Ukraine’s diplomatic situation was upended during the past week, as its main ally, the United States, reversed several positions.
Donald Trump, the president of the United States, overstepped his predecessor’s assurance that Ukraine would be “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,” and announced on February 12 that he would start direct negotiations with Russia to end the conflict.
When he told Brussels-based members of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group that “returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective,” and that “the United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement, the US does not believe that membership in NATO is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement. ”
Since 2008, the US has pledged to join NATO and has supported the restoration of the Ukrainian border that Russia recognized in 1991.
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius called the one-sided concessions “clumsy” and “a mistake”.
Worse was to come
Trump’s negotiating team arrived in Riyadh on Tuesday to begin discussions, and he blatantly blamed Ukraine for starting the war and made it seem as though it had stolen aid. Volodymyr Zelenskyyy yelled out an angry response.
“Today, I heard, ‘Oh, we weren’t invited’ [to talks in Riyadh]. Well, you’ve been there for three years. You ought to have ended it three years ago. You should have never started it,” Trump told reporters at Mar-a-Lago.
The full-scale war started in February 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine.
Trump said Zelenskyy’s approval rating was at 4 percent, and that he’d “never seen an accounting” of what he alleged was $350bn given by the US to Ukraine.
The Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, which conducts nationwide surveys in Ukraine, polled Zelenskyy’s approval rating at 57 percent this month.
According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which tracks military, financial and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, the United States has donated $114bn and the European Union $132bn over three years.
Trump was allegedly entangled in “a web of disinformation,” Zelenskyy claimed to reporters in Kyiv the following day.
Trump responded with more criticism of Zelenskyy, posting on X that a “modestly successful comedian”, had become “a dictator without elections” who had “done a terrible job”.
Europe, too, has been shocked by the US government’s stance.
Director of a local lyceum, Yurii Bilyk, walks next to its building destroyed by a recent Russian air strike in the village of Novopavlivka, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine on February 18, 2025 [Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters]
In a speech to the Munich Security Conference on Friday, US Vice President JD Vance criticized Europeans for limiting free speech and limiting democracy, suggesting that extreme-right parties that mainstream politicians shunned were the real expression of people’s will.
“We see in America a president who admires autocratic systems,” said Germany’s next chancellor-presumptive, Friedrich Merz, and a “vice president who tells us how to run our democracy”.
We’re not sure if the Americans remained as steadfast as they did in 1945, he said.
‘Quick fix is a dirty deal’
Politicians in Ukraine have also expressed reservations about the alliance’s viability.
The Riyadh process was criticized by other European leaders as a sham.
Any quick fix is a dirty deal, according to Kaja Kallas, the head of European Union foreign policy, on X.
“Peace will only come through strength,” said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. “This requires tough and long-term security guarantees for Ukraine, a strong NATO and progress in Ukraine’s accession negotiations with the European Union,” she said.
Due to lack of security guarantees, Selenskyy twice rejected US proposals to formalize US-Ukrainian economic relations in the past week. On February 12, Vance returned the mineral wealth to Munich after Hegseth gave him a payback plan based on how it was abused, and Vance refunded it on Friday.
That strategy appeared to be based on what Trump said in a February 10 interview. “I told [Ukraine] that I want the equivalent of, like, $500bn worth of rare earth, and they’ve essentially agreed to do that,” Trump told Fox reporter Bret Baier.
According to Zellenskyy, Ukraine received $98. 5bn in US military and financial support.
“But one cannot count up to $500bn and say, ‘Give us back $500bn in minerals. ’ That’s not a serious discussion,” Zelenskyy said on Wednesday.
No seat for Ukraine
Since the announcement of the talks in Riyadh, Moscow has been optimistic.
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s National Security Council, backed Moscow’s defiant stance on February 12 by replacing any Ukrainian property with any Russian land.
“The proposals of Ukrainians about the ‘exchange of territories’ are nonsense, the only way to heal is to ‘feel like Russians again’, Dmitry Medvedev wrote in his Telegram channel,” said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova.
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, went further on Sunday, denying that Ukraine had any place at the table due to its lack of sovereignty.
In an interview with Russia Today, Peskov said, “That country cannot really answer for its words.” Every time, there are times when we need to adjust our negotiations because of their lack of confidence in them and sovereignty. Which will not go anywhere. ”
On Monday, Russia’s permanent UN representative, Vasily Nebenzya, insisted on the terms for peace that Russian President Vladimir Putin outlined last June. Ukraine should surrender the parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson that Moscow doesn’t control, he said, because it had “irrevocably lost those regions, abjure NATO membership and remain neutral.
Moscow currently controls an estimated two-thirds of Donetsk, three-quarters of Zaporizhia and Kherson, and 99 percent of Luhansk.
Russia’s military was rebuilding in preparation for a war with NATO, according to a report released by Denmark’s Defense Intelligence Service on February 11. China, Iran, and North Korea all supported this claim.
The following day, Estonia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released its annual intelligence report, claiming that Russia was preparing to fight NATO and that the length and outcome of the Ukrainian conflict would determine whether a wider conflict was pursued.
The Institute of the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, published a report on Russia’s economic, industrial and manpower weaknesses.
If Ukrainian forces continue to damage Russian forces on the battlefield at the current rate, they will likely face a number of materiel, manpower, and economic issues in the next 12 to 18 months, according to the statement.
As the two teams kicked off their Champions Trophy campaign in Dubai, Shubman Gill’s unbeaten 101 helped India start the nervy chase with a six-wicket win over Bangladesh.
Needing a tricky 229 for victory on a seemingly tough pitch on Thursday, India rode on Gill’s second successive one-day international]ODI] ton to achieve their target with 21 balls to spare.
Due to political unrest, title favorites India will not play their matches against Pakistan at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
In his opening game, Bangladesh were reduced to 35-5 before returning to manage 228 all out after choosing to bat first, but Pace spearhead Mohammed Shami set up victory with 5-53.
“With the bat, yes we were under pressure a bit”, India captain Rohit Sharma said. “But when you are playing a game like this, you are bound to be under pressure”.
India’s Shubman Gill launches a six during his innings]Altaf Qadri/AP]
Bangladesh won the toss, but they quickly found themselves in trouble at Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
With some help from sloppy Indian fielding, including two dropped catches, Towhid Hridoy and Jaker Ali (68), who scored 100 for his first ODI total, helped lift the score from the shaky start.
In reply, India started strongly as Rohit Sharma and Gill got going with regular boundaries. Rohit became just the 10th batsman – and fourth from India – to surpass 11, 000 ODI runs.
In a largely empty stadium, the India captain made 41 before being dismissed by Taskin Ahmed and Virat Kohli.
India’s captain Rohit Sharma looks skywards to watch the ball just before he was caught]Altaf Qadri/AP]
Before mistiming a late cut backward point off leg-spinner Rishad Hossain, Kohli made 22 balls to get his first run.
After Rishad and Mustafizur Rahman removed Axar Patel and Shreyas Iyer, India fell to 144-4, and two more wickets were lost.
But vice-captain Gill, who was player of the series with 259 runs in India’s 3-0 ODI sweep of England last week, kept calm as he and KL Rahul took the team home in an unbeaten 87-run stand.
With Gill’s eighth ODI century, India never let up after Rahul was 41 not out but Jaker dropped him early in his innings at deep midwicket.
Shami, who had six five-wickets in 104 ODIs to start, was the bowling hero, beating only Jasprit Bumrah, who had a back injury to make the tournament’s suspension.
Soumya Sarkar was caught behind for a five-ball duck when Shami struck in the first over.
Left-arm spinner Axar struck twice in two balls to send Tanzid Hasan (25) and Mushfiqur Rahim, for a duck, trudging back to the pavilion.
If Rohit hadn’t dropped a catch on the first slip, denied Axar a hat-trick, and granted Jaker a reprieve on the catch, the game might have been six.
Jaker, who survived another chance on 24 when wicketkeeper Rahul missed a stumping, and Towhid, dropped on 23 by Hardik Pandya at mid-off, combined to thwart the Indian charge.
Bangladesh’s Towhid Hridoy celebrates after scoring a century]Altaf Qadri/AP]
Towhid continued to fight until his 118-ball knockout ended with six fours and two sixes after Jaker fell to Shami.
“In 10 overs, we lost five wickets”, Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto reflected. It cost us the game because it’s so difficult to recover.
Shanto also criticized the fieldwork of his team. We had a few field mistakes, including a few dropped catches and a few runouts. If we could take those catches, it could be different”, he said.
Foreign ministers from the G20 top economies have gathered in South Africa’s Johannesburg, amid geopolitical rifts, tensions over the Ukraine war and with the top US diplomat a notable absentee.
The G20, a group of 19 nations that make up roughly 85% of the world’s GDP and three-quarters of trade, is divided on key issues, including Russia’s war in Ukraine and climate change.
South Africa, which currently holds the G20 presidency, opened the group’s first major meeting of the year on Thursday.
While expressing concern about the group’s growing divisions, President Cyril Ramaphosa told the G20’s foreign ministers that multilateralism and international law were essential to resolving world crises.
“It is crucial that all of our efforts remain focused on the principles of the UN Charter, multilateralism, and international law. It should be the glue that keeps us together”, Ramaphosa said in his opening remarks.
“Yet there is a lack of consensus among major powers, including in the G20, on how to respond to these issues of global significance”.
The strife was threatening “an already fragile global coexistence”, Ramaphosa said.
After Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier this month rejected the previously agreed agenda for “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” the United States did not attend.
After that, US President Donald Trump stopped providing aid to South Africa in response to a national dispute over its efforts to address historical racial injustices in land ownership and its genocide case against US allies Israel at the International Court of Justice.
Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, and representatives from EU countries who have vowed to support Ukraine and condemn Russia’s aggression, were present at the meeting.
Ukraine tensions
The response to Trump’s dramatic policy shifts, including a plan to reach a deal with Vladimir Putin over Ukraine, has divided world leaders.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, president of Ukraine, and European leaders concerned about this, who have warned Kyiv will not accept any deal made without its assistance.
After the Ukrainian leader challenged the US president, who claimed Kyiv had started the war, Trump and Zelenskyy engaged in a verbal argument.
Against this backdrop, Ramaphosa reminded the attendees “that cooperation is our greatest strength”. “Let us seek to find common ground through constructive engagement”, he said.
“As the G20, we must continue to advocate for diplomatic solutions to conflicts”, he added, including those “raging in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, in the Sudan, in the Sahel and in Gaza]that] continue to exact heavy human toll and heighten global insecurity”.
Marco Rubio, a senator who first launched his presidential campaign in 2015, endorsed a tough stance against Russia and decried previous efforts by American officials to bolster ties with Moscow.
Ten years later, Rubio – now America’s top diplomat – sat across from his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Saudi Arabia this week in a bid to revive relations between Washington and Moscow.
Under President Donald Trump, Rubio, a hawk in foreign policy, has been overseeing seismic changes in the US’s approach to the world. Rubio once called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “thug.”
Rubio is perceived as a traditionalist politician with traditional conservative beliefs. He is now serving in an administration whose public face is a tech billionaire with no previous political experience who is looking to radically hollow out federal agencies.
Meanwhile, the new secretary of state finds himself supporting Trump’s unconventional international goals, including “owning” Gaza and acquiring Greenland and opening up to Russia.
Who is the most important US diplomat and what motivates him as the former senator?
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, right, sat across from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on February 18 at a meeting in the Diriyah Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia]Evelyn Hockstein/Pool/AP Photo]
Ambition, global stage
According to analysts, Rubio is motivated by both his conviction that the US should lead the world and his own ambitions, which led him to win the presidency in 2016 and advance through the Republican Party’s ranks.
“He has a very traditional, hawkish view of America’s role in the world, but we’ve also seen ways in which he’s simply dispensed with long-held views since becoming secretary of state”, said Michael Hanna, US programme director at the International Crisis Group think tank.
One glaring example of Rubio’s own shifts is the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the international aid programs’ cancellation.
Rubio has long advocated for aid programs as a global component of the United States.
But Rubio, like other Republicans named to key positions in the Trump administration, has fallen in lockstep with the president, embracing his “America First” policy.
After Trump leaves office, Hanna speculated that Rubio, 53, might end up wanting to stay in.
It’s ambition, in my opinion. Being a high-profile senator is one thing, and being the secretary of state is another in terms of your profile, particularly on a global stage”, he told Al Jazeera.
Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, visits the Miraflores locks on February 2 at the Panama Canal.
The “trauma of exile”
The son of Cuban immigrants, Rubio comes from humble beginnings. His mother worked as a hotel cleaner and his father worked as a bartender.
Before Fidel Castro’s revolution in the 1950s, he immigrated to the US with his parents, who both immigrated from Cuba. He also spent his early years in Miami’s Cuban community.
The staunchly anti-Castro constituency has been veering to the right of the US political spectrum over the decades, helping turn Florida into a Republican stronghold.
Rubio suggests that the Cuban immigrants he grew up around gave him his early political outlook and sense of patriotism in his 2012 memoir An American Son.
He wrote, “I was aware of how the trauma of exile, including disbelief, guilt, and a sense of loss, had impacted both their and my own lives,”
“I knew that their love, born of gratitude for the country that had welcomed them and encouraged their aspirations, and the loss that had brought them here, had made them vigilant in their watch for anything that they thought could threaten America … This is the culture that shaped my youth”.
In his 2012 book The Rise of Marco Rubio, author Manuel Roig-Franzia claims that his family’s roots and upbringing in Miami’s Cuban community “shaped his political identity.”
Rubio has advocated antagonistic policies, including harsh sanctions, against left-wing Latin American leaders who he views as autocrats or US adversaries throughout his career.
During the administration of US President Barack Obama, Rubio was a vocal opponent of the detente with Cuba.
Rubio has also backed more harsh measures taken against Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro.
He made an apparent “regime change” threat to Maduro in 2019 that he didn’t really want to.
Amid a spike of tensions between the US and Venezuela, Rubio posted a series of photos of slain and imprisoned dictators to social media after addressing the Maduro government.
Muammar Gaddafi, the late leader of Libya, was depicted in a bloody image in one post that was later used up by rebels.
During the Libyan uprising, US and NATO fighter jets bombarded government positions there, and Rubio, a first-year senator in 2011, had demanded an even stronger US intervention.
Rubio meets with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on February 17]Evelyn Hockstein/Pool/Reuters]
Americana Pax
Republicans who were raised during the Reagan administration’s 1980s and the Soviet Union’s collapse have become aware of Rubio’s hawkish worldview of “might make right” according to Stephen Zunes, a professor of international studies at the University of San Francisco.
“I think he wants to see a Americana Pax,” Zunes says, referring to the concept of global peace ushered in by American dominance.
Rubio himself wrote in Foreign Affairs about his ideas for US foreign policy in 2015. A renewal of American strength will be my foreign policy’s first and most significant pillar. This is an idea based on a simple truth: the world is at its safest when America is at its strongest”, he wrote.
Rubio, a presidential candidate at the time, outlined three pillars of his foreign policy: military might, free trade protection, and “moral clarity” in “defending freedom.”
This language dates back to George W. Bush’s presidency in the 2000s, when Marco Rubio was just beginning his political career.
The Florida politician has always expressed fondness for Bush. According to him, the former president called him the first time after he was elected to the US Senate in 2010.
Rubio defended the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 amid a near-consensus in Washington that it was wrong.
“The world is a better place because Saddam Hussein is not there”, he told Fox News.
Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, and Ted Cruz speak during the Republican presidential primary debate in Des Moines, Iowa. [Charlie Neibergall/AP Photo]
The other Bush
Rubio was just 27 when he was first elected to public office as a West Miami commissioner in 1998.
He lept from the US Senate to municipal politics in less than 13 years. He presided over the Florida House of Representatives for eight years between 2006 and 2008.
Throughout his meteoric rise, Rubio had a powerful ally – Florida’s then-Governor Jeb Bush.
Jeb, the son of former president George W. Bush and the brother of former president George W. Bush, saw in Rubio a promising young politician.
Jeb gave Rubio a golden sword that he held up in front of his fellow lawmakers while he was in office, and he received it with a wide smile. Jeb proverbially anointed Rubio as a “conservative warrior”.
Whether or not the two were close friends or just friends has a history, but they have since publicly expressed their admiration for one another. Rubio was a good choice for him because he had already started his first local election campaign.
But it wasn’t just Bush. Politicians from Florida who knew Rubio when he was starting to forge his way in politics say it was obvious that he was going somewhere.
Congressman Carlos Jimenez stated to NPR last month that when he first heard Rubio speak for the first time in his career, he already knew he “has it” – referring to something unique.
“Marco Rubio not only exemplifies the American dream. He embodies the Republican Party, according to Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart.
Republican presidential candidates Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, and Donald Trump all appear in the University of Colorado in Boulder in October 2015. [Photo by Mark J. Terrill/AP Photo]
2016 presidential run
Rubio, a young, eloquent, and combative politician with a compelling personal story from a growing demographic base, appeared to be a rising star in the Republican Party from the moment he took to the stage.
Mitt Romney’s campaign less than two years after his election, considered him for the vice presidential spot in 2012 because he made it to the Senate with such fanfare.
When 2016 came around, Rubio threw his own hat into a crowded ring of Republican candidates seeking the presidency.
His interactions with his future boss, Trump and his ally, Bush, were notable.
When Rubio attempted to occupy the establishment lane in the primary that was viewed as reserved for Bush, he put his previous political ties aside.
The two exchanged attacks on the debate stage and campaign trail, but Rubio’s blows came off as more efficient, showing his willingness to dispense with old allies to get ahead.
Jeb has no prior foreign policy experience, Rubio said in February 2016: “I thank God every day that George W. Bush was president.
Rubio may have helped to bring Bush’s campaign to a successful conclusion.
The Floridian also came after Trump at a time when other candidates were avoiding confrontations with the sharp-tongued businessman.
Rubio also criticised the current president for having no prior foreign policy experience. He made fun of his “small hands,” calling him a “con artist.”
The real estate mogul already had Rubio, at one point his closest rival in the primaries, in his crosshairs.
He called him “Little Marco Rubio” and made fun of him at every turn, accusing the then-senator of wearing excessive makeup, drinking excessive amounts of water, and sweating frequently, among other things.
Despite the rivalry’s personal nature, Rubio supported Trump despite his legal issues when he was nominated and backed him once more in the campaign year of 2024.
By endorsing Trump, Rubio appeared to acknowledge the president’s Republican takeover and chose to work within the party system.
His stance toward Bush and Trump contrasts favorably with Rubio’s pragmatic approach, which includes working with former adversaries and working with former allies.
Rubio said that the world is more complicated than the question’s premise when he was asked about it this week after the talks with Russian diplomats.
“I don’t view diplomacy that way. In the end, diplomacy, in my opinion, depends on what we do. He claimed that it is based on kept commitments.
Rubio and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are seen during a news conference at the prime minister’s office in West Jerusalem on February 16]Evelyn Hockstein/Pool Photo via AP]
advocacy for Israel
Days earlier, Rubio painted a black-and-white picture of the Middle East conflict, suggesting that the direction forward for US policy toward Russia and its invasion of Ukraine was complex.
While meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Rubio heaped praise on Israel, calling it a “free enterprise democracy”.
The Middle East would be a safer and better place, he said, “if there were more countries like that in the Middle East.”
The top US diplomat, on the other hand, called Iran the region’s “single greatest source of instability.”
He also praised Trump’s proposal to ethnically cleanse Gaza as “bold”.
Rubio was viewed as a wise choice in the Trump administration despite the professor’s claim that he has “extreme” views on Israel-Palestine and other regions of the world. In January, the Senate approved Rubio with a 99-0 vote.
“If any other person was president,]Rubio] would be considered pretty extreme. He is merely perceived as reasonable in comparison to some of these other appointees, Zunes said.
Rubio has a long history of standing up for Israel. He has introduced measures to penalise companies that boycott Israel over its mistreatment of Palestinians and rebuked Latin American leaders critical of the US ally as “pro-Hamas”.
The modern Republican Party has embraced a reviled and centrist Israel, which has become a nearly unquestionable tenet.
Israel has long been seen as a proxy for US influence in the Middle East, especially during the Cold War, when the Soviet Union supported Arab governments there.
The rise of evangelicals – who back Israel for theological reasons – as a major Republican constituency cemented right-wing support for Israel over the past decades.
Following Trump’s suggestion that the US should take a “long-term ownership position” of Gaza, Trump and Rubio meet with Jordan’s King Abdullah II on February 11 in Washington, DC.
Views changing
While Rubio may share Trump’s views on Israel-Palestine, his history of advocacy for internationalism, foreign aid and a leading US global role may not bode well with what Trump seems to want to achieve – a nationalistic withdrawal from the world stage and unilateral pursuit of perceived US interests.
The secretary of state’s position appears to have been revised.
Rubio once fought fervently for aid to Ukraine, but last year he declared that the US was funding a “stalemate in Ukraine” as skepticism about its role grew in right-wing circles.
Recently, he even spoke of an inevitable “multipolar world” – which appears to contradict his previous statements about the need for the US to be the supreme global power.
Rubio may be undergoing ideological transformation, but it’s unclear whether he is simply carrying out the duties assigned.
Rubio is required to channel Trump as secretary of state. He doesn’t set foreign policy, he conducts it on behalf of the president.
Zunes claimed that Rubio was aware when he first started out advocating for positions he didn’t support.
Ukraine – In response to the Kremlin, US President Donald Trump is demanding that any peace deal include national elections in Ukraine, while referring to the Ukrainian president as a “dictator.”
“That’s not a Russia thing. Trump made the false claim that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has a 4 percent approval rating while also claiming that it is coming from me and many other countries.
Moscow has said Zelenskyy’s five-year term was supposed to end in May and, therefore, he does not have the legal authority to sign a peace deal.
Following Russia’s extensive invasion of the East European nation nearly three years ago, martial law was passed in the former Soviet republic, which forbade free elections during the war.
Zelenskyy hit back on Wednesday against Trump’s comments, saying: “If someone wants to replace me right away, it’s not possible right away”.
“If we are talking about 4 percent, then we’ve seen this disinformation. We understand that it comes from Russia, and we have evidence”, he said in televised remarks.
As of the first half of February, according to a survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, 57 percent of Ukrainians trust Zelenskyy as their president.
Spreading a pro-Russia ‘ illusion ‘
Aleksey Kushch, a journalist based in Kyiv, claimed that Moscow’s motivations for putting pressure on Ukrainian elections are more about control than promotion of the country’s electoral rights.
The Kremlin wants Ukraine to have “a government that will be more obedient, that will sign the]peace] deals the US will have drafted with Russia”, Kushch told Al Jazeera.
Another Kyiv-based analyst, Vyacheslav Likhachyov, said Putin is tying elections to the peace deal to spread the “illusion” that most Ukrainians are pro-Russian.
“Perhaps]Putin] really thinks that a pro-Russian candidate may win in Ukraine to deliver the nation to the Kremlin on a platter”, he told Al Jazeera, adding that Russia also hopes to create divides within Ukraine.
Russia will profit from “the unavoidable political polemics that accompany compromising leaks and discussions about who is to blame for our problems,” Likhachyov said.
Putin said he “would emotionally prefer to deal with somebody else, anybody else,” adding that Trump views the Ukrainian leader as a barrier.
Any other Ukrainian official who is willing to give Ukraine to Putin on his own accord would appeal to Trump, he said, adding that “Zelenskyy also irks him emotionally.”
Voting not viable
Despite Putin and Trump’s real intentions, it is unlikely that the more than 6 million Ukrainians who reside in regions under Russian rule will vote in elections.
In a report released in March, the UN accused Russia of infecting eastern Ukraine by describing instances of torture, arbitrariness, and the suppression of Ukrainian identity and culture.
Additionally, it would be difficult for the millions of Ukrainian refugees who are scattered around the world to travel to Ukrainian consulates and embassies.
Some people have moved to smaller European towns or villages for less money on rent and supplies, such as Hanna Glushko. According to her mother, 79, and two sons, four and nine, who are living in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, Glushko and her family fled Kharkiv to the Austrian town of Eisenertz in 2022.
“How am I going to leave my children, and how is my sick mom going to travel to Vienna”? Glushko asked.
And to carry out elections, Ukraine would have to end martial law, giving Russia an edge and the opportunity to take even more territory, Likhachyov said.
Russia launched ballistic missiles and 167 drones into central and southern Ukraine on Tuesday, causing injuries to four people, including one child, and slowed Odesa’s heat and power supplies.
‘ Cat and mouse ‘
Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Kyiv-based Penta think tank, called the election demands unrealistic and accused Russia of “tactically prolonging” peace talks to force the White House into making concessions.
According to Fesenko, Moscow wants to “seduce” Trump with multibillion dollar deals, including the return of US oil companies to Russia and their involvement in the Arctic’s mineral development.
“Russians are flexible. In their words, it’s all about flattery and compliments for Trump, but in their practice, when it comes to real talks, they play cat and mouse with Americans”, he told Al Jazeera.
History repeating itself
For many Ukrainians, Trump’s election demand along with his false accusation that Ukraine started the conflict with Russia , were met with defiance and anger.
Iryna, a servicewoman in Odesa’s southern city, criticized Trump and Russia for trying to deceive and distract her country and supports Zelenskyy and his government.
She told Al Jazeera, “The election is about extra expenses and will distract Ukraine from our biggest problem, the war.” Zelenskyy has been putting an end to the war because of how he has handled it.
Military personnel are not permitted to tell the media their full names and positions under Ukrainian Ministry of Defense rules.
Iryna recalled the election-related external pressure from early 2014, when a pro-Russian president was ousted and an interim government led by parliament speaker Oleksandr Turchynov.
Tens of thousands of service members were dispatched to Crimea by the Kremlin to seize control of government buildings and military installations. Turchynov’s government instructed Ukrainian servicemen and police officers not to resist the takeover, and the inaction led to Moscow’s annexation of the Black Sea peninsula.
For Vyacheslav, 29, who joined the army in 2022 and is now recovering from a wounded leg, the rhetoric of the White House and the Kremlin reminds him of another dark period in Europe’s history.
According to Vyacheslav, “It’s disgusting to see how they are getting ready to divide Ukraine in the manner that Stalin and Hitler did Poland in 1939,” he said of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a nonaggression treaty between Russia and Germany.
After the 2023 Women’s World Cup Final, a Spanish court found former football chief Luis Rubiales guilty of sexual assault for kissing football player Jenni Hermoso without her permission.
Rubiales, who was acquitted of coercion, was given a fine of 10, 000 euros ($10, 455) on Thursday by the Audiencia Nacional court. He was told to stay away from Hermoso for a year and not communicate with her within a 200-meter (660-foot) radius.
Spain’s victory in the 2023 Women’s World Cup was overshadowed by the incident, which also sparked a debate about the sexism experienced by female athletes. The 47-year-old Rubiales resigned in September 2023 amid widespread outrage.
Rubiales has argued that the kiss was consensual despite Hermoso’s assertion that it wasn’t and that the court was “disrespected” by the incident. He testified to the judge on Tuesday that he was still “absolutely certain” that the kiss was mutual.
According to the prosecution, Rubiales and several prominent Spanish football officials attempted to coerce Hermoso into saying the kiss was consensual and downplay the incident, and the sentence was requested for one year in jail and 18 months in jail.
Rubiales and the three co-defendants were found not guilty of coercion and given a reduced sentence.
Spain footballer Jennifer Hermoso arrives at the court of San Fernando de Henares, east of Madrid, on February 3, 2025]File: Thomas Coex/AFP]
Judge Jose Manuel Fernandez-Prieto said that he believed Hermono’s testimony that she had not consented to the kiss. He ruled that the sexual assault, “while always reproachable” was of minor intensity as there was no violence or intimidation.
“The Judge understands that, in view of the magnitude of the assault, a kiss, that it is a sporadic act of the accused, and that he does not require special rehabilitation for the crime, the pecuniary penalty must be chosen, which is less serious than the custodial sentence”, the verdict said.
The 34-year-old Hermoso, the all-time top scorer for the Spanish women’s team, told the court earlier this month that the unsolicited kiss and the commotion that followed had “stained one of the happiest days of my life”, while her teammates testified that the incident left her exhausted, crying and overwhelmed.
“As a woman, I felt disrespected”, Hermoso said at the trial.
