17 h. ago Ukrainian defenses face a challenge as Russian troops make gains ahead of the Putin

Days before the leaders of Russia and the U.S. hold a summit meeting in Alaska, Moscow’s forces breached Ukrainian lines in a series of infiltrations this week in the country’s industrial heartland of Donetsk

Politics

34 h. ago Donbas: Why Russia is desperate to capture eastern Ukraine’s industrial heartland

Fully giving up Donbas could have ‘catastrophic consequences’, according to experts

Politics

65 h. ago ‘It’s a robot war’: eastern Ukraine faces onslaught of Russian glide bombs, rockets and kamikaze drones

Putin has escalated strikes on Donetsk region and is likely to demand Ukraine hands it over in talks with TrumpNataliya Petrovna pointed to a crater on the edge of a football field. Around it lay bits of twisted metal. From nearby came loud banging as residents fixed plywood to their damaged five-storey apartment block. Many of its windows were broken. “The last few days have been terrible. We could hear the drones buzzing over us. The one that exploded near the school opposite was a Russian Shahed. Maybe some kind of new type,” she said.Petrovna lives in the eastern garrison city of Kramatorsk, in Donetsk province, about 15 miles from the frontline. The distance is just beyond the range of Russian first-person view (FPV) drones, at least for now. But it is easily reachable by other kinds of enemy objects. They include air-dropped glide bombs, Grad rockets and unmanned kamikaze drones – now cruising Ukraine’s skies in overwhelming numbers. Continue reading...

Events

3 d. ago Putin races to grab territory in Ukraine with lightning advance days before meeting with Trump

Battlefield reports claim Russian sabotage and reconnaisance teams have breached weak points in eastern Ukraine, advancing up to six miles past the front line in two days

Politics

3 d. ago Ukraine will not cede land that could be Russian springboard for new war, Zelenskyy says

Ukrainian leader sees no sign of Russia preparing for ceasefire after reports of frontline breach in DonbasVolodymyr Zelenskyy has said Ukraine could not agree to a Russian proposal to give up more of his country’s territory in exchange for a ceasefire because Moscow would use what it gained as a springboard to start a future war.The Ukrainian president said he did not believe that Donald Trump supported Russia’s demands, and he expressed hope the US leader would act as an honest mediator when he meets Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday. Continue reading...

Events

4 d. ago Soldiers under bombardment in eastern Ukraine say peace still feels far away

‘We are preparing for a long war. We have no illusions that Russia will stop’

Events

1 week ago ‘Poetry pulled me out of the abyss’: keeping culture alive in Kharkiv – picture essay

Eastern Ukraine’s biggest city is unsettlingly close to the Russian border and vulnerable to missile strikes, but there is a determination to maintain a cultural life, and a poetry festival is testament to the resilience and creativity of its peopleThe city of Kharkiv, just 18 miles from the Russian border, is a paradoxical mix of tended-to and broken. Public sculptures are wrapped and coddled in sandbags to protect them from missiles. Flowerbeds in parks are punctiliously maintained. The life of the streets is several notches quieter than you would expect from a European country’s second city – and yet, bookshops, coffee shops and restaurants are open and doing a steady business.People browsing the books at Pochaina market Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Russia launches ‘hellish’ aerial attack on eastern Ukrainian city of Pavlohrad

Six-hour bombardment of the strategic hub in the Dnipropetrovsk region came at the same time as airstrikes killed one person in OdesaRussia launched its biggest ever attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Pavlohrad early on Saturday, as part of a large wave of strikes across the country involving hundreds of kamikaze drones and ballistic missiles.The six-hour bombardment was the worst in the city’s history. The head of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Sergey Lysak, said a factory was damaged, a fire station destroyed and a five-storey residential building hit. Continue reading...

Events