Ukrainian

After more than a year of bloody assaults at great cost in troops and equipment, Russian forces are now fighting inside the key Ukrainian logistical hub of Pokrovsk, Ukrainian and Russian officials say. The extent of that advance, however, is in dispute. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday claimed the city is now encircled, something Ukrainian military officials deny.

As we have previously noted, Pokrovsk has been the major focus of fighting in the east because of its importance to both sides. Not only does it straddle a major rail line and several highways, it is part of a string of fortified cities in Ukraine’s Donetsk region that have so far prevented Russia from taking over all of that area and pushing deeper into Ukraine.

“The enemy has managed to drag…several hundred infantrymen into the city and continues to infiltrate deeper into the populated area, expanding their sabotage and reconnaissance activities,” the Ukrainian DeepState open-source tracking group claimed on Wednesday. That assessment lines up with statements Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made on Tuesday that about 200 Russian troops have entered Pokrovsk. The Ukrainian leader acknowledged that he was providing a conservative estimate of Russia’s presence in Pokrovsk.

At one point, Russian forces managed to raise their tri-color flag in Pokrovsk, but that was reportedly quickly destroyed by a drone.

Compounding Ukraine’s problems, Russian forces have broken a major logistics route towards the town of Myrnohrad, about two miles to the east along the TO504 highway, added DeepState, which has close ties to the Ukrainian military. In addition, Russian forces have also entered the southeastern outskirts of Myrnohrad, putting additional pressure on Pokrovsk, according to the Institute for the Study of War’s latest assessment.

“The situation is very difficult because a significant part of the city has already been infiltrated by the occupiers,” Denys, a Ukrainian drone operator, told The New York Times. “They’re still building up their presence, more and more, trying to completely saturate the city with their forces. When they encounter our positions, they engage in firefights.”

Logistics Hell on the Pokrovsk Direction.
Evacuation of an Injured Comrade.
Video from the Warriors of the 38th Separate Marine Brigade. pic.twitter.com/kySnMkngK7

— EMPR.media (@EuromaidanPR) October 29, 2025

Russia has been able to gain ground in Pokrovsk in large measure by changing tactics from massive frontal assaults to small groups of troops who’ve entered the city and set up drone operations, creating havoc on Ukraine’s ability to hold ground and supply its troops.

‼️”🅾️brave” troops are advancing in the Dnipropetrovsk region and storming Pokrovsk

▪️Fighters of the Center group of forces are actively destroying enemy infantry and equipment day and night.
▪️In support of the offensive, attack drone operators carry out precise strikes pic.twitter.com/eZiVhFBP1Z

— King Chelsea Ug (@ug_chelsea) October 29, 2025

Meanwhile, there is a large buildup of Russian troops and equipment preparing to take advantage of the current gains, according to the Ukrainian military.

“Enemy groups that managed to penetrate the city intend to advance northwest and north of Pokrovsk,” the 7th Corps of the Ukrainian Airborne Assault Troops, which oversees military operations in the area, explained on Wednesday. “In total, Russian troops have amassed approximately 27,000 troops, approximately 100 tanks, up to 260 armored combat vehicles, and up to 160 artillery pieces and mortars in the 7th Corps’ area of ​​responsibility.”

Still, Ukraine continues to impose a heavy cost on Russian forces, killing troops and destroying equipment.

Pokrovsk direction.
Operators of the 3rd “Svoboda” Operational Battalion burned a ruSSian BMD-4 along with its electronic warfare system using their fiber-optic-controlled drones 💥 pic.twitter.com/BlIDIIdaJh

— 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝕯𝔢𝔞𝔡 𝕯𝔦𝔰𝔱𝔯𝔦𝔠𝔱△ (@TheDeadDistrict) October 29, 2025

Against this backdrop of the largest Russian gains into Pokrovsk so far, Putin on Wednesday claimed that both that city and Kupiansk, located about 100 miles to the north in Kharkiv Oblast, are now surrounded. He suggested a temporary ceasefire so that journalists can witness the situation firsthand.

“The commanders of the groups are not against allowing representatives of the media, foreign and Ukrainian journalists, to enter the enemy’s encirclement zones so that they can go in and see with their own eyes what is happening there, confirm the condition of the surrounded Ukrainian troops,” Putin proclaimed.

The Russian leader added that he is making the offer about journalist access to these areas “so that the political leadership of Ukraine can make an appropriate decision regarding the fate of their citizens and servicemen, as was once done in ‘Azovstal’.” Putin was referring to the three-month siege of a massive steel plant in the city of Mariupol, where hundreds of Ukrainian troops held out until May 2022.

“We are ready to cease hostilities for a certain period of time for a few hours – two, three, six – so that journalists can enter, look around, talk to Ukrainian servicemen, and leave.” Putin added.

Putin: Our commanders don’t mind letting foreign and Ukrainian journalists into the encircled areas near Kupyansk and Pokrovsk to see the situation themselves and the state of surrounded Ukrainian troops.

Kyiv can decide their fate, as in Azovstal.
[Liar and terrorist]
1/ pic.twitter.com/4osvRt8pv3

— Tymofiy Mylovanov (@Mylovanov) October 29, 2025

Ukraine’s military pushed back against Putin’s claim.

“There is no encirclement of Pokrovsk and Kupiansk right now,” proffered Lt. Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation. “They have a plan to encircle Pokrovsk, but currently, it is not being implemented.”

Kovalenko suggested that Putin’s encirclement claim is aimed at the United States, where the Trump administration is considering providing long-range weapons to Ukraine in an effort to press the Russian leader to end the war.

“Putin has used the military component of lies from the very beginning to broadcast it to the USA,” Kovalenko asserted. 

While Russian troops have broken into Pokrovsk, they have yet to capture it. However, even Ukrainian sources acknowledge how dire things are for Kyiv.

“The situation in Pokrovsk is on the brink of critical and continues to worsen to the point that it may already be too late to fix everything,” DeepState admitted on Wednesday.

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com

Days after a Ukrainian strike on a Russian dam designed to impede Russian logistics, videos and photographs are emerging showing flooded dugouts and vehicles stuck in the mud in the northern Kharkiv region. Ukrainian military officials and a local Russian media outlet claim the attack on the Belgorod Reservoir Dam on the Siverskyi Donets River is working as intended, helping to slow down Russian advances near the embattled town of Vovchansk.

You can see a satellite view of the results of the attack in the following video.

“Enemy logistics are becoming significantly more complicated,” the Ukrainian 16th Army Corps stated on Telegram in reference to the results of water streaming out of the dam. “The leaves have also fallen. So the units that managed to cross the Siverskyi Donets found themselves practically cut off from the main forces.”

“We are waiting for reinforcements for the exchange fund,” the corps added, using a reference to prisoners of war.

A Russian outlet offered a similar take.

“Light military equipment sunk in mud on one of the roads in the Vovchansk direction,” the local Belgorod Pepel Telegram channel posited. “Water from the Belgorod reservoir has reached the positions of the Russian army and washed out the roads, greatly complicating logistics and the combat capability of the Russian Armed Forces in the Vovchansk direction.”

“Our dugout was flooded after the dam was blown up,” a Russian soldier is heard to complain on one of the videos.

Water from the Belgorod Reservoir reached Russian army positions and washed away roads, significantly complicating logistics and combat capabilities for Russian forces in the Volchansk direction. pic.twitter.com/dCQp6juea7

— Slava (@Heroiam_Slava) October 28, 2025

Ukraine’s Commander of Unmanned Systems Forces, Col. Robert Brovdi, said the dam was hit by drones on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the regional governor said it was attacked on Friday as well.

“As a result of the strike by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, there is damage to the dam of the Belgorod reservoir,” Vyacheslav Gladkov stated on Telegram on Saturday. “We understand that the enemy may try to strike again and destroy the dam. If this happens, there will be a threat of flooding of the river floodplain from the Kharkiv region side and several streets of our settlements, where about 1,000 residents live.”

Though the dam is located a little more than eight miles north of the border, the flood waters that resulted from the attack have swollen the Siverskyi Donets River, which bisects Vovchansk, located about four miles south of the border.

The bombed-out town has become a focal point of the fighting in northern Ukraine. It was liberated in September 2022 but a Russian counteroffensive managed to recapture a portion of the town in May 2024.

Both the Ukrainian and Russian defense ministries say the fighting remains fierce in the area, with Moscow claiming to have inflicted severe damage during these battles.

Before the dam attack, the Russians had made gains in the area thanks to the summer’s heat, according to the Ukrainian 16th Army Corps.

“The enemy tried to fully take advantage of the window of opportunity – after the lack of precipitation and the hellish summer, the rivers Siverskyi Donets and Vovcha have dried up, which simplified logistics for the opponent,” the corps stated on Telegram. “Plus, they managed to accumulate reserves and there are still enough leaves on the trees – all this combined led to a sharp increase in activity in the Vovchansk direction.”

The Russians “managed to achieve local successes, but it came at the cost of heavy losses,” the corps claimed. “Some units almost completely lost combat readiness, for example, the 1st battalion of the 82nd Marine Regiment was almost wiped out, with only the command left in the unit, so it had to be withdrawn to the rear for replenishment.”

“As of today, the situation is no longer in favor of the Russians,” the 16th Corps suggested.

Still, Ukrainian forces are not yet able to take full advantage of any logistical impediments imposed on Russian forces by the dam bust, stated one noted Ukrainian journalist.

“Comrades located at various sections of the Vovchansk direction responded, saying that assault actions and drone operations have not decreased over these 2 days,” Sergey Bratchuk wrote on Telegram. “This is despite the weather conditions, which noticeably complicate the work of UAV crews.”

“Due to (so far) constant tension, they do not allow the so-called ‘window of opportunity’ to be used for improving their own logistics, personnel shifts at positions, and strengthening defensive lines,” he added.

The lack of Ukrainian progress may change as water continues to flow from the dam, Bratchuk suggested.

“Well, let’s see how they behave in a few days when all the main access routes are flooded, the crossings are flooded, and the fortifications are destroyed,” he explained. “Without provisions, ammo, fuel, generators, etc. – offensive capabilities will somewhat quiet down. Infantry are not demanding people; you can even drop them a package and they will hold out for a long time, but supplying pilot positions is a completely different matter.”

The Belgorod attack is the most recent, but certainly not the largest strike on a dam. In March 2023, Ukraine claimed that the Russians intentionally blew up the Nova Kakovka dam on the Dnipro River, intending to impede Ukrainian logistics. While the extent of that objective is unclear, the attack caused major flooding and created a massive ecological disaster in the region.

Just how much the attack on the Belgorod Reservoir dam will hurt Russia remains to be seen. However, the strike is the latest example of how both sides are using water to try and stop the other.

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com

A drug dealer who organised a Russian-ordered arson attack on a warehouse providing aid to Ukraine has been sentenced to 17 years in prison.

Dylan Earl, 21, admitted a National Security Act offence over the attack on industrial units in Leyton, east London, on 20 March 2024.

He was jailed alongside five other men for their part in the plot.

An investigation by the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command found Earl, from Leicestershire, was working under the instruction of Russian mercenary Wagner Group, who are proscribed by the UK government as a terrorist organisation. The case is the first to be brought under the National Security Act 2023.

A Russian drone has killed two Ukrainian journalists and wounded another in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, according to their outlet and the regional governor of the Donetsk region.

Freedom Media, a state-funded news organisation, said on Thursday that Olena Gramova, 43, and Yevgen Karmazin, 33, had been killed by a Russian Lancet drone while in their car at a petrol station in the industrial city. Another reporter, Alexander Kolychev, was hospitalised after the attack.

The Donetsk regional governor earlier announced details of the strike and posted images showing the charred remains of the journalists’ car, according to the AFP news agency.

Freedom Media said that Gramova, a native of Yenakiieve in the Donetsk region, had originally trained as a “finance specialist”, but turned to journalism in 2014, the year when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, and started arming a separatist movement in Donetsk and Luhansk in the Donbas.

Karmazin was born in Kramatorsk, also in Donetsk. The outlet said he “joined Ukraine’s international broadcasting channels as a cameraman in 2021”.

“From day one, they were there, covering evacuations, war crimes, soldier stories,” said the Kyiv Post in a post on X.

A Russian Lancet drone tore through Kramatorsk, killing Ukrainian journalist Olena Hubanova and cameraman Yevhen Karmazin as they documented the war from the front lines.

From day one, they were there — covering evacuations, war crimes, soldier stories.

Now they’re gone. pic.twitter.com/TNTN8H7nFd

— KyivPost (@KyivPost) October 23, 2025

Kramatorsk, which had a pre-war population of about 150,000 people, is one of the few remaining civilian hubs in the Donetsk region still under Ukrainian control.

Russian forces are approximately 16 kilometres (10 miles) from the city, where officials earlier this month announced the mandatory evacuation of children from some parts of the town and outlying villages.

Record numbers of journalists killed in conflict

The proliferation of cheap but deadly drones used both by Russian and Ukrainian forces has made reporting from the front-line regions of Ukraine increasingly dangerous.

Earlier in October, French photojournalist Antoni Lallican was killed by a drone near the eastern city of Druzhkivka, located in the Donetsk region.

Lallican had been killed by a “targeted strike” from a first-person-view drone, which allows operators to see their target before striking, according to Ukrainian forces cited by the European Federation of Journalists.

Precise tolls of journalists killed since the war started in 2022 vary. The Committee for the Protection of Journalists says that 17 journalists – Ukrainian and international – have been killed so far. The deaths of Gramova and Karmazin would bring that total to 19.

UNESCO said earlier this month that at least 23 media workers have been killed on both sides of the front line, including three Russian state media journalists in March. In mid-October, Russian war correspondent Ivan Zuyev was killed by a Ukrainian drone strike in the southern Zaporizhia region, according to state news agency RIA.

Recent years have seen record numbers of journalists killed in conflicts, the toll disproportionately accelerated by deaths in Gaza, where Israeli forces have deliberately targeted media workers like Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif and Mohammad Salama, Reuters cameraman Hussam al-Masri, and Mariam Abu Daqqa, a freelance journalist working for AP.

Again, reports on deaths since the start of the two-year Gaza war differ. The United Nations said that 242 journalists had been killed by August this year. A tally by Shireen.ps, a monitoring website named after murdered Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, said Israeli forces had killed more than 270 journalists and media workers over the same period.

​​Either way, more journalists have been killed in Gaza than in the United States Civil War, both World Wars, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the wars in the former Yugoslavia and the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan combined, according to Brown University’s Costs of War project.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said handing over the Ukrainian diver is not in the country’s best interests.

A Polish court has blocked the extradition of a Ukrainian diver wanted by Germany in connection with the 2022 Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions, a handover that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said earlier this month was not in his country’s best interests.

The Warsaw District Court rejected the extradition of the man, only identified as Volodymyr Z, on Friday and ordered his immediate release.

The government had previously said that the decision about whether Volodymyr Z should be transferred to Germany was one for the courts alone.

Tusk has said the problem was not that the undersea pipelines, which run from Russia to Germany, were blown up in September 2022, but that they were built at all.

The explosions ruptured the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which was inaugurated in 2011 and carried Russian natural gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea until Russia cut off supplies in August 2022.

They also damaged the parallel Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which never entered service because Germany suspended its certification process shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

The explosions largely severed Russian gas supplies to Europe, marking a major escalation in the Ukraine conflict and squeezing energy supplies.

Germany’s top prosecutors’ office says Volodymyr Z was one of a group suspected of renting a sailing yacht and planting explosives on the pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm.

He faces allegations of conspiring to commit an explosives attack and of “anti-constitutional sabotage”.

His Polish lawyer rejects the accusations and says Volodymyr Z has done nothing wrong. He has also questioned whether a case concerning the destruction of Russian property by a Ukrainian at a time when the countries are at war is a criminal matter.

Volodymyr Z’s wife has told Polish media her husband is innocent and that they were together in Poland at the time the pipelines were blown up.

He is one of two Ukrainians whose extradition German judicial authorities have been trying to secure in the case.

A man suspected of being one of the attack’s coordinators was arrested in Italy in August. This week, Italy’s top court annulled a lower court’s decision to order his extradition and called for another panel of judges to reassess the case, his lawyer said.

Gennadiy Trukhanov is alleged to have Russian citizenship, which is prohibited in Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stripped the mayor of Odesa, Gennadiy Trukhanov, of Ukrainian citizenship over allegations that he possesses a Russian passport.

The Ukrainian leader has instead appointed a military administration to run the country’s biggest port city on the Black Sea, with a population of about 1 million.

“The Ukrainian citizenship of the mayor of Odesa, Gennadiy Trukhanov, has been suspended,” Ukraine’s SBU security service announced on the Telegram messaging app on Tuesday, citing a decree signed by Zelenskyy.

The SBU accused the mayor of “possessing a valid international passport from the aggressor country”.

Ukraine prohibits its citizens from also holding citizenship in Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and the move against Trukhanov could see him deported from the country.

In a post on social media, Zelenskyy said he had held a meeting with the head of the SBU, which had reported on “countering Russian agent networks and collaborators in the front-line and border regions, as well as in the south of our country”.

The SBU chief “confirmed… the fact that certain individuals hold Russian citizenship – relevant decisions regarding them have been prepared. I have signed the decree”, Zelenskyy said.

I held a meeting on the security situation in some of our regions – these are matters of principle.

Head of the Security Service of Ukraine Vasyl Maliuk reported on countering Russian agent networks and collaborators in the frontline and border regions, as well as in the south… pic.twitter.com/MxKyKjPYc9

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 14, 2025

“Far too many security issues in Odesa have remained unanswered for far too long,” the president also said, according to reports, without providing specific details.

A former member of parliament, Trukhanov has been the mayor of Odesa since 2014. He has consistently denied accusations of holding Russian citizenship, an allegation that has dogged him throughout his political career.

“I have never received a Russian passport. I am a Ukrainian citizen,” Trukhanov stressed in a video message posted on Telegram following the announcement of his citizenship revocation.

Trukhanov said he would “continue to perform the duties of elected mayor” as long as possible and that he would take the case to court.

Images of a Russian passport allegedly belonging to Trukhanov have been shared widely on social media in Ukraine.

SBU says: pic.twitter.com/fcRe8acOgo

— Illia Ponomarenko (@IAPonomarenko) October 14, 2025

Once considered a politician with pro-Russian leanings, Trukhanov pivoted after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and has publicly condemned Moscow while focusing on defending Odesa and aiding the Ukrainian army.

A source familiar with the matter told the Reuters news agency that Zelenskyy had also removed the Ukrainian citizenships of two other people.

Local media outlet The Kyiv Independent identified the two as Ukrainian ballet dancer Sergei Polunin, a vocal supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and former Ukrainian politician and now alleged Russian collaborator Oleg Tsaryov.

Polunin, who sports a large tattoo of Putin on his chest, was born in southern Ukraine but obtained Russian citizenship in 2018. He supported Russia’s 2022 invasion and, earlier in 2014, backed Russia’s annexation of Crimea, where he lived and worked.

In July, Zelenskyy revoked the citizenship of Metropolitan Onufriy, the head of the formerly Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

A Russian fiber-optic-controlled first-person view (FPV) drone made a precision strike within the city of Kramatorsk for the first time on Sunday, the city council said. Though no one was injured in the attack, a fiber-optic FPV drone strike on one of the largest cities in the east raised alarms in Ukraine.

Unlike radio-controlled drones, FPV drones that link to their controllers via very long spools of fiber-optic wire are immune to jamming and terrain features that can impede line-of-sight radio signals. While they also have disadvantages, such as having a range defined by the length of the wires they trail and degraded freedom to maneuver, they are hugely threatening due to their resiliency. And the range at which they can reach out is only increasing.

Kramatorsk was home to about 200,000 people before Russia’s all-out invasion, but that has dwindled to about half that population. Located 12 miles from the front lines in Ukraine’s war-torn east, Kramatorsk has come under increasing attack from Russian radio-controlled FPV drones. 

Boosting the range of Russia’s fiber-optic-controlled FPV drones extends the depth of the front lines and increasingly puts civilians at risk.

“One strike and one damaged car will not change the security situation on the front line or directly in Kramatorsk, but it demonstrates a trend,” the Ukrainian Radio Liberty media outlet reported. “However, firstly, the Russian troops have demonstrated the reach and vulnerability of the administrative center of Donetsk Oblast to fiber optic. Secondly, if strikes with different types of FPV are scaled up, we can talk about a threat to civilian and military logistics in order to create the prerequisites for a future offensive…”

The video feed from the drone itself is incredibly clear, which is a major feature of this class of FPV drone. On the other hand, a radio-controlled one would have an intermittent video feed dominated by static due to the great distance from its controllers and especially amongst tall buildings and general urban terrain. The video shows the drone flying over a relatively pristine street in Kramatorsk, before making a sharp turn to the left and striking a pickup truck — much like the ones many Ukrainian troops use — parked near an apartment building.

Both sides have developed fiber-optic-controlled FPV drones that can now reach as far as 25 miles, but generally, those in operation fly a fraction of that distance carrying much smaller spools of wire. Still, efforts to extend the range to more than 30 miles are underway now, which could be highly problematic for forces operating deep behind enemy lines and civilians, as well.

It’s worth noting that the Russians started the use of fiber optic wires on the FPV drone in the spring of 2024, and Ukraine quickly followed suit. You can read more about that in our original story here. The use of fiber optic cables to transmit the guidance data between the controllers and the FPV drones has become so prevalent on both sides that fields once used for farming are now covered in the strands.

The increasing range of Russia’s fiber-optic-controlled FPVs is worrisome to one of Ukraine’s major players in drone development and production efforts.

“The enemy’s FPV drones can fly even greater distances,” Serhii Sternenko warned on X. “There is no such thing as a rear area up to 30 kilometers (about 18.5 miles) from the front. This needs to be realized now, especially by local officials.”

Sternenko is urging Ukrainian city leaders to adopt new defensive measures to protect civilians.

“All settlements in this zone should already be closing roads with anti-drone nets,” he suggested. You can see a driver’s view of traveling through one such system in the following video.

A Ukrainian logistic route that has covered with the anti drone nets and fence. pic.twitter.com/8O1QQHFPMe

— 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝕯𝔢𝔞𝔡 𝕯𝔦𝔰𝔱𝔯𝔦𝔠𝔱△ (@TheDeadDistrict) April 5, 2025

These nets are a measure first introduced by Russia and later adopted by Ukraine to create miles-long ‘tunnels’ designed to protect military transport vehicles from drone attacks. Russia has even designed a system to protect buildings with nets.

In addition, Sternenko wants civilian movement on the streets to be limited and ultimately have non-combatants evacuated.

“It will only get worse, because technology doesn’t stand still,” he posited. 

Though fiber optic cables increase the range of FPV drones, there are also limitations, as we have previously discussed and touched on at the opening of this article.

The extra weight of the large spools needed to operate over long distances slows them down and makes them less maneuverable. In addition, environmental factors come into play, the head of Ukraine’s defense tech incubator recently told us. Just because such a drone can reach 25 miles doesn’t mean it will.

“It depends on what we are measuring, the length of the fiber optics, or the distance between the ground station and the target,” Andriy Hyrtseniuk, the new head of Ukraine’s Brave1, told us. “It’s two different stories because, because of the wind, the fiber optics is moving,” reducing the range of these drones.

Still, given the advantages offered by longer fiber optic cables, both sides are in a race to increase their distance, Hyrtseniuk explained.

“This is very similar to the game of cat and mouse, and the innovations are enhancing [the range] very, very quickly,” he stated.

Ukraine was slower to develop the fiber-optic-controlled FPV drones, but it is catching up.

“This is actually one of the very few areas where Russia was faster than we were, but we are very quickly reducing the [gap],” he posited. “And right now, more than 35 Ukrainian companies are building the fiber optic drones and have scaled their production. So right now we are comparable with Russia.”

“Of course,” he added, “we and the Russians are working on the increasing distance and increasing lengths of the fiber optics…I don’t want to give more detailed information about fiber optics, but the level of 40 kilometers (about 25 miles) was completely reached, and it works.”

There has been very little movement on the front lines, providing Ukraine a degree of security within a dozen or so miles from them due to Russia’s lack of air superiority. But AI-infused drone technology, using Ukraine’s own telecom network to control long-range drones far beyond the front, and long-range fiber optic drones could disrupt this delicate balance. We discussed how AI-enabled Shaheds could have a massive impact on the war in a story we wrote last year. Even putting nearby towns at risk of highly resilient fiber-optic FPVs could have major impacts, especially on both sides’ ability to supply troops at the front.

So far, Kramatorsk is battered, but 100,000 people still call it home. Right now, cable-guided FPV drones are an emerging threat to this city. However, as we have seen across the battlefield, the ability to extend the range of these weapons makes defending against them even harder.

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com

AT LEAST 30 people have been injured in a Russian drone strike on a Ukrainian passenger train, which left the carriage burning and ripped apart.

Emergency services were rushed to Shotska, in Ukraine’s Sumy region, after the “savage” attack.

1

In a post on X, he said: “A savage Russian drone strike on the railway station in Shostka, Sumy region.

“All emergency services are already on the scene and have begun helping people.

“All information about the injured is being established. So far, we know of at least 30 victims.

“Preliminary reports indicate that both Ukrzaliznytsia staff and passengers were at the site of the strike.

“The Russians could not have been unaware that they were striking civilians. And this is terror the world must not ignore.

“Every day Russia takes people’s lives. And only strength can make them stop.

“We’ve heard resolute statements from Europe and America – and it’s high time to turn them all into reality, together with everyone who refuses to accept murder and terror as normal.

“Lip service is not enough now. Strong action is needed.”

THIS is the terrifying moment Ukrainian soldiers on fire dived from their speeding Humvee after a drone strike.

Footage shows brave Ukrainian troops cheating death as they jumped out of the military vehicle after being targeted by the Russian forces.

5

5

5

Troops from the Kastus Kalinoŭski Regiment were travelling inside the Humvee when a drone attack struck them.

The soliders, who were engulfed in fire, took a leap of faith and dived out of their seats to escape.

They were seen rolling on the floor before dashing away from the burning car.

Smoke can be seen coming out of the US-made military vehicle as the soldiers look at it from a distance.

The Kastus Kalinoŭski Regiment is a military unit within the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

It is made up of Belarusian volunteers fighting agasint the Russians.

THe military unit was formed in March 2022 in response to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The regiment is named after Kastus Kalinoŭski, a Belarusian national hero and leader of the 1863 January Uprising against the Russian Empire, symbolising resistance to oppression.

They view the Russian forces as a common enemy of both Ukraine and Belarus, and their aim is to defend Kyiv on the frontlines.

The fighting group also aspires to liberate Belarus from its authoritarian regime, which is aligned with Russia.

Their motto, “Liberation of Belarus through the liberation of Ukraine,” reflects this dual mission.

The unit has become a significant symbol of Belarusian solidarity with Ukraine and resistance to Russian influence, with its members fighting alongside Ukrainian forces to defend their homeland.

Previous footage from the frontlines showed the moment a landmine blew up a Humvee – with Ukrainian soldiers still inside.

The crew miraculously all survived the fireball blast thanks to the tough armour on the US-made military vehicle.

5

The clip shows Ukrainian fighters riding in the truck – with one standing up through a gap in the roof to man the machine gun.

One of the soldiers then starts shouting as gunshots ring out in the background.

Two brave men grab their rifles and sprint out to join the battle.

Smoke can be seen rising in the distance as the armed defenders scour the immediate area for Russian attackers.

Suddenly a blast erupts under under the Humvee – with at least three soldiers still inside.

Flames are seen filling the cab, and debris falls from the roof.

The occupants then rush to escape as the vehicle fills with smoke.

And thanks to the incredible US-made armour, they all survived the terrifying blast.

5

Thanks to some Turkish fishermen, we are getting a pretty good look at a Ukrainian Magura drone boat they found last night. Also known as an uncrewed surface vessel (USV), the Maguras have become a key component in Ukraine’s campaign against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet (BSF). It was found days after a video emerged on social media showing a claimed Russian capture of another Magura, which you can read more about later in this story.

This explosive-laden Magura was found offshore near the town of Çarşıbaşı, according to Turkish authorities. The town is located about 900 miles from Ukrainian-held territory on the southeastern shore of the Black Sea. The location is about 600 miles southeast of the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula, where Ukraine has carried out the bulk of its USV attacks.

“Our fishermen found a fiber boat at sea last night and brought it to the port,” the Turkish IHA media outlet reported on Tuesday. “Authorities came and inspected it. It was determined that there was a bomb inside. The boat is sitting in our port. Our fishermen cannot enter the port; we have closed the port to fishermen, and we are suffering because of this. The bomb squad is coming. We are waiting for them.”

IHA and Russian Telegram channels described the USV as a Magura V5 model, which seems to line up with what we have seen in previous imagery, given the location of the electro-optical turret in relation to the bow.

As you can see in the following video and image, the Magura has the aforementioned gyro-stabilized electro-optical turret. In addition, it appears there are two planar satellite antenna arrays atop the hull.

A third satcom antenna array can be seen on the broken riser.

Though originally designed and used primarily as a kamikaze drone boat, GUR has used several variants of the Maguras to perform different functions. They include launching first-person view (FPV) and bomber drones, firing machine guns and serving as a platform for anti-aircraft missiles. The one recovered in Turkey did not appear to have FPV drone launchers, missile rails or gun turrets.

Last December, GUR claimed it fired an adapted R-73 (AA-11 Archer) air-to-air missile from a Magura V5 to down a Russian Mi-8 Hip helicopter over the Black Sea. It marked the first known time a USV had ever shot down an aircraft. The attack is visible in the following video.

Ukraine also claimed it began to launch FPVs from its Maguras back in January. In early May 2025, we were the first to report that (GUR) used its newer Magura V7 USV, armed with a pair of AIM-9 Sidewinder infrared-guided air-to-air missiles, to shoot down a pair of Russian Su-30 Flanker fighters flying over the Black Sea. That attack was also captured on video.

This is not the first Magura variant that Ukraine has lost control of. Images showing up on social media over the years show the evolution of these weapons, with improved optics, guidance systems and increased length.

Our first glimpse of Ukraine’s USVs came in September 2022, when photos showed up on X a month before sea drones began to become Ukraine’s weapon of choice against the BSF. The USV was recovered near the city of Sevastopol, home to the headquarters of the BSF. 

In October 2022, Ukraine launched the first in a wave of what would be a game-changing campaign, using USVs and aerial drones to attack Sevastopol. Since then, drone boats have been used numerous times against targets.

You can see a portion of that attack in the following video.

Ukraine released a video from today’s attack on Sevastopol. It shows a naval drone targeting the Black Sea Fleet’s Admiral Makarov Project 11356 frigate, which Russian sources said was damaged (it replaced the Moskva as the Black Sea Fleet’s flagship). https://t.co/zdAeWUvDrb pic.twitter.com/TNnIu4OIap

— Rob Lee (@RALee85) October 29, 2022

Images of another captured Magura were seen on X in November 2023. It was captured intact by Russia in western Crimea, Russian milbloggers reported on Telegram. It was attempting to attack Russian ships in western Crimea “when it fell into Russian hands,” the Russian Military Informant Telegram channel stated. In commenting on the capture, the Two Majors Telegram channel offered an ominous warning: “Soon a surprise will await the enemy,” a seeming indication that Russia might work to reverse engineer this USV. At the very least, they will pull it apart to gain any new intelligence they can, especially in regards to how they can disrupt their communications and what kind of drones they are using to attack targets on land.

Just a few days before the Turkish fishermen found the Magura, an undated video emerged online of what was claimed to be one captured by the Russians. It appeared to be outfitted with canisters for launching FPV drones. However, the location of the video and when it was captured remain unclear.

The Russians inspect a captured Ukrainian Magura Naval Drone outfitted with fibre optic drones onto.

This thing must look like a spaceship to the average Russian caveman. pic.twitter.com/zaqoDS5sZi

— Bricktop_NAFO (@Bricktop_NAFO) September 27, 2025

As we previously noted, Ukraine’s early drone boat attacks on the BSF were a “wakeup call,” marking a new point in unmanned warfare. These attacks have proven that a nation with nearly no significant remaining traditional navy but an array of uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) can keep one of the world’s largest navies at bay.

Ukraine’s drone boat attacks have pinned down the BSF, keeping it largely away from Crimea and putting it at risk even in Russia’s eastern Black Sea ports. These attacks have removed larger Russian naval assets from operating in the northwestern Black Sea totally.

It is unknown what Turkish authorities will do with the drone boat that was recovered. At the very least, the fishermen will have a cool story to tell about the one that didn’t get away.

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com

Ukraine claimed it attacked a major electronic connector production facility with R-360 Neptune ground-launched cruise missiles early Monday morning. The Elektrodetal plant, located in eastern Bryansk Oblast, was attacked from well inside northern Ukraine, according to Ukrainian officials, who are still working to determine the extent of the damage.

“We are adjusting the work of the Russian defense factories,” the Ukrainian Navy stated on Telegram. “At night, our ‘Neptune’ successfully struck the Russian Karachevsky ‘Electrodetal’ plant. Another link in the enemy’s supply chain is down.”

The Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff offered more details about the strike and the target.

The attack involved four Neptunes fired from a distance of roughly 240 kilometers (about 150 miles). That would put the launch site about 25 miles across the border in Ukraine.

The Karachev Electrodetal Plant “manufactures various electrical connectors for military and general industrial applications, including low-frequency, high-frequency, and combined connectors,” the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff explained. “The products are used in aerospace, electronics, instrument engineering, and other industries. These include connectors for printed circuit boards, military equipment, aircraft, antennas, base stations, and other systems, as well as components for various measuring instruments.”

“Explosions and a fire have been recorded on the premises of the facility,” the general staff added.

The plant produces “most of the inter-block connections of Russian cruise and ballistic missile wings,” the Ukrainian Colonel General Staff Telegram channel reported on Monday. In addition, its products are also used in the production of first-person view (FPV) drones such as the Chimera, the Ukrainian Militarnyi news outlet reported.

Ukraine’s forces famously used Neptunes to sink the Russian Navy’s Project 1164 Slava class cruiser Moskva in 2022 and reportedly began employing a new land-attack version in 2023. The R-360 is derived from the Soviet-era Kh-35 and is very similar externally to that missile, which remains in service in Russia and elsewhere today. You can read more about what is known about this variant of the missile here.

Earlier this year, Ukraine showed off another variant, called the Long Neptune. In the past, the maximum stated range of the anti-ship version of Neptune has been said to be around 190 miles (300 kilometers). A Ukrainian defense official told TWZ that the original land-attack version could have a range of up to 225 miles (360 kilometers). With its extended body having capacity for additional fuel, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed Long Neptunes can strike targets at a range of about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers). Zelensky said that the new version has already been tested in combat.

The attack on the Elektrodetal facility came shortly after Ukraine struck an energy plant inside Russia’s Belgorod region, reportedly launched by a U.S.-made Army High Mobility Rocket System (HIMARS).

U.S. President Donald Trump has signed off on Ukraine using American-made standoff weapons inside Russia on a case-by-case basis, Keith Kellogg, a White House special envoy to Ukraine, told Fox News on Saturday. He did not say what weapons Ukraine might use, but confirmed the Tomahawk Land Attack Cruise Missile (TLAM), which the Trump administration is considering sending to Ukraine, was not one of them. 

That the administration is now considering giving TLAMs to Ukraine highlights the ephemeral nature of Trump’s support for Kyiv, which may have to rely on U.S. weapons for years to come. As we recently noted, after saying long-range munitions were off the table and throttling the supply of weapons and intelligence to Ukraine, the American president has reversed course on both, as we noted in our recent story, which you can read here.

Meanwhile, as we have frequently reported, the U.S. wants to restock its own supply of a wide array of long-range missiles.

“The Pentagon, alarmed at the low weapons stockpiles the U.S. would have on hand for a potential future conflict with China, is urging its missile suppliers to double or even quadruple production rates on a breakneck schedule,” The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

The brainchild of Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg, this new effort is called the Munitions Acceleration Council. It is focusing “on 12 weapons that the Pentagon wants on hand for a potential conflict with China,” the publication reported, citing unnamed sources. “The list includes Patriot interceptors, Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles, the Standard Missile-6, Precision Strike Missiles and Joint Air-Surface Standoff Missiles. Patriot is a particular priority because Lockheed has struggled to keep pace with surging global demand.”

Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth “are exploring extraordinary avenues to expand our military might and accelerate the production of munitions,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told the Journal, when asked about the plan. “This effort has been a collaboration between defense industry leaders and senior Pentagon officials.”

However, some involved in the effort, both inside and outside of the government, “worry that the government’s targets aren’t realistic,” according to the newspaper. “Individual missiles can take two years to fully assemble. It can take several months and hundreds of millions of dollars to test and qualify weapons from new suppliers as safe and reliable enough for U.S. service members to use.”

The U.S. is already working to expand its ability to make missiles. It is opening up new plants, expanding work at existing ones and increasing the budget for buying new munitions. These existing efforts include jumpstarting production overseas for certain missiles, as well. How much more all this can be accelerated without using other means, like the Defense Production Act, isn’t clear, but what is clear is that the Pentagon knows this isn’t enough.

The war in Ukraine and fighting in the Middle East have shown the extreme importance of deep stockpiles of long-range strike missiles and air defense interceptors. As China shows increasing belligerence in the Pacific, the need to support Ukraine with weapons has no end in sight, and NATO’s relationship with Russia continues to spiral, as well as a massive spike in demand for these weapons around the globe, the race is on in the U.S. to ensure it can meet these challenges.

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com

In what it claims is the first such attack in history, Ukraine has used drones to strike a pair of Russian Navy Be-12, a twin-turboprop amphibious aircraft that we have profiled in depth in the past. The raid appears to have targeted two of the extremely scarce seagoing planes, potentially halving the number of airframes available to Russia and leaving a question mark over the future service for the type.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense today published a video showing the attack on an airfield in Russian-occupied Crimea, which it says is “the first ever strike on a Be-12.” Seen from the perspective of the kamikaze drones, two of the amphibians are hit (one of them with the Bort number 08) and a Mi-8 helicopter is also struck. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense claims the destruction of all three aircraft, but that cannot currently be independently verified. The airbase is almost certainly Kacha, near the Black Sea Fleet’s major naval base at Sevastopol.

According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR), the drone strike was carried out on September 21 by the “Ghost” special forces unit.

The Be-12, known as Tchaika, or Seagull, in Russian and codenamed Mail by NATO, was first flown in 1960 and which then served throughout the rest of the Cold War. It has played an unsung but important role since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, most notably helping hunt for Ukrainian uncrewed surface vessels (USVs), or ‘drone boats,’ in the Black Sea.

What is clear, however, is that the number of these amphibians available to Russia was already strictly limited.

The U.K.-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) think tank reports that, at the beginning of 2023, Russia had six Be-12s. All were said to be in the Be-12PS search-and-rescue configuration. Recent satellite imagery of Kacha airfield in Crimea shows seven or eight Be-12s, of which four or five were airworthy, according to the Ukrainian Channel 24.

Provided that the two aircraft struck by the GUR were airworthy, and both are now either destroyed or damaged beyond repair, then the Be-12 force available to the Russian Navy may well have been halved. On the other hand, the fact that one aircraft appears to lack a propeller on one of its engines suggests it might already have been withdrawn from use. It could still be a highly valued source for spare parts though.

Videos and photos showing Russian Be-12s operating over the coast of Crimea began to proliferate in summer 2022, and, since then, there have been multiple reports indicating that these aircraft are being used to spot USVs, and likely other Ukrainian activity, including by special forces teams, combat divers, and reconnaissance parties, in and around the peninsula.

During its Cold War heyday, the Be-12 was mainly an anti-submarine warfare platform, but, without any significant upgrades, the aircraft has long since ceased to have any real utility in this role.

Today’s aircraft can also be used for combat search and rescue, for example, dropping supplies to Russian airmen downed over the Black Sea. The Be-12PS can also carry 13 survivors, although, since there are very strict limits on landing on water, due to the age of the airframes, this is of little relevance.

The Be-12 can also be used in a transport capacity, if required.

In an uncontested environment, the Be-12 still offers useful reconnaissance capabilities. Its radar is able to provide a basic situational awareness picture of the coastline, as well as detect ships, in a sea-control role. More importantly, especially for USV detection, is the extensively glazed nose station, accommodating the navigator/observer.

Authorities say Russians and Ukrainians are collaborating to form crime rings on Indonesia’s most famous holiday island.

An Indonesian court has sentenced a Ukrainian man to life in prison for his role in a large-scale Russian-Ukrainian drug ring operating on the tourist island of Bali.

Thai authorities arrested Roman Nazarenko, who was listed as a fugitive by Interpol, at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport in December as he attempted to flee to Dubai, then extradited him to Indonesia.

Nazarenko had spent seven months on the run after police raided a holiday villa in Bali in May 2024, finding a laboratory in the basement used to grow marijuana and produce a precursor of the synthetic drug ecstasy.

During Nazarenko’s trial at Denpasar District Court on Thursday, prosecutors argued he was one of the masterminds of a drug ring.

The Ukrainian claimed he was tricked into joining the ring and sat silently as the panel of three judges handed down a life sentence.

“There is no reason to forgive or justify the defendant; he deserves to be punished commensurate with what he has done,” presiding Judge Eni Martiningrum said.

“His crime could damage the mental state of the young generation.”

Marthinus Hukom, the head of Indonesia’s National Narcotics Agency, said there is a growing issue of Russians and Ukrainians collaborating in crime rings on Indonesia’s most famous holiday island.

“This is a very unique phenomenon,” Hukom said.

“Two countries that are at war, but here in Bali, their citizens are partners in crime, engaging in illicit drug trafficking.”

Authorities also arrested two Ukrainian brothers, Mykyta Volovod and Ivan Volovod, and a Russian man, Konstantin Krutz, during the earlier raid on the villa. The same court sentenced each of the men to 20 years in prison.

Prosecutors argued that the Volovod brothers were the drug producers, while Krutz sold their product.

Prosecutors have also identified a Russian man, Oleg Tkachuck, who they believe to be the drug ring’s overall mastermind. He remains at large.

According to the Volovod brothers, Tkachuck paid them $30,000 in September 2023 to install equipment at the villa to produce hydroponic marijuana and mephedrone – used in the production of ecstasy pills.

According to prosecutors, Nazarenko recruited the other convicted men for Tkachuck, as well as provided equipment and marijuana seeds, and oversaw operations of the lab.

Nazarenko argued in court that he had been tricked by Tkachuck and expressed remorse for his role in the drug operation.

Indonesia has some of the strictest drug laws in the region, with drug smugglers sometimes executed by firing squad.

Bali, meanwhile, has become a magnet for thousands of people from Russia and Ukraine fleeing the horrors of war since President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion in early 2022.

Russian visitors, in particular, more than tripled between 2022 and 2024 – growing from 57,860 to 180,215 last year.

UKRAINIAN children abducted during the war are forced to make military equipment used against their homeland, chilling research reveals.

Thousands of innocent youngsters shipped to more than 200 sinister camps across Russia are being subjected to brainwashing and being used as pawns by deranged Vladimir Putin.

8

8

8

Sickenlingly, satelitte images shows children being used as slave labour to assemble drones and other supplies fuelling the tyrant’s war machine in Ukraine.

Military training has been observed at around 40 of the sites holding children as young as eight, including ceremonial parades and drills, and combat training.

Officials told The Sun it shows Kremlin stooges are teaching children to fight against their home, blasting their use as a “weapons” against Ukraine and beyond.

Daria Herasymchuck, advisor and commissioner of the President of Ukraine for Children’s Rights and Rehabilitation, told The Sun: “For those of us who have observed Putin’s actions up close for more than a decade, we are well accustomed to their evasion, distortion and calculated indifference. 

“We are appalled by the large-scale, logistical and operational capacity Russia is operating in – using children, who are always the most vulnerable victims in armed conflicts, in such a way, is deliberately cruel.”

Since megalomaniac Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022, thousands of Ukrainian children have been kidnapped and sent to at least 210 facilities inside Russia and occupied territory.

These sites range from summer camps and sanatoriums to a military base, and, in one case, a monastery, according to research by the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL).

Russia is known to have engaged in the deportation, re-education, militarisation and forced adopting of Ukrainian children since at least 2014 from the occupied territories of Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk.

But since Putin’s ordered his troops in more than three years ago, researchers say these barbaric efforts have siginificantly expanded.

The HRL has used satellite imagery and open source materials to identify and track Ukrainian children snatched during the war.

Its horrifying report, Ukraine’s Stolen Children: Inside Russia’s Network of Re-education and Militarization, reveals the staggering efforts Moscow goes to to brainwash these youngsters.

Children have been rounded up and moved to at least eight different location types.

These are cadet schools, a military base, medical facilities, a religious site, secondary schools and universities, a hotel, family support centers and orphanages, and camps and sanatoriums.

At least two new cadet schools have been constructed, and at least 49 of the 210 locations have been expanded since the start of the war.

Children are forced to develop “fire and naval training skills” at some sites as part of a warped militarisation campaign.

They are required to participate in “shooting competitions and grenade throwing competitions” as well as receive “tactical medicince, drone control and tactics” training.

In one instance, youngsters from Donetsk oblast received “airborne training” at a military base, the HRL’s report – shared with United
Nations Security Council- reveals.

Children have also been used to help produced military equipment for Russia’s armed forces, including drones.

Herasymchuck, of Ukraine’s Bring Kids Back UA initiative, told The Sun: “The report shows Russia is prepared to use Ukraine’s own children as a ‘weapon’ against Ukraine, and Europe more broadly.

“They are being trained to fight against their own homeland.

8

8

8

“This is all part of Russia’s long-term campaign to erase the Ukrainian identity – central to this is the Russification and militarisation of Ukrainian children as the report outlines.”

Some youngsters have been held temporarily before returning home – while others have been held indefinitely.

As part of Putin’s callous regime to indoctrinate these children, many have been pushed into a network of so-called family centres.

Others have been pushed into Russia’s programme of coerced fostering and adoption – seeing them eventually placed within a Russian family.

For those who return home, Ukraine authorities have been told of the drastic work that has to be done to undo the damage.

Herasymchuck said: “Rehabilitation for children who return from deportation is one of the most sensitive and complex aspects of our work.

“These children have experienced not only physical displacement but also deep psychological trauma.

“When kids return, children often feel confused, disconnected, or afraid.

“These children have been taught not to resist. That is deeply alarming. Some carry guilt or shame. Others return with hostility or denial of their own identity.

“This is why our work does not end with bringing children home.

Children used as ‘weapons’

Exclusive by Katie Davis, Chief Foreign Reporter (Digital)

RUSSIA is using abducted and brainwashed children as “weapons”, one of Zelensky’s staff battling to rescue Ukraine’s kidnapped kids warned.

Daria Zarivna told The Sun earlier this year that no peace deal will be brokered until Moscow agrees to return thousands of kidnapped youngsters home.

She warned Vladimir Putin‘s thugs are indoctrinating these youngsters and those living in Ukrainian territory under Russian control.

Bring Kids Back Ukraine operations director Daria said Moscow will push them into joining Russia’s army to use them as a “weapon” against Europe in the future.

Since Putin illegally invaded Ukraine three years ago, tens of thousands of children have been kidnapped and taken into Russia.

Kremlin stooges then disturbingly try to rid the youngsters of their Ukrainian heritage and brainwash them into becoming Russian citizens.

Sinister camps have been set up in Russia where children are sent before having their official documents altered and being placed in Russian families. 

Often the children are told that their loved ones have abandoned them and that they are now part of the Russian Federation. 

Mariana Betsa, Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister, told The Sun how some children have been abused and suffered sexual violence.

She said: “It’s not just a statistic, 20,000. It’s a life behind every person behind every statistic.

“We have so many families who were separated. We have so many children who were abducted.

“We need to return every single child.”

Presidential advisor Daria meanwhile warned Russia will use the children as a “weapon” against not only Ukraine, but the rest of Europe.

She said: “We are working on keeping this matter in the spotlight and we think that it is extremely important that it be a part of these talks because the Ukrainian children which Russia keeps under its control

“It’s a threat to global security, to Ukraine’s security.

“There are 1.6 million Ukrainian children currently staying in the temporarily occupied territories under the control of Russia.

“They’ve been indoctrinated, they’ve been militarised.”

READ MORE HERE

“Under the Bring Kids Back UA initiative, Ukraine has built a reintegration system that provides each child with a tailored protection and recovery plan.

“Based on children’s needs, they receive medical care, psychological support, legal aid, safe housing, and access to education.”

The Sun previously spoke to one teenager who fell victim to Putin’s evil scheme.

Nastya, then 15, was abducted from Kherson Oblast when it was seized by Putin’s fighters at the beginning of the war in March 2022.

The terrified teenager was placed with a woman who also had ten other children in her care.

She told how she was abused and beat her until she was sent back to the police station where she had originally been held.

Nastya was then enrolled in a college, where she said she was routinely humiliated by soldiers who told her: “You are nothing.”

Eventually, Nastya was able to find a phone and make a call to her mother, who tracked down volunteers in Ukraine to help get her home.

In March 2023, arrest warrants for Putin and his twisted children’s commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova were issued by the International Criminal Court.

Russia attempted to denounce the warrants as “outrageous and unacceptable”.

Lvova-Belova has attempted to portray the forced deportation of Ukrainian children as a Russian rescue mission since being appointed Putin’s children’s commissioner in 2021.

8

8

Kyiv, Ukraine – Evhen Ihnatov was a young teenager when Russian forces occupied his hometown.

In the eight months of 2022 when the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson was overtaken, his mother was killed and his brother was forcibly held in Russia.

“We buried her in the countryside. Grandma was beside herself,” Ihnatov told Al Jazeera of the tragedy that befell the family when his mother, Tamara, died. He was aged just 13.

On October 6, 2022, Tamara, 54, had boarded a minibus that was ultimately blown to pieces on a bridge by a misdirected Ukrainian missile.

His brother left for a Russian camp on the day she died.

Now 16 and living in Mykolaiv, studying in a college to become a car mechanic and working part time in a pizzeria, Ihnatov has spoken to Al Jazeera about life in occupied Ukraine.

After graduation, he said he might sign a contract with the army.

But that ambition felt impossible when he was living under Russian control, a period he survived with angst, the denial of all things Russian and a sense of dark humour.

Kherson is the administrative capital of the eponymous southern region the size of Belgium, which mostly lies on the left bank of the Dnipro River, which bisects Ukraine.

Russians occupied the region and Kherson city, which sits on the Dnipro’s right bank, in early March 2022 and rolled out in November that year.

According to Ihnatov, other witnesses and rights groups, Ukrainians were mistreated, assaulted, abducted and tortured from day one. Russia regularly denies intentionally harming civilians.

“They beat people, a real lot,” Ihnatov said. “Those who really stood up are no more.”

A former Ukrainian serviceman he knew was assaulted so violently that he spent a week in an intensive care unit, Ihnatov said.

In the first weeks of occupation, Kherson city was rocked by protest rallies as Ukrainians tried to resist the new rulers. Moscow-appointed authorities soon packed hundreds of people into prisons or basements in large buildings.

“Detained for minor or imaginary transgressions, they were kept for months and used for forced labour or sexual violence,” Nikolay Mitrokhin, a historian with Germany’s Bremen University, told Al Jazeera.

Survivors have said they were forced to dig trenches, clean streets, trim trees and bushes, and haul garbage.

At least 17 women and men were raped by Russian soldiers, Andriy Kostin, Ukraine’s prosecutor general at the time, said in May 2023.

Rallies stopped because of the crackdown, but most of the locals remained pro-Ukrainian, Ihnatov believes. He said the fewer pro-Russian locals were mostly elderly and nostalgic about their Soviet-era youth, attracted to the idea of Russia because of Moscow’s promises of higher pensions.

But to him, the Russian soldiers did not look like “liberators”.

He said many drank heavily and sported prison tattoos. In July 2022, the Wagner mercenary group began recruiting tens of thousands of inmates from Russian prisons with promises of presidential pardons and high pay.

“They look at you like you’re meat, like you’re chicken,” Ihnatov said.

He said ethnic Russian soldiers or ethnic Ukrainians from the separatist region of Donbas in the east whom he saw several times a day on patrols or just moving around were often hostile towards Ukrainian teenagers. Ethnic Chechens were more relaxed and gave them sweets or food, he said.

Fearful of Russian forces, the Ihnatovs – Evhen’s seven siblings and their single, disabled mother who occasionally worked as a seamstress – moved to their grandmother’s house outside Kherson. While still occupied, the village was not as heavily patrolled as the city.

There was a cow, some ducks and a kitchen garden, but they were cash-strapped and moved back to the city right in time for the new school year that began on September 1, 2022.

But Russian-appointed authorities were facing an education disaster.

Many teachers had quit to protest against the Moscow-imposed curriculum, and enrolment fell as some parents preferred to take a risk and keep their children in Ukrainian schools online.

A Russian curriculum was introduced in all of Kherson’s 174 public schools, and by August, Russia-appointed officials and masked soldiers began knocking on doors, threatening parents and offering them monthly subsidies of $35 per child who would go to a Russia-run school.

Ihnatov’s eldest sister, Tetiana, enrolled her school-aged siblings.

Students at Ihnatov’s school were herded into the schoolyard to listen to the Russian anthem. But he and his friends “just turned around and went to have a smoke”, he said.

The school was not far from his apartment. He remembered seeing about 50 children staring at Russian flags and coats of arms on the school building.

His class had 22 students. They were surprised by an oversimplified approach of new teachers who treated the students like they knew nothing.

“They explained everything, every little thing,” he said.

Communication between students changed. Their conversations became cautious, and they did not discuss sensitive issues, worried others would overhear them.

“Everything was happening outside the school,” he said.

The new curriculum was taught in Russian and emphasised Russia’s “greatness” while Ukrainian was reduced to two “foreign language” lessons a week.

“Everything was about references to Russia,” Ihnatov said.

However, to his clique, Russia’s efforts appeared half-hearted.

Teachers were more interested in fake reporting and just gave away A’s, he said.

“They didn’t force us to study, couldn’t make us,” he said.

“I’d crank up the music in my earphones, didn’t care about what they were saying, because anyway I’d get an A. We got good grades for nothing. They wanted to show that everyone studies well,” he said.

Only his history teacher would confront his group of friends while “the rest were scared,” he said.

Their rebelliousness could have cost them more than reprimands had Russians stayed in Kherson longer, according to observers.

“What they did only worked because the occupation was short term. Had the occupation gone on, the screws would have gotten tighter,” Victoria Novikova, a senior researcher with The Reckoning Project, a global team of journalists and lawyers documenting, publicising and building cases of Russia’s alleged war crimes in Ukraine, told Al Jazeera.

After school, Ihnatov took odd jobs in grocery shops or the city market and hung out with his friends.

Ukraine ‘never existed’

The new teachers paid special attention to history classes. Instructors from Russia or annexed Crimea were promised as much as $130 a day for teaching in Kherson, the RBK-Ukraine news website reported.

New textbooks “proved” that Ukraine was an “artificial state” whose statehood “never existed” before the 1991 Soviet collapse.

The erasure of Ukrainian identity went hand in hand with the alleged plunder of cultural riches.

Russians robbed the giant Kherson regional library of first editions of Ukrainian classics and other valuable folios and works of art after the building was repeatedly shelled and staffers were denied entry, its director said.

“My eyes don’t want to see it. My heart doesn’t want to accept it,” Nadiya Korotun told Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, thousands of children in occupied areas were reportedly taken to summer camps in Crimea or Russia – and never came back as part of what Kyiv calls a campaign of abduction and brainwashing.

Kyiv has accused Moscow of forcibly taking 20,000 Ukrainian children away and placing them in foster families or orphanages.

In 2023, The Hague-based International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for the “unlawful deportation and transfer of children”.

Some of the abducted kids “broke”, a presidential adviser on children’s rights said.

“They are really maximally broken. Russians do absolutely everything to achieve that,” Daria Herasymchuk told Al Jazeera. “There were cases of Stockholm syndrome when [the abducted children] became Russian patriots.”

Ihnatov’s elder brother Vlad, 16 at the time, was among those who went to a camp – and was forcibly kept in Russia for a year until his sister travelled there to get him back.

In an unfortunate twist of fate, he had left for the camp hours before his mother was killed.

He was transported to a summer camp on Russia’s Black Sea coast and then transferred to the city of Yevpatoria in annexed Crimea, where he continued school – and was not allowed to return home.

His sister Tetiana travelled there to spend a week in a “basement” while Russian security officers “checked her”, Ihnatov said.

They returned to Ukraine via Belarus and Poland and “don’t talk much” about the experience, he said.

A month after his mother’s death, Moscow decided to withdraw its forces from Kherson city and the region’s right-bank area.

Ukrainian forces were greeted like long-lost family.

“The liberation was about nothing but joy, freedom and joy,” Ihnatov said.

But Russians holed up on the left bank and began shelling the city and flying drones to hunt down civilians.

“In a week or two, the cruellest shelling began. And then – fear,” Ihnatov said.

His sister decided to relocate the family to the Kyiv-controlled city of Mykolaiv, where they live in a rented three-bedroom apartment.

Sept. 12 (UPI) — Russia said Friday that it shot down hundreds of Ukrainian drones overnight, many of them targeting facilities of the multinational Russian oil company, Lukoil, southwest of Moscow, according to the defense ministry.

More than half of the 221 UAVs were brought down over the regions of Smolensk and Bryansk, where five civilians and two military personnel were injured after a bus was struck, while nine got through to the Moscow area before being destroyed.

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said emergency services were attending a location hit by falling debris from downed drones but gave no details of where or the extent of the damage. Russian social media accounts reported blasts in Mozhaysk and Dedovsk in the western suburbs of the capital.

As many as 30 others were intercepted in the Leningrad region, temporarily closing St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport and setting ablaze a vessel at Russia’s largest oil terminal northwest of the city at Primorsk on the Baltic Sea.

Secret Service of Ukraine sources told The Kyiv Independent that the agency was responsible for the Leningrad strikes, which also successfully targeted three pumping stations serving the Ust-Luga oil terminal 80 miles southwest of St. Petersburg, as part of what was believed to be one of the largest attacks on the region since the start of the war in 2022.

Drones were also downed over Oryol, Kaluga, Novgorod, Belgorod, Tver, Pskov, Tula and Kursk — but without any further casualties, authorities said.

Ukraine stepped up its targeting of Russia’s energy infrastructure in August, hitting more than a dozen refineries and knocking out a fifth of Russia’s oil processing capacity during the month, according to the White House.

Russia has tried to downplay the disruption, with state-run media outlets claiming it was caused by “unscheduled repairs.”

Ukraine has modified its drone strategy from trying to attack Moscow and military facilities on Russian soil to higher-profile targets in an effort to make the Russian people more cognizant of the war.

At least 31 Ukrainian drones were downed early Tuesday as they closed in on the Black Sea resort of Sochi, hours after President Vladimir Putin was in the city for a virtual meeting with other world leaders belonging to the so-called BRICS grouping of economic powers.

The attack killed one person, damaged six homes and forced authorities to close the city’s international airport.

Sept. 9 (UPI) — At least two dozen people in Ukraine on Tuesday morning were killed in a Russian airstrike, with nearly as many injured at a postal building.

According to local authorities, at least 24 people are dead and 19 others injured in the village of Yarova in the Donetsk Oblast region after Russian forces struck the area around 11 a.m. local time at Ukrposhta, Ukraine’s national post service, as local workers and residents stood in line to receive a pension payout.

“Such Russian strikes must not be left without an appropriate response from the world,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky posted on social media.

Two injured were hospitalized but the full extent of damage was not immediately clear.

Regional Governor Vadim Filashkin called Russia’s air attack “pure terrorism” and said it was “not a military operation,” he wrote on Telegram.

The Ukrainian postal service facility sat less than 6 miles from Russian-occupied territory. Video footage depicted bodies among damaged postal service cars.

The attack represented a higher fatality count bombing since the end of last month when around 23 Ukrainians were killed in overnight air strikes on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv.

On Tuesday, Zelensky added that the world “must not remain idle” as a result of Russia’s morning airstrikes.

“A response is needed from the United States. A response is needed from Europe. A response is needed from the G20,” he stated.

It came after some 550 Russian drones in July surpassed previous records and penetrated Ukraines air defenses.

Before arriving in Edinburgh, Nataliya Bezborodova’s impression of Scotland was shaped largely by Hollywood. “My knowledge of this country was pretty much based on the film Braveheart,” she admits with a laugh, standing before the grand neoclassical columns of the National Galleries of Scotland. As if on cue, the castle’s daily gun salute fires overhead, scattering pigeons and punctuating our conversation with a jolt.

Three years have passed since the 47-year-old anthropologist left her home in Kyiv for Edinburgh, after the Russian invasion. Celluloid warriors have long been replaced by the rhythms of life in a city she now knows like the back of her hand. So well, in fact, that she has launched a walking tour revealing a layer even locals might miss: the story of Edinburgh’s vibrant Ukrainian community.

Bridges Across Borders: Tracing Ukrainian Roots in the Heart of Edinburgh started in June and is the latest in a growing portfolio of women-led immersive walks developed in partnership with Women in Travel CIC, the UK-based social enterprise that fosters gender inclusion in the tourism industry. It now offers seven tours celebrating multiculturalism in its many forms: from a Saudi-led deep dive into west London’s Edgware Road to a sensory stroll along Ealing Road in Wembley, north-west London, with its Hindu temples and sizzling street food. All tour leaders are trained through Women in Travel’s guiding academy, which aims to help women earn an income by sharing their stories with travellers seeking a deeper connection to a place.

The two-and-a-half-hour walking tour attracts a mix of locals and tourists, Nataliya tells me. “I’ve even had people from Ukraine join the group, who had no idea about our shared heritage with Scotland,” she says, as we stroll along Princes Street, the city’s main artery.

Scotland’s Ukrainian population has grown since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine began in 2022, with about 5,000 refugees arriving via Edinburgh. But, as Nataliya points out, the ties go back centuries. Dominating the horizon, the crenellated outline of Edinburgh Castle looms large. It houses St Margaret’s Chapel, built in the 12th century and named after a queen thought to be a quarter Ukrainian. Edinburgh and Kyiv were also formally twinned in 1989, Nataliya adds. We pass the Scott Monument, its blackened gothic spires piercing the sky. At its base, a kilted busker skirls a haunting tune on the bagpipes.

We are soon puffing our way up and down the leafy slopes of Calton Hill, pausing first at a plaque to Saint Wolodymyr – who helped bring Christianity to Ukraine more than a thousand years ago – and then at the Holodomor memorial stone honouring the seven million Ukrainians who died in the forced famine of 1932-33. “It’s a reminder that these things must never happen again,” Nataliya reflects.

A short walk away lies Royal Terrace, on the eastern edge of New Town, a handsome Georgian sweep of sandstone townhouses by the Scottish architect William Henry Playfair. Tucked between swish boutique hotels and stately homes, blue-and-yellow flags flutter at the Ukrainian community centre.

Inside, a plate of homemade potato dumplings, cooked by the centre’s summer camp children and topped with a dollop of sour cream, awaits. As we tuck in, Nataliya explains how the arrival of recent refugees has rekindled pride among Edinburgh’s older Ukrainian diaspora, whose first major wave came in the 1940s: “The newcomers helped them reconnect with a culture that had gone underground.” Today, the centre hosts coffee mornings, cookery classes and language lessons for the Ukrainian community, alongside a rolling programme of concerts and film screenings open to all.

Back out on the street, trams rumble by as we head west, passing familiar landmarks, including a bronze Sherlock Holmes, keeping watch at Picardy Place in tribute to his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, born just around the corner. In the shadow of the redbrick Scottish National Portrait Gallery lies our final stop: the Square, a Ukrainian-owned cafe that opened in 2023.

This modest slip of a building, with its slate-grey facade and plant-fringed window, is easy enough to miss. Inside, though, it’s quietly pioneering: the first place in the city to serve both Scottish and Ukrainian staples (though not on the same plate). The full Scottish breakfast – haggis, tatties and all – sits alongside Ukrainian classics such as holubtsi (cabbage rolls stuffed with lightly spiced meat).

The owners, Ievgen and Valentyna Loievska, arrived in Edinburgh from the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv in 2022. “The cafe was our way of bridging cultures and bringing people together,” Ievgen tells me. Within minutes of sitting down, the table groans under bowls of steaming borscht, plates piled high with dumplings, and deruny (crisp golden potato pancakes drenched in parmesan sauce). Just as I think I can’t manage another bite, out comes the grand finale: syrnyky – sweet curd-cheese pancakes swimming in velvety berry juice – as Nataliya shares what creating the tour has meant to her personally.

“Putting the tour together made me realise just how many Ukrainian landmarks are hidden across this city,” Nataliya says. “It’s about finding connections between seemingly distant cultures.”

As we wrap up, I’m handed a doggy bag for the journey home, a gesture that feels more like leaving a favourite grandma’s kitchen than ending a walking tour. An experience that initially seemed a little leftfield now makes perfect sense within the context of this city, I realise. In a place steeped in storytelling, Nataliya’s tour adds a fresh chapter to Edinburgh’s ever-evolving narrative.

Women in Travel’s Bridges Across Borders: Tracing Ukrainian Roots in the Heart of Edinburgh tour runs every Wednesday at midday and costs £58pp, including a taster plate at the Square cafe. Created with the support of Visit Scotland

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemns killing of prominent politician Andriy Parubiy as ‘horrendous murder’.

A prominent Ukrainian politician and former parliament speaker has been shot dead in western Ukraine, officials said, as a search was under way to find the attacker.

Andriy Parubiy, who also previously served as secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, was killed in the city of Lviv on Saturday.

The Prosecutor General’s office said a gunman had fired several shots at Parubiy, killing him “on the spot”. The attacker fled, and a manhunt was launched, it said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the killing as a “horrendous murder” and offered his condolences to Parubiy’s family and loved ones.

“All necessary forces and means are engaged in the investigation and search for the killer,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media.

Parubiy, 54, was a member of parliament and had served as parliamentary speaker from April 2016 to August 2019.

He was also one of the leaders of mass protests in Ukraine in 2013 and 2014, calling for closer ties with the European Union.

Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko and Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko have just reported the first known circumstances of the horrendous murder in Lviv. Andriy Parubiy was killed. My condolences to his family and loved ones.

All necessary forces and means…

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) August 30, 2025

Ukrainian officials did not immediately release a possible motive for the fatal shooting.

The mayor of Lviv, Andriy Sadovyi, said finding the killer and establishing the circumstances of the attack was of utmost importance.

“This is a matter of security in a country at war, where, as we can see, there are no completely safe places,” he wrote on Telegram.

Tributes poured in from colleagues in parliament and the government, praising Parubiy’s contribution to Ukraine’s fight for sovereignty and independence during the 2013-2014 protest movement.

Former President Petro Poroshenko said on Telegram that his killing was “a shot fired at the heart of Ukraine”.

“Andriy was a great man and a true friend. That is why they take revenge, that is what they are afraid of,” he said, lauding Parubiy’s contribution to building out the Ukrainian army.

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha also described Parubiy as “a patriot and statesman who made an enormous contribution to the defence of Ukraine’s freedom, independence and sovereignty”.

“He was a man who rightfully belongs in the history books,” Sybiha wrote on Telegram.