KI short logo

Russia-Ukraine War

A Ukrainian serviceman of the Khartiia Brigade at a command post near Kupiansk, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine, on April 1, 2026.
War

How Ukraine defends Kupiansk from Russian troops crawling through pipes

by Asami Terajima

KHARKIV OBLAST — The longest a Russian soldier can hope to survive for after emerging from the underground pipeline is, according to those hunting them, one single hour. "But it's usually 10 minutes, and that's it," "Tovsty," chief sergeant of a company in Ukraine's Khartiia Brigade, says at a command post in northeastern Kharkiv Oblast. Tovsty is watching live drone footage showing a scene which has been repeating itself over and over again for months now — Russian soldiers emerging from disu

More from War

NewsLetters

News Feed

Friday, May 29

Ukraine's human capital crisis is Europe's threat

During a recent visit to a newly opened underground school in a front-line town, I spoke with the children once again. What is particularly striking is that they usually talk about how happy they are to finally return to classrooms. Some of them are experiencing in-person schooling for the very first time in sixth grade (first due to COVID-19, and then because of Russia's full-scale invasion). Yet online education or learning that is repeatedly interrupted by constant attacks, displacement, bl

Ukraine Business Roundup — After Russian strikes, Kyiv gets back to work

Editor's note: The following is the May 26, 2026 edition of our Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business and tech from Ukraine directly in your inbox, subscribe here. The city is still reeling from what was one of the biggest attacks — if not the biggest — against Kyiv since the start of the full-scale invasion last Saturday. Russia launched 90 missiles and 600 drones targeting mainly Kyiv and the surrounding region, causing damage to what Mayor Vitali Kli

Telecoms giant Kyivstar wants a seat in Ukraine's driverless car revolution

Ukraine's most popular ride-hailing service wants to conquer the global robotaxi race. Uklon, owned by Ukraine's telecoms giant Kyivstar, gathered journalists, executives, and policymakers at Kyiv's shuttered Boryspil airport on May 27 to showcase the remote-driving technology the company is testing — and one day hopes to bring to the streets of Kyiv. "We want Ukraine to be the best in Europe for self-driving cars," Uklon CEO, Serhiy Hryshkov, told the crowd in a sleek ceremony, during which h

About War

The Kyiv Independent's coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, after eight years of aggression against Ukraine that began in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea and fighting in Donbas. The war has resulted in tens of thousands of military and civilian casualties and displaced millions of Ukrainians. NATO and Western allies have provided military aid to Ukraine while the conflict continues across fronts in Ukraine’s south and east.

Read more

Most Popular

Editors' Picks

News Feed