General Staff: Russia offers citizenship to foreigners in exchange for enlisting in army

Colombians, many shaped by decades of armed conflict at home, have become one of the largest groups of foreign volunteers fighting for Ukraine since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. The Kyiv Independent's Jared Goyette speaks with a Colombian volunteer who spent two years fighting in Ukraine.

Kyiv is pushing to delay a new tax on self-employed entrepreneurs until after the war has ended, as well as raise the threshold at which entrepreneurs would start paying the levy, a person in the Ukrainian government familiar with the talks told the Kyiv Independent.

Russian forces launched missile and drone attacks on several Ukrainian regions, including Kyiv and surrounding areas, overnight on Jan. 28, local authorities reported.

Three Russian Geran-2 drones struck the train on Jan. 27 at around 4:30 p.m. local time in the Barvinkove community.

The Kremlin has sought to strengthen ties with the new leadership in Damascus after the toppling of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, a Russian ally, in 2024.

Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said Moscow is prepared to ensure President Volodymyr Zelensky's security.

The attack on the oil depot caused a fire at the facility and ignited stored petroleum products. Thick smoke is rising above the site, the General Staff said.

The Chariot Tide, formerly known as Marabella Sun, was flying a Mozambique flag when its engine broke down on Jan. 22 in international waters within Spain's search-and-rescue zone.

Russian forces have sustained nearly 1.2 million casualties since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, paying a steep price for limited gains, a new CSIS report finds.

The Atesh partisan group sabotaged an electrical substation in Russia's Udmurt Republic, disrupting power supply to the nearby "BUMMASH" military‑industrial plant, the group claimed in a Telegram post on Jan. 28.

Ukraine's ambassador to Hungary was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Budapest on Jan. 27, as Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto accused Kyiv of interfering in Hungary's upcoming parliamentary elections.