A man rides a bicycle in front of residential buildings in Chernihiv, a regional capital in northern Ukraine, damaged by Russian fire, on March 3, 2022. Fourty-seven people died when Russian forces hit Chernihiv's residential areas, including a school and high-rise apartment buildings. (AFP/Getty Images)
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched what he called "a special military operation" against Ukraine on Feb. 24, de facto declaring war on the country.
Putin claimed to have “no ill intentions towards neighboring countries” and denied firing missiles on civil infrastructure during what he called a campaign to “disarm and de-Nazify” Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Russian troops have shelled civilians in residential areas, burned houses, schools, and kindergartens all over Ukraine.
Ten days after Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine began, hundreds of Ukrainians are dead, thousands are injured, and over a million are displaced.
The Kyiv Independent publishes photographs of Ukrainian cities, destroyed by the Kremlin.
People remove personal belongings from a burning house after being shelled in the city of Irpin, outside Kyiv, on March 4, 2022. (Getty Images)A view of the central square of Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, on March 1, 2022, soon after being shelled. (AFP/Getty Images)Ukrainian servicemen assist a civilian, while people cross a destroyed bridge, as they evacuate residents of Irpin, a city northwest of Kyiv, during heavy shelling on March 5, 2022. (AFP/Getty Images)Children are being evacuated from the city of Irpin, northwest of Kyiv, during heavy shelling on March 5, 2022. (AFP/Getty Images)An injured woman stands in front of a damaged apartment complex outside of Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine, on Feb. 24, 2022. (Getty Images)Destroyed Russian armored vehicles in the city of Bucha, west of Kyiv, on March 4, 2022. (AFP/Getty Images)Firefighters try to extinguish a blaze at a damaged residential building at Koshytsia Street, in one of Kyiv's residential neighborhoods, on Feb. 25, 2022. (Getty Images)A man clears debris at a damaged residential building at Koshytsia Street in Kyiv's Pozniaky neighborhood on Feb. 25, 2022. (Getty Images)A child looks on as residents are being evacuated from the city of Irpin, northwest of Kyiv, during heavy shelling on March 5, 2022. (AFP/Getty Images)The building of the Vasylkiv Professional College destroyed by Russian rocket fire, Vasylkiv, Kyiv Oblast, on March 1, 2022. (Getty Images)Police officers cover the bodies of people killed in an airstrike that targeted Kyiv's TV tower on March 1, 2022. (AFP/Getty Images)A photograph of Constitution Square in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, after being shelled by Russia on March 2, 2022. (AFP/Getty Images)A damaged apartment seen after being hit by an early morning missile strike on Feb. 25, 2022 in Kyiv. (Getty Images)A view of a damaged building following the shelling of Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, on March 3, 2022. (AFP/ Getty Images)The view on the damaged building in Kyiv hit by a Russian missile on Feb. 26, 2022. (Photo by Daniel LEAL / AFP) (Photo by DANIEL LEAL/AFP via Getty Images)
Russia occupied and illegally annexed Crimea in 2014. In recent months, Ukrainian forces have increasingly targeted power substations, bridges, ferry crossings, air defenses, military logistics routes, and Russian vessels in the Black and Azov seas as part of a broader campaign to isolate Crimea.
"Cultural events funded by European taxpayers' money should safeguard democratic values and foster open dialogue, diversity, and freedom of expression — values which are not respected in today's Russia," European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said.
The Washington-based lender called Ukraine's performance "broadly satisfactory" in a press release announcing its approval, but emphasized that several conditions of the program were either completed with a delay or missed entirely.
Sumy came under repeated Russian strikes, reflecting Moscow's growing use of double-tap attacks, which cause further destruction and put both civilians and rescuers at risk.
Fires broke out at industrial facilities in the Russian city of Lipetsk after reports of an overnight attack, with independent monitoring channels claiming the affected sites included a major steel plant and a power facility.
President Volodymyr Zelensky is considering replacing Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi amid calls from protesters to dismiss him, Bloomberg reported on July 20, citing two unnamed sources familiar with the matter.