In the end, the phone call to Putin arrived, from Trump. An hour and a few cents of conversation where for the Kremlin he did not put the Ukrainian issue first. The first thing Vladimir Putin asked Donald Trump was the release of the prisoners. Alexander Vinnik, arrested in Greece in 2017 on US charges of crypto fraud and then extradited to the United States, is returning to Russia. Belarus has released three more prisoners, Andrei Kuznechik and Alena Movshuk, and an American citizen whose name is unknown, who worked for Radio Liberty.
The second point Putin stressed was the resumption of bilateral relations for which he invited Trump to go to Russia. Donald Trump must make amends with Putin for a slight that dates back to 2014 and that Putin certainly has not forgotten. The third point, on which Putin expressed some wishes, is the Middle Eastern issue, and the Iranian issue.
Finally, there was talk of Ukraine, a conflict that according to Sergei Lavrov would not have started if everyone had respected the Minsk agreements and, precisely because of how things went, it will not be easy to think of freezing the conflict or Ukraine joining NATO. There was no talk of sanctions, also because Moscow, with some sectors still suffering, has managed to evade them very well.
According to Trump’s plans, Europe will pick up the pieces, also providing security guarantees for Kiev, according to the Financial Times: “US President Donald Trump will ask the EU to pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine and to deploy peacekeeping forces.” Trump sees the money in us,” said one of the newspaper’s interlocutors. In his opinion, the United States does not see a role for Europe in resolving important geopolitical issues. NATO Secretary General Marke Rutte also went from threatening tones against Moscow to: “The conversation between Trump and Putin ‘gives the impression’ of the start of negotiations on Ukraine.” He also added that he “absolutely supports peace negotiations on Ukraine.” And he stressed that the Alliance, like the United States, wants lasting peace in Ukraine.
That the war is not over is evidenced by the aid that Kiev is bringing home from the Ramstein format: Great Britain has announced a new military aid package for Ukraine worth 150 million pounds. This will include tanks, artillery systems, surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles. Germany will transfer to Ukraine about 100 anti-aircraft missiles for the IRIS-T air defense system, – the country’s representation in NATO. Germany has announced the delivery of 6,000 HX-2 kamikaze drones. The Netherlands also announced the transfer of 25 YPR-765 armored vehicles and reported the delivery of the last T-72 tanks promised in cooperation with the Czech Republic and the United States. Norway will purchase American air and missile defense systems for Ukraine for $107 million, – the country’s Defense Ministry based on the Ramstein results. Ukraine is also discussing with Belgium the localization of maintenance of F-16s within the country. Supporting Ukraine is the top priority of the Swedish government’s foreign policy. This is stated in the statement on foreign policy of the Cabinet presented to the Parliament by Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergaard.
And if Kiev complained about the American betrayal for starting negotiations without her, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth responded: “A quick push for peace and negotiations with Putin are not a betrayal of Ukraine.” He also stressed once again that NATO countries’ military spending of 2% of GDP is not enough, 3-4-5% is needed
The European Union has not yet recovered from Trump’s slap, who acted on his own and without consulting anyone, followed by Putin’s through Peskov: “Although the format of the possible negotiation process in Ukraine is not understood, it is premature to talk about Europe’s participation in it”. In response, the EU said that it “will continue to impose sanctions against the Russian Federation in the energy sector, despite the plans and intentions of the United States” source European Commission. Kaja Kallas, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy: “No agreement will work without us. If Ukraine resists, Europe will increase its support”.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrault: Europe will provide Ukraine with security guarantees, even if NATO membership does not happen immediately. Europe must be involved in the negotiations to end the war. And the words of German Defense Minister Pistorius were echoed again: “The new American administration has made concessions to Russia on Ukraine even before the start of negotiations to resolve the conflict,” he stressed that it would be better to discuss Ukraine’s possible accession to NATO or the country’s possible territorial losses already at the negotiating table, and not remove them from the agenda before then.
As for Ukraine itself, US Defense Secretary Hegseth says that “this war must end,” but returning Ukraine to its pre-2014 borders is an “unrealistic goal.” Trump said that the head of the US Treasury should bring a document from Kiev that guarantees the return of the funds invested to support Ukraine. A document that Zelensky did not sign: “We will not accept agreements between the United States and Russia that concern Ukraine, European countries must participate in the negotiations.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CNN that he does not believe it is possible to predict the timing of the end of the crisis in Ukraine. “I don’t think anyone can determine the time or date of that,” Rubio said in a U.S. State Department press release Wednesday. “I hope it happens as soon as possible, but I can’t give a timeline,” Rubio added. He acknowledged that we are talking about a complex crisis and that Washington wants to complete it, as a result of which “Ukraine will remain a sovereign and independent country” and the conflict will not resume later. At the same time, Rubio expressed optimism and said that the US administration is determined to “work really hard.”
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense offers contract soldiers aged 18 to 24 to serve only in the infantry, the Ukrainian publication Strana reports. The Forensic Legal Newspaper, says: “The contract with the Armed Forces of Ukraine for young people aged 18 to 25, proposed by Vladimir Zelensky, involves service only in assault units, mandatory participation in battles and reimbursement of payments to the state in the event of termination of the contract.” Zelensky claimed that during the night of February 12, 10 Patriot air defense missiles worth $30 million were used to shoot down six Russian ballistic missiles. And it was unsuccessful. On the 12th and 13th, massive sanctions were imposed on Ukrainian oligarchs who are rivals of Zelensky in the possible upcoming elections: Petro Poroshenko, Kolomoisky, Bogolyubov, Zhevago and Medvedchuk.
Russia’s military budget in 2024 would have exceeded similar spending by all EU countries combined, the Financial Times reports. According to the publication, in 2024, Russia’s defense spending increased by 42% and reached 13.1 trillion rubles. ($462 billion) The combined defense budgets of all European countries in 2024 amounted to $457 billion.
Russian sources report that Trump’s special envoy Witkoff met with Putin in Moscow on February 12. Steve Witkoff describes the return home from Russia of freed American citizen Mark Vogel: “Trump gave me the instruction: ‘Bring him home.’ His message was: ‘No one will be left behind.’ It was a message of hope for every American held in a foreign prison.” Apparently, the real architect of the prisoner exchange between Moscow and Washington is Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at a regular morning press conference: “Russia will not discuss the issue of exchanging territories with Ukraine, all Ukrainian units will be expelled from Russian regions.” Sergei Lavrov spoke out on the issue of the release of prisoners: “The United States decided to announce the situation with the release of Vogel, Russia has a different approach,” he answered a question from TASS. “For effective diplomacy, the Russian Federation prefers to respect confidentiality agreements.” Lavrov did not agree with the journalist’s remark that everyone in the world was expecting a meeting between Putin and Trump. “Do you think the whole world is waiting? It seems to me, not the whole world. There are those who believe that any contact between Moscow and Washington seems to harm their interests,” Lavrov said. And again: “The peace formulas proposed by Kiev and the West in the current conditions are untenable” source Russian Security Council The Ukrainian crisis can still be resolved by peaceful means, but only with a radical change in the West’s approach, Deputy Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Alexey Shevtsov is sure of this.
And now a look at the front line updated at 18:00 on February 13.
According to Russian social media sources, American ammunition continues to be delivered to Ukraine through Rzeszow.
According to Ukrainian sources, today the Russian Armed Forces struck the final assembly plant of the An-196 “Lyut” and “Peklo” long-range UAVs developed and produced by Antonov JSC, which Zelensky and the head of the NATO Military Committee Giuseppe Cavo Dragone visited on February 8. Target coordinates: 50.490671, 30.473972. Although it was claimed that the air defense shot down all six ballistic missiles, fires and cordons were noted in four districts of the city: Solom’yans’kyi, Golosiivskij, Pohreby and Obolon, and a large fire has not yet been extinguished in the Obuchiv district of the Kiev region. At the same time, residents of the city reported at least 12-13 explosions.
The Russian Defense Ministry says that 12 Ukrainian drones were destroyed in two hours over Crimea, and on the night of February 13, 83 Ukrainian drones were shot down in nine regions of Russia. 37 drones were destroyed in the Bryansk region, 12 each in the Kursk and Lipetsk regions, nine in the Tver region, three each in the Belgorod, Kaluga, Smolensk and Voronezh regions, as well as one in the Rostov region.
The Russians also attacked the Poltava, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Mykolaiv, Odessa, Kiev and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
In the Kursk region, the Sever group is hitting Ukrainian infantry near Cherkasskaya Konopelka. The Ukrainian group tried to reach the vicinity of the village through the Sirovshchina-Olekh section. There are battles for the town of Sverdlikovo. In the Kurilovka area, the Ukrainian Armed Forces deployed special forces units to contain the Russian marines, but in this sector of the front the Russian Armed Forces advanced. Using missiles and stray ammunition, the Russian Armed Forces attacked the concentrations of Ukrainian reserves in the Chernigov and Sumy regions, which were supposed to be transferred to the Sudzhansky District.
In the Liman direction, Ukrainian sources admit that the Russian Armed Forces advanced west of Makiivka in an area up to 4.5 km wide to a maximum depth of 2 km.
In the direction of Kostyantynopil, the Russian Armed Forces established a foothold in the northeast and north of the settlement. Andriivka, there are advances by the Russian side also in the populated area. North of Vremivka, Russian forces are leveling the front line and moving northwest.
Units of the “Center” group of forces continued to advance deep into the Ukrainian defenses and took the village of Vodyane Druhe in the Donetsk People’s Republic.
On the Zaporozhye front, according to Russian sources, on February 12, Ukrainian forces struck a convoy with IAEA personnel 300 meters from the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, thus interrupting the rotation of the international organization’s employees.
In the direction of Kherson, Ukrainian forces reported shelling of civilians in Nova Kakhovka and wounding three civilians.
Graziella Giangiulio
Follow our updates on Geopolitical Gleanings - Spigolature geopolitiche: https://t.me/agc_NW and on our blog The Gleanings of AGCNEWS - Le Spigolature di AGCNEWS: https://spigolatureagcnews.blogspot.com/
