How Russia's gradual gains in the face of fierce Ukrainian opposition have affected the front line in recent months.

Russian forces are making inroads towards Velyka Novosilka in the Donetsk region, according to the Institute for the Study of War.

Russian forces have surrounded the embattled Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk and control 70 per cent of it, President Vladimir Putin claimed on Thursday, though Kyiv's top general insisted Ukrainian defenders were pushing back hard amid fierce fighting in the city centre.

I n 2023, a group of high-ranking German military officers created a classified 1,200-page document outlining the movement and positioning of up to 800,000 NATO troops throughout Europe in the event of a Russian attack, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

Russia says it controls about 75% of the Zaporizhzhia region which means Ukraine still holds about 7,000 square km there, including the city of Zaporizhzhia, which had a pre-war population of over 700,000 people. Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

At least two people have been killed and 15 injured in overnight Russian drone and missile attacks on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, according to the city officials. Russia claims to have destroyed more than 100 Ukrainian drones over the annexed Crimean peninsula, regions in Russia, and the Azov Sea.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said that 600 drones and 35 missiles struck the nation in one of the largest bombardments in a while. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that falling debris from intercepted Russian drones hit residential buildings and the western part of Kyiv had lost power.

Peace talks are overshadowed by an energy war. Kyiv attacks Russian oil, while Moscow targets Ukraine’s grid, aiming to break civilian morale.