Guillaume Ptak

China quietly expands economic reach in Russian-occupied Ukraine

At the Karansky Quarry in occupied Donetsk, Chinese machinery has helped revive an industrial site that had been idle for more than a decade.

July 8, 2026

Ukraine’s battle-tested defense industry looks to expand across Europe

While Ukraine is still dependent on Western aid, especially for air defense systems and ammunition, the country's defense companies are increasingly looking like attractive partners for European officials and arms manufacturers.

July 6, 2026

Ukraine’s Black Sea ports fight to stay open as Russian drones target wartime lifeline

At the start of the invasion in February 2022, Russia's Black Sea fleet appeared to hold a near stranglehold over Ukraine's coast. That changed two months later, when Ukrainian anti-ship missiles sank the Moskva, the fleet's flagship, near Snake Island.

June 27, 2026

Ukraine poised to take war to Belarus after ultimatum over Russian drone attacks

Kyiv says Russian drone attacks facilitated by equipment in neighboring Belarus have gone quiet after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week warned his Belarusian counterpart the Ukrainians were weighing retaliatory strikes.

June 27, 2026

War against Ukraine is a war against the West, says Russian who fights for Kyiv

Denys Kapustin, founder and commander of the Russian Volunteer Corps, says his unit has become a home for Russians who want to fight in Ukraine against Russian President Vladimir Putin's invading forces.

June 23, 2026

Europe’s biggest arms show opens in Paris under shadow of Russia’s war

Europe's largest land warfare exhibition opened Monday outside Paris under a cloud of urgency, as government officials, arms manufacturers and military delegations gathered to discuss a question that has leaped from the realm of theory to reality: How fast can the West prepare for the next major war?

June 15, 2026

Forensic teams give names back to remains of Ukraine’s fallen

In a train yard near Odesa, Ukraine's dead return home, their remains stored in body bags stacked in refrigerated cars. Some bodies are whole. Some are badly decomposed. Some bags contain mangled fragments of several men mixed together by blast, time or expediency.

June 11, 2026

As pro-West protests test Moscow’s grip, Georgia opposition leader says democracy is nation’s future

Georgia's Independence Day last month was supposed to be a historic display of national unity for the nation of 3.8 million. Instead, May 26 highlighted the growing rift between Georgian society and the country's increasingly authoritarian ruling regime.

June 9, 2026

Swarmer’s Wall Street debut points to new era in U.S.-Ukraine defense ties

When Swarmer, a U.S.-based drone company with roots in Ukraine, listed on the Nasdaq this spring, the move drew attention well beyond the small circle of investors willing to bet on another defense technology startup.

June 8, 2026

Capitalizing on wartime expertise: Ukraine weighs formation, export of for-profit military companies

Ukraine is considering a step that would have seemed politically radioactive before the war: legalizing private military companies to turn the country's unmatched experience of modern warfare into an export business.

May 21, 2026

Russia accused of plundering Ukraine’s grain, coal and minerals in occupied territories

First, Russia took Ukraine's land. Now, Ukrainian officials and legal experts say, Moscow is stripping and selling what lies above and beneath it.

May 20, 2026

At Kyiv drone school, young Ukrainians try to shape how they will fight

Inside a former industrial complex turned training ground, students weave first-person view drones through tires, pipes and improvised gates before steering toward mock targets, including a fake Russian tank and an old Soviet-style van.

May 14, 2026

Ukraine’s drone war gives Kyiv new hope as Russian assaults bog down

While Russia still holds the initiative in several sectors and continues to pour men, drones and artillery shells into the fight, Ukrainian soldiers say Moscow's assaults are increasingly being disrupted or destroyed before they can reach their positions.

May 13, 2026

Chernobyl at 40: A disaster contained — and a new threat emerging

Forty years after the explosion of Reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the site remains one of the most complex nuclear cleanup operations on Earth.

April 25, 2026

Italian PM Meloni talks tough on Russia, but Italy still has an energy problem

As EU leaders gathered in Cyprus on Thursday to wrestle with the fallout from the Iran war -- including high fossil-fuel prices, the security situation in the Straits of Hormuz and emergency tools to shield Europe's economy -- Italy arrived with a familiar problem: While Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wants to keep the screws on Moscow, her country is still exposed to the energy shock that comes with it.

April 24, 2026

Ukraine signs Gulf defense deals, aims to turn battlefield edge into global influence

Four years of trading blows with one of the world's most powerful militaries has come at enormous cost in blood and treasure for Ukraine.

April 22, 2026

Hungarian Prime Minister-elect Magyar moves to eliminate bias in public broadcasting

Hungarian Prime Minister-elect Peter Magyar announced Thursday that his government will temporarily suspend public media broadcasts until he's satisfied news outlets can produce unbiased coverage.

April 16, 2026

Domestic deadlock, stalled reforms squeeze Kyiv’s war finances despite Hungary vote

The military picture remains fragile, diplomacy is stalled, and Kyiv is now confronting a second test that could prove nearly as consequential as events at the front: a funding squeeze that threatens its ability to sustain the war.

April 14, 2026

Hungary election could reshape EU policy, Ukraine support

Hungary's parliamentary election on Sunday has become the toughest political test of Prime Minister Viktor Orban's 16-year rule.

April 6, 2026

Ukraine’s home-built strike arsenal carries the war deeper into Russia

From a wartime factory floor to targets deep inside Russia, Ukraine's homegrown drone and missile industry is quietly reshaping the war.

March 30, 2026