The Island-class vessels arrived in the southern Black Sea port city of Odesa on Nov. 23, transported from Baltimore on the cargo ship Ocean Grand.
The 165-ton warships, previously used by the U.S. Coast Guard, have been named Sumy and Fastiv, after two Ukrainian cities. The Ukrainian navy said that their crews just completed their six-week training course in the U.S.
Ukraine now has four Island-class patrol boats, including the Starobilsk and the Slovyansk, which were delivered in 2019. Another Island is expected by the end of the year.
The U.S. is also considering providing Ukraine with more Javelin anti-tank missiles, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and Mi-17 helicopters, previously used in Afghanistan, CNN reported on Nov. 23.
Illia Ponomarenko was a defense and security reporter at the Kyiv Independent in 2021-2023. He has reported about the war in eastern Ukraine since the conflict’s earliest days. He covers national security issues, as well as military technologies, production, and defense reforms in Ukraine. Besides, he gets deployed to the war zone of Donbas with Ukrainian combat formations. He has also had deployments to Palestine and the Democratic Republic of the Congo as an embedded reporter with UN peacekeeping forces. Illia won the Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellowship and was selected to work as USA Today's guest reporter at the U.S. Department of Defense.
In the first nine months of 2025, 18-year-old Ukrainians received Hr 181.9 million ($4.3 million) in government assistance to purchase books through the program, the Culture Ministry reported.
"What a change from the 1984 Tom Clancy novel The Hunt for Red October. Today, it seems more like the hunt for the nearest mechanic," NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said.
In Donetsk Oblast, volunteers from across the world serve in the International Battalion of Ukraine’s Azov Corps. On the battlefield dominated by drones, constant surveillance, and high-risk rotations, they navigate daily life and combat in one of the war’s most dangerous sectors.
The Kyiv Independent is pleased to announce its first ever live event in New York City, where the team will share stories from the life of a newsroom in times of war.
Ukrainian troops have liberated the village of Mali Shcherbaky in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukraine's 24th Separate Assault Battalion "Aidar" announced on Oct. 12, releasing footage purportedly showing Ukrainian soldiers in the settlement.
Speaking about past negotiations with Moscow, Trump said U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff "had no idea about Russia, had no idea about Putin too much" at the time.
"We can’t simply wait and assume that a potential Russian attack won't come before 2029," German intelligence chief Martin Jaeger said. "We’re already under fire today."
