Category: crisis

Russia Threatens Broad Ukraine Offensive

KYIV—Ukrainian defenders battled on Saturday to contain Russian forces along several fronts, officials said, as the United States urged China to align itself with the West in opposing the invasion following an ill-tempered G20 meeting. A missile strike on the northeastern city of Kharkiv wounded three civilians, its governor said, though Russia’s main attacks appeared…


West Seeks to Unblock Ukraine’s Grain Ports, Russian Envoy Says Pull-Back Unlikely

KYIV—Ukraine’s Western allies on Friday urged Russia to allow Kyiv to ship grain out to the world as the four-month-old war threatened to bring hunger to countries far away from the battlefields. Moscow for its part accused the West of waging economic warfare on Russia by attempting to isolate it with sanctions imposed over the…


Ukraine Raises Flag on Snake Island; Russia Responds by Striking the Island

KYIV—Ukrainian forces raised their national flag on a Black Sea island on Thursday as a symbol of defiance against Moscow, but Russian forces consolidated gains in eastern Ukraine and probed the defences of potential new targets. Moscow responded to the flag-raising ceremony fast. It said one of its warplanes had struck Snake Island shortly afterwards…


Russian Advance on Ukraine’s Donetsk Region Thwarted so Far, Kyiv Says

KYIV—Ukraine has so far thwarted an attempted Russian advance into the north of its Donetsk region but the city of Sloviansk and other civilian areas are being heavily shelled, Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday. Russia has increased its focus on Donetsk, the southern part of which it and its proxies already control, after completing its…


Russia Strikes Ukraine’s Donetsk After Seizing Luhansk Region

KYIV—Russian forces struck targets across Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region on Tuesday to prepare the path for an expected armoured thrust to try to take more territory as the five-month-old war entered a new phase. The strikes, reported by the region’s local governor and the Russian military, followed Moscow’s capture of the Ukrainian city of Lysychansk…


Putin Declares Victory in Embattled Donbass Region of Luhansk

POKROVSK, Ukraine—Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday declared victory in the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk, one day after Ukrainian forces withdrew from their last remaining bulwark of resistance in the province. Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to Putin in a televised meeting Monday that Russian forces had taken control of Luhansk, which together…


Ukraine Says 144 of Its Soldiers Released in Biggest Prisoner Swap of War

KYIV—Ukraine on Wednesday carried out its biggest exchange of prisoners of war since Russia invaded, securing the release of 144 of its soldiers, including 95 who defended Mariupol’s steelworkers, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said. The majority of the Ukrainians were badly wounded, suffering from gunshot and shrapnel wounds, blast traumas, burns, fractured bones, and amputated…


Blasts Rock Ukraine City as Russian Forces Advance on the Ground

KYIV/SERHIIVKA, Ukraine—Explosions rocked the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv on Saturday, the mayor said, at the end of a week in which Russian missiles have slammed into an apartment block and a shopping mall in other cities, killing dozens of people. Air raid sirens sounded in the Mykolaiv region, which borders the vital Black Sea…


Ukraine War’s Disruption Sends Agriculture Input Prices up Nearly 10 Percent in First Quarter: Eurostat

Ukraine’s war has significantly disturbed global agricultural markets by sharply driving up prices of key products and inputs such as fertilizer and animal feed, the European Union’s statistics office said on Friday. Eurostat data showed that the average price of goods and services currently consumed in agriculture increased by 9.5 percent in the first quarter…


Russia Seizes Control of Sakhalin Gas Project, Raises Stakes With West

TOKYO/LONDON—President Vladimir Putin has raised the stakes in an economic war with the West and its allies with a decree that seizes full control of the Sakhalin-2 gas and oil project in Russia’s far east, a move that could force out Shell and Japanese investors. The order, signed on Thursday, creates a new firm to…