The Washington Post

Russia-Ukraine energy war roars back into action after mediation fails

Ukrainian forces struck two oil depots within Russia overnight, while Moscow on Thursday launched the third major aerial attack on Ukraine this week — the latest in strikes by the two sides on each other’s energy infrastructure, causing electricity cutoffs throughout Ukraine and raising the prospect increased international energy prices.

The attacks take place just weeks after Kyiv and Moscow were believed to be on the verge of an agreement to halt infrastructure attacks, diplomats and officials said. Instead, the two sides have resumed bombarding each other’s power plants and fuel refineries, in an escalatory struggle that in addition to its international effects could lead to a bleak winter for Ukraine.

The attacks also come as Ukraine has been pushing for a lifting of the restrictions on the long-range weapons it has received from its Western partners so it can hit more targets inside Russia.

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Telegram CEO Durov indicted in France, banned from leaving country

French prosecutors indicted the chief executive of popular messaging service Telegram Wednesday on charges of complicity in the distribution of child sex abuse images, aiding organized crime and refusing lawful orders to give information to law enforcement.

Prosecutors charged Pavel Durov with multiple offenses after four days of questioning following his arrest at an airport near Paris, ordering him to put up a 5 million euro bond and barring him from leaving France.

The billionaire founder’s case is an unprecedented test of the power of governments over multinational tech companies operating under widely varying laws around the world. Durov’s Telegram is unusual for being run from a nonaligned Middle Eastern country, the United Arab Emirates, and for declaring that it shares nothing with authorities anywhere.

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Ukraine’s Zelensky says incursion into Russia part of plan to end war

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday that this month’s lightning-fast incursion into Russia — where almost 600 Russian soldiers have been captured so far — is part of a larger plan to end the war in his country.

Speaking at a news conference of top officials, Zelensky said he had no plans to permanently annex the region and will present his plan to President Joe Biden — along with presidential candidates Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump — this fall.

“The main point … is forcing Russia to end the war,” Zelensky said. “We really want justice for Ukraine. And if this plan is accepted — and second, if it is executed — we believe that the main goal will be reached.”

He declined to provide details of his plan.

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Russia hits targets across Ukraine, including Kyiv, causing power outages

Russia launched a major missile attack across Ukraine early Monday morning, hammering locations in the country’s east and west, killing at least four and injuring scores, and putting massive strains on Ukraine’s energy grid.

Ukraine celebrated independence from the Soviet Union on Saturday, and some form of Russian attack around the date had been widely expected, including in warnings from the U.S. Embassy.

The bombardment, which hit at least 15 regions across the country, followed an overnight drone attack against Kyiv and the surrounding region, as well as missiles attacks over the weekend that killed a security adviser working for the Reuters news agency and injured two others in eastern Ukraine.

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Telegram founder Pavel Durov detained in France

Russian-born tech mogul Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of the popular platform Telegram, has been detained in France, French authorities confirmed Sunday. According to French media, his detention is related to alleged offenses regarding the social media app.

The Russian Embassy in Paris said early Sunday that it had requested consular access to Durov and demanded that French authorities “ensure the protection of his rights.”

“As of today, the French side has so far avoided cooperation on this issue,” the embassy said in a statement posted on Telegram, adding that officials are in touch with Durov’s lawyer.

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Ukraine has captured scores of Russian soldiers in Kursk offensive, videos show

Ukrainian forces have captured more than 240 Russian soldiers since their surprise invasion of Russia’s Kursk region this month, according to an analysis of visual evidence that includes mass detentions of young troops appearing to surrender without resistance.

The Washington Post reviewed more than 130 photos and videos taken since the incursion began Aug. 6, most of which appear to have been filmed by Ukrainian soldiers and shared on social media. The analysis also included photos taken by a Post photographer at a prison housing captured Russian soldiers in Ukraine. The verified visuals depict at least 247 Russian prisoners and support Ukrainian officials’ claims to have captured hundreds of Russians during the incursion.

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Ukraine keeps crossing Russia’s red lines. Putin keeps blinking.

Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion keeps crossing President Vladimir Putin’s red lines.

Kyiv’s lightning incursion into Kursk in western Russia this month slashed through the reddest line of all — a direct ground assault on Russia — yet Putin’s response has so far been strikingly passive and muted, in sharp contrast to his rhetoric earlier in the war.

On day one of the invasion in February 2022, Putin warned that any country that stood in Russia’s way would face consequences “such as you have never seen in your entire history,” a threat that seemed directed at countries that might arm Ukraine.

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Ukrainians cheer push into Russia but fear it comes at the cost of the east

As Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia stretches into its third week and increasingly looks like a prolonged operation, ordinary Ukrainians are becoming conflicted over the possible cost of the cross-border offensive.

On the one hand, the assault has brought the war to Russian territory, turning the tables more than two years after Russia invaded Ukraine — displacing millions, destroying towns and forcing many people to live under an oppressive occupation. But as Moscow’s forces continue to gain ground in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region around the strategic town of Pokrovsk, some are questioning why Kyiv is devoting so many resources to taking Russian land rather than defending its own.

It’s a dilemma President Volodymyr Zelensky is facing as he and his military command have committed precious personnel and weaponry.

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In Ukraine-controlled Sudzha, stranded Russian civilians question what’s next

The blue and yellow lines painted on two signposts at the entrance to this Russian town offered unmistakable evidence that some citizens of Russia are living under Kyiv’s control and Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine is really not going as planned.

On Saturday afternoon, 11 days after Ukrainian forces crossed into this Russian border region, soldiers patrolled Sudzha’s damaged streets with bright blue tape on their arms, scanning the sky for incoming drones. Graffiti covered the front of a store, renaming it “ATB,” a popular Ukrainian grocery chain. Russian flags had been removed from administration buildings, but blue-and-yellow Ukrainian ones were not flying.

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Russia closes in on Donetsk city despite Ukraine’s successes elsewhere

The successes Ukraine has announced in its two-week old incursion into Russia have not stopped the steady drive of Moscow’s forces into the eastern part of the country, forcing the evacuation of a key logistical hub Monday.

Officials in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk say that they are evacuating the population in case it falls to the Russian advance, which is now less than six miles from the city limits.

“[Russian forces] are moving toward the outskirts of Pokrovsk. We see — it is no secret,” said Katerina Yanzhula, head of information policy in the Pokrovsk military administration, by telephone, adding that it was unclear how much longer the city could hold out. “Maybe the situation there will somehow change — we hope that the enemy will stop somewhere on the approaches to Pokrovsk, that our troops will repel them.”

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Analysis: Kremlin response to Kursk incursion shows how Putin freezes in a crisis

Faced with crisis, Vladimir Putin tends to freeze.

Moscow’s slow, fumbling military response to Ukraine’s surprise occupation of parts of the western Kursk region is the latest example of the Kremlin chief failing to respond with quick, decisive action to match his bellicose rhetoric.

The Kursk incursion is the fourth major blow to Putin’s authority since his February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and highlights the weaknesses of a top-down autocracy that operates largely on fear and punishment.

In each case — after Russia’s failure to topple the Ukrainian government at the start of the invasion, after the Wagner mercenary boss Yevgeniy Prigozhin led a rebellion against the regular Russia military command and after Islamist extremists struck the popular Crocus City Hall concert venue — the Kremlin’s response has been halting, with Putin waiting 24 hours or more to offer any public comment.

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Exclusive: Ukraine’s offensive derails secret efforts for partial cease-fire with Russia, officials say

KYIV — Ukraine and Russia were set to send delegations to Doha this month to negotiate a landmark agreement halting strikes on energy and power infrastructure on both sides, diplomats and officials familiar with the discussions said, in what would have amounted to a partial cease-fire and offered a reprieve for both countries.

But the indirect talks, with the Qataris serving as mediators and meeting separately with the Ukrainian and Russian delegations, were derailed by Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia’s western Kursk region last week, according to the officials. The possible agreement and planned summit have not been previously reported.

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Ukraine says it has taken 100 more Russian soldiers in Kursk offensive

Ukraine’s intelligence service announced Thursday the capture of another 100 Russian soldiers during its 10-day-old incursion into the Kursk region, describing it as the “largest mass capture” of enemy soldiers at one time, amid talk they will be exchanged for Ukrainian captives.

A Ukrainian official said Russia has been in contact about a prisoner swap — something it had promised to discontinue after the incursion into the southern Kursk region took place.

Ukraine’s stunning move into Russia — the first such attack on the nation since World War II — appears to mark a major improvement in Kyiv’s position after a summer of steady losses.

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Ukraine unleashes attacks on Russian airfields amid Kursk offensive

Ukraine’s military mounted its largest drone attack on Russian airfields since the 2022 invasion, targeting four key sites deep inside Russian territory with dozens of drones overnight, as its forces continued their advance in the Kursk region of southern Russia.

After rushing reinforcements to Kursk and announcing a “counterterrorism” operation led by top commanders, Russian forces have failed to halt the nine-day incursion, despite daily announcements from military officials that Ukrainian forces had been stopped.

A Ukrainian intelligence official said that Kyiv attacked an air base in Savasleyka, more than 400 miles from the Ukrainian border, near Nizhny Novgorod. The base houses MiG-31 warplanes that launch Kinzhal missiles, among Russia’s most advanced weapons. About 10 explosions were reported at the base, according to Russian independent media, quoting locals.

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Ukraine says captured Russian soldiers could be part of prisoner exchange

KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his top military commander boasted Tuesday of continued success in Ukraine’s surprise incursion into western Russia, claiming further territorial gains and the capture of Russian forces whom Zelensky said could be exchanged for Ukrainian prisoners of war.

The statements from Zelensky and Oleksandr Syrsky, made a day after Zelensky for the first time acknowledged the ongoing operations in Kursk, seemed to imply that the thrust into Russian territory was part of a strategy for future negotiations and not an indefinite occupation.

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Russians evacuated from Kursk, as Putin grapples with Ukrainian incursion

Nearly a week into a stunning Ukrainian incursion into western Russia, the acting governor of the Kursk region, Alexei Smirnov, told President Vladimir Putin and other security officials Monday the situation is “complicated,” with Kyiv’s forces having advanced 7½ miles into the country and now in control of more than two dozen villages.

“As of today, the enemy is in control of 28 communities, having advanced 12 kilometers into the Kursk region on a 40-kilometer-wide front,” Smirnov said, speaking via video conference. “For us, the problem is that there is no clear front line, no understanding of where the (Ukrainian) combat units are. It is very important to know where the enemy is and at what time.”

Putin, who convened the operational meeting with top security officials Monday, demanded that the military eject Ukrainian forces from Kursk and insisted that Russia would prevail.

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The rescue worker and the opera star: Love and fear in wartime Ukraine

As Russia pummels Kharkiv with drones, missiles and glide bombs, Oleksii Skorlupin and his wife are each working to keep their city alive — in their own, very different ways.

He is a rescue worker who digs civilians out from rubble after Russian attacks. His wife, Yulia Antonova, is the lead singer of the Kharkiv Opera, performing for locals on a basement stage.

Under constant threat of airstrikes, the couple are raising their two young children in the vulnerable northeastern city, far from their hometowns and while separated from their parents and other relatives who are living under Russian occupation in Crimea and the southeastern city of Melitopol.

As Ukraine braces for international pressure to negotiate with Russia, the experience of people like Skorlupin and Antonova defies Russian President Vladimir Putin’s narrative that the land he aims to conquer belongs to Moscow.

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