Guillaume Ptak

Ukraine braces for winter as Russia shifts energy war to heat and water

Ukraine has begun an unusually early race to prepare its battered energy system for another winter of Russian bombardment, building smaller power sources, protecting substations and preparing backup systems to keep heat and water flowing if Moscow renews the massive attacks that brought major cities close to the breaking point last winter.

August 20, 2026

Ukraine’s ousted defense minister challenges Zelenskyy with call for wartime elections

Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's recently ousted defense minister and one of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's longest-serving political allies, has called for wartime elections, signaling his clearest break yet with the administration that launched his political career.

August 19, 2026

Russian strikes revive Black Sea blockade, threaten Ukraine’s economic lifeline

Russia is trying to turn the Black Sea into a "second Strait of Hormuz," Ukraine's acting foreign minister warned as attacks on Ukrainian ports and commercial vessels are prompting shipowners to halt calls through the country's main maritime export corridor.

August 4, 2026

Ukraine’s drone war is coming to American factories

Modern wars are won by those who can turn battlefield lessons into mass-produced technology faster than their adversaries.

July 30, 2026

Ukraine turns to battlefield commanders in sweeping military reset

Two protesters outside Kyiv's Ivan Franko Drama Theater held aloft a portrait of Ukraine's commander-in-chief, Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky, depicted as a Soviet field marshal, complete with countless medals, red lapels and a severe expression. "Syrsky out" was one of the main slogans chanted by the hundreds of protesters who had gathered recently in central Kyiv.

July 24, 2026

Zelenskyy’s ouster of defense chief sparks backlash, questions over Ukraine’s wartime government

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's decision to push out Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov after just six months has triggered an unusual backlash in wartime Ukraine, with soldiers, civil society activists and even members of the president's own party warning that the move risks derailing military reforms at a critical point in the war.

July 16, 2026

Bastille Day parade showcases EU’s Macron-led support for Ukraine

Ukrainian soldiers marching down the Champs-Elysees drew some of the loudest cheers Tuesday as France turned its Bastille Day parade into a show of European military support for Kyiv.

July 14, 2026

Russia says Kostiantynivka has fallen. Ukrainian troops inside the city tell a different story

When Moscow claimed the capture of Kostiantynivka last week, Russian generals presented the battle as settled.

July 11, 2026

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