Latest news with #UkrainianForces

Wall Street Journal
5 days ago
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
Ukraine Repels a Russian Offensive, as Putin Seeks Trump Talks
SUMY, Ukraine—Ukrainian forces have halted Russia's summer offensive in the north of the country, recapturing some land and underlining Moscow's inability to put together decisive operations in its three-and-a-half-year war. While Ukraine has largely stopped Moscow's move into Sumy province, in which Russian troops advanced as close as 12 miles from the regional capital, its own forces remain outgunned and might struggle to build on their momentum.


The Sun
02-08-2025
- Politics
- The Sun
Watch moment huge mushroom cloud erupts over Russian plant after massive Ukrainian strike in major blow to Putin
THIS is the jaw-dropping moment when a huge fireball erupted over a Russian oil refinery during Ukrainian drone strikes. The vast mushroom cloud rose over the military-linked Novokuybyshevsk refinery in Russia's Samara region. 8 8 8 8 8 This plant supplies aviation fuel for Putin's combat aircraft, which have been used in barbaric attacks against Ukrainian civilians. Stunning footage shows flames erupting high into the air, engulfing the facility in a bright orange inferno. Ukrainian Telegram channel Exilenova+ claimed the attack led to fire surging 590ft into the sky. But, in a major blow to Vlad's war machine, it is just one of several blazes reported at strategic sites across Russia. Elsewhere, another oil refinery was set alight in Ryazan - which is a critical supplier for the Russian capital Moscow. Fires were also reported at a military airfield Primorsko-Akhtarsk in the Krasnodar region - which is used for Russia's brutal drone strikes against Ukraine. A "major hit" was further reported on a Russian air defence radar company in occupied Crimea. One woman died in drone strikes on the Electropribor plant in Penza city - which makes special-purpose telecoms and cryptographic equipment to support Putin's war machine. As many as eight massive explosions were heard in the city during the drone strikes, according to reports. Ukrainian forces also reportedly hit military targets in the Rostov region, leading to one death. It comes as Russia continues to brutally bombard civilian targets in Ukraine. A total of 31 people died, including five children, after Putin's forces fired an Iskander missile into a residential tower block in Kyiv. Devastating Russian strikes against civilian targets have also been reported in the Kharkiv, Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions over the past week. It comes after Donald Trump ordered two nuclear submarines be positioned near Russia. The US President's patience with Putin has worn thin in recent weeks over the Russian tyrant's unwillingness to agree to a ceasefire. He also slashed his 50 day deadline for a peace deal down to "10 to 12" days - towards the end of next week. One of Putin's cronies hit back at Trump following this move, accusing him of fanning the flames of war. Ex-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said: "Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. "Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country. Don't go down the Sleepy Joe road!" But Trump slammed Medvedev's comments as "foolish and inflammatory" as he ordered for the submarines to be sent out. "We always want to be ready, and so I have sent to the region two nuclear submarines," Trump said. "I just want to make sure that his words are only words and nothing more than that." He added: "A threat was made by a former president of Russia and we're going to protect our people." 8 8 8

ABC News
24-07-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Ukraine and Russia exchange drone strikes hours after failed ceasefire talks
A displaced Ukrainian family-of-three has died and two Russian women have been killed as Moscow and Kyiv exchanged drone strikes just hours after ceasefire talks concluded in Istanbul. Ukraine's regional officials announced on Thursday that the bodies of a woman, her husband and their adult son had been discovered under the rubble of a house in the border region of Kharkiv. They said the family killed in the village of Pidlyman had fled the settlement of Boguslavka which was captured by Russian forces when they invaded in early 2022, but was later retaken by Ukrainian forces. A later drone barrage on Kharkiv city wounded 33 people, including a 10-year-old girl and a month-old infant, the governor said. Meanwhile in Russia, a Ukrainian drone strike left two women dead and several others wounded in Sochi in Russia's south, regional authorities said. The Russian defence ministry said its air defence systems had downed 39 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles mainly over southern regions of the country. This latest exchange followed a brief third round of peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul, which failed to reach a ceasefire. A separate Russian drone and missile barrage wounded seven people including a child in the central Ukrainian region of Cherkasy, emergency services said. In the southern port city of Odesa, a Russian drone attack wounded four people and badly damaged the Pryvoz market. Ukraine's prime minister said some of the buildings targeted, including the famous market, were UNESCO protected. "Russia continues its terror and obstructs diplomacy," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a social media post. "[This] is why it deserves full-scale sanctions responses, as well as our strikes on their logistics, their military bases, and their military production facilities." He said Russia had launched 103 drones — mainly the Iranian-designed Shahed type of unmanned aerial vehicle — and four missiles. In a separate development in Ukraine's domestic politics, Mr Zelenskyy announced on Thursday he had approved a draft bill strengthening Ukraine's law enforcement system and the independence of its anti-corruption agencies. It comes after new laws to limit the independence of two key anti-corruption bodies passed this week in Ukraine, sparking large street protests and attracting rare rebukes from European allies. On Thursday, Mr Zelenskyy bowed to the mounting pressure. He said on X that the draft bill, which would be submitted to parliament later in the day, was well-balanced and "upholds the independence of anti-corruption agencies". The European Union earlier said a commitment to fight corruption is an important precondition both for EU financial aid as well as for potential EU membership. "We welcome the fact that the Ukrainian government is taking action," an EU spokesperson said. "We work with them to make sure that our concerns ... are indeed taken into account." ABC/AFP/Reuters

News.com.au
24-07-2025
- Politics
- News.com.au
Russian attack kills displaced Ukrainian family, officials say
A Russian overnight attack on the border region of Kharkiv killed three members of a Ukrainian family who had earlier fled their homes to escape Russian advances, authorities announced Thursday. Moscow has stepped up its drone and missile attacks on Ukraine more than three years into Russia's invasion, even as the warring parties meet for face-to-face ceasefire talks. "The bodies of three people were found under the rubble of the house. A family was killed: a 57-year-old woman, her 58-year-old husband and their 36-year-old son," regional officials announced. They added the family killed in the village of Pidlyman had fled the settlement of Boguslavka which was captured by Russian forces when they invaded in early 2022, but was later retaken by Ukrainian forces. A strike later on Kharkiv city wounded 33 people, including a 10-year-old girl, a 17-year-old boy and girl, the governor said. A separate Russian drone and missile barrage wounded seven people including a child in the central Ukrainian region of Cherkasy, emergency services said. And in the southern port city of Odesa, a Russian drone attack wounded four people and badly damaged a market. Ukraine's prime minister said some of the buildings targeted were UNESCO protected. "Russia continues its terror and obstructs diplomacy, which is why it deserves full-scale sanctions responses, as well as our strikes on their logistics, their military bases, and their military production facilities," President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on social media in response. He said Russia had launched 103 drones -- mainly the Iranian designed Shahed type of unmanned aerial vehicle -- and four missiles. In Russia, a Ukrainian drone strike left two women dead and several others wounded in Sochi in Russia's south, regional authorities said. The Russian defence ministry said its air defence systems had downed 39 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles mainly over southern regions of the country. bur-jbr/asy/dc


New York Times
12-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
A Landscape of Death: What's Left Where Ukraine Invaded Russia
Last year, Ukraine turned a corner of Russia into a battlefield. It is now a place of desolation and death. Russian forces are back in control of Kursk Province, where whole villages have been flattened by relentless fighting. Tens of thousands of people fled when the fighting began, but a few thousand were stranded. Some of them have finally been evacuated. Others did not survive. Many are waiting to see if their homes can be rebuilt. It may be years before some can live here again. Supported by Ukraine's surprise incursion into western Russia last summer quickly overran Sudzha, a little town in Kursk near the border that hosts a transit station for a natural gas pipeline. Ukrainian forces also held a swath of nearby countryside dotted with villages. Fighting raged around the civilians trapped here for months, including bombardment by the Russian military. They also endured a Russian winter with scant access to heating, medicine and other essentials. The regional governor has put the civilian death toll of those months at more than 300 people, with nearly 600 missing, totals that could not be independently verified. Many Sudzha residents, in interviews there and in evacuation shelters, said they had helped to bury at least a dozen neighbors. Some said they had buried 40 or more. Then there were the unburied. When I visited the area in March, the fields were scattered with carcasses of cows and pigs, and with the corpses of civilians and soldiers. The uniforms visible among the fallen were mostly Russian. Amid shattered homes, other bodies had lain decomposing for months, seemingly untouched, the circumstances of their deaths unknown. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.