How the Iranian war affects the Ukrainian one, and what is happening in eastern Europe while everyone is looking at Tehran - a fresh summary of events from Nikolai Mitrokhin*

Operators of the 65th mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces are preparing to fire from the MILAN man-portable anti-tank missile system.

Photo by DMYTRO SMOLIENKO / NURPHOTO / NURPHOTO VIA AFP

The operation of Israel and the United States in Iran directly influenced the Russian-Ukrainian war: Kyiv for the first time became a full-fledged partner of the Western coalition outside its own theater of operations. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz provoked an energy crisis in Europe, which escalated the conflict between Kyiv and Budapest and Bratislava to direct threats and the detention of collectors with millions of cash. At the front there is a seasonal pause with local battles. Negotiations are frozen. The main events surrounding the war in Ukraine are in the latest report by Nikolai Mitrokhin.

International situation

The war between Israel and the United States with Iran immediately affected the entire procedure of Ukrainian-Russian negotiations and the degree of control over it by the United States. Washington once again had to powerlessly admit that given the level of mutual hatred in Kyiv and Moscow, the negotiation process is being postponed to the future.

The immediate and positive outcome of the negotiations that ended in February in Geneva was the exchange of bodies (on March 26, Ukraine received a thousand) and prisoners of war (a total of a thousand on each side). The exchange of prisoners of war on 6–7 March was the largest in ten months. The previous time a thousand were exchanged in May 2025, after negotiations in Istanbul.

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