The Washington Post

19 December 2024 22:36

European allies consider deploying troops to Ukraine after the war

BRUSSELS — Kyiv’s European allies are seriously weighing the idea of deploying troops to Ukraine in the event of a deal with Russia to stop the war, as they lay the groundwork for negotiations and adjust to Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

The prospect of boots on the ground was discussed when NATO chief Mark Rutte hosted European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Brussels on Wednesday night, and it was floated to President-elect Trump when he met with Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron this month in Paris.

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The Washington Post

16 December 2024 20:03

North Korean troops suffer heavy casualties in Russia, Ukraine says

North Korean troops, deployed to bolster Russian forces in their war on Ukraine, have suffered “significant losses” in Russia’s Kursk region, Ukrainian authorities said Monday.

As many as 30 have been “killed or wounded,” Ukrainian military intelligence said, among the heaviest losses for North Korean forces yet reported by Ukraine.

North Korea has joined Russia as Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine grinds toward a fourth year. Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov last month reported the first clashes between North Korean and Ukrainian forces, but he did not detail casualties. U.S. officials say Russia has deployed some 8,000 North Koreans in the Kursk region, the border area where Ukrainian forces seized Russian territory in a surprise attack over the summer.

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The Washington Post

11 December 2024 17:51

Ukraine races to develop its own long-range weapons to counter Russia

KYIV — As Ukrainian officials brace for what could be severe cutbacks in Western military aid next year, they are scrambling to ramp up their own arms production, especially for weapons systems that can strike deep into Russian territory to replace those supplied by Western governments.

At the heart of the Ukrainian domestic defense production is the country’s program for long-range attack drones, which regularly strike targets hundreds of miles from the Russian-Ukrainian border to disrupt Moscow’s war effort, Ukrainian officials said.

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The Washington Post

09 December 2024 12:58

Amid U.S. pressure, Ukraine starts thinking about drafting 18-year-olds

For nearly three years, Ukraine has resisted drafting men as young as 18, as is done by so many other wartime armies — a choice that has baffled some of Kyiv’s Western allies but is a deeply sensitive issue at home.

As Russia has continued gaining ground on the battlefield with high-attrition-style combat, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is facing increased pressure to deploy more younger people to the front lines. With future aid from Washington uncertain, U.S. officials have warned that Ukraine’s personnel shortage is perhaps more critical right now than its arms deficit.

“Even with the money, even with the munitions, there have to be people on the front lines to deal with the Russian aggression,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Brussels last week.

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The Washington Post

29 November 2024 15:59

Russia rains missiles on Ukraine after Trump names new envoy to conflict

Hours after President-elect Donald Trump selected a new special envoy to tackle a top campaign promise of ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, Russia fired a new barrage of missiles at Ukraine’s power grid, plunging parts of the country back into darkness.

Moscow’s missile attack Thursday morning — which consisted of 199 missiles and drones, according to Ukraine’s military — targeted the energy infrastructure in western Ukraine, causing power outages for at least 1 million people, local officials said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the bombardment was in retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory with U.S.-delivered missiles. Speaking Thursday at a meeting of a Moscow-led security alliance in Kazakhstan, Putin warned that Russian strikes on Ukraine could intensify and include “decision-making centers” in the capital.

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The Washington Post

21 November 2024 13:58

Russia fires ICBM at Ukrainian city in latest missile escalation, Kyiv says

Russian forces launched an intercontinental ballistic missile at the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro, Ukraine’s air force said Thursday — an attack that, if confirmed, would represent a dramatic intensification in the missile war between the two nations.

The strike comes two days after Ukrainian forces fired U.S.-made ATACMS into Russia for the first time, following a lifting of restrictions on their use inside Russia by the Biden administration. In addition, Russia reported that British-made Storm Shadow missiles were fired into its territory Wednesday.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said in its daily report Thursday that its air defense systems “shot down two U.K.-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles,” but it did not provide any further details.

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The Washington Post

20 November 2024 01:56

Exclusive: Biden approves antipersonnel mines for Ukraine, undoing his own policy

President Joe Biden has authorized the provision of antipersonnel land mines to Ukraine, two U.S. officials said, a step that will bolster Kyiv’s defenses against advancing Russian troops but has drawn criticism from arms control groups.

The move comes in the wake of the White House’s recent authorization allowing Ukraine to use a powerful long-range missile system to strike inside Russia — part of a sweep of urgent actions the lame-duck Biden administration is taking to help Kyiv’s faltering war effort.

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The Washington Post

18 November 2024 15:54

Russia launches more than 200 missiles and drones at Ukraine

Russia battered Ukraine with more than 200 missiles and drones early Sunday — its largest combined attack in months — sending residents scrambling from their beds to bomb shelters, damaging energy infrastructure and killing at least two people just ahead of the 1,000-day mark since its full-scale invasion of the country.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia used 120 cruise, ballistic and aeroballistic missiles and 90 drones, including Iranian-made Shaheds, in the attack. Ukrainian forces shot down more than 140 of them, he said.

The attack killed two people in the southern port city of Mykolaiv and wounded six others, including two children, Zelensky said. Later Sunday, a Russian strike in the northeastern city of Sumy killed eight people, including two children, and left nearly 50 injured.

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The Washington Post

16 November 2024 19:47

Russia wants Kursk back before negotiations. Ukraine isn’t budging.

KYIV — The fight to control some 200 square miles of land in western Russia became even more brutal in recent days as the Kremlin, ahead of possible negotiations with the incoming Trump administration to end the war, appears set on removing Russian land from the equation.

Ukraine has controlled swaths of Russia’s Kursk region since a surprise cross-border incursion in August and — despite having lost around half its initial gains — still maintains a foothold there.

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The Washington Post

13 November 2024 15:54

Ukraine’s European allies eye once-taboo ‘land-for-peace’ negotiations

BRUSSELS — Among Ukraine’s European allies, there is a quiet but growing shift toward the notion that the war with Russia will end only through negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow involving concessions of Ukrainian territory.

The conversation has taken on greater urgency with the election victory of Donald Trump, who has said he would quickly end the war, without detailing how, and has signaled he could back a deal that keeps some seized territory in Russian hands. In Europe, the closed-door discussions have also been fueled by a bleak battlefield situation, with Ukrainian forces on the defensive and fears of dwindling U.S. funding.

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The Washington Post

11 November 2024 14:38

Exclusive: Trump talked to Putin, told Russian leader not to escalate in Ukraine

President-elect Donald Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, the first phone conversation between the two men since Trump won the election, said several people familiar with the matter.

During the call, Trump advised the Russian president not to escalate the war in Ukraine and reminded him of Washington’s sizable military presence in Europe, said a person familiar with the call.

The two men discussed the goal of peace on the European continent and Trump expressed an interest in follow-up conversations to discuss “the resolution of Ukraine’s war soon,” one of the people said.

The Kremlin denied Monday that President-elect Donald Trump spoke with Russian leader Vladimir Putin last week, saying there are no specific plans for the two leaders to communicate yet.

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The Washington Post

08 November 2024 19:30

Mounting Russian strikes hit Ukraine with casualties across the country

Russia has launched a barrage of attacks over the past 24 hours, pummeling cities in Ukraine’s east, south and center with missiles, glide bombs and waves of drones — the latest onslaught in a deadly aerial campaign that intensified two months ago.

The building where the Estonian ambassador to Ukraine lives in the capital Kyiv was also hit and left burning by a drone.

Overnight, Russian glide bombs struck a building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, wounding more than 20, while drones struck the southern city of Odessa, killing one person and injuring nine, officials said.

The previous day, glide bombs hammered five locations in Zaporizhzhia in eastern Ukraine, injuring at least 40 people and killing 10, including a 1-year-old child, officials said Friday.

In total, at least 14 people were killed and close to 100 injured in the attacks.

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The Washington Post

07 November 2024 18:21

‘We have won’: Russians envision new global system with Trump victory

President-elect Donald Trump’s stunning political comeback has created an opening for Russia to shatter Western unity on Ukraine and redraw the global power map, according to several influential members of the Russian elite.

Across the corridors of power in Moscow, the win for Trump’s populist campaign arguing that America should focus on its domestic woes over aiding countries like Ukraine was being hailed as a potential victory for Russia’s efforts to carve out its own sphere of influence in the world.

In even broader terms, it was seen as a victory for conservative, isolationist forces supported by Russia against a liberal, Western-dominated global order setting the rules for the entire world that the Kremlin (and its allies) have been seeking to undermine.

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The Washington Post

06 November 2024 20:24

Ukraine says forces clash with North Korean troops for first time

KYIV — Ukrainian troops have clashed with North Korean forces for the first time, according to senior Ukrainian officials — a development that would open a “new page of instability in the world,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

On Tuesday, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, speaking to South Korean television network KBS, said that there were “already contacts” between the two sides, and that Ukrainian officials expected a “more significant number” in the next weeks, which they would “review and analyze.”

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The Washington Post

31 October 2024 12:32

Russian drones hunt civilians in streets of southern Ukrainian city

Russian forces have escalated indiscriminate drone attacks against civilians in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, killing and maiming scores of people in what locals have described as a “human safari.”

Unlike elsewhere on the 600-mile-long front, Russian forces in Kherson are just across the river from the city and are using small drones to harass the population, either by crashing into targets and exploding or by dropping grenades and small camouflaged mines. The situation is fairly unique compared with the rest of Ukraine, where Russian troops must use longer-range weapons to reach civilians.

Humanitarian operations and city services such as fire trucks and buses seem to be under particular threat, officials said, though children on bicycles and older people gathering at markets have also been struck.

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The Washington Post

17 December 2024 12:30

Kyiv behind killing of Russian general in Moscow, Ukrainian official says

The head of Russia’s nuclear defense forces was killed in Moscow on Tuesday morning in a “special operation” by Ukraine’s domestic security service, according to a Ukrainian official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.

Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, chief of Russia’s nuclear, biological and chemical defense forces, is the highest-ranking Russian military official to be killed outside of combat since the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said Tuesday that Kirillov, 54, was killed alongside his assistant when an explosive device on a parked scooter detonated near the entrance of a residential building in the capital. Investigators did not specify who they believed was responsible but said a criminal investigation had been launched into the deaths of two military officials.

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The Washington Post

13 December 2024 20:46

Russia launches large attack on Ukraine’s energy systems, Zelensky says

KYIV — Russia launched a large-scale aerial attack Friday on Ukraine involving dozens of cruise missiles and nearly 200 drones, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, in what Moscow described as a direct response to Kyiv’s recent use of American missiles against targets inside Russia.

The attack was “one of the largest strikes targeting our energy infrastructure” to date, Zelensky said.

Russia launched at least 93 missiles, he added, including at least one North Korean weapon. Ukraine was able to down 81 of them, 11 of which were intercepted with F-16 jets, Zelensky said. But some struck targets, expanding the already widespread power blackouts caused by prior Russian strikes.

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The Washington Post

10 December 2024 16:53

Russia’s elite sound the alarm on the economy amid high interest rates

When Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed an annual big-business gathering this month, he could not help but crow about how Western sanctions against the economy had failed.

“The task was to deal Russia a strategic blow … to weaken industry, finance and services in our country,” Putin said at the VTB investment conference, pointing out that economic growth in Russia would reach 4 percent this year, far outstripping rates in Europe. “It is clear that these plans have collapsed.”

But despite the polite applause that greeted the Russian president, tension has been breaking out into the open among the Russian elite over the mounting cost of sanctions on the economy. Executives from major businesses have been warning in growing numbers that central bank interest rate hikes to combat rampant inflation — caused by sanctions and Putin’s wartime spending spree — could bring the economy to a halt next year.

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The Washington Post

02 December 2024 13:17

Biden surges arms to Ukraine, fearing Trump will halt U.S. aid

The Biden administration is engaged in an 11th-hour scramble to provide Ukraine with billions of dollars in additional weaponry, a massive effort that is generating concerns internally about its potential to erode U.S. stockpiles and sap resources from other flash points, officials said.

The lame-duck initiative was spurred in part by Russia’s battlefield momentum and a fear among Ukraine’s fiercest advocates that once President-elect Donald Trump takes office Jan. 20, there will be an abrupt shift in U.S. policy toward the war.

Yet some in the administration have taken the view that no matter what Washington does, Kyiv’s military will remain outmatched without far more soldiers to sustain its fight. And even as they accelerate arms shipments, there is growing frustration with Ukraine’s leaders, who have resisted U.S. calls to lower the country’s draft age from 25 to 18.

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The Washington Post

22 November 2024 21:21

Russia seeks to intimidate Ukraine with new missile, officials say

By launching a new nuclear-capable intermediate-range ballistic missile at Ukraine on Thursday, Russia was threatening Kyiv and its Western allies with the aim of stopping Ukrainian strikes with Western-supplied weapons on Russian territory — or else.

The attack on the eastern city of Dnipro has spurred fears in the West over a major escalation in the ongoing war and prompted Ukraine to request new air defense capabilities from Washington to help intercept this type of missile.

But analysts and officials in Ukraine and the West, speaking Friday, said that while the attack had been accompanied by a major increase in threatening statements, it was ultimately just more Kremlin bravado.

Moscow aimed to “intimidate those who support Ukraine,” NATO spokeswoman Farah Dakhlallah said in an email. “Deploying this capability will neither change the course of the conflict nor deter NATO Allies from supporting Ukraine.”

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The Washington Post

20 November 2024 15:41

U.S. Embassy in Kyiv closes over attack fears after Ukraine strikes Russia

American officials warned Wednesday of a “potential significant air attack” on Kyiv and said the U.S. Embassy in the capital would be closed “out of an abundance of caution” after Ukrainian forces struck an arms depot inside Russia with U.S.-supplied weapons systems.

“Embassy employees are being instructed to shelter in place,” a statement on the embassy website said. “The U.S. Embassy recommends U.S. citizens be prepared to immediately shelter in the event an air alert is announced.”

The Italian, Greek and Spanish embassies in Kyiv would also be closed temporarily, statements on their websites and media reports said. The Italian Embassy warned of a “possible high-intensity airstrike,” citing the U.S. Embassy statement.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry, however, noted over the past 1,000 days of war, the threat of airstrikes “has, unfortunately, been a daily reality.”

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The Washington Post

19 November 2024 13:47

Ukraine uses U.S.-made ATACMS missiles inside Russia for the first time

Ukraine fired at least six U.S.-made ATACMS missiles against an arsenal in the Bryansk region on Tuesday, the first use of the weapons to hit a target inside Russia, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

A Ukrainian official confirmed the use of the missiles, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. The attack comes two days after it was reported that the Biden administration had lifted restrictions on the use of the missiles against targets inside Russia, long a Ukrainian request.

The Russian statement said six missiles were fired but that five were shot down and one was damaged by air defense.

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The Washington Post

18 November 2024 13:39

Russia says U.S. ‘adding fuel to the fire’ by letting Ukraine use ATACMS

Russian officials on Monday furiously condemned President Joe Biden’s decision to permit Ukraine to use American longer-range missiles for limited strikes inside Russia, even as Russian missiles killed at least 19 people inside Ukraine in a pair of attacks.

Though Russian President Vladimir Putin himself has yet to respond to another crossing of his “red lines” by the West, his spokesman said the move added “fuel to the fire” and tensions to the relationship.

“This is a qualitatively new round of tension and a qualitatively new situation in terms of U.S. involvement in this conflict,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists in a Monday briefing. “It’s clear that the outgoing administration in Washington intends to take steps to, they’ve said so, to continue to add fuel to the fire and to further provoke the level of tension.”

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The Washington Post

14 November 2024 19:06

Russia pushes forward in Ukraine amid talk of negotiations

As Russian forces continue their grinding advance toward the supply hub of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine, a new offensive appears to be nearly underway in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, Ukrainian troops said this week, in what would represent a major escalation along the 600-mile-long front.

A buildup of Russian troops in Ukraine’s southeast comes as uncertainty looms over how a Trump presidency will affect the war and whether the two sides will be pushed to the negotiating table. President-elect Donald Trump has long claimed he will put a quick end to the war, and some in Ukraine fear that would involve Kyiv capitulating to Russia.

Trump spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week and urged him not to escalate the war, in a call the Kremlin denies took place. In the week since, however, Russian forces have redoubled their efforts on several fronts.

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The Washington Post

12 November 2024 13:33

Ukraine launches biggest drone attack yet on Moscow

Ukraine launched a major drone attack on Moscow and five other Russian regions Sunday, officials here reported, injuring one person and forcing three airports to temporarily halt operations.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defense systems intercepted 84 Ukrainian drones over the Moscow, Bryansk, Oryol, Kaluga, Kursk and Tula regions. Thirty-four of those drones were shot down over the Moscow region, the ministry said — making it the largest Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow since Russia invaded the country more than two years ago.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported drones being shot down shortly after 7 a.m. local time. Andrey Vorobyov, governor of the Moscow region, said in a Telegram post that there had been a “massive drone attack.” A 52-year-old woman was hospitalized with shrapnel injuries and burns to her face, neck and hands and was in intensive care, he said.

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The Washington Post

08 November 2024 21:08

Elon Musk joins Trump’s call with Ukraine’s Zelensky

Elon Musk joined a Wednesday call between President-elect Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said four people familiar with the matter, in the latest sign that the tech billionaire intends to intertwine himself with Trump’s governing apparatus.

The call began with a conversation between Trump and Zelensky, who remarked how valuable Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service was, said one of the people familiar with their conversation, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversation. Trump noted that Musk was with him, and then put him on the call.

“It was very pleasant,” a Ukrainian official said of the exchange. Zelensky “thanked” Musk for the Starlink terminals Ukraine relies on for much wartime communication, the official added.

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The Washington Post

08 November 2024 17:30

Waiting for the North Koreans on the battlefields of the Ukraine war

SUMY, Ukraine — Ukrainian troops fighting inside Russia are bracing for clashes with North Korean forces as officials in Kyiv warn that combat with Russia’s new allies has already begun, marking a dangerous new phase of the war as Donald Trump’s election adds to further uncertainty over Ukraine’s future.

Ukrainian forces are already struggling inside Russia’s Kursk region, where they seized hundreds of square miles in a surprise August offensive but have since lost nearly half that territory. U.S. intelligence agencies have reported that there are now at least 10,000 North Korean troops in the Kursk region, probably to buoy the Russian attempt to retake the final Ukrainian foothold that has irritated Russian President Vladimir Putin even as he tries to brush it off as insignificant.

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The Washington Post

07 November 2024 12:35

Ukrainians fear Trump will end supply of weapons to fight Russia

Ukrainian officials’ congratulations of President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday were fast and effusive — but did little to mask the fears and uncertainty that now hangs over Ukraine’s future.

Many Ukrainian lawmakers recognize that securing the American weapons needed in the war against Russia will require convincing Trump to back a fight that he appears to consider too expensive.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called it an “impressive election victory.” He reminded Trump of the “great meeting” they had in September in the United States and talked about “ways to put an end to Russian aggression against Ukraine.”

Andriy Yermak, head the presidential office and Zelensky’s main adviser, echoed his boss’s congratulations, adding that it was “essential that Ukraine has bipartisan support in the U.S.”

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The Washington Post

04 November 2024 14:32

The new season of ‘The Bachelor’ in Ukraine shows the scars of war

Backstage at Ukraine’s adaptation of “The Bachelor,” makeup artists rushed to fix fake lashes and lipstick, while producers hunched over monitors and adjusted camera angles. For the crew of 200 and the show’s 21 participants, the night was going to be a particularly grueling shoot.

The strict wartime curfew and rolling power cuts in the wake of sustained Russian strikes on Ukraine’s power grid meant they would have to film the show’s climactic rose ceremony all through the night, from dusk until dawn.

As with every aspect of life in Ukraine, the full-scale invasion in 2022 by Russia has transformed the contest, once the most-watched reality TV show in Ukraine. Forty percent of the camera and lights team was drafted to fight. Curfew restricted working hours so that most of the dating scenes have to be filmed during the day instead of at night, and gone are the exotic foreign shooting locations.

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The Washington Post

30 October 2024 14:58

Ukraine accuses Russia of sudden spike in POW killings

KYIV — Russian forces are summarily killing surrendering Ukrainian soldiers in increasing numbers on the battlefield, often shooting them point blank just after they have been taken prisoner, Ukrainian officials say.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, authorities have opened 43 criminal investigations into 113 possible arbitrary killings, with more than a third of those cases registered since the beginning of the year, according to Ukraine’s prosecutor general office. But that does not take into account the more recent spike.

“Since the end of last year, the number of such crimes has been steadily increasing,” the prosecutor general’s office said in written comments to The Washington Post. “We receive reports of such killings almost every week.”

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