Let’s very quickly check on Pope Francis, who is battling double pneumonia at the Gemelli hospital in Rome.

He had a peaceful night in hospital, “got up and had breakfast in his armchair”, the Vatican said this morning.

Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni issued a new update after confirming late Wednesday that new blood tests showed a “slight improvement” in some inflammation indices for the 88-year-old pontiff, who had an acute case of pneumonia in 2023 and is prone to respiratory infections in winter, AP noted.

On Wednesday, the pope briefly met with Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, who said he was “alert and responsive,” as the pair “joked as always.”

Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez will travel to Kyiv on Monday “to reaffirm Spain’s support for Ukrainian democracy and the president” Volodymyr Zelenskyy, he said in a social media post.

He added a hashtag #SlavaUkraini, meaning “Glory to Ukraine”.

We are now getting first lines from the Kremlin on Russia’s response to media reports about European plans to deploy up to 30,000 troops as peacekeeping forces in Ukraine as part of a broader peace settlement.

The Kremlin has reportedly called them “unacceptable for Moscow,” and “concerning” given they would include a deployment of Nato forces and have ramifications for Russia’s own security, Reuters says.

Russia also criticised Volodymyr Zelenskyy for “inappropriate” comments on the talks, and, similarly to Trump, made claims his approval rating in Ukraine.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz insisted that Ukraine “must be not hindered” in its decision to be “a democratic, sovereign nation on its way into Europe.”

In a radio interview aired on Thursday, just days before the federal election on Sunday, Scholz rejected Donald Trump’s comments that Ukraine was to blame for the war, saying: “It is not. We in Europe insist on this.”

In the case of a future peace settlement, Scholz said Ukraine must have a strong army, “for which we in Europe and our international and transatlantic partners share responsibility,” Reuters reported.

In France, president Emmanuel Macron is due to meet with party leaders in just over an hour, at 11am Paris time, to discuss “the existential threat” posed by Russia.

This comes on the back of two meetings with European leaders this week and ahead of his trip to Washington DC to meet with Trump, which the US president said could come early next week.

In a late night social media post, Macron said that “France and its partners have a clear and united position. We seek a long-lasting and solid peace in Ukraine.”

“We are convinced of the need to increase our defence and security spending and capabilities for Europe and each of our countries. Decisions will be made in the coming days and weeks,” he said.

If you were in any doubt as to the seriousness of the situation, French prime minister François Bayrou was quoted this morning by the French media as saying that “the risk of war has never been so high since 1945.”

The Ukrainian military said that Russia launched 161 drones and about 14 missiles during an overnight attack.

The missile attack targeted critical infrastructure in the northeastern region of Kharkiv.

Ukrainian energy minister German Galuschenko said that some of the attacks damaged gas production facilities overnight, Reuters reported.

“The purpose of these criminal attacks is to stop the production of gas needed to meet the domestic needs of citizens and central heating,” he said on Facebook.

After exchange of words with Trump, Zelenskyy tried to move the difficult conversation with the US forward ahead of today’s meeting with Kellogg.

In his regular video update on Wednesday night, he said it was “crucial that this discussion and our overall cooperation with the US remains constructive.”

But in a pointed comment, he added:

“Together with America and Europe, peace can be more secure, and that is our goal. But most importantly, this goal must be shared by our partners, not just by us,” he said.

Completely undeterred by public pushback from multiple European leaders, US president Donald Trump repeated his attack on Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy overnight, telling the audience at a Saudi-backed event in Miami that he is a “dictator without elections.”

He also repeated his false claims about the US spending on Ukraine, and warned Zelenskyy “he better move fast or he is not going to have a country left; gotta move, gotta move fast.”

Separately, Trump also attacked Zelenskyy for treating US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent “rather rudely,” because the Ukrainians “wouldn’t sign the document” confirming his proposed minerals deal. (Zelenskyy said he wasn’t prepared to “sell [Ukraine] away.”)

“They are no longer dealing with the same United States as they were dealing a few months ago,” Trump said.

“If you’d told me just three months ago that these were the words of the US president, I would have laughed out loud,” former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said.

You and me both, Dmitry.

Suppose you are a leader of a central and eastern, Baltic and Nordic European frontline nation. How confident are you that the US would immediately come to the rescue if Russia attacked your territory within the next few hours?

Exactly. That’s the problem.

A new Polish poll published overnight showed remarkable levels of trust in Nato as a whole, with 67% expecting the alliance to intervene if Poland gets attacked by Russia. On the other hands, that’s 33% thinking it wouldn’t. That is a lot.

Some may decide it is better to be safe than sorry and follow the Danish lead in rapidly increasing defence spending to prepare for what they fear comes next.

Prime minister Mette Frederiksen said the country needed “massive rearmament” to avoid war as she announced Denmark would spend 50bn DKK over the next two years on defence.

The investment brings Denmark’s defence spending up to 3% of GDP in the next two years (up from 2.4% in 2024), the highest level in over half a century.

Should others follow? Will they? Let’s see.

Amid this war of words, US Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg will meet with Zelenskyy in Kyiv today, and we are expecting some lines from that meeting – and more from across Europe. I will bring you the latest.

It’s Thursday, 20 February 2025, and this is Europe live. It’s Jakub Krupa here.

Good morning.