Ukraine-Russia warfare newest: Putin’s forces shut in on key strategic metropolis as ‘last battles’ rage | EUROtoday

Yana Kozah, a Ukrainian singer and songwriter who fled Ukraine after the Russian invasion, is now utilizing her voice to carry out and lift funds to assist individuals again at residence.

The Trowbridge resident sings in a choir and even performs solo in order that she will be able to elevate cash for John’s Red Bus, a UK charity delivering help.

“[In Ukraine,] people are without heating, no light. Sometimes you wish you could not read the news but then you remember these people are living it, they cannot turn it off,” Kozah told BBC West Point.

She has previously raised funds for Ukrainian children.

“The main reason I’m trying to do what I’m doing is to help my country in ways I can,” she said.

It had been four long years since American figure skater Vadym Kolesnik saw family members still living in Ukraine.

Four years of Russian bombs landing on Kharkiv, reducing their homes to rubble. Four years of war that destroyed the appliance and lighting business run by Kolesnik’s father, Igor. Four years of drones flying over the head of his brother, also named Igor, who enlisted in the Ukrainian army following the Russian invasion in 2022.

“It seems like it’s been a lifetime,” Kolesnik mentioned.

Russian forces try to press ahead across the metropolis of Pokrovsk in japanese Ukraine, Kyiv’s army mentioned on Monday, hoping to conclude a months-long marketing campaign to grab the strategic hub as Moscow seeks to seize the entire of the Donetsk area.

Ukraine has struggled to halt sluggish Russian advances round Pokrovsk and elsewhere alongside the 1,200-km (746-mile) entrance line whereas it comes underneath U.S. stress to succeed in a peace deal to finish the four-year warfare in ongoing talks.

Kyiv’s General Staff mentioned on Monday its forces nonetheless held the northern a part of Pokrovsk, a metropolis with a pre-war inhabitants of 60,000, and have been additionally defending the smaller metropolis of Myrnohrad close by.

Pokrovsk, a railway nexus, has been the location of fierce combating since final 12 months. Its fall would mark Russia’s greatest battlefield victory because it seized the japanese metropolis of Avdiivka in early 2024.

Moscow claimed late final 12 months to have captured Pokrovsk, which Kyiv denied.

Ukraine and France will begin joint weapons manufacturing, Kyiv’s defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov mentioned yesterday after a gathering with French armed forces minister Catherine Vautrin.

“Met with a French MoD delegation led by @CaVautrin. Visited Ukrainian air-defense positions against the backdrop of the latest Russian missile and drone attacks. Demonstrated how Ukraine protects its skies every day. Grateful to France for the strong support that saves lives,” Fedorov mentioned.

In a message on Telegram, he added: “We are moving from supplies to joint production and long-term solutions that systematically strengthen our defence.”

Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych skilled sporting a helmet brandished with photos of compatriots killed in the course of the warfare in his homeland, delivering on a promise to make use of the Winter Olympics to maintain consideration on the battle.

Visible on the helmet are teenage weightlifter Alina Perehudova, boxer Pavlo Ischenko, ice hockey participant Oleksiy Loginov, actor and athlete Ivan Kononenko, diving athlete and coach Mykyta Kozubenko, shooter Oleksiy Habarov and dancer Daria Kurdel.

“Some of them were my friends,” Heraskevych, who’s his nation’s flag bearer, informed Reuters of the portraits after his coaching session on the Cortina sliding centre.

An settlement to settle the practically four-year-old battle between Russia and Ukraine should additionally consider safety ensures for Russia, a senior Russian diplomat was quoted as saying.

“We recognise that a peace settlement in Ukraine must take account of Ukraine’s security interests, but a key factor, of course, is Russia’s security interests,” deputy Russian international minister Alexander Grushko informed the Izvestia media outlet.

“If you look carefully and study the statements made by the leaders of the European Union, no one talks about security guarantees for Russia. This is a key element of a peace accord. Without it, an agreement is impossible.”

Russian and Ukrainian negotiators have held two rounds of talks in current weeks with US representatives within the United Arab Emirates. No peace deal has emerged, however the two sides agreed at their newest assembly final week on the primary change of prisoners of warfare in 5 months.

Security ensures for Ukraine have been a focus of discussions, together with the extent of Russia’s management of Ukrainian territory and plans for post-war restoration in Kyiv.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has mentioned that paperwork on safety ensures for Ukraine have been prepared.

Media outlet Izvestia mentioned Mr Grushko listed parts of what is perhaps contained in such ensures.

In the midst of Russia’s warfare in opposition to Ukraine, one thought has gained exceptional traction: that absolutely autonomous drones symbolize the way forward for defence. Fewer people, extra machines, sooner outcomes. Autonomy, on this narrative, is handled as a proxy for progress and sometimes even for intelligence.

This is a harmful false impression.

Ukraine’s ongoing resistance in opposition to Russia has proven the world, within the starkest doable phrases, how profoundly trendy warfare has modified. Large, costly and slow-to-adapt techniques are now not the decisive issue. Instead, smaller, software-defined unmanned techniques dominate the battlefield as a result of they’re quick to adapt, cost-efficient and built-in right into a broader data ecosystem.

Russian forces try to press ahead across the metropolis of Pokrovsk in japanese Ukraine, Kyiv’s army mentioned on Monday, hoping to conclude a months-long marketing campaign to grab the strategic hub as Moscow seeks to seize the entire of the Donetsk area.

Ukraine has struggled to halt sluggish Russian advances round Pokrovsk and elsewhere alongside the 1,200-km (746-mile) entrance line whereas it comes underneath U.S. stress to succeed in a peace deal to finish the four-year warfare in ongoing talks.

Kyiv’s General Staff mentioned on Monday its forces nonetheless held the northern a part of Pokrovsk, a metropolis with a pre-war inhabitants of 60,000, and have been additionally defending the smaller metropolis of Myrnohrad close by.

Pokrovsk, a railway nexus, has been the location of fierce combating since final 12 months. Its fall would mark Russia’s greatest battlefield victory because it seized the japanese metropolis of Avdiivka in early 2024.

Moscow claimed late final 12 months to have captured Pokrovsk, which Kyiv denied.