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Here is the situation on Saturday, February 15:

Fighting

• Russia’s army has claimed to have captured the village Berezivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region close to a road linking key towns as Moscow slowly eats up more territory, despite suffering heavy losses in the battlefield.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a Russian drone hit a confinement structure built to contain radiation at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, but the situation was stable after a fire was extinguished and radiation levels were normal. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed the explosion.
• Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 133 drones in attacks across Ukraine overnight.
• The Russian Defence Ministry said its forces have taken control of two frontline settlements in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region and a village outside the region’s Kurakhove city.
• The ministry also reported the capture of Zelene Pole, Velyka Novosilka and Dachne – all towns the Russian military claimed to have captured last month.
• Ukraine’s military confirmed the locations had come under attack but it did not confirm their capture by Russia.
• Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Zelenskyy said North Korean troops fighting for Russia against Ukraine have suffered 4,000 casualties, with two-thirds killed.
• Zelenskyy said the morale of the North Korean troops had been “broken” by their battlefield losses.
• In an interview with a United States broadcaster, Zelenskyy said Ukraine has a “low chance” of surviving Russia’s ongoing invasion without military support from the US.

Human rights

• Ukraine has secured the return of eight children forcibly taken to Russian-occupied territory, the Kyiv Independent reports.
• Since the start of the war, at least 20,000 children have been taken from Ukraine to Russian-occupied territories or to Russia itself, according to the Ukrainian database, Children of War.

Politics and Diplomacy

• US Vice President JD Vance said the Trump administration wants a “durable, lasting peace” for Ukraine and Eastern Europe in his first meeting with Zelenskyy in Munich. The US did not want a resolution that sees “Eastern Europe in conflict just a couple years down the road”, Vance said.
• Zelenskyy has asked for “security guarantees” for Ukraine as part of any future peace deal during his talks with Vance.
• French President Emmanuel Macron reiterated his view that it is “Ukraine alone who can drive the discussions for a solid and lasting peace” with Russia.

Vice President JD Vance, centre, attended a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy [not pictured] on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, in Germany on February 14, 2025 [Leah Millis/Reuters]

• German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius branded recent statements on Ukraine by the US’s new administration as “clumsy” and “a mistake”.
• European Union President Ursula von der Leyen warned that forcing Ukraine into a bad peace deal with Russia would compromise US interests.
• Meeting with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and United Kingdom Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Vance said NATO members must increase their military spending so the US could focus more on Asia.
• Hungarian President Viktor Orban says he believes the Trump administration will reconnect with Russia’s economy and energy networks with the end of the war in Ukraine.

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