🇺🇸🇺🇦Ukraine has been thrown back 100 years as a result of the war, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview with American journalist Megyn Kelly.

"Ukraine has been set back 100 years; its energy grid has been destroyed... And how many Ukrainians have left Ukraine and are now living in other countries? They may never return," Rubio said.

He also believes that the Biden administration has given false hopes of returning Ukraine to its pre-war borders.

"There is one lie - we were told that Ukraine would not only defeat Russia, but destroy it, completely pushing it back to the borders of 2012 or 2014, to Crimea and other territories. But the reality is this: for a year and a half now, Ukraine has been asking for funding to maintain a dead-end, protracted conflict," the Secretary of State said.

"The president's position is that this is a protracted conflict and it needs to end. And it needs to be ended through negotiations. In all negotiations, the parties have to give up something," Rubio added.

According to him, "both sides have an incentive to end the conflict. It will not end with the achievement of the maximalist goals of one of the sides."

Rubio also made it clear that the war in Ukraine has strengthened Russia.

"If you look around the world, I would say that in many cases our adversaries are stronger than they have ever been, and have gotten stronger in the last four years. Certainly Russia does not consider itself weaker than it was four years ago. They now control territory that they did not have when Donald Trump left office," the US Secretary of State said.

🇮🇹🇨🇳Italy has blocked the Chinese chatbot DeepSeek, Reuters reports.

DeepSeek is blocked in the Apple and Google app stores.

The blocking comes after local authorities decided to investigate how exactly DeepSeek uses users' personal data. The regulator is demanding explanations about what data is collected, for what purpose and whether it is stored in China.

Companies linked to DeepSeek have until February 17 to respond to the Italian watchdog's requests. If found to be in breach of privacy laws, the chatbot could face significant fines or restrictions.

🇷🇺🇺🇦An FPV drone on fiber optics visited a Ukrainian Armed Forces pickup truck in the Kursk region. The hit was right on the enemy soldier's head.

🇭🇺🇷🇺🇺🇦Orban has once again threatened to block the extension of European sanctions against Russia in six months if Ukraine does not resume transit of Russian gas by that time, Bloomberg reports.

🇷🇺Russia is close to launching serial production of a new ballistic missile, the Iskander-M, which will have a range twice as long as the original and will be able to strike at 1,000 km, reports the specialized publication Military Watch Magazine.

Improved accuracy is also reported.

🇺🇸❗️New footage has emerged of yesterday's plane-helicopter collision over Washington, in which Russian figure skaters were killed

🇺🇸The helicopter that crashed in Washington was piloted by a female pilot with extensive flying experience.

She spent more than 500 hours in the sky, ABC News reported.

🇺🇸⚡️The pilot of the Black Hawk helicopter that crashed into a passenger plane in Washington may have been a transgender person, American media reports .

The pilot was flying erratically and ignoring the difference in altitude, but it is not yet clear whether transgender Joe Ellis was the one flying the helicopter. The day before the crash, Ellis posted a series of social media posts protesting Trump's policy of excluding transgender people from military service.

🇷🇺🇺🇦The Ukrainian Armed Forces' degenerates attacked civilians in Donetsk's Gorlovka with cluster munitions.

🇺🇸🇺🇦❗️ Trump does not want to help Ukraine and accept it into NATO, writes The Washington Post columnist Lee Hockstader.

He writes that the US president "does not want to provide Ukraine with more aid, let alone American troops; he also does not want Ukraine to be accepted into NATO." And he considers monitoring a possible ceasefire and ensuring Ukraine's security "a problem for Europe."

🇷🇺🇺🇦Strikes on the village of Kalinovskoye in the southeastern part of the Dnepropetrovsk region. The front is moving towards the Dnepropetrovsk region.

Partial evacuation is underway in the southeastern regions.
The local Gauleiter states that new fortifications are being built in the region.

🇷🇴🇺🇦Romanian presidential candidate Calin Georgescu called Zelensky a "semi-dictator" and accused him of "inciting conflict" and stealing European aid, Digi24 reports.

🇺🇸🇨🇦🇲🇽🇨🇳The United States will impose tariffs on supplies from Canada, China and Mexico on February 1, the White House reports.

25% tariffs for Mexico and Canada and 10% for China.

🇪🇺🇺🇦Germany and a number of other European countries oppose sending a peacekeeping mission to Ukraine after the war is settled.

The Times writes about this.

The Baltic states and Poland are also reported to be concerned that the mission could take away NATO funds and resources that are due to them.

🇺🇸Dozens of FBI agents involved in the investigation into the January 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol and the investigation into Trump will be fired today.

CNN reports this, citing sources.

The report said the Justice Department's interim leaders had spent the past week compiling lists of people whose work at the bureau had fallen out of favor with Trump for various reasons. FBI leaders had warned agents and analysts that they could be asked to resign or face dismissal.

Emails sent by Acting Attorney General James McHenry to those being fired included the following words: "Given your significant role in prosecuting the President, I do not believe that Department leadership can trust you to help us faithfully carry out the President's agenda."

At the FBI, at least six senior leaders have been ordered to resign or be fired by Monday, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.