As recently as this January and February, Russia was going through its worst fiscal period since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Oil and gas budget revenues had fallen by 50% year-on-year, and the deficit for the first two months reached $42 billion. The government was preparing to slash non-military spending by 10%. It seemed like sanctions were finally working. Then this happened: the United States struck Iran, and the Strait of Hormuz — through which one-fifth of the world'

Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said that Ukraine has retaken 480 square kilometers and 12 settlements since late January amid heavy fighting on key front-line sectors.

The suspect is Oleksandr Kachnyi, who previously represented the pro-Russian Opposition Platform-For Life faction, a law enforcement source told the Kyiv Independent.

"You can't expect fixed terms of service without strengthening mobilization," Olha Reshetylova said.

The Sheskharis oil terminal was struck by Ukrainian drones, independent Russian Telegram news channel Astra reported, citing eyewitness reports from the area.

Russian attacks on Ukraine's railways are escalating and posing a more direct threat to civilians, as Moscow increasingly shifts from hitting infrastructure to targeting moving trains, including passenger trains. Attacks on the railway system rose from 134 in January to 166 in February and peaked at 206 in March, Ukrzaliznytsia — Ukraine's national train operator — told the Kyiv Independent. "There is a clear tendency since late 2025, and especially now in spring — focused strikes on rolling s

Editor’s note: This story is a collaboration between the Kyiv Independent and TUA Research, an independent OSINT group. It's not uncommon for artillery soldiers to write messages on shells before firing them — for the sake of posting them online. They can be vengeful or mocking. But one signed shell that Russians fired around August 2024 stood out as unusual. It promoted a podcast. "Subscribe to 'Russians With Attitude'," read the message, scribbled across the shell. Launched in 2020, "Russi

Alexei Smirnov was arrested last April on charges of embezzling funds earmarked for the construction of fortifications at the Russia-Ukraine border.

Among the injured victims are a toddler and two teenagers. At least two of the injured were hospitalized in serious condition.

The frigate was allegedly struck in the port of Novorossiysk during an overnight mass attack that also saw the Sheskharis oil terminal once again set ablaze.

"Serbian authorities have found a powerful explosive device, along with the equipment needed to detonate it, at critical gas infrastructure linking Serbia and Hungary," Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on April 5 in a post on X.

Lieutenant-General Aleksandr Otroshchenko served as commander of the Northern Fleet's air corps, a position he had held since 2013, and took part in Russian operations in Syria.

It is currently difficult to organize talks in a trilateral format as "the Americans have a lot of other things to deal with, if you know what I mean," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

Former managers at the state-owned Ukrgazvydobuvannya gas company and affiliated businesspeople organized a scheme to inflate the costs of materials used for gas production, the SBU said.

Emergency power outages were reported in Kyiv and Chernihiv oblasts due to Russian attacks on energy infrastructure, regional authorities said.

The number include 940 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day.

Over 340,000 subscribers in northern Ukraine's Chernihiv Oblast were left without power overnight on April 6 following Russian attacks on energy infrastructure in the region.

Zelensky will meet with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa in Damascus, Syria TV said.

Key developments on April 4-5: * Ukraine confirms strikes on Russian oil infrastructure, defying calls to ease attacks amid soaring fuel prices * Russia increases attacks on civilians, killing 16 and injuring 94 more * Explosions, fires reported in Russia’s Tolyatti, Taganrog after drone attacks * Russia drops record number of deadly glide bombs on Ukraine, steps up aerial attacks * Ukraine strikes Russian fuel train, confirms damage to multimillion-dollar Orion drones in occupied regions

In the latest episode of Ukraine This Week, Anna Belokur examines why the United States is re-engaging with Belarus — and what it could mean for Russia’s war against Ukraine.

The latest attack comes as Ukrainian officials have acknowledged that foreign allies have asked Kyiv to pause drone attacks on Russian oil refineries as the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran drives up fuel prices worldwide.

Russia provided Iran with satellite intelligence on over 50 Israeli energy sites, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on April 5, the latest of a series of Ukrainian claims that Russia is supporting Tehran militarily.

Russia launched 93 long-range kamikaze Shahed-type drones overnight, the Ukrainian Air Force said, adding that Ukraine downed 76 of them.

The number includes 1,180 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day.

Russian forces launched a drone attack on the city of Odesa overnight on April 5, damaging a residential building and injuring at least three people, local officials reported.

Two enlistment officers in the city of Vinnytsia have been injured in a knife attack during a procedural document check, the Vinnytsia Oblast Regional Recruitment Center reported on April 4.

"We are receiving certain signals about this," Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine's Presidential Office, told Bloomberg.

Ukraine expects U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to visit Kyiv this month to resume peace talks, Presidential Office Head Kyrylo Budanov told Bloomberg in an interview on April 4.

An investigation by the StateWatch think tank and United24 Media reveals how cellulose acetate produced by the European company Cerdia is funneled through intermediaries in the tobacco sector, ultimately reaching a Russian factory critical for the production of Kalibr cruise missiles.

In one of the worst attacks, a Russian drone targeted a market in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, killing at least five people and injuring 27 on the morning of April 4.

The leaders "agreed on new steps in security cooperation," Zelensky wrote on Telegram following the talks. Ukraine is ready to support Turkey with "expertise, technology, and experience," and details of the agreements will be finalized in the coming days.

Ukrainian forces struck the Alchevsk Metallurgical Plant in Russian-occupied Luhansk Oblast for the second time in one month, halting production at the site, Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) reported on April 4.