Editor’s note: The transcript of this interview has been edited for clarity. As it entered its second week, Ukraine’s cross-border offensive into Russia’s Kursk Oblast is showing no signs of slowing down. Although the element of surprise that overwhelmed the thin Russian defending force in the first
Just over a week ago, Ukraine launched a surprise counteroffensive across the border into Russia's Kursk Oblast. The Kyiv Independent’s Francis Farrell discusses what might come next for Ukraine with retired Australian Major General Mick Ryan.
The 1,000 square kilometers Ukraine says it controls in Russia's Kursk Oblast amounts to a tiny share of Russia’s massive terrain. Yet, politically, the surprise Ukrainian move poses one of the biggest challenges to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s grip on power. The stunning operation, conducted by Ukraine’
Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk Oblast over the past week is lifting some hopes for Ukrainian soldiers losing ground on the eastern front amid worsening manpower and ammunition shortages. Ukraine launched its stunning counterattack in the northeast into Russian territory 10 months into Russia’s renewed large-scale
Russian sovereign territory is once again under attack after Ukrainian forces launched an ambitious operation across the state border in Kursk Oblast in large numbers on Aug. 6. This time, the attack is led not primarily by small units of pro-Ukraine Russian nationals and other assorted foreign formations, like in
After more than a year of waiting, F-16s finally fly in the Ukrainian skies. President Volodymyr Zelensky unveiled two of the first U.S.-made fighter jets sporting blue-and-yellow roundels and a Ukrainian coat of arms in a ceremony on Aug. 4, confirming earlier media reports. While providing little details,
Kyiv and Warsaw have agreed to form and jointly train a new army brigade on Polish soil, betting the initiative could help recruit some of the scores of Ukrainian men living in Poland and other EU countries. The so-called Ukrainian Legion, a fresh initiative to boost Ukraine’s military manpower
Ukraine's Armed Forces announced on July 23 that another batch of its soldiers were in the U.K., learning how to use possibly the best-named weapon on the battlefield – Starstreak. "The Starstreak missile travels at more than three times the speed of sound and can hit a target multiple times
Once described as "the best tank in the world" by Vladimir Putin, the T-90M recently hit a milestone that raises a few questions about the Russian president's appraisal. According to the open-source investigative project Oryx, 100 of them have either been destroyed, damaged and abandoned, or captured on the battlefields
The Ukrainian operation near Krynky in Kherson Oblast appears to be over, as the military said on July 17 that the positions in the village were "completely destroyed." It follows reports that Ukraine had withdrawn from the village on the Dnipro River's east bank several weeks earlier. "The Defense Forces
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated with the latest news that F-16s have reportedly arrived in Ukraine After a long wait, F-16 fighter jets have finally arrived in Ukraine, according to reports. Citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg said the deadline for the delivery of the first
Outgunned and outmanned, Ukrainian soldiers struggling to hold the front line in a brutal, months-long Russian siege of Chasiv Yar are increasingly worried about their army's ability to protect their rear. If key supply lines from the west are cut off and if troops to their south are overrun, they
Ukraine's artillery capabilities have received a welcome boost with the news that 18 domestically-made Bohdana howitzers financed by Denmark have been handed over to the Ukrainian military. The purchase of the artillery units is part of a Danish-Ukrainian agreement that donates arms to Kyiv via direct purchases from the Ukrainian
While 75th birthdays are usually a cause for joy and celebration, NATO's marking of this milestone at a three-day summit in Washington from 9-11 July is likely to be a rather more muted affair. Ukraine is understandably top of the agenda, with a Russian mass missile attack on July 8
Russia unleashed one of its deadliest attacks against Kyiv on July 8, killing 33 people and injuring 121 others. Residential buildings and medical facilities suffered damage, with one Russian missile hitting Ohkmatdyt, the country's largest children's medical center. Rather than evidence of some technological edge on Russia's side, experts linked
As Kyiv gets ready to receive the first batch of Western F-16 fighter jets, Ukraine's airfields face an uptick in Russian strikes. Over the past week, Moscow carried out at least three missile strikes targeting Ukrainian airfields — in Myrhorod, Poltava, and Kryvyi Rih — all located around 100 kilometers (68 miles)
The view from the camera skims over the water, low and predatory. Dodging left and right between rows of white splashes, it sidles up to the aft of the looming gray hull. A shape appears to scramble across the deck of the Russian corvette before the feed cuts off. The
When Tucker Carlson, a popular American right-wing conservative, released an interview with lawyer Robert Amsterdam titled “Ukrainian churches are being burned and priests beaten,” it quickly gained traction with the so-called MAGA movement seeking the return of Donald Trump as president. The April interview was reposted as a YouTube short
Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022, the Russian government has focused all of its financial resources on funding the war. As the war is the Kremlin's number one priority, all tools at its disposal have been used: increased taxation, sovereign funds, domestic borrowing, and the printing of
Editor's note: This story was updated to reflect Russian tank losses reported by the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces passing 9,000. Russia's losses in Ukraine since the launch of the full-scale invasion recently passed another milestone, with the total number of "tanks" claimed destroyed by Kyiv passing the
Editor's note: This article has been updated in light of Mark Rutte becoming NATO secretary general on Oct. 1. "There was a joke I heard the other day," Estonia's Prime Minister Kaja Kallas told the audience of a Politico event in November 2023, as the mandate of NATO Secretary General
In the first half of May, Russia opened a new front to its war against Ukraine in dramatic fashion. The two-pronged offensive on Kharkiv Oblast unfolded on the back of some of the most difficult months for Ukrainian forces, overstretched and depleted after a brutal winter and early spring campaign
In the latest blow to Russia's military prestige, Ukraine this week claimed to have for the first time struck at least one – and possibly two – of Moscow's cutting-edge, fifth-generation fighter jets, the Su-57. The aircraft were reportedly damaged after a strike on the Akhtubinsk airfield in the Astrakhan region in
During the D-Day commemorations in Normandy on June 6, French President Emmanuel Macron declared that Paris would give Kyiv an unspecified number of Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets alongside the required training. This announcement sets the stage for Ukrainian pilots to potentially deploy these versatile aircraft in striking deep into Russian
Viacheslav Dydarenko, a farmer in the Myropillia community in Sumy Oblast that borders Russia typifies the hardship faced by the agricultural sector in the area. Shrapnel scars and gaping holes mark his farm buildings, and he cannot work some of his rented 4,450 acres — 70% of which is located
Editor's Note: The Kyiv Independent is not disclosing soldiers' full names since they disclosed information without authorization from their command. DONETSK OBLAST—As public attention shifted to Moscow's renewed offensive in Kharkiv Oblast, Russian forces steadily advance in the country's easternmost Donbas region, which remains Moscow's primary target. Moving west
Following a new Russian offensive in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine is increasingly raising pressure on its allies, urging them to lift restrictions on the use of Western-provided weapons against military targets inside Russia. Months before the offensive, Kyiv had publicly pledged not to use Western-made weapons to strike targets outside of
Russia’s two-pronged assault in Kharkiv Oblast that began on May 10 is exploiting Ukraine’s troop shortage, forcing it to make difficult decisions about where to commit reserves. Two weeks into the offensive, one group of Russian forces is already fighting in the streets of the town of Vovchansk
Russian President Vladimir Putin's appointment of a new defense minister, Andrey Belousov, is seen as an attempt to streamline Russia's economy and mobilize it for the war effort. Russia's military has faced numerous supply and logistics problems that thwarted its all-out war against Ukraine from the get-go. Two years later,
One critical factor in Russia's recent battlefield successes in Ukraine is its extensive use of glide bombs. Every week, hundreds of these large, deadly weapons rain down on Ukraine, creating 20-meter-wide craters and obliterating military positions and entire settlements. Russia has heavily relied on glide bombs in its new offensive
Editor's note: We asked members of the Kyiv Independent community to share the questions they have about the war. Here's what they asked and how we answered. Join our community to ask a question in the next round. Read our previous answers here, here, here, here, and here What do
President Volodymyr Zelensky's term in office is supposed to end on May 20, 2024 – but it won’t. As Russia’s war delayed the elections and Zelensky's term is looking indefinite, Ukraine’s President’s Office is preparing to weather the storm of critics questioning the president’s legitimacy. Officially,
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