Russian airborne and special forces troops are engaged in urban warfare in northwestern Kyiv, but Russian mechanized forces are not yet in the capital. Russian forces’ main axes of advance in the last 24 hours focused on Kyiv, northeastern Ukraine, and southern Ukraine. Key Events February 25, 4:00 pm EST – February 26, 5:00 pm EST Kremlin censors increased crackdowns on independent media amid growing Russian opposition to the war.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is set to displace millions of Ukrainians internally and throughout eastern Europe at least 150,000 Ukrainians have fled the country as of February 26 as urban fighting intensifies.NATO countries began contributing forces to NATO Response Force (NRF) operations in Eastern Europe, reinforcing NATO’s eastern flank.The United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom facilitated a significant expansion of NATO countries’ lethal aid shipments to Ukraine since the Russian invasion began.The United States, Canada, and European allies removed select Russian banks from the SWIFT global financial network and agreed to additional measures that could significantly increase economic pressure on Russia.Russian troops are facing growing morale and logistics issues, predictable consequences of the poor planning, coordination, and execution of attacks along Ukraine’s northern border.Russian forces have taken the critical city of Berdyansk from the west, threatening to encircle Mariupol with Russian forces in Donbas attacking Mariupol from the east, likely to pin defenders in the city.Some Russian troops remain west of the Dnipro River and are advancing on Mykolaiv, but the main axes of advance have shifted to the north and east toward Zaporizhie and Mariupol respectively. Ukrainian forces retook the critical city of Kherson and Russian forces halted their drive on Odesa.Russian forces in eastern Ukraine remain focused on pinning the large concentration of Ukrainian forces arrayed along the former line of contact in the east, likely to prevent them from interfering with Russian drives on Kyiv and to facilitate their encirclement and destruction.Russian successes in southern Ukraine are the most dangerous and threaten to unhinge Ukraine’s successful defenses and rearguard actions to the north and northeast.Failed Russian attacks against both cities were poorly designed and executed and encountered more determined and effective resistance than Russia likely expected. Russian forces temporarily abandoned efforts to seize Chernihiv and Kharkiv to the northeast and east of Kyiv and are bypassing those cities to continue their drive on Kyiv.Russian forces are now engaging in more straightforward mechanized drives into Kyiv along a narrow front on the west bank of the Dnipro River and on a broad front to the northeast.

Russia has failed to encircle and isolate Kyiv with mechanized and airborne attacks as it had clearly planned to do.

This daily synthetic product covers key events related to renewed Russian aggression against Ukraine. ISW published its most recent Russian campaign assessment at 3:00 pm, February 26. Institute for the Study of War, Russia Team

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