A view of the Black Sea from Odesa. (Yulii Zozulia / Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
Russian media outlets on Nov. 7 reported a series of explosions near military bases in occupied Crimea, according to Channel 24.
The explosions were recorded close to the Belbek military airfield near Sevastopol, one of Moscow’s key ports on the Black Sea.
Mikhail Razvozhaev, the head of Sevastopol's illegal Russian occupation government, said Russian anti-air systems downed five Ukrainian UAVs.
Russia's Ministry of Defense later on Nov. 7 claimed to have destroyed eight and intercepted seven drones over the Black Sea and Crimean Peninsula, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported.
Earlier in August, Ukraine used western supplied missile systems and drones to destroy major Russian naval assets in the Black Sea.
Lance Luo (Li P. Luo) is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. Previously, he worked at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Hromadske Television in Kyiv. He also spent three years in finance and strategy consulting. Mr. Luo graduated from the University of Southern California and serves as an arbitrator at FINRA.
According to the president, the negotiations would be hosted by the U.S. and will take place on Feb. 17 and Feb. 18. The talks, however, depend on Russia's agreement to take part, something that Ukraine and the U.S. have not yet received.
"I am absolutely confident that if ... there is no date, then Russia will do everything to block the process," President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Feb. 11.
European countries stepped in to fill the gap, increasing military aid to Ukraine by 67% and non-military support by 59% in 2025, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
A Russian strike on Bohodukhiv, Kharkiv Oblast, killed four people, including three toddlers, and injured two others, Governor Oleh Syniehubov reported overnight Feb. 11.
The messages come a week after Ukraine's defense ministry agreed with Starlink's parent company, SpaceX, to introduce mandatory registration for the internet terminals in Ukraine, a move meant to prevent their use by Russian forces.
"We have been discussing the training of Ukrainian soldiers, also on the soil of Ukraine," Kaja Kallas, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs, said in Brussels on Feb. 11 before a meeting of EU defense ministers.
As global attention has shifted to Ukraine’s energy crisis, the fighting on the eastern front has not slowed. The Kyiv Independent’s Francis Farrell speaks with Volodymyr Polevyi, head of public affairs for the 7th Rapid Response Corps of the Air Assault Forces, about the battle for Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad in Donetsk Oblast.
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