Polish president Andrzej Duda has just posted a social media update about his phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Duda, who has long been a vocal supporter of US president Donald Trump, told Zelenskyy in a “candid conversation” that “there is no other way to stop the bloodshed and achieve lasting peace in Ukraine except with the support of the United States.”

“For this reason, I suggested to President Zelenskyy to remain committed to the course of calm and constructive cooperation with @POTUS Donald Trump,” he said.

Duda added that he trusted that “good will and honesty form the foundation of the US negotiation strategy,” and had “no doubt” that Trump was “guided by a deep sense of responsibility for global stability and peace.”

The Polish president’s comments are one of the most supportive from any head of state or government in Europe after Trump’s recent criticism of Zelenskyy and Ukraine.

A 51-year-old man has been sentenced to eight years in jail in Poland for preparing acts of diversion which the prosecutors found to be commissioned by Russia.

The man, a Ukrainian citizen, was arrested in 2024 as part of a broader investigation into several suspected acts of diversion, including arson, in western Poland.

Poland has seen a growing number of similar incidents since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Just last week a Russian citizen suspected of acts of sabotage against “Poland, the US, and other allies” was arrested and deported from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Poland.

Late last year four people were arrested as part of an alleged sabotage plot involving “camouflaged explosives and dangerous materials” in Europe.

In the opening, I mentioned the upcoming German election, which we will obviously fully cover in our special live blog on Sunday.

But as a prep for this weekend, you can listen to our Today in Focus podcast as presenter Helen Pidd hits the road in Germany, talking to voters across the country about the rise of the far right, which is polling better than in any other period since the second world war.

Regardless of the result, it is a remarkable development for a country so haunted by its Nazi past.

Today in Focus presenter Helen Pidd takes a road trip through Germany to find out why, and finds a country increasingly unsure of itself: a voter in Magdeburg, the scene of a horrific attack on a Christmas market in December, now afraid of going to public events; a newly unemployed baker in Wolfsburg toying with the idea of voting for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD); and across the country, people fearful of what the rise of the AfD means for minorities.

Listen now:

European Commissioner for defence Andrius Kubilius gets asked about the EU’s plans to support Ukraine.

He says that the EU’s position is “very clear,” as the bloc is committed to “peace through strength”.

He hints that the bloc will put forward a new package of aid for Ukraine on Monday as he said “we are discussing … all the possibilities which would allow us, in a very urgent way, to send a very strong message to Ukrainians and to the world that we are standing together with Ukraine.”

“I hope that a good occasion for such a message will be … the third anniversary of the war, which comes next Monday,” he says.

He acknowledges there is “gossip” on numbers, but refuses to speculate.

European Commissioner for tech, security and democracy Henna Virkkunen says the bloc ”will not accept” actions or other disruptions seeking to sow confusion.

“It is a great concern to see the number of incidents over recent months on our critical undersea infrastructure. These incidents have been have potential to disrupt vital services to our society, such as connectivity and electricity transmission and also carry a significant security risk,” she warns.

She says the EU’s Cable Security Action Plan, adopted today, is “not only for the Baltic Sea area, but a truly European level initiative.”

It focuses on preventing incidents with new, coordinated risk assessment framework and investment in new cables to “increase our resilience.,” as well as increased monitoring.

A new Baltic sea hub will be established to “detect incidents, ideally before they occur.”

Details of the plan have just been available here.

Fittingly, given the developments in Sweden, senior EU commissioners are about to brief the press on the bloc’s plans for undersea cable safety.

You can watch it here and I will bring you the latest here:

Pope Francis is showing improvement, is alert and doing some work, the Vatican said, as the 88-year-old pontiff began his eighth day in hospital battling pneumonia, Reuters reported.

Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni said in a brief update on Friday that Francis had slept well overnight and was able to eat breakfast.

A Vatican official, who did not wish to be named because he was not authorised to speak about the pope’s condition, said that Francis was breathing on his own, without help of any machines.

The pope was able to move around his hospital room, was taking some phone calls and was continuing to do some paperwork, the official said.

Sweden is investigating a possible breach of an undersea cable off the island of Gotland on the country’s southwestern coast in the Baltic Sea, the coastguard said on Friday, in an area where multiple seabed cables have been damaged in recent months.

The Baltic Sea region is on alert and the Nato alliance has boosted its presence after a series of power cable, telecom and gas pipeline outages since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Most were caused by civilian ships dragging their anchors, Reuters noted.

Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson said in a social media post that he was being kept up to date on the relevant authorities as they are investigating the reports.

“We take all reports of possible damage to infrastructure in the Baltic Sea very seriously. As I said earlier, they must be seen in the context of the serious security situation that exists,” he said.

Morning opening: Charm offensive

Jakub Krupa

French president Emmanuel Macron and UK prime minister Keir Starmer will lead Europe’s charm offensive next week as they both travel to the US to meet with president Donald Trump in an increasingly desperate bid to change his mind on Ukraine and European security.

Macron outlined parts of his strategy on Thursday night. During a Q&A session on social media that he would tell Trump not to be “weak” on Russian president Vladimir Putin, warning about the consequences that would have in relation to other powers around the world, like China. “That’s not who you are, it’s not your trademark,” he said he would argue. Let’s see if this works.

But other leaders, like Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, are also rumoured to be looking into how to get to see Trump soon.

Landing these European arguments with the US president will not be easy, but Ukraine’s future and the continent’s security are at stake.

Several countries in central and eastern Europe signalled growing concerns about Russia potentially trying to use the peace talks to revive its plans for “spheres of influence,” and request the removal of US troops in the post-1997 Nato member states like Poland and Romania, with far-reaching consequences for their security.

Before anyone gets to Trump, Poland’s foreign minister Radosław Sikorski is expected to speak about all these issues with US state secretary Marco Rubio when the pair meets in Washington tonight.

However, looking at this list of names exploring diplomatic channels to get to the US, there is a notable absence of anyone representing Germany.

Amid the whirlwind of developments in Ukraine, it is easy to lose sight of the German federal election this Sunday, which commentators describe as potentially the most consequential in decades.

And with just two days to go, more than a quarter of German voters are yet to decide who to vote for. This could still change the result and cause an upset on Sunday night.

In a major policy speech in Berlin in 2011, at the height of the euro crisis, Poland’s Sikorski said he feared German power less than German inaction. Could this still be the case 14 years later in the new security environment?

And if so, will post-election Germany be able to deliver on that?

It’s Friday, 21 February 2025, and this is Europe live. It’s Jakub Krupa here.

Good morning.