantees is a fast track to EU membership for Ukraine, especially when joining NATO is not realistically on the agenda. Others: Continued arms supplies, enhanced weapons production in Ukraine -- especially of drones and missiles -- and the presence of Western troops on the ground.

With tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers killed and hundreds of thousands wounded, Kyiv is unlikely to accept an unfavorable deal -- even under pressure from the U.S. administration. Although a slim majority of Ukrainians (52 percent) want peace as soon as possible, opinion polling at the end of last year showed, some 38 percent want to fight until victory is achieved.

More than 20,000 people have been detained or arrested for anti-war statements or public expression of dissent against Moscow’s all-out invasion of Ukraine, a nongovernment organization said.

OVD-Info, a respected group that has monitored and tallied police arrests for years, said that the bulk of that number -- 18,910 -- were arrested during the first year of the invasion. The number dropped off sharply in 2023: 274, and just 41 in 2024.

In the weeks immediately following the invasion on February 24, 2022, there were scattered public protests in some Russian cities that were quickly quashed by police.

The bulk of the criminal cases tallied by OVD-Info, some 85 percent, were initiated for posts or comments made on social media in 2022 or 2023.

Weeks after President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion, Russian legislators passed a law that criminalized dissent or criticism of the war, on the grounds of "discrediting the armed forces." The Kremlin has also forbidden calling the conflict a war, mandating that the media and official statements use the euphemism "special military operation."