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Volodymyr Zelensky has officially dismissed former Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Valery Zaluzhny from military service due to health reasons.

President Volodymyr Zelensky believes that after the end of the war, there will be a demographic "boom" in Ukraine. He said this during a meeting with students of Sumy State University. When asked by a student about government programs aimed at stimulating the birth rate, the Ukrainian leader replied that the number one issue is safety. "I think that the biggest incentive is safety, and what's next with the child, and what to do. And we need not only financial incentives, because finances, in my opinion, help, but they do not stimulate giving birth during the war," Zelensky said. The...

Ukraine detained two agents in Kyiv’s equivalent to the Secret Service over allegedly plotting with the Russians to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky. Two colonels in Ukraine’s State Protection Department, which is tasked with guarding the lives of the president and other high-ranking government officials, have been arrested for an alleged attempt to assassinate President Zelensky in conjunction with Russia’s FSB, the successor to the Soviet Union’s KGB, it is claimed1. According to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the Russian intelligence agency was tasked with finding potential traitors within Zelensky’s security detail who could take him hostage and ultimately kill...

Russia said on Wednesday that sending NATO troops into Ukraine would potentially be extremely dangerous, and Moscow was closely watching a Ukrainian petition that called for such an intervention. The petition, posted on the Ukrainian president's website, says Ukraine should ask the United States, Britain and other countries to send troops to help it repel Russia's invasion. "We have repeatedly said that direct intervention on the ground in this conflict by the military of NATO countries potentially carries enormous danger, so we consider this an extremely challenging provocation, nothing less, and, of course, we are watching this very carefully."

Missiles from North Korea, drones from Iran, and a massive amount of technical assistance from China. Russian President Vladimir Putin may complain about the backing Ukraine is receiving from Nato allies, but it is doubtful that Russia would be able to maintain its military offensive without the help it is getting from its motley collection of autocratic friends. In the latest indication of the support Moscow is receiving for its war effort in Ukraine, a team of UN investigators has concluded that debris from a missile that landed in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on January 2 was from a...

Today it was reported that an assassination attempt on Ukrainian President Zelensky was thwarted. Two officers had planned a missile attack on him and other high-ranking military officials. Additionally, Russian forces have advanced 2 km westward from Ocherytne towards "Prohress". In Chasiv Yar, Russian troops continue their bombardments using FPV drones, artillery, FAB bombs, and the TOS1A system. In the areas around Kupiansk and Kherson, increased activity has been noted from both sides in recent days, particularly with Russian ground offensives towards Kupiansk. Furthermore, Russia and now Belarus have begun testing the combat readiness of their nuclear missiles, which can...

Ukraine has detained two security officials allegedly involved in a Russian plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky, which Kyiv’s state security service (SBU) said it foiled.Two colonels in Ukraine’s government protection unit were accused of carrying out “subversive activities against Ukraine in exchange for financial compensation,” Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s office said Tuesday.Both colonels were charged with treason; one was also charged with preparing a terrorist act.

Russia has likely been recruiting Cuban nationals to fight in its army in Ukraine, research by the BBC has shown. In September and October 2023, passport details belonging to over 200 Cubans who allegedly joined the Russian army were leaked online by a pro-Ukrainian platform called InformNapalm. The passport details were obtained, the site said, by hacking the emails of a Russian military recruitment officer in Tula, south of Moscow. A Facebook search has shown that 31 of the names mentioned in the Ukrainian leak match accounts whose owners appear to be in Russia or linked to the Russian army....

President Xi Jinping of China, on a two-day visit to France, spoke out firmly against criticism of his country for its close relationship with Russia during the war in Ukraine, saying that “we oppose the crisis being used to cast responsibility on a third country, sully its image and incite a new cold war.” Flanked by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, with whom he held several rounds of talk on Monday, Mr. Xi stiffened as he defended China’s role, recalling it was “not at the origin of this crisis, nor a party to it, nor a participant.” The bristling remark...

Should Russia succeed in its war on Ukraine, the United States will likely have to intervene with more than just money - but also with troops, said U.S. Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries. "We cannot allow Ukraine to fall, because if it does, there is a significant possibility that America will have to intervene in the conflict — not just with our money, but with our troops," he told CBS News.

France has sent its first troops officially to Ukraine. They have been deployed in support of the Ukrainian 54th Independent Mechanized Brigade in Slavyansk. The French soldiers are drawn from France’s 3rd Infantry Regiment, which is one of the main elements of France’s Foreign Legion (Légion étrangère). In 2022 France had a number of Ukrainians and Russians in the Foreign Legion. They were allowed to leave the Legion and, in the case of the Ukrainians, return to Ukraine to join Ukrainian forces. It isn’t clear if the Russians returned home. The Legion today is run by French officers but the...

Ukraine is facing "a new stage" in the Russia's full-scale war, President Volodymyr Zelensky said during a meeting with border guards in Khmelnytskyi Oblast on May 3. Zelensky's statement came amid a deteriorating situation on the battlefield. Kyrylo Budanov, the chief of Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR), said that Ukraine should expect to face a renewed Russian offensive in late spring or early summer, with the offensive intensifying around eastern Donbas region. "The occupier is now preparing to expand its offensive. And all of us — Ukrainians, soldiers, state, partners — must do everything to disrupt Russia's offensive plan," Zelensky said.

Russia has issued arrest warrants for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as well as several high-ranking former officials including former President Pyotr Poroshenko. The wanted list published by Moscow’s Interior Ministry was updated on Tuesday to include President Zelensky. The arrest warrant states that the Ukrainian leader is wanted over a violation of the Russian Criminal code, however, the exact alleged offence has not been published.

Ukraine’s American-backed fight against Russia is being waged not only in the blood-soaked trenches of the Donbas region but also on what military planners call the cognitive battlefield — to win hearts and minds.A sprawling constellation of media outlets organized with substantial funding and direction from the U.S. government has not just worked to counter Russian propaganda but has supported strong censorship laws and shutdowns of dissident outlets, disseminated disinformation of its own, and sought to silence critics of the war, including many American citizens.Economist Jeffrey Sachs, commentator Tucker Carlson, journalist Glenn Greenwald, and University of Chicago Professor John Mearsheimer...

'I am not ruling anything out,' Emmanuel Macron insisted in an interview published today, pressed on whether France would send troops to Ukraine in its hour of need. The remarks echo a new tone on Moscow in recent months, the French President reiterating pledges roundly rebuffed by his allies in the US, UK and Germany. Europe and the United States have now committed more than £130bn to Ukraine in aid but NATO members have stopped short of promising boots on the ground - with Putin still willing to exploit the threat of nuclear Armageddon when prompted. While Macron has argued...

Ukrainian energy workers are struggling to repair the damage from intensifying airstrikes aimed at pulverizing Ukraine’s energy grid, hobbling the economy and sapping the public’s morale. Staff worry they will lose the race to prepare for winter unless allies come up with air-defense systems like the U.S.-made Patriots to stop Russian attacks inflicting more destruction on already damaged plants. "Rockets hit fast. Fixing takes long," Oleh said in limited but forceful English. DTEK says it has lost 80% of its electricity-generating capacity in almost 180 aerial attacks since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. It estimates that repairing...

In another world, Ukraine would have voted on Sunday. In a year where billions get the chance to cast a ballot, people here would have given their verdict on the presidency of Volodymyr Zelensky. Five years ago, the man whose talents as an actor, comedian and producer had made him a household name in Ukraine was propelled into office. But with Russian forces still inside the country and millions of Ukrainians displaced from their homes, fighting on the frontlines, or living overseas, there is no election in sight. Some US Republicans have sought to make the upcoming expiration of Zelensky’s...

Israel has never been satisfied with its version of the Patriot air defense system that Ukraine views as essential to its survival. This creates a bizarre split screen where Ukraine was all but pleading for more Patriot missiles to defend its cities and forces on Monday even as Israel began to shut down its older Patriot batteries, a move that came less than a month after it battled an unprecedented missile barrage from Iran. Israel and Ukraine's experience with the Patriots could not have been more different. Israel first used Patriots in combat in 1991 against approximately 40 Scud ballistic...

The five-month wait before US Congress approved $61 billion in military aid to Ukraine may have caused lasting damage that will be felt on the frontlines for months to come. Russian forces have used the “artillery drought” hampering Ukraine’s defenses since December to push forward on the eastern front near Avdiivka, making the largest advance since the early months of the war. Moscow’s progress has prompted warnings from senior Ukrainian military officials of a possible threat to Kyiv’s supply lines and hubs in the east, which are now perilously close to being in range of superior Russian firepower. The bleak...

French President Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed he did not rule out sending troops to Ukraine, saying the issue would "legitimately" arise if Russia broke through Ukrainian front lines and Kyiv made such a request, in an interview with the Economist published Thursday. The Economist said Macron gave the interview after delivering a keynote speech last week where he declared that Europe is "mortal" and could "die" partly due to the threat posed by Russian aggression after its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. "I'm not ruling anything out, because we are facing someone who is not ruling anything out," said Macron when...