February 22, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

Former Russian President and Deputy Chair of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev said Russia will "disappear" if it loses the war in Ukraine.

“If Russia stops the special military operation without achieving victory, Russia will disappear, it will be torn to pieces,” Medvedev said in a Telegram post on Wednesday, using the euphemism for Russia's invasion of Ukraine. “If the US stops supplying weapons to the Kyiv regime, the war will end.” 

Medvedev’s comments follow US President Joe Biden’s speech in Poland on Tuesday.

During his speech, Biden said, "If Russia stopped invading Ukraine, it would end the war. If Ukraine stopped defending itself against Russia, it would be the end of Ukraine," which Medvedev claimed was “a refined lie.”  

“Why does he appeal to the people of another country at a time when he is full of domestic problems? With what fright should we listen to a politician from a hostile state that exudes hatred for our Motherland? Why should the citizens of Russia believe the leader of the United States, who unleashed the most wars in the 20th and 21st centuries, but reproach us for aggressiveness?” Medvedev said — repeating claims that American officials see as a whataboutism tactic — adding Biden’s aim is “to ensure that Russia suffers a "strategic defeat."

Medvedev also commented on Putin's state of the nation address on Tuesday, in particular an announcement that Russia is suspending its participation in the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty. 

He called it “an overdue and inevitable decision.” 

“This is a decision that will have a huge resonance in the world in general and in the United States in particular,” Medvedev added. 

Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, told journalists he sees “increasing momentum” in Washington toward providing Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets and long-range Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) rockets.

McCaul said Zelensky had given him a list of weapons Ukraine needed, namely F-16s and ATACMS, which can be fired from US-supplied HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems and have a range of up to 300 kilometers (about 186 miles).

"I will be a very strong voice on both the ATACMS, the long-range artillery to hit the Iranian drones in Crimea, in addition to the F-16s,” McCaul said. 

Spain will send six Leopard 2A4 tanks to Ukraine, Spanish defense minister Margarita Robles told Spain’s parliament on Wednesday. 

The delivery is part of what other allies are sending, Robles said, adding that the number could be increased. 

The tanks are being repaired now to get them ready, Robles said.

The defense minister also said that Spain has trained 800 Ukrainian troops in Spain since start of war, including basic training and training on specific weapons systems, such as the Leopard tank. 

Transporting US President Joe Biden on a highly-covert, 10-hour-each-way train ride across Ukraine was a massive undertaking requiring significant preparation and the highest levels of secrecy. It also signaled an important moment for the country and its railway system, seen as a source of stability during unstable times, Ukrainian Railways CEO Alexander Kamyshin told CNN.

“Russians promised to take Kyiv. And in 362 day of the war, President Biden appears in Kyiv and walks around with my President Zelensky. So it's kind of really historical moments. We were happy and privileged and honored to be the official carrier of the President Biden, so we called our train Rail Force One,” Kamyshin told Kaitlan Collins during an appearance on "CNN This Morning" Wednesday. 

Kamyshin said that his work – which has so far received around 300 official delegations from across the globe traveling on the railway since the start of the war nearly one year ago — is important to his country and its diplomacy.

But it also plays a broader role in the country’s morale amid Russia’s brutal invasion.

“For us, on-time performance is a really important focus. During the war, people should rely on something. Railways became a reliable transportation for our people,” he said.

Kamyshin apologized on Twitter after Biden’s train ride that “only 90%” of Ukraine’s trains were on time around the US visit.

Kamyshin told Collins he was “not nervous, but focused and determined until the moment he (Biden) left the borders of Ukraine.”

Biden spent 24 hours in Ukraine, 20 of which were aboard Ukraine’s rail system.

“Trust me, it was a complicated mission,” he said, and one that involved close coordination with the US Embassy in Ukraine, the US government, and Ukraine’s Ministry of Infrastructure.

China’s top diplomat told Russian President Vladimir Putin that China and Russia need to be more flexible while facing new international circumstances. The two were meeting at the Kremlin on Wednesday during an official visit by Wang Yi to Moscow. 

“[China and Russia] often face crisis and chaos, but there are always opportunities in a crisis and the latter could possibly turn into the former,” Wang Yi, Chinese President Xi Jinping's top diplomatic advisor said.

“But this requires us to identify changes more voluntarily and respond to the changes more actively to further strengthen our comprehensive strategic partnership,” he added.

Spain has harbored 168,000 refugees from the Ukraine war a year after Russia invaded, Spain's Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Of those, 63% are women and 33% are under the age of 18. Almost all are Ukrainian citizens, but 1.8% of the refugees are citizens of other nationalities who were legally residing in Ukraine when the war started last year, according to the ministry.

The refugees in Spain are under "temporary protection" status.

According to the United Nations, more than 8 million refugees from Ukraine have been recorded across Europe.

Award-winning Ukrainian singer Julia Sanina has been announced as the Ukrainian host for the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest, according to host broadcaster BBC.

Eurovision is traditionally hosted in a city of the prior year’s winning country. Ukraine won the contest in 2022 but cannot host it due to the ongoing conflict.

The BBC also announced that Ukrainian broadcaster Timur Miroshnychenko will be the Eurovision correspondent in Liverpool.

US President Joe Biden will depart Europe three days later having loudly recommitted to backing Ukraine as it enters a second year of conflict, working to cast aside doubts about the durability of American support and directly blaming his counterpart in the Kremlin for thrusting the continent into war.

The 72 hours Biden spent on the ground in Ukraine and Poland have been among the most momentous of his presidency, the culmination both of careful, highly secretive planning by White House aides and the president’s singular, decades-held view of America’s role in the world.

In conversations with aides, foreign counterparts and even by phone with his wife over the course of his visit, Biden has asserted his trip this week was essential in showing the world the US wouldn’t waver in its support.

As Air Force One returns to Washington, however, it is difficult to ignore the looming questions Biden’s visit did little to answer: How and when will the war end?

Underneath Biden’s pledges of continued support for Ukraine remains a lingering concern, shared with his European allies, that the war could descend into a stalemate as each side sees small gains and losses without a clear trajectory.

Here's what could come next.

Pope Francis has renewed his appeal for an end to the war in Ukraine, calling it “absurd and cruel,” during his general audience at the Vatican on Wednesday.

The Pope has frequently called for peace since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 last year.

The approaching one-year mark is "sad," Francis said, as he once again appealed for a cease-fire.

“Let us ask ourselves,” the Pope said, “has everything possible been done to stop the war?” 

Francis said that the numbers of deaths and the toll of economic and social destruction caused by the war “speak for themselves.”

“Let us remain close to the martyred Ukrainian people,” he said. “Peace built on rubble will never be a real victory.”