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2022-09-30 22:52:36+00:00
Europe and allies condemn Russia’s illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory.
As President Vladimir V. Putin moved on Friday to take control of four Ukrainian regions, the European Union and NATO denounced Russia, saying they would never accept the illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory. Read more
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2022-09-30 21:53:25+00:00
Putin’s speech on annexation paints a stark picture of a face-off with the West.
President Vladimir V. Putin on Friday asserted that Russia would take control of four Ukrainian regions and decried the United States for “Satanism” in a speech that marked an escalation in Moscow’s war against Ukraine and positioned Russia, in starkly confrontational terms, as fighting an existential battle with Western elites he deemed “the enemy.”
Speaking to hundreds of Russian lawmakers and governors in a grand Kremlin hall, Mr. Putin said that the residents of the four regions — which are still partially controlled by Ukrainian forces — would become Russia’s citizens “forever.” He then held a signing ceremony with the Russian-installed heads of those regions to start the official annexation process, before clasping hands with them and chanting “Russia! Russia!” Read more
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2022-09-30 11:39:19+00:00
Ukraine says 25 people are dead in an attack on a civilian convoy in Zaporizhzhia.
Russia launched a flurry of rocket, drone and missile strikes against Ukrainian towns and cities overnight Thursday to Friday, creating scenes of destruction inside Ukraine as the Kremlin planned an elaborate, and widely rejected, annexation ceremony in Moscow.
The most lethal strike hit in Zaporizhzhia, one of the four Ukrainian provinces that Moscow plans to declare part of Russia on Friday as part of an annexation process that has been condemned by the West as a sham and comes after a humiliating battlefield defeat.
The attack killed at least 25 civilians who were waiting at a checkpoint and bus stop, and injured about 50, according to Ukraine’s prosecutor general — which would make it one of the deadliest single attacks against civilians in recent weeks. Read more
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2022-09-30 03:42:18+00:00
Putin concedes that some men were wrongly drafted.
President Vladimir V. Putin acknowledged “mistakes” on Thursday in how the Russian government has been carrying out his draft, a sign of the Kremlin’s scramble to keep public discontent in check over Mr. Putin’s effort to escalate the war in Ukraine. Read more
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2022-09-29 11:05:38+00:00
Putin will sign agreements on Friday to absorb four Ukrainian territories, the Kremlin says.
President Vladimir Putin will sign agreements on Friday for the Russian Federation to take over four Ukrainian territories, the Kremlin said on Thursday, outlining plans to annex the regions after referendums that were widely denounced as a sham. Read more
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2022-09-29 09:54:34+00:00
At least 200,000 Russians have left the country since Putin’s draft began.
At least 200,000 Russians have left the country in the week since President Vladimir Putin announced a partial military mobilization after a series of setbacks in the country’s war with Ukraine, according to figures provided by Russia’s neighbors. Read more
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2022-09-29 04:23:54+00:00
‘Putin Is a Fool’: Intercepted Calls Reveal Russian Army in Disarray
In phone calls to friends and relatives at home, Russian soldiers gave insider accounts of battlefield failures and civilian executions, criticizing their leaders just weeks into the campaign to take Kyiv. Listen to their conversations in the original Russian, with English subtitles. Read more
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2022-09-28 22:11:52+00:00
The Pentagon announced an additional $1.1 billion in long-term aid for Ukraine.
The Pentagon said on Wednesday it would send an additional $1.1 billion in long-term military aid to Ukraine, including 18 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System launchers, or HIMARS, one of the most vaunted weapons of the seven-month war with Russia.
But unlike the 16 HIMARS the military rushed to Ukraine from its existing stockpiles over the summer, these new weapons will be ordered from the manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, and will take “a few years” to deliver, a senior Defense Department official told reporters. Read more
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2022-09-28 15:17:25+00:00
Russian-backed officials ask Putin to annex Ukrainian regions after referendums that were widely dismissed as a sham.
Russian proxy officials in occupied areas of Ukraine appealed on Wednesday to President Vladimir V. Putin to join Russia, kicking off what is expected to be several days of pageantry and formalities intended to give Russia’s annexation plans a sheen of legitimacy.
The moves are meant to check boxes under Russian law and the Russian constitution in a process for claiming land in a neighboring country that most of the rest of the world sees as patently illegal.
Staged referendums in occupied areas of Ukraine were hastily set in motion last week after Russia suffered setbacks on the battlefield. After five days of stage-managed voting, in which many residents said they were coerced to cast a ballot by armed soldiers, the Russian proxy officials in occupied areas announced purported results that showed, as expected, overwhelming support for joining Russia. Read more
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2022-09-28 09:32:48+00:00
The top E.U. diplomat says the Nord Stream leaks resulted from ‘a deliberate act.’
The leaks in the Nord Stream gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea resulted from “a deliberate act,” the EU’s top diplomat said on Wednesday, joining a growing chorus of European leaders in speaking of sabotage.
Three separate leaks that were first discovered on Monday in the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines from Russia to Germany are “not a coincidence and affect us all,” Josep Borrell Fontelles, the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security, said in a statement on Wednesday. Read more
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2022-09-28 01:52:11+00:00
As Russians Flee, Some Find Draft Notices Waiting at the Border
The Kremlin has dispatched still more forces to shore up its faltering war effort, but the units are headed not to Ukraine but to Russia’s borders with other countries, where on Tuesday they were confronting young Russian men trying to join an exodus out of the country. Read more
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2022-09-27 21:31:12+00:00
At United Nations, Zelensky rails against Russia for trying to ‘steal’ Ukrainian territory.
With Russia appearing poised to annex parts of eastern and southern Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine lashed out at the Kremlin on Tuesday, telling the U.N. Security Council that Russia was staging “sham” referendums at gunpoint as a prelude to stealing part of his country. Read more
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2022-09-27 19:05:32+00:00
For a Deaf Family in Ukraine, the Bombs Came Without Warning
“At first I thought it was an earthquake,” said Antonina Andriyenko, 74, who is deaf and lives with her 48-year-old daughter, Tanya, who is deaf and autistic. In an interview through a sign language interpreter, Ms. Andriyenko described the fear and confusion as the Russian forces pounded the city.
“We were afraid to sleep. We stayed in a corner hiding,” she said. “The windows were breaking.”
Like others with disabilities, for the estimated 40,000 deaf and hearing-impaired Ukrainians, the war is particularly dangerous and difficult to navigate. While several thousand deaf Ukrainians have been evacuated to safer areas or neighboring countries, Ms. Andriyenko was among the many more who remained. Read more
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2022-09-27 16:34:08+00:00
As the scramble to escape Russia’s draft grows, call-up papers are served at the border with Georgia.
Russia’s Federal Security Service has dispatched armored vehicles to the country’s borders and men waiting to flee to Georgia were being served call-up papers, the state news media reported on Tuesday, as the avenues for Russians to escape mobilization to fight in Ukraine narrowed. Read more
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2022-09-27 14:00:52+00:00
European authorities are investigating leaks in the pipelines running from Russia to Germany.
The authorities in Germany, Denmark and Sweden are investigating suspicious leaks in two gas pipelines running from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea, after both experienced a sudden drop in pressure that raised concerns among European leaders on Tuesday about possible sabotage. Read more
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2022-09-27 13:18:41+00:00
Referendum results could have real-world consequences.
The four days of stage-managed referendums on joining Russia in occupied parts of Ukraine, which wrap up on Tuesday, blended raw intimidation tactics, including armed men in ski masks at polling stations, Orwellian messaging and efforts at festivities, such as thinly attended concerts on central squares.
The referendums were a show of supposed democracy by Russia, but one that is likely to have chilling real-world consequences. Results could be announced as soon as Tuesday, and are expected to claim that a majority of residents voted to join Russia, with the Kremlin then formally announcing annexation as soon as this week. Read more
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2022-09-27 09:52:25+00:00
As referendums end, a declaration of Russian annexation is expected to follow.
The Russian-led referendums in occupied parts of Ukraine are expected to show that a majority of residents voted to join Russia, with the Kremlin then formally announcing annexation as soon as this week.
The voting, which has drawn broad international condemnation as rigged, concludes Tuesday in Donetsk and Luhansk in the east, and Kherson and Zaporizka in the south.
If the regions are annexed, Russia has said, it would defend them as though they were Russian territory, including, potentially, with its arsenal of nuclear weapons. Read more
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2022-09-27 02:28:39+00:00
Russia Admits to Draft Problems as Anger Flares Into Violence
In a rare admission of official mistakes, the Kremlin acknowledged on Monday that its new military draft to reinforce the Russian assault on Ukraine has been rife with problems. The admission occurred the same day that a man, apparently distraught over the mobilization, shot and seriously wounded a recruitment officer at a draft office in Siberia. Read more
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2022-09-26 18:59:30+00:00
Two Cities, Two Armies: Pivot Points in the Fight in Ukraine’s East
The battle for the critical Donbas region in Ukraine is centered on two strategically important cities: Lyman, held by the Russians, and Bakhmut, held by Ukraine. The fighting over the cities is fierce as both armies race to claim new ground. Read more
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2022-09-26 15:00:33+00:00
Putin Ally Acknowledges Founding Wagner Mercenary Group
Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, a Russian businessman and close associate of President Vladimir V. Putin, acknowledged on Monday that he is the founder of the Wagner Group, a shadowy private military company that has fought on Russia’s side in the war in Ukraine. Read more
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2022-09-26 14:01:22+00:00
‘We didn’t know where else to go’: Ukrainians displaced by a counteroffensive seek shelter.
Ukraine’s successful counteroffensive outside the city has reclaimed significant territory from Russian forces, but it has also displaced tens of thousands of people from the towns and villages there. Read more
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2022-09-26 09:34:23+00:00
A recruitment officer was wounded in the shooting in Siberia.
A gunman opened fire at a Siberian military enlistment center on Monday, injuring a recruitment officer, as anger mounted over President Vladimir Putin’s plan to mobilize hundreds of thousands of civilians to bolster Russia’s struggling army in Ukraine. Read more
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2022-09-26 01:55:28+00:00
Russia Begins Mobilizing Ukrainians to Fight Against Their Own Country
In the occupied city of Kherson, some Ukrainian men believe that if they break their own arms, maybe the Russians will not force them into military service. Others are hiding in basements. Some are trying to run even though they are forbidden to leave the city, residents said, and virtually everyone is afraid.
“People are panicking,” said Katerina, 30. “First they were searching our houses, and now the Russians will conscript our men to their army. This is all unlawful but very real for us.” Read more
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2022-09-25 02:57:08+00:00
The U.S. says Russia isn’t preparing to use nuclear weapons, yet.
Biden administration officials have expressed concern that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia could detonate a tactical nuclear weapon — perhaps in a demonstration blast over the Black Sea or Arctic Ocean, or in Ukrainian territory — but on Saturday said there is no evidence yet that he is moving those weapons or preparing such a strike. Read more
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2022-09-24 02:23:48+00:00
Group of 7 countries condemn ‘sham’ referendums in Ukraine.
President Biden and leaders of the Group of 7 nations on Friday condemned Russia’s hastily called referendums in occupied parts of Ukraine, a possible prelude to annexation of those territories, calling the votes a flagrant violation of international law. Read more
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2022-09-23 15:28:11+00:00
Russians fleeing the draft will not be welcomed in the Baltic States, Lithuania’s foreign minister says.
Lithuania and its neighbors sharing land borders with Russia are taking a hard line with Russian men trying to escape being drafted to fight in Ukraine, the country’s foreign minister said in an interview on Friday. Read more
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2022-09-23 15:10:10+00:00
The referendums are taking place in areas from which large numbers of people have fled.
The staged voting in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine is taking place against a backdrop of violence and repression.
A campaign to “Russify” the areas began across the occupied parts of southern and eastern Ukraine in the first weeks of the Russian invasion, with a sophisticated propaganda apparatus that closely followed the tracks of the tanks. Read more
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2022-09-23 10:03:19+00:00
Staged voting is happening amid international condemnation.
Russia has begun orchestrating votes in territories it occupies in Ukraine, a move met with international condemnation.
The staged referendums on becoming part of Russia are expected to culminate with the annexation of an area larger than Portugal. Read more
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2022-09-22 18:34:00+00:00
Some men flee Russia, fearing they could be called up to fight.
Since President Vladimir Putin’s announcement on Wednesday of a new troop call-up, Russian men who had previously thought they were safe from being forced to the front lines have realized they could not count on staying out of their country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Some have left the country in a rush, paying rising prices to catch flights to countries such as Armenia, Georgia, Montenegro and Turkey that allow them to enter without visas. Read more
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2022-09-22 12:57:26+00:00
Thousands of Russians have already received draft papers, reports say.
A day after President Vladimir Putin announced a call-up that could see 300,000 civilians swept into military service, thousands of Russians across the country had reportedly received draft papers and were being bundled into buses on Thursday for training — and soon, possibly, to the front lines in Ukraine. Read more
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2022-09-22 10:02:46+00:00
Putin confidant Viktor Medvedchuk is the most prominent captive released in the prisoner swap.
Viktor Medvedchuk, the most prominent captive released by Ukraine in a prisoner swap with Russia, is a close friend of President Vladimir Putin of Russia who had acted as the Kremlin’s primary agent of influence in Ukraine for years.
Mr. Medvedchuk, a Ukrainian politician and oligarch, was handed over alongside Russian pilots and senior military officials, a top adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday, in exchange for more than 200 Ukrainian fighters including commanders of the Azov Battalion, who have been celebrated as heroes in Ukraine for their last-stand defense of Mariupol. It was the largest prisoner swap in the seven-month long war. Read more
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2022-09-21 22:31:33+00:00
Russia releases 215 fighters, including Mariupol commanders, in a prisoner exchange.
Ukrainian authorities have secured the release of the commanders of the Azov Battalion, whose defense of Mariupol from within a sprawling steel plant turned them into celebrities throughout Ukraine and made them a valuable prize for the Kremlin when they surrendered to Russian forces in May after an 80-day siege. Read more
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2022-09-21 18:17:23+00:00
At least 525 people are detained in protests across Russia.
Protesters across Russia took to the streets to show their disapproval of the “partial mobilization” policy announced by President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday morning that would press 300,000 into military service. At least 525 people from 30 cities were detained, according to OVD-Info, a human rights watchdog that monitors police activity. Read more
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2022-09-21 15:50:48+00:00
Putin’s speech marks a shift from a strategy that allowed most Russians to ignore the war.
Reactions in Russia to President Vladimir Putin’s announcement of a “partial mobilization” of reservists broke along ideological lines. Kremlin officials and their cheerleaders issued full-throated support while opponents — who have been largely sidelined — called the move an admission of failure and urged protests in cities across the country. Read more
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2022-09-21 14:52:31+00:00
E.U. countries ask the U.N to appoint a monitor to assess human rights violations in Russia.
As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine came under scrutiny at the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, European countries prepared unprecedented action in the agency’s top human rights body to put a spotlight on the Kremlin’s crackdown on political opposition and critics.
All the European Union members except Hungary are putting forward a resolution in the Human Rights Council in Geneva to appoint a special rapporteur or independent monitor to “collect, examine and assess” information on the situation within Russia and produce a report for the council in a year. Read more
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2022-09-21 09:14:53+00:00
As Russia suffers steep losses, Putin says more people will be called up to fight.
President Vladimir Putin of Russia accelerated his war effort in Ukraine on Wednesday, announcing a new mobilization campaign that would mean calling up roughly 300,000 additional soldiers at a time when his troops have suffered humiliating losses on the battlefield.
In a rare videotaped address to the nation, Mr. Putin stopped short of declaring a full, national draft but instead called for a “partial mobilization” of people with military experience. He said that Russia’s goals in Ukraine had not changed and that the move was “necessary and urgent” because the West had “crossed all lines” by providing sophisticated weapons to Ukraine. Read more
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2022-09-21 02:26:57+00:00
Russia Signals Annexation of Parts of Ukraine, Raising Stakes in Fighting
After stunning battlefield setbacks, Russia moved to cement its grip on territory it occupies in eastern and southern Ukraine, as Kremlin proxies there announced plans on Tuesday for referendums on annexation to Russia, indicating a possible escalation of the war.
The Kremlin signaled that if Russia were to go forward with annexation — even if no other countries recognized it — any further military action by Ukraine in those regions could be seen as an attack on Russia itself, justifying any military response by the nation with the world’s largest nuclear arsenal. Read more
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2022-09-20 22:40:21+00:00
Russia’s Invasion Shadows U.N. Assembly Amid ‘Colossal Global Dysfunction’
Divided by war, strained by shortages and faced with the cataclysm of global warming, dozens of world leaders convened at the United Nations in New York on Tuesday for the first full, in-person General Assembly since the pandemic began. Read more
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2022-09-20 17:26:13+00:00
Russia’s moves on referendums have echoes of Putin’s actions in Crimea in 2014.
After Russia’s stunning retreat from northeastern Ukraine earlier this month, Western officials puzzled over what President Vladimir Putin, seemingly backed into a corner, might do next.
In the space of 36 hours on Monday and Tuesday, the Kremlin delivered its answer in a tightly choreographed display in Russia’s state news media: Four Ukrainian regions occupied wholly or in part by Russia would hold “referendums” on joining Russia, a move widely seen as a prelude to annexation of those territories by Russia and a potential escalation of the war. Read more
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2022-09-20 12:43:13+00:00
Ukraine pushes farther into areas that were held by Russia.
Ukrainian forces have battled their way back into territory in eastern Ukraine, officials said on Tuesday, reclaiming areas lost under months of relentless fire of Russian artillery. It is part of a remarkable turnaround from June, when the Ukrainian Army was nearly out of ammunition and struggled to slow the Russian assault. Read more
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2022-09-20 09:24:20+00:00
Most of the 146 bodies exhumed in Izium so far were civilians, a Ukrainian official said.
Most of the 146 bodies exhumed so far in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Izium were civilians, and some of the bodies showed signs of torture, the leader of the regional military administration, Oleh Synyehubov, said Monday.
“Some of the dead have signs of violent death. There are bodies with tied hands and traces of torture,” Mr. Synyehubov wrote in a post on Telegram. Others had stab wounds or injuries from mine explosions and shrapnel, and two of the bodies belonged to children, he added. Read more
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2022-09-20 07:55:32+00:00
Russia is struggling to attract new recruits for its army, a U.S. official says.
Russia is struggling to attract recruits for its army amid its setbacks in Ukraine, while the United States is open to potentially sending Western tanks to Kyiv, a senior U.S. defense official said on Monday.
“The Russians are performing so poorly that the news from Kharkiv Province has inspired many Russian volunteers to refuse combat,” the official said, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the status of Russia’s war in Ukraine, adding that the leader of the Wagner Group, a private military company with ties to the Kremlin, had been seen in videos posted on social media asking Russian prisoners, Tajiks, Belarusians and Armenians to join the fight in Ukraine. Read more
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2022-09-19 15:57:16+00:00
One Big Problem for Ukraine Is Clear: Glass
Russian bombs. Soaring energy costs. Severed trade links. It’s getting hard to fix all the shattered windows in Ukraine, and winter is coming. Read more
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2022-09-19 14:16:46+00:00
Ukraine’s military claims it has crossed a river that Russia marked as a defensive line.
Ukraine’s military said on Sunday that its forces had crossed the Oskil River, which has emerged as the new front line in the northeast after the recent rout of Russian forces from the Kharkiv region. Read more
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2022-09-19 13:08:40+00:00
A Russian missile hits less than 1,000 feet from nuclear reactors.
A powerful Russian missile exploded less than 900 feet from the reactors at the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant just after midnight on Monday, Ukrainian officials said, narrowly avoiding a possible nuclear calamity and underscoring the threat posed by the Kremlin’s assaults on critical infrastructure across Ukraine. Read more
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2022-09-19 01:47:27+00:00
Ukraine’s Counteroffensive Forces Face Mobilized Inmates and Drones
In battlefields in the rolling hills of the Donbas in eastern Ukraine, and near the Black Sea in the south, Ukrainian troops have stubbornly tried to inch forward without losing control of territory, facing an opponent whose forces have been bolstered by inmates-turned-fighters and by Iranian drones. Read more
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2022-09-18 04:39:07+00:00
Biden Warns Russia, Facing Losses, Against Using Unconventional Weapons
Across the vast stretch of thousands of square miles of land newly reclaimed by Ukrainian forces in the northeastern Kharkiv region, accusations of Russian atrocities by Ukrainian officials mounted on Saturday as Ukraine stepped up its calls for a global response. Many of the claims have not yet been independently verified. Read more
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2022-09-17 18:04:28+00:00
Ukraine wants the U.S. to send powerful new weapons. Biden is not so sure.
Flush with victory in northeast Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky is pressing President Biden for a new and more powerful weapon: a missile system with a range of 190 miles, which could reach far into Russian territory. Read more
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2022-09-17 13:20:19+00:00
Izium discoveries renew focus on holding Russia accountable for civilian toll.
The discovery this week of hundreds of bodies buried in a forest near the northeastern Ukrainian city of Izium has cast a renewed spotlight on potential war crimes and prompted fresh calls to hold Russia accountable for any abuses committed during their occupation of the city. Read more
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2022-09-17 02:27:32+00:00
Amid Russia’s growing international isolation, India’s leader tells Putin that today is no time for war.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India told Vladimir Putin on Friday that “today’s era is not one for war,” underlining Russia’s increasing international isolation one day after China’s leader refrained from fully supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Read more
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2022-09-17 01:51:59+00:00
Biden meets with relatives of Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan.
President Biden met on Friday with family members of Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan, two Americans imprisoned in Russia whose release the United States is trying to negotiate with Moscow amid poisoned relations over the Ukraine war. Read more
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2022-09-16 20:19:36+00:00
Video Reveals How Russian Mercenaries Recruit Inmates for Ukraine War
In a video that emerged on Tuesday, the de facto leader of a Russian mercenary outfit known as the Wagner Group is seen promising convicts release from prison in return for a six-month combat tour in Russia’s war against Ukraine. Read more
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2022-09-16 19:01:51+00:00
Fire and Fear in South Ukraine
A southern Ukrainian city miles from the war's front lines has been a target of near-incessant Russian shelling since the invasion began. The New York Times followed a team of firefighters on 24-hour shifts as they risked their lives to control the damage. Read more
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2022-09-16 17:09:52+00:00
Putin threatens to escalate war after Russian forces deliver what he called ‘warning strikes.’
President Vladimir Putin of Russia on Friday threatened to escalate his war in Ukraine, even as he declared that the “main goal” of his invasion was limited to taking control of the Donbas region in the country’s east. Read more
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2022-09-16 16:31:10+00:00
India’s Leader Tells Putin That Today Is No Time for War
Underlining Russia’s increasing international isolation a day after China’s leader refrained from offering full-throated support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India told President Vladimir Putin on Friday that it is no time for war. Read more
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2022-09-16 15:19:13+00:00
‘Here are my neighbors and friends’: In a pine forest full of graves, Ukraine points to atrocities.
Ukrainian investigators on Friday began exhuming hundreds of bodies found after Russian forces fled the city of Izium in disarray last weekend. It was the first step in what officials said would be a painstaking process of figuring out how people had died during a three-week siege of their city and the six months of Russian occupation that followed. Read more
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2022-09-16 09:19:37+00:00
A mass grave site is found in recently reclaimed Izium.
A mass grave site uncovered in Izium, a city in northeast Ukraine, could hold the bodies of more than 400 people who died during the six months of Russian occupation, Ukrainian officials say. Read more
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2022-09-16 02:24:24+00:00
Biden says the U.S. will send $600 million in additional military supplies to Ukraine.
The Biden administration said on Thursday that it would send an additional $600 million in military supplies to Ukraine, including more artillery ammunition, counterartillery radar, counterdrone systems and mine-clearing equipment. Read more
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2022-09-15 18:22:04+00:00
The war may be distant in Moscow, but in one Russian border city, it’s real.
President Vladimir Putin has tried to keep life as normal as possible for most Russians as he conducts his war in Ukraine, and to make the hostilities a distant concept. But with Ukrainian forces now on the offensive, residents of Belgorod, 25 miles from the Ukrainian border, feel like the war has come to their doorstep. Read more
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2022-09-15 13:01:42+00:00
Putin acknowledges China may have ‘questions and concerns’ about the war.
President Vladimir Putin said Moscow understood that China had “questions and concerns” about the war in Ukraine, according to the Interfax news agency — a notable, if cryptic, admission from Mr. Putin that Beijing may not fully approve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
He made the remark as he met with Xi Jinping, the leader of China, on Thursday in Uzbekistan. China has staked out a neutral position on the invasion publicly, even as it has echoed the Kremlin’s rhetoric about Russia being treated unfairly by the West. Read more
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2022-09-15 09:38:20+00:00
Fearing flooding, Ukrainian officials call for evacuations after Russia damaged a dam.
A salvo of cruise missiles slammed into the industrial Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on Wednesday, damaging a dam on the Inhulets River, a strategic waterway, and many residents were worried about flooding.
Military analysts suggested the Russians may have targeted the dam to make the river level rise and frustrate Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the south. The Inhulets separates the bulk of Ukraine’s forces from their Russian counterparts. Read more
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2022-09-14 18:35:32+00:00
Renewed fighting in ex-Soviet states raises questions about Putin’s influence.
Skirmishes continued on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan on Wednesday, a day after more than 100 soldiers were killed in fighting that is challenging the ability of President Vladimir Putin of Russia to respond to rising tensions between his country’s neighbors as he faces setbacks in Ukraine. Read more
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2022-09-14 15:04:03+00:00
Russia’s retreat from the northeast leaves other territory it controls vulnerable.
Russia’s retreat from northeastern Ukraine is a setback for Moscow, but it opens the door to the possibility of an even greater one: that Ukrainian forces, galvanized by their success, will sweep south to try to reclaim territory in the eastern Donbas region that has been one of the Kremlin’s main objectives in the war. Read more
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2022-09-14 13:05:06+00:00
Zelensky’s visit to Izium highlights the failure of Russia’s campaign in the northeast.
President Volodymyr Zelensky made a dramatic visit to newly reclaimed Izium on Wednesday, raising the Ukrainian flag over the strategic city and underscoring the failure of Russia’s campaign in the northeast. Read more
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2022-09-14 09:08:45+00:00
The Kharkiv offensive freed about 150,000 people from Russian occupation, Ukraine says.
After Russian forces retreated in disarray and Ukrainian troops reclaimed hundreds of square miles in the northeast, civilians who had been living under Russian occupation for months are experiencing a jarring shift in focus from survival to re-establishing normal life.
About 150,000 people in some 300 communities in northeastern Ukraine are living in areas reclaimed from Russian control, Hanna Malyar, Ukraine’s deputy minister of defense, said on Tuesday. Read more
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2022-09-14 02:29:35+00:00
U.S. Rebukes Russia for Claims of Secret Bioweapons in Ukraine
The State Department strongly criticized Russia on Tuesday for making what it called “spurious allegations” that the United States operated clandestine biological weapons laboratories in Ukraine.
The department accused Russia of abusing the formal review process of the Biological Weapons Convention, a treaty barring the manufacturing and use of deadly toxins or pathogens, by using a diplomatic meeting in Geneva last week as a platform to continue spreading disinformation to justify the war in Ukraine. Read more
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2022-09-13 18:37:54+00:00
After Ukraine’s success in the northeast, shelling remains intense in the nearby Donbas.
Ukrainian forces in the country’s northeast are taking stock of their gains from a recent lightning offensive and preparing for their next battle, but further east in the regions that have endured years of conflict, the war’s dynamic is mostly unchanged. Read more
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2022-09-13 17:12:59+00:00
Ukraine faces a difficult task in repairing the railway in areas it took back from Russia.
Ukraine is working to repair damaged tracks and remove land mines around the rail network in the Kharkiv region, the head of the country’s railroads said on Tuesday, as he took a trip that illustrated the challenges the government faces trying to restore services in areas it has taken back from Russian control. Read more
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2022-09-13 14:33:53+00:00
The West must focus on building Ukraine’s long-term military capacity, experts urge.
In order to be able to defend itself beyond Russia’s invasion, Ukraine needs significant long-term Western investment in its military — including weapons, intelligence support and training for its armed forces — according to an expert report published on Tuesday. Read more
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2022-09-13 10:01:24+00:00
The Russians have ‘largely ceded’ gains in the Kharkiv region, a Pentagon official says.
Ukrainian forces have succeeded in driving Russian forces from territory they had held in the Kharkiv region during their ongoing counteroffensive, a senior US military officer said on Monday, adding that some of the troops have moved back into Russia. Read more
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2022-09-13 01:38:32+00:00
As Russian Losses Mount in Ukraine, So Does Criticism Back Home
More than 40 local elected officials across Russia signed a two-sentence petition on Monday that ended with: “We demand the resignation of Vladimir Putin from the post of president of the Russian Federation!”
The petition, pushed by opponents of the Ukraine invasion, had no practical impact, and it was roundly ignored in Russia’s state-controlled media. But it was striking in its very existence, showing that despite the Kremlin’s extraordinary crackdown on dissent, Ukraine’s counteroffensive successes have left opponents of President Vladimir V. Putin newly emboldened — and his supporters looking for someone else to blame. Read more
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2022-09-12 20:19:37+00:00
Ukraine’s Sudden Success Could Bolster Europe’s Support — and Morale
A sudden Ukrainian success on the battlefield provided a boost not only to Ukrainians but to their supporters in Europe, who face a difficult winter of soaring energy prices and inflation.
The ability of the Ukrainian military to use its Western-supplied arms to great advantage against Russia will likely increase the pressure on countries like Germany to supply more sophisticated, heavier weapons like tanks, analysts say. Read more
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2022-09-12 19:28:29+00:00
Why Russia and China are drawing closer.
With Moscow a pariah among many Western nations since its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, good relations with Beijing have become more important to it than ever. Not only has China refrained from condemning the attack, it has also helped keep Russia’s economy afloat by stepping in to buy Russian oil as Western nations curtail their purchases. Read more
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2022-09-12 18:41:26+00:00
Losses in Ukraine Prompt Something New on Russian TV: Debate
As Russia suffered its most humiliating defeat since the initial stage of the war in Ukraine, cracks emerged in the official narrative as lawmakers and pundits on state television cast doubt on Moscow’s prospects. Read more
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2022-09-12 14:00:30+00:00
Russia’s retreat in Ukraine pokes holes in Putin’s projection of force.
Ukraine’s rout of Russian forces this weekend is creating a new kind of political challenge for President Vladimir Putin: It undercuts the image of competence and might that he has worked for two decades to build. Read more
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2022-09-12 12:51:41+00:00
Ukraine also claims progress in the south and redoubles calls for Russians to surrender.
The Ukrainian military claimed on Monday that it had retaken more territory in the south and was reiterating calls for Russian units fighting west of the Dnipro River in the Kherson region to surrender. Read more
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2022-09-12 09:19:11+00:00
Videos show Ukrainian troops celebrating in recaptured towns.
As Ukraine reclaims territory in the Kharkiv region, military and government officials have shared videos purporting to show soldiers liberating towns and villages in the northeast.
In one video, soldiers shouted, “Glory to Ukraine!” as they tore down a billboard featuring the Russian flag the town of Balakliya. Another video appeared to show a soldier in Chkalovske, which President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday had been retaken by Ukrainian forces, raising Ukraine's blue and yellow flag on a tower above the village.
The footage, which is circulating widely in Ukraine, could not be independently verified. Read more
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2022-09-12 02:20:03+00:00
Ukraine Routs Russian Forces in Northeast, Forcing a Retreat
Stunned by a lightning advance by Ukrainian forces that cost it over 1,000 square miles of land and a key military hub, Russia on Sunday acknowledged that it had lost nearly all of the northern region of Kharkiv after a blitzkrieg thrust that cast doubt on a premise — widely held in Moscow and parts of the West — that Ukraine could never defeat Russia. Read more
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2022-09-11 06:09:54+00:00
Russia says that a senior Chinese official expressed support for the invasion of Ukraine.
A senior Chinese official offered Beijing’s most robust endorsement yet of Moscow’s war in Ukraine, telling a group of Russian lawmakers on Friday that China “understands and supports Russia,” particularly “on the situation in Ukraine,” according to an official Russian description of the meeting. Read more
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2022-09-10 19:27:08+00:00
As Russians Retreat, Putin Is Criticized by Hawks Who Trumpeted His War
As Russian forces hastily retreated in northeastern Ukraine on Saturday in one of their most embarrassing setbacks of the war, President Vladimir V. Putin was at a park in Moscow, presiding over the grand opening of a Ferris wheel. Read more
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2022-09-10 13:18:06+00:00
Ukrainian forces push deeper into the Kharkiv region, capturing more towns.
Ukrainian forces claimed new ground and continued pressing forward on Saturday in their rapidly advancing northeastern offensive, as military analysts and pro-Kremlin bloggers suggested that Russian control of the key military stronghold of Izium was dissipating. Read more
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2022-09-09 23:42:35+00:00
Rebuilding Ukraine will cost at least $349 billion, a new report estimates.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused more than $97 billion in damage, and the cost of rebuilding the country has reached an estimated $349 billion, according to a joint assessment issued Friday by the World Bank, the European Commission and Ukraine’s government. Read more
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2022-09-09 17:17:04+00:00
U.N. human rights monitors say they have found more evidence that Russia is torturing prisoners.
United Nations human rights monitors said on Friday that Russia was denying them access to detention sites where they have found increasing evidence of torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war that may amount to war crimes. Read more
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2022-09-09 15:46:29+00:00
Blinken says Russia is using energy supplies to ‘break the will’ of European countries.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday said that the United States’ European allies must stand firm against President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to “bully” them this winter by manipulating energy prices.
Mr. Blinken warned that Mr. Putin, the Russian leader, had “weaponized” natural gas supplies to Europe, choking off shipments and creating scarcity that is costing consumers and businesses dearly. Read more
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2022-09-09 10:34:28+00:00
Ukraine says it has regained ground in the Kharkiv region.
Ukraine claims it has regained significant territory on multiple fronts following an offensive launched this week in the Kharkiv region, a key battleground in the northeast, which appears to have surprised Russian forces and cut off key supply lines. Read more
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2022-09-09 02:31:52+00:00
In a Surprise Visit to Ukraine, Blinken Offers Aid and Encouragement
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken paid a surprise visit to Kyiv on Thursday, pledging $2.8 billion in military aid for Ukraine and other countries at risk of Russian invasion as the U.S. backs a Ukrainian effort to gain fresh military momentum. Read more
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2022-09-08 18:49:52+00:00
The U.S. will send an additional $675 million in military supplies to Ukraine, Austin says.
Emphasizing that the United States was prepared to support Ukraine “for the long haul,” Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said Thursday that Washington will send an additional $675 million in military supplies to Ukraine, including air-launched missiles designed to destroy enemy radars. Read more
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2022-09-08 13:07:03+00:00
Shock Waves Hit the Global Economy, Posing Grave Risk to Europe
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the continuing effects of the pandemic have hobbled countries around the globe, but the relentless series of crises has hit Europe the hardest, causing the steepest jump in energy prices, some of the highest inflation rates and the biggest risk of recession.
The fallout from the war is menacing the continent with what some fear could become its most challenging economic and financial crisis in decades. Read more
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2022-09-08 12:49:26+00:00
With the latest aid, total U.S. assistance to Ukraine would reach $13.5 billion.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a visit to Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, on Thursday that he would notify Congress that the United States intends to send another $2 billion in long-term military support to Ukraine and 18 other countries that are at risk of Russian invasion. Read more
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2022-09-08 09:22:21+00:00
The U.S. accuses Moscow of forcibly deporting up to 1.6 million Ukrainians.
The U.S. on Wednesday accused Moscow of deporting up to 1.6 million Ukrainians to Russia or Russian-controlled territory and subjecting them to a “filtration” process involving invasive security screening, interrogation, family separation and detention. Read more
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2022-09-08 06:30:19+00:00
Europe Says Putin’s Gas Power Is Weakening
In Germany and elsewhere, leaders are growing more confident that months of work to stockpile and line up alternate energy sources may help them blunt Russia’s weaponization of exports. Read more
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2022-09-07 22:30:33+00:00
The Baltic States agree to bar land crossings by Russian tourists.
Alarmed that their eastern borders with Russia and Belarus have become a popular channel for Russian tourists traveling to Europe while their country wages war in Ukraine, the three Baltic countries agreed on Wednesday to ban Russians from crossing into their countries by land, sealing one of the last relatively easy routes out of Russia. Read more
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2022-09-07 19:58:15+00:00
New fighting is reported in northeastern Ukraine after focus turned to the south.
An attack in northeastern Ukraine this week suggests that Kyiv may be attempting to exploit the redeployment of Russian forces defending against a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the south as the sprawling conflict continues into its seventh month, according to observers. Read more
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2022-09-07 15:44:49+00:00
How Will Ukraine Rebuild (and Who Should Pay)?
Even as Russia’s war on Ukraine continues, Ukrainian allies are grappling with difficult questions about the country’s reconstruction. A report to Western donors, seen by The New York Times, urges quick decisions and strict foreign oversight of any aid. Read more
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2022-09-07 12:33:55+00:00
Even as his invasion struggles, the Russian president insisted the war had raised Moscow’s stature.
President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday argued that the West had failed in its “economic, financial and technological aggression” against Russia and that his country had only gained from the global standoff over his invasion of Ukraine.
“We have not lost anything and will not lose anything,” Mr. Putin said at an economic conference in the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok. Read more
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2022-09-07 09:36:54+00:00
Top U.N. officials say neither country should have a military presence at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.
At an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Tuesday, top officials called for an immediate agreement on a demilitarized perimeter around a Russian-occupied nuclear plant in southern Ukraine and for neither country’s military to occupy the facility where fighting has prompted international fears of a disaster. Read more
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2022-09-07 04:13:10+00:00
Scholz announces a $65 billion relief package in Germany.
The German government announced a $65 billion relief package on Sunday to help ease the burden on citizens facing soaring inflation and surging energy costs that have worsened with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — and have sent European leaders scrambling to prepare the continent for winter. Read more
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2022-09-06 22:52:06+00:00
‘Playing With Fire’: U.N. Team Calls for No-Fire Zone at Ukraine Nuclear Plant
The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog on Tuesday called for a no-fire zone around an embattled Ukrainian nuclear generator, but like the plant itself, the agency was quickly caught up in the war between Russia and Ukraine. Read more
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2022-09-06 19:57:17+00:00
Biden will not designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism.
President Biden will not designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, despite pleas from Ukraine’s government that he do so, because such an action could set back humanitarian efforts and potential peace negotiations, the White House said on Tuesday. Read more
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2022-09-06 18:09:33+00:00
Ukraine seeks a safe route for civilians wanting to flee the region of an embattled nuclear plant.
Ukraine on Tuesday appealed to Moscow to allow safe passage for civilians seeking to leave the vicinity of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southern Ukraine, a senior government official said, in comments that could be aimed at putting pressure on Russia to agree to a local cease-fire. Read more
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2022-09-06 12:53:04+00:00
Russia is buying North Korean artillery, according to U.S. intelligence.
Russia is buying millions of artillery shells and rockets from North Korea, according to newly declassified American intelligence, a sign that sanctions and export controls have severely restricted Moscow’s supply chains and forced it to turn to pariah states for military supplies. Read more
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2022-09-06 09:03:03+00:00
The International Atomic Energy Agency will report its findings after its trip to Zaporizhzhia.
After its recent inspection of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, the UN’s nuclear watchdog agency will issue a report about its findings on Tuesday.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, the agency’s director general, will share findings about the facility’s safety and security in the report. Later in the day, the agency plans to brief the UN Security Council about the findings. Read more
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2022-09-06 04:12:34+00:00
‘Nothing Has Really Changed’: In Moscow, the Fighting Is a World Away
Russia’s army is now waging a slow-moving war that has left tens of thousands dead and contributed to global inflation and a surge in energy prices.
Despite the fighting, very little about day-to-day life seems to have changed in Moscow, where people have the financial resources to weather significant price increases, unlike much of the rest of the country. GUM, the luxury mall next to Red Square, is full of shoppers — though many Western stores like Prada, Gucci and Christian Dior are closed — and restaurants and theaters do thriving business. Moscow’s roads still teem with luxury cars like Lamborghinis and Porsches. Read more
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2022-09-05 08:25:29+00:00
Zelensky says two towns in the south have been liberated.
Ukrainian forces recaptured two communities in the country’s south, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday, offering a rare commentary on its counteroffensive that has been shrouded in secrecy. Read more
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2022-09-05 01:46:30+00:00
Wary of Cold Days and Hot Tempers, Europe’s Leaders Vow Economic Relief
European governments moved this weekend to soften the blow of soaring costs and a deepening energy crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine, and scrambled to prepare for the possibility of social unrest as the days grow colder. Read more
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2022-09-04 01:56:49+00:00
A 9-year-old boy is killed in a rocket attack in southern Ukraine.
A 9-year-old boy was killed and at least 10 people were seriously injured on Saturday when Russian rockets hit a residential area in the southern Ukrainian town of Zelenodolsk, as fighting over the Kherson region intensified, the local governor said. Read more
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2022-09-03 18:32:49+00:00
A Ukrainian nuclear plant has again been cut off from its main external power line after shelling, the U.N. says.
Shelling once again threatened the safe operation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, even as United Nations officials expressed cautious optimism that a permanent presence of its inspectors at the plant was helping to lower the risk of a nuclear disaster. Read more
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2022-09-03 17:04:51+00:00
Europe says it can weather the winter as Russia postpones resuming gas flow.
European officials have expressed confidence that they can endure a winter with limited Russian energy, as Moscow postponed restarting the flow of natural gas to Germany through a closely-watched pipeline.
The European Union has been preparing for the possibility that Russia may cut gas deliveries in retaliation for European opposition to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Under the long tenure of President Vladimir V. Putin, Russia has wielded energy in myriad ways for foreign policy gains, often in efforts to seek leverage over European policies by turning off the gas spigot in the wintertime. Read more
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2022-09-03 12:31:15+00:00
Stationing inspectors at the Zaporizhzhia plant marks a victory for the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
As fighting raged in Ukraine this week near Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency managed to inspect the site and, perhaps more important, station two inspectors there to monitor its safety. Read more
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2022-09-03 00:03:05+00:00
The Biden administration asks Congress for $13.7 billion in additional aid for Ukraine, underscoring its resolve.
The Biden administration on Friday asked Congress for $13.7 billion in additional aid for Ukraine, underlining its commitment to support the war-battered country in a costly conflict that shows little sign abating. Read more
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2022-09-02 19:49:19+00:00
Gazprom says the gas pipeline connecting Russia to Germany will remain closed.
Gazprom said on Friday that it would postpone restarting the flow of natural gas through a closely watched pipeline that connects Russia to Germany, an unexpected delay that appeared to be part of larger struggle between Moscow and the West over energy and the war in Ukraine. Read more
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2022-09-02 16:18:05+00:00
Against Fierce Resistance, Ukraine Makes Small Gains in the South
The Ukrainian military pushed forward this week with a counteroffensive in the south, breaking through some frontline defenses to retake several small villages and signaling its ability to strike a larger Russian force that has spent months preparing for such an attack. Read more
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2022-09-02 13:05:36+00:00
A price cap on Russian oil wins the backing of G7 ministers.
The top economic officials of the world’s leading advanced economies agreed on Friday to forge ahead with a plan to form an international buyers’ cartel to cap the price of Russian oil, accelerating an ambitious effort to avoid a price shock while draining President Vladimir Putin’s war chest. Read more
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2022-09-02 09:27:40+00:00
A risky mission to assess the imperiled nuclear plant continues.
Five remaining inspectors from a UN watchdog agency were to continue assessing the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine on Friday, a day after making a risky and long-awaited trip to the imperiled facility to ensure critical emergency equipment was operational. But it remained unclear what steps the agency would be able to take to prevent the dangers of fierce combat around the plant. Read more
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2022-09-02 03:16:31+00:00
Witness to the Massacre in Mariupol
Survivors describe the destruction of the Donetsk Regional Academic Drama Theater in Mariupol — the single most lethal act of violence against Ukrainian civilians since Russia invaded. Read more
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2022-09-01 22:59:37+00:00
Zelensky says Russia prevented independent journalists from observing the I.A.E.A. mission.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine hailed the arrival of United Nations inspectors at the occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant on Thursday, but said Russia was undermining the inspection by preventing independent journalists from observing it and by intimidating residents in the surrounding town. Read more
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2022-09-01 17:56:14+00:00
With war raging near the plant, what can the U.N. inspectors accomplish?
Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency who led the team of inspectors, said the peril of the moment justified the risks of the journey.
But even after the team safely reached the plant and gave it an initial four-hour inspection, it was far from clear what the mission could ultimately accomplish. Read more
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2022-09-01 09:44:54+00:00
The U.N. mission heads toward a buffer zone between the two armies.
Experts from the UN’s nuclear watchdog agency reached a Ukrainian checkpoint before a buffer zone between the Russian and Ukrainian armies on Thursday morning, as their risky journey to an imperiled nuclear plant continued despite increased shelling in the region. Read more
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2022-09-01 08:02:34+00:00
Pencil, chalk and first-aid kits: Ukrainian children return to school in the midst of war.
The bodies that littered the school playground in April are gone. The blood on the walls has been scrubbed clean and workers were working to repair shattered windows.
On Thursday, classes begin for millions of Ukrainian children whose families are struggling to educate them. Read more
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2022-09-01 03:49:16+00:00
A Frontline Shadow Economy: Ukrainian Units Swap Tanks and Artillery
“Listen, here’s the thing, we have a needless tank, a T-72 a bit damaged. And we’d exchange it for something nice.” Ukrainian soldiers on the front line are exchanging items captured from Russian troops for the supplies they urgently need. Read more