Overview
- Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin said Russia would halt airstrikes for a single day if Ukraine holds national elections.
- Galuzin proposed temporary external governance under the United Nations to facilitate elections and create a counterpart for a potential peace treaty.
- He noted there has been no discussion yet about the practical organization of voting in Ukraine.
- President Volodymyr Zelensky said elections could follow at least two months of a ceasefire and urged President Donald Trump to press Vladimir Putin to agree to one.
- Regular Russian missile and drone strikes continue across Ukraine as U.S.-brokered talks in Geneva on Feb. 17–18 near.