Russian MiG-29 fighter jet destroyed in HUR drone attack on Crimea
Successful strikes by Ukraine's military intelligence agency destroyed a Russian MiG-29 fighter jet and an Irtysh radar system in Russian-occupied Crimea, the agency said.
Team
Francis Farrell
ReporterFrancis Farrell is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent. He is the co-author of War Notes, the Kyiv Independent's weekly newsletter about the war. For the second year in a row, the Kyiv Independent received a grant from the Charles Douglas-Home Memorial Trust to support his front-line reporting for the year 2025-2026. Francis won the Prix Bayeux Calvados-Normandy for war correspondents in the young reporter category in 2023, and was nominated for the European Press Prize in 2024. Francis speaks Ukrainian and Hungarian and is an alumnus of Leiden University in The Hague and University College London. He has previously worked as a managing editor at the online media project Lossi 36, as a freelance journalist and documentary photographer, and at the OSCE and Council of Europe field missions in Albania and Ukraine.
Articles
Russian strikes on Kherson heating plant leave over 40,000 residents in the cold
The closure came after several days of sustained attacks by drones and artillery, targeting the halls and equipment of the plant, according to regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin.
Draft officer fatally stabbed in Lviv during papers check
According to the military, the man refused to present his documents, acted aggressively, and eventually stabbed the officer in the groin, causing a critical bleed.
Czech POW sentenced to 13 years in jail by Russian court for fighting for Ukraine
Tran's case is just the latest case of Russian prosecution of a captured foreign fighter as a mercenary, which, in Moscow's interpretation of international law, deprives them of the rights traditionally held by prisoners of war (POWs).
As Russia takes Pokrovsk, sister city Myrnohrad stares down encirclement
Ukraine's great fortress city of Pokrovsk has officially fallen — as far as Moscow is concerned.
More than five weeks after Russian troops first started to swarm into the southern outskirts of the Donetsk Oblast city, Pokrovsk has been decisively overrun, although Kyiv still claims a presence inside the urban area.
Though nearing its close, the final act of the Battle of Pokrovsk has come gradually, as Ukrainian forces are squeezed out of the city center by Russian infantry on the ground and d
Where is Ukraine’s front line? The answer is getting harder, and more political
In the tumultuous history of modern warfare, the information struggle has often been fought with the same fury as the kinetic.
Amid all the attempts to portray success instead of failure, to exude control when there is chaos, there is one hard truth that is difficult to hide from for long: the movement of the front line.
What was — for the entire history of conflict until the last decade — once concealed by the fog of war and hostage to the information politics of the belligerents, is now read
Russian forces occupy 2 villages in Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, DeepState reports
Promin in Donetsk Oblast and Vysoke in Zapoirzhzhia Oblast were reported taken, the analytical and mapping group reported on Nov. 26.
Reporting from the front is getting even harder
Over the past few years, I’ve spent much of my time on the road — from Pokrovsk, Kupiansk, Sudzha, and the villages and fields in between — documenting what Russia’s war looks like for the people fighting it and caught in its storm.
Our trips out in front-line areas can get a bit hairy sometimes, whether it’s glide bombs hitting a few hundred meters away in Vovchansk, our driver disappearing in Selydove, or nearly falling out of a speeding pick-up truck while chased by Russian drones on our way
Russian troops spotted north of Pokrovsk, military confirms
"Several enemy infantrymen tried to penetrate and gain a foothold at one of the agricultural facilities," the 7th Corps said. "The enemy was destroyed."
Ukrainian public broadcaster in Dnipro badly damaged in overnight Russian attack
At the time of the attack, around 11 p.m., there were no employees or other workers at the site.
Battle of Pokrovsk: How Russia broke into the city and what's next
Pokrovsk, a city that held back some of Russia’s fiercest assaults for over a year, is now on the verge of falling. The Kyiv Independent’s Francis Farrell explains how the battle reached this point and what Pokrovsk’s fall could mean for the wider defense of Donetsk Oblast.
Analysis: With all eyes on Pokrovsk, Russia drives forward in Zaporizhzhia Oblast
While Ukraine, Russia, and the world have been watching the dramatic final act of the Battle of Pokrovsk unfold, Russian gains in the eastern parts of Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts — a section of the frontline that has been dynamic but chronically overlooked — have picked up speed.
On November 11th, the same day that Russia’s wretched Mad Max–style convoy of troops was filmed entering Pokrovsk through the fog, the Ukrainian military announced its withdrawal from five villages north of
Ukraine war latest: Zelensky says situation in Pokrovsk, Zaporizhzhia Oblast 'difficult'
Hello, this is Francis Farell reporting from Kyiv on day 1,356 of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Today's top story so far:
President Volodymyr Zelensky on Nov. 11 described the situation facing Ukrainian troops in Pokrovsk and Zaporizhzhia Oblast as "difficult."
"Most of the attention is now on the Pokrovsky direction and Zaporizhzhia region, where the Russians are increasing the number and scale of assaults," he said in a post on social media.
"The situation there is difficult, an
‘Destroying our memory’ — YouTube wipes Ukrainian channel honoring soldiers killed by Russia
The nature of the mass reports' accusations, unrelated as they are to the channel's actual content, is a clear sign of a coordinated Russian operation, according to the project's deputy editor.
Explosion in Russian Black Sea port of Tuapse amid reported sea drone attack
Later, the official Telegram channel of Krasnodar Krai confirmed the attack, claiming that four Ukrainian sea drones had been destroyed.
