Page 4 - Russia Ukraine Conflict

Putin bets big on war: Russia approves $126 billion defence budget for 2025

Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved a record $126 billion defence budget for 2025, as the ongoing war in Ukraine continues to strain Russia's economy

Russia's drone attack on Ternopil kills one, says Ukraine's military

Ternopil and its surrounding region were under air raid alerts for a couple of hours starting soon after midnight on Monday, according to data provided by Ukraine's air force

Open to ceasefire if Nato protects unoccupied areas, says Zelenskyy

Zelenskyy made the comments in an interview with Sky News broadcast Friday when asked about a scenario in which Nato security guarantees covered only territory controlled by Kyiv

Kim Jong Un pledges steadfast support for Russia's war in Ukraine

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed his country will invariably support Russia's war in Ukraine as he met Russia's defence chief, the North's state media reported Saturday. A Russia military delegation led by Defence Minister Andrei Belousov arrived in North Korea on Friday, amid growing international concern about the two countries' expanding cooperation after North Korea sent thousands of troops to Russia last month. The official Korean Central News Agency said that Kim and Belousov reached a satisfactory consensus on boosting strategic partnership and defending each country's sovereignty, security interests and international justice in the face of the rapidly-changing international security environments in a Friday meeting. Kim said that North Korea will invariably support the policy of the Russian Federation to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity from the imperialists' moves for hegemony, KCNA said. North Korea has supported Russia's invasion of Ukraine, calling

Desertion a major issue with Ukraine's forces in its war with Russia

Desertion is starving the Ukrainian army of desperately needed manpower and crippling its battle plans at a crucial time in its war with Russia, which could put Kyiv at a clear disadvantage in future ceasefire talks. Facing every imaginable shortage, tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops, tired and bereft, have walked away from combat and front-line positions to slide into anonymity, according to soldiers, lawyers and Ukrainian officials. Entire units have abandoned their posts, leaving defensive lines vulnerable and accelerating territorial losses, according to military commanders and soldiers. Some take medical leave and never return, haunted by the traumas of war and demoralized by bleak prospects for victory. Others clash with commanders and refuse to carry out orders, sometimes in the middle of firefights. This problem is critical, said Oleksandr Kovalenko, a Kyiv-based military analyst. This is the third year of war, and this problem will only grow. Although Moscow has also b

Putin says Trump can stop the Ukraine war, raises concerns about his safety

The Russian President also criticised the Biden administration's recent support for Ukraine, suggesting it could be part of a strategy to strain relations between the US and Russia

Russia could strike 'decision-making centres' in Kyiv, says Putin

Russian attacks have not so far struck government buildings in the Ukrainian capital. Kyiv is heavily protected by air defences, but Putin says Russia's Oreshnik hypersonic missile

Russian missile, drone strikes target Ukraine's energy infrastructure

Russia is engaged in a massive missile and drone attack against Ukraine's energy infrastructure Thursday, officials said, as fears mount about Moscow's intentions to devastate the country's power generation capacity before winter. Attacks on energy facilities are happening all over Ukraine, Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said in a post on Facebook. He added that emergency power outages are being implemented nationwide. Explosions were reported in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Rivne, Khmelnytskyi, Lutsk, and many other cities in central and western Ukraine. The head of Ukraine's presidential office, Andrii Yermak, said in a Telegram post that Russia had stockpiled missiles to strike Ukrainian infrastructure and wage war against civilians during the cold season. They were helped by their crazy allies, including from North Korea, he wrote. Over 280,000 households in the northwestern Rivne region are currently without electricity because of the attack, said the regional head, Oleksandr Koval. Th

Russia's labour shortage spreads as defence sector cuts down staff

Heavy recruitment by the armed forces and defence industries has drawn workers away from civilian enterprises, as has emigration, pushing unemployment to a record low of 2.3 per cent

Trump nominates Keith Kellogg as special envoy to Ukraine and Russia

Keith Kellogg is expected to play a key role in peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine if both nations agree to talks

Biden prepares $725 million arms package for Ukraine, says US officials

Although more than 160 countries have signed a treaty banning their use, Kyiv has been asking for them since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in early 2022 and Russian forces have used them on

White House pressing Ukraine to draft 18-year-olds so it has enough troops

President Joe Biden's administration is urging Ukraine to quickly increase the size of its military by drafting more troops and revamping its mobilisation laws to allow for the conscription of those as young as 18. A senior Biden administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private consultations, said Wednesday that the outgoing Democratic administration wants Ukraine to lower the mobilisation age to 18 from the current age of 25 to help expand the pool of fighting-age men available to help a badly outnumbered Ukraine in its nearly three-year-old war with Russia. The official said "the pure math" of Ukraine's situation now is that it needs more troops in the fight. Currently Ukraine is not mobilising or training enough soldiers to replace its battlefield losses while keeping pace with Russia's growing military, the official added. The White House has pushed more than USD 56 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the start of Russia's ...

At some stage, people will come to the table: Jaishankar on Ukraine war

Asserting that one is not going to find a solution from the battlefield, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said that at some stage, "people will come to the table" when it comes to the prolonged Russia-Ukraine conflict. The 69-year-old, who is in Italy on an official visit from November 24-26 to participate in the Outreach session of the G7 Foreign Ministers' Meeting, said "the sooner they do it, the better because the rest of the world is being affected". Jaishankar said this during an interview to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. "We have today two major conflicts taking place simultaneously. This is putting the entire international system under great stress, he said. "And we cannot be just spectators and say, well, that's the way it is. It may or may not work. We will not know until we try. But we do believe that on both these conflicts, in Ukraine and in the Middle East, countries need to take initiatives, make efforts, however difficult it looks, to try and find

Ukraine says Russian attack sets new record for number of drones used

Russia launched 188 drones against most regions of Ukraine in a nighttime blitz, the Ukrainian air force said Tuesday, describing it as a record number of drones deployed in a single attack. Most of the drones were intercepted, according to the air force, but apartment buildings and critical infrastructure such as the national power grid were damaged. No casualties were immediately reported in the 17 targeted regions. Russia has been hammering civilian areas of Ukraine with increasingly heavy drone, missile and glide bomb attacks since the middle of the year. At the same time, Russia's army has largely held the battlefield initiative for the past year and has been pushing hard in the eastern Donetsk region where it is making significant tactical advances, according to Western military analysts. Ukraine faces a difficult winter, with worries about the reliability of the electricity supply amid Russia's attacks and how much US support it can count on next year after President-elect .

Russian forces advance in Ukraine at fast pace, moving into Kurakhove

The report noted recent confirmed battlefield gains near Vuhledar and Velyka Novosilka, which are in the Donetsk region

Russia solely responsible for concerns over N Korean troops in Ukraine: US

In response to the reports of Russia's recruitment efforts of Yemeni mercenaries for the war, Miller expressed the US's concerns over it as well as Russia's broader efforts to bolster its forces amid

Russian forces capture British mercenary fighting with Ukraine: RIA

It was not clear when the video was filmed. The British Foreign Office did not immediately respond to a Reuters' request for comment on the reports outside office hours

Russia-Ukraine war update: Russia’s use of ballistic missile ‘ICBM’ against Ukraine

Switzerland bars exports to Polish firm after ammunition ends up in Ukraine

The Swiss government said on Friday it is barring exports to a Polish military hardware supplier after concluding that some 645,000 rounds of Swiss-made small-caliber ammunition ended up in Ukraine in violation of Swiss law. The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs said exports to the Polish company will be barred because the risk of diversion to Ukraine is assessed as being too high. Switzerland has long touted its neutrality in world affairs, and Swiss law bans exports of Swiss-owned or Swiss-made military hardware to countries in conflict. However the Swiss government has backed European Union economic sanctions against Russia over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The secretariat opened an investigation after a report by US-based news outlet Defence One last November indicated a Ukrainian company had taken receipt of 645,000 rifle cartridges of armour-piercing rounds made by SwissP Defense and delivered by a Polish importer, UMO. The investigation showed that the S

Nato, Ukraine to hold talks after Russia's attack with hypersonic missile

NATO and Ukraine will hold emergency talks Tuesday after Russia attacked a central city with an experimental, hypersonic ballistic missile that escalated the nearly 33-month-old war. The conflict is entering a decisive phase, Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Friday, and taking on very dramatic dimensions. Ukraine's parliament canceled a session as security was tightened following Thursday's Russian strike on a military facility in the city of Dnipro. In a stark warning to the West, President Vladimir Putin said in a nationally televised speech that the attack with the intermediate-range Oreshnik missile was in retaliation for Kyiv's use of US and British longer-range missiles capable of striking deeper into Russian territory. Putin said Western air defence systems would be powerless to stop the new missile. Ukrainian military officials said the missile that hit Dnipro had reached a speed of Mach 11 and carried six nonnuclear warheads each releasing six submunitions. Speak