Rustem Umerov, the secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, and Andrii Hnatov, the chief of staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces, will first meet European national security advisors in Brussels on Dec. 3.

Ukraine's great fortress city of Pokrovsk has officially fallen — as far as Moscow is concerned. More than five weeks after Russian troops first started to swarm into the southern outskirts of the Donetsk Oblast city, Pokrovsk has been decisively overrun, although Kyiv still claims a presence inside the urban area. In a nod to the political significance of taking the city, the claim was first made by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Dec. 1, after receiving a report on the latest battlefield

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, President Volodymyr Zelensky has come to occupy a singular place in the global imagination: not merely as Ukraine’s president, but as the voice through which the country’s courage and endurance are made legible to the world. While an ongoing political scandal in Ukraine has involved some in Zelensky’s own inner circle, for many at home and abroad, it is in his public presence that the war’s meaning, its stakes, and its moral contours are most cle

About the author: Mariya Chukhnova is an international security and stability expert at The Critical Mass, an international security think tank based in Alexandria, Virginia. Nearly four years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, its military-industrial complex continues to function almost undisturbed. Despite multiple rounds of sanctions and export controls, Moscow’s defense factories are running at full tilt, producing missiles, tanks, drones, and ammunition at growing rates. The ga

Hello, this is Kateryna Hodunova reporting from Kyiv on day 1,379 of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Today's top story so far: Russian missile struck the city of Kryvyi Rih in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast on Dec. 3, injuring at least five people, including a child, Ukraine's Emergency Service reported. The 3-year-old girl and a 28-year-old victim will receive outpatient treatment, while an 87-year-old woman was hospitalized in a condition of moderate severity, according to Governor Vladysla

The budget foresees Hr 4.8 trillion ($115 billion) in expenditures and Hr 2.9 trillion ($70 billion) in revenues — meaning a deficit of 18.5% of GDP, according to Kyiv-based think tank Center for Economic Strategy (CES).

Young people are quitting their jobs en masse following Kyiv’s decision to allow men aged 18-22 to leave Ukraine, according to a new survey from Robota.ua, a Ukrainian recruitment platform. Ukraine had banned men aged 18-60 from leaving the country at the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, unless they had an exemption, like fathers with three or more children, and disabled men and their carers. That changed in August 2025 when the government partially lifted the ban for 18-22-year-

A fire broke out overnight Dec. 3 at an oil depot in Russia's Tambov region after an alleged Ukrainian drone strike.

Key findings: * After Russia launched its full-scale war against Ukraine, China decided to purchase Russian aircraft, combat vehicles, ammunition, and equipment to enhance its paratroopers. * Chinese officers and representatives of defense manufacturers have repeatedly visited Russia to inspect examples of weaponry and negotiate deals. * In 2023 and 2024, Beijing entered into several confidential contracts with Moscow to acquire Russian armaments, with the funds intended for Russian arms man

Russia has centralized volunteer drone units like Rubikon into a professional system that is eroding Ukraine’s early edge in UAV warfare and threatening its front lines.

"Today we have finally restored historical justice and turned the page on years of distortions that were used for political pressure and to legitimize Russification. We have demonstrated our maturity as a European state," Language Ombudsman Olena Ivanovska said on Dec. 3.

In Russia, publicly criticizing the war can lead to criminal charges with prison sentences of up to 15 years.

One of Kyiv’s biggest shopping malls will slowly reopen this month after a dramatic lockdown shut out hundreds of businesses amid a dispute over the building’s management. The Gulliver shopping and entertainment complex will open up in stages from Dec. 12, starting with the bottom two floors, the mall’s owner, state-owned Oschadbank, said in a statement. The lockdown on Oct. 31, just before the holiday season, shocked Kyiv residents who frequent its 250 stores and rely on its large supermarket

The Kyiv Appeals Court ordered on Dec. 3 the release of Ruslan Mahamedrasulov, a detective with Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), who had been investigating the country's largest corruption case involving the state-run nuclear power monopoly Energoatom.

European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen said that the EU would cover two-thirds of Ukraine's needs over the next two years, which she said amounts to 90 billion euros, leaving the rest to international partners.

The Kyiv Independent’s Martin Fornusek speaks with U.S. Senator Peter Welch about the bipartisan Senate backlash to the Trump administration’s 28-point Ukraine peace plan. Welch explains why the U.S. must defer to Ukraine on the terms of peace and why he supports tougher sanctions and stronger military aid to counter Russia’s aggression.

Sabotage activity in Russian-occupied territories is picking up after a two-year lull, according to a new report by ACLED, an organization that tracks conflicts around the world. Pro-Ukrainian militias were particularly active in the occupied territories in 2022 following Russia's full-scale invasion, the report found — although this declined as Russia consolidated control through suppressing protests, torture, and executions. "In 2023 and 2024, the data shows that Russia's crackdown worked,"

Only about 19.4% of Ukrainians consider a potential entry into NATO as the best possible security guarantee, a 10% drop from last year, according to a survey.

"The Russian oil network... will continue to explode and burn," a source told the Kyiv Independent.

NATO allies announced two joint PURL packages, each worth $500 million: one co-financed by Germany, Norway, and Poland, and another by Germany, Norway, and the Netherlands.

"So far, no compromise version of a peace settlement has been found, but some American proposals look more or less acceptable… the work will continue," Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.

Hello, this is Chris York, reporting from Kyiv on day 1,378 of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. While the international focus remains on Trump's peace deal negotiations in Moscow, our focus in this blog is on updates from the front: Our top story so far: Drones launched by Ukraine's military intelligence struck Russian air defense systems in occupied Donbas, the agency claimed on Dec. 2, knocking out a launcher from a S-300 SAM system, and two 1L125 Niobium-SV radar stations. "Such s

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has detained British citizen Ross David Cutmore, who came to Ukraine as a military instructor, on suspicion of working for Russian intelligence, an SBU source told the Kyiv Independent on Dec. 2.

A U.S.-backed 28-point peace plan leaked last month caused uproar in Ukraine and among its allies, among other reasons, because it contained a controversial point implying, in vague terms, a "full amnesty" for acts committed during the war. While Ukrainian officials later claimed that this clause had since been removed, critics fear that it could still return to the text, bringing with it a culture of impunity for war crimes. As talks aiming to secure a peace deal continued with a high-level U

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Europe "has no peaceful agenda" and "is on the side of war" just before meeting U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.

In the tumultuous history of modern warfare, the information struggle has often been fought with the same fury as the kinetic. Amid all the attempts to portray success instead of failure, to exude control when there is chaos, there is one hard truth that is difficult to hide from for long: the movement of the front line. What was — for the entire history of conflict until the last decade — once concealed by the fog of war and hostage to the information politics of the belligerents, is now read

About the author: Yuliia Boklah is a PR specialist and board member of the Helping to Leave charitable project, which has evacuated more than 21,000 Ukrainians from occupied territories or deportation since Russia’s full-scale invasion. It’s Friday evening. I am wrapping up urgent work matters and glancing at the news. In Ternopil, the rubble of a residential building destroyed by a Russian missile is still being cleared, and society is being rocked by new painful updates and heartbreaking sto

A Russian oil tanker reportedly came under a drone attack in the Black Sea while en route to a port in northern Turkey on Dec. 2, according to Turkish authorities.

"Ukraine approaches all diplomatic efforts with utmost seriousness – we are committed to achieving a real peace and guaranteed security," Zelensky said.

According to Ukraine’s national "Children of War" database, at least 19,546 Ukrainian children have been abducted from Russian-occupied territories and taken to Russia or Russian-controlled areas since February 2022.

"All of this is done exclusively for Western audiences and to raise the stakes in diplomacy," said Andrii Kovalenko, head of Ukraine's Center for Countering Disinformation.

The latest incident occurred on Nov. 30, when Vilnius International Airport suspended operations after unidentified objects — believed to be balloons — appeared in nearby airspace.