Ukraine

World News

Russia withdraws its troops from a key city encircled by Ukrainian forces

2:13pm October 01, 2022

by The Associated Press

Russia pulled troops out Saturday from the eastern Ukrainian city of Lyman, which it had been using as a front-line hub. It was the latest victory for the Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Tourists by the boulevard at a Black Sea resort in Odesa, Ukraine, on Sept. 3. Tourists are not allowed to enter the public beach due to the presence of land mines and other explosives.

World News

With Ukraine at war, officials hope to bring tourism back to areas away from fighting

7:25am October 01, 2022

by Ashley Westerman

The war displaced millions of Ukrainians. But officials are trying to entice citizens to travel around the country for pleasure again.

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A view of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant and the Dnipro river on the other side of Nikopol, Ukraine, on Aug, 22, 2022.

World News

Russia accused of 'kidnapping' head of Ukraine nuclear plant

7:02am October 01, 2022

by The Associated Press

Russian forces seized the director-general of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant on Friday, Ukrainian state nuclear company Energoatom said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin gives a speech during a ceremony formally annexing four regions of Ukraine Russian troops occupy, at the Kremlin in Moscow on Friday.

Putin illegally annexes territories in Ukraine, in spite of global opposition

3:53pm September 30, 2022

by Charles Maynes

The Russian president signed what he calls "accession treaties" that world powers refuse to recognize. It's his latest attempt to redraw the map of Europe at Ukraine's expense.

Russian soldiers stand on Red Square in central Moscow on Thursday as the square is sealed off prior to a ceremony for the alleged incorporation of new territories into Russia. Banners on the stage read: "Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson — Russia!"

World News

Putin plans to formally annex 4 regions from Ukraine Friday

10:07am September 29, 2022

by Charles Maynes

The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to formally annex four territories from Ukraine on Friday, following staged referendums that were condemned by the West.

A soldier who was formerly an IT entrepreneur and asked to be identified only by his call sign "Arun" manning a checkpoint in Borshchova, in northeastern Ukraine, on Friday. Ukrainian troops took back the area from Russian forces earlier this month.

World News

Ukraine's offensive in Kharkiv was hard and bitter, say soldiers who did the fighting

7:46am September 29, 2022

by Jason Beaubien

While Ukraine's counteroffensive this month was hailed as stunning by military observers, Ukrainian troops tell NPR that Russian forces put up stiff resistance in parts of the Kharkiv region.

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Jewish pilgrims gather at a lake to perform Tashlikh, an atonement ritual that involves symbolically casting one's sins into a body of water, during the Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage to Rabbi Nachman's tomb in Uman, Ukraine on Monday. Despite Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a reported 23,000 adherents made the trip, which was complicated by the grounding of civilian aviation throughout Ukraine.

War didn't stop Hasidic pilgrims from gathering in Ukraine for the Jewish new year

4:31pm September 28, 2022

Orthodox Jews gathered in Uman to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, at the tomb of a rabbi who preached his vision of a joy-filled life in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

A man glues a referendum poster reading "Yes" in Berdyansk, Ukraine, on Monday.

World News

With staged referendums in Ukraine complete, Russia begins the annexation process

9:39am September 28, 2022

by Charles Maynes

Separatist leaders in occupied areas of Ukraine moved to join the Russian Federation — after claiming that the people there had chosen to join Russia, in referendums denounced by the West as a sham.

Konstantin Ivashchenko, former CEO of the Azovmash plant and appointed pro-Russian mayor of Mariupol, visits a polling station as people vote in a referendum in Mariupol on Tuesday.

World News

Occupied regions of Ukraine vote to join Russia in staged referendums

6:23pm September 27, 2022

The so-called referendums — which Ukraine, the U.S. and others have denounced as shams — are widely viewed as an initial Kremlin move toward formal Russian annexation of the territories.

Police officers detain a man in Moscow on Wednesday, following calls to protest against mobilization announced by President Vladimir Putin.

World News

Ukraine war updates: Regions vote on joining Russia, Putin orders a draft (Sept. 26)

12:31pm September 26, 2022

by NPR Staff

Catch up on key developments and the latest in-depth coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.