Russia Invades Ukraine

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Satellite photos show destroyed bombers at a Russian air base that Ukraine said it hit

Satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press on Wednesday show seven destroyed bombers on the tarmac at a Russian air base in eastern Siberia, one of the targets Ukraine said it struck with drones in one of the most daring covert operations of the war. Read More.

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Ukraine's drone attack on Russian air bases is a lesson for the West on its vulnerabilities

“Operation Spiderweb,” which Ukraine said destroyed or damaged over 40 aircraft parked near air bases across Russia on Sunday, wasn’t just a blow to the Kremlin’s prestige. It was also a wake-up call for the West to bolster its air defense systems against such hybrid tactics, military experts said. Read More.

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War in Ukraine

Powerful explosions reverberated across the Ukrainian capital overnight as Russia launched waves of drones and ballistic missiles at multiple targets. Search and rescue operations are underway, but at least four people have been killed in Kyiv, with dozens more wounded across Ukraine. The latest barrage comes after Ukraine launched audacious raids on airfields deep inside Russia last weekend. Ukraine also surprised Moscow by attacking the Kerch Bridge — the only direct connection point between Russia and the annexed Crimean Peninsula — with 1,100 kilograms of explosives that had been planted underwater. During a meeting at the White House on Thursday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said President Donald Trump is the one person who could help end the war. “We both agree on this war and how terrible this war is going on, and we are both looking for ways to stop it very soon. And I told the president … he is the key person in the world who can really do that now by putting pressure on Russia,” Merz said.

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A Russian missile and drone attack across Ukraine kills 3 in Kyiv Russia targeted at least six regions across the country with 407 drones and 44 missiles in one of its largest coordinated attacks of the three-year war, Ukrainian officials said Friday. Read more.

What to know: The attack came hours after Trump said it might be better to let Ukraine and Russia “fight for a while” before pulling them apart and pursuing peace, in comments that were a remarkable detour from his often-stated appeals to stop the war.   Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed it had aimed at Ukrainian military targets with “long-range precision weapons” and successfully struck arms depots, drone factories and repair facilities, among other targets.    Ukraine’s human rights chief, Dmytro Lubinets, called for a strong international response to Russia’s attack, saying the assault violated basic human rights. “Russia is acting like a terrorist, systematically targeting civilian infrastructure,” Lubinets wrote on Telegram.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ NATO is on the cusp of accepting Trump's 5% defense investment demand, Rutte says   Trump says it may be better to let Ukraine and Russia ‘fight for a while’ as Merz blames Putin for war   Trump taps senior Air Force commander for European Command

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Ukraine says Russia launched the biggest overnight drone bombardment of the war

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched almost 500 drones at Ukraine in the biggest overnight drone bombardment of the three-year war, the Ukrainian air force said Monday, as the Kremlin presses its summer offensive amid direct peace talks that have yet to deliver progress on stopping the fighting.

https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-russia-drones-attack-air-force-a1b092efaaad6886659a9230109a48db?

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Russia’s military casualties top 1 million in 3-year-old war, Ukraine says

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The number of Russian troops killed or wounded in Ukraine has topped 1 million, military officials in Kyiv said Thursday, describing the huge price that Moscow has paid for its 3-year-old invasion.

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-drone-attacks-kharkiv-0869f159a0b1b0b073dd139a94cffdc1?

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Russia-Ukraine

Russia has initiated a new tactic in its war on Ukraine: large-scale drone attacks. Last fall, Russia ramped up production of the Iranian-designed Shahed drone and is now building hundreds of them every day. It has also boosted production of decoy drones, which are difficult to distinguish from the real thing. “So, either Ukrainian forces spend time trying to identify the decoys or they spend precious resources shooting them down. Either way, this helps the Russian missiles and Shaheds — with their large payloads — (as they) have the chance to get through to their targets,” Christina Harward, a Russia analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, said. In recent weeks, Russia has used these drones to engage in bigger and more frequent assaults on Ukrainian cities, sometimes firing as many as 479 drones and missiles at targets in a single night. According to a CNN tally, seven of Moscow’s largest drone attacks in its war on Ukraine occurred in the past four weeks.

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Kyiv rescuers find more bodies as death toll from latest Russian attack climbs to 28

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Emergency workers pulled more bodies Wednesday from the rubble of a nine-story Kyiv apartment building demolished by a Russian missile, raising the death toll from the latest attack on the Ukrainian capital to 28.

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-missile-apartment-building-3fdde58144b0f9b95e564bab53bead65?

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Banned from home for 40 years: deportations are Russia’s latest move to ‘cleanse’ Ukraine

Earlier this year, Serhiy Serdiuk was deported from Russia, along with his wife and daughter. He was given a 40-year ban from re-entering the country.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/21/banned-from-home-for-40-years-deportation-russia-latest-move-to-cleanse-occupied-ukraine?

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Russian attacks on Ukraine kill 14 civilians as Zelenskyy travels to UK

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian drones and missiles killed at least 14 civilians and injured several dozen others in Ukraine in overnight attacks, local officials said Monday, with nine deaths reported in the capital, Kyiv, where an apartment building partially collapsed.

https://apnews.com/article/russian-ukraine-war-attack-kyiv-deaths-injuries-aed85e211f1e43928b5bf52d718c1892?

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Drone debris found in Ukraine indicates Russia is using new technology from Iran

Last week, Ukrainian drone hunters picking up the debris from Russia’s nightly assault on their cities found a weapon that stood out from the rest.

https://apnews.com/article/russia-iran-drones-shahed-ukraine-israel-strikes-3ddeb853845f0ea5f81878165af07bfd?

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Russia says Moscow now occupies all of Ukraine’s Luhansk region, illegally annexed in 2022 A Russia-appointed official in Ukraine’s occupied Luhansk region said Monday that Moscow’s forces have overrun all of it — one of four regions Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in September 2022 despite not fully controlling a single one. Read more.

Why this matters: If confirmed, that would make Luhansk the first Ukrainian region fully occupied by Russia after more than three years of war and as recent U.S.-led international peace efforts have failed to make progress on halting the fighting. There was no immediate comment from Kyiv on the claim.   Russian President Vladimir Putin has effectively rejected a ceasefire and hasn’t budged from his demands, which include Moscow’s control over the four illegally annexed regions.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Ukrainian drone strikes a Russian plant after record Russian drone attacks in June   A Russian media outlet is raided in Azerbaijan’s capital as tensions rise between Moscow and Baku   More than 200 Ukrainian POWs have died in Russian prisons. This is one soldier’s story

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Arson attack on a Ukrainian restaurant in Estonia was ordered by Russian intelligence, a court says

An arson attack on a restaurant and supermarket in Estonia last year were ordered by Russian intelligence, an Estonian court said Wednesday.

https://apnews.com/article/russia-estonia-sabotage-arson-ukraine-554442e8c139f4a1df4d2df78d76f7a4?

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Ukraine’s options following US pause on crucial battlefield weapons The decision by the United States to pause some weapons shipments to Ukraine has come at a tough time for Kyiv. The Trump administration has been disengaging while there is no end in sight to the war despite recent direct peace talks. Russia’s bigger army is also making a concerted push on parts of front line and is intensifying long-range drone and missile attacks. Read more.

Key points: As Kyiv remains concerned about how much military support its allies can supply and how quickly, Ukraine has raced to build up its domestic defense industry. But some high-tech U.S. weapons are irreplaceable. They include Patriot air defense missiles, at a cost of $4 million each, which are needed to fend off Russia’s frequent ballistic missile attacks. That vital system is included in the pause and many cities in Ukraine, including Kyiv, could become increasingly vulnerable.   Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been enlisting more European assistance for his country’s arms manufacturing plans. European countries don’t have the production levels, military stockpiles or the technology to pick up all the slack left by the U.S. pause, but Zelenskyy is recruiting them for ambitious joint investment projects.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Russia hammers Kyiv in largest missile and drone barrage since war in Ukraine began   Trump says US has given Ukraine too many weapons in first public comments on pause in shipments   Russia becomes the first country to formally recognize Taliban’s latest rule in Afghanistan ps:The US planned to do this all along!!!!!

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Ukraine

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did not inform the White House before he authorized a pause on weapons shipments to Ukraine last week, according to five sources familiar with the matter. This was the second time this year that Hegseth decided to halt the flow of US weapons to Ukraine, catching senior national security officials off guard. Shortly after learning about the pause, President Donald Trump told Hegseth to restart the shipments, and specifically to send more defensive weapons. In recent weeks, Russia has intensified its near-nightly air attacks, often using hundreds of drones and missiles. Overnight, Russia launched a massive aerial assault involving 728 drones and 13 missiles, eclipsing the previous record number of 539 drones that was set on July 4, Ukraine’s Air Force said.

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Ukraine

Russia continued its aerial assault on Ukraine’s capital for a second night, killing at least two people and wounding more than a dozen others. For more than 10 hours, the night sky above Kyiv was filled with massive fiery explosions and smoke. Houses, cars, warehouses and other buildings across the city were damaged and caught fire, and a health care clinic was almost completely destroyed, authorities said. According to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, the latest bombardment involved 400 drones and 18 missiles.

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By day, the Ukrainian capital is alive and humming. By night, it’s a battleground

By day, the Ukrainian capital hums with life — crowded metros, dog walkers and children on playgrounds. By night, Kyiv becomes a battleground as Russia unleashes relentless drone and missile attacks that chase much of the population underground for safety. Read More.

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Zelenskyy appoints a new prime minister for a war-weary Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Fresh off securing a plan to receive more U.S. weaponry, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appointed a new prime minister – the key negotiator of his country’s deal with the U.S. to partner on the development of minerals.

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-government-reshuffle-zelenskyy-svyrydenko-c64ec1fd2475ad85c6a54a50c63076eb?

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Russia-Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for talks with Russia this week in an effort to reach a ceasefire deal. “The dynamics of the negotiations must improve. We need to do everything possible to achieve a ceasefire. The Russian side must stop avoiding decisions regarding prisoner exchanges, the return of children and the cessation of killings,” Zelensky said. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov responded by saying that Russia was “ready to move quickly” on achieving a peace deal with Ukraine, but its “main goal” was to achieve its “objectives.” The latest round of talks in Istanbul ended in early June, with Russian and Ukrainian delegates meeting for barely over an hour before calling it quits. Since then, Russia has launched waves of deadly missile and drone strikes at Ukraine. Russia may also be days or weeks away from starting a heightened summer offensive, perhaps using the 160,000 troops Ukrainian officials have said are amassing near their front lines.

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Swarms of Russian drones attack Ukraine nightly as Moscow puts new emphasis on the deadly weapon

The long-range Russian drones come in swarms each night, buzzing for hours over Ukraine by the hundreds, terrorizing the population and attacking targets from the industrial east to areas near its western border with Poland.

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-drones-putin-attacks-0a06736dea37114aa0f351d21746912b?

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Russia kills 27 civilians in Ukraine as the Kremlin remains defiant over Trump threats

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian glide bombs and ballistic missiles struck a Ukrainian prison and a medical facility overnight as Russia’s relentless strikes on civilian areas killed at least 27 people across the country, officials said Tuesday, despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to soon punish Russia with sanctions and tariffs unless it stops.

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-prison-zaporizhzhia-feb6039758a0ee9bb21e1dab986c20b7?

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Russian attack on western Ukraine hits an American factory during the US-led push for peace

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched a rare drone and missile attack on western Ukraine overnight, officials said Thursday, striking targets including an American-owned electronics plant and injecting further uncertainty into the U.S.-led efforts to end the three-year-old war.

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-zelenskyy-putin-trump-security-92ee89feba2224f140429bcb573e61f9?

A Ukrainian startup develops long-range drones and missiles to take the battle to Russia

Ukraine has fast become a global center for defense innovation. The goal is to match, if not outmuscle, Russia’s capabilities, which were on brutal display Thursday. Fire Point is one of the companies leading the way and the Associated Press was granted an exclusive look inside one of the company's dozens of covert factories. Read more.

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Moscow says Kyiv has struck a nuclear power plant as Ukraine marks Independence Day

Russia accused Ukraine on Sunday of launching drone attacks that sparked a fire at a nuclear power plant in its western Kursk region overnight, as Ukraine celebrated 34 years since its independence.

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-independence-nuclear-164e25c537bf1054bbd426764b6e3bd3?

ps:Oh so now putin is crying that Kyiv is fighting back????? What a wimp!!!!!

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Ukrainian drone attacks on oil refineries have some Russian regions running on empty

Gas stations have run dry in some regions of Russia after Ukrainian drones struck refineries and other oil infrastructure in recent weeks, with motorists waiting in long lines and officials resorting to rationing or cutting off sales altogether.

https://apnews.com/article/russia-gasoline-shortage-ukraine-war-2c1364fd199fa594f67ad097d6761814?

Russian forces break into another region of Ukraine with peace efforts stuck

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia’s invading forces have broken into an eighth region of Ukraine, a Ukrainian military official said Wednesday, seeking to capture more ground in their three-year war of attrition as U.S.-led peace efforts struggle to gain traction.

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-38c342ceabdefb399171d587e4cba194?

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Ukraine

Russia’s latest attack on Kyiv overnight killed at least 15 people, including four children, and wounded dozens of others. There may be additional victims trapped under the rubble; some 500 rescuers and 1,000 police officers have been tasked with searching multiple locations for survivors. The missile and drone strike is the latest in a series of assaults Russia has conducted on Ukraine and comes just over two weeks after President Donald Trump held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska. That summit was followed by planning for a bilateral meeting between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but that has not taken place, and diplomatic efforts to end the war seem to have stalled. “These Russian missiles and attack drones today are a clear response to everyone in the world who, for weeks and months, has been calling for a ceasefire and for real diplomacy,” Zelensky said on X.