#ukraine

#ukraine

On Friday the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has warned of a "potentially significant attack" across Ukraine over the next "several days." The British Foreign Office issued the warning on Friday and said, "Martial law is in place. Information has been received concerning a potentially significant air attack that may occur at any time over the next several days. "Follow the instructions of the Ukrainian authorities and check any measures in place in your location, as they will vary by region."

Their prepared "blackout mode" response provides some insight into how urban centers might steel themselves for energy crises in wartime, especially during cold months. Ukraine's winter can turn brutal in January and February, when temperatures typically drop to 18°F. Mass blackouts can also disrupt water and sewage systems, hospitals, public transportation, and road control, including traffic lights. Both Ukrainian troops and civilians have long learned to cope with frequent energy shortages in the winter, maintaining backup generators, battery-powered lamps, and stockpiles of coal or gas.

The current Government is about to take a billion pounds out of the Army this year, so I don't think we can sustain it and actually no one is fooled by it. We would be very stretched. We have a deployment in Estonia. We need to spend real money now, not in 2029, not in 2030, 2040. The OBR itself said that the British Government had not set out a path to 3.5% of GDP by 2035.

Ben Hodges said the proposed multinational force, discussed this week by the British and French leaders with Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Paris, had to be robust enough to deal with likely Kremlin-orchestrated provocations. The coalition of the willing has to have real force and rules of engagement that allow it to immediately react and respond to any violations, he said. Captains can't be having to call back to Paris or London to find out how to deal with a Russian drone.

The UK and France pledged boots on the ground once a peace deal is reached. On Tuesday, Ukraine got yet another push from its Western allies. A meeting of the coalition of the willing in Paris pledged full support for Kyiv in any future peace settlement to the ongoing war with Russia. The gathering stressed that Ukraine should be able to defend itself even after the fighting ends.

"We hope that during your presidency a lot of steps [can be taken] forward, closer to membership in the EU," Zelenskyy told Christodoulides in televised remarks.

The announcement came after a summit in Paris hosted by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and attended by more than two dozen leaders of the states that make up the coalition of the willing of Ukrainian allies, plus the US envoy Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, who said the US president strongly stands behind the security protocols.

Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has named Canada's former finance minister Chrystia Freeland as an adviser on economic development, a move he says will help strengthen the internal resilience of the war-torn nation. Chrystia is highly skilled in these matters and has extensive experience in attracting investment and implementing economic transformations, he wrote on social media. Right now, Ukraine needs to strengthen its internal resilience both for the sake of Ukraine's recovery if diplomacy delivers results as swiftly as possible,

In a social media post released on January 2, just hours after his nomination first appeared publicly, Budanov -- who heads the military intelligence agency known as HUR -- said he would accept the new position."It is an honor and a responsibility, at a historic time for Ukraine, to focus on critically important issues of the strategic security of our state," he said in a Telegram post .

The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, has praised his troops fighting abroad as forging an invincible alliance with Russia in a new year's message, state media said on Thursday. Pyongyang has sent thousands of troops to support Russia's nearly four-year invasion of Ukraine, according to South Korean and western intelligence agencies. At least 600 have died and thousands more have sustained injuries, according to South Korean estimates.

He's headed to villages where, owing to increasing exposure to Russian fire, only a fraction of residents remain. The war has cut them off from regular services. They no longer receive mail, and Russian transmitters often overpower or interfere with their Ukrainian mobile-phone signals. Before large-scale signal jamming was introduced to counter drones, Russian television and radio channels were accessible on televisions and radios in border-area communities.

POBUZKE, Ukraine In the middle of vast farm fields in southern Ukraine, you'll find what was once a secret Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile launch site. Today it's the Museum of Strategic Missile Forces. Aside from chronicling the Cold War arms race between the Soviet Union and United States, the museum tells the story of how Ukraine dismantled its nuclear weapons arsenal with assurances from the U.S., Britain and Russia that its sovereignty would be respected shortly after becoming an independent country in 1991.

Ukraine's leading anti-corruption agencies said they were investigating alleged vote-buying by members of parliament, and that security services were hindering efforts to conduct searches. The probe, announced December 27, was the latest in a series of investigations by the two agencies -- the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine -- that have roiled politics inside Ukraine.

Zelenskyy said Ukrainian intelligence had observed that Belarus was deploying equipment in Belarusian settlements near the border, including on residential buildings to assist Russian forces in carrying out their attacks. Antennae and other equipment are located on the roofs of ordinary five-storey apartment buildings, which help guide Shaheds' [Russian drones] to targets in our western regions, he said. This is an absolute disregard for human lives, and it is important that Minsk stops playing with this, he added.

In pursuit of peace, the Trump administration is pushing Ukraine to bend to maximalist Kremlin demands that Russia has failed to impose militarily, while promising Kyiv "platinum standard" security guarantees to sweeten the deal. This approach is unlikely to succeed - and may prove harmful. The administration would be wise to focus instead on pressing Russia to soften its terms.

Turner, a career Foreign Office official with nearly three decades of experience across Whitehall and overseas postings, will take up one of Britain's most senior diplomatic roles at a pivotal moment in the transatlantic relationship. His appointment follows the departure of Mandelson, who was removed by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer after evidence emerged of his continued association with the late Jeffrey Epstein.

A U.S. government that defends the free expression of the far right. That is obsequious to Russia and appeases China. A government for whom the villains are the soft liberal democracies of Europe, and an invaded country, Ukraine, is as guilty of its occupation as the aggressor, Moscow. This is not a dystopia created by George Orwell in 1984 or Philip K. Dick in The Man in the High Castle.

Divia, which had its world premiere at the 2025 Karlovy Vary Film Festival, is a haunting, meditative journey through Ukraine's wounded landscapes-told entirely without dialogue.