“At the worst moment of the war Bulgaria really helped Ukraine a lot,” Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the Head of the Office of President of Ukraine said in an interview with bTV, in a comment on the fact that Bulgaria supplied Ukraine with weapons and fuel in March 2022.

• Die Welt: Bulgaria "secretly" saved Ukraine at the beginning of the war

According to Podolyak, by opposing sending more military aid to Ukraine as he did, the Bulgarian President Rumen Radev is failing to propose the most important thing – that Russia leave the Ukrainian territories, and is suggesting that Ukraine “fall to its knees and accept the decision that it will no longer exist”.

• Bulgaria cannot accept possible European sanctions against Russia in the field of nuclear energy, Rumen Radev says

Italy’s PM Giorgia Meloni has stated the firm support of her government for Ukraine. Her words come in response to the statement by former PM and current coalition partner in the Italian government, 86-year old Silvio Berlusconi who blamed President Zelensky for the war in Ukraine.

“Do not travel to Russia due to the unpredictable consequences of the unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russian military forces, the potential for harassment and the singling out of U.S. citizens for detention by Russian government security officials, the arbitrary enforcement of local law, limited flights into and out of Russia, the Embassy’s limited ability to assist U.S. citizens in Russia, and the possibility of terrorism. U.S. citizens residing or travelling in Russia should depart immediately,” the US embassy in Russia writes on its website.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba stated, in an interview with Pershyi TV that on the tragic anniversary of the Russian aggression against Ukraine, 24 February, Russian leader Vladimir Putin will get “a very clear international signal” that he will not be allowed to continue the war as a war of attrition. Without giving any details, Kuleba did not rule out such a signal having to do with the visit by US President Joe Biden to Poland on 22 February.