Latest news with #Dnipropetrovsk
Al Jazeera
18 hours ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Russia kills 5 in Ukraine's Samar, as Putin seems ready for new peace talks
Russian forces have continued to hammer Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region, launching a deadly attack on the industrial city of Samar for the second time in three days. Friday's missile attack killed five people and injured 23 others in southeastern Samar – located outside the region's main city, Dnipro – said regional governor Sergiy Lysak in a post on Telegram. At least four of the wounded were in severe condition and were taken to hospital, he added. The attack followed missile strikes earlier this week on both Dnipro and Samar, which killed at least 23, as Russian forces attempted to gain a foothold in Dnipropetrovsk for the first time in over three years of war. Officials gave no immediate details about the damage inflicted on Samar, where an attack on an unidentified infrastructure facility on Tuesday killed two people. Moscow earlier this week claimed to have captured two more villages near the border of the Dnipropetrovsk region. Separately, authorities in Ukraine's northern region of Kharkiv said Russian attacks killed one person and wounded three others. Hundreds of kilometres to the south, in the Kherson region, authorities urged residents on Friday to prepare for extended periods without power after a Russian attack hit a key energy facility. Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram that 'Russians decided to plunge the region into darkness'. The Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched 363 long-range drones and eight missiles overnight into Friday, claiming that air defences stopped all but four of the drones and downed six cruise missiles. Russia's Defence Ministry, meanwhile, said 39 Ukrainian drones were downed in several regions overnight, including 19 over the Rostov region and 13 over the Volgograd region. 'Find a path' in peace talks The continued attacks on Dnipropetrovsk came as President Vladimir Putin said that he intended to scale back military expenditure and also indicated he was ready for a new round of peace negotiations with Ukraine. The Russian president said his country was ready to reduce the military budget in the long term, owing to budgetary pressures and the increased defence spending having fuelled inflation. Speaking to reporters in Minsk, Belarus, on Friday, he alluded to a new round of peace negotiations with Ukraine, potentially in Istanbul, although the time and venue had yet to be agreed. He acknowledged that the peace proposals from Russia and Ukraine 'are two absolutely contradictory memorandums', but added, 'That's why negotiations are being organised and conducted, in order to find a path to bringing them closer together.' Putin added that the two sides' negotiators were in constant contact and that Russia was ready to return the bodies of 3,000 more Ukrainian soldiers. He also said relations between Russia and the United States were beginning to stabilise, attributing the improvement to efforts by US President Donald Trump. 'In general, thanks to President Trump, relations between Russia and the United States are beginning to level out in some ways,' said Putin. Trump on Friday suggested progress may be on the horizon regarding Russia's war in Ukraine. 'We're working on that one,' Trump told reporters at the White House. 'President Putin called up and he said, I'd love to help you with Iran. I said, do me a favour: I'll handle Iran. Help me with Russia. We got to get that one settled. And I think something's going to happen there.'
Forbes
2 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Thursday, June 26. Russia's War On Ukraine: News And Information From Ukraine
.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attend a press conference during ... More the 76th NATO Summit in the World Forum in The Hague, Netherlands on June 25th, 2025. (Photo by Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images) NurPhoto via Getty Images Dispatches from Ukraine. Day 1,219. Russian Attacks on Ukraine On June 25, Russian drones killed three residents and wounded 13 others in the southern Kherson province. In the eastern Donetsk region, Russian shelling killed two and wounded 14 other civilians. Meanwhile, the death toll from the Russian ballistic missile strike on the regional capital of Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region has increased to 20, with at least 314 people wounded. NATO Summit. Allies have agreed to raise defense spending, committing to a new target of 5% of GDP by 2035, more than double the alliance's 2% target, in response to growing security threats and U.S. pressure. The plan, which was announced at a June 25 summit in The Hague, Netherlands, earmarks 3.5% for core defense needs and allows contributions to Ukraine's defense to count toward the total. NATO leaders reaffirmed support for Kyiv but avoided directly condemning Russia's invasion, a notable shift from last year's language in the final communique. Ukraine National News Ukraine's economy is teetering on the brink as the war with Russia shows no signs of abating. Despite U.S. President Donald Trump's promise to end the war within a day and high public expectations that his presidency might deliver a swift ceasefire, the conflict has only intensified. Ukrainian cities are now enduring the largest, most frequent drone barrages ever. In addition, Russia's progress in decreasing reliance on Western components while increasing weapons production is only gaining momentum. Western financial support, including release of frozen Russian assets, is keeping the Ukrainian government afloat. Officials in Kyiv, however, privately admit that the outlook is bleak for the country, which needs $40 billion annually in foreign support. Private investors, who were once optimistic about a post-war reconstruction boom, are now holding back due to security concerns and political instability. The only major economic bright spot for Ukraine is the recently ratified deal with the U.S. to develop vast mineral resources. Yet even that is still years away from producing tangible results. Ukraine is developing Russian-like glide bombs. Kyiv-based design bureau 'Medoid' reportedly has tested a domestically produced planning and control module that turns standard 1,100-pound bombs into guided weapons, much like Russia's glide bomb kits. Early trials have demonstrated the Ukrainian system's ability to hit targets at distances of 35 miles. Currently, work is underway to push that range to approximately 50 miles or even more. Engineers at Medoid say the project is nearing the final testing phase required before the homegrown glide bomb can enter mass production. Further development of the project, however, is stalling due to chronic funding shortfalls. The estimated cost per unit is roughly $25,000, significantly lower than similar Western weapons such as the AASM Hammer, a French smart stand-off air-to-surface weapon, yet funding shortages threaten to derail the entire effort. Ukraine Destroys Another Russian Ship. Ukrainian forces on June 25 attacked and destroyed a Russian ship as it moved landing troops along the Black Sea coast off the Kherson region of Ukraine. The ship was part of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, which has withdrawn from most naval operations following the loss of approximately one-third of its vessels. Those losses include the Moskva missile cruiser, the flagship of the fleet. Kyrgyzstan-Based Crypto Exchange Moves $9.3 Billion in Russia-Linked Token A new cryptocurrency token, A7A5, designed to facilitate cross-border payments despite Western sanctions on Russia, has moved an estimated $9.3 billion in just four months, according to a Financial Times analysis. Launched in Kyrgyzstan by a Russian defense sector bank and Moldovan fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor, the token is billed as the first stablecoin pegged to the Russian ruble. The A7A5 stablecoin is backed by ruble deposits in Promsvyazbank, a Russian bank under Western sanctions, and is traded primarily on Grinex, a crypto exchange also based in Kyrgyzstan. The token's circulation has reached 12 billion units, worth roughly $156 million, with daily transaction volumes routinely several times higher. Experts suggest that the stablecoin serves a small but active group of users, likely including Russian importers, seeking a reliable alternative to dollar-pegged assets. Shor, the token's controversial majority owner, fled Moldova after being convicted of a $1 billion bank fraud and is accused of running illicit political operations. His involvement has raised concerns about the stablecoin's connections to Moscow's efforts to fund influence campaigns abroad. Meanwhile, the platform Grinex, which trades A7A5 exclusively, appears to be a successor to the Garantex exchange, which U.S. authorities shut down in March over alleged money laundering tied to Russian elites. Culture Front. Ukrainian author Victoria Amelina has been posthumously awarded the UK's Orwell Prize for political writing for her book Looking at Women, Looking at War . Amelina, killed while documenting war crimes in eastern Ukraine in 2023, was known for her powerful prose and sharp political insight into Ukraine. Her book, completed by close friends after her death, explores the resilience of Ukrainian women and the fight for justice since Russia's 2022 invasion. By Danylo Nosov, Alan Sacks
The Independent
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Ukraine resist Russian advance in prolonged battle for region
Ukrainian forces have successfully halted Russia 's recent advance into the northern Sumy region, stabilizing the front line near the border. Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine's top military commander, stated this success prevented Russia from deploying approximately 50,000 troops to other critical areas, a claim not independently verified. Across the broader 1,000-kilometre front line, Russian forces continue to make slow, incremental gains in certain sectors, but these advances have come at a significant cost in terms of troop casualties and armoured vehicles. The outnumbered Ukrainian army has increasingly relied on drone technology to counter Russian pressure, while both sides continue to launch long-range strikes. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed its forces captured two villages, Novoserhiivka and Shevchenko, in the eastern Donetsk region, as part of an offensive to break into Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Russia captures village in eastern Ukraine near lithium deposit, Russian-backed official says
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian troops have taken control of a village in eastern Ukraine which is close to a lithium deposit after fierce resistance from Ukrainian forces, a Russian-backed official said on Thursday. The village of Shevchenko is located in Donetsk, one of four Ukrainian regions - in addition to Crimea - that Moscow has claimed as its own territory in annexations that Kyiv and Western powers reject as illegal. The Russian Defence Ministry announced earlier on Thursday that Shevchenko had been taken along with another settlement called Novoserhiivka. Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield report and there was no immediate comment from Ukraine. Open source mapping from Deep State, an authoritative Ukrainian military blogging resource, showed Shevchenko under Russian control. Soviet geologists who discovered the lithium deposit there in 1982 suggested it could be significant. It sits at a depth that would allow commercial mining, and Russian-backed officials have suggested it will be developed when the situation permits. "The village of Shevchenko, which is located on the border with the Dnipropetrovsk region, is another settlement that has a lithium deposit. This was one of the reasons why the Ukrainian armed forces sent a huge number of their soldiers to hold it," Igor Klimakovsky, a Russian-appointed official in Donetsk, was cited by the state TASS news agency as saying on Thursday. The Ukrainian Geological Survey says the deposit is located on Shevchenko's eastern outskirts and covers an area of nearly 40 hectares. Parts of the Russian press incorrectly claimed in January that the Shevchenko deposit had already been captured, confusing it with the seizure of another settlement of the same name elsewhere. Lithium is a coveted global resource because of its use in a host of industries and technologies from mobile phones to electric cars. Ukraine has reserves of about 500,000 tons, and Russia has double that, according to U.S. government estimates.
Reuters
2 days ago
- Politics
- Reuters
Russia captures village in eastern Ukraine near lithium deposit, Russian-backed official says
MOSCOW, June 26 (Reuters) - Russian troops have taken control of a village in eastern Ukraine which is close to a lithium deposit after fierce resistance from Ukrainian forces, a Russian-backed official said on Thursday. The village of Shevchenko is located in Donetsk, one of four Ukrainian regions - in addition to Crimea - that Moscow has claimed as its own territory in annexations that Kyiv and Western powers reject as illegal. The Russian Defence Ministry announced earlier on Thursday that Shevchenko had been taken along with another settlement called Novoserhiivka. Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield report and there was no immediate comment from Ukraine. Open source mapping from Deep State, an authoritative Ukrainian military blogging resource, showed Shevchenko under Russian control. Soviet geologists who discovered the lithium deposit there in 1982 suggested it could be significant. It sits at a depth that would allow commercial mining, and Russian-backed officials have suggested it will be developed when the situation permits. "The village of Shevchenko, which is located on the border with the Dnipropetrovsk region, is another settlement that has a lithium deposit. This was one of the reasons why the Ukrainian armed forces sent a huge number of their soldiers to hold it," Igor Klimakovsky, a Russian-appointed official in Donetsk, was cited by the state TASS news agency as saying on Thursday. The Ukrainian Geological Survey says the deposit is located on Shevchenko's eastern outskirts and covers an area of nearly 40 hectares. Parts of the Russian press incorrectly claimed in January that the Shevchenko deposit had already been captured, confusing it with the seizure of another settlement of the same name elsewhere. Lithium is a coveted global resource because of its use in a host of industries and technologies from mobile phones to electric cars. Ukraine has reserves of about 500,000 tons, and Russia has double that, according to U.S. government estimates.
