From: TransformUkraine By Douglas Landro 

Summary of the Day – February 26, 2025

As Ukrainian President Zelensky prepares for a high-stakes White House visit on February 28, the final terms of a controversial minerals agreement take shape—without the security guarantees Kyiv desperately seeks. Meanwhile, Trump declares Ukraine can “forget about NATO” while insisting Russia must make concessions, creating a diplomatic tangle that seems irreconcilable. In the shadows, Russian and American delegations arrange a second meeting in Istanbul, even as Lavrov rejects any ceasefire that doesn’t satisfy Moscow’s territorial demands. On the battlefield, Ukrainian forces recapture the strategic village of Kotlyne near Pokrovsk while striking Russia’s Tuapse oil refinery with devastating precision, demonstrating that despite diplomatic uncertainty, Ukraine remains a formidable fighting force determined to shape its own destiny.

Russia’s War on Ukraine: The Diplomatic Chessboard

The Mineral Compromise: What Ukraine Gets—and Doesn’t Get

“I’m not going to make security guarantees beyond… we’re gonna have Europe do that… ’cause Europe is their next-door neighbor,” President Donald Trump declared at his first cabinet meeting. With these words, he confirmed what Ukrainian negotiators had feared: the U.S.-Ukraine minerals deal would include no American security commitments.