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The Kyiv Independent [unofficial]
Russia’s war against Ukraine
Ukrainian rescuers carry the body of a victim at the site of a Russian air strike in Kharkiv on Oct. 5, 2026 (SERGEY BOBOK/AFP via Getty Images)
New automatic gun turrets successfully down first Russian jet-powered drones, Air Force says. President Volodymyr Zelensky previously announced that twelve such turrets had been installed where Russian jet-powered drones have been particularly active, including around Kyiv.
Ukrainian pilots to soon start training on French Rafale jets, Zelensky says. France is preparing fresh defense assistance for Ukraine amid relentless Russian aerial attacks, with a new support package expected “soon,” Zelensky revealed after his call with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Largest oil facility in Moscow region erupts in flames following massive Ukrainian drone attack. Ukraine’s drone struck the Volodarsk Linear Production and Dispatch Center near the village of Konstantinovo, according to monitoring channels.
US not removing diplomats from Kyiv amid Russian threats, Rubio says. “(I)f a threat arises that we feel needs to be addressed by a change in posture, we’ll do so. We haven’t done that up to this point,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.
Read our exclusives
Ukraine war latest: Kharkiv devastated by Russian glide bombs, children among victims.
At least five people have been killed, and 53 others, including children, injured after Russian forces struck Kharkiv with glide bombs on Oct. 5.
Photo: Kharkiv Oblast Military Administration/Telegram
He fled Maduro’s Venezuela. Now he leads Ukraine’s South American battalion.
The Bolivar Battalion consists of about 250 soldiers, most of them from Colombia, Chile, and Veneuzela.
Photo: Nastassia Kantorowicz Torres/ The Kyiv Independent
What does Russia’s rising military budget say about its plans for the war?
The Russian government began the month by submitting a three-year budget plan to parliament, proposing yet another increase in funding for its war against Ukraine.
Photo: Alexander Kazakov / POOL / AFP via Getty Images
Trump’s Ukraine-Russia peace gambit begins to unravel. Again.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest push for peace between Ukraine and Russia is facing growing uncertainty, with few in Kyiv believing it can deliver a breakthrough — or even bring the three sides together for talks, the Kyiv Independent can reveal.
Photo: Nathan Howard/Getty Images
Luke Harding’s ‘Betrayal’ charts the collapse of the rules-based order — and who is to blame.
Luke Harding’s “Betrayal: Trump, Putin and the New Age of Conquest” begins with a turning point in the full-scale war most people probably haven’t spent enough time coming to terms with: North Korean soldiers getting ready to join the biggest land war in Europe since 1945.
Photo: Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images; Collage: The Kyiv Independent
Human costs of war
Children among dozens injured as Russian glide bombs hit Kharkiv, 5 dead. People were reportedly trapped under the rubble of a residential building in the city.
Russian drone strikes Zaporizhzhia bridge in overnight attack. The bridge has been closed, and traffic rerouted, according to the Zaporizhzhia City Council. The strike follows multiple attacks on bridges in central Kyiv in the past week.Russia attacks Kyiv as drone debris falls into residential area, sets cars ablaze. Russia again targeted Kyiv late on Oct. 5, with drone debris falling into a residential area in Kyiv’s Pecherskyi district after air defenses shot it down, reporters on the ground said.
Russian drones strike cargo ship in Black Sea, kill captain, Zelensky says. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that a civilian ship was attacked by two Russian drones, adding that it was a Turkish-owned ship transporting corn.
Projectile injures border guard at Moldova-Ukraine border, hits bus. The incident occured as Russia carried out attacks against Ukraine, Moldova’s border police said.
General Staff: Russia has lost 1,542,720 troops in Ukraine since Feb. 24, 2022. The number includes 2,020 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day.
International response
NATO drafts strategy on repelling Russian attack against eastern flank. The plan is intended to clarify how NATO would respond to a potential incursion into its territory and reassure the public of the alliance’s readiness, according to Bloomberg.
Estonia moves troops closer to Russian border amid shift in strategic thinking. The country’s 1st Brigade will relocate from their previous base in Tapa to the town of Johvi, just west of the city of city of Narva on the Russian border.
South Korea shipped fuel to Russia via sanctioned vessels, media reports. Potentially undermining sanctions, over 176,000 tonnes of fuel, mostly diesel, from South Korean ports were loaded onto sanctioned Russian tankers, based on analysis of port records and ship-tracking data.
Moldova aims to complete EU technical talks by 2028, join bloc by 2030. Moldova has “taken major strides towards membership,” the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said at the end of the 10th EU-Moldova Association Council meeting in Brussels.
German intelligence chief warns of ‘violent conflict with Russia.’ Russia is conducting a “shadow war,” head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service (BND), Martin Jaeger, said.
‘It was humiliating’ — Ex-US Army Secretary says Washington lags behind Ukraine in war innovations. “When you would see what Ukraine’s budget was and how small it was relative to ours and how, despite that, they had better weapons of war, it was a wake-up call,” former U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll told Rolling Stone.
Pro-Russian Dodik claims party victory in Bosnian elections. “If it had not been for (U.S. President) Donald Trump’s magnificent victory, we would probably be political corpses today,” Milorad Dodik told his supporters, while also thanking Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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In other news
Trump says US will ‘help’ Russia deal with plague. “I hate to see them having it; it’s a rough disease,” U.S. President Donald Trump said. “We’ll help anybody that has that kind of problem, we’re willing to help.”
No country is delivering more on reforms than Ukraine right now, says EU enlargement chief. “We should never forget the country is fighting for its survival,” the EU’s Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos told journalists when asked to comment on the pace of Ukraine’s reforms.
Putin allows Italy’s UniCredit banking group to reorganize, sell Russian subsidiary. UniCredit, one of the few European banks still active in Russia, announced in May that it plans to sell most of its Russian subsidiary — UniCredit Bank Russia — to a private investor from the United Arab Emirates, while retaining control over its payments arm.
Zelensky’s ex-chief of staff Yermak to represent Ukrainian athlete in IOC case, lawyer says. Heraskevych, who is expected to be represented by Yermak, said on Feb. 10 that he had been barred from using a custom helmet at the 2026 Winter Olympics that honors Ukrainian athletes killed in Russia’s war.
More than half of Ukrainians say Zelensky should not run for president again, poll says. The KIIS survey also revealed that 45% of Ukrainians believe their country’s affairs are moving in the wrong direction, while 40% think the opposite.
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