Ukraine’s army is loosening the reins, with its new commander-in-chief thinning the stream of reports he demands, though the general overhaul is still only partial. That is how Yurii Butusov, a front-line drone-company commander, describes the changes under Mykhailo Drapatyi in an interview with Apostrophe TV. In July 2026, PresidentContinue Reading
Ukraine’s top general has ordered a crackdown on medical boards that may approve sick soldiers for the draft. Commander-in-Chief Mykhailo Drapatyi signed the order on 28 October, and Dmytro Lykhovii, a representative of the Armed Forces’ Main Directorate of Communications, confirmed it to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The order tightensContinue Reading
Russia has fired more than 925,000 shells at Ukraine’s Kherson Oblast since late 2022 and now sends up to 6,500 drone attacks against it every week. Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson regional military administration, set out the toll at the Council of Europe’s Congress of Local and Regional AuthoritiesContinue Reading
The lesson for NATO is not to abandon armored warfare, but to rethink how it is conducted. That is the argument Ukrainian military observer Oleksandr Kovalenko draws from Operation Vivaldi, the Third Army Corps’ counteroffensive near Lyman, which he says proves tanks still have a place on a battlefield manyContinue Reading
Ukraine should pass the bill to join Europe’s single euro-payment zone without delay, because it would save Ukrainians up to €100 million a year. For businesses that buy goods or equipment in the EU, the cost of a transfer would fall several-fold and settle in minutes or hours instead ofContinue Reading
Ahead of a harsh winter, the Netherlands is giving Ukraine €1.2 billion to keep the lights and water on under Russian strikes. Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Sjoerd Sjoerdsma announced the aid during a visit to Kyiv on 28 October. The package comes as Russia targets Ukraine’sContinue Reading
Ukraine is remaking its air force on NATO’s model, down to the way its squadrons are organized and the aircraft they fly. The reforms are planned to be completed by 2035 and include modernizing its F-16s while pursuing the Swedish Gripen jets, Air Force Spokesperson Yurii Ihnat says, per TseContinue Reading
Ukraine has held its first international course in military surgery and resuscitation, under instructors from the American College of Surgeons and other Western trauma bodies, the Defense Ministry says. “Tryzub”, or Trident, has been conducted for front-line surgeons and anesthesiologists. The week-long drills put 16 doctors, eight surgeons, and eightContinue Reading
Whoever controls Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation wields enormous influence over law enforcement, judges, and government officials. The EU wants Ukraine to reform it, and Ukraine’s government is likely to pass changes that satisfy monitoring requirements on paper while leaving the body effectively under the President’s Office’s control, the investigativeContinue Reading
Ukraine has just become the first country with which NATO’s weapons-buying agency has ever established a dedicated partnership. Under a new agreement, Kyiv has gained the right to purchase weapons through the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA), and Ukrainian firms can bid on its tenders, the Defense Ministry reports.Continue Reading
The hardest part of ending Russia’s war is making sure it cannot start it again. As the peace talks have escalated ahead of the US elections, Ukraine is weighing three options for its postwar security. Among them are NATO membership, direct US guarantees modeled on NATO’s Article 5, and aContinue Reading
Kyiv has put 85 new buses into service. They have been bought under a financing agreement with the European Investment Bank, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said, after meeting EIB Group Vice-President Karl Nehammer to mark the project’s completion. The buses were purchased under the “Ukraine Urban Public Transport” project, backed byContinue Reading
Russia is now hitting the German investment that helps keep Ukraine’s economy running. Russian strikes have forced one of the Zhytomyr Oblast’s largest employers, the German-invested Kromberg & Schubert plant, to shut down completely, putting 3,600 jobs at risk, the Zhytomyr Regional Military Administration said. Germany is Ukraine’s single biggestContinue Reading