Senior Iranian and Russian officials began secretly discussing deliveries of drones, medicine, and food shortly after the U.S. and Israel launched coordinated attacks against Iran at the end of February, two officials briefed on the intelligence report told the Financial Times.

A major oil refinery and natural gas port in Russia's Leningrad Oblast came under fire during an overnight drone attack on March 26, according to Russian officials and social media channels.

"That's why we're going after his shadow fleet even harder, not just keeping Britain safe but starving Putin's war machine of the dirty profits that fund his barbaric campaign in Ukraine," U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on March 25.

Key developments on March 25: * Ukraine's air defense downs 97% of Russian kamikaze drones in rare mass daytime strike * Russian military icebreaker damaged in unprecedented Baltic Sea drone strike, Ukraine claims * Latvia, Estonia say drones that strayed into their territory overnight were Ukrainian * Ukraine preparing 'key changes' to mobilization, AWOL policy, defense minister says after meeting infantrymen Ukrainian air defenses downed 97% of the drones launched by Russia in a rare mas

The United States is proposing security guarantees to Ukraine in exchange for Kyiv withdrawing its troops from parts of Donbas still under Ukrainian control, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with Reuters published on March 25.

The Russian delegation is headed by Vyacheslav Nikonov, deputy chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee and the grandson of Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov.

The two positions had remained vacant since Jan. 5, when Zelensky dismissed Andrii Tupikov and Oleksandr Dubrovin. The dismissals in January came amid a wider government reshuffle following a major corruption scandal last year.

A potential "big deal" between Belarus and the United States would effectively normalize relations between Washington and Minsk, U.S. Special Envoy for Belarus John Coale told the Kyiv Independent in a phone interview. The remarks follow growing outreach from Washington to Minsk and come days after Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko said that the U.S. had proposed a "big deal," claiming the initiative came from U.S. President Donald Trump. Coale confirmed that normalization is part of the b

About 40% of Russia’s oil export capacity has been halted amid Ukrainian drone strikes, pipeline damage, and tanker seizures, Reuters reported on March 25.

"We are continuing our systematic fight against gambling addiction," Ukraine's Digital Transformation Ministry said.

Even as the world is understandably distracted by war in the Middle East, talks to end the Ukraine-Russia war have just resumed in the United States, albeit without Russian representatives. Since Ukraine has repeatedly signaled its resistance to even consider ceding territory, Putin’s negotiators have so far refused to join discussions. That said, my concern is that, with or without Russian participation, U.S. President Donald Trump and his highly inexperienced negotiators will continue to pre

Ukraine’s battered energy sector will get help from U.S. companies as Kyiv rapidly prepares for the next heating season, Ukraine’s Energy Ministry announced on March 25 amid a Ukrainian delegation visit to the U.S.

Ukraine and the U.S. have confirmed Ukrainian defense tech startup Sine Engineering as the recipient of the first investment from a joint U.S.-Ukraine reconstruction fund, born out of last year’s famed and contentious minerals deal.

The mother of Bruno Gabriel Leal da Silva, a 23-year-old Brazilian recruit whose death at a Kyiv military base in December 2025 is being investigated by police, is pleading for his body to be returned home to Brazil. Leal da Silva died overnight on Dec. 28-29, 2025, after a group of soldiers in positions of authority took him from the sleeping area to a small room and began beating him, former fellow fighters told the Kyiv Independent in a February investigation. They reported hearing him screa

Oleksii Kharchenko, the head of the Luhansk Oblast Military Administration, said Russia is trying to "severely limit" communication between family members separated because of the war.

Mayor Ihor Polishchuk said his resignation was "absolutely not related" to an investigation by Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU). He declined to elaborate on his reasons for stepping down.

As war reshapes Ukraine’s economy, small businesses are turning to foreign markets to survive, grow, and build long-term resilience.

The Kyiv Independent’s Kollen Post sits down with Oleksandr Yakovenko, founder of TAF Industries, to discuss how his company went from wartime volunteer logistics to becoming one of Ukraine’s largest drone manufacturers.

The announcement came after Mykhailo Fedorov met with assault soldiers and infantrymen from 13 different units fighting across the front line.

From the early pages of "The Summer My Mother Had Green Eyes," we are swimming in the protagonist Aleksy's grief. The story begins at a point in his late teenage years when he "hated (his mother) more than ever," and could have "killed her with a thought." She is not a source of love and strength in his life — that is, the woman who gave him life — but of utter repulsion and shame. Moldovan-Romanian author Tatiana Țîbuleac's novel, recently translated from Romanian by Monica Cure and published

One drone was reported to have landed and exploded in a field in Lativia's Kraslava region, while another struck the chimney of the Auvere power station near the Russian border.

The ship, identified by the General Staff as patrol icebreaker "Pruga," was docked at a shipyard in Vyborg when it was hit, the General Staff said.

According to The Bell's sources, the Scientific and Technical Service Department of the Russian Security Service (FSB) received orders "from above" to shutdown the internet in response to unspecified security threats.

Ukrainian forces destroyed a Zircon hypersonic missile launcher in occupied Crimea during an overnight strike March 24, Ukraine's military intelligence agency said.

While nighttime mass Russian drone strikes are an almost nightly occurrence, daytime assaults are far less common.

The number includes 1,220 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day.

U.S. President Donald Trump publicly endorsed Viktor Orban ahead of Hungary’s April 12 vote.

Russian authorities claimed that air defense systems shot down 56 drones over the region overnight on March 25.

Russia is constantly changing its tactics for massive strikes, "trying to find vulnerabilities" and break through Ukraine's air defenses, Serhii Flash said.

Key developments on March 24: * Russia launches nearly 1,000 drones in one of war's largest assaults, killing 7 and injuring at least 50 * Ukraine 'liquidates' hitman working for Russia's GRU, thwarts plot to assassinate high-profile figures, SBU says * Train passenger killed after 'refusing to evacuate' during Russian drone attack in Kharkiv Oblast * Zelensky warns Iran war 'emboldening' Russia after Ukraine meets Trump officials Russia launched nearly 1,000 attack drones against Ukraine

Since Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban returned to power 16 years ago, we have witnessed a dramatic change in his political stance towards Russia and the strengthening of Hungary's relationship with the Putin regime. The mouthpieces of the government and the propaganda machinery have moved from a critical position to open admiration towards the Russian strongman and the Russian Federation, which they see ready to take swift and decisive actions and describe as one of the last guardians of

“Why do you block the internet?” reads one of the comments under the latest post on Roskomnadzor’s official VKontakte social media page — a bland Women’s Day greeting from the very censorship agency leading Russia’s harshest crackdown on online communication in years. Russian authorities have set April as the target for finally blocking Telegram, one of the last popular international messenger apps still accessible in the country, and force users toward the Kremlin’s glitchy “national messenger