The Ukrainian Navy patrol boat zipped across the Black Sea, its double-barreled, 25-millimeter machine gun locked on the horizon. The enemy, Russia, was nowhere in sight, yet ever-present. In the command room, Captain Mykhailo and his crew scanned screens showing color-coded zones marking Russian mine-laden waters and red arrows tracking …
A Ukrainian geologist was shopping in his local market recently for pork belly, lard, salmon and grapes when he heard the shouts of a man who seemed drunk, complaining about President Volodymyr Zelensky. “Why didn’t Zelensky ask us before giving away our minerals to the Americans?” he yelled. A woman …
On a Monday morning last fall, Ukrainian drone pilots watched what had become a familiar scene unfold on a drone’s live feed: Russian soldiers pointed their guns at two Ukrainians, who seemingly surrendered. Then, the footage showed, the Russians shot them point blank. The video, provided by a pilot who …
The White House, for two months, has warmly embraced the Kremlin. But President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has given little in return, despite his professed willingness to cooperate. His forces have carried on bombarding Ukraine, both on the front and deep into the Ukrainian heartland. He has barely budged …
The French naval patrol plane descended rapidly through the clouds, leveling off at 900 feet above the Baltic Sea, practically skimming the waves. The target was a Russian warship, which came into view off the plane’s port side, dark gray against a light gray horizon. The aircraft, an Atlantique 2 …
If progress in ending the war in Ukraine requires cohesion between allies, there seems to be little or none for now. A flurry of diplomatic talks this week did less to advance a truce, let alone a peace, than to illustrate the uneasy discord growing between Europe and the United …
Hunted by drones, stalked by snipers and surrounded by minefields, soldiers fighting in Ukraine can’t risk even a small lapse in concentration. That is why Col. Dmytro Palisa, commander of Ukraine’s 33rd Mechanized Brigade, instructs his soldiers to ignore speculation about a possible cease-fire. “They start relaxing, they start overthinking, …
European leaders have gotten the message from Washington about doing more for their own defense and for Ukraine, too. They are talking tough when it comes to supporting Ukraine and about protecting their own borders, and they are standing up to a demanding and even hostile Trump administration. But there …
Ukrainian and U.S. officials on Tuesday held a second session of negotiations in Saudi Arabia to discuss a possible limited cease-fire, a day after Russian and American delegations held similar discussions that lasted more than 12 hours. Kyiv and Moscow have been holding separate U.S.-mediated talks in Riyadh, the capital …
Eric Schmieman worked for 15 years on the modern engineering equivalent of the Great Pyramid — building a giant protective shield for a damaged reactor at Chernobyl that would protect the world from further fallout from the worst ever nuclear disaster. The steel shell, slid into place over Reactor No. …