Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events – day 1,099

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. According to state news agency Ukrinform, which claimed one of its journalists was among the dead in a separate attack on Kyiv, two more were killed.
• Russian authorities reported one fatality in the Belgorod region, while another reported another one killed in the same region. Overnight, the country’s defense ministry reported shooting down 19 drones across the country and in annexed Crimea.
• According to Governor Mykola Kalashnyk, one person died in Ukraine as a result of drone strikes in the Kyiv region. At least four people were hurt earlier, and several homes caught fire as a result of the attacks. One of the burned-out houses contained the deceased’s body.
• 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.
• Two settlements in the western Kursk region of Russia were previously seized by Ukrainian forces, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

• After conducting counterattacks, Ukrainian troops claimed to have successfully taken control of the village of Kotlyne in eastern Donetsk. A significant Ukrainian logistics hub, Pokrovsk, and a crucial transit route are close to the village.
• 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 stated that Russian and American officials are scheduled to meet in Istanbul to discuss the resumption of diplomatic missions between the two nations.
• During a speech by Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin, dozens of diplomats from the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva left a session to mark the third anniversary of Moscow’s invasion of Kyiv.
• Denys Shmyhal, the prime minister of Ukraine, confirmed that the US and Ukraine have finalized an agreement regarding the country’s rare earth minerals. Shmyhal said the US supported Ukraine’s efforts to obtain security guarantees.
• According to AFP, the most recent version of the Kyiv-Washington minerals deal eliminated all restrictions on the $ 500 billion loan provided by former US President Joe Biden to offset its initial demand.
• 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. The US has not backed the annual statement since the start of the war for the first time.

• Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, said US President Donald Trump would determine whether the minerals deal will succeed. A framework economic agreement with the US, according to him, was in place, but security guarantees weren’t yet 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”.
• A White House official told Reuters that Zelenskyy’s comments “did not make sense” if the Ukrainian leader didn’t believe the deal was finalized.
• Trump stated at his first cabinet meeting that Europe should step up and that it was not US responsibility to give Ukraine security guarantees.
• Trump once more dismissed Ukraine’s prospects for NATO membership, suggesting that Russia might have been influenced by Kyiv’s military ambitions.