Connexion
Russo-Ukrainian war, day 1653: Russian troops are grinding closer from multiple directions around Sloviansk and Kramatorsk
Exclusives
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Desperate to save Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, Ukrainian forces counterattack and reinforce. A Russian pincer is slowly closing around the last two big free cities in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region. Winter will be a brief reprieve. |
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NATO vows to defend every inch. Svalbard is where Russia plans to prove it won't.. The CIA chief's visit to Moscow gave rise to warnings that Russia may be preparing to strike the Baltics. However, Russia has an easier target for the goal of paralyzing NATO. |
Military
Ukraine's Khartiia soldiers clear 4 km² near Kupiansk, while Russia pushes for main rail hub (VIDEO). On the left bank, Russian supply was so broken that they delivered water by drone.
Gunman on a motorcycle shoots the Russian air force general Ukraine says ordered the strike on Kyiv's children's hospital. The officer was hit twice as he stepped outside in a settlement near Engels, and surgeons in Saratov worked through the morning to keep him alive.
Russia now hunts Kyiv by daylight too, Flash explains why.
Intelligence and technology
Poland sent Ukraine 350 tanks—Europe just agreed to refund it half a billion dollars. Once Hungary lifted its two-year veto, Warsaw's total refund for arming Kyiv is nearing $1.4 billion—with $500 million more due in 2027.
Russia straps two small attack drones to wings of its long-range Gerans and releases them deep inside Ukraine. It rarely works, Flash says. An FPV drone drop was recently recorded in Kyiv Oblast, but there is no confirmation yet that it was carried out using a Gerbera.
For first time, Ukraine shows its British Rapid Ranger air-defense system mounted on Spanish off-road chassis. Its crews call it "close-range storm". This 500-kilogram missile system is designed to catch what radar misses.
Ukrainian brigade trials Serval Cube EW dome in combat-like conditions, suppresses every drone launched at it. Serval Cube jams the control, navigation, and video-transmission channels a drone depends on rather than destroying it outright.
International
Ukraine takes Zelenskyy's Russian airspace warning to UN aviation body. Kyiv's letter asks the UN aviation body to recommend that member states stop flying over Russia.
Humanitarian and social impact
Russian Black Sea attacks, low Danube waters push EU to seek alternative routes for Ukrainian grain exports. Ukraine's two main wartime export outlets are under pressure at once, threatening farm revenue as global crop prices climb.
Political and legal developments
Estonia paid $81 million for Ukraine's shells to firm that had never made one—now its defense minister is out. Estonia may have to repay €70 million in EU funds. The ammunition failed quality standards.
EU foreign ministers want Russia's ex-fighters out. Nobody has written down what counts as proof. Each member state would have to judge individual cases, and the bloc set itself a June deadline for the plan that its council still cannot approve.
Belgium points Ukraine to next year's European loan instead of Russia's frozen cash. Earnings from the immobilized money underwrite an earlier European loan, while the sum they come from stays behind one government's objections.
Read our earlier daily review here.
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