Author: RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service

Ukraine says its forces have forced Russian troops off of Snake Island in the Black Sea, a claim Russia denied with Moscow calling it a withdrawal of its forces as a “gesture of goodwill” to show the country isn’t impeding efforts to allow the export of agricultural products. The report came on June 30 as...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelens-kyy has called for the United Nations to send a special representative or the secretary general to the site of a missile strike on a shopping mall in the city of Kremen-chuk. Mr. Zelenskyy said this would allow the U.N. to independently gather information and “see that this indeed was a Russian...

Russian forces pounded the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine on June 22 as they sought to completely encircle the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the embattled cities of Lysychansk and Severo-donetsk in the Luhansk region. Serhiy Hayday, head of the military administration in Luhansk region, where the twin cities are located, said Ukrainian forces...

Russian forces, backed by massive artillery power, pressed ahead with their offensive to completely encircle Ukraine’s last pocket of resistance in the Luhansk region as Kyiv announced the arrival of the first U.S. long-range weapons systems the outgunned Ukrainians have been waiting on for months. Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on June 23 that...

All four European leaders who visited Ukraine on June 16 support “immediate” European Union candidate status for Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron said after a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv. Mr. Macron, speaking at a joint news conference in Kyiv alongside the leaders of Germany, Italy and Romania, added that France would...

Kyiv has defied a Moscow ultimatum to surrender Severodonetsk despite the Russians controlling most of the key eastern city as Western defense ministers gather in Brussels to decide on sending more heavy weapons to the outgunned and outnumbered Ukrainian forces. Russia has told Ukrainian defenders holed up in the Azot chemical plant in the city...

All bridges out of the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk have been destroyed and conditions for people remaining in the city are “extremely difficult,” the military governor for the Luhansk region told RFE/RL. “All the bridges have been destroyed, so it is impossible to bring anything to the city today, unfortunately,” said Serhiy Hayday, adding...

The battle for the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk could be decisive for the fate of the Donbas, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, as Russian forces concentrated their artillery power on the strategically important industrial hub, forcing the Ukrainian defenders to retreat to the outskirts of the city. “According to the results of this day, the...

Ukrainian forces have been pushed to the outskirts of the eastern city of Severodonetsk, the region’s governor said on June 8 as the Turkish and Russian foreign affairs ministers concluded talks in Ankara on a plan to open a sea corridor to allow exports of Ukrainian grain. Luhansk governor Serhiy Hayday said Ukrainian forces control...

The new U.S. ambassador to Ukraine promised more weaponry to help the country in its fight against Russia after presenting her credentials to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on June 2 in Kyiv. Bridget Brink told reporters that her No. 1 mission was “to help Ukraine prevail against Russian aggression” and said the delivery of military...

Russian forces shelled dozens of towns in the Donbas region of Ukraine and were inching closer to encircling two key cities in the region where thousands of civilians are in danger of being trapped without a way out, Ukraine’s military said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelens­kyy, meanwhile, blasted suggestions that Ukraine make territorial concessions to Russia...

Ukraine grain exports under strain Russia has continued to pour forces and equipment into its all-out offensive in eastern Ukraine, where it seeks to encircle Ukrainian troops in two cities, as Kyiv warns that the country is facing an existential battle that could determine its fate. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelens­kyy said the situation in the...