According to Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, about 600-700 people have been evacuated from the besieged city on March 14. Some 300,000 residents remain in Mariupol. "This is not enough," Vereshchuk said, adding that Russia has blocked Ukrainian trucks and buses from evacuating more people.
Toma Istomina is the deputy chief editor of the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked for the Kyiv Post from 2017-2021, first as a staff writer, later taking editor roles. For co-founding the Kyiv Independent, Toma was selected as one of the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe in 2022. She holds a master’s in international broadcasting from Taras Shevchenko University.Read more
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Washington still sees the experimental Oreshnik missile more as "an attempt at intimidation than a game-changer on the battlefield in Ukraine," a U.S. official said.
The Kyiv Independent’s Natalia Yermak sat down with Neil Quilliam, a Middle East expert at Chatham House, to talk about what it means for Russia’s war in Ukraine and how it might put Kyiv and the West in a more favorable position in the potential peace negotiations with Moscow.
The document will not be published due to the "sensitivity of some of its findings," the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity under White House ground rules, told the Associated Press.
For the next year, Ukraine allocated 26.3% of its gross domestic product (GDP) to defense and security expenditures, including Hr 740 billion ($17.7 billion) for arms purchases and Hr 50 billion ($1.2 billion) on the production and purchase of drones.
Russian occupation authorities in Donetsk jailed nine Ukrainian soldiers captured after defending Mariupol to between 24 years and a life sentence, the city's exiled authorities reported on Dec. 11.
Moscow persuaded Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad to flee to Russia with his family after realizing his regime was bound to lose to the opposition's rapid advance, Bloomberg reported on Dec. 11, citing its sources.
The region has recently faced energy restrictions aggravated by a growing spat with its Russian patrons. Moscow has cut almost all funding, including money crucial for the energy sector, after Abkhazia's local council voted against a controversial investment agreement with Russia.
"I believe that we have enough funds, enough weapons, missiles, and artillery shells to resist at least during the first half of 2025," Finance Minister Serhii Marchenko said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump did not discuss details of a possible peace plan when they met in Paris, with Trump calling for an immediate ceasefire, Reuters reported on Dec. 11, citing five undisclosed sources.
"The actions of the defendants led to significant losses and the creation of an artificial shortage of tickets for the most popular routes on the market," the police’s statement read.
Russian attacks across Ukraine killed at least eight civilians and injured at least 57 over the past day, regional authorities reported early on Dec. 11.
A Ukrainian missile struck a boiler plant in Russia's Rostov Oblast overnight on Dec. 11, damaging critical infrastructure in the city of Taganrog, Russian officials claimed.
This comes as the first official confirmation of speculations that Assad and his family fled to Moscow following the collapse of the dictator's regime in Syria.
"In 2024 alone, we can confirm that Russian troops shot 109 Ukrainian prisoners of war," Lubinets said. Reports of murders, torture, and ill-treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war are received regularly by Ukrainian authorities.
Russia has made territorial gains in Eastern Ukraine, using brutal meat wave tactics to achieve minor tactical victories on the frontline at the cost of high casualties among its soldiers.
Russia will "definitely be prepared to consider" a prisoner exchange, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told NBC News, adding that a potential exchange could mark "a healthy step forward, especially at the beginning of the next (U.S.) administration."