World

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

Shuffling down the street with a neighbour, 78-year-old Natalia recalled her encounter with Russian troops who took control of her town, Bucha, outside Kyiv.  They broke into her home, smashed a window and then one soldier threatened to shoot her. “I said: ‘OK, shoot me, if that’s why your mother gave birth to you, you

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

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has said “atrocities” in Bucha need to be investigated as war crimes after images emerged of Ukrainian civilians lying dead on the streets of the city near Kyiv. Residents of Bucha said the people were killed by Russian soldiers without any apparent provocation, while Russia has not commented on the claims.

It is a miracle 13-year-old Sophia is still alive. The schoolgirl was left with a piece of shrapnel the size of a peanut embedded in her brain following a Russian attack on her village in southern Ukraine last month. She is now recovering in the country’s top children’s hospital in Kyiv, her head shaven and

Russia has accused Ukraine of carrying out an air strike on an oil depot in Belgorod, a Russian city close to the Ukrainian border.   This is the first accusation of a Ukrainian air strike on Russian soil since the war between the two countries began on 24 February. A number of videos appearing to

Moscow is redeploying forces to Ukraine from Russian-backed breakaway regions in Georgia, according to British defence officials. The Ministry of Defence said that between 1,200 and 2,000 of these Russian troops are being organised into three battalion tactical groups. “It is highly unlikely that Russia planned to generate reinforcement in this manner, and it is