Monday, February 28th

By the time of publication, in total, 1684 people in Ukraine are injured and 352 Ukrainian civilians have died. At this point, 520,000  civilians have fled from Ukraine.

After five hours, the peace talks between Ukraine and Russia finally come to a close but have yielded no significant breakthroughs. The Russian and Ukrainian officials plan to return to their respective capitals to confer with their leaders before they start the second round of peace talks. The Ukrainian delegation hopes to persuade Russia to immediately ceasefire and withdraw troops as Russian forces draw nearer and start to attack the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.

President Zelensky of Ukraine also reports constant shelling from Russia as a failed attempt to pressurize the Ukrainian government to make compromises during the talks.

Switzerland joined in on the economic sanctions and froze Russian assets. The Swiss government restated its support for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people they are sending aid to Ukrainian refugees in Poland. However, it is unclear whether Switzerland’s decision to freeze Russian assets will have its fully desired impact. 

Zelensky officially signed an application to admit Ukraine into the EU hours after releasing a video in which he appeals for EU membership and urges Russia to retreat. 

Video used from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNT6ZYkWCcE

Moreover, FIFA has suspended Russian soccer teams from competing. Previously, FIFA merely banned Russia from competing under its name and national anthem. However, the leader of the Polish football association, Cezary Kuklesza, declared that the Polish national team would not play against Russia – regardless of its team name.