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☆ Ukraine’s Latest Challenge: Festering Tension Among Top Leaders
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-30 | by ( Andrew E. Kramer | Marc Santora | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As Ukraine fights against a fierce Russian offensive and its leaders wait to see whether the West will approve more than $100 million in much-needed assistance, the government in Kyiv is dealing with a festering distraction: tumult in its top ranks centered on the fate of the top military commander. Speculation raged on Monday in political and military circles, the news media and online that President Volodymyr Zelensky had fired the commander, Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhny, with rumors becoming so widespread that the president’s office was forced to issue a public denial. “There was no dismissal,” the president’s spokesman, Serhiy Nikiforov, told the Ukrainian media. “I cannot say anything else,” he said. When asked whether the president intended to dismiss the general, Mr. Nikiforov replied: “I repeat to you once again — there is no subject of conversation.”The curt response only fueled further speculation that the president’s office had planned to fire General Zaluzhny but backed down after a furious backlash, and on Tuesday the capital was still consumed with whether the general would be staying or going.

Persons: Volodymyr Zelensky, Valeriy, Serhiy Nikiforov, ”, Nikiforov, “, curt, Zaluzhny Organizations: Ukraine Locations: Russian, Kyiv, Ukrainian

☆ Crossing the Dnipro: What a Ukrainian Military Operation Might Mean
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-02 | by ( Marc Santora | More About Marc Santora | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Bands of Ukrainian soldiers fighting to take back territory on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, an area long controlled by Russia, have been bombed by Russian warplanes, assaulted by Russian infantry and stalked by drones. Still, battered and outgunned, the Ukrainian forces have managed to hold onto a handful of positions across the river for more than a month and are expanding their assaults on Russian forces there to target their vital supply lines. The ultimate objectives of the Ukrainian campaign remain unclear: Is it aimed mainly at unbalancing Russian forces — using limited assaults to force the Kremlin to move troops to the area, hoping to create weaknesses along other parts of the front? Or does Ukraine have more ambitious objectives, like trying to mount a major cross-river assault aimed at taking back a substantial amount of territory and dramatically reshaping a front line that has barely moved in a year? Many Western military analysts have voiced skepticism that Ukraine can establish the kind of bridgehead that would allow its forces to move artillery and heavy armor across the river, which they would need to carry out large-scale offensive operations.

Organizations: Russian, Western Locations: Dnipro, Russia, Ukraine

The wife of Ukraine’s military intelligence chief has been poisoned and is recovering in a hospital, Ukrainian intelligence officials said on Tuesday, an incident that has led to widespread speculation that Russia was stepping up efforts to target Ukraine’s senior leadership. Andriy Chernyak, an official from the Ukrainian military intelligence agency, said that Marianna Budanova had been poisoned and was receiving treatment. Her husband, Kyrylo Budanov, is the head of the agency known as GUR and is one of the country’s most senior military leaders. Mr. Chernyak declined to speculate on the perpetrator or the type of poison used and provided no further details, citing the ongoing investigation. The agency’s spokesman, Andriy Yusov, later issued a statement with a similar account of the incident and said more information would be released as the investigation proceeds.

Persons: Andriy Chernyak, Marianna Budanova, Kyrylo, GUR, Chernyak, Andriy Yusov Locations: Russia

☆ Storm Batters Southern Ukraine, Spreading Misery for Civilians and Soldiers
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-27 | by ( Marc Santora | More About Marc Santora | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A powerful wintry storm battered southern Ukraine on Monday, washing away Russian coastal defenses from some beaches on the occupied Crimean peninsula. The storm, which Ukrainian meteorologists said was among the most intense in decades, snarled supply routes for both countries’ armies and deepened the misery of tens of thousands of soldiers huddled in shallow trenches across the sprawling front line. As temperatures plunged below freezing across much of the country, hundreds of thousands of civilians were left without power in Russian-occupied territories and tens of thousands more lost power across southern Ukraine. All the hardships that a winter storm typically delivers were compounded and complicated by the exigencies of war. A blizzard of snow, for example, stranded civilians on roads while complicating the movement of humanitarian aid to communities across Ukraine ravaged by fighting.

Locations: Ukraine, Crimean, Azov

☆ Attack Drones Bombard Kyiv
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-25 | by ( Marc Santora | More About Marc Santora | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Russia launched the largest drone attack it has ever directed at the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, before dawn on Saturday, sending wave after wave of drones packed with explosives toward a city that is home to more than three million people. The Ukrainian Air Force said that the attack featured “a record number” of one-way attack drones. At least five people were injured in Saturday’s attack, city officials said, and dozens of homes damaged or destroyed. Searchlights swept the predawn skies as air defense teams hunted for the drones approaching the city from all directions. The first alarms sounded shortly after 2:30 a.m., and the rattle of antiaircraft guns and powerful explosions echoed for hours, the noisiest night that Kyiv has endured in months.

Persons: Volodymyr Zelensky, ” “, ”, Stalin Organizations: Ukrainian Air Force Locations: Russia, Kyiv

The agony came in waves as the wounded Ukrainian soldier in the back of the ambulance slipped in and out of consciousness. The driver, hurtling past cratered fields on roads thick with mud, was racing to escape Russian artillery fire north of the city of Avdiivka, while hoping he was not spotted by drones. “They are just razing everything to the ground,” said the driver, Seagull, using only his call-sign in accordance with military protocol. Ukrainian forces are resisting furiously, while probing for openings in a southern counteroffensive and conducting river crossings near the southern port city of Kherson. When Ukraine’s top military commander, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, said recently that the war had reached a “stalemate”— with intense and exhausting battles yielding little territorial gains — it created an impression in some quarters of a war in stasis.

Persons: ”, Valery Zaluzhny Locations: Ukrainian, Avdiivka, Ukraine, Kherson

☆ How Ukraine, With No Warships, Is Thwarting Russia’s Navy
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-12 | by ( Marc Santora | More About Marc Santora | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

About two dozen Russian ships and one submarine have been damaged or destroyed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion, Admiral Neizhpapa said. Oryx, a military analysis site that counts only losses that it has visually confirmed, has documented at least 16 damaged or destroyed ships. Standing in front of a classified chart that lists damage done to Russian vessels, Admiral Neizhpapa said he had no time for what he called “wishful sinking” — any exaggeration of what Ukraine has achieved. There are still scores of powerful Russian warships that Ukraine wants to take off the board. “The enemy also learns very quickly, and he also makes his own conclusions, counteracting our actions,” Admiral Neizhpapa said.

Persons: Admiral Neizhpapa, “, Anna Lukinova, Nataliia Novosolova, Anastasia Kuznietsova Locations: Marichka, Russia, Ukraine, Russia’s

☆ Kremlin’s Onetime Pick to Be Ukraine’s Puppet Leader Is Shot in Crimea
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-28 | by ( Marc Santora | More About Marc Santora | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A Ukrainian former lawmaker whom the Kremlin had handpicked to lead a puppet administration in Kyiv, Ukraine, was shot and wounded in occupied Crimea in an apparent assassination attempt, Ukrainian and Russian officials said on Saturday. The former lawmaker, Oleg Tsaryov, 53, a pro-Russian business executive, who participated in Moscow’s invasion, was shot as part of a “special operation” carried out this week by Ukraine’s domestic security agency, according to a senior Ukrainian intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations. According to Western intelligence agencies, had the Russian invasion succeeded, the Kremlin would have installed Mr. Tsaryov as Ukraine’s leader. The targeting of prominent Russian and pro-Russian figures has long been part of the broader Ukrainian war effort and has continued apace even as fierce battles rage across a vast front line that has moved little in the past year.

Persons: Oleg Tsaryov, ”, Tsaryov Organizations: Kremlin Locations: Kyiv, Ukraine, Crimea, Russian, Ukrainian

Russian drone strikes near a nuclear power plant in western Ukraine this week have revived anxiety among Ukrainian officials and civilians over one of the most oppressive hardships of the war: a winter assault on their nation’s energy grid. The strikes on Wednesday, which landed near the Khmelnytsky nuclear facility, drew an angry response from President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who said it was “highly likely” that the power plant was the target. They also prompted another warning from the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency about the precarious nuclear safety situation in Ukraine. Mr. Zelensky vowed on Wednesday night that Ukraine would hit back at targets inside Russia if Moscow tried once again to plunge his nation into cold and darkness. Unlike a year ago, Kyiv now has a growing fleet of long-range drones and has demonstrated an ability to hit military targets deep inside Russia.

Persons: Volodymyr Zelensky, Zelensky, Moscow, ” Organizations: United Nations, Kyiv Locations: Ukraine, Khmelnytsky, Russia

☆ Amid Intense Fighting, Ukraine Orders Evacuation of Children
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-24 | by ( Marc Santora | More About Marc Santora | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Ukrainian government has ordered the evacuation of hundreds of children in shattered villages across southern Ukraine, and is sending police door to door to convince parents that it is time to escape the widespread Russian shelling in the region. Officials are also evacuating children in eastern Ukraine, where Russian forces are launching some of their largest offensive assaults in months. At least 41 children were moved in recent days and local authorities are pleading with families in at least eight communities to follow their neighbors and move to safety. The mandatory evacuation orders are not the first of their kind in the 20-month war but they underscored the ferocity of the fighting at a moment when both Ukraine and Russia are pressing bloody assaults that invariably engulf the small villages near the front lines. That the front has remained largely static for nearly a year can obscure the scale of the violence playing out daily along a line that stretches more than 1,000 miles from the Black Sea to the Russian border.

Locations: Ukraine, Russia, Russian

☆ With Raids Across Dnipro River, Ukraine May Be Seeking New Front in War
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-20 | by ( Marc Santora | More About Marc Santora | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ukrainian forces have stepped up assaults across the Dnipro river near the southern city of Kherson, carrying out raids into Russian-controlled territory on the eastern bank. The increased activity has prompted speculation among analysts and in Russian military circles that Kyiv might be planning a more ambitious effort to open a new front in the war. In recent days, Western military analysts have cited geolocated video footage that shows Ukrainian forces operating in a number of locations deeper behind enemy lines than previously witnessed. “Ukrainian actions appear to be larger than previously observed tactical raids,” analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based research institute, said on Thursday night. The Ukrainian military has remained largely silent on the amphibious operations into Russian-held territory near Kherson, and the extent of its ambitions with the river crossings are unknown.

Organizations: Institute for, Ukrainian Locations: Dnipro, Kherson, Russian, Washington

Russia has dispatched thousands of soldiers backed by heavy armor and artillery to try to drive Ukrainians from deeply entrenched positions in eastern Ukraine, in what military analysts said is the Kremlin’s largest offensive push since its failed campaign last winter. The willingness to throw its reserves into costly operations around the eastern cities of Avdiivka and Kupiansk suggests that the Kremlin is confident in its hold on southern positions still under Ukrainian assault, according to military analysts. It is unclear how effective the new Russian assaults have been. The British military defense intelligence agency said Moscow’s troops had suffered heavy losses and it appeared that “entrenched Ukrainian forces have so far likely held back the Russian advance.”Still, the agency called the efforts to advance “the most significant offensive operation undertaken by Russia since January 2023” and analysts said the assaults posed an ongoing threat to Ukrainian forces across the east.

Persons: ” Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Avdiivka, Ukrainian

From the first hours of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the famous port city of Odesa has largely been without a working port. Once bustling with cargo vessels, cruise ships, sailboats, yachts and fishing trawlers, the harbor is now a vast expanse of open water. Sophia Dobrovolska, a 16-year-old aspiring merchant marine at the Odesa Sea Academy, lives on that empty sea. “When the full-scale war started, my mom thought of leaving, but I told her: ‘No, my college is here. I will not go.’”President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has long made clear that he wants to capture Odesa, a goal that looks increasingly less likely.

Persons: Sophia Dobrovolska, ”, “, ’, Vladimir V, Putin Organizations: Sea Academy, Odesa Locations: Ukraine, Odesa, Russia

☆ Ukraine Intensifies Attacks on Russia in Crimea and Black Sea
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-14 | by ( Marc Santora | More About Marc Santora | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ukraine is stepping up its long-distance attacks into Russian-occupied Crimea and the Black Sea, launching several new strikes on Thursday, in a campaign to break down the Kremlin’s war effort by hitting targets far behind the front lines where soldiers are fighting and dying. The Ukrainian military said it had hit a Russian surface-to-air missile defense system in Crimea and two Russian vessels at sea, a day after it struck two Russian warships docked in Crimea. The statements could not immediately be confirmed or refuted; the Russian Defense Ministry said only that attacks on a ship in the Black Sea had failed. In recent weeks, Ukraine has sharply accelerated the pace of strikes in and around the Crimean Peninsula, a critical hub for the Russian military where it stockpiles troops, fuel, ammunition and other supplies and funnels them to the battlefields in southern Ukraine. The peninsula also contains the primary base, at Sevastopol, of the Russian Black Sea Fleet that is blockading Ukrainian ports.

Organizations: Russian Defense Ministry Locations: Ukraine, Russian, Crimea, Crimean, Sevastopol, Ukrainian

☆ Theaters of War That Make Up the Fighting in Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-11 | by ( Marc Santora | More About Marc Santora | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“A person who simply reads the news does not see it, does not feel it,” Hanna Maliar, a deputy Ukrainian defense minister, said this week. It can seem that everything is taking a long time, “but believe me, it doesn’t seem that way to people who are fighting,” she said. To better understand how the fight is playing out along the breadth of the front, it is useful to look at some of the major theaters where Russia and Ukraine have concentrated their troops. Moving geographically from the northeast to the south, this is a snapshot of the fighting as summer draws to a close. Forest Fighting in the NortheastAfter Ukraine drove Russian forces from nearly all of the Kharkiv region last fall, its offensive was finally halted in the pine forests that dominate the landscape in the region.

Persons: ” Hanna Maliar, ”, “, ’ Organizations: Russian Locations: Ukrainian, Russia, Ukraine, Kharkiv

☆ Russia Says It Thwarted Another Ukrainian Attack on Crimea Bridge
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-02 | by ( Marc Santora | More About Marc Santora | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The Russian military said Saturday that it had thwarted another attack on a critical bridge linking the occupied Crimean Peninsula to Russia that Kyiv has vowed to keep attacking until it is unusable. The Russian Ministry of Defense said that three Ukrainian “semi-submersible unmanned boats” targeting the Kerch Strait Bridge were destroyed in the Black Sea overnight. The first maritime drone was detected shortly before midnight and the other two launched about 10 minutes apart just after 2 a.m. local time, the ministry said in statements. The claims could not be independently verified, and Ukraine’s military did not explicitly comment Saturday on whether its drones had targeted the bridge. But Ukrainian officials have said that they consider the destruction of the vital 12-mile-long bridge a strategic priority, and Kyiv’s forces have repeatedly targeted it.

Organizations: Kyiv, Russian Ministry of Defense Locations: Crimean, Russia, Kerch, Black

The mission for the Ukrainian unit was to take a single house, in a village that is only a speck on the map but was serving as a stronghold for Russian soldiers. Finally, one day last month, the order came to move. Driving out or killing the remaining Russians, they secured the house as night fell, posting guards and reviewing the day’s tactics to see how they might improve. In the morning, the new order came: Take another house. But the engine driving the effort are hundreds of small-scale assault groups, often just eight to 10 soldiers, each tasked with attacking a single trench, tree line or house.

Persons: speck, Andriy Locations: Urozhaine, Ukraine

After piercing a daunting line of Russian defenses around the southern village of Robotyne, Ukrainian forces are now seeking to take the next step in their arduous counteroffensive, waging a fierce battle a few miles farther to the east, according to Ukrainian military commanders and U.S. officials. The intense fighting on Thursday comes amid weeks of brutal battles that have resulted in small but significant advances that Ukrainian forces are trying to exploit, with the broader goal of driving a wedge into the so-called land bridge between Russia and occupied Crimea, which is vital to the Russian military’s supply routes. The Ukrainian 46th Brigade, which is participating in the fighting in the area, said that its assault units were attacking Russian positions near the village of Verbove, nine miles east of Robotyne. The move toward Verbove is notable because it shows that Ukraine is confident enough in its hold on Robotyne that it believes its troops can try to press forward.

Organizations: Ukrainian 46th Brigade Locations: Robotyne, Russia, Crimea, Verbove, Ukraine

Mykola Honchar lives in a crumbling stone house in what is left of a tiny hamlet of eastern Ukraine. The town was attacked by Russian forces in June of last year, as the Wagner mercenary forces were spearheading a renewed offensive. Even before the Kremlin set Wagner loose to wreak havoc in Ukraine, the Russian campaign was notable for its brutality. But from the moment Wagner forces entered the war in April 2022, they earned a special reputation for bloodlust from civilians and soldiers alike. To Mr. Honchar, the death this week of Wagner’s leader, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, responsible for so much carnage in the war, would be fitting — a violent end to a violent life.

Persons: Mykola Honchar, Wagner, Honchar, Yevgeny V, Prigozhin Locations: Ukraine, Russian

☆ Deadly Russian Strike Hits City Center in Northern Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-19 | by ( Marc Santora | More About Marc Santora | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

A Russian missile slammed into the center of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine on Saturday, killing at least seven people and injuring more than 100, including 12 children, Ukrainian officials said. The missile tore through the main square just before noon, as people were leaving church after celebrating a holy day, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said. “A Russian missile hit the heart of Chernihiv,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement. Victims could be seen sprawled in the square, surrounded by pools of blood. The Interior Ministry said a search-and-rescue operation was underway in the surrounding area.

Persons: “, Volodymyr Zelensky Organizations: Ukrainian Interior Ministry, Interior Ministry Locations: Russian, Chernihiv, Ukraine, Ukrainian, Russia

A Russian missile slammed into the center of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine on Saturday, killing at least five people and injuring dozens more, including 11 children, Ukrainian officials said. The Ukrainian Interior Ministry released graphic images of the aftermath of the strike, which it said took place at 1 p.m., just as people were leaving church. They were celebrating a holy day when the explosion tore through the main square. “A Russian missile hit the heart of Chernihiv,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement. Russia turned an ordinary Saturday into a day of pain and loss.”Mr. Zelensky said the attack should again remind the world that it needs to stand united against “Russian terror,” adding, “For life to win, Russia must lose this war.”

Persons: Volodymyr Zelensky, Mr, Zelensky, ” Organizations: Ukrainian Interior Ministry Locations: Russian, Chernihiv, Ukraine, Russia

☆ As Dead Dolphins Wash Ashore, Ukraine Builds a Case of Ecocide Against Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( Marc Santora | More About Marc Santora | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The victim was found along a stretch of beach near the port city of Odesa in southern Ukraine early this summer, cause of death unknown. They are washing up dead in droves on the shores of the Black Sea. “Dolphins are not only cute creatures,” Pawel Goldin, 44, a doctor in zoology who specializes in marine mammal populations at the Ukrainian Scientific Center of Ecology of the Sea, said before the necropsy. “They are keystone creatures for the marine ecosystem. If dolphins are in a bad condition, then the entire ecosystem will be in a bad condition.”

Persons: ” Pawel Goldin Organizations: “ Dolphins, Ukrainian Scientific Center of Locations: Odesa, Ukraine

☆ Ukraine Recaptures a Small Village as Russian Forces Retreat
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-16 | by ( Marc Santora | More About Marc Santora | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ukrainian forces have retaken the tiny village of Urozhaine, moving farther into the Mokri Yaly River Valley in the south of the country, after more than a week of battling Russian troops, as Kyiv pushed on with a grinding counteroffensive that has struggled to break through entrenched Russian lines. “Urozhaine has been liberated,” Hanna Malyar, a Ukrainian deputy defense minister, said in a statement on Wednesday, one day after Russian forces said they had retreated from the village. The Russian Vostok battalion, which took part in the battle, confirmed in a statement on Tuesday, “We lost Urozhaine.”It is the first village known to have been recaptured by Kyiv’s forces since they reclaimed Staromaiorske in July. As with other territory Ukraine has recaptured, it is retaking control of a village decimated by war: Urozhaine had a population of fewer than 1,000 people before Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Persons: Urozhaine, ” Hanna Malyar, “ Organizations: Russian Vostok battalion Locations: Urozhaine, Ukrainian, Russian, Staromaiorske, Ukraine, Russia

☆ Ukraine Makes Progress Along 2 Lines of Attack
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-12 | by ( Marc Santora | More About Marc Santora | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

After months of grueling advances through minefields, small villages and open steppes, Ukrainian forces are making some progress along two major lines of attack, according to analysts, Ukrainian officials and Russian military bloggers. The advances, while small in terms of territory taken, are compelling Moscow to redeploy forces, military analysts say. Ukraine is trying to reach the Sea of Azov and drive a wedge into Russian-occupied territory. Explosions again echoed at the bridge on Saturday, as the Russian military said it had thwarted a missile attack. The Russian account could not be independently confirmed, and Ukrainian officials had no immediate comments on the episode.

Locations: Ukrainian, Russian, Moscow, Washington, Ukraine, Azov, Crimean, Russia, Kerch

☆ Ukraine Fires Top Military Enlistment Officers After Bribery Scandal
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-11 | by ( Marc Santora | More About Marc Santora | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine announced on Friday that his government was dismissing all of the country’s regional military recruitment chiefs to crack down on corruption, after multiple revelations of officers taking bribes to let men evade being drafted into fighting the Russian invasion. The announcement this week that since the invasion prosecutors had opened 112 cases against 33 officials involved in recruitment offered the latest evidence that the war had provided new avenues for the entrenched governmental corruption that has long plagued Ukraine. Two recruitment officers have been accused in recent days of enriching themselves by falsifying documents that label men as unfit for service — in some cases collecting $10,000 per head. The allegations come as bombs are falling on civilians, soldiers are dying, Ukraine is trying to enlist more troops to replace those killed or wounded, and millions are sacrificing to ensure the nation’s survival. Mr. Zelensky did not hide his contempt in announcing that he was firing the 24 regional recruitment chiefs, saying in a video posted on social media that “the system should be run by people who know exactly what war is and why cynicism and bribery during war is treason.” Those officers who are removed but have committed no wrongdoing, he added, should serve at the front “if they want to keep epaulets and prove their dignity.”

Persons: Volodymyr Zelensky, Zelensky, ” Locations: Ukraine

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