Ukraine’s foreign minister resigns in largest shake-up since war began
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has submitted his resignation, the country’s parliamentary speaker announced Wednesday, marking the latest major change in Kyiv’s leadership amid the largest government shake-up since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
The reorganization of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s wartime administration comes at a critical moment for Ukraine, as Russian forces push forward in the east and unleash a new wave of attacks on cities. Overnight into Wednesday, seven people were killed by strikes in the western city of Lviv, which is normally far from the fighting and attacked less frequently than others.
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Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has submitted his resignation, the country’s parliamentary speaker announced Wednesday, marking the latest major change in Kyiv’s leadership amid the largest government shake-up since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
The reorganization of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s wartime administration comes at a critical moment for Ukraine, as Russian forces push forward in the east and unleash a new wave of attacks on cities. Overnight into Wednesday, seven people were killed by strikes in the western city of Lviv, which is normally far from the fighting and attacked less frequently than others.
Read the full story here.
Ukraine set to tap former ambassador Andrii Sybiha as top diplomat
KYIV — Ukraine’s parliament voted Thursday to accept the resignation of Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and is expected to appoint Andrii Sybiha — the country’s former ambassador to Turkey and past deputy head of the presidential office — to replace him.
Kuleba served as Ukraine’s chief diplomat since 2020, and for more than two years of full-scale war, he traveled the world pleading for more weapons, air defense and support for Ukraine to counter Russia’s invasion. But he was often overshadowed by Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, who oversaw many key international relationships.
Sybiha, a senior diplomat, left his role as Yermak’s deputy earlier this year to serve as deputy foreign minister. He was ambassador to Turkey from 2016 to 2021, an experience that was likely seen as an asset due to the critical role Turkey plays in the war.
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KYIV — Ukraine’s parliament voted Thursday to accept the resignation of Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and is expected to appoint Andrii Sybiha — the country’s former ambassador to Turkey and past deputy head of the presidential office — to replace him.
Kuleba served as Ukraine’s chief diplomat since 2020, and for more than two years of full-scale war, he traveled the world pleading for more weapons, air defense and support for Ukraine to counter Russia’s invasion. But he was often overshadowed by Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, who oversaw many key international relationships.
Sybiha, a senior diplomat, left his role as Yermak’s deputy earlier this year to serve as deputy foreign minister. He was ambassador to Turkey from 2016 to 2021, an experience that was likely seen as an asset due to the critical role Turkey plays in the war.
Read the full story here.
Ukraine’s Zelensky sharpens appeal to end restrictions on weapons
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Western nations on Friday to lift restrictions on the use of donated weapons against Russian territory, telling military and defense leaders gathered in Germany that it was “wrong” to tie his country’s hands in battling Russia’s forces.
Zelensky, in his first in-person appearance at a U.S.-led forum of nations providing arms to Ukraine, expressed gratitude for ongoing military support but said more is needed to help end the protracted conflict with Russia.
Zelensky’s appeal, delivered at a U.S. military base in Germany hosting the meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, underscores the stakes of the current battlefield moment for Kyiv. Ukraine is struggling to contain Russian progress in the east while its forces also advance deeper into Russia itself.
Read the full story here.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Western nations on Friday to lift restrictions on the use of donated weapons against Russian territory, telling military and defense leaders gathered in Germany that it was “wrong” to tie his country’s hands in battling Russia’s forces.
Zelensky, in his first in-person appearance at a U.S.-led forum of nations providing arms to Ukraine, expressed gratitude for ongoing military support but said more is needed to help end the protracted conflict with Russia.
Zelensky’s appeal, delivered at a U.S. military base in Germany hosting the meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, underscores the stakes of the current battlefield moment for Kyiv. Ukraine is struggling to contain Russian progress in the east while its forces also advance deeper into Russia itself.
Read the full story here.
D.C. lobbyists battle over future of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine
The Ukrainian parliament passed a law in August banning religious organizations with ties to Russia. The legislation establishes a legal framework that, according to religious experts, could effectively close down the Ukrainian branch of the Orthodox Church connected to Moscow.
Leading the campaign in the United States against Kyiv’s efforts to create what it says is a Ukrainian Orthodox Church free of Moscow’s influence is Robert Amsterdam.
Read the full story here.
The Ukrainian parliament passed a law in August banning religious organizations with ties to Russia. The legislation establishes a legal framework that, according to religious experts, could effectively close down the Ukrainian branch of the Orthodox Church connected to Moscow.
Leading the campaign in the United States against Kyiv’s efforts to create what it says is a Ukrainian Orthodox Church free of Moscow’s influence is Robert Amsterdam.
Read the full story here.
How a Russian airstrike ripped through people’s lives in Ukraine’s Poltava
Two days earlier, Maksym Havryliuk had been a student at a military institute in Poltava, in central Ukraine. Here — more than 100 miles from the front lines north of Kharkiv — his mom thought he would be safe. But then, on Tuesday, two ballistic missiles slammed into the campus less than a minute apart, killing 55 people and injuring 328.
By Thursday, the horror in Poltava had sharpened into rage. The search for survivors was over. Doctors at seven hospitals struggled to keep critically injured patients alive. Families sat on benches in front of the morgue, waiting to retrieve the bodies of their sons and daughters — some receiving only blown-apart remains.
Read the full story here.
Two days earlier, Maksym Havryliuk had been a student at a military institute in Poltava, in central Ukraine. Here — more than 100 miles from the front lines north of Kharkiv — his mom thought he would be safe. But then, on Tuesday, two ballistic missiles slammed into the campus less than a minute apart, killing 55 people and injuring 328.
By Thursday, the horror in Poltava had sharpened into rage. The search for survivors was over. Doctors at seven hospitals struggled to keep critically injured patients alive. Families sat on benches in front of the morgue, waiting to retrieve the bodies of their sons and daughters — some receiving only blown-apart remains.
Read the full story here.
In Ukraine’s Poltava, soldier buries a father he thought safe from war
It was the son fighting on the front lines that everyone worried about — but then his father died first, blown apart in a missile attack 100 miles from the battlefield.
And so on Saturday, as funeral after funeral began in the central Ukrainian city of Poltava — where 58 people at a military institute were killed in a strike on Sept. 3 — Oleksandr Horodnytskyi drove to the morgue to pick up the father he’d hoped to protect by going to war. Now, he had five days of leave from his assault brigade to process his grief and bury the man who raised him.
One of the deadliest single bombardments of the war left dozens of victims to be buried more than 100 miles from the front lines.
Read the full story here.
It was the son fighting on the front lines that everyone worried about — but then his father died first, blown apart in a missile attack 100 miles from the battlefield.
And so on Saturday, as funeral after funeral began in the central Ukrainian city of Poltava — where 58 people at a military institute were killed in a strike on Sept. 3 — Oleksandr Horodnytskyi drove to the morgue to pick up the father he’d hoped to protect by going to war. Now, he had five days of leave from his assault brigade to process his grief and bury the man who raised him.
One of the deadliest single bombardments of the war left dozens of victims to be buried more than 100 miles from the front lines.
Read the full story here.
Ukraine launches largest drone attack yet on Moscow, killing 1, Russia says
A major Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow and eight other Russian regions on Tuesday killed a resident of the capital for the first time, after a drone hit a residential apartment building.
Three of Moscow’s airports, the Zhukovsky, Vnukovo and Domodedovo airports, were temporarily closed as a result of the attacks. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said at least 14 drones were shot down in and around Moscow.
A 46-year-old woman was killed in the strike on an apartment block around 18 miles from the capital. Twelve people were injured, one of them seriously.
Read the full story here.
A major Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow and eight other Russian regions on Tuesday killed a resident of the capital for the first time, after a drone hit a residential apartment building.
Three of Moscow’s airports, the Zhukovsky, Vnukovo and Domodedovo airports, were temporarily closed as a result of the attacks. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said at least 14 drones were shot down in and around Moscow.
A 46-year-old woman was killed in the strike on an apartment block around 18 miles from the capital. Twelve people were injured, one of them seriously.
Read the full story here.
Zelensky confirms Russian counteroffensive in Ukrainian-controlled Kursk
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Thursday that Russia had begun fighting to take back the parts of its Kursk region occupied by Ukrainian forces last month.
Speaking at a news conference, Zelensky said that the Russian “counteroffensive actions were according to our Ukrainian plan.”
He declined to say anything more about the region, which Ukraine overtook during a surprise incursion in early August. Zelensky has stated before that Kursk — where Ukraine grabbed about 500 square miles, including 100 settlements and nearly 600 prisoners of war — was part of his plan to end the conflict.
In the past two days, though, the Russian Ministry of Defense said that Russian troops had reclaimed 10 settlements in the region, amid worries by Ukraine’s allies over whether Kursk was worth the gamble and whether it can be used as a bargaining chip in negotiations.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Thursday that Russia had begun fighting to take back the parts of its Kursk region occupied by Ukrainian forces last month.
Speaking at a news conference, Zelensky said that the Russian “counteroffensive actions were according to our Ukrainian plan.”
He declined to say anything more about the region, which Ukraine overtook during a surprise incursion in early August. Zelensky has stated before that Kursk — where Ukraine grabbed about 500 square miles, including 100 settlements and nearly 600 prisoners of war — was part of his plan to end the conflict.
In the past two days, though, the Russian Ministry of Defense said that Russian troops had reclaimed 10 settlements in the region, amid worries by Ukraine’s allies over whether Kursk was worth the gamble and whether it can be used as a bargaining chip in negotiations.
Read the full story here.
Russia expels U.K. diplomats as Putin warns over Ukraine’s Western weapons
Russia on Friday stripped six British diplomats of accreditation, accusing them of spying, ahead of a crucial White House meeting between President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer that is expected to discuss whether to allow Ukraine to strike military targets deep inside Russia using some long-range Western weapons.
On the eve of the meeting, President Vladimir Putin also issued a tough warning that if Ukraine did fire Western missiles deep into Russia, it would mean that Russia was at war with NATO, and Moscow would respond accordingly.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said that Britain’s Foreign Office was coordinating “the escalation of the political and military situation” in Ukraine to ensure Russia’s defeat in the war and the diplomats were “threatening the security of the Russian Federation.”
Read the full story here.
Russia on Friday stripped six British diplomats of accreditation, accusing them of spying, ahead of a crucial White House meeting between President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer that is expected to discuss whether to allow Ukraine to strike military targets deep inside Russia using some long-range Western weapons.
On the eve of the meeting, President Vladimir Putin also issued a tough warning that if Ukraine did fire Western missiles deep into Russia, it would mean that Russia was at war with NATO, and Moscow would respond accordingly.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said that Britain’s Foreign Office was coordinating “the escalation of the political and military situation” in Ukraine to ensure Russia’s defeat in the war and the diplomats were “threatening the security of the Russian Federation.”
Read the full story here.
Kyiv’s bombed children’s hospital rebuilds, and one boy heads home
Dmytro Dorontsov — everyone calls him Dima — had gone into remission and was leaving Ukraine’s premier children’s hospital, Okhmatdyt. This was his goodbye party.
For two years, Dima had been more concerned with the war inside his body than the one outside it — until July, when a long-range Russian missile zipped more than 1,500 precise miles and slammed into the place he called home, threatening the lives of 627 sick children and bringing the war to their hospital doorways.
Two people died, and 300 were injured, including eight children. There was worldwide condemnation of the attack, considered a war crime. But left unreported was how the strike displaced hundreds of vulnerable children with severe medical needs and traumatized hospital staffers, who lost a colleague in the attack.
Dima had twice survived the impossible: cancer, a missile strike.
And now he was going home.
Read the full story here.
Dmytro Dorontsov — everyone calls him Dima — had gone into remission and was leaving Ukraine’s premier children’s hospital, Okhmatdyt. This was his goodbye party.
For two years, Dima had been more concerned with the war inside his body than the one outside it — until July, when a long-range Russian missile zipped more than 1,500 precise miles and slammed into the place he called home, threatening the lives of 627 sick children and bringing the war to their hospital doorways.
Two people died, and 300 were injured, including eight children. There was worldwide condemnation of the attack, considered a war crime. But left unreported was how the strike displaced hundreds of vulnerable children with severe medical needs and traumatized hospital staffers, who lost a colleague in the attack.
Dima had twice survived the impossible: cancer, a missile strike.
And now he was going home.
Read the full story here.
Russian state media outlet runs intelligence operations, U.S. says
Russian state media company RT, formerly known as Russia Today, was now being deployed by the Kremlin to conduct cyber intelligence and covert influence operations targeting countries in Europe, Africa and North and South America. It was also being used to procure weapons for Russia’s war against Ukraine, expanding RT’s remit far beyond that of a media outlet, officials said.
The U.S. warned Friday that the exposure of a covert Russian disinformation operation to influence public opinion in the United States represents only a small fraction of Moscow’s efforts to undermine democracies globally through its state propaganda arm RT.
Read the full story here.
Russian state media company RT, formerly known as Russia Today, was now being deployed by the Kremlin to conduct cyber intelligence and covert influence operations targeting countries in Europe, Africa and North and South America. It was also being used to procure weapons for Russia’s war against Ukraine, expanding RT’s remit far beyond that of a media outlet, officials said.
The U.S. warned Friday that the exposure of a covert Russian disinformation operation to influence public opinion in the United States represents only a small fraction of Moscow’s efforts to undermine democracies globally through its state propaganda arm RT.
Read the full story here.
Zelensky said his victory plan will lead to ‘reliable peace’ in Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that he will present to President Joe Biden a plan to strengthen Ukraine that could “pave the way to a reliable peace” in the country’s ongoing war with Russia.
Speaking in Kyiv, Zelensky said the plan would not end the war outright but that “it would help.” The Ukrainian president will travel to the United States later this month to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York, and he is expected to meet with Biden.
“I can’t give 100 percent that it will stop [Russian President Vladimir] Putin — no,” Zelensky said after his speech during a question-and-answer session conducted by foreign policy analyst Fareed Zakaria. “But it will make Ukraine stronger. And I think push Putin to think about how to finish the war.”
Read the full story here.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that he will present to President Joe Biden a plan to strengthen Ukraine that could “pave the way to a reliable peace” in the country’s ongoing war with Russia.
Speaking in Kyiv, Zelensky said the plan would not end the war outright but that “it would help.” The Ukrainian president will travel to the United States later this month to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York, and he is expected to meet with Biden.
“I can’t give 100 percent that it will stop [Russian President Vladimir] Putin — no,” Zelensky said after his speech during a question-and-answer session conducted by foreign policy analyst Fareed Zakaria. “But it will make Ukraine stronger. And I think push Putin to think about how to finish the war.”
Read the full story here.
When Russian bombs fall on Kharkiv, this man collects the evidence
In the past 2½ years, Serhii Bolvinov — head of investigations for the national police in the Kharkiv region — has looked into the death of every civilian in this corner of northeastern Ukraine. Killed by missiles and drones. Buried under rubble. Exhumed from mass graves. All 2,678 of them, including 93 children.
He and his team gather the broken bits of bodies. They measure the shrapnel and collect the missiles in a special graveyard. They build their cases. Bolvinov knows the culprit. But how — and whether — Russian officials and troops will ever be held accountable for their war crimes is unclear.
Read the full story here.
In the past 2½ years, Serhii Bolvinov — head of investigations for the national police in the Kharkiv region — has looked into the death of every civilian in this corner of northeastern Ukraine. Killed by missiles and drones. Buried under rubble. Exhumed from mass graves. All 2,678 of them, including 93 children.
He and his team gather the broken bits of bodies. They measure the shrapnel and collect the missiles in a special graveyard. They build their cases. Bolvinov knows the culprit. But how — and whether — Russian officials and troops will ever be held accountable for their war crimes is unclear.
Read the full story here.