Ukraine-Russia battle newest: Zelensky warns Trump of Putin’s ‘games’ as battle enters fifth 12 months

Ukraine has defended its independence and exists not only on the world map, Volodymyr Zelensky has said as Russia’s full-scale invasion of his country marked the fourth anniversary.

“Putin has not achieved his goals. He has not broken the Ukrainian people. He has not won this war. We have preserved Ukraine, and we will do everything to achieve peace. And to ensure justice,” the Ukrainian president said in a televised address.

An unidentified assailant detonated an explosive device next to a patrol vehicle in Moscow in the early hours today, killing himself and a police officer, and leaving two other officers injured, officials said.

The attack happened minutes after midnight near the Savyolovsky Train Station in the Russian capital’s downtown, according to Moscow’s branch of the Interior Ministry.

It said the assailant approached a traffic police vehicle and detonated an explosive device, killing an officer on the spot and injuring two others, who were hospitalised.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said it has launched a probe into the attack. It didn’t name the assailant or give any information about his possible motives or any further details.

The attack came on the day marking the fourth anniversary of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s decision to send troops into Ukraine.

Safe to say, things have not gone to plan. Ukrainian territory has been occupied, too often after being razed to the ground, and force has been used to the most obscene degree against the civilian population.

Yet, after some successful Ukrainian counterattacks, Russia today occupies less of Ukraine’s sovereign territory than in the early stages of the war, and its military has proved to be poorly trained, badly led, ill equipped, undisciplined, and not entirely loyal – as was demonstrated by the rebellion staged by the Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin in 2023, which came surprisingly close to toppling the Russian president himself.

Volodymyr Zelensky declared on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the war in Ukraine that World War Three had already begun.

His statement reflected the increasingly global nature of Russia’s war, which has seen troops from countries across the world brought in to either bolster Putin’s aggression or support Ukraine’s resistance.

Since February 2022, around 55,000 Ukrainians have been killed in bitter fighting on the frontlines, according to Ukrainian estimates. Russia has suffered an estimated 1.2 million casualties, including at least 325,000 deaths, according to recent analysis.

Some 20,000 men from overseas are now estimated to have joined Russia’s invasion. Many have been falsely sold the promise of lucrative employment away from the frontlines. Ukraine has offered professional soldiers fixed contracts paying rates higher than what they could earn at home.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has now been raging for four years – and despite repeated attempts at peace talks brokered by the US, there appears to be no end in sight.

As the war marks the grim anniversary milestone on Tuesday, the bloody war of attrition continues, having claimed the lives of more than 15,000 Ukrainian civilians.

In the last year, Moscow has ramped up its use of drones by 200 per cent, regularly launching hundreds of strikes from unmanned aircraft.

Vladimir Putin’s forces have also increasingly targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, leaving millions without power or heat as they face their coldest winter in years, with temperatures as low as -26C.

Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russian officials of playing games in the peace talks in an interview ahead of the war entering fifth year.

“Russians are playing games” and not serious about bringing the war to a close, Zelensky said responding to a question on how the peace talks were progressing, speaking from his presidential office in Kyiv.

The Ukrainian leader has also accused Vladimir Putin of using overtures to Donald Trump to weaken Kyiv’s negotiating position.

“I see it, because they are very poor actors. They are playing with Trump and playing with the entire world. That’s how it is,” Zelensky said.

“Putin thinks he looks convincing and that he can be trusted. No — he is a bad actor,” he said.

The Kremlin’s efforts to push greater control over the information space with restrictions on Whatsapp and Telegram has caused domestic trouble in Russia.

Russia’s reliance on Telegram as the most widely used social media platform for communication and access to information, says Tatiana Stanovaya, the founder of Russian political analysts R.Politik and senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.

“Although preparations for such a move had been evident, the decision nonetheless came as a shock to many, including senior officials, businesses, and representatives of the pro-war community,” she said.

The move “has triggered unexpected internal resistance across the elite, including from domestic policy overseers, regional authorities, parts of United Russia, the military, pro-war bloggers and even the systemic opposition,” analysts have said.

She added that while the systemic opposition’s decision to speak out against the measure carries no tangible political weight, “it signals emerging discrepancies within the ruling elite”.

“The FSB, which stands behind the decision, was compelled to justify its actions publicly,” she added.

“The measure is highly likely to be implemented, yet it will have a noticeable impact on public sentiment.”

Ukraine recovered control of 400 sq kilometres of territory, including eight settlements, in February, the head of the military announced this morning.

Zelensky said only on 20 February that Ukraine’s Defense Forces had liberated 300 sq km in the south during a counteroffensive.

The war frontline in Ukraine has turned into a “robotic kill zone” with drones dominating the warfare, leaving soldiers vulnerable to attacks, the former Ukrainian general has said.

Speaking at the Chatham House in London, Gen Valerii Zaluzhny who is now the Ukraine ambassador to the UK, said the war against Russia “has long since gone beyond long trenches, powerful tank fights and air battles”, as the battlefield is now “completely transparent”, saturated by surveillance drones and automated strike systems.

The immediate aerial attacks, controlled from kilometres away, have left human prone to dangerous attacks as irreplaceable resource, unlike the weapons used as they can be mass-produced.

“It takes a lot of time to restore them,” Gen Zaluzhny said of trained personnel. “It is simply impossible to quickly replace such a resource on the battlefield,” he said.

This has made the distancing of troops from the kill zone an operational necessity in Ukraine, where it is estimated 65,000 Russian soldiers alone have been killed by drones.