Denys from Ukraine

🇺🇦🫂 What a joy it is to see that, after years in captivity, these people can once again feel freedom, support, and the certainty that they were awaited at home. Welcome back!

📹 dmytro_lubinetzs/Telegram

According to him, Russian troops likely kidnapped and took away 19 residents of the border village of Sopych in Sumy Oblast. Contact with them was initially lost, and later their interviews appeared on a Russian TV channel.

⚡️ Russian forces have abducted 19 Ukrainian civilians in Sumy region, Ukraine’s Parliament Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets said.

Those freed include servicemen from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard, and the State Border Guard Service. They fought on the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson fronts, as well as in Mariupol. Most had been held for more than a year, and some since 2022.

🇺🇦💔 300 Ukrainian defenders have returned home from Russian captivity, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. Two Ukrainian civilians were also released.

📷 V_Zelenskiy_official/Telegram

I hope the EU will overcome the current political obstacles and move forward with both decisions, which are critically important for Ukraine.

The second is the 20th sanctions package against Russia, expected to target shadow fleet vessels, LNG tanker services, and icebreakers, around 20 regional banks, sanction-evasion crypto platforms and companies, as well as additional trade and services restrictions.

At the same time, the EU is facing two important decisions. The first is the €90 billion Ukraine Support Loan package for 2026–2027, which would be backed by the EU budget – but is currently blocked by several countries.

As of Feb. 2026, the EU has provided €194.9 billion in assistance to Ukraine – including €69.7 billion in military aid and more than €104.5 billion in financial, budgetary, and humanitarian support. This makes the EU the largest donor to Ukraine and a crucial pillar of support during Russia’s war.

During the program, I also had the chance to meet and speak with EU Ambassador to Ukraine Katarína Mathernová, as well as take part in a series of discussions on the history of EU–Ukraine relations and EU-funded projects currently being implemented across Ukraine.

🇪🇺🇺🇦 Last week, I attended the two-day training EU: Explaining the Complex in Simple Terms. It was a great opportunity to deepen my understanding of how Ukraine’s path toward EU membership is unfolding and how the negotiation process actually works.

📷 Delegation of EU to Ukraine

🇺🇦 “Mom, I’m in Ukraine!” – the first words of a Ukrainian defender after returning from Russian captivity.

He is crying and smiling at the same time – tears of pain and relief, the kind that come with coming back to life.

📹 dmytro_lubinetzs/Telegram

🇺🇦🫂 Ukrainian soldier, exhausted and visibly weakened after Russian captivity, has just made it back home.

I dream of the day when every Ukrainian family gets to welcome their loved ones back. I believe one day it will happen.

📹 dmytro_lubinetzs/Telegram

💔🇺🇦 200 Ukrainians have returned home as part of a POW swap between Ukraine and Russia, President Zelenskyy said.

Among those freed are defenders of Mariupol and fighters who served in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhia regions.

📷 V_Zelenskiy_official/Telegram

🫂🇺🇦 That's the great news I was talking about! Russian sources report a 200-for-200 POW swap between Ukraine and Russia. We are awaiting confirmation from Ukrainian officials.

Welcome home – we’ve been waiting for you!

That normal life here is now in the past. Fighting has already reached the city’s eastern outskirts, and Kostiantynivka risks repeating the fate of cities already destroyed and occupied – Bakhmut, Toretsk, Chasiv Yar, and others across the region.

💔 Russia is now leveling Kostiantynivka to its foundations – dropping glide bombs on the city and relentlessly striking it with drones, day after day.

The city had nearly 80,000 residents in 2022. Today, fewer than 2,800 are believed to remain.

He added that the exchange of prisoners of war is always an important moment and a positive step for families. The President hopes that we will be able to begin this exchange process in the coming days.

🤞🇺🇦 "We very much hope that the exchange we agreed upon during previous meetings [with Russian side – ed.] will be confirmed," President Zelenskyy said in an interview with Rai Italia.

If I missed anything in Orbán's bingo, feel free to add it in the comments below.

🫂🇺🇦 Great news to come tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

⚡️ 3 killed, 16 injured in Russia's March 2 bomb strike against Druzhkivka, Donetsk Oblast, State Emergency Service said.

Emergency crews finished rescue operations and recovered the bodies of the people killed in the attack; the strike also damaged 13 residential buildings.

I don’t want to assume the worst. But when rail links are cut, local transport is shut down, and shops, banks, and post offices start closing, it rarely points to anything good.

💔🚎 Local authorities in Sloviansk, Donetsk Oblast, say they’ve begun dismantling the city’s trolleybus lines to install anti-drone nets.

Trolleybuses kept running during the Russian invasion, but now the fleet is being evacuated to another city.

📷 slv_vca/Telegram

The image shows the vessel heavily damaged and still smoking, with its hull apparently ruptured and structural damage suggesting it may have been nearly split in two.

⚡️ A new photo on the OSINT technical channel appears to show the aftermath of an attack on the Russian LNG tanker Arktik Metagaz in the Mediterranean Sea on the previous day.

📷 Osinttechnical/X

Local media report a Russian Shahed-type kamikaze drone attacked a passenger train in Mykolaiv. No reports of casualties or injuries have been reported yet.

He also noted that countering long-range weapons requires a combination of physical protection, air defense, and interceptors that must work in any weather. In his words, multiple layers of defense and air defense are the only chance.

He added that, due to the proximity to the border, air-defense systems will still be in short supply, so additional Patriot-like systems are needed, which would make it harder for Russia to use aircraft and glide bombs (KABs).

“There is no single rule for protection, we need layered defense. We must move as much as possible underground, and cover city centers with air defense,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in response to my question about protecting frontline cities.