A young kid gives an offering of food to his mother grave as his younger brother and a neighbor stand next to it, in the town of Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, April 4, after the Ukrainian army secured the area following the withdrawal of the Russian army from the Kyiv Oblast in previous days. (Getty Images)
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April 14 marks 50 days since Russia launched its brutal all-out war against Ukraine.
Moscow's unprovoked military aggression has already cost it approximately 19,900 servicemen and 5,260 units of weapons and other equipment, according to Ukraine's government estimates.
Russia hasn't achieved any significant success in its offensive, having captured only one regional capital, Kherson, which has been actively resisting the occupation.
Yet Ukraine can hardly celebrate this interim victory, as Russian forces are regrouping and preparing to focus on advancing in the country's east.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that the upcoming Battle of Donbas will be similar to World War II, as Ukraine expects large-scale operations and maneuvers involving thousands of tanks, armored vehicles, aircraft, and artillery.
Russia's war has already killed 1,964 and injured 2,613 civilians in Ukraine, according to the United Nations. The true numbers, however, are expected to be much higher, as data about casualties from the occupied territories and the front-line cities is hardly accessible. In Mariupol, a besieged seaport in southeastern Ukraine alone, "tens of thousands" of people have been killed, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Ukraine still doesn't publish its military personnel losses.
Smoke rises over the town of Rubizhne, Donbas Oblast, on April 7, amid Russia's military invasion launched on Ukraine. Six weeks after invading its neighbor, Russia's troops have withdrawn from Kyiv and Ukraine's north and are focusing on the country's southeast, where desperate attempts are under way to evacuate civilians. (AFP/Getty Images)Cemetery workers unload bodies of civilians killed in and around Bucha before they are transported to the morgue at a cemetery on April 7, in Bucha. The Ukrainian government has accused Russian forces of committing a "deliberate massacre" as they occupied and eventually retreated from Bucha, 25 kilometers northwest of Kyiv. Hundreds of bodies have been found in the days since Ukrainian forces regained control of the town. (Getty Images)Two men stand in front of a residential building destroyed by Russian bombing in early March, in the town of Borodyanka in Kyiv Oblast on April 6. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)British Prime Minister Boris Johnson meets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, Ukraine on April 9. (Getty Images)Mourners attend a memorial service for serviceman officer of Right Sector, Ukrainian Volunteer Corps, Taras Bobanych, call sign Hammer, at the Saints Peter and Paul Garrison Church in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on April 13, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (AFP/Getty Images)A man embraces his wife as she is about to board a train at Slovyansk central station, in Donetsk Oblast on April 12, amid Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Ukrainian leaders of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in the Donbas have asked civilians to evacuate west in reaction to an anticipated Russian offensive to take the eastern region. (AFP/Getty Images)People walk down an avenue in Mariupol on April 12, 2022, as Russian troops intensify a campaign to take the strategic port city, part of an anticipated massive onslaught across eastern Ukraine. (AFP/Getty Images)A partially buried body is seen in a mass grave in the town of Bucha, near Kyiv on April 4. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)Dmytro Sadofiev goes through his belongings in his kitchen in the town of Borodyanka in Kyiv Oblast on April 6. The town has suffered from a Russian bombing in early March. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)Emergency personnel walks among injured people lying on the sidewalk in the aftermath of a rocket attack on the railway station in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, in Donetsk Oblast, on April 8. More than 50 people were killed and over 100 injured in the attack. (AFP/Getty Images)A five-story residential building destroyed by Russian bombardment in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, as seen on April 10. (AFP/Getty Images)Ukrainian soldiers on the front line with Russian troops in Luhansk Oblast on April 11. (AFP/Getty Images)Olga Antonova cries next to the grave of civilian man who was killed by Russian soldiers on the street near her house few weeks ago in Bucha, near Kyiv, on April 4. Days later, Russian soldiers allowed her to bury the man in her yard. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)Thousands of people carrying banners and Ukrainian flags lie down on the ground to represent war victims during a protest against ongoing Russian attacks on Ukraine, in front of the German Federal Assembly in Berlin, Germany on April 6. (Getty Images)Residents run near a burning house following a shelling of Severodonetsk, Luhansk Oblast, on April 6, as Ukraine tells residents in the country's east to evacuate "now" or "risk death" ahead of a feared Russian onslaught on the Donbas region, which Moscow has declared its top prize. NATO believes Moscow aims to take control of the whole Donbas region in eastern Ukraine with the aim of creating a corridor from Russia to annexed Crimea. (AFP/Getty Images)Natalia Blyzniuk (L) and her sister Liudmila, local residents who spent last month in the city, take water from the river in the town of Borodyanka in Kyiv Oblast on April 6. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)A resident searches for the graves of relatives in a cemetery in Chernihiv, northern Ukraine, on April 5. Chernihiv, just 50 kilometres from the border with Belarus, was swiftly encircled in the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. City officials estimate around 350 civilians have been killed in Chernihiv since the start of the Russian invasion. (AFP/Getty Images)
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Luxury perfume seller David Crisp is alleged to have hidden over $2.1 million in illegal sales to Russia. He admitted on camera to "ignoring government edicts."
"The enemy is trying to break through to the south of Donetsk region, where Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts meet," Vladyslav Voloshyn, the spokesperson for the Ukrainian military's Southern Command, said on Nov. 24.
"The world has air defense systems capable of countering such threats," Zelensky said, referring to Russia's new Oreshnik ballistic missile. Experts are currently analyzing the wreckage of the weapon, he said.
"We need to restore deterrence, restore peace, and get ahead of this escalation ladder, rather than responding to it," Mike Waltz, Trump's nominee for national security adviser, said on Nov. 24.
According to the report, at around 6 p.m. on Nov. 21, Russian soldiers entered an apartment in a residential area of Toretsk and "deliberately" opened fire with automatic weapons on three civilians.
Over the past week, Russia has launched over 800 KAB-guided aerial bombs, nearly 460 attack drones, and more than 20 missiles, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Nov. 24.
Ukraine shot down 50 of the 73 drones launched by Russia overnight on Nov. 24, the Air Force reported. There have been no reports of casualties or damage.
According to the report, Russia has also lost 9,423 tanks, 19,209 armored fighting vehicles, 29,864 vehicles and fuel tanks, 20,765 artillery systems, 1,254 multiple launch rocket systems, 1,004 air defense systems, 369 airplanes, 329 helicopters, 19,366 drones, 28 ships and boats, and one submarine.
"A Ukrainian victory will serve as the most effective deterrent to future aggression," former Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said during the Halifax International Security Forum on Nov. 23.
As Vladimir Putin boasted the new Oreshnik nuclear-capable intermediate-range ballistic missile, sparking renewed fears of nuclear escalation, an independent Russian outlet, Mediazona, reported nearly 2,700 additional Russian military deaths in Ukraine over the past two weeks.
In 2024, Russia launched around 60 North Korean KN-23 missiles, accounting for nearly one-third of the 194 ballistic missile strikes tracked by Ukraine’s Air Force.
President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized Group of 20 (G20) leaders on Nov. 23 following the most recent summit in Brazil, adding that Brazilian President Lula da Silva, the current holder of the G20 Presidency, showed a "weak position" on Russia's war in Ukraine.
Russia has damaged 321 port infrastructure facilities, as well as 20 foreign merchant vessels since July 2023, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Nov. 23 at the International Conference on Food Security in Kyiv.
France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told the BBC in an excerpt of an interview published on Nov. 23 that Western allies should "not set and express red lines" on providing Ukraine with military support against Russian aggression.
Ukraine has lost over 40 per cent of the territory it previously gained in Russia's Kursk Oblast due to Russian counterattacks, Reuters reported on Nov. 23, citing a source in Ukraine's General Staff.
"When robots began to appear massively on the battlefield, they made any movement of soldiers impossible. The inability to fight robots led to a standstill. We couldn’t move forward towards the Russians, and the Russians, accordingly, couldn’t move forward either," Zaluzhnyi said.
"Yes, that is also the position of the EU Parliament," Metsola said, as quoted by FAZ. "There is broad support for this demand. We will see whether there will be a corresponding change of course after the (German) federal election."
