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Stay on top of Russia-Ukraine war 01-30-2024 developments on the ground with KyivPost fact-based news, exclusive video footage, photos and updated war maps.
Why foreigners continue to visit Ukraine during the war? Tips and tricks for travelers.
Why foreigners continue to visit Ukraine during the war? Tips and tricks for travelers.
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has been going on for almost two years now, but a large number of foreigners continue to visit Ukraine, and Ukrainians are trying to live normal lives even during the war.
Donald Tusk also said ahead of the summit he would speak to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who has also angered Kyiv.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Tuesday, ahead of key talks on the Ukraine conflict, that the EU would find a way to provide aid to Ukraine "with or without" Hungary's approval.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who maintained close ties to the Kremlin following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in December vetoed 50 billion euros ($54 billion) in EU aid for Ukraine.
More footage has emerged of Ukrainian forces in action in Sudan where an apparent months-long operation against Russian mercenaries “is being conducted,” a source told Kyiv Post.
Exclusive videos obtained by Kyiv Post show Ukrainian drones taking out “Russian mercenaries” and their “local terrorist partners” in Sudan, according to sources in Ukrainian special services.
Filmed in “recent weeks” in an undisclosed part of the African country, the footage shows three separate strikes against three different vehicles.
ATESH agents said two warehouses were identified as storage points and several Russian trucks were observed in the area.
Partisans in Crimea have reported the discovery of warehouses which they claim are “likely” being used by Russian forces to store Kalibr missiles.
Agents of the ATESH movement conducted reconnaissance north of Sukharna Bay in the Russian-occupied city of Sevastopol, photographing the facilities and posting their location online.
Russia has become an increasingly hostile environment for minority groups, with Putin championing what Moscow loosely defines as “traditional family values.”
Russia has brought extremism charges against a 33-year-old woman under new laws criminalising support for the LGBTQ community, a rights group said on Tuesday.
The supreme court banned the “international LGBT movement” in November, saying its activists should be deemed extremists, cementing Moscow’s crackdown on minority groups.
The world in focus as seen by a Canadian leading global affairs analyst, writer and speaker, in his review of international media.
The U.S. failed to stop a deadly attack on an American military outpost in Jordan when the enemy drone approached its target at the same time a U.S. drone was also returning to base, U.S. officials said Monday. The return of the U.S. drone led to some confusion over whether the incoming drone was friend or foe, officials have concluded so far. The enemy drone was launched from Iraq by a militia backed by Tehran, U.S. officials said. The outpost, Tower 22, sits in Jordan, near the borders of Iraq and Syria - WSJ
At around 4:50 p.m. on Monday, rocket sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and across central Israel. Some 11 rockets were fired from southern Khan Yunis, 6 of which were intercepted, according to Israeli news outlet Ynet.
A humanitarian information analysis NGO has put flesh on the bones of the staggering statistics of landmine contamination caused by the war in Ukraine.
The latest report by the Geneva-based independent analysis provider, The Assessment Capacities Project (ACAPS), gives a stark assessment of the extent of landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) contamination and the short, medium and long-term prognosis for its impact on Ukraine.
ACAPS readily admits that its findings are based primarily on secondary sources, because the NGO has limited access to many areas particularly those under control of the Russian military or its proxies – which equates to almost 20 percent of Ukraine.
On Nov. 28 last year Marianna Budanova was poisoned with heavy metals and hospitalized. Now Kyiv Post has received an update on her condition and she is doing much better.
Kyiv Post's sources in Ukrainian military intelligence say that the wife of the head of the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine (HUR), Marianna Budanova, is "feeling much better" after being poisoned along with a number of HUR staff on Nov 28, 2023.
At the time, doctors were of the opinion that Budanov's wife was suffering from heavy metal poisoning. She is currently undergoing treatment, that Kyiv Post’s sources have underlined is now carried out in Ukraine.
The EU has frozen some 200 billion euros of Russian central bank assets, with about 90 percent of those funds held by the international deposit organisation Euroclear.
The EU has reached an agreement on a first step towards tapping profits from frozen Russian assets to help pay for rebuilding war-ravaged Ukraine, officials said.
EU ambassadors agreed on a plan to set aside the profits from the assets in order for them to eventually be used to help pay for Ukraine’s reconstruction, the Belgian presidency of the European Union said on X, formerly Twitter, late Monday.
With the death of poet Maksym Kryvtsov, Ukraine continues losing some of its best artists. This is not just a loss for Ukrainian culture, it is a loss for the world.
Maksym Kryvtsov, a poet and soldier of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, was killed on Jan. 7 while fighting in the Kupyansk area of the Kharkiv region at the age of 33. Maksym’s unfinished novel, his unrealized dreams, and his voice, now silenced, epitomize the profound loss Ukraine and the world are facing.
A participant in the Revolution of Dignity and a volunteer since 2014, Maksym’s life was a testament to the spirit of the Ukrainian people. His book, “Virshi z biinytsi” (Poems From the Battlefield), has been hailed as one of the best Ukrainian poetry collections of 2023. It stands as a stark reminder that in this terrible war, Ukraine is losing its the best. His memory is a blessed one, and his story, a microcosm of a nation’s sacrifice.
Russia is gathering close to 20,000 troops to take over Wagner’s African operations in at least five Russia-friendly nations by mid-2024, but it might no longer have plausible deniability.
Russia is setting up a new 20,000-strong fighting group placed directly under the Ministry of Defense’s control for operations in at least five Russia-friendly African nations by mid-2024, as reported by Bloomberg.
The new group, named African Corps, would likely operate in Burkina Faso, Libya, Mali, the Central African Republic and Niger after a wave of military juntas ousted the civilian governments and eventually led to the withdrawal of French troops.
At the time of writing – Tuesday morning – there have been no official announcements about a change in the Commander-in-Chief and Gen. Zaluzhny remains in his post.
From early evening on Monday 29 the specter of resignation once again materialized on the pages of Ukraine’s media as speculation became rife that the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Gen. Valery Zaluzhny had/was about to/would soon be fired.
Once again Kyiv Post has had to investigate how another information bubble that shook Ukraine’s media landscape appeared, was spread, and was, ultimately, dissolved – for now at least.
It is all too easy to lay the blame on opposition republicans for the log jam in funding for Ukraine but even when the money is released how will it be used to ensure success for Kyiv?
The narrative coming out of the White House as recently as last Tuesday continues to solely cast blame upon Congressional Republicans – especially Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA), for not passing a $60 billion supplemental budget to continue funding the Ukraine war.
There is some truth to the narrative. However, it conveniently leaves out probably the most significant point - President Joe Biden does not have a plan to win the war, other than to simply to keep arming Ukraine to defend itself. The US Army’s General George Patton gave his opinion on that course of action: “Nobody ever defended anything successfully, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.”
Russia has lost several important aircraft in recent weeks, including three Su-34s in one incident last month and two command planes earlier this month.
A Russian Su-34 fighter jet was shot down on Monday over the eastern Luhansk region, Ukraine’s military has reported.
No further details have been reported but the aircraft was listed on the daily update from the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook.
NBU signals rate cuts in 2H24.
Bonds: MoF borrows for future redemptions
The MoF has already refinanced all debt redemptions made in January, so new borrowings replenish government accounts before upcoming February redemptions.Last week, the MoF borrowed UAH6bn (US$160m), including US$101.6m in hard currency, implying it fully refinanced last week's redemption of USD-denominated bills. Most of the bonds were sold at usual interest rates, except the three-year "reserve" note, for which the MoF decreased interest rates by 10bp to 18.5%. See details in the auctions review.In the secondary bond market, the volume of trades declined by 12% to UAH11.5bn (US$304m). The most traded were UAH bonds due in February 2026 (21.5% of all bond trades) and USD-denominated bills due at the end of February 2024 (21.7% of all trades).Last week, the MoF redeemed US$80m of bonds, the last redemption this month, while the next redemption of UAH2.5bn is scheduled for February 7. The largest redemptions in February will be UAH10bn in the middle of the month and EUR297m and US$453m in the last two weeks.
Ukrenergo, a Ukrainian energy provider, confirmed one of its substations in a central region had been hit.
Ukraine said Tuesday that two people had been killed and at least five more wounded in the latest overnight Russian attacks across the country targeting military and energy infrastructure.
Moscow’s army, meanwhile, said its air defences downed 21 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory and the annexed Crimean peninsula, as Kyiv steps up cross border aerial attacks.
Budapest said that it had submitted a new “compromise” proposal in preparation for the summit on Thursday.
The ongoing standoff between Hungary and other members of the EU escalated on Monday, with both sides accusing the other of “blackmail” ahead of a critical summit on aid for Ukraine.
Hungary's nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has maintained close ties to the Kremlin since Russia invaded its pro-Western neighbour, vetoed a four-year, 50 billion euro ($54 billion) EU aid package for Kyiv back in December.
The 26-year-old Yana Lyakh is eight months pregnant, her husband is away fighting on the front line and her home town is being relentlessly bombed and shelled by Russian forces.
With a pink jumper covering her round belly, Yana Lyakh was all smiles at a Ukraine hospital even as she recounted what for most women would be a nightmare situation.
The 26-year-old is eight months pregnant, her husband is away fighting on the front line and her home town is being relentlessly bombed and shelled by Russian forces.
Posts that are part of this campaign always target Ukrainians and attempt to foster the idea that Europe and the United States are weary of Kyiv.
A message on X asked a major French channel to verify what seemed to be a Deutsche Welle report about a Ukrainian artist who "sawed down the Eiffel Tower."
"I see these kind of stories every day. Official media don't talk about them, what should I believe?" "Kathe" asked BFMTV on December 4.
Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.
Key Takeaways from the ISW:
Russian bombs fall on Kharkiv villages, missiles kill three in Sumy region; NATO chief meets with US military leaders; Moscow continues march on Avdiivka
Overview:
NATO chief meets with top US military officials, will hold talks with Congress on Tuesday
The Alliance’s chief started his two-day visit to Washington, meeting with military, diplomatic and congressional leaders.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Monday that Ukraine’s gains over two years of fighting were all in doubt without new US funding, as NATO's chief visited to lobby Congress.
Tens of billions of dollars in US aid has been sent to Ukraine since the invasion in February 2022, but Republican lawmakers have grown reluctant to keep supporting Kyiv, saying it lacks a clear end game as the fighting against President Vladimir Putin's forces grinds on.
