#ukraine-security

#ukraine-security

Papperger dismissed the work of Ukrainian drone makers as child's play, stating, 'This is how to play with Legos.' His comments were met with outrage from Ukrainian officials.

In 2021, when Olga Rudenko and other journalists launched the Kyiv Independent, they were committed to making a publication that wouldn't face political pressure from an owner. A few months later, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the Independent began reporting breaking news from the front lines.

William Burns had travelled halfway around the world to speak with Vladimir Putin, but in the end he had to make do with a phone call. It was November 2021, and US intelligence agencies had been picking up signals in the preceding weeks that Putin could be planning to invade Ukraine. President Joe Biden dispatched Burns, his CIA director, to warn Putin that the economic and political consequences if he did so would be disastrous.

Sometimes you want to speak frankly, but the situation does not allow it. For example, until this morning we had several air defense systems without missiles. Today I can say this openly, because today I have these missiles. Continuous missile packages are needed. Today, thank God, early this morning we received a serious package. It is now in Ukraine, and I can talk about it.

Russia said on Friday that it had used the Oreshnik missile amid a barrage of overnight strikes on Kyiv and Lviv in western Ukraine. Kyiv labelled the use of the weapon close to the European Union and NATO border a grave threat to European security. Russia's Ministry of Defence said the military has used the new intermediate-range ballistic missile among hundreds of other weapons in strikes that, according to Ukraine, killed four people and injured at least 22 in the capital.