Tuesday Briefing: The Ukraine war’s 3rd anniversary

February 25, 2025

	By Emmett Lindner

Good morning. We’re covering the third anniversary of the Ukraine war and a Hamas leader’s doubts about the Oct. 7 attack.

Plus, letting resorts run wild.

A man surveys bomb damage, standing amid debris outside a partially gutted building.

Bomb damage in Kostiantynivka, Ukraine, on Monday. Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

Uncertainty on the Ukraine war’s anniversary

President Trump met with President Emmanuel Macron of France at the White House yesterday at a head-spinning time for Western alliances. It was the third anniversary of the war in Ukraine, and peace talks with Russia have sidelined Kyiv and European leaders. Here’s the latest.

Trump told reporters while sitting next to the French president that the fighting could be over “within weeks,” and he suggested that he may visit Moscow as soon as this spring. He refused to call President Vladimir Putin of Russia a dictator.

The U.S. opposed a European effort at the U.N. to condemn Russia and call for it to immediately withdraw from Ukraine. The Trump administration introduced its own resolution, which softened the language and called only for an end to the war, essentially siding with Moscow over longtime allies.

Analysis: Zelensky has mostly played weak hands wisely during the war, but his approach to Trump has resulted in hostility. Is his strategy ultimately harming Ukraine?

Unbroken: Olha Kurtmallaieva is in treatment for cancer, and her husband is in a Russian prison. She worries that time is running out, for her and her country. Her story is Ukraine’s story: an exhausted population, holding on in the face of a force few thought they could withstand.

A return to battle: Ukraine’s military has been struggling to replenish its ranks. Some wounded soldiers have chosen to push through pain and discomfort to fight Russia again.

More on Ukraine and Trump

China’s leader said his country and Russia were “true friends” after a video call with Putin.
Fresh possibilities have rapidly emerged for Putin with a change of power in Washington.
President Volodymyr Zelensky met with 13 Western leaders in Ukraine as they marked the anniversary of the war and reaffirmed their solidarity and support.
Confusion continued to spread throughout the U.S. government over Elon Musk’s demand that federal workers detail their work. Then they were told the request was voluntary.
Religious organizations are challenging a Trump policy that allows ICE to conduct operations in certain places of worship.
Monitor screens at a federal housing office briefly displayed a fake video depicting Trump sucking Musk’s toes, according to employees.
A former New York City police officer and Secret Service agent turned right-wing pundit and podcaster will be the next deputy director of the F.B.I., Trump said.
Track Trump’s actions since he took office.

Armed fighters in uniform marching past a concrete building.

Hamas militants during the handover of three hostages in Gaza on Saturday. Saher Alghorra for The New York Times

Hamas official expressed doubts about Oct. 7

Mousa Abu Marzouk, the head of Hamas’s foreign relations office, told The Times that he wouldn’t have supported the Oct. 7, 2023, attack if he had known of the devastation Israel would wreak on Gaza. The Israeli offensive in the enclave has killed thousands of Palestinians and reduced it to rubble.

It’s unclear to what extent Abu Marzouk’s views on Oct. 7 are shared by other Hamas leaders, who have tended to take a harder line, or if he shared them in an attempt to influence negotiations with Israel.

What’s next: The truce between Hamas and Israel is set to end Sunday, but both sides have yet to begin negotiating an extension. Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Mideast envoy, said he would return to the region tomorrow to push for a new truce.

While a brief extension of the cease-fire is possible, the likelihood of a long-term deal seems remote. Here’s what could lie ahead.

People wearing hats work with buckets and fishing lines on the deck of a boat.

Workers on a Chinese tuna boat in the Indian Ocean, in a photo provided by the Environmental Justice Foundation. Environmental Justice Foundation

North Koreans face ‘forced labor’ at sea, report said

Some North Koreans are assigned by their government to work on board Chinese tuna ships in the Indian Ocean. Their earnings go straight to Kim Jong-un’s regime, according to a report published yesterday by the Environmental Justice Foundation. The report described “forced labor” conditions in which workers went years without setting foot on land, and were often cut off from their families.

Context: The U.N. bans member states from hiring North Korean workers because it says Kim uses them to raise funds for a nuclear weapons program. But last year more than 100,000 North Koreans were reported to be still working in 40 countries.

MORE TOP NEWS

A group of men walks outside a tunnel that is being built in the Indian state of Telangana.

The site of a tunnel collapse in the southern Indian state of Telangana. Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

India: Officials warned that the chances of survival were fading for eight people believed to have been trapped in a collapsed tunnel after a ceiling cave-in.
Germany: The country’s presumptive next chancellor could be weak from the start, for all sorts of reasons. Here’s how he might try to lead.
Social media: TikTok and a backlash against conservative immigration policy helped the far-left Die Linke party surge into Germany’s Parliament.
Business: Apple has promised to build A.I. servers in Texas and spend $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years.
Afghanistan: A British couple who spent almost two decades running education programs in Afghanistan was detained by the Taliban this month.
Haiti: A Kenyan police officer was shot and killed in an operation that was part of an international effort to help combat gang violence, officials said.
France: A former surgeon who was accused of raping or sexually assaulting 299 people, most of whom were children, admitted to “heinous acts” on the first day of his trial.
Climate: Greenpeace is set to go on trial in a bombshell, $300 million lawsuit that, if successful, could bankrupt the storied group.

Sports

Baseball: This spring, Major League Baseball will give its players a chance to test out new robot umpires.
Soccer: The Premier League is the promised land. But is promotion into it increasingly futile?
Tennis: How Jannik Sinner’s doping case and WADA agreement rocked the antidoping world.

MORNING READ

An illustration of a community walled off. The community features colorful houses, outdoor seating, trees and plant beds.

Illustration by Callum Rowland

Across the West, voters are lurching to the right. Yet, in Denmark, the governing Social Democrats have pursued bold progressive policies since 2019, cruising to re-election in 2022. One issue sets them apart from their progressive counterparts in Europe: A far more restrictive stance on immigration.

Lives lived: Roberta Flack, the singer and pianist whose blend of soul, jazz and folk made her one of the most popular artists of the 1970s, died at 88. Get to know her essential songs.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Andre D. Wagner for The New York Times

Back for the final chamber: New York’s pathbreaking rap group, Wu-Tang Clan, is hitting the road for the last (but biggest) time ever. We sat down with RZA.
The bot will see you now: Human therapists in the U.S. are getting ready for a battle with A.I. chatbots posing as therapists.
The indie queen: For years, Parker Posey has had trouble finding satisfying work in Hollywood’s shifting landscape. Then came “The White Lotus.”

We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times .

ARTS AND IDEAS

The interior of a barrel-shaped bungalow made of wood planks and poles. It is set in front of vegetation and offers a view of the ocean.

Playa Viva

The lie of the perfect beach

Many resorts around the world are embracing landscapes in their more natural states, instead of the social-media-perfect beaches of fine white sand and unobstructed ocean views. Most of those magical vistas are very much the work of humans, anyway.

Preserving native vegetation aids a healthy ecosystem, strengthens natural defenses against climate change and provides habitats to native species. It also transforms ideas about what kind of tropical beach is worthy of a week’s vacation. Read more here.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Two triangles of white bread covered in butter and colorful round sprinkles.

Kelly Marshall for The New York Times

Sprinkle: Fairy bread is a much-loved treat in Australia and New Zealand.

Watch: “Zero Day” on Netflix is a throwback thriller with modern sensibilities.

Boost: Can supplements really do anything for your immune system? Try them, but with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Play: Spelling Bee, the Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Find all of our games here.

That’s it for today. See you tomorrow. — Emmett

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