Month: February 2026

Ukraine War: Negotiations Under Bombs

By Nina Bachkatov

There was little to expect from the trilateral summit in Geneva beyond the fact that it took place and ended without drama. Ukraine and Russia described the meeting as “difficult” — diplomatic shorthand for an inability to move forward on the two recurring obstacles: security guarantees and territorial questions. Still, Ukraine’s chief negotiator, Rustem Umerov, and later President Volodymyr Zelensky, hinted at possible progress on the concept of a demilitarised zone. The devil will be in the detail, but at least the discussion is inching forward.

Both sides travelled to Geneva largely to signal goodwill about ending the war. Above all, however, they are anxious to keep President Donald Trump engaged — as are NATO and individual European governments. They fear that the multiplicity of crises, some of his own making, could distract Trump from Ukraine in particular and Europe more broadly.

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War in the social media era

By Nina Bachkatov and Romain Constantin

On February 2 2026, a video circulated on the pro-Russian Telegram channel Voin DV bearing the caption: “Units of the Vostok Battle Group liberated the settlement of Pridorozhnoe.” The footage shows a succession of drone shots capturing the assault, bombardment and eventual seizure of the single street and handful of houses of this tiny settlement of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region.

The capture of Pridorozhnoe was not, in itself, strategically significant. It merely marked another incremental step in Russia’s grinding local advance. The manner in which it was communicated, however, is notable as an illustration of a new model of wartime communication that has gradually taken shape during the conflict in Ukraine, on both sides

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