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Ukraine’s military is confronting a “critical” situation in the country’s northeast, facing troop shortages as it tries to repel a Russian offensive that has been advancing for several days, a top Ukrainian general said on Monday. Russian troops surged across the border last week to open a new line of attack near Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city after Kyiv, capturing at least nine settlements and villages and forcing thousands of civilians to flee. “The situation is on the edge,” Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, said in a video call from a bunker in Kharkiv. “Every hour...

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday visited Ukraine, telling the country that soon-to-arrive U.S. military aid will make a “real difference” in its effort to fend off Russia's war. Blinken's trip comes amid a fierce new Russian offensive, according to the Associated Press. “We know this is a challenging time,” Blinken said in the Ukrainian capital on Kiev where he met with President Volodymyr Zelensky.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Ukraine as weapons from a new American aid package begin arriving at the front line. His visit comes as the country struggles to hold back a major Russian incursion near its second biggest city of Kharkiv. Ahead of Mr Blinken's arrival in Kyiv, a senior US official said the American-funded weapons now arriving at the front line included air defence interceptors, artillery and ATACMS long-range precision guided missiles. "We have already started to flow in artillery [and] long-range ATACMS that can range any part of Ukraine, and also other air defence...

U.S. military aid is reaching Ukraine as that nation's military strives to blunt Russian attacks in the Kharkiv region, said Sabrina Singh, deputy Pentagon press secretary. The Russian attacks on Kharkiv — Ukraine's second-largest city — were not unexpected, Singh said today, and Ukrainian service members are fighting furiously to blunt the Russian incursions. U.S. systems are again reaching Ukrainian service members after Congress approved a budget supplemental aid package on April 24. President Joe Biden announced a $1 billion assistance package at that time to meet Ukraine's critical security needs. On Friday, the United States announced another tranche of...

A Russian commander was reportedly killed in Crimea following a Ukrainian missile strike in the region. On Monday, the Russian independent outlet Astra said on its Telegram channel that a Russian air defense base located near Mount Ai-Petri in Crimea was hit with "an early morning missile attack" by Ukrainian forces. "The commander of the military unit was killed," Astra reported. "On the mountain, there is a 'secret' military air defense base of the 3rd radio technical regiment of the Russian Armed Forces." The outlet identified the Russian military commander as Alexander Kulakov. Another Russian soldier was also killed in...

A video posted Monday on social media shows the Ukrainian military destroying 10 Russian military vehicles in a single strike. The video was posted by the 63rd Separate Mechanized Brigade on Telegram. Reportedly, five Russian BMP-1s, an amphibious infantry fighting vehicle, along with five tanks, were burned in the strike. The 63rd Brigade said that at least one vehicle was a Russian T-90M battle tank. The Ukrainian defense effort reportedly occurred near Terni in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. The 63rd Brigade said it destroyed the vehicles "with the help of artillery and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) drops."

What amounted to a probing attack or skirmish on the part of Russian forces has caused chaos amongst the ukies

Ukraine’s top general says the situation in the northern Kharkiv region has “significantly worsened” after Russia claimed to have captured four further villages as it expanded its surprise cross-border offensive. A Ukrainian regional official insisted Russia’s progress was not yet “significant” but admitted ground fighting in the area was spreading. Meanwhile, speaking on British television, UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron acknowledged it was an “extremely dangerous moment,” adding that Russia had effectively “invaded [Ukraine] again.” The precise goal of Russia’s new push – which began in the early hours of Friday morning – is unclear. It may be to create...

Denys Yaroslavskyi is angry. ... “There was no first line of defence. We saw it. The Russians just walked in. They just walked in, without any mined fields” he says. He shows me video from a drone feed taken a few days ago of small columns of Russian troops simply walking across the border, unopposed. He says officials had claimed that defences were being built at huge cost, but in his view, those defences simply weren’t there. “Either it was an act of negligence, or corruption. It wasn’t a failure. It was a betrayal”. Everyone knew that this incursion was...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces began a renewed ground assault on Ukraine’s northeast, killing and injuring several and forcing more than 1,700 civilians to evacuate from the Kharkiv region, local officials said Saturday. Artillery, mortar, and aerial bombardments hit more than 30 different towns and villages, leaving at least three people dead and five others injured, said Kharkiv governor, Oleh Syniehubov. Ukraine rushed reinforcements to the Kharkiv region on Friday to hold off a Russian attempt to breach local defenses, authorities said.

Ukraine is legislating to join Russia in sending recruiters into the nation’s prisons to bolster its military, as Moscow’s invasion grinds on and the casualty list grows ever longer. Ukraine’s Parliament has passed a draft law allowing certain classes of convicts to get out of jail early in return for military service. As noted, Ukraine’s ability to field enough soldiers to sustain the war against Russia is one of the nation’s greatest longer-term challenges of the war, its population considerably smaller than Russia’s and already disturbed and scattered by the conflict. Releasing criminals from prison in return for military service...

Two hydropower plants in Ukraine were severely damaged and were no longer in operation after Russian bombardments earlier this week, the state energy company Ukrhydroenergo said Thursday. "As of today all hydro generation has suffered devastating damage," it said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app, adding that significant financial resources and efforts would be required to repair the damage and restore the plants' operations. Ukraine plans to double electricity imports Thursday after the powerful Russian attack on Ukraine's energy system, the energy ministry said.

President Volodymyr Zelensky believes that after the end of the war, there will be a demographic "boom" in Ukraine. He said this during a meeting with students of Sumy State University. When asked by a student about government programs aimed at stimulating the birth rate, the Ukrainian leader replied that the number one issue is safety. "I think that the biggest incentive is safety, and what's next with the child, and what to do. And we need not only financial incentives, because finances, in my opinion, help, but they do not stimulate giving birth during the war," Zelensky said. The...

As the West struggles to define its strategy in Ukraine, politicians on both sides of the Atlantic have long insisted that the only path to a “just and lasting peace” is to support Ukraine until Russia unconditionally admits defeat. They dismiss calls for a negotiated settlement as naive, dangerous and futile, claiming that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not relent unless stopped by force of arms — Ukrainian or otherwise. More than two years into the conflict, Western leaders remain unfazed in their commitment to Russian military defeat, even as the fighting tilts decidedly in Moscow’s favor. The West’s continued...

Russia said on Wednesday that sending NATO troops into Ukraine would potentially be extremely dangerous, and Moscow was closely watching a Ukrainian petition that called for such an intervention. The petition, posted on the Ukrainian president's website, says Ukraine should ask the United States, Britain and other countries to send troops to help it repel Russia's invasion. "We have repeatedly said that direct intervention on the ground in this conflict by the military of NATO countries potentially carries enormous danger, so we consider this an extremely challenging provocation, nothing less, and, of course, we are watching this very carefully."

Once again, Russian President Vladimir Putin is seemingly rattling the nuclear saber. But why now?The Kremlin, citing recent comments by Western leaders regarding the war in Ukraine, said Monday that it would soon carry out simulated use of battlefield, or tactical, nuclear weapons — marking the first time Moscow announced such an exercise.The announcement drew a sharp response. U.S. Defense Department spokesman Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder called it “entirely inappropriate.” NATO spokesperson Farah Dakhlallah termed Moscow’s plans “dangerous and irresponsible,” and the European Union called on Russia to “stop the escalation.”Like so many pronouncements from Moscow, this one’s timing might...

US aid to Ukraine will help Ukraine launch counteroffensive in 2025, Sullivan says.

Russia plans to hold drills simulating the use of tactical nuclear weapons, the Defense Ministry announced Monday, days after the Kremlin reacted angrily to comments by senior Western officials about the war in Ukraine. The drills are in response to “provocative statements and threats of certain Western officials regarding the Russian Federation,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement. It was the first time that Russia has publicly announced drills involving tactical nuclear weapons, though its strategic nuclear forces regularly hold exercises. Tactical nuclear weapons have a lower yield compared to massive warheads that arm intercontinental ballistic missiles intended to...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – The Ukrainian village of Ocheretyne has been battered by fighting, drone footage obtained by The Associated Press shows. The village has been a target for Russian forces in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. Russian troops have been advancing in the area, pounding Kyiv’s depleted, ammunition-deprived forces with artillery, drones and bombs. Ukraine’s military has acknowledged the Russians have gained a “foothold” in Ocheretyne, which had a population of about 3,000 before the war, but says that fighting continues.

'I am not ruling anything out,' Emmanuel Macron insisted in an interview published today, pressed on whether France would send troops to Ukraine in its hour of need. The remarks echo a new tone on Moscow in recent months, the French President reiterating pledges roundly rebuffed by his allies in the US, UK and Germany. Europe and the United States have now committed more than £130bn to Ukraine in aid but NATO members have stopped short of promising boots on the ground - with Putin still willing to exploit the threat of nuclear Armageddon when prompted. While Macron has argued...