Full control of southern Ukraine was a strategic goal to allow access to Moldova’s pro-Russian breakaway region of Transdniester, according to the acting commander of Russia’s Central Military District, Rustam Minnekayev. Minnekayev’s comments were the most detailed public description yet of Russia’s goals in the second phase of its invasion …

The head of the Kharkiv regional administration, Oleh Sinehubov, said on his Telegram channel that Ukrainian forces had retaken at least three villages near the Russian border after “fierce battles.” British military intelligence said early on April 23 that Russian invasion forces appeared to have made no major gains in …

SoF correspondent Owen Thorne sends this report, written in haste on Easter Sunday in Ukraine. Easter services in Kyiv brought citizens and soldiers together to worship and give thanks. It was a solemn respite from war. One soldier in uniform and a headscarf lit a candle inside the church. She …

A new attempt to evacuate civilians from Mariupol appears to have failed, with local officials laying the blame on Russian forces who reportedly attacked a metals plant where desperate Ukrainian defenders are holding out in the devastated southeastern port city. The report of a fresh effort to storm the Azovstal …

In a fresh effort to shape the narrative surrounding the war in Ukraine, Moscow accused the U.S. on Saturday of planning to say Russia launched nuclear and bio-chemical attacks against its neighbor. The United States is “preparing provocations” to that effect, according to the accuse the Russian side of using …

Moscow plans to take full control of the eastern Donbas region and the southern part of Ukraine, a senior Russian military official said.  Rustam Minnekayev, acting commander of the Central Military District, was quoted by official Russian state media outlets on April 22 as saying that full control of southern …

Moscow has lost another military commander who died while fighting in Ukraine, Russian military officials said.   The latest to die is Colonel Ivan Grishin, commander of the 49th anti-aircraft missile brigade, who killed while fighting near Kharkiv. He dies from shrapnel wounds to the abdomen.  Grishin is the 23rd Russian …

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday said Russia has launched its anticipated large-scale offensive in the eastern Donbas region. “We can now confirm that Russian troops have begun the battle for the Donbas, which they have been preparing for a long time,” Zelensky said on Telegram. “A large part of …

“They called me one morning from the office of the division commander in Amur Oblast, where Pavlik served,” said a woman from Russia’s Tambov region who asked to be identified only by her first name, Yelena. “The man said: ‘Do you know that they are searching for your son, that …

Israel has successfully tested the new “Iron Beam” laser interception system, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said.  “This is the world’s first energy-based weapons system that uses a laser to shoot down incoming UAVs, rockets & mortars at a cost of $3.50 per shot,” Bennett wrote on Twitter when announcing …