People walk through the Fomin Botanical Garden in Kyiv on Dec. 21. Kyiv saw its first heavy snowfall of the season on the evening of Dec. 20. (Oleg Petrasiuk)
Kyiv had its first heavy snowfall of the season on the evening of Dec. 20, with 13 centimeters of snow rapidly covering the capital.
Municipal workers clean the snow in the Taras Shevchenko Park in central Kyiv on Dec. 21. Kyiv saw its first heavy snowfall of the season on the evening of Dec. 20. (Oleg Petrasiuk)
Traffic ground to a halt across the city while the number of road accidents surged. For example, a tram derailed on Kyrylivska Street in the Podil neighborhood.
Traffic remained slow on Dec. 21 as Kyiv was dealing with the consequences of the season's first heavy snowfall. Mask wearing is mandatory on public transport in Kyiv, but passengers often pull their masks down during the ride. (Oleg Petrasiuk)
The city authorities reported that they deployed 287 snow plows and 354 municipal workers to clean the snow off the streets.
A boy sleds down a hill in central Kyiv on Dec. 21. Kyiv saw its first heavy snowfall of the winter on Dec. 20. (Oleg Petrasiuk)
The snowfall was accompanied by a cold snap: Temperature fell to -9 degrees Celsius on Dec. 21 and is expected to stay below zero for most of the week. Due to the cold weather, heating points have opened in Kyiv.
Kyiv saw its first heavy snowfall of the season on the evening of Dec. 20. (Oleg Petrasiuk)
On the bright side, Kyiv saw its first glimpse of sunlight in several weeks the day after the snowfall. Daily snowfalls are forecasted to begin again on Dec. 24.
Real winter came to Kyiv on Dec. 20-21, with the season's first heavy snowfall and the temperatures sliding to minus 9 Celsius. (Oleg Petrasiuk)
Russia has lost around 1,253,270 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported on Feb. 15, 2026.
Ukrainian drones struck several targets throughout southern Russia's Krasnodar Krai overnight on Feb. 14-15, including an oil depot, Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said.
The Alpha unit of Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) destroyed half of Russia's stockpile of the coveted Pantsir air defense system, the SBU announced Feb. 14.
"There were three attacks on the energy infrastructure of Azerbaijan in Ukraine, and there were also three attacks on the Azerbaijani embassy in Ukraine," Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev told the independent outlet Ukrainska Pravda.
Zelensky and Rubio discussed supporting Ukraine with air defense missiles during the winter and the possibility of future talks with the presidents of Ukraine, the U.S., and Russia to "resolve the most problematic issues."
"The U.K., Sweden, France, Germany, and the Netherlands are confident that Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a lethal toxin," the countries' governments said in a joint statement. "Navalny died while held in prison, meaning Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison to him."
"It would be an illusion to believe that this war can now be reliably ended by dividing Ukraine – just as it was an illusion to believe that sacrificing Czechoslovakia would save Europe from a greater war," Zelensky said at the Munich Security Conference.
"(W)e have to find a solution to bridge the gap between the current methodology and the geopolitical challenges. We cannot wait any longer," European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos said.
According to Svyrydenko, the program will be considered at the next meeting of the IMF Executive Board, while there has been "much discussion about how this will be done."
The General Staff reported that Russia's BK-16 landing vessel, a high-speed landing craft for coastal operations and troop transport, was "successfully hit" on Feb. 12 in Russian-occupied Crimea.
"In a time of headlines heralding the end of the Transatlantic era, let it be known and clear to all that this is neither our goal nor our wish, because for us Americans, our home may be in the western hemisphere, but we will always be a child of Europe," Rubio said.
Russian independent media outlet Mediazona, in collaboration with the BBC Russian service, has confirmed the identities of 177,433 Russian military personnel killed in Ukraine.
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