Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Fierce battles raged outside Bahkhut as Russian forces pushed their advance on the eastern city with heavy shelling and infantry attacks, Ukraine’s presidential office said Monday, with at least five civilians killed and as many wounded in action across the war-torn country in the last 24 hours.

The presidential office said the situation in Bakhmut’s northern suburb of Paraskoviivka is “difficult” as Russian forces continued to pummel the area with “intense shelling and storming actions.” The nearby town of Vuhledar is also under heavy bombardment.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces over the weekend continued to shell Ukrainian cities amid a grinding push to seize more land in the east of the country, with Ukrainian officials saying that Moscow is having trouble launching its much-anticipated large-scale offensive there.

One person was killed and one more was wounded on Sunday morning by the shelling of Nikopol, a city in the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, Gov. Serhii Lysak reported. The shelling damaged four residential buildings, a vocational school and a water treatment facility.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces over the weekend continued to shell Ukrainian cities amid a grinding push to seize more land in the east of the country, with Ukrainian officials saying that Moscow is having trouble launching its much-anticipated large-scale offensive there.

One person was killed and one more was wounded on Sunday morning by the shelling of Nikopol, a city in the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, Gov. Serhii Lysak reported. The shelling damaged four residential buildings, a vocational school and a water treatment facility.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The owner of the Russian Wagner Group private military contractor actively involved in the fighting in Ukraine has predicted that the war could drag on for years.

Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a video interview released late Friday that it could take 18 months to two years for Russia to fully secure control of Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland of Donbas. He added that the war could go on for three years if Moscow decides to capture broader territories east of the Dnieper River.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — In a small coal-mining town on Ukraine’s eastern front line, a fight for strategic superiority is being waged in a battlefield steeped with symbolism as the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion nears.

The town of Vuhledar — meaning “gift of coal” — has emerged as a critical hot spot in the fight for Donetsk province that would give both sides, the Ukrainian forces who hold the urban center, and the Russians positioned in the suburbs, a tactical upper hand in the greater battle for the Donbas region.

KYIV, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Two Russian missiles crossed into Romanian and Moldovan airspace before entering Ukraine on Friday, the top Ukrainian general said.

Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine's armed forces, said two Kaliber missiles launched from the Black Sea had entered Moldovan airspace, then flew into Romanian airspace, before entering Ukraine.

Reuters could not immediately verify the statement. Russia did not immediately comment on it.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia unleashed strategic bombers, killer drones and rockets in a barrage of attacks across Ukraine early Friday, as a military push by Moscow that Kyiv says has been brewing for days appeared to pick up pace ahead of the one-year anniversary of its invasion.

KYIV, Feb 9 (Reuters) - A senior aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy edited his own social media post on Thursday to say the question of fighter jets for Ukraine may be resolved, after earlier writing that it had already been resolved.

Andriy Yermak, chief of the presidential staff, had issued the initial post as Zelenskiy held talks in Brussels at which he raised Kyiv's request for more weapons to fight Russian forces.

KYIV/LONDON, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited Britain on Wednesday to drum up aid, winning a pledge to train Ukrainian pilots on advanced NATO fighter jets, a big symbolic step up in Western military support.

On just his second trip abroad since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, he met Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and addressed the British parliament, calling for "combat aircraft for Ukraine. Wings for freedom".

KYIV, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Ukraine said on Tuesday the last 24 hours were the deadliest of the war so far for Russian troops, as Moscow hurls tens of thousands of freshly mobilised soldiers and mercenaries into relentless winter assaults in the east.

The Ukrainian military increased its running tally of Russian military dead by 1,030 overnight to 133,190, and described the increase as the highest of the war so far. It also said its troops destroyed 25 Russian tanks in the last two days.