Author: RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service

Ukrainian authorities say the last two working reactors at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant were shut down due to fires and damaged power lines, heightening fears of a potential accident as the facility was disconnected from Ukraine’s electricity grid for the first time. The August 25 announcement by the state energy operator Enerhoatom comes as...

Ukraine’s military says that its forces have beaten back a Russian attack in the southern region of Kherson, while shelling by Moscow’s forces in the northeastern city of Kharkiv killed seven people and wounded 16. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the Kharkiv shelling, which hit a dormitory, “vile and cynical.” “Pain for Kharkiv. Rocket attack....

Russian forces pounded civilian settlements in the Kharkiv area while attempting to advance in the eastern Donetsk region, Ukraine’s military said on August 17, as Russia blamed sabotage for explosions at one of its military bases in Moscow-annexed Crimea amid hints by Kyiv that it was responsible for the incident. The General Staff of the...

Heavy fighting has been reported around the eastern Ukrainian town of Pisky, some 10 kilometers northwest of the city of Donetsk. “It is hot in Pisky,” wrote Danil Bezsonov, a member of a Russia-backed separatist group that calls itself the Donetsk People’s Repub-lic, on Telegram early on August 11. “The town is ours, but there...

Ukraine said Moscow was putting together an attack force aimed at President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown of Kry-vyi Rih, as Russia bombarded several parts of Ukraine, causing casualties and damage. Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the eastern Donetsk region, said on Telegram that three civilians had been killed in Bakhmut, Maryinka and Shevchenko and five wounded in...

A Ukrainian strike on a Russian ammunition train most likely damaged the rail connection between the Moscow-occupied Kherson region and annexed Crimea, British intelligence said on August 3, as Kyiv admitted that despite supplies of Western weapons the military situation in the east was “hell.” Britain’s Ministry of Defense said in its daily intelligence bulletin...

Ukrainian officials have called for an investigation after videos appeared on social media that apparently show Russian soldiers castrating, and then killing, a Ukrainian prisoner of war. Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said on July 29 that he had requested the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office to launch a probe into the gruesome videos, which appeared on several...

More than 75,000 Russian soldiers – about half of the force sent by Moscow to invade Ukraine in February – are believed to have been killed or wounded, a U.S. lawmaker said, as Kyiv was reportedly stepping up its counteroffensive to retake the occupied Kherson region. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), who spoke to CNN after...

A Ukrainian defense official says Russian troops are engaged in a massive redeployment in the south of the country, including an area where Ukraine has launched a counteroffensive. Security Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov made the comments on Ukrainian television on July 27, saying the redeployments were taking place in the direction of the Kherson, Melitopol...

As Moscow struggles to achieve ‘minimal gains’ The Ukrainian military used modern Western-made artillery to strike and seriously damage a strategic bridge in Moscow-occupied southern Ukraine as Russia’s top diplomat warned that Moscow’s “geographical” objectives in the war had changed and now extend beyond the previously stated goal of occupying the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk...

Russia’s military kept up its relentless artillery bombardment of civilian-populated areas as the death toll from fighting in the east and south of Ukraine continued to climb amid what Kyiv said were failed attempts by Russian forces to gain ground. Ihor Terekhov, the mayor of Kharkiv, said one of the most densely populated areas of...

Ukrainian forces have struck at least three Russian military sites in southern Ukraine as they intensified their counteroffensive in the region, while Russia maintained its shelling of towns and cities in the east, south and center of the country. Among the bloodiest of the attacks on July 14, Ukrainians authorities reported that three missiles hit...