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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....

Soot-choked “black rain" has fallen across multiple districts of Moscow after Ukraine launched its largest-ever drone assault against the Russian capital, scoring a direct hit on a vital energy facility. Close to 200 long-range strike drones targeted the metropolis early on Thursday, overwhelming local air defences and setting the strategic Moscow Oil Refinery in Kapotnya ablaze. As thick columns of dark smoke billowed thousands of feet into the air, residents in the southeastern suburbs and surrounding towns, including Balashikha and Lyubertsy, reported a fine, oily drizzle that coated vehicles, streets, and clothing in a dark, toxic residue. The multi-directional aerial...

Moscow has come under the largest Ukrainian attack since the start of the full-scale war, with close to 200 drones hitting targets around the Russian capital and setting columns of thick smoke billowing high into the sky. Seventeen people were wounded in the Moscow region, according to local governor Andrei Vorobyov. Almost 1,000 drones and four Ukrainian cruise missiles were intercepted and destroyed across the country in 24 hours, Russia's defence ministry was quoted as saying. An oil depot was struck in the southern Rostov region, where one person was killed. Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv had once again hit the...

Ukraine is seeking an additional $20 billion in military funding from its allies, Defence ​Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said on Wednesday at a joint ‌press conference with his Dutch counterpart. A Ukrainian defence source told Reuters last week that Ukraine would make the request on Thursday at a meeting ​of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, an alliance of ​more than 50 countries also known as the Ramstein ⁠group that provides financial and military aid for Kyiv. Fedorov ​said that of the nearly $40 billion funding already announced, Ukraine saw $24 ​billion in the supply schedule. He added that Ukraine has been...

Police in Poland are investigating the murder of a Russian artist and vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin. Polish prosecutors said Robert K, known as the artist Semyon Skrepetsky, was shot dead on Monday morning in the Polish town of Biała Podlaska, about 40km (25 miles) from the Belarusian border. The 44-year-old was shot five times in the head, chest and back in a car park in the town, located about 600m (2,000ft) from the Belarusian consulate. Semyon Skrepetsky was the pseudonym used by Robert Kuzovkov. He was known for his caricatures of politicians, including Putin, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko...

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...

Ukraine’s historic Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery set on fire following major Russian attack By Victoria Butenko Kyiv — A prominent Ukrainian monastery complex in the heart of Kyiv was set on fire following a massive Russian attack overnight into Monday that killed at least five people and wounded more than two dozen in the capital, according to local authorities. Images showed flames billowing from the UNESCO-listed Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, which traces its roots back almost 1,000 years, and firefighters beneath the towers and domes of its Dormition Cathedral battling to control the blaze. A CNN journalist reported hearing several explosions...

Ukraine is seeking an additional $20 billion in military funding from its allies to cement what it sees as its ​current battlefield advantage over Russia, a Ukrainian defence source said on Friday. The request will ‌be made next Thursday at a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, an alliance of more than 50 countries also known as the Ramstein group that provide financial and military aid for ​Kyiv. Russia's advances have slowed this year - effectively grinding to a halt last ​month - as Ukrainian mid-range drone strikes have harmed its supplies and ⁠logistics for the front line. Long-range...

Strongman Vladimir Putin was forced to halt his annual Russia Day showcase in Moscow’s Red Square for the first time in 23 years Friday, after a Ukrainian attack battered key energy targets and sparked massive fires on Russian soil. Kyiv launched drone strikes overnight into Friday on critical Russian energy and transportation points, including the Armiansk Bridge, which connects occupied Crimea with the motherland. The bombing of the bridge “completely paralysed” a key logistical route and destroyed about 50 vehicles carrying fuel and ammunition, according to Ukraine’s 1st Separate Assault Regiment Da Vinci. Moscow’s centerpiece Russia Day concert was hastily...

A Russian MP has demanded that Vladimir Putin deliver a plan to end the war in Ukraine as he berated the Kremlin's "ineffective leadership". In a lengthy tirade, Vyacheslav Markhayev listed corruption scandals, oligarchy, losses of the "most active and reproductively capable segment of the population" and Ukrainian drone strikes among the ills plaguing wartime Russia. "The time of illusions is over. The country is on the brink of a social explosion, and the blame for this will fall squarely on the entrenched ruling power," said Mr Markhayev, a deputy of the State Duma from the Communist Party. "If the...

A sanctioned Russian LNG tanker from the Portovaya project idled near Singapore in May 2026 with no buyer. At the same time, Ukrainian drones had already knocked roughly 700,000 barrels per day of Russian refining capacity offline across 16 major facilities. Europe had locked in a binding legal phase-out of Russian gas. And just four months earlier, U.S. forces had captured Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela.

The European Union announced it would resume membership talks with Ukraine and Moldova on Monday. “All member states agreed to open the first accession negotiations cluster with Ukraine and Moldova,” EU President Antonio Costa said in a social media post on Friday. The announcement came after the new government in Hungary agreed to drop its longstanding veto against Kyiv. The European Union formally opened entry negotiations with Ukraine back in June 2024, kickstarting a complicated undertaking that usually takes years and involves negotiations on anything from agriculture to the rule of law. Launched as a powerful statement days after Russia’s...

A car bomb killed a senior Russian defense official outside Moscow early Tuesday, June 9. Around 5:30 a.m., a BMW X3 exploded near Koldunova Street in Balashikha’s Aviatorov neighborhood as the driver pulled out of a parking space. Bystanders reached the driver while he was still alive, but he died at the scene. The Russian federal Investigative Committee and the prosecutor’s office for the Moscow region confirmed an explosion had taken place in Balashikha but did not name the victim. The Investigative Committee said a criminal case had been opened but did not disclose the charge. VIDEO AT LINK............. Several...

A car exploded in the city of Balashikha, which borders the Russian capital Moscow, in the early morning of June 9, killing the driver at the scene. According to the Telegram channel Two Majors, the man killed in the explosion has been identified as a Russian major general. The channel, however, did not reveal his name. Earlier, witnesses and Russia’s Investigative Committee confirmed that a 62-year-old man died after an explosive device detonated inside a vehicle in the Aviatorov district of Balashikha. The explosion occurred shortly after the car began moving. Russia’s Investigative Committee said the blast occurred at around...

Volodymyr Zelensky has warned Vladimir Putin that Ukraine is "very close" to producing a ballistic missile that could be fired into Russia. The statement came ahead of talks with Sir Keir Starmer and the leaders of France and Germany over how to bring an end to the long-running war. "During several years of the war and massive attacks, we learned, we studied and we produced… we produced a lot of different drones and missiles, we still don't have ballistics, but we are now on the way, we are very close," the Ukrainian president told Sky News. Mr Zelensky is the...

Russia has a problem it cannot bomb its way out of. For months, Ukraine has been quietly dismantling the one road that keeps Russia's southern war machine alive — a highway so critical that without it, Crimea starves, and the front line goes cold. On May 27th, Kyiv stopped being quiet about it. Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov formalized what had been a covert campaign into a declared strategic program, announcing a $113 million initiative he calls a "logistics lockdown." The target is the R-280 highway — also known as the M-14, renamed by Russian occupation authorities the "Novorossiya" route....

Vladimir Putin has rejected an offer from Volodymyr Zelenskyy to hold a face-to-face meeting, insisting instead that Russia will achieve its war goals in Ukraine, including seizing all of the eastern Donbas region. Speaking at the St Petersburg economic forum, the Russian president described the open letter from his Ukrainian counterpart containing the offer as rude. He refused to use Zelenskyy’s name, referring to him only as its author. Asked if they could meet to discuss an end to the conflict, Putin replied: “So far I see no point.” Zelenskyy’s letter, which was published on Thursday, proposed a meeting in...

Ukraine launched one of its largest drone offensives of the war overnight into June 6, sending more than 400 unmanned aircraft deep into Russian territory and striking targets that included a naval weapons depot near Saint Petersburg, an oil refinery in Siberia, a port in Russian-occupied Mariupol, and munitions warehouses in the Leningrad region. Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed its air defenses shot down 376 of the incoming drones, a figure that, if accurate, still left dozens reaching their intended targets across a geographic spread stretching from the Baltic coast to western Siberia. The attacks came on the final day of...

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...