Exclusives
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Ukraine's steel capacity fell fourfold after Russia destroyed Azovstal. Now EU's new quota could cost it €1 billion more. Brussels offered Ukraine 713,000 tonnes duty-free. Ukraine shipped 2.65 million tonnes to the EU last year. |
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10% now, 23% after a ceasefire, 59% only at peace—Ukraine's verdict on a wartime vote hasn't moved all year. At the Lviv Media Forum, sociologist Tymofii Brik laid out the polling behind a settled question—and a less settled one underneath it. |
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Russia is 'largely defeated' from Mali to Syria, France's foreign minister says. French FM Jean-Noël Barrot calls Russia "largely defeated" in Africa—as its Africa Corps flees Kidal and Mali's junta cries betrayal. |
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"Stop treating Russia's bankers as faceless technocrats": inside the war crimes case against Russia's central bank. A landmark ICC complaint reframes Russia's financial occupation of Ukraine — pillaged banks, forced rubles, and passport-gated medical care — as a war crime |
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Russian air-defense crews are now the hunted as Ukraine bolts rocket pods to its long-range drones. Ukrainian drone forces' operators of the 1st Separate Center hit a protected node near Myrnyi, occupied Crimea, and released thermal video of the attack. |
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The Freya air defense system could take down Russian ballistic missiles. Can Ukraine build it?. As the Iran war drains the world's Patriots, Ukraine needs to build its own long-range air defense. Freya could be just the thing. |
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Axios: Cuba has acquired over 300 Russian and Iranian military drones. A classified assessment shared with Axios says Havana has stockpiled the drones since 2023 and its military has begun weighing strikes on US targets. |
Military
Ukraine has found key through Moscow's air-defense rings, military analyst says. Moscow is protected by three to four rings of around 100 air-defense positions, with Pantsir systems on the Foreign and Defense Ministry buildings in the city center.
Russians stormed empty houses for the cameras 26 km from the town they claimed to take—and Russia's top general announced its "liberation". Ukraine's own military command does not even list fighting for the place, which stays under its control behind the frontline.
Russia's harbor-guard boat struck in the Caspian — Ukraine's fifth reported vessel hit there this month. The vessel's whole purpose is stopping the kind of attack that just hit it, the General Staff said.
For first time in war, Ukrainian strikes begin worrying Russians more than front. Meanwhile, Russian state TV gave the largest Moscow attack of the war under a minute.
Russia just hit commercial vessel of its closest war ally in Ukrainian waters with Shahed drone. Russia has spent months hitting civilian ships across the Black Sea. This one belonged to its closest strategic partner.
Intelligence and technology
2,000-km strike missile, designed in Netherlands, tested in Ukraine, built in Germany: Rheinmetall and Destinus accelerate RUTA Block 3. Europe has largely lacked indigenous deep-strike missiles. This one is built to be mass-produced, not stockpiled in symbolic numbers.
A Russian airliner revival sold as breakthrough now survives on extended flight-cycle limits, Ukrainian spy agency says. Roughly 159 Superjets still depend on a turbofan built with a French firm that walked out after February 2022.
Ukraine says it has Russia's hidden war-damage assessment — one Moscow won't show its own population. A single mid-sized Russian oil company has been forced to shut down around 400 wells.
Ukraine clears private firms to down Russian drones—24 already in. A Defense Ministry project lets businesses defend their plants from drones with trained staff or licensed security firms, RFE/RL reported.
International
International Gymnastics Federation lifts all sanctions on Russia and Belarus without explanation. Both countries return to full international competition under their own flag and anthem, the federation's wartime rules scrapped entirely while Russia's invasion of Ukraine grinds on.
Russia's ex-combatants entering the EU is a risk flagged in a leaked threat assessment. The Council of the EU document was seen by RFE/RL and mostly covers 2025 trends.
Belarus is now drilling nuclear-weapon use with Russian forces from "unprepared" deployment areas next to EU and Ukraine. Minsk announces these drills, then says they threaten no one.
Humanitarian and social impact
British volunteers rescue 30 animals from front-line Kramatorsk. Ex-Royal Marine Pen Farthing's Nowzad team drove 13,000 km to pull 30 cats and dogs out of Kramatorsk as Russia strikes the Donbas city daily.
Take food for three days. Then you'll come back. The Crimean Tatars never did. The people who finally came home in the 1990s and their descendants are Russia's political prisoners again.
Political and legal developments
Russia fabricated an arrest of Ukraine's first lady—the named agencies deny it. Russian state-owned media disseminated the false claim, referring to unnamed "security structures," and the Ukrainian agencies say none of it is real.
Read our earlier daily review here.
