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Protests broke out across Ukraine Thursday after President Volodymyr Zelensky fired his defense minister to allegedly appease his top military general, with troops warning that the political spat could spell doom in the front lines. Zelensky’s Wednesday night decision to fire the tech-savvy Mykhailo Fedorov, 35, resulted in demonstrations across the country and even the resignation of a senior air force commander. While he was only appointed in January, Fedorov has been credited for accelerating the Ukrainian drone program, which has decimated Russia’s forces and kept the invading army largely at bay in 2026. Fedorov lamented the fallout and claimed...

For four years, Russia has bet on outlasting Ukraine in a war of attrition. Now, as Kyiv’s drones inflict growing damage on both Russia’s army and oil industry, Moscow is finding out that time isn’t necessarily on its side. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion force is making ever-smaller gains at the front line, its losses exceed recruitment, and it is struggling to adapt to a Ukrainian drone campaign pounding its supply routes to its forward positions. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s stretched army hasn’t buckled as Russia hoped and is even pushing back the invaders in places with small counterattacks. Its increasingly capable...

In Lviv, Ukraine, a crowd confronted several military recruitment officers on Wednesday, surrounding their vehicle and engaging in a physical altercation, after a man wanted for failing to comply with his military registration obligations was detained by the officers. The incident took place in the Sykhiv district, far from the front line and in one of the cities that has most clearly supported the Ukrainian national cause since the Russian invasion. Videos show dozens of people striking and jumping on the vehicle belonging to the Territorial Recruitment Centre, known as the TCC, and struggling with those who were inside. The...

Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces (SBS) carried out a large-scale overnight strike on July 6, hitting 47 Russian military targets, including two fuel tankers transporting gasoline to temporarily occupied Crimea, two S-400 Triumf air defense launchers, an oil depot in Kerch, and a Nebo-U radar system. SBS Commander Robert “Madyar” Brovdi on June 6 described the operation as one of the most significant recent strikes against Russian military infrastructure. According to Brovdi, among the most significant targets were two tankers from Russia's so-called shadow fleet operating in the Sea of Azov. The vessels were transporting fuel from the area of Taganrog...

Ukraine's president plans to use the Nato meeting in Turkey to urge Kyiv's allies to deliver the air defence systems it urgently needs to protect it from escalating Russian attacks. Volodymyr Zelensky's call for help rings with extra intensity after Russian missiles rained down on the Ukrainian capital twice in less than a week, crashing into blocks of flats and killing more than 50 civilians. The summit in Ankara will also be a chance for Zelensky to hold a crucial meeting with Donald Trump and press home his case that Russia's "brutal" attacks are a show of weakness, not strength,...

Ukraine and Germany have formed a joint working group to discuss how to return Ukrainian men of military age who left the country illegally, according to Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, Oleksiy Makeiev. As of late May, Germany hosted approximately 1.35 million Ukrainian refugees, including 356,000 men between the ages of 18 and 63. However, the specific mechanisms currently under discussion have not been disclosed. The development followed German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s April remarks that Berlin would limit the number of Ukrainian men seeking asylum and facilitate their return home during President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Germany. The ambassador outlined broader...

Ukraine still controls the strategically important eastern city of Kostiantynivka, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and the General Staff said on Saturday, rejecting Russian claims that it has been captured. Russia's military told President Vladimir Putin on Friday that its forces had taken control of Kostiantynivka, a target that Moscow has long sought in its advance through the Donetsk region. "Of course, that is not true. It is just another Russian lie, an attempt to generate some kind of a news story," Zelenskiy said on X. "If Kostiantynivka were under Russian control, then perhaps (Russian President Vladimir) Putin would have no problem...

Ukrainian troops will receive cash bonuses for capturing or destroying enemy personnel under the first stage of a sweeping overhaul of the Defense Forces, the Ministry of Defense announced on June 29. The awards stem from the Cabinet of Ministers Resolution, which launched an experimental project introducing additional payments for combat results, according to the ministry. The ministry described the measure as part of the first stage of the Defense Forces’ transformation. It framed the payments as a way to reward front-line service members for confirmed action against enemy personnel. The ministry set two award levels: roughly $2,200 for taking...

There has long been a worry that Russian escalation or miscalculation might see the Ukraine war widen into a broader European one. But what if it’s Kyiv, not Moscow, that starts this process? The flashpoint is Belarus. Minsk’s dictatorial leader, Alexander Lukashenko, is beholden to Vladimir Putin, but not a helpless vassal. On the one hand, he has refused to join Putin’s war directly, saying that he won’t allow Belarusians to become ‘mincemeat.’ On the other, he has been willing to let Russian troops use facilities in his country, and fly drones and missiles through his airspace. There is growing...

June 21 (UPI) -- The Russian government on Sunday halted fuel sales to civilians and businesses not considered vital to functioning and security in Crimea. Sergey Aksyonov, the governor of Crimea, announced people would be turned away from gas stations amid a fuel shortage and logistical difficulties related to the war with Ukraine, the BBC reported. "Further decisions regarding the current situation in the republic's fuel market will be announced at a later date," he said in a post on Telegram. The announcement came amid new attacks by Ukraine on energy and transportation infrastructure on the Crimean Peninsula, Politico reported....

Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, advised Donald Trump not to host Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, having called the Ukrainian president a “little f**ker”, a “special-needs child” and “Mr Bean on crack”, according to a new book. The suggestion that a US cabinet official described a world leader in such terms is included in Regime Change, a blockbusting account of the second Trump administration by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, set to be published worldwide on Tuesday. News of Bessent’s alleged remarks may embarrass the Trump administration, although the meeting that did take place...

More than 80 years after Ukraine’s Dormition Cathedral was razed to its foundation during World War II, the reconstructed holy site was again engulfed in flames on Monday. The cathedral, a popular Christian pilgrimage destination, was struck when a wave of Russian attacks across multiple cities killed 11 people and injured dozens more, the Ukrainian government said. Two drones also struck the historic monastic complex in Kyiv that is home to the cathedral, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said in a post on social media. Videos verified by The New York Times show fire crew members on tall cranes, spraying...

Ukrainian drones on Wednesday attacked St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, on the opening day of an annual economic conference that President Vladimir V. Putin has tried to cultivate into a showcase of a modern and prosperous country. It was the second time in a month that Ukraine had struck a major Russian city before an event important to Mr. Putin, as Kyiv expands a campaign of long-range strikes aimed at inflicting economic damage on Russia and demonstrating its vulnerability to attacks. In early May, Ukrainian forces hit sites in Moscow, including a high-rise apartment building near the city center, days...

The fight against Russia in Ukraine is now firmly Europe’s war. The European Union this week signed off on the equivalent of $105 billion in loans to keep Kyiv afloat through the end of next year—but officials warned that it may not be enough. With Russia determined to continue its four-year invasion until it dominates its neighbor, and President Trump pulling back from Europe and focused on the Middle East, Ukraine finds itself reliant on the traditionally gun-shy EU in its war for survival. The confirmation of the loan ahead of a summit in Cyprus on Thursday, long blocked by...

Since Ukraine’s population has shrunk dramatically, the army’s number one problem is no longer the lack of weapons, such as ballistic missiles and air defense systems, but the lack of soldiers to operate them, writes Világgazdaság. The competent authorities in Kyiv, however, must bring the army size required by Commander-in-Chief Zelensky (800,000 active soldiers), and since the number of men eligible for military service (between the ages of 18 and 60) is slowly running out, the Ukrainian leadership is now trying to fill the gaps by conscripting women. As of early 2024, approximately 5 million men are considered to be...

Four years after the liberation of Bucha, the town remains a central reference point for understanding the nature of the war in Ukraine and the limits of current diplomatic efforts. The events that followed the withdrawal of Russian forces in March 2022, when hundreds of civilians were found dead across the Kyiv suburb and the wider region, continue to shape how Ukraine defines both security and peace. Bucha has become more than a historical episode. It functions as a political and moral benchmark in discussions about any future settlement. Ukrainian authorities report over 400 civilian deaths in the town itself...

I don't think many people saw this one coming, but it makes sense in a perverse way. Events in the Middle East have conspired to create a situation in which Ukraine has become an indispensable ally and munitions supplier to Gulf Arab states. Nobody in the world has as much experience fighting Iranian drones as does Ukraine, and they have become extraordinarily proficient at destroying them before they do any damage, and at a price that cannot be beat. The Gulf states, having blown through an awful lot of their anti-air magazines, are having to quickly learn how to defend...

General or partial assessments of the number of victims in the war in Ukraine reveal the high human cost of an armed conflict unprecedented in Europe in the last eight decades. With estimates of nearly two million military casualties, it is reminiscent of the worst conflicts experienced in the 20th century on the Old Continent. The most conservative figures — around half a million deaths on the Ukrainian side — are five times higher than those of the Balkan War (1992-1995), which totaled 100,000, of whom 13,500 were civilians. The Ukrainian Commissioner for Missing Persons in Special Circumstances has just...

Moscow proposed a quid pro quo to the U.S. under which the Kremlin would stop sharing intelligence information with Iran, such as the precise coordinates of U.S. military assets in the Middle East, if Washington ceased supplying Ukraine with intel about Russia.Two people familiar with the U.S.-Russia negotiations said that such a proposal was made by Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev to Trump administration envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner during their meeting last week in Miami.The U.S. rejected the proposal, the people added. They, like all other officials cited in this article, were granted anonymity due to the sensitivity of...

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday told reporters he had a "very good call" with ​Russian President Vladimir Putin about Ukraine ​and the conflict in the Middle East. "There's ⁠tremendous hatred between President Putin and (Ukraine's) ​President Zelenskiy. They can't seem to ​get it together, but I think it was a positive call on that subject," Trump said. Trump ​added that Putin "wants to be helpful" ​with the Iran conflict. "I said, 'You could be more helpful ‌by ⁠getting the Ukraine-Russia war over with. That will be more helpful,'" Trump told reporters in a press conference at ​his Florida ​golf...