Author’s articles
The Ukrainian company Fire Point, which manufactures the Flamingo winged missile and long-range drones, has announced that it is in talks with European partners regarding the development of a new air defence system. The company states that it aims to reduce the cost of intercepting a ballistic missile to less than $1 million and to shoot down such a target for the first time by the end of 2027.
The Baltic states plan to speak out publicly against Russia’s participation in the 2026 Venice Biennale. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are not talking about a boycott, but are preparing joint actions during the exhibition itself to demonstrate their stance on the return of the Russian pavilion.
Ukraine is set to receive state-of-the-art Tridon Mk2 air defence systems from Sweden, designed to counter attack drones, cruise missiles, helicopters and aircraft. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence has stated that Sweden will allocate €400 million for the procurement of these systems.
The Security Service of Ukraine has formally charged the former head of an occupation prison in the Luhansk region in absentia. According to the investigation, he not only ordered the torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war, but also personally beat them with his hands, feet, a baton and a hammer, and used a stun gun.
Oleg Bondarenko, a Member of Parliament from the “Servant of the People” party, declared 80 Bitcoin in his annual declaration. At current prices, this amounts to over $5.5 million, or nearly 243 million hryvnias, although the declaration itself states 79,930 hryvnias.
Ukraine will support the publication of 100 translations of Ukrainian books in 33 countries as part of the Translate Ukraine 2026 programme. This year, 179 applications were submitted to the competition by publishers from around the world, and 100 translation projects were selected as winners.
In March, the Ukrainian Energy Support Fund received grant contributions from Iceland and Slovenia totalling €3.2 million. At the same time, international partners have already confirmed or pledged further contributions amounting to over €34 million.
Olga Selikh, Ukraine’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Sultanate of Oman, has once again found herself at the centre of a scandal over her appearance at an official event. This time, the controversy centres on a pattern on her outfit from the VoleeYu collection, which Ihor Lisny, a researcher of Petrykivka painting, described not as Petrykivka but as Khokhloma.
Military Ombudsman Olga Reshetilova stated that conflicts with commanders are not the main reason for desertion. According to her, desertion most often occurs among newly mobilised soldiers, and the primary cause is consistently the fear of death and the desire to save one’s life.
The Kyiv Court of Appeal has upheld the life sentences handed down to three men accused of the brutal murder of a Kyiv couple and their four-year-old son in the Chernihiv region. According to the investigation, the family were lured to a fake car sale, shot dead, their bodies buried in a wooded area, and the car towed away and set alight.
Law enforcement officers in the Ternopil region have announced the dismantling of a group believed to be organised which, according to the investigation, had established a complete cycle of manufacturing and distributing drugs and psychotropic substances across Ukraine. As part of the special operation, 54 searches were carried out, 12 suspects were served with notices of suspicion, and ten have already been arrested.
Ukraine, which has been holding off a full-scale Russian invasion for four years now, is simultaneously facing a serious mobilisation crisis. The Independent reports on the millions of people evading conscription, the hundreds of thousands of cases of desertion, and growing fatigue among troops on the front line.
