Russia has launched a “new massive strike” targeting Ukraine’s energy grid, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said. He said the attacks were on a “very wide” scale, hitting Ukraine’s regions in the west, centre, south and east. Nearly 1.5 million households were without electricity, Kyiv said. But Mr Zelensky said most of the Russian missiles […]

Italy’s far-right leader Giorgia Meloni and her coalition allies have met President Sergio Mattarella and say they are ready to form a government “as quickly as possible”. He is set to ask Ms Meloni in the coming hours to become prime minister. Veteran ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi attended the brief talks, despite shaking the coalition’s […]

Tens of thousands of civilians and Russian-appointed officials are being moved out of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region ahead of a Ukrainian offensive, says the Russia-installed local leader. Vladimir Saldo said all Russian-appointed departments and ministries would cross the Dnieper river. Some 50-60,000 civilians would also leave in an “organised, gradual displacement”, he said...

A military aircraft has crashed in a residential area of the southern Russian town of Yeysk, killing at least four people and injuring up to 25. An apartment block was set on fire and emergency services called in. A nearby school was evacuated, reports say. Russia’s defence ministry said the plane, a Su-34 fighter bomber, […]

At least three explosions have been heard in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, after air raid sirens went off. Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said residential buildings in the central Shevchenkivskiy area have been damaged. Andriy Yermak, head of President Zelensky’s office, said the attacks were from so-called kamikaze drones. It comes a week after the capital was […]

The past few hours have seen wave after wave of explosions, not just in Kyiv, but all across Ukraine, from Lviv in the west to Kharkiv in the east and Odesa in the south. For those of us who were here when Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February, there’s an element of déjà vu. We’ve […]

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has signed the final papers to annex four regions of Ukraine – even as his military suffered further setbacks. The Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions are “accepted into the Russian Federation” the documents say. But in two of those areas – Luhansk and Kherson – Ukraine said it has been […]

The US’s decision to send more military aid to Ukraine “increases the danger of a direct military clash” between Russia and the West, Moscow has warned. Russia’s ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, said it was an “immediate threat” to Moscow, describing the US as “a participant of the conflict”. Earlier, the US announced another […]