World

One image dominates Ukrainian news sites this morning. The photograph of a dishevelled, handcuffed man in his 60s wearing army camouflage was posted on Instagram by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last night. His name is Viktor Medvedchuk, he’s a central character in the story of Ukraine’s recent political history and he’s never been seen like

Russia is concentrating its firepower on the southeast of Ukraine in a new phase of the war that could see up to three times as many Russian troops in the Donbas region. Ukraine’s military, after defeating a Russian attempt to storm the capital Kyiv and forcing Russian soldiers to withdraw from across the north of

The UK is “working urgently” to verify details following unconfirmed reports of a Russian chemical attack in a besieged city in Ukraine, the foreign secretary has said. Liz Truss said any confirmed use of chemical weapons in Mariupol would be a “callous escalation” of the war. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, used his nightly video address

Those willing to squeeze into Yuri’s yellow school bus have made a choice not just to leave Russian-occupied Kherson, but also to leave nearly everything they have. Many stand for the 135km journey in the vehicle that is as crammed full as a lifeboat on the Titanic: There are few drivers, like Yuri, who are

Russia could launch a full-scale military offensive in the east of Ukraine within days, despite questions about the ability of its demoralised soldiers. Russian-backed separatists have been fighting Ukraine in the eastern Donbas region since 2014 and parts of the industrial region are under Russian control. Ukraine is believed to have tens of thousands of

French President Emmanuel Macron will face far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in the presidential elections after making it through the first round. According to the official Ipsos exit poll, the president secured 28.1% of the vote and his rival won 23.3%. French voters will go to the polls again on 24 April to decide whether

Ukraine is bracing itself for a “hard battle” to come as Russian forces continue amassing in the east of the country, with officials urging civilians to flee. While the threat to the capital Kyiv has receded, it is rising in the east, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned. “This will be a hard battle, we believe in

A missile that exploded near a Ukrainian railway station, which officials claim killed at least 39 people, had the words ‘for’ and ‘children’ painted on it in Russian. Up to 4,000 people – believed to be largely women and children – were at Kramatorsk station on Friday morning when the blast hit. The grammar of

Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy has demanded a “firm global response” as he blamed Russian forces for a missile strike near a railway station which killed at least 50 people, with the UK set to provide fresh military aid to his country. The UK will send armoured vehicles to Ukraine for the first time as part of

We turned up in Barvinkove looking for the hard-pressed town mayor. He had promised to tell us about plans to evacuate residents from this war-threatened area. The Russian military has made a series of gains in the east as they try to encircle Ukrainian troops in cities such as Kramatorsk and Slavyansk. After a series

More than 30 people have been killed and over 100 wounded in a Russian rocket attack on a railway station in eastern Ukraine, according to local officials. Thousands of civilians were at Kramatorsk railway station trying to evacuate to safer regions in the war-ravaged country, the governor of the Donetsk region said. The Kremlin has

Vladimir Putin’s spokesman has denied Russia has carried out war crimes in Ukraine as he told Sky News we are “living during days of fakes and lies” – but admitted the “significant” loss of Russian troops is a “tragedy”. Dmitry Peskov, in his first broadcast interview with Western media, said verified photos and satellite images

Ukraine can “absolutely” win the war against Russia as Moscow continues to struggle to make key breakthroughs, the Pentagon has said. Russian leader Vladimir Putin “has achieved zero of his strategic goals” and is “really only taking control of a small number of population centres”, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said. It comes as US officials

The General Staff of the Ukraine’s Armed Forces has warned that the Russians are now preparing an “aggressive” assault on the towns and cities of eastern Ukraine. However, the war has already arrived in Severodonetsk. After five weeks of fighting, this Ukrainian city of more than 100,000 people has become a shadow of its former

Some 1,200 war crimes have already been registered in the Kyiv region following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the capital’s police chief has said. Andriy Nebitov did not specify what each of the war crimes were nor how many people they involved. However, he told Sky News in an interview on Tuesday that most of the

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Russia wants to turn Ukrainians into “silent slaves” as he told the UN Security Council that Vladimir Putin’s forces must be brought to justice. The Ukrainian president was addressing the United Nations Security Council and said that Russia is “pursuing its policy of destroying ethnic and religious diversity during its

Millions of people in Shanghai will continue to live under lockdown rules after officials reversed plans to ease COVID restrictions. A two-stage lockdown was imposed last week in China‘s financial centre after the city’s largest coronavirus outbreak. Officials had planned to lift a lockdown in the city’s western districts today, but the restrictions have now

Wearing plastic gloves and a face mask, Serhij Matuyk has seen horror beyond description over the past month. His job is to retrieve and bury bodies in the Ukrainian town of Bucha where evidence has emerged of possible war crimes by Russian forces. “They are b******s,” he said, standing by a large white van, waiting

Russian soldiers have been accused of carrying out “genocide” in the Ukrainian town of Bucha amid harrowing evidence of mass graves, torture and bodies lying in the streets as Kremlin forces pull back from Kyiv. Ukraine officials say some victims were shot in the head with their hands tied behind their back and there has been

The Russian military has dug up Chernobyl’s poisonous legacy and potentially dispersed it into Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, say Ukrainian officials. Russia occupied the site of the 1986 nuclear disaster early in their invasion with 1,500 troops and armoured vehicles. The soil is heavily contaminated but, despite that, Russian troops were ordered to dig defensive