Russian forces on Saturday claimed control over two additional settlements in Ukraine’s embattled Donetsk region, as the Kremlin pressed its slow but steady advance in the east while President Donald Trump renewed efforts to broker a direct meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
U.S. President Donald J. Trump shook hands with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, at the U.S. Joint Base Elmendorf in Anchorage, Alaska, to discuss a path to peace for Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War II, raging in Ukraine. Their summit comes after another night of Russian air strikes in Ukraine and Kyiv responding with drone attacks in Russia.
Ukraine says Russia launched two ballistic missiles and nearly 100 drones overnight in more than a dozen locations across the country, as Moscow claimed it intercepted scores of Ukrainian drones over land and sea.
Once dismissed as “cannon fodder,” North Korean soldiers deployed in the Russian offensive against Ukraine are now being described by their Ukrainian adversaries as disciplined and formidable fighters.
The chief of the NATO military alliance has warned that Ukraine is not in a strong enough position for peace talks with Russia after U.S. President-elect Donald J. Trump vowed to end the war between the two nations.
A former adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin says the militaries of the United States and Britain have become “legitimate” targets as the U.S. is directly involved in the war “by allowing” Ukraine to fire its long-range missiles at Russia.
The United States confirmed Wednesday that it secretly shipped long-range missiles to Ukraine for use in its conflict with Russia.
Ukrainian and Western leaders have welcomed a desperately needed military aid package for Ukraine passed by the U.S. House of Representatives after mounting concerns the country may lose the war against Russia. In addition to the 61 billion dollars worth of military assistance for Ukraine, the House approved part of a broader foreign aid package that included about $34 billion for Israel and other allies, despite Moscow’s warning the aid package would further escalate the armed conflict.
The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has expressed concern about the mounting death toll among children in Ukraine after the war against Russia entered its third year. UNICEF announced at least eight people, including children, were killed in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro by a suspected Russian air strike.
At least 14 people were killed and scores injured when Russian missiles hit an eight-floor apartment building in the heart of the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, authorities said.
Ukraine’s parliament has passed a mobilization bill to send more men to the battlefields in the war against Russia that has already killed and injured hundreds of thousands of people.
Amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces have violently persecuted Ukrainian Christians by torturing them and removing them from their positions, a group of church leaders and rights advocates have told United States Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson.
Ukraine was preparing for an unhappy New Year on Sunday after coming under massive Russian air strikes that killed scores of people. The attacks come as the president of Ukraine struggles to maintain the gigantic Western support needed to stand up against Russia’s military, which invaded his country in February 2022.
Ukraine says it has killed five high-ranking Russian officials in an area that Russia’s military has partly occupied. The strike comes as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has entered its 22nd month, and the NATO military alliance is holding talks on the challenges ahead.
Ukraine’s capital city was struggling Saturday with “Russia’s largest drone attack” in the war so far, injuring several, the Ukrainian Air Force and other sources said.
More video evidence emerged this weekend of Russia readying for peace talks with Ukraine as hundreds of thousands were killed and injured since Moscow invaded the country in February last year.
Ukraine has been on top of the agenda alongside the Israel-Gaza war at the summit of European Union ministers in Brussels, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, warned of a brutal winter with more Russian attacks expected against his country’s infrastructure. However, Germany already pledged that its support for the war-torn nation would be “massively expanded” next year.
Russia has warned Ukraine of security risks if it continues shipping grain out of Ukrainian Black Sea ports without Moscow’s approval. The Kremlin made the announcement after pulling out of a grain deal and then ordering overnight air strikes on Ukrainian port cities.
Moscow on Monday pulled out of a grain deal that allowed Ukraine to export grain through the Black Sea after two people died in a blast hitting a bridge linking Crimea with Russia.
In an apparent warning that it won’t be intimidated, Russia launched a massive drone strike on Ukraine’s capital just hours after the end of a NATO military alliance summit in Lithuania.