What did 25 February 2023 reveal after the anniversary?

What did the day after the first anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion look like? On 25 February 2023, the war's pressures were visible on several fronts at once: energy, military aid and diplomacy.

The day's one new development concerned oil. Refiner PKN Orlen announced that Russia had suspended oil exports to Poland via the northern branch of the Druzhba pipeline. The announcement came as Poland was also in the news for military support to Ukraine: on 24 February 2023, it had delivered the first Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine.

Diplomacy and a position paper

On 24 February 2023, China unveiled a 12-point position paper on ending the war, ahead of an expected speech by President Xi Jinping on the conflict. Ukraine said it hoped China could urge Russia to withdraw its troops in response to the paper. The reaction from Kyiv was therefore framed around withdrawal, not around the paper's wider contents.

Marking the anniversary

The anniversary itself had been marked widely. Protests took place in countries around the world on 24 February 2023, and major landmarks were lit up. In Russia, anti-war activists were detained as protesters marked the date. A day earlier, on 23 February 2023, pro-Ukraine protesters had confronted visitors heading to the Russian embassy in Washington, D.C.

A day of overlapping signals

Taken together, the reports from 23 to 25 February 2023 show a war being pursued through very different instruments. Tanks crossed from Poland into Ukraine. A diplomatic text appeared from Beijing, with Kyiv responding by calling for troop withdrawal. Demonstrators gathered in many countries, while detentions were reported in Russia. And a pipeline halt, announced by a Polish refiner, put energy supply into the same picture.

For readers looking back, 25 February 2023 is a useful marker of how the second year of the war opened: with weapons, diplomacy, public protest and energy flows all drawing attention in the same few days.