Closing summary
… and on that note, it’s a wrap for today!
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the trilateral talks with the US and Russia were “not easy,” but insisted that Ukraine would remain to be constructive and seek a fair deal to end to the Russian aggression (9:46, 14:31).
The discussions led to an agreement to exchange 314 prisoners in “first such exchange in five months,” US envoy Steve Witkoff said (11:29).
The negotiations in Abu Dhabi marked the most substantive engagement between senior delegations from Kyiv and Moscow in months, pointing to a tentative, if uncertain, revival of diplomatic efforts nearly four years into the war (16:04).
Separately, Russia signalled its readiness to engage with more European leaders, saying it could “listen to any proposal” if it considered it a serious attempt to reopen diplomatic channels and not “pathetic” posturing (10:41, 16:27).
Meanwhile, western sanctions are having a “significant impact” on the Russian economy, the EU’s sanctions envoy has said, ahead of the fourth anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale invasion (11:20).
In other news,
US vice-president JD Vance and US secretary of state Marco Rubio have arrived in Italy for tomorrow’s opening ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympic Games amid continuing controversy over the reported involvement of ICE officers within the US diplomatic protection team, with the US now denying they are present in Italy at all (9:55, 13:59).
Spain has accused Pavel Durov of “spreading lies” and seeking to undermine democratic institutions after the Telegram founder used the messaging app to attack government plans to introduce a social media ban for under-16s (17:16).
The US ambassador to Poland has blacklisted Polish parliamentary speaker Włodzimierz Czarzasty from all “further dealings, contact, and communications” with the US administration, after he refused to back a call for US president Donald Trump to be awarded the Nobel peace prize (15:53, 16:51).
And that’s all from me, Jakub Krupa, for today.
If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at [email protected].
I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.
Spain hits back at Pavel Durov over mass Telegram post on social media ban plan
Sam Jones in Madrid and Jon Henley
Spain has accused Pavel Durov of “spreading lies” and seeking to undermine democratic institutions after the Telegram founder used the messaging app to attack government plans to introduce a social media ban for under-16s and to hold tech companies responsible for hateful and harmful content.
Durov’s extraordinary public intervention – which came a day after Elon Musk called Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, a “true fascist totalitarian” over the proposed measures – reveals the rapidly escalating tensions between European governments and powerful global technology chiefs.
In a blanket message sent to all Telegram users in Spain on Wednesday afternoon, the Russian technology entrepreneur accused Sánchez’s government of “pushing dangerous new regulations that threaten your internet freedoms”, adding that the measures could turn Spain “into a surveillance state under the guise of ‘protection’”.
Durov claimed the mandatory age verification contained in the proposed legislation would set a precedent for tracking “EVERY user’s identity, eroding anonymity and opening doors to mass data collection”. He also said that holding tech executives liable for illegal, hateful or harmful content would encourage “over-censorship” and lead platforms to “delete anything remotely controversial to avoid risks, silencing political dissent, journalism, and everyday opinions”.
Spanish government sources hit back, saying Durov’s unprecedented message to millions of users was designed to erode trust in institutions and demonstrated the need for social media and mobile messaging apps to be regulated.
“Telegram founder Pavel Durov used his unrestricted control of the app to send a mass message to all users in Spain, spreading several lies and making illegitimate attacks against the government. This is the first time this has happened in our country’s history,” they said.
“Spaniards cannot live in a world where foreign tech oligarchs can flood our phones with propaganda at will simply because the government has announced measures to protect minors and enforce the law.”
Durov was arrested in Paris in August 2024 as part of an inquiry into allegations of fraud, drug trafficking, organised crime, promotion of terrorism and cyberbullying. He was detained on suspicion of failing to take action to curb the allegedly criminal use of his platform and was eventually charged with 12 offences.
He was later released under judicial supervision and has denied all the charges against him, describing his arrest as “legally and logically absurd” and saying investigators were “struggling to find anything that I or Telegram did wrong”.
