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Russia needs to up the number and quality of its weapons heading for Ukraine to maintain Moscow's push on Ukraine's defensive lines, Russia's top defense official has said, ahead of a likely summer offensive expected to start in the coming weeks. "To maintain the required pace of the offensive and ensure the build-up of the combat strength of troop groups for further actions, it is necessary to increase the volume and quality of weapons and military equipment supplied to the troops," Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said, according to comments published by Moscow on Wednesday.

The British government said on Tuesday it would commit its largest-ever tranche of military aid to Ukraine as part of a package worth £500 million ($622 million). The assistance will include further deliveries of Storm Shadow air-launched, precision-guided missiles, as well as vessels and vehicles. The Paveway IV—the latest in the Paveway series of bombs—converts unguided munitions, also known as "dumb bombs," into precision-guided weapons. They can use laser guidance or satellites to find their way to a target. "The Paveway IV will enable Ukraine to strike back" at Russian forces and target high-value assets such as command centers and...

New videos appear to show a fire raging in northern Crimea, after reports of explosions around a military airfield overnight. Footage widely circulated on social media by Russian and Ukrainian sources early on Wednesday show bright flashes of light and explosions, with sirens wailing in the background. A local Telegram channel reported "several loud explosions," starting just before 4 a.m. local time, before a fire broke out. Roads around the air base are blocked, the channel later reported. Dzhankoy is a major military hub, home to one of Russia's largest airfields in Crimea. It is a key location for supplying...

Up to 30 Russian personnel may have been killed and another 80 injured, according to a new report, after dramatic footage appeared to show explosions at a Russian military base in northern Crimea overnight. "About 30 Russian servicemen were killed and about 80 were wounded at the airfield in Dzhankoy," a Crimean-based Telegram channel called Crimean Wind reported on Wednesday. Crimean Wind is a pro-Ukrainian monitoring group that focuses on Crimea and generally offers reliable information. Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Ukraine's southern forces, described Dzhankoy as a legitimate military target on Wednesday but declined to offer up further details. A...

Iran's massive missile and drone barrage targeting Israel over the weekend is similar to Russian tactics used in frequent strikes on Ukraine, according to a new assessment, after Iran launched its first-ever direct strike from its own territory into Israel. "Iran's use of drones and missiles shows how Iran is learning from the Russians to develop increasingly dangerous and effective strike packages against Israel," the U.S. think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said on Saturday. Russia has launched thousands of missile and drone strikes on Ukraine in nearly 26 months of all-out war in the country....

Ukraine's navy said in a statement published on Tuesday that Kyiv had "successfully destroyed" the Konstantin Olshansky, and the three other vessels it targeted since Saturday. In a later statement, Pletenchuk said the Ivan Khurs reconnaissance ship may have sustained damage. It was one of two of this type of reconnaissance vessel at Russia's disposal ... Ukraine used a home-grown Neptune anti-ship missile to strike the Konstantin Olshansky, which was being "prepared for use against Ukraine," Pletenchuk said. Pletenchuk said the attack on the Konstantin Olshansky landing ship had taken place on Saturday, the same day as the strikes on...

Ukrainian forces "destroyed or heavily damaged" one of Russia's prized but scarce A-50 spy planes, according to a Ukrainian official, after Kyiv targeted an aviation plant in southern Russia. Russia's Defense Ministry said on Saturday that its air defenses had intercepted 47 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight, including 41 over the southwestern Rostov region. Vasily Golubev, the governor of the Rostov region, said Kyiv launched a "massive UAV (uncrewed aerial vehicle) attack" on the city of Taganrog, east of the captured Ukrainian city of Mariupol and west of Rostov-on-Don. Russian military bloggers reported that Ukrainian drones struck a plant...

A U.S. Air Force employee has been charged with illegally sharing classified national security information about Russia's war in Ukraine on a foreign online dating site. David Franklin Slater, aged 63, was arrested on Saturday for allegedly conspiring to transmit and transmitting national defense information from around February 2022 until approximately April 2022. Slater had retired from the U.S. Army as a lieutenant colonel in late 2020, then worked at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska under the Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) as a civilian employee. Slater attended USSTRATCOM briefings on Russia's war with Ukraine, then sent classified information to a...

Tens of Russian soldiers have died close to the front lines in eastern Ukraine after Kyiv attacked a training ground with U.S.-supplied HIMARS, according to a Ukrainian official and media reports. -snip- Around 65 Russian soldiers were killed at the training ground near the village of Trudivske, Bratchuk said in a post on the Telegram messaging app. The Ukrainian military used two missiles in the strike, the BBC's Russian service reported on Tuesday, citing several anonymous sources. Units of Russia's 39th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade were stationed near Trudivske, Bratchuk said. -snip- Bratchuk posted two videos he said showed...

The reported appearance of former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in the Russian capital has sparked intense speculation over the purpose of the conservative media personality's visit to Moscow. Carlson arrived in Moscow on February 1, and was spotted attending the Bolshoi Theater in the capital, according to Russian outlet Mash. Questions quickly swirled over why the TV anchor would have traveled to Moscow, and whether he intended to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin during the visit.

Russian forces are contending with Ukrainian "gamers" using first-person-view (FPV) drones across the front line against Russian strongholds, a top Russian official has said, as uncrewed vehicles gain an ever higher profile in the 23 month-old war. Ukrainian unmanned vehicle operators carried out a "continuous raid" on Russian positions for several days at an undisclosed location along the front line, said Dmitry Rogozin, former head of the Russian Space agency, who is now a Moscow-installed official in the annexed Zaporizhzhia region of southern Ukraine. "In four hours, 24 FPV drones flew to the stronghold of only one of our volunteer...

Russia lost more than 1,000 soldiers, 22 tanks and 37 armored personnel vehicles on December 25, Ukraine's military has said, marking the end of a bruising few days for Moscow's armed forces in the war-torn country. Russia lost 1,010 fighters on Christmas Day, the Ukrainian military said on Tuesday, bringing Kyiv's tally of Russian personnel losses to 354,960 soldiers. Moscow also lost nearly two dozen tanks and tens of armored vehicles on December 25, Ukraine added in an operational update.

Israeli forces are closing in on the location of Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, Israel's military has suggested, as it moves into the "third phase" of ground operations in the devastated Gaza Strip. The Chief of the Israel Defense Forces' General Staff, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, was quoted by The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday as saying that the IDF has encircled southern Gaza and Khan Younis, where multiple top officials have said Sinwar is hiding, though the outlet said there was no precise timeline for capturing or killing him. "[Yahya] Sinwar is the address," Halevi said. Israeli forces moving through the...

The ATACMS strikes on Russian airfields in Ukraine's Luhansk region and the port city of Berdyansk in the Zaporizhzhia region on Tuesday destroyed nine helicopters, dealing one of the most significant blows against Russian aviation since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022... The images show multiple scorch marks where Russian helicopters reportedly used to be. The Institute for the Study of War, a U.S.-based think tank, said in an analysis of the conflict on Tuesday that the Ukrainian ATACMS strikes on Moscow's airfields in Luhansk and Berdyansk will likely prompt the Russian command to disperse aviation assets and withdraw...

Russia was struck by drone strikes in at least two different regions early on Sunday, Moscow's Defense Ministry has said, as videos circulating online on Sunday seem to show uncrewed aircraft-type drones soaring over Russian soil. One clip, reportedly filmed in Russia's Smolensk region, appears to show an explosion as a drone dips from view... Ukraine targeted Russia's Krasnodar region with an "aircraft-type" drone at around 8 a.m. Moscow time on Sunday, Russia's Defense Ministry said. Six planes scheduled to arrive at Sochi airport, on the Black Sea coast in the Krasnodar region, were diverted to alternative airfields because of...

Western experts have repeatedly said that Russia's military in Ukraine has several key failings, including a fear of passing bad news or negative battlefield reports up the command chain to superiors. Putin and his closest advisers "appear to have made little use of economic or military expertise," the report added. The Kremlin leader "has narrowed the funnel of information that reaches him" to cut out any voices that may have given contrary advice, including diplomats and ministers, the RAND analysts argued. Moscow's war effort has also been plagued by reports of purging of Russia's top brass, and reshuffling of the...

Russia expected to finish off its invasion of Ukraine within a week and a half, making sweeping gains in the initial days of the invasion that started on February 24, 2022. But this failed to materialize in the face of what experts called Ukrainian defiance that took the Kremlin by surprise. Western analyses have also suggested that Moscow made a number of crucial mistakes in the early phases, including how it used its tank crews, sustaining heavy losses of experienced personnel... Russia currently controls about one-fifth of Ukraine's internationally recognized territory. Kyiv's ongoing counteroffensive, which began in early June, has...

Russia is funneling "significant" resources into protecting its control of the annexed Crimean peninsula as Ukraine's counteroffensive makes further gains, according to the U.K. government. Russia is putting "significant effort" into building defensive lines in rear areas in southern Ukraine, the British Defense Ministry said on Wednesday. Moscow is focusing on areas on the way to the Crimean peninsula, the U.K. government added. Moscow's military command likely believes Kyiv's fighters are "capable of directly assaulting Crimea," the government department said in a daily intelligence update posted to social media.

A former commander of Russian forces in Ukraine has likely returned to the war-torn country as "intense tensions" develop among Russia's top military figures, according to a new assessment. General Colonel Mikhail Teplinsky, who served as the commander of Russia's VDV, the airborne forces branch of the Russian military, was removed from Moscow's operations in Ukraine in January 2023, which Western analysts noted at the time.

As its Black Sea fleet flagship, the Moskva, reached the depths of the seabed in mid-April 2022, Russia insisted Ukraine had nothing to do with the sinking of the 510-crew guided missile cruiser. Russian state media provided various explanations for the sinking of the prominent flagship—none of which included a deliberate Ukrainian strike. Russia's Defense Ministry said a "fire" followed by a "munitions blast" had inflicted "serious damage" on the cruiser, prompting a crew evacuation. "The explosions of ammunition have been stopped," the ministry then said, according to state media, which claimed the ship was still afloat and being taken...