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The girl was killed after one of 100 drones fired by Russia overnight hit a residential building in Samarivskyi district in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine’s emergency service said.
The Kremlin announced Russia would observe a 72-hour ceasefire next weekend, starting from 8 May and lasting until the close of 10 May, as Moscow wants to mark the 80th anniversary of victory in the Second World War.
“For some reason everyone is supposed to wait until 8 May before ceasing fire – just to provide Putin with silence for his parade,” Mr Zelensky said on X last night. "If Russia truly wants peace, it must cease fire immediately," Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said.
The Institute for the Study of War said Mr Putin was leveraging unilateral ceasefires for informational and battlefield advantages in Ukraine.
Why Crimea matters so much to Putin – and now Trump
Crimea is footnoted in British history for the Earl of Cardigan and his disastrous leading of the Charge of the Light Brigade. To Vladimir Putin it’s where history itself must turn.
Of all the 20 per cent of Ukraine’s territory taken after Russia invaded Crimea 11 years ago and launched its wider Anschluss in 2022, Crimea is the greatest Russian prize.
Whoever controls Sevastopol is likely to dominate the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Outside of Tartus, in Syria, which Russia lost recently, it is – or was – Russia’s only warm-weather port.
Moscow’s claim to Crimea has been undermined by the fact that it was ceded to Ukraine under the Soviet Union in 1954.
Arpan Rai29 April 2025 13:00
Child killed in Russian drone attack in central Ukraine, say officials
A 12-year-old girl has died in a Russian drone attack in central Ukraine, according to officials in the war-torn country.
The drone hit a residential building in Samarivskyi district in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine’s emergency service said.
Locals pulled the girl from the rubble of the building, but she died en route to hospital, the service said.
It posted photos of emergency workers sifting through the wreckage of the building.
Arpan Rai29 April 2025 12:45
Why Putin’s latest ceasefire raises immediate suspicion
Less than two days after US president Donald Trump lashed out at Vladimir Putin for “tapping me along” over a peace deal, the Russian president has announced another temporary ceasefire – this one scheduled to last three days.
His grand declaration raised immediate suspicion over whether this was yet another stalling tactic from the most conniving of dictators. One designed to keep an increasingly frustrated White House happy: Mr Trump’s top diplomat has even talked this week of pulling out of the entire negotiating process.
The news was met in Ukraine with a large dose of scepticism. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky even accused Mr Putin of “yet another round of Russian manipulation” to appease Mr Trump.
Kyiv, which has previously agreed to Trump’s proposal of a 30-day full ceasefire, accused Moscow of violating a similar temporary truce during Easter.
Mr Zelensky charged Russia with cynically using that pause to advance, saying Russian assaults persisted on multiple fronts, artillery fire did not subside, and attacks on energy infrastructure were relentless.
Arpan Rai29 April 2025 12:30
Ukraine won't win the war against Russia, says JD Vance
US vice president JD Vance has said Ukraine will not win the war against Russia as he claimed that a peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv is not “necessarily guaranteed”.
"Sometimes you're incredibly frustrated with the Ukrainians, sometimes you're incredibly frustrated with the Russians," Mr Vance said on the Charlie Kirk Show podcast.
"I can't say with 100 per cent certainty, Charlie, that we're going to be able to do it," he said, referring to a peace deal.
Mr Vance said that the US is "making progress" in the negotiations but a peace deal is not necessarily guaranteed.
“If this doesn’t stop, the Ukrainians aren’t winning the war,” the US vice president said.
“I think there’s this weird idea among the mainstream media that if this thing goes on for just another few years, the Russians will collapse, the Ukrainians will take their territory back, and everything will go back to the way that it was before the war. That is not the reality that we live in,” he said.
Arpan Rai29 April 2025 12:18
Russia claims its forces capture village in Ukraine's Kharkiv region
Russia’s troops have captured the village of Doroshivka in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region, the Russian defence ministry announced today.
In a daily update shared on its Telegram channel, the Russian defence ministry said: “As a result of active actions, units of the ‘West’ military group liberated the village of Doroshovka in the Kharkiv region.”
Ukraine has not issued a comment on the Russian claim over its territory.
According to the latest battlefield update shared by The Institute for the Study of War, a Ukrainian commander had reported more activity in the Kharkiv region from Russian forces in the past 24 hours.
“The commander reported that Russian forces are more actively conducting artillery strikes and assaults, including with mopeds, and that Russian forces have rotated troops in this direction, increasing the number of Russian forces and reserves,” the ISW said in its latest assessment.
Arpan Rai29 April 2025 11:59
Russia threatens new Nato members with nuclear weapons
A senior Russian security official has said Russia could strike the newest members of Nato with nuclear weapons.
Nato’s newest members – Finland and Sweden joined the bloc in 2023 and 2024 respectively – could be struck with revenge strikes using nuclear weapons in the event of a conflict, said Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former prime minister and current deputy of its security council.
“The non-aligned status gave them (Finland and Sweden) certain international perks, given their geopolitical position and many other factors,” the close aide of Mr Putin said.
“And now they are part of a bloc hostile to us which means they automatically became a target for our armed forces, including potential retaliatory strikes and even the nuclear component or preventive measures within the framework of a military doctrine,” Mr Medvedev said this morning.
Arpan Rai29 April 2025 11:42
Child killed in Russian drone attack in central Ukraine
A 12-year-old girl has died in a Russian drone attack in central Ukraine, according to officials in the war-torn country.
The drone hit a residential building in Samarivskyi district in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine’s emergency service said.
Locals pulled the girl from the rubble of the building, but she died en route to hospital, the service said.
It posted photos of emergency workers sifting through the wreckage of the building.
Arpan Rai29 April 2025 11:09
Ukraine evacuates families from Dnipropetrovsk oblast as Russian troops advance
Ukrainian officials have started evacuating families from Dnipropetrovsk Oblast as Russian forces are reportedly closing in on the region’s border.
Residents will be evacuated by vehicles and were asked to pack documents, money, medicine, water, and food for a few days, along with other necessities, reported The Kyiv Independent.
The evacuation will be carried out from the villages of Kolona Mezhova, Novopidhorodne, Raipole, and Sukhareva Balka in the Mezhova community, according to a mandatory order issued by governor Serhii Lysak.
Russian forces are reportedly at a distance between five to 15 km from the settlements near the administrative border between Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk oblast.
Arpan Rai29 April 2025 10:45
Nato's newer members now potential targets for Moscow, says Putin's aide
Nato’s newer members are now potential targets for Moscow, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said today.
The new entrants to the Atlantic alliance are also at risk of possible revenge strikes using nuclear weapons in the event of a conflict, Mr Medvedev said, reported Tass state news agency.
Sweden and Finland are the latest two counties to have joined the Western military alliance in March last year.
Russia had said it would adopt unspecified military-technical and other counter measures to protect itself against Sweden joining Nato.
Additionally, Poland has also been routinely threatened by Russia of potential attacks and has had to activate F-16 warplanes upon repeated breaches of its airspace by Russian aircraft. Poland became a member of Nato in 1999.
Arpan Rai29 April 2025 10:15
Russia's drone kills 12-year-old girl in Dnipropetrovsk region
Russia's overnight drone attack killed a 12-year-old girl in the Dnipropetrovsk region and injured her parents, Ukraine's emergency service said this morning.
Another child was rescued from underneath the rubble, the emergency service said in a post on social media.
An unspecified number of drones from Russia have targeted Ukrainian cities this morning.
Arpan Rai29 April 2025 09:50
English (US) ·