In the south, Ukrainian soldiers are fighting on an unforgiving landscape, table-flat farmland with little cover for troops trying to advance. Sixty miles away, they are attacking across the plains in a coal mining region dotted with slag heaps, pushing toward a strategic railway junction. Farther east, they are targeting Russian positions on the hills […]
Read MoreTag: Donetsk (Ukraine)
Battles Rage as Ukraine Tries to Retake Russian-Occupied Territory
Intense fighting raged across a wide swath of southeastern Ukraine for a second day on Friday, as Ukrainian forces attacked occupying Russian troops in multiple locations, while military analysts and U.S. officials cautioned that it was far too early to gauge the success of Kyiv’s offensive. Both sides were grappling with severe flooding caused by […]
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Ukraine Attacks Russian Positions as Signs of Counteroffensive Grow
Ukrainian forces mounted a major attack in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia on Thursday, taking the offensive against the invading Russians in multiple places in the east and south, but there was no indication of a breakthrough in an operation that carries high stakes for Kyiv and its Western allies. Three senior U.S. officials, as […]
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In New Ukrainian Attacks, U.S. Officials See Signs of a Counteroffensive
Ukrainian forces have stepped up artillery strikes and ground assaults in a flurry of military activity that American officials suggested on Monday could signal that Kyiv’s long-planned counteroffensive against Russia had begun. The fighting, which began on Sunday, was raging along several points on the front line, but farther to the east of where many […]
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Russian Missile Strike Hits Ukrainian Hospital
KYIV, Ukraine — Explosions far behind the front lines shook Ukraine on Friday, as a Russian missile demolished part of a hospital complex and apparent Ukrainian strikes hit Russian-occupied cities, in their escalating, long-range aerial war. The attack on a medical center in the central city of Dnipro killed at least two people, left three […]
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Gains Near Bakhmut Raise Ukraine’s Hopes of a Turning Tide
Russian forces spent nearly a year carving a path of devastation and death in their bid to surround the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, and by March it seemed they were close to succeeding. “The pincers are closing,” said Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner mercenary group that spearheaded Russia’s bloody drive. He […]
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‘I Cry Quietly’: A Soldier Describes the Toll of Russia’s War
By Yousur Al-Hlou, Masha Froliak and Ben Laffin •April 23, 2023 For Valentyn, a Ukrainian soldier in the Donetsk region, the war’s death toll is more than a statistic. He is tasked with moving wounded troops — and dead bodies — away from the front lines, often under Russian fire.
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Refusing to Evacuate, Ukrainian Residents Go Underground
By Yousur Al-Hlou, Masha Froliak and Dmitriy Khavin •April 2, 2023 Huddled in basements just over a mile away from the front lines of Avdiivka, over 1,800 residents are refusing to be rescued from one of the most active battlegrounds in eastern Ukraine.
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U.N. Official Heads to Ukrainian Nuclear Plant as Safety Fears Grow
The United Nation’s chief nuclear energy official met on Monday with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to discuss what he describes as increasingly dire fears about a battle-scarred nuclear plant on the front line of the war, ahead of his first visit to the plant in almost seven months. The official, Rafael Mariano Grossi, director […]
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Russian Attacks Along a Wide Arc of Ukraine Yield Little but Casualties
KYIV, Ukraine — From Kupiansk in the north to Avdiivka in the south, through Bakhmut, Lyman and dozens of towns in between, Russian forces are attacking along a 160-mile arc in eastern Ukraine in an intensifying struggle for tactical advantage before possible spring offensives. Heavy fighting was reported on Monday in and around Avdiivka, a […]
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As Ukraine Clings to Bakhmut, What’s Its Strategy and What’s at Stake?
The commander of Ukraine’s ground forces visited soldiers in Bakhmut for the second time in less than a week on Friday, a reflection of the precarious position Ukrainian forces find themselves in as they cling to their positions in the battered city. Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky, the commander, warned in a statement that Russia was […]
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Deadly Russian Artillery Strikes Reported in Ukraine’s East and South
Russia pounded the front line in Ukraine’s east and south with artillery strikes, Ukrainian military authorities said on Sunday, as Moscow pushed to break through Kyiv’s last remaining defenses around the city of Bakhmut and bombarded the Kherson region. The strikes came as President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia suggested in an interview broadcast on […]
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Russian Artillery Strikes Reported in Ukraine’s East and South
Russian artillery strikes pounded two areas of the front line in Ukraine, military authorities said on Sunday, as Moscow pushed to break through Kyiv’s last remaining defenses around the eastern city of Bakhmut and bombarded the southern region of Kherson. Three civilians were killed in the eastern Donetsk region, where Bakhmut is, and two more […]
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The Problem With Russia Is Russia
KRAKOW, Poland — One year ago this Tuesday, Vladimir Putin recognized the independence of the Russian-backed separatist republics of Donetsk and Luhansk — effectively the starting pistol for Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began three days later. For us Ukrainians, the world would never be the same. Yet it was another act of recognition […]
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Russia Pays a Bloody Price for Small Gains in Eastern Ukraine
KYIV, Ukraine — As Russia makes slow, bloody gains in a renewed push to capture more of eastern Ukraine, it is pouring ever more conscripts and military supplies into the battle, Ukrainian officials say. Still it remains far from clear that Moscow can mobilize enough forces to sustain a prolonged offensive. The Ukrainian military said […]
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