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U.S. Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected the new pope and leader of the Roman Catholic Church on Thursday, taking the name Pope Leo XIV, a senior cardinal announced on May 8 to crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square, according to Vatican News.

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The Kyiv Independent’s Chris York sat down with author, historian, and Russia’s Victory Day celebrations on May 9, which mark the Soviet Union’s role in defeating Nazi Germany in World War II, are one of the country’s biggest public events of the year. President of the Ukrainian Society of Switzerland Andrej Lushnycky who sheds some light on the things Putin would rather you didn’t know about World War II.

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General Staff: Ukraine downs 4 out of 7 Russian drones overnight

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General Staff: Ukraine downs 4 out of 7 Russian drones overnight
One of the Russian attack drones downed over Odesa Oblast on the evening of Dec. 22, 2023. (Illustrative purposes only.) (Southern Defense Forces / Telegram)

Russian forces launched seven Shahed-136/131 attack drones against Ukraine overnight on Jan. 19, four of which were shot down by Ukraine's air defense, according to a morning update from the General Staff.

Over the past 24 hours, Russia launched at least one missile and 23 air strikes, while also firing 59 times from multiple launch rocket systems at the positions of Ukrainian troops and populated areas.

Avdiivka, Orlivka and Novomykhailivka in Donetsk Oblast were targeted by air strikes, while
over 110 settlements in Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Kherson and Mykolaiv oblasts came under artillery fire.

In the Lyman direction, Ukrainian troops repelled 10 Russian attacks near Terny, Yampolivka, Verkhniokamianske in Donetsk Oblast and another 15 attacks in the areas of Serebryanske forestry and Bilohorivka in Luhansk Oblast.

In the Bakhmut sector, Ukrainian forces repelled four Russian attacks near Ivanivske, Andriivka and Klishchiivka in Donetsk Oblast.

ISW: Russia conducting information operation to distort NATO’s ‘Steadfast Defender 2024’ exercises
As NATO gears up for the Steadfast Defender 2024 exercises, Russia has been engaged in an information campaign seeking to cast NATO’s actions as provocative, the Institute for the Study of War said in its latest update on Jan. 19.

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Olena Goncharova

Head of North America desk

Olena Goncharova is the Head of North America desk at The Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.

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