Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s wife has revealed what she considers to be Vladimir Putin’s “fatal mistake” – as she discussed what life has been like for the Ukrainian president’s family during the Russian invasion. Olena Zelenska said she realised the war had begun when she heard a “clunk” and “didn’t immediately realise it was an explosion”. It
World
Russia could launch a full-scale military offensive in the east of Ukraine within days, despite questions about the ability of its demoralised soldiers. Russian-backed separatists have been fighting Ukraine in the eastern Donbas region since 2014 and parts of the industrial region are under Russian control. Ukraine is believed to have tens of thousands of
We turned up in Barvinkove looking for the hard-pressed town mayor. He had promised to tell us about plans to evacuate residents from this war-threatened area. The Russian military has made a series of gains in the east as they try to encircle Ukrainian troops in cities such as Kramatorsk and Slavyansk. After a series
Ukraine is bracing itself for a “hard battle” to come as Russian forces continue amassing in the east of the country, with officials urging civilians to flee. While the threat to the capital Kyiv has receded, it is rising in the east, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned. “This will be a hard battle, we believe in
Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy has demanded a “firm global response” as he blamed Russian forces for a missile strike near a railway station which killed at least 50 people, with the UK set to provide fresh military aid to his country. The UK will send armoured vehicles to Ukraine for the first time as part of
A missile that exploded near a Ukrainian railway station, which officials claim killed at least 39 people, had the words ‘for’ and ‘children’ painted on it in Russian. Up to 4,000 people – believed to be largely women and children – were at Kramatorsk station on Friday morning when the blast hit. The grammar of
More than 30 people have been killed and over 100 wounded in a Russian rocket attack on a railway station in eastern Ukraine, according to local officials. Thousands of civilians were at Kramatorsk railway station trying to evacuate to safer regions in the war-ravaged country, the governor of the Donetsk region said. The Kremlin has
Vladimir Putin’s spokesman has denied Russia has carried out war crimes in Ukraine as he told Sky News we are “living during days of fakes and lies” – but admitted the “significant” loss of Russian troops is a “tragedy”. Dmitry Peskov, in his first broadcast interview with Western media, said verified photos and satellite images
Ukraine can “absolutely” win the war against Russia as Moscow continues to struggle to make key breakthroughs, the Pentagon has said. Russian leader Vladimir Putin “has achieved zero of his strategic goals” and is “really only taking control of a small number of population centres”, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said. It comes as US officials
A security guard at the British embassy in Berlin suspected of spying for Russia has been extradited from Germany and will appear in a UK court on Thursday, police have said. David Smith, 57, was arrested by German police on 10 August last year and is accused of collecting information from the British embassy in
Some 1,200 war crimes have already been registered in the Kyiv region following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the capital’s police chief has said. Andriy Nebitov did not specify what each of the war crimes were nor how many people they involved. However, he told Sky News in an interview on Tuesday that most of the
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Russia wants to turn Ukrainians into “silent slaves” as he told the UN Security Council that Vladimir Putin’s forces must be brought to justice. The Ukrainian president was addressing the United Nations Security Council and said that Russia is “pursuing its policy of destroying ethnic and religious diversity during its
Millions of people in Shanghai will continue to live under lockdown rules after officials reversed plans to ease COVID restrictions. A two-stage lockdown was imposed last week in China‘s financial centre after the city’s largest coronavirus outbreak. Officials had planned to lift a lockdown in the city’s western districts today, but the restrictions have now
Wearing plastic gloves and a face mask, Serhij Matuyk has seen horror beyond description over the past month. His job is to retrieve and bury bodies in the Ukrainian town of Bucha where evidence has emerged of possible war crimes by Russian forces. “They are b******s,” he said, standing by a large white van, waiting
Russian soldiers have been accused of carrying out “genocide” in the Ukrainian town of Bucha amid harrowing evidence of mass graves, torture and bodies lying in the streets as Kremlin forces pull back from Kyiv. Ukraine officials say some victims were shot in the head with their hands tied behind their back and there has been
The Russian military has dug up Chernobyl’s poisonous legacy and potentially dispersed it into Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, say Ukrainian officials. Russia occupied the site of the 1986 nuclear disaster early in their invasion with 1,500 troops and armoured vehicles. The soil is heavily contaminated but, despite that, Russian troops were ordered to dig defensive