The Washington Post

05 September 2023 13:47

War in Ukraine halted adoptions. Now some orphans are stuck in limbo.

Wendy and Leo Van Asten first met “M and M” — a brother and sister from eastern Ukraine — when the children stayed at the couple’s home near Madison, Wis., for four weeks at the end of 2018, as part of a program connecting Ukrainian orphans and foster children with American families.

Nearly five years later, the last 18 months scarred by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it is unclear if the Van Astens’ wish will ever be realized.

Adoption can be a slow, bureaucratic process even in the best of circumstances. But the Van Astens and dozens of American families also hoping to adopt Ukrainian children face a far bigger hurdle: Ukrainian officials have halted international adoptions until the end of the war.

And no one knows when the war will end.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

04 September 2023 22:04

Kim Jong Un to meet with Putin in Russia, U.S. official says

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un plans to visit Russian President Vladimir Putin this month to discuss North Korea possibly providing Moscow with munitions in the Ukraine war, according to a U.S. official. Russia’s military is trying to bolster its weapon supplies amid the Ukrainian counteroffensive.

More live updates here.

The Washington Post

04 September 2023 18:15

Zelensky ousts defense chief as ministry grapples with corruption claims

KYIV — Ukraine’s defense minister resigned Monday, hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky announced plans to replace him amid a widening corruption probe and slow-moving counteroffensive against Russian invaders in the country’s southeast.

Zelensky said on Sunday night that he will ask parliament to approve his nomination of Rustem Umerov, currently head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine, to replace Oleksii Reznikov, who has served as defense minister since November 2021 and was responsible for overseeing billions in weapons and other military aid from Ukraine’s international partners.

“I believe the ministry needs new approaches and other formats of interaction with both the military and society as a whole,” Zelensky said.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

04 September 2023 09:47

Here's the latest from Ukraine:

- President Volodymyr Zelensky made the decision to replace Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov because the ministry needs “new approaches” with the military and the public, the Ukrainian leader said. Rustem Umerov, the head of the country’s main privatization fund, will replace Reznikov after a year and a half of war in a shake-up that has been brewing for months.

- Russian leader Vladimir Putin is scheduled to meet his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in the Russian resort city of Sochi on Monday for discussions that could be key to reviving the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which Moscow abandoned in July in a blow to global food security.

- South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said an inquiry found no evidence that his country shipped weapons to Russia last year, though he will not release the report, citing “classified” information among the evidence.

More live updates here.

The Washington Post

03 September 2023 10:14

Here is the latest from Ukraine:

- Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson lauded the Nobel Foundation’s decision to rescind its invitations to Russia and Belarus.

- Kolomoisky is accused of fraud and laundering criminally obtained property, according to Ukraine’s state security service, known as the SBU.

- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the country’s forces were continuing to make progress in their counteroffensive after weeks of a near stalemate.

- About 80 percent of the nearly 13,000 schools operating in Ukraine have shelters to protect from wartime attacks, Ukrainian state news agency Ukrinform reported.

- Two more ships successfully passed through a temporary Black Sea grain corridor, Zelensky said Saturday, bringing the total number of vessels that have done so to four, according to Reuters.

More live updates here.

The Washington Post

02 September 2023 18:15

Musk’s new Twitter policies helped spread Russian propaganda, EU says

Twitter under Elon Musk ownership has played a major role in allowing Russian propaganda about Ukraine to reach more people than before the war began, according to a year-long study released this week by the European Commission, the governing body of the European Union.

The research found that, despite voluntary commitments to take action against Russian propaganda by the largest social media companies, including Meta, Russian disinformation against Ukraine, thrived. Allowing the disinformation and hate speech to spread without limits would have violated the Digital Services Act, the EU’s social media law, had it been in force last year, the commission study concluded.

“Over the course of 2022, the audience and reach of Kremlin-aligned social media accounts increased substantially all over Europe,” the study found.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

02 September 2023 09:05

Here is the latest from Ukraine:

- The Sarmat missile does not pose a significant threat to the United States, the Pentagon said in April last year after the Kremlin successfully test launched it. NATO has dubbed the weapon “Satan 2.”

- Kirby told reporters Friday that Kyiv’s forces “have achieved some success along that second line of Russian defenses,” but “it is not beyond the realm of the possible that Russia will react” to Ukraine’s push.

- Moscow on Friday designated Nobel laureate Dmitry Muratov a “foreign agent,” a label used to harass human rights organizations and journalists in Russia.

- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that more than 3.7 million children started the new school year Friday, most of whom were in Ukraine.

- Russia’s Ministry of Defense claimed early Saturday it had repelled three attempts to attack the Crimean Bridge using drones.

More live updates here.

The Washington Post

01 September 2023 17:22

Ukraine objects after Russia and Belarus invited back to Nobel ceremonies

Ambassadors of Russia and its ally Belarus will be invited back to the Nobel Prize ceremonies, a decision that has drawn criticism from Kyiv after the two countries were left out last year because of the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine.

The Nobel Foundation said ambassadors from all countries that are diplomatically represented in Sweden and Norway will be invited to the award ceremonies this year. Ceremonies are held in Stockholm and Oslo.

“The achievements recognized by the Nobel Prize require openness, exchange and dialogue between people and nations,” the foundation said in a statement, adding that it “would like to reach out with this message to everyone, even to those who do not share the values of the Nobel Prize.”

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

31 August 2023 13:50

He pleaded for F-16s for Ukraine but died in a crash before he could fly one

KYIV — The young Ukrainian pilot, Andrii “Juice” Pilshchikov, was scheduled to take an English exam that would have allowed him to begin his long-awaited training on U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets.

For more than a year, Pilshchikov, 30, had lobbied Washington to send the modern planes to Ukraine, even meeting U.S. senators to explain how F-16s could turn the tide in the war against Russia. In those planes’ absence, he flew Soviet-era MiG-29s, which he said in an interview with The Washington Post last year reduced Ukrainians to “just targets” for the Russians.

But before Pilshchikov had the chance to take the test, he and two other Ukrainian pilots — Viacheslav Minka and Serhiy Prokazin — were killed last week when two L-39 training jets collided in northwestern Ukraine in what the Ukrainian Air Force described as an accident during a combat mission.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

30 August 2023 19:06

Drone strikes hit military aircraft deep inside Russia

RIGA, Latvia — Drone strikes overnight hit at least six Russian cities, including Pskov, more than 370 miles from Ukraine, where an attack on the military and civilian airport destroyed two Il-76 cargo planes and damaged four others, according to Baza, a Russian media outlet with links to the country’s law enforcement.

The overnight swarm of drones, presumed to have been launched by Ukraine, temporarily forced some of Russia’s biggest airports to halt operations and left soldiers firing at the unpiloted aerial vehicles with small arms, demonstrating the ability of Kyiv or its proxies to attack deep within Russian territory. The airstrikes were the largest by Kyiv since President Vladimir Putin ordered his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

30 August 2023 09:19

Here's the latest from Ukraine:

- At least two people were killed in Kyiv as the Ukrainian capital was hit by a deluge of drone attacks and missile strikes early Wednesday, according to city officials.

- Russia said it thwarted other drone attacks within its borders early Wednesday. Its Defense Ministry said it shot down at least four drones, including one over Kaluga, one over a district in the Moscow region and two in Ryazan.

- Four Il-76 military transport planes were damaged in an attack on a military airfield in Pskov, Russia, near the border with Estonia and Latvia, the Russian state news agency Tass reported. The attack caused a large fire at the airfield, regional governor Mikhail Vedernikov said.

- Russia destroyed four Ukrainian military speedboats in the Black Sea, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. A naval plane in the country’s Black Sea Fleet carried out the attack around midnight Moscow time on Wednesday, it said.

More live updates here.

The Washington Post

29 August 2023 19:49

Wagner chief Prigozhin is buried in secret as Kremlin seeks to avoid unrest

RIGA, Latvia — Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeniy Prigozhin was buried in an unusually secret ceremony in St. Petersburg on Tuesday, with his press service announcing that the event was closed to outsiders, after a series of hearses and funeral cortèges laid false trails at several local cemeteries and other locations tracked throughout the day by local journalists.

Prigozhin’s press service said in a brief statement that the last rites for Prigozhin were held in secret on Tuesday without offering details of the time and location, or providing photographs of the event — perhaps a fitting final chapter to a secretive life of disguises, clandestine security arrangements, diversions to conceal travel plans, duplicate passports and body doubles.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

29 August 2023 13:24

Prigozhin is confirmed dead. What happened to Putin’s other rivals?

Some of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foes, among them journalists and opposition politicians, have died or fallen ill in suspicious circumstances after opposing the Russian leader.

In the latest case, on Aug. 23, Yevgeniy Prigozhin — the head of the guns-for-hire Wagner Group and Putin’s longtime ally turned foe — was killed, along with the three crew members and six other passengers on board, when a private jet flying north of Moscow crashed.

Russian authorities confirmed Sunday that Prigozhin was killed in the crash, citing DNA testing. The cause of the crash remains unclear.

Here are some Putin foes who suffered suspicious fates.

The Washington Post

28 August 2023 19:30

Putin, stained by Prigozhin’s death, faces calls for military funeral

The Kremlin said a decision on the funerals of Wagner chief Yevgeniy Prigozhin, mercenary commander Dmitry Utkin and other members of the group rested largely with their families, after patriotic hard-liners called for Prigozhin to be buried with full military honors, in a sign of the ongoing fissures in Russia over the war in Ukraine.

Prigozhin, Utkin and others in their entourage were killed when their private jet crashed last week following what Western intelligence agencies assessed to be an onboard explosion. Russian investigators said they had confirmed Prigozhin’s death using DNA.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that no decision had been made on the funerals or whether President Vladimir Putin would attend. The questions highlighted continuing divisions in Russia’s elite over the war, and the risks posed by hard-line pro-war “turbo-patriots” who have demanded a harsher approach against Ukraine.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

28 August 2023 13:01

What we know about the Russian plane crash that killed Prigozhin

An Embraer business jet crashed on Aug. 23 north of Moscow near Russia’s Tver region, killing all 10 people on board, Russian authorities said. Among them: Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the chief of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, who led a short but dramatic rebellion against the Kremlin in July.

Prigozhin was presumed dead for several days while authorities recovered the bodies from the crash site, although Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to eulogize him the day after the crash, saying he was a “talented man” who “made serious mistakes.” It wasn’t until Sunday that Russia’s Investigative Committee confirmed his death, citing DNA test results. Other top Wagner leaders were also killed in the crash.

The committee said it is still investigating why the plane went down — but Western analysts say any Russian-led inquiry will probably be opaque and politicized. The true cause of the crash may never be known.

Here is what we know.

The Washington Post

05 September 2023 10:18

Here's the latest from Ukraine:

- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un plans to visit Russian President Vladimir Putin this month to discuss possibly providing munitions to Moscow, senior U.S. administration officials told The Washington Post, as Russia’s military attempts to bolster weapons supplies amid Ukraine’s counteroffensive.

- Putin did not rejoin the Black Sea Grain Initiative on Monday, despite meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss solutions for ensuring that desperately needed grain exports reach countries struggling with food security.

- Russia is discussing the possibility of holding a joint naval exercise with North Korea, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told reporters Monday.

- Russia said its air defenses intercepted a Ukrainian drone near Moscow, in the Istrinsky district.

More live updates here.

The Washington Post

04 September 2023 21:07

Here is the latest from Ukraine:

- After meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday, Russian leader Vladimir Putin declined to rejoin the Black Sea Grain Initiative that Moscow abandoned in July, deepening a problem for global food security.

- Russia intends to send 1 million tons of grain to Turkey for delivery to the world’s poorest countries.

- President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Rustem Umerov, head of Ukraine’s main privatization fund, will replace Oleksii Reznikov as the country’s defense minister.

- Romania’s Defense Ministry dismissed claims that Russian drones entered its country during an attack on Ukrainian ports on the Danube River.

- Russia is discussing the possibility of holding a joint naval exercise with North Korea, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told reporters Monday.

- A Russian Mi-8 helicopter pilot who defected in late August has been identified as 28-year-old Maksym Kuzminov, Kyiv’s Main Directorate of Intelligence said Sunday.

More live updates here.

The Washington Post

04 September 2023 15:05

Nobel Prize foundation scraps plan to invite Russia, Belarus after criticism

The Nobel Foundation reversed course on Saturday and said it would not invite the ambassadors of Russia and Belarus to this year’s award ceremony in Stockholm, after a decision to invite them back to the annual event drew objections in Sweden and Ukraine.

Earlier this week, the foundation which administers the award said ambassadors from all countries which are diplomatically represented in Sweden would be invited to the ceremony in December, after barring Russia and its ally Belarus in 2022 over the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.

The private foundation had said it sought to invite everyone this year, even “those who do not share the values of the Nobel Prize,” in an effort to promote dialogue and counter a tendency of growing global polarization.

A number of Swedish officials said as a result that they would boycott the event, which takes place on Dec. 10, the anniversary of scientist Alfred Nobel’s death.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

03 September 2023 13:55

In Ukraine, some see drinking Aperol Spritz as supporting Russia

KYIV — The Aperol Spritz is so popular that the cocktail is practically synonymous with summer in Europe, where connoisseurs cram onto patios and around bar tops to guzzle down the bubbly, orange aperitif.

But in Ukraine, many bars that once served the quintessential drink are now boycotting it, citing the decision of the brand’s owner, Italy-based Campari Group, to continue operating in Russia.

“We had glasses with the Aperol name on them and we destroyed them or threw them in the trash,” said Pavlo Lavrukhin, 29, a bartender at Squat 17B, a hipster hangout tucked behind a residential building in central Kyiv.

Made up of two parts Aperol — a bitter whose core ingredients are gentian, rhubarb and cinchona — three parts prosecco and a dash of sparkling water, poured over a glass of ice and topped with an orange slice, the drink is viewed by devotees as the ideal antidote to sweltering weather.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

02 September 2023 21:06

Here is the latest from Ukraine:

- White House spokesman John Kirby said that the criticism of Kyiv was “not helpful to the overarching effort to make sure that Ukraine can succeed. And they are.”

- Ukraine’s state security service named billionaire Ihor Kolomoisky as a suspect in a fraud and money laundering case, the agency, known as the SBU, announced on Telegram.

- The case against Kolomoisky is based on alleged fraud and laundering of criminally obtained property, the SBU reported.

- The Nobel committee on Saturday reversed its decision to allow Russia and Belarus to attend this year’s Nobel Prize award ceremony in Stockholm.

More live updates here.

The Washington Post

02 September 2023 13:25

Ukraine says it has manufactured and fired a long-range missile

MUKACHEVO, Ukraine — Ukrainian officials say their military is now using a long-range missile that was designed and manufactured domestically and can reach targets inside Russia — a potentially crucial capability because the United States and other Western supporters have imposed restrictions on using weapons they donate to strike Russian territory.

The development of the Ukrainian missile started well before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, a top Ukrainian security official said Friday. Officials have not disclosed the name of the missile.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, posting on the social media platform Telegram, said Ukrainian forces had successfully hit a target 700 kilometers (435 miles) away, using a missile “of our own production.”

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

01 September 2023 21:09

Here is the latest from Ukraine:

- White House Spokesperson John Kirby told reporters Friday that Ukraine has achieved “notable progress” in recent days in its counteroffensive to retake territory in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.

- The head of Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, said that Moscow’s new Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile had after months of delay been put on combat alert.

- Zelensky said Kyiv’s new long-range weapons were produced by the Ministry of Strategic Industries and, according to Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, have been under development since 2020.

- Moscow’s mayor reported early Friday that drones were shot down outside the city.

- A Russian missile hit a private enterprise in the central Ukrainian region of Vinnytsia overnight, according to a local official.

- Russia has created an underwater barrier of submerged ships and floating barriers to prevent attacks on the Crimean Bridge, the British Defense Ministry said Friday.

More live updates here.

The Washington Post

31 August 2023 21:15

Here is the latest from Ukraine:

- Russia and North Korea are “actively advancing” negotiations for weapons that would be used in the war in Ukraine, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said at a news conference.

- In Russia, the funeral of a prominent Wagner Group commander, Dmitry Utkin, took place Thursday, independent Russian media reported.

- Ukraine is investigating its military medical commissions for corruption after finding that some branches accepted bribes in exchange for falsified health documents that made men ineligible for the military draft.

- Russia will discuss an alternative to the Black Sea grain deal with Turkey this week, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

- Russia’s invasion of Ukraine led to “one of the most disruptive periods in decades for global food security,” according to a report from the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

More live updates here.

The Washington Post

30 August 2023 21:16

Here is the latest from Ukraine:

- A deluge of drones and missiles struck the Ukrainian capital early Wednesday, damaging buildings but causing relatively few casualties, according to city officials.

- The Kyiv drone attacks killed two people, ages 26 and 36, according to Kyiv’s military administration, and injured and hospitalized two others, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Wednesday on Telegram.

- Russia’s Defense Ministry said civilian infrastructure was targeted in at least six Russian regions that faced drone attacks overnight.

- Russia said it destroyed four Ukrainian military speedboats in the Black Sea carrying up to 50 paratroopers.

- The Kremlin said a Russian investigation was underway into the plane crash that killed Wagner Group chief Yevgeniy Prigozhin.

- Ukrainian forces made advances in southern and eastern Ukraine, according to an analysis by the Institute for the Study of War, which cited geolocated footage.

More live updates here.

The Washington Post

30 August 2023 15:35

Putin struggles with falling ruble, rising prices as sanctions bite

LONDON — When Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed top economic officials last week after a bruising month in which the Russian ruble plummeted to a 16-month low against the U.S. dollar, the Russian president sought to set a confident tone. The Russian economy, he said, was growing again and wages were rising.

But despite the show of bravado, Putin could not avoid mentioning a growing weakness that is stalking the economy as Western sanctions bite ever deeper, and one that has been exacerbated by the ruble’s plunge.

“Objective data shows that inflationary risks are increasing, and the task of reining in price growth is now the number one priority,” Putin said, with a note of tension in his voice. “I ask my colleagues in the government and the Central Bank to keep the situation under constant control.”

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

29 August 2023 21:46

Here is the latest from Ukraine:

- Wagner Group boss Yevgeniy Prigozhin was buried, without any public display or pomp, on Tuesday in a cemetery in St. Petersburg, local media outlets reported.

- Pope Francis drew criticism, including from Ukraine’s government, for off-the-cuff remarks he made to Russian Catholic youths over the weekend exalting the country’s cultural history. ”

- The United States announced an additional support package worth some $250 million to bolster Ukraine’s security and defense.

- Poland and the three Baltic countries called on Belarus to expel Russia’s Wagner Group over border security concerns.

- The United Nations said it has recorded 9,511 confirmed civilian deaths in Ukraine since the start of the war in February 2022 but noted that its count is incomplete and that “the actual figures are considerably higher.”

More live updates here.

The Washington Post

29 August 2023 16:52

Russia says it will question U.S. diplomats about former consulate worker

Russia’s Federal Security Service, the FSB, said that it planned to interrogate two U.S. diplomats after accusing them of directing a former employee of the U.S. Consulate in Vladivostok to gather information about Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Robert Shonov is a Russian citizen who had worked at the consulate, in Russia’s Far East, for more than 25 years. The FSB has charged Shonov with “cooperation on a confidential basis with a foreign state,” a crime publishable by up to eight years in prison.

The FSB accused Shonov of working alongside the two U.S. diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, whom it identified as Jeffrey Sillin and David Bernstein, since last September, “gathering information about the special military operation, mobilization processes in Russian regions, problems and the assessment of their influence on protest activities of the population in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election.”

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

28 August 2023 21:14

Here is the latest from Ukraine:

- Independent investigators from the United Nations were set to visit Ukraine on Monday as part of an ongoing probe into alleged human rights violations and abuses committed during Russia’s invasion.

- Following confirmations by Russia’s Investigative Committee that Prigozhin died in a plane crash outside Moscow last week, the committee is set to turn its focus to the cause of the crash.

- Polish authorities are investigating a series of sabotage attacks that brought dozens of trains to a standstill over the weekend amid heightened concerns about Russian attempts to disrupt the country.

- The commission concluded that Russia violated human rights in Ukraine in a previous report to the United Nations.

- Britain’s Defense Ministry says Russia has canceled a large-scale military exercise “because too few troops and equipment are available.”

More live updates here.

The Washington Post

28 August 2023 17:10

Wagner chief Prigozhin’s lingering popularity a challenge for Putin

Russians mourning the death of Wagner chief Yevgeniy Prigozhin have set up makeshift memorials in nearly two dozen cities across Russia and occupied Ukraine in recent days, a sign of the commander’s lingering popularity and a potential challenge for President Vladimir Putin amid divisions within the elite and in the military over the conduct of the war.

Prigozhin and other top Wagner leaders were killed after his Embraer business jet crashed Wednesday evening northwest of Moscow, just two months after Putin branded him a traitor for leading a short-lived rebellion against Russia’s military in June.

The memorials nonetheless showed Prigozhin’s support across Russia in hard line pro-war circles, and highlighted the Kremlin’s delicate task of managing potential anger among his supporters, with many in Russia’s elite convinced that Prigozhin’s death was an assassination ordered by the Kremlin.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

28 August 2023 09:35

Here's the latest from Ukraine:

- The death of Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group paramilitary force, in a plane crash outside Moscow last week has been confirmed by Russia’s Investigative Committee. The investigation will continue to probe the cause of the crash, the committee said, but Western analysts say the true cause may never be known because of opaque and often politicized investigations in Russia.

- U.N. investigators will visit Ukraine on Monday to probe alleged human rights violations and abuses. The members of the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry will visit Uman and Kyiv, among other locations, before presenting their findings next month.

- Two people were killed after a factory was struck by a Russian missile, the acting governor of Poltava region, Dmytro Lunin, said Monday morning local time. Two others were hospitalized and two more people may be stuck under the rubble, he said.

More live updates here.