Germany steps up aid after Russia's unprecedented attacks
In the latest episode of Ukraine This Week, the Kyiv Independent's Anna Belokur breaks down the top stories of the week, from Germany's increased military aid to last weekend's unprecedented attacks on Ukraine.
We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Russia admits to taking Ukrainian children during latest peace talks, Zelensky says
President Volodymyr Zelensky said that during the Istanbul negotiations, Russian representatives dismissed the issue of abducted Ukrainian children as a "show for childless European old ladies" and acknowledged deporting several hundred children. "I want our journalists, our people — and not only ours — to understand their attitude toward the humanitarian aspect. First, they told us not to 'put on a show for childless European old ladies' — that's how they phrased it in Russian. That's their attitude when we raise the issue of the children," Zelensky noted during an online press conference attended by the Kyiv Independent. During the second round of peace talks in Istanbul on June 2, Vladimir Medinsky, aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin and head of Russia's delegation, presented a list submitted by Ukraine containing the names of 339 children it says were abducted by Russia and must be returned. Medinsky rejected the allegations, denying that Russia had taken the children by force. Ukraine has documented over 19,500 cases of children who were forcibly taken to Russia, Belarus, or occupied territories since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in February 2022. According to official figures, only about 1,300 of them have been brought back to areas under Ukrainian control. These actions have faced widespread international backlash. In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Putin and the country's commissioner for children's rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, over their alleged roles in organizing the deportations. More recently, the European Parliament passed a resolution denouncing the deportations as part of a "genocidal strategy" to eliminate Ukrainian identity, calling for the immediate and unconditional return of all abducted children. "We told them they had stolen 20,000 children, and they responded that it wasn't 20,000 — at most, they said, it was a matter of a few hundred," Zelensky said. "Our delegation (was) offended by this... Honestly, I'm not. I think it's more important not to fixate on the number, but on the fact itself — they admitted to taking children. We believe it's thousands, they say it's hundreds, but what matters is that they acknowledged the fact." Read also: 'Closer to victory' – Operation Spiderweb gives much-needed morale boost to Ukrainians after 3 years of full-scale war We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
House Speaker Mike Johnson backs efforts to sanction Russia ‘as strongly as we can'
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) threw his support behind renewed congressional efforts to sanction the Kremlin over Russian President Vladimir Putin's brutal war against Ukraine. 'There's many members of Congress that want us to sanction Russia as strongly as we can,' Johnson told reporters on Monday. 'And I'm an advocate of that.' The House speaker's support for legislation punishing the Russian regime comes amid a bipartisan push in the Senate to impose 'bone-breaking sanctions' on Russia. 3 Johnson expressed support for passing sanctions legislation against Russia on Monday. AP Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) have co-sponsored a measure in the upper chamber that would slap a 500% tariff on any country purchasing Russian energy products. Graham expects the Senate to 'start moving' the bill forward this week. 'You will see congressional action,' the South Carolina Republican said during a press conference in Ukraine last week. Like Johnson, Graham noted that 'there are House members that are ready' to pass the sanctions bill and get it to President Trump's desk for his signature. It's unclear if Trump would support severe sanctions on Moscow amid Russia-Ukraine peace talks that have seemingly failed to gain any traction. 3 Graham met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv over the weekend. UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE/AFP via Getty Images 'We are in conversations with the White House, obviously, about that subject and that issue,' Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters on Monday. 'There's a high level of interest here in the Senate, on both sides of the aisle and moving on it, and it very well could be something that we would take up in this work period,' Thune added. 'Obviously, we're working with the White House to try and ensure that what we do and when we do it works well with the negotiations that they've got underway.' 3 The Senate bill would impose 500% tariffs on countries that purchase energy from Russia. via REUTERS The Graham-Blumenthal bill – 'Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025' – has more than 80 co-sponsors in the Senate. 'The bill would put Russia on a trade island,' Graham wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed last week. 'The consequences of its barbaric invasion must be made real to those that prop it up. If China or India stopped buying cheap oil, Mr. Putin's war machine would grind to a halt.' 'I'm hoping for the best, but when it comes to the thug in Moscow, we should all prepare for more of the same.' The bill is currently under consideration by the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. Trump has expressed mounting frustrations with Putin's refusal to curtail strikes against Ukraine, but has stopped short of announcing tougher sanctions on the regime despite having threatened them earlier this month.
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Ukraine Shows It Can Still Flip the Script on How Wars Are Waged
In launching an audacious drone attack on airfields and warplanes deep inside Russia, Ukraine is continuing to change the way wars will be conducted in the 21st century, according to U.S. officials and military analysts. American and European security officials said battle damage assessments were still coming in from the attacks, which took place Sunday, but they estimated that as many as 20 Russian strategic aircraft may have been destroyed or severely damaged, dealing a serious blow to Russian's long-range strike capabilities. Officials said Russia's losses included six Tu-95 and four TU-22M long-range strategic bombers, as well as A-50 warplanes, which are used to detect air defenses and guided missiles. The attack, known as Operation Spider's Web, hurt Moscow's prized strategic capabilities. But just as significantly, it demonstrated Ukraine's ability to strike nearly anywhere in Russia, and to destroy warplanes costing $100 million or more with drones with price tags as low as $600, according to one U.S. defense official. U.S. officials said that Ukraine did not give the Trump administration advance notice that forces with Ukraine's Security Service, or S.B.U., were planning the attack, which targeted several air bases inside Russia, including one in Siberia. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
