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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...

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 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...

Republicans on Capitol Hill are seething that Donald Trump is not more focused on the economy as this year's midterm elections approach, warning it could obliterate the narrow GOP congressional majority. Polling indicates that voters are souring on Trump and his Republican allies in Congress ahead of his November's elections that will prove fateful for the President's agenda. In addition to the lack of attention to fixing the economy, senior aides also identified the nomination of Federal Housing Finance Director Bill Pulte, a close ally of the President, to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence as an...

French President Emmanuel Macron said on June 10 that it is "very important" for President Volodymyr Zelensky to attend the upcoming Group of Seven (G7) summit. Zelensky's participation "is very important for us because we need to rebuild consensus within the G7 in support of Ukraine on the various aspects of the war," Macron said at the Elysee Palace during a pre-summit discussion with civil society representatives. The leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States will convene at the G7 Summit in the French resort town of Evian-les-Bains from June 15-17. Macron's invitation...

France and Germany have agreed to abandon plans to jointly develop a next-generation fighter aircraft, effectively ending the central element of the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) program, according to Reuters.The decision was reportedly reached during discussions between German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of a summit in Montenegro last week.Reuters cited German officials as saying the two leaders concluded there was no realistic path to resolving longstanding disagreements between the industrial partners involved in the project.Launched in 2017 by France and Germany, and later joined by Spain, FCAS was intended to become Europe's...

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...

The leaders of Ukraine and its close European allies - the UK, France and Germany - have set out out five conditions for reaching a "just and lasting" deal to end the war with Russia. In a joint statement after talks in London, Volodymyr Zelensky, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said they would "stand firmly with Ukraine". The five conditions include a stop to the fighting, starting negotiations from the current position in the field as well as "robust" security guarantees for Ukraine. The leaders reiterated the need for the...

Russian military vehicles are being painted with vivid stripes to baffle AI systems of Ukrainian-launched drones, experts say. Now the "cloaking" tactic has apparently launched a high-stakes game of hide and seek on the highways of Russian-held territory in Ukraine. Todd E. Humphreys, an aerospace and AI expert at the University of Texas at Austin, agrees the paint tactic may be more effective than many realize. "Dazzle paint pushes the vehicles 'out of distribution' -- they no longer look, to the AI classifier, like the images it was trained on," he told RFE/RL. But any specific paint job would have...

The Republican-led House on Thursday passed a sweeping security package providing new military aid to Ukraine and imposing sanctions on Russia, delivering a sharp rebuke to the Trump administration, who opposed the measure. Eighteen Republicans crossed party lines to support the Democrat-authored legislation in a vote of 226-195. California Rep. Kevin Kiley, an independent who caucuses with Republicans, also supported the legislation. Meanwhile, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., was the lone Democratic lawmaker to vote against the bill. House GOP leadership and the vast majority of Republicans opposed the legislation aimed at bolstering Ukraine's defenses amid a surge in Russian missile...

Russia's oil and gas tax revenue, which accounts for around a fifth of ​total budget income, increased by 32.4% year-on-year in May ​to 678.9 billion roubles ($9.3 billion), Finance Ministry data showed ⁠on Wednesday, thanks to a global oil price rally fuelled ​by the Middle East war. Revenue declined by 20.7% from April, when ​the budget received additional payments from profit-based tax, paid cyclically. Russia, the world's third-largest oil producer and exporter after the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, ​has been one of the main beneficiaries of the rise in ​oil prices after the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran began at the...

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...

Vladimir Putin has suffered a fresh wave of war humiliation amid warnings that his unaffordable conflict with Ukraine is pushing his economy to the brink of collapse. Russia's Finance Ministry and its central bank has projected the government's budget deficit widening to a dangerous level if the Kremlin continues at the current rate of defence expenditure, according to Bloomberg. The stark warning came as Putin suffered further setbacks on the frontline, where the tide of the war is increasingly turning in Ukraine's favour. And authorities in Crimea are urging citizens not to panic amid ongoing petrol shortages with pictures showing...

Russian President Vladimir Putin could travel to the G20 summit in Miami in December, the Kremlin said on Friday after U.S. President ​Donald Trump suggested it would be very helpful if he did attend and that it had been a mistake to expel Russia from the G8. The United States has invited Russia to the annual meeting of Group of 20 countries that Washington is holding this year in Miami, and Moscow has accepted the invitation, a U.S. official familiar with the matter said on Friday. Putin has not attended a G20 summit since 2019 due to the COVID pandemic...

WASHINGTON, April 16 (Reuters) - U.S. officials have informed some European counterparts that some previously contracted weapons deliveries are likely to be delayed ‌as the Iran war continues to draw on weapons stocks, five sources familiar with the matter said... Some of the weapons in question were purchased by European countries under the Foreign Military Sales program, or ⁠FMS, but have not yet been delivered, the sources added. Those deliveries will likely be delayed, U.S. officials told European officials in bilateral ​messages in recent days, the sources said.

Europe must have its own defense system against ballistic weapons, and Ukraine is already ‌holding talks with several countries on its creation, ‌Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday. Defense against ballistic missiles is one of ​Ukraine's biggest challenges in the war with Russia, since only certain types of missiles used by the American Patriot system are capable of intercepting Russian ballistic missiles. Russia uses ballistic missiles to ‌attack Ukraine's energy ⁠infrastructure, destroying thermal power generation and electricity transmission systems. "I believe, and my idea is that we ⁠should have a European anti-ballistic missile defense system. We are in talks...

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...