Ukraine expressed frustration with its ongoing peace talks with Russia and the United States this week, saying US pressure was too one-sided against it.

“As of today, we cannot say that the outcome is sufficient,” Zelenskyy told Ukrainians in a Wednesday evening video address.

Before Wednesday’s talks in Geneva had begun, Zelenskyy told Axios news service that ceding the remaining one-fifth of the eastern Donetsk region that Russia doesn’t control, as Moscow has demanded, would not be accepted by Ukrainians.

“Emotionally, people will never forgive this. Never. They will not forgive … me, they will not forgive [the US],” Zelenskyy said, adding that Ukrainians “can’t understand why” they would be asked to give up additional land.

Russia currently controls about 19 percent of Ukraine, down from 26 percent in March 2022.

Last month, 54 percent of surveyed Ukrainians told the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology they categorically reject transferring the whole of the Donetsk region to Russian control, even in return for strong security guarantees, with only 39 percent accepting the proposal.

Two-thirds of respondents also said they did not believe the current US-sponsored peace negotiations would lead to lasting peace.

Instead of ceding land now, Zelenskyy favours freezing the current line of contact as a pretext for a ceasefire and territorial negotiations.

“I think that if we will put in the document … that we stay where we stay on the contact line, I think that people will support this [in a] referendum. That is my opinion,” he told Axios.

Blaming Ukraine

US President Donald Trump told Reuters last month that Ukraine, not Russia, was holding up a peace deal.

But Zelenskyy said it was “not fair” that Trump was putting public pressure on Ukraine to accept Russian terms, adding, “I hope it is just his tactics.”

US senators visiting Odesa last week agreed with him, saying they want their government to put more pressure on Russia.

“Nobody, literally nobody, believes that Russia is acting in good faith in the negotiations with our government and with the Ukrainians. And so pressure becomes the key,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.

Russia unleashed a barrage of 396 attack drones and 29 missiles on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on the day of the Geneva talks, its second large-scale blow in six days. On February 12, another attack had left 100,000 families without electricity, and 3,500 apartment buildings without heat in Kyiv alone.

“Russia greets with a strike even the very day new formats begin in Geneva – trilateral and bilateral with the United States,” said Zelenskyy in a video address. “This very clearly shows what Russia wants and what it is truly intent on.”

Zelenskyy has repeatedly asked Western allies to stop Russian energy sales that circumvent sanctions, and to stop exporting components to third countries, which re-export them to Russia’s armaments industry.

Russia is believed to be using a shadow fleet estimated at between 400 and 1,000 oil tankers to carry and sell its crude oil. France has seized two of those tankers, and the US seized a second tanker on Monday.

The US Senate has held off voting on a sanctions bill that has 85 percent support because of opposition from Trump. The bill would impose secondary sanctions on buyers of Russian oil – notably India and China.

Can Russia take Donetsk anyway?

Russia has fought since 2014 to seize the two eastern regions of Ukraine, which triggered its invasion – Luhansk and Donetsk – where it claimed a Russian-speaking population was being persecuted by the government in Kyiv.

Late last year, Russia managed to seize all of Luhansk, but analysts believe it is doubtful that it could take the remainder of Donetsk without serious losses, because Ukraine has heavily fortified a series of cities in the western part of the region.

That task has now become even harder, according to observers, since Russia this month lost access to Starlink terminals, which helped it communicate, fly its drones and coordinate accurate counter-battery fire.

As Russian ground assaults have faltered, Ukraine has seized the initiative to make gains in Dnipropetrovsk, said Ukrainian military observer Konstantyn Mashovets.

Ukrainian forces gained 201sq km of territory from Russian occupation forces between February 11 and 15, according to observers, reportedly their fastest advance since a 2023 counteroffensive.

Russia has been trying to replace Starlink using stratospheric balloons, reported Ukrainian Defence Ministry adviser Serhiy “Flash” Beskrestnov.

Russia would likely take six months to replace Starlink, said a Ukrainian unmanned systems commander, offering Ukrainian forces a window to roll back Russian advances.

It also suffered 31,680 casualties in January, estimated Ukraine’s General Staff – a sustainable number given Russian recruitment levels of about 40,000 a month. But those numbers would rise in the event of a major assault on the remainder of Donetsk, experts say.

“Our goal is to have at least 50,000 confirmed enemy losses every month,” said Ukrainian Minister of Defence Mykhailo Fedorov on February 12, echoing a goal set by Zelenskyy last month.

Fedorov has set out to increase the production of remote-control FPV drones used on the front lines, which Ukraine says are now responsible for 60 percent of all Russian casualties.

As part of that effort, joint drone production facilities are planned in several European countries. The first started operating on February 13 in Germany, Zelenskyy told the Munich Security Conference, and nine more are planned.

In addition, Ukraine’s European allies pledged 38 billion euros ($44.7bn) in military aid this year during a Ramstein format meeting – the alliance of more than 50 countries which plans military aid for Ukraine – including 2.5 billion euros ($2.9bn) for Ukrainian drones – “one of the most successful ‘Ramsteins’,” Fedorov said.

The European Union has additionally voted to borrow 90 billion euros ($106bn) to give to Ukraine in financial aid this year and next.

The US stopped being a donor of military and financial aid to Ukraine after Trump was sworn in as president in January 2025.

Against Trump’s wishes, the US Senate voted to spend $400m in each of the next two years as part of the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which pays US companies for weapons for Ukraine’s military. Europeans have pledged to spend at least 5 billion euros ($5.8bn) on US weapons this year.

Europe would also be the main contributor to a “reassurance force” policing the line of contact after a ceasefire, and on Ukraine’s insistence, US representatives also met with British, French, German, Italian and Swiss representatives before the talks in Geneva.

The International Paralympic Committee has allocated 10 combined slots to Russian and Belarusian athletes.

Ukrainian competitors will boycott the Milano Cortina Paralympics opening ceremony on March 6 in Verona, their committee has said, due to the authorisation of some Russian and Belarusian athletes to take part undertheir national flags.

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC)’s allocation of 10 combined slots to Russian and Belarusian athletes has ⁠created a political storm over the upcoming Games, given bitterness over the four-year-old invasion of Ukraine.

Russia, which has been excluded from much international competition due to the war, says it is wrong to mix sport and politics, while targeting disabled athletes is offensive.

“The community of Ukrainian Paralympians and the ‌National Paralympic Committee of Ukraine are outraged by the cynical decision of the International Paralympic Committee to grant bipartite slots to russia and belarus (sic),” the Ukrainian committee said in a statement on Friday, announcing its boycott of the ceremony and demanding that its flag not be used there.

That stance follows the disqualification from the Winter Games of Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych for wearing a helmet commemorating athletes killed in the war.

Ukraine’s Sports Minister Matvii Bidnyi has said Ukrainian officials will boycott ⁠the March 6-15 Paralympics, though the nation’s athletes will still take part.

An IPC spokesperson told the Reuters news agency it was in contact with Ukraine’s Paralympic Committee and the matter would be discussed internally.

Russia will have two spots in ⁠Para alpine skiing, two in cross-country skiing and two in snowboarding, while Belarus was awarded four places, all in cross-country skiing.

“We draw attention ⁠to the fact that neither russia nor belarus (sic) went through ⁠the qualification process to obtain licences to participate in the Paralympic Games in Milano-Cortina,” the Ukrainian statement added, denouncing the “horrific military aggression on the territory of Ukraine”.

In 2014, Ukraine sent only one athlete from a 23-person team to ‌the Sochi Paralympics opening ceremony in protest against Russia’s seizure of the Crimean Peninsula.

“It’s very offensive from the IPC to let people who support this war be part of the Games ‌and ‌also to let them carry their flag, because under the same flag they are killing Ukrainians,” skeleton competitor Heraskevych told Reuters, saying protests were necessary.

Former British prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, brother of the United Kingdom’s King Charles II, was released by police on Thursday after being arrested and held for several hours on suspicion of misconduct in public office over his links to convicted late American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Mountbatten-Windsor, who turned 66 the day of his arrest, is the first British royal in more than 350 years to be arrested and held in police custody – the last one was King Charles I, who was arrested by parliamentary forces in 1647 and put on trial for high treason.

His princely title was revoked last year over his links to Epstein and allegations that the two men sexually abused Virginia Giuffre when she was a teenager in the 1990s. The convicted sex offender and disgraced financier Epstein died by suicide in a United States prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

In 2021, Giuffre sued Mountbatten-Windsor for sexual assault. She claimed she had been forced to have sex with him on multiple occasions when she was 17, a minor under US law. Giuffre died by suicide in April last year after reaching a settlement in this case.

When he was still a prince, Mountbatten-Windsor served as the UK’s trade envoy from 2001 to 2011, only stepping down when controversy over his links to Epstein intensified. Throughout his time in the role, he faced persistent criticism over his “party prince” image, his conduct on overseas trips, and the cost of his lavish taxpayer‑funded trips and hospitality.

But Mountbatten-Windsor is far from the first British royal to be engulfed in scandal. In 1936, the monarchy was rocked when King Edward VIII abdicated to marry divorced American Wallis Simpson.

Queen Elizabeth II largely kept the institution steady in the early decades of her reign, but as her children reached adulthood, a new wave of marital crises and personal controversies engulfed the family.

Here is a closer look at some of the major scandals to have roiled the royals and their reputation in recent decades.

1992: Queen Elizabeth’s ‘annus horribilis’

During a speech to mark the 40th anniversary of her accession in November 1992, Queen Elizabeth II described the year as her “annus horribilis”, which is Latin for “horrible year”, following a series of scandals.

Three of her children’s marriages had failed: Then‑Prince of Wales – now King – Charles and Princess Diana separated, as did Mountbatten-Windsor and his wife, Sarah Ferguson. Princess Anne and Mark Phillips got divorced.

In August 1992, while separated but still married to Mountbatten-Windsor, Ferguson was photographed on holiday in the south of France with her American financial adviser John Bryan. Bryan was seen kissing her toes, much to the uproar of the general public.

The same year, a phone call between Diana and her friend, James Gilbey, was leaked and became tabloid fodder. It was believed that the call had been illegally recorded and sold to the media. The intimate and emotional nature of the call led to speculation that Gilbey and Diana were more than friends. On the call, Gilbey called Diana “Squidgy”, and hence the incident became known as “Squidgygate”.

1993: Camillagate

An end to the Queen’s “annus horribilis” was not to be.

Soon after Squidgygate came “Camillagate”. In 1993, the recording of a salacious phone call between Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles was leaked. The call was from 1989 when Charles and Diana were still married and revealed that Charles and Camilla were in an intimate relationship.

Public anger over the affair endured for years, but Charles and Camilla eventually married in 2005 and remain married today, with Camilla now serving as Queen.

1995: Diana’s Panorama interview

Diana was interviewed by journalist Martin Bashir on the BBC programme Panorama that was broadcast on November 20, 1995.

During the interview, Diana commented on several controversies, including the relationship between Charles and Camilla. About the affair, she said: “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded,” which garnered huge public sympathy. She also spoke openly about her mental health struggles – in particular with the condition bulimia nervosa.

Diana’s candid interview opened the lid on life in the royal family, and she was widely viewed as the “people’s princess” after it was aired.

Following the interview, Queen Elizabeth II recommended that the couple divorce quickly – the marriage was legally dissolved the following year.

The circumstances surrounding the interview came under scrutiny more than 20 years later when Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, alleged that Bashir had used false documents and other dishonest tactics to enlist him to persuade Diana to do the interview.

The BBC appointed a retired senior judge in 2020 to lead an investigation into the matter. A report from the inquiry said Bashir used “deceitful behaviour” and breached BBC rules by mocking up fake bank statements and showing them to Spencer to gain access to the princess.

In 2021, Princes William and Harry – Diana’s now-grown children – issued a strong criticism of the BBC and British media for what they called unethical practices after the investigation concluded.

1997: Death of Diana

Two years after the Panorama interview, the princess died aged 36 in a Paris traffic accident as she and a companion were being pursued by paparazzi photographers.

On August 30, 1997, a group of paparazzi had camped outside the Ritz hotel in Paris in hopes of obtaining shots of Diana and her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed. The photographers pursued their car to the Pont de l’Alma tunnel, where their driver lost control and crashed. Both Diana and Fayed were killed.

The public outpouring of grief over Diana’s death contrasted sharply with what was seen as stony silence from the royal family in the immediate aftermath. The family, including the queen, was strongly criticised for not quickly appearing in public and failing to lower the flag over Buckingham Palace to half-staff.

2002: Princess Anne’s criminal conviction

In November 2002, Princess Anne, the Queen’s only daughter, pleaded guilty to losing control of her dog, an English bull terrier, who then proceeded to bite two children in Windsor Great Park.

Anne was fined and became the first working royal in modern times to have a criminal record.

2005: Prince Harry’s Nazi costume

Photos of Prince Harry wearing a Nazi armband at a costume party in 2005 caused global outrage and forced him to issue a public apology.

In his 2023 memoir, Spare, Harry claimed that his older brother, the now-Prince of Wales William and his then-girlfriend (now wife) Kate Middleton had encouraged the choice of outfit and “howled” with laughter when they saw it.

2020: Megxit

After years of rising tensions with the media, Prince Harry and his wife, the former actor Meghan Markle – now styled the Duke and Duchess of Sussex – announced plans to quit their senior royal duties, move part-time to North America, seek financial independence and withdraw from regular media scrutiny.

The couple believed that Meghan’s lack of popularity in the UK was down to the mostly negative media coverage she received from the British press. Rumours were also rife that they clashed with other members of the royal family.

In 2021, the couple appeared on television with Oprah Winfrey, and Harry revealed a rift with his father and brother.

Meghan described feeling so isolated and miserable inside the royal family that she had suicidal thoughts and said a member of the family had voiced “concerns” about the colour of her unborn child’s skin. Markle is half Caucasian and half African American.

The family member was not Queen Elizabeth II or Prince Philip, Harry clarified, sparking a flurry of speculation about who it could be.

2023: Spare

Harry’s memoir, Spare, laid bare intimate family details – much to the reported horror of the royal family. In one incident, he claimed, William had knocked him to the floor during a 2019 argument over Markle.

In his book, Harry also acknowledged killing 25 people in Afghanistan during his time as an Apache helicopter pilot. He had served in Afghanistan first as a forward air controller in air raids from 2007 to 2008, then flying the attack helicopter between 2012 and 2013.