Ukraine

The war in Ukraine and its diplomacy — balanced reporting from across the spectrum.

370 articles shownof 370 totalLast updated 2026-09-22 18:53 UTC
us defense 7 2h ago 4 min read

Rubio Says Ukraine Hit 'American-Linked' Oil Ships, Calls It Unintentional, Pushes Energy Ceasefire

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News on Tuesday that Ukraine has repeatedly struck American-linked ships and oil supplies in recent months, though he called the strikes probably unintentional. Rubio did not name a single vessel, and Kyiv Post notes no public report has confirmed Ukraine hit a US-flagged or US-owned ship. The comments land hours before Trump and Zelenskyy meet at the UN and add a third friction point to an already strained US-Ukraine relationship.

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us defense 7 15h ago 3 min read

Zelensky and CIA Director Ratcliffe Hold Unannounced Meeting at Irish Airport Ahead of Trump Talks

Volodymyr Zelensky and CIA Director John Ratcliffe met informally at Shannon Airport in Ireland on Monday, September 21, while their planes refueled, according to Reuters. Neither side has disclosed what was said, but the meeting fits into a month of overlapping U.S. diplomatic contacts with both Kyiv and Moscow as Zelensky heads into a scheduled meeting with President Trump at the UN.

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us defense 9 18h ago 4 min read

UN General Assembly Opens Tuesday: Trump to Press Zelenskyy on Diesel Strikes as U.S. Pump Prices Hit Record $6.50

The 81st UN General Assembly kicks off Tuesday, September 22, with Trump, Iran's Pezeshkian, Zelenskyy and Netanyahu all speaking within days of each other in the same city. Diesel just hit a record $6.50 a gallon, Iran's delegation is barred from luxury shopping, and a UN report just found reasonable grounds that two U.S. strikes in Iran killed civilians. None of it will be settled by a speech.

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ua defense 8 1d ago 4 min read

United Russia Locks In Record 355-Seat Supermajority as Ukraine Hits Moscow With Biggest Drone Strike of the War

Russia's Central Election Commission says Putin's United Russia party won 57.83% of the vote and a record 355 of 450 Duma seats, in an election where the only anti-war party was barred nationally. The vote closed the same weekend Ukraine launched roughly 1,900 drones at Moscow, killing at least three people and hitting an oil refinery. Final certified results are due by September 25, and the real question now is whether Putin reads this as a green light for a new mobilization drive.

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ua economy 8 1d ago 5 min read

Black Sea Port Strikes Cut Ukrainian and Russian Wheat Exports to a Fraction of Normal, Wheat Futures Hit Three-Year High

Since mid-2026, Russian and Ukrainian strikes on each other's Black Sea grain terminals have gutted exports from the two countries that supply roughly a third of the world's wheat. Chicago wheat futures hit a three-year high near $7.79 a bushel in late August, and the UN says global food prices are now at their highest level since 2022.

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ua defense 7 2d ago 4 min read

Zelensky Says Russia Fired 2,000 Drones and 19 Missiles at Ukraine in a Week, as Kyiv Hits Third Russian Refinery in Days

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says Russia launched over 2,000 attack drones, 1,700 aerial bombs and 19 missiles at Ukraine in the past week alone. Meanwhile Ukraine hit refineries in Moscow, Tatarstan and Krasnodar within 48 hours, part of a sustained campaign against Russia's oil industry that's caused fuel rationing across the country.

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ua defense 7 2d ago 4 min read

Ukrainian Drones Kill Two Near Moscow, Hit Refinery, on Final Day of Russia's Election

Ukraine launched one of its largest drone attacks of the war on the Moscow region overnight, killing two people and damaging the Moscow Oil Refinery as Russia wrapped up three days of parliamentary voting. The strike lands six days after President Trump claimed Russia and Ukraine had agreed to stop hitting each other's energy infrastructure, a truce that plainly never held.

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ua defense 8 3d ago 4 min read

UN Report: Russian Forces Behind 89% of 1,004 Documented Sexual Violence Cases in Ukraine War

A UN Human Rights Office report released Friday documents 1,004 cases of sexual violence in Ukraine since February 2022, with 89% attributed to Russian forces including rape of a 4-year-old girl and an 82-year-old woman. Russia has taken no discernible steps to investigate or prosecute, according to the UN, while Ukraine cooperated fully with investigators.

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ru defense 8 3d ago 4 min read

Russia Shifts to Ballistic Missiles Over Kyiv, Cutting Warning Times to Minutes

Since late summer, Russia has swapped slower aircraft-launched strikes for ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones that give Kyiv residents as little as four minutes of warning, according to BBC Verify data and residents interviewed by the BBC and Kyiv Post. A Senate-passed sanctions bill targeting Russian oil buyers is still stuck in the House, while Ukraine says nearly 90% of its retail food logistics has been destroyed.

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us defense 7 3d ago 3 min read

State Department Approves $2.7 Billion Ukraine Air Defense Sale, Funded by Europe and Leftover Biden-Era Aid

The State Department notified Congress late Friday, September 18, 2026, that it approved a potential $2.7 billion sale of air-defense equipment to Ukraine, financed through European contributions and Foreign Military Financing appropriated under the Biden administration. The deal, still subject to congressional review, lands the same day Trump signed a new Russia sanctions bill and as peace talks remain stuck on territorial concessions in eastern Ukraine.

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us energy 8 4d ago 4 min read

Irish Finance Minister Publicly Disputes Trump's Claim That Ukraine Is Driving the Global Energy Crisis

Irish Tánaiste Simon Harris told Euronews the Strait of Hormuz closure, not Ukraine's strikes on Russian refineries, is behind $108 oil and near-double European gas prices. The dispute comes as Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline was hit by drones Trump blames on Iran, and as a new Carbon Brief analysis of IEA data finds the crisis has cut global emissions even while draining strategic reserves.

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ua energy 9 4d ago 4 min read

Macron Calls G7 Energy Summit as Brent Crude Tops $100 a Barrel Amid Middle East and Ukraine Strains

French President Emmanuel Macron says he will convene a G7 meeting in the coming weeks to discuss another release of strategic oil reserves after Brent crude spiked near $110 a barrel following an attack on a Saudi pipeline. The world already burned through 320 million of 400 million barrels released in March, and analysts warn another round buys short-term relief while draining stockpiles nobody knows how to refill fast.

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us economy 6 4d ago 4 min read

Canada Negotiates Entry Into EU's €90 Billion Ukraine Loan, Trump Threatens Tariffs Over the Deal

Brussels confirmed Friday that Canada is in technical talks to join the EU's €90 billion Ukraine support loan, following the UK's entry in July. The catch: joining the loan doesn't count as new money for Kyiv, and Ottawa still hasn't committed to direct aid even as Ukraine faces a $27 billion budget hole and Trump threatens tariffs over the broader EU-Canada courtship.

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ua defense 8 4d ago 4 min read

Tusk Warns Russia Plans 'Accidental' Drone Strikes on NATO Countries, Heads to Kyiv

Polish PM Donald Tusk told parliament Thursday that Russian intelligence assessments point to planned hybrid drone and missile strikes on NATO countries backing Ukraine, staged to look like accidents so the alliance won't invoke Article 5. He left for Kyiv overnight to meet Zelenskyy and Slovakia's Fico, as the EU prepares to send Ukraine €3.3 billion for missiles and drones.

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us defense 8 4d ago 4 min read

Trump Administration Weighs Russia Business Deals Before Ukraine War Ends, NYT Reports

The New York Times reports the Trump administration is considering signing economic agreements with Russia before the Ukraine war stops, a reversal from Trump's earlier pledge that deals wait until fighting ends. It comes days after Congress sent Trump a new Russia sanctions bill and weeks after his envoys' Moscow-Kyiv shuttle diplomacy produced no ceasefire.

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ua defense 7 5d ago 3 min read

Sanctions Monitors: Russia Uses North Korean Workers on Fake Student Visas to Build Drones for Ukraine War

A report from an 11-nation sanctions watchdog says Russia is running up to 30,000 North Korean laborers through a fake student-visa scheme to build military drones at the Alabuga plant in Tatarstan. Pyongyang pocketed as much as $800 million from overseas labor in 2025, cash the report says funds North Korea's nuclear and missile programs, all while UN sanctions supposedly bar exactly this kind of arrangement.

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ua defense 8 5d ago 4 min read

Ukraine's Drone Program Hits 1 Million Deliveries as Canada and the EU Sign On to Kyiv's Manufacturing Model

Ukraine's Defense Ministry says its DOT-Chain Defense platform has delivered over one million weapons and equipment items to troops since January 2026, with an average 8-day order-to-delivery time. Canada just signed a '100-year partnership' to co-produce drones with Ukraine, and 18 companies launched an EU-Ukraine Drone Alliance this month. The US already signed its own bilateral drone deal in July, and the reason is simple: Ukraine builds faster and cheaper than the Pentagon's normal procurement system ever has.

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us energy 8 5d ago 4 min read

US Diesel Hits Record $6.23 a Gallon as Trump Presses Zelenskyy to Stop Hitting Russian Refineries

The national average price of diesel climbed to a record $6.23 a gallon on September 14, according to AAA, as President Trump publicly asked Ukraine to stop striking Russian refineries he says are worsening the shortage. Zelenskyy says the strikes are legitimate attacks on the machinery funding Russia's war, and the price spike also traces back to the ongoing US-Iran conflict and global refining shortfalls that have nothing to do with Ukraine.

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us energy 8 Sep 15 4 min read

Trump's Claimed Energy Truce Falls Apart Within Hours as Ukraine Hits Russian Refinery, Russia Strikes Kyiv Gas Stations

Trump said Monday that Russia and Ukraine agreed to stop hitting each other's energy infrastructure. Neither side confirmed a deal, and both kept striking energy targets anyway. Diesel is over $6 a gallon in the US, the Kremlin wants sanctions relief before it commits to anything, and Zelensky says he'll only back a halt if allies can guarantee Russia actually means it.

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ru defense 7 Sep 15 4 min read

Russia Grinds Toward Ukraine's 'Fortress Belt' as Ceasefire Collapses and Peace Talks Stall

The three-day ceasefire that came out of Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner's early-September trip to Moscow and Kyiv fell apart, and Russia has kept hammering Kherson, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk with drones and glide bombs since. Ukrainian police are now ordering families out of Kostyantynivka as casualty and bombing numbers climb month over month, even as Russia's own battlefield gains remain glacially slow according to Western analysts.

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ru defense 8 Sep 15 4 min read

Russian Drone Hits Ukrainian Train Minutes After Boris Johnson, Petraeus and European Officials Passed Through Border Station

A Russian drone destroyed a locomotive at Ukraine's Yahodyn station on Sunday, Sept. 13, just after a diplomatic train carrying Boris Johnson, Carl Bildt and other Western officials had crossed into Poland and minutes after David Petraeus evacuated a separate train at the same stop. Ukraine's rail operator says the diplomats' train may have been the real target; Russia says it hit military supply infrastructure, and nobody outside Moscow can independently confirm either claim.

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us defense 7 Sep 14 4 min read

Trump Claims Russia and Ukraine Agreed to Spare Energy Targets; Zelensky Says No Deal Is Confirmed

Trump posted Monday that Russia and Ukraine both agreed to stop hitting each other's energy infrastructure, blaming the Ukraine war (not Iran) for diesel prices hitting a record $6.23 a gallon. Zelensky's own statement, released around the same time, says Ukraine only proposed the truce and remains unconvinced Russia will honor it, with the Kremlin never issuing its own confirmation.

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ru defense 7 Sep 14 4 min read

Russia Closes Ukraine's Drone Gap: Jet-Powered Shahed Attacks Jumped Fivefold as Moscow Also Sells War-Tested Weapons Abroad

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt warns Ukraine's battlefield tech edge is fading as Russia mass-produces faster jet-powered drones and mobilizes for a longer war. Ukrainian officials confirm the jet-Shahed surge with hard numbers, while a Hudson Institute analysis shows Moscow is now exporting the same combat-tested weapons at a fraction of Western costs.

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ru defense 8 Sep 13 4 min read

Russian Drone Hits Kyiv-Warsaw Train Two Kilometers From Poland as Putin Warns Europe Against Sending Troops

A Russian drone struck the locomotive of a Kyiv-Warsaw passenger train just two kilometers from the Polish border on Sunday, part of Russia's biggest overnight drone barrage in months. Hours earlier at the BRICS summit, Putin warned that any European troop deployment to Ukraine means war with Russia, while Modi and Xi offered to help broker peace.

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us defense 8 Sep 13 4 min read

Trump Tells Zelensky to Stop Hitting Russian Diesel Refineries as US Diesel Prices Hit Record $6.20 a Gallon

Trump says Ukraine's refinery strikes are driving a global diesel shortage and told Zelensky to find other targets. Ukraine kept hitting refineries anyway on September 13, and Trump's own framing skips over his war on Iran, which has knocked out over 20% of Middle East refining capacity and closed the Strait of Hormuz.

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ru defense 7 Sep 13 4 min read

Russia Fires 453 Drones Overnight as Ukraine Hits Two Major Oil Refineries in Tatarstan and Krasnodar

Since the September 10-11 strikes on Saratov and Tula, both sides have kept up nightly barrages: Russia launched 453 drones at Ukraine overnight into Sunday, September 13, while Ukrainian forces hit the TANECO refinery in Tatarstan and the Slavyansk-ECO refinery in Krasnodar Krai, killing two Russian civilians. Zelensky says he'd meet Putin at the G20 in Miami. Russia calls that idea impossible.

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ua defense 8 Sep 13 4 min read

Ukraine Sends Drone Specialists to Mali, Sudan and the Middle East to Hit Russian and Iranian Interests Abroad

CNN reports Kyiv has quietly deployed roughly 15 drone specialists to northern Mali to help Tuareg rebels fight Russia's Africa Corps, with personnel also in Sudan and at least five Middle Eastern countries training forces against Iranian-made Shahed drones. Ukraine says it's turning battlefield expertise into a foreign policy tool; Moscow says Kyiv is directly involved in rebel operations, which Ukraine denies.

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ua politics 6 Sep 13 4 min read

Modi Presses Putin to End Ukraine War Twice in Two Weeks as BRICS Summit Produces No Peace Plan

At the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi, Narendra Modi told Vladimir Putin to move from 'endless war' to peace for the second time in under two weeks, and Putin thanked India and China for offering to help mediate. None of it came with an actual proposal, and Putin's own price for talks, addressing NATO enlargement, is one Ukraine and the West have already rejected.

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ua defense 6 Sep 13 4 min read

Two Years After Russia's Kursk Incursion, Hundreds of Civilians Remain Unaccounted For as Kyiv Faces Its Own Accountability Crisis Over Deadly Ammo Storage

More than two years after Ukraine's August 2024 incursion into Russia's Kursk region, the Kursk governor says over 300 Russian civilians are still missing and families say their own government abandoned them. Meanwhile in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky has opened criminal proceedings against officials who let weapons get stored near homes in Kyiv region, after a late-August strike killed at least 37 people. Neither government comes out looking competent.

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ua economy 8 Sep 12 4 min read

Ukraine's Black Sea Blockade Puts $40 Billion in Exports at Risk as Budget Crisis Deepens

Ukraine's Economy Minister says Russian strikes have cut grain export capacity by a third and put $40 billion in revenue at risk, while Kyiv can no longer cover its own defense costs from domestic revenue. Half a world away, Iran's president is admitting a separate U.S.-led blockade has cut off gasoline imports, showing how economic strangulation has become the preferred weapon in two very different wars.

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ru defense 7 Sep 12 4 min read

Russia Kills 11 in Overnight Strikes on Ukraine as Kyiv's Drone Force Claims 285 Shadow Fleet Ships Hit

Russian missiles and drones killed at least 11 people and wounded 96 across seven Ukrainian regions overnight into September 12, with Odesa hit hardest. At the same time, Ukraine says its Unmanned Systems Forces have struck 285 vessels from Russia's sanctioned oil-smuggling fleet in ten weeks, part of an economic squeeze running alongside the missile war.

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ua defense 7 Sep 11 4 min read

Ukrainian Drones Hit Saratov Oil Refinery and Ozon Warehouse Overnight, Russian Strikes Kill Two in Tula and Injure Eight in Kyiv

Ukraine hit Rosneft's Saratov refinery and a 100,000-square-meter Ozon warehouse in the same overnight raid on September 11, the seventh Ozon logistics hub Kyiv has destroyed or damaged since August 22. Russia answered with strikes that killed two in Tula, injured eight in Kyiv, and killed at least one more near Belgorod, while Moscow claims it shot down 777 drones in a single night.

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ru defense 6 Sep 11 3 min read

Russia Strikes Izium Again as Ukraine Marks Four Years Since Liberating the City

Izium, the Kharkiv Oblast city Ukraine took back from Russia in September 2022, has been hit three times in 72 hours: a fatal drone strike on a civilian car, a Shahed attack on a passenger train that injured seven, and a guided bomb strike on homes. Reports of Russian forces 'closing in' on the city remain unconfirmed by any front-line source, but the drone and bomb campaign against it is real and documented.

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ua defense 8 Sep 11 4 min read

Donbas 'Fortress Belt' Faces Daily Bombardment as Putin Rejects Compromise, Ukraine Strikes Deep Into Russian Arctic

Since Russian glide-bomb strikes on Kramatorsk and Slovyansk more than doubled between June and August, police have begun forcing civilians out of Ukraine's last major Donbas strongholds. Putin told U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on September 5 he won't compromise, even as ISW says his army is advancing at a quarter of last year's pace. Ukraine answered with a drone strike over 3,300 km into Russia's Arctic gas region.

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ua defense 7 Sep 11 4 min read

Canada Pledges $566 Million and a Third of Its Drone Output to Ukraine as Zelenskyy Tours Calgary

Volodymyr Zelenskyy landed in Canada seeking cash and hardware, and Mark Carney delivered: $254 million in air-defense interceptors, $312 million in energy loan guarantees, and a promise that a third of Canada's future drone production goes to Kyiv. Separately, Norway's government says a Russian drone nearly hit Zelenskyy's plane on the way out of Moldova, a claim Kyiv has downplayed.

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ru defense 8 Sep 11 4 min read

Russian Drone Strike Kills Two at Ukraine-Moldova Crossing, Moldova Rejects Kremlin's Weapons Claim as False

A Russian drone strike on the Ukraine-Moldova border crossing killed two civilians and injured three on September 9, and Moldova's foreign ministry says Russia's claim it hit a weapons-transit point is false. The strike came a day after a drone breach delayed President Zelensky's departure from Moldova, with Norway's prime minister saying his plane was almost hit and a Ukrainian source calling that exaggerated.

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ru defense 7 Sep 10 3 min read

Russian Drone Strike Kills Four at Ukrainian Shopping Mall as War Crimes Case Opens

A Russian drone attack on the Gulliver shopping centre in Pavlohrad killed four people and wounded more than 60 on September 10, the latest in a string of mall strikes this week in Sumy and Zaporizhzhia. Ukraine's Prosecutor General has opened a war-crimes investigation, while Kyiv answered with its own long-range drone strikes on Russian gas and naval infrastructure. Trump-brokered peace talks over the weekend produced no visible breakthrough.

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ua defense 8 Sep 10 5 min read

Ukraine's Surprise $27 Billion Shortfall Leaves Europe Scrambling for Answers

Zelenskyy told allies at Kyiv's Independence Day gathering on Aug. 24 that Ukraine needs $27 billion more this year, and Brussels still doesn't fully know why. European officials are privately asking whether the money is being spent efficiently or whether the need is overstated, while Trump's claim the US is owed $300 billion doesn't match the data.

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ru energy 8 Sep 10 5 min read

Russian Crude Output Falls to 8.72 Million Barrels a Day as Ukrainian Drone Strikes Pile Up on Refineries and Ports

Russia pumped 8.718 million barrels of crude a day in August, the sharpest monthly drop since December and nearly 1.2 million barrels below its OPEC+ quota, according to OPEC and Bloomberg. Ukraine's drone campaign has hit Russian refineries at least 70 times this year, and Moscow's oil budget revenue fell 22% year-over-year in August, though falling global crude prices share the blame with the strikes.

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ua defense 7 Sep 9 4 min read

Zelenskyy's Plane Nearly Struck by Drone Leaving Moldova, Norway PM Says, Ukrainian Source Calls Claim Exaggerated

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said Volodymyr Zelenskyy's flight to Oslo was almost hit by a drone taking off from Moldova, a claim a Ukrainian presidency source told AFP was overstated. The visit came as Norway seized a Russian vessel to enforce a $4.22 billion Hague arbitration award and Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine's allies of complicity in terrorism.

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us politics 8 Sep 8 4 min read

Trump Tells Putin He Wants Swift End to Ukraine War in Hour-Long Call, Kremlin Says No Deal Reached

Trump and Putin spoke by phone Tuesday for an hour, with the Kremlin calling it 'constructive and frank' and saying Trump wants to restore US-Russia ties. No ceasefire, no dates, and Russian strikes on Kyiv killed civilians the same day, numbers that vary by outlet from three to seven dead.

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ru defense 6 Sep 8 3 min read

Russia Says It Arrested a Moldovan National for Shooting an Officer on Ukraine's Orders

Russia's FSB says it detained a 21-year-old Moldovan citizen, identified by state media as Nicolae Cochu, for shooting a Russian military officer near a strategic air base on September 3. The claim comes from Russia's own security service and has not been independently confirmed by Ukraine or Moldova, but it fits a pattern of targeted attacks Kyiv has openly claimed before.

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ua defense 7 Sep 8 4 min read

Ukraine's Prosecutor General Resigns After Anti-Corruption Bureau Ties Him to Bribery Ring

Ruslan Kravchenko quit as Ukraine's prosecutor general on Monday after NABU detectives searched his offices and recordings surfaced referencing a 'boss' with his patronymic. He denies wrongdoing and hasn't been charged, but the resignation adds another scandal to Zelensky's government during the same week Russia resumed missile strikes on Kyiv.

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ua defense 7 Sep 8 3 min read

Witkoff Claims 'Substantive Progress' on Ukraine Peace Talks, But No Dates and No Ceasefire

After a three-day halt in attacks let US envoys shuttle between Moscow and Kyiv last weekend, Steve Witkoff says talks made "substantive progress" toward trilateral negotiations. The Kremlin says it's too early to name a date or venue, wheat traders bet Russia isn't actually backing off, and Zelensky is still warning Moscow could mobilize 300,000 more troops this winter.

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us defense 8 Sep 7 3 min read

Zelensky Details Winter De-Escalation Talks With US as He Warns Russia Set to Mobilize 300,000 More Troops

A day after Witkoff and Kushner's first-ever Kyiv visit produced no breakthrough, Zelensky told Axios on Monday the US is now floating a narrower goal: getting Russia and Ukraine through winter without a full-scale strike campaign on energy grids, grain, and oil exports. Separately, Zelensky warned Russia is likely to mobilize 300,000 more troops after its September elections, and Moscow's Peskov says he isn't ruling out a return to trilateral talks.

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us defense 8 Sep 7 4 min read

EU Set to Decide Monday on Ukraine's Bid to Use $105 Billion Loan for US Patriot Missiles

Since Ursula von der Leyen confirmed Kyiv's request on September 2, EU governments have been weighing whether to exempt Ukraine's $105 billion ($90 billion euro) support loan from rules that favor European-made weapons, so Kyiv can buy US-made PAC-3 Patriot interceptors. A decision was due today, September 7, with Ukraine facing a $27 billion defense budget hole and Zelensky saying it takes 140 interceptors to stop one Russian barrage. Europe wants to fund the war, but it still can't build the missile that actually stops Russian ballistic strikes.

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ua defense 7 Sep 7 3 min read

Fake Euronews Video Falsely Claimed Ukrainian Soldier Killed Three NATO Troops in Latvia

A doctored video mimicking Euronews branding claimed a Ukrainian soldier shot three NATO servicemen during a real drone-defense exercise in Riga, then killed himself. It never happened. Latvia's military called it a coordinated disinformation campaign, and Euronews confirmed it never produced the report.

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ua defense 7 Sep 6 4 min read

Ukraine Lost $1.2 Billion to Fraud in 2024 as Kyiv Now Faces a Budget Gap Topping $27 Billion

Military procurement audits found $1.2 billion in fraud and waste in Ukraine's defense spending for 2024, according to the New York Times, even as Kyiv now warns of a budget shortfall between $27 billion and $32.6 billion heading into winter. Washington says 24 federal agencies oversee U.S. aid, but nobody has explained why contractors flagged in the audits kept winning new contracts.

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ua economy 5 Sep 6 4 min read

Ukraine's Parliament Weighs Legalizing Pornography to Tax a $131 Million OnlyFans Industry

Ukraine's finance committee chairman Yaroslav Zhelezniak says legalizing porn could raise $25 million a year, enough for 30,000 drones. That's a rounding error against the $120 billion Kyiv says it needs annually for defense, but lawmakers argue the current law is unenforceable and just drives creators and their tax dollars abroad.

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ua finance 8 Sep 6 4 min read

Witkoff and Kushner Leave Putin in Moscow, Head to Kyiv Next as Iran War Grinds On

Trump's envoys got three hours with Putin and a temporary halt on long-range strikes against Kyiv and Moscow, but Putin rejected a broader ceasefire Ukraine proposed. Meanwhile Trump says the U.S. can hit Iran again anytime, diesel just hit a record $5.88 a gallon, and Iran-backed militias are threatening to kill any U.S. troops left in Iraq after September 30.

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ua politics 8 Sep 5 3 min read

Kremlin Says Witkoff-Kushner Talks Ran Three Hours, Insists Russia Still Confident of Taking All of Eastern Ukraine

Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Vladimir Putin for over three hours in Moscow on Saturday, September 5, with the Kremlin calling the talks 'extremely frank' and saying the Americans floated a 'number of ideas' for ending the war. Moscow also told the envoys it's confident it can still seize the rest of eastern Ukraine by force, a claim that undercuts any notion Russia is negotiating from weakness.

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ua defense 9 Sep 5 3 min read

Witkoff and Kushner Meet Putin in Moscow as Kremlin Halts Kyiv Strikes for 72 Hours

After their planned Kyiv trip stalled this week over security guarantees, U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner landed in Moscow Saturday and are set to meet Vladimir Putin before heading to Kyiv Sunday. Putin ordered a 72-hour halt on strikes against Kyiv for the visit, but Russian attacks killed five people elsewhere in Ukraine the same day.

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ua finance 8 Sep 5 4 min read

Ukraine Pushes EU to Strip Belgium of Control Over €210 Billion in Frozen Russian Assets

Kyiv's finance minister wants the EU to move Russian central bank reserves out of Belgium's Euroclear depository and into an EU-owned custodian, shifting legal liability from one member state to all 27. Belgium says nothing has changed since it killed a similar plan last December, and the European Commission still isn't sold. Ukraine says it's facing a $32.6 billion shortfall and can't wait for Brussels to sort out who takes the legal risk.

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ru defense 7 Sep 5 4 min read

Russia Claims Strikes on Ukrainian Cargo Ships at Chornomorsk and Odesa as MSC Halts Novorossiysk Bookings

Russia's defense ministry says it hit two military-supply vessels at Chornomorsk and cargo ships off Odesa, while on the other side of the Black Sea, MSC has suspended container bookings for Russia's Novorossiysk port after one of its own ships was hit by a Ukrainian drone. Neither side's shipping lanes are safe anymore, and no outside party has independently verified Moscow's latest claims.

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ua politics 8 Sep 5 3 min read

Witkoff and Kushner's First-Ever Kyiv Trip Stalls Over Security Guarantees as Russia Hits Ukraine's Spy Agency HQ

A weekend trip by Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Moscow and Kyiv, which would be their first-ever joint visit to the Ukrainian capital, remains uncertain as the U.S. seeks commitments from both Moscow and Kyiv to guarantee the envoys' safety before they travel, according to Reuters. Hours before the planned announcement, a Russian drone hit the headquarters of Ukraine's SBU security service in Kyiv, and Zelensky proposed a mutual ceasefire to cover the visit itself.

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ru defense 8 Sep 4 4 min read

Russian Drone Hits Ukraine's SBU Headquarters in Kyiv, Wounding Up to 12, Days Before US-Brokered Talks

A Russian drone struck the Kyiv headquarters of Ukraine's Security Service on Friday, September 4, hitting the floor housing chief Oleksandr Poklad's office and wounding between five and twelve people depending on the count. The strike lands days before US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are scheduled to shuttle between Moscow and Kyiv for renewed cease-fire talks, and Kyiv says it plans to hit back in kind.

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ua politics 8 Sep 4 4 min read

Kushner and Witkoff Reportedly Set for First-Ever Trip to Kyiv as Kremlin Calls Trilateral Summit Pointless

Zelensky says Trump's envoys have preliminary dates to visit Kyiv and Moscow, which would be Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff's first trip to the Ukrainian capital in the whole process. The Kremlin is meanwhile shutting down talk of a three-way Trump-Putin-Zelensky summit, and Kyiv says it wasn't even told about a Treasury-level meeting with Moscow at last week's G20.

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us defense 7 Sep 3 4 min read

Trump Says He'll Bill Europe Retroactively for Ukraine Aid, While Analysts Warn Munition Stocks Won't Recover Until 2029-2031

Hours after calling munitions-shortage reporting 'treasonous,' Trump added a new demand Thursday: European nations should pay the U.S. back for Biden-era Ukraine aid they never agreed to fund. Meanwhile CSIS estimates cited by Axios show Patriot and THAAD interceptor stocks won't hit prewar levels until 2029, and Tomahawks not until 2030 or 2031.

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ua defense 8 Sep 3 4 min read

Denmark Says Russia Is Recruiting Ordinary Danes to Sabotage Defense Firms Supplying Ukraine

Denmark's PET intelligence service says Russia has moved from planning to active preparation for sabotage against Danish defense companies tied to Ukraine aid, recruiting citizens through social media and gaming apps to scout targets. Moscow's ambassador to Copenhagen calls the claims evidence-free and blames Denmark's own support for Ukraine for putting Danes at risk. Neither side has produced public proof settling the dispute, but the warning lands one month after an explosive-laden drone was found on a German runway.

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ua defense 7 Sep 3 4 min read

Ukraine's Drone War Now Consumes 4% of World Germanium Supply, and China Still Refines Nearly All of It

A new BMO Capital Markets report finds the roughly 15 million drones expected on Russian and Ukrainian battlefields this year are eating up 4% of global germanium demand, on top of the metal China already controls almost completely. Western governments are pledging billions for mines and processing plants, but the new capacity mostly won't come online until 2028 or later, and China's suspended export ban on the U.S. is set to expire November 27, 2026.

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