Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has acknowledged that his country’s long-awaited counteroffensive against Russia has begun. The comments come after an escalation of fighting in the south and east of Ukraine and Moscow expressing doubts about Kyiv’s progress of the widely anticipated push.
Kyiv pleaded for international help on Wednesday as tens of thousands of people were at risk of drowning following the collapse of a gigantic dam in a Russian-occupied region of southern Ukraine.
Ukraine has accused Russia of blowing up a massive dam on the Dnipro River, forcing thousands of people to flee catastrophic flooding. Moscow denies responsibility for the disaster in the Russian-occupied Kherson area in southern Ukraine, but Kyiv wants the United Nations to intervene.
Moscow claimed Monday that it prevented a Ukrainian counter-offensive by killing 250 Ukrainian troops amid concerns in the West that its weapons were used against Russia.
Ukraine says a toddler has been killed and 22 injured after a Russian air strike in a residential area of the Ukrainian central city of Dnipro. But there were growing indications Sunday that the war in Ukraine was further escalating beyond its borders, with Russian authorities accusing Kyiv of attacking targets inside Russian territory.
War was brought to Russia’s capital early Tuesday as drone strikes hit Moscow, damaging several buildings and prompting evacuations, the city’s mayor and other sources said.
Explosions shook Ukraine’s capital Sunday as Russia launched dozens of drones on Kyiv, killing at least one person, officials said. Elsewhere in the wartorn nation, the death toll from Friday’s Russian missile strike on a clinic in the eastern city of Dnipro rose from two to four people ahead of an imminent Ukrainian counter-offensive.
At least two people have been killed and 23 injured in a Russian missile strike on a medical clinic in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro, the regional governor said Friday.
The United States expressed concern Thursday about growing evidence that U.S. military equipment provided to Ukraine is used to carry out attacks inside Russian territory amid fears it could lead to a nuclear confrontation.
Moscow said Tuesday it had pushed back armed insurgents who crossed the border from Ukraine to launch attacks in Russia’s Belgorod region in the deadliest cross-border confrontation since the war began 15 months ago.
Ukraine’s war rapidly escalated and expanded into neighboring Russia on Monday as Kyiv and Moscow confirmed cross-border clashes which injured and perhaps killed several people.
Russia has warned the West of “colossal risks” if it supplies Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets. The warning came after the United States announced it would allies to deliver the military planes to Ukraine, which is preparing a counter-offensive against the ongoing Russian invasion of the country. The announcement came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was welcomed Saturday at the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima, Japan.
The Group of Seven (G7) of the world’s leading economies gathered Friday in Japan’s city of Hiroshima, nearly wiped off the map by the world’s first atomic bomb in World War Two.
Ukraine’s capital Kyiv has been targeted by massive Russian air strikes that authorities described as “exceptional in density.” The strikes were part of broader attacks, killing several civilians “over the past 24 hours,” officials said.
Ukraine says it has recaptured ground in Bakhmut, in a rare advance after months of grinding Russian gains in the eastern city. But Moscow has denied the claims while the death toll is mounting in one of the longest and bloodiest since Russia’s invasion began more than 14 long months ago.
Ukraine has received Israeli-made radar defense systems, which have already been deployed in Kyiv, the capital, as of Monday, Israeli media reported.
Russian President Vladimir Putin used a Victory Day speech on Tuesday to warn that “a war has been unleashed” against Russia in what seemed an attempt to prepare the nation for a change in the narrative about Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. So far, the Kremlin has described its battle against Ukraine only as no more than a “special military operation” aimed at defending Russian interests but limited in scope.
With Ukraine’s counter-offensive imminent or already underway, Russia launched massive drone and missile strikes on the war-torn country with air raid sirens sounding nationwide.
The United States is planning to send Ukraine around $1.2 billion in long-term military aid to help the country defend itself against a barrage of drone, rocket, and surface-to-air missile attacks from Russia, according to U.S. officials.
The boss of Russia’s Wagner Group mercenaries says Moscow has agreed to his demands for more ammunition days after threatening to withdraw his men from the eastern city of Bakhmut. Sunday’s announcement came as Kyiv claimed to have shot down one of Russia’s most supersonic weapons following deadly Russian shelling and allegedly carried out attacks inside Russia and Russian-occupied Crimea, prompting nuclear threats by a former Russian deputy prime minister.