U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff recently claimed that the majority of people in Ukraine's Russian-occupied territories had participated in referendums and "indicated that they want to be under Russian rule." Witkoff's claim is false in many ways. Witkoff referred to the Russian sham vote on the annexation of Ukraine's
The "referendums ... were completely fraudulent and at gunpoint," European Commission spokesperson Anita Hipper said on March 24.
A Kremlin-linked official told the Moscow Times that Vladimir Putin cannot afford to lose these territories politically, and Russia intends to solidify its grip on them at any cost.
Several dead Russian soldiers are shown in the video, although the Brigade did not confirm the number of fatalities and casualties.
According to President Vladimir Putin's decree, Ukrainian citizens residing in Russia and occupied Ukrainian territories must leave by Sept. 10 or "regulate their legal status."
Russia sees Ukraine's Constitution as an "obstacle" to peace efforts as it does not permit territorial changes, Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu said on March 19, according to state-owned TASS news agency.
"There are regions, there are cities and towns that are cut off by one or another contact line, and if in some places you leave this line, you will simply leave these cities or towns without life; no one will return to half of the city," President Volodymyr Zelensky said, comparing such cities to divided Berlin during the Cold War.
"Water supply, technical staff, and many more steps to ensure that in a year and a half to two and a half, the plant starts to bring money and electricity to people. This is my vision," President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Some officials believe that even if Russia agrees to a temporary truce, Moscow will use the pause to rearm, violate the agreement, and create provocations to blame on Ukraine.
"Yeah, we’ve had conversations," U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said when asked about potential discussions regarding Ukraine ceding territory.
According to a poll conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) at the request of the Kyiv Independent, 47.1% of Ukrainians consider it "completely unacceptable" to agree to territorial concessions and give up on NATO membership as a prerequisite to ending the war. Only 8.2% said they would "easily agree" to this scenario.
According to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, 87% of Ukrainians believe that Russia intends to continue its aggression beyond the currently occupied territories.
A Russian woman, Olga Dorokhina, took a 4-year-old girl from the occupied part of Kherson Oblast and plans to adopt her, according to an investigation by Ukrainian media outlet Suspilne published on March 10.
Half of the human beings alive today are descended from the Yamnaya, a group that lived in what is now Ukraine 5,000 years ago, according to new DNA research led by David Reich, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School.
Abkhazia, an occupied region internationally recognized as part of Georgia, has been under de facto Russian control since the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia.
The statement came hours after Russian occupation authorities claimed that a rotation of IAEA personnel had taken place through Russian-controlled territory.
Key developments on Feb. 25: * Ukraine, US reach agreement on minerals deal * Russia's war objectives 'not yet achieved,' Kremlin's ambassador says * Reclaiming occupied territories possible but 'not easy' for Ukraine, Trump claims * Ukraine needs $524 billion for recovery, reconstruction after 3 years of Russia's full-scale war * Russia's Ryazan oil
"The constitutional territories of Russia have not been liberated," Russian Foreign Ministry's Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik said on Feb. 25.
According to Reuters, one source familiar with Moscow discussions said Russia could agree to allocate up to two-thirds of frozen assets for Ukraine's reconstruction, provided accountability guarantees.
The intelligence agency accused Yevgeny Bogdanov, deputy head of Berdiasnk's occupation administration, of committing multiple war crimes against Ukrainian citizens.
The specter of nuclear war cast a long shadow over the 20th century, serving as a reminder of humanity's capacity for self-destruction. Now, as the world seems to shrug off Russia’s nuclear saber-rattling against Ukraine — and by extension, all of humanity — a haunting question calls for an answer: Have
As a platoon commander at the 76th Airborne Assault Division, Mussagaleyev allegedly participated in Russia's brutal occupation of Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv, in February and March 2022, according to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). Hundreds of civilians were massacred by Russian troops in Bucha at the time.
The appeal comes as IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi visits Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian officials before heading to Moscow to discuss the situation with Russian authorities.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law banning "childfree propaganda" in November last year.
Somewhere in the streets of Russian-occupied Simferopol, the capital of Crimea, a woman puts a sticker on the wall. It’s a short message, but if she is seen doing it, she will face arrest, prosecution, and likely, torture. The message is: "Soon, we will be home again." On another
The survey also found over half of respondents regard Donald Trump's presidency positively.
Last winter as Olena Morozova braced for a long and arduous trip to Ukrainian-controlled territory from her Russian-occupied home in Lysychansk in Luhansk Oblast, her friends were traveling in the opposite direction. The friends — a family with two sons — came back to their house in Lysychansk because they couldn’t
Ukrainian-born Oleksandr Yakushchenko, 18, who was deported from the Russian-occupied Kherson Oblast in 2022, was found dead after allegedly committing suicide on Jan. 10, 2024 near his foster home in Russia.
A Russian-controlled court in occupied Donetsk Oblast sentenced 20-year-old Mikhail Karimov, a resident of Mariupol, to 11 years in a strict regime penal colony, Mariupol City Council reported on Dec. 12.
In the sixth episode of Dare to Ukraine, we gain rare access to the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, known globally as the site of the catastrophic 1986 nuclear disaster and one of the most radioactive places on Earth.
Nearly 5,500 residents of Russian-occupied Crimea were mobilized into the Russian army in 2024, according to the report of the Mission of the President of Ukraine in Crimea, published on Dec. 4.
Yevhenii Matvieiev, the mayor of the occupied Dniprorudne town, was tortured to death in Russian captivity, Zaporizhzhia Oblast Governor Ivan Fedorov said on his Telegram channel on Dec. 4.
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