In the first episode of Ukraine This Week in 2026, the Kyiv Independent’s Anna Belokur examines how international sports federations are gradually rolling back bans on Russian and Belarusian athletes as the Olympic year begins. Watch the full video here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrOh...

⚡️Serbia's Russian-owned oil refinery to resume operations in mid-January, Vucic says.

⚡️Soldier injured in car explosion, classified as terror attack in Kyiv. A car belonging to a soldier exploded in Kyiv on Jan. 4, injuring him, the city prosecutor's office reported. The blast went off as the soldier was opening the trunk, the statement read.

In the first episode of Ukraine This Week in 2026, the Kyiv Independent’s Anna Belokur examines how international sports federations are gradually rolling back bans on Russian and Belarusian athletes as the Olympic year begins.

⚡️Ukraine slaps sanctions on companies supplying Russia's military industry. The new measures target 95 individuals and 70 entities, including manufacturers of communications, electronic warfare, and microelectronics for Russia's military-industrial complex and security agencies.

"The war has woken up the youth in Ukraine to the reality of the world too early," writes Kyiv Independent reporter Asami Terajima in this essay reflecting on her sudden transition to war journalism.

⚡️Ukrainian drones target Moscow, trigger airport closures, Russia says.

"Putin thinks he has near mastery over Donald Trump, not because of kompromat, but because his KGB training has leveraged Trump's all-too-visible weaknesses against him," writes former U.S. national security advisor John Bolton in this recent op-ed.

This is the story of one white rose from its war-affected greenhouse to a birthday celebration, and the people and places along its way.

⚡️Russian attacks kill 4, injure 5 in Ukraine over past day. Ukrainian forces downed 39 out of the 52 drones, including Shahed-type attack drones, launched by Russia overnight, the Air Force reported. Thirteen drones struck nine different locations, according to the statement.

These are the indicative estimates of Russia’s combat losses as of Jan. 4, according to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

⚡️Update: Maduro arrives at detention center in New York. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro arrived at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York around 9 p.m. local time following his capture by U.S. special operations units on Jan. 3.

⚡️Zelensky not considering replacing Commander-in-Chief Syrskyi amid government reshuffle.

⚡️Putin 'killing too many people,' Trump says. U.S. President Donald Trump issued new criticism against Russian President Vladimir Putin on Jan. 3 as uncertainty continues to grow around the fate of U.S.-led Ukraine-Russia peace talks.

⚡️Peace deal must include British, French military presence in Ukraine, Zelensky says.

⚡️Update: Venezuelan President Maduro lands in New York following US capture. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro landed at a military base in New York around 5 p.m. local time following his capture by U.S. special operations units earlier on Jan. 3.

⚡️Trump says the US will 'run' Venezuela for the time being, including involvement in its oil sector. Trump said the U.S. will govern Venezuela until a “safe, proper, and judicious transition” can take place.

President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested to appoint Denys Shmyhal, the country's defense minister and ex-prime minister, to lead Ukraine's Energy Ministry. Shmyhal, 50, led the Defense Ministry for less than six months after being appointed in July.

⚡️ European national security advisors arrive in Kyiv, Coalition of the Willing talks to be held later in the day European national security advisors arrived in Kyiv early on Jan. 3 to take part in a high-level meeting of the so-called Coalition of the Willing.

The U.S. military carried out large-scale air strikes on Venezuela on Jan. 3. President Donald Trump said that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife were captured and taken out of the country. Photo: AFP; Luis Jaimes / AFP via Getty Images. Read more: kyivindependent.com/us-carries-o...

These are the indicative estimates of Russia’s combat losses as of Jan. 3, according to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

⚡️At least 6 killed, 42 injured in Russian attacks on Ukraine over past day. Russia launched 95 drones at Ukraine overnight, the Air Force said.

⚡️Update: Russian missile attack on Kharkiv kills 2 people, including 3-year-old-child, injures at least 31. The number of people injured in the Russian attack on the regional center on Jan. 2 rose to 31, including a 6-month-old boy, according to local authorities.

⚡️Update: Death toll rises in Russian missile attack on Kharkiv. Emergency workers recovered the body of a woman from the rubble of an apartment building destroyed by Russian missile strikes on Jan. 2.

⚡️Explosions reported in Kyiv during Russian drone attack. Loud explosions occurred in Ukraine's capital late on Jan. 2, Kyiv Independent journalists reported. Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said that air defenses were repelling a Russian drone attack.

⚡️BREAKING: Zelensky proposes appointing Mykhailo Fedorov as Ukraine's new defense minister. President Volodymyr Zelensky has proposed appointing Mykhailo Fedorov, the deputy prime minister and digital transformation minister, as the country's new defense minister on Jan. 2.

⚡️Update: Child killed in Russian missile attack on Kharkiv. Emergency workers have found the body of a child under the rubble of an apartment building destroyed by Russian missiles, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov reported the evening of Jan. 2. Search and rescue operations are ongoing at the site.

⚡️Update: Zelensky signs decree officially naming Kyrylo Budanov Head of the Presidential Office. Earlier on Jan. 2, Zelensky announced that he had offered the role to Budanov, who said he accepted. Budanov, formerly Ukraine's spy chief, will replace Andrii Yermak, who resigned in November.

⚡️Zelensky to replace head of Ukraine's State Border Guard. Interior Minister Ihor Klymenkowill soon give the president a list of possible candidates to replace Serhii Deineko as head of Ukraine's State Border Guard Service.

⚡️How Ukraine's military intelligence faked the death of Denis Kapustin, a Russian commander fighting for Kyiv. HUR has published video of Kapustin's staged "death," which the agency used to collect a $500,000 bounty. The video shows a drone strike on a minibus with Kapustin inside.

⚡️Zelensky to appoint Foreign Intelligence Service chief as Budanov's replacement, President's Office says. Oleh Ivashchenko will lead Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR), a source in the President's Office told the Kyiv Independent shortly after Zelensky named Budanov his new chief of staff.

⚡️Update: Russian missile attack on Kharkiv injures at least 19 people, including a baby, local authorities report. Six of the wounded were hospitalized, including a woman in serious condition, Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov said.

From daytime drone flights to nighttime logistics missions: the Kyiv Independent embedded with Ukraine’s forces in Kherson Oblast, following FPV drone and night bomber teams tasked with defending river islands.

⚡️Russian attack on Kharkiv injures at least 15 people, including a baby, local authorities report. Six of the wounded were hospitalized, including a woman in serious condition, Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov said.

⚡️Poll: 74% of Ukrainians against peace plan involving Kyiv's withdrawal from Donbas, army cap. The poll revealed that 69% of Ukrainians support a peace plan that would freeze the war with security guarantees, as long as Ukraine is not forced to recognize the occupied territories as part of Russia.

In an interview with the Kyiv Independent, veteran radio broadcaster, poet, and former Soviet dissident Igor Pomerantsev discussed the lessons today’s dissidents must learn as authoritarianism gains ground worldwide.

⚡️Russia may be preparing 'large-scale provocation with human casualties,' Ukraine's intelligence warns. Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service warned on Jan. 2 that Russia may be preparing a provocation as part of its efforts to disrupt the U.S.-mediated peace talks.

President Volodymyr Zelensky appointed Kyrylo Budanov, the military intelligence chief, as the head of the President’s Office on Jan. 2.

Ukraine's military said on Jan. 1 that it follows international humanitarian law and strikes only military targets, responding to a Russian accusation that it carried out a deadly drone attack in the occupied part of southern Kherson Oblast.

These are the indicative estimates of Russia’s combat losses as of Jan. 2, according to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

⚡️Update: Despite CIA's rejection, Russia hands over alleged 'evidence' of Ukrainian drone attack on Putin's residence.

⚡️Lions injured, birds killed — Russian attack strikes eco-park near Kharkiv. Russian forces struck the Feldman Eco-Park near the city of Kharkiv, wounding and killing dozens of animals, Oleksandr Feldman, a Ukrainian member of parliament and founder of the eco-park, reported on Jan. 1.

⚡️Ukraine enters EU's single mobile roaming zone. Ukraine formally joined the European Union's single roaming zone on Jan. 1, allowing Ukrainian citizens to use their mobile phone service across the European bloc without incurring additional charges.

⚡️ Ukraine deploys two additional Patriot air defense systems, Defense Ministry reports. Patriot is one of the world's most advanced air defense systems, capable of intercepting aircraft as well as cruise, ballistic, and hypersonic missiles.

⚡️ Putin's New Year speech lauds Russia's war, makes no mention of peace in Ukraine. Putin's speech avoided any mention of Ukraine, peace talks, or plans to bring the war to an end in 2026.

The Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk is now the site of some of the fiercest fighting of Russia's war against Ukraine. Once a key logistics hub for Ukrainian forces, it has become the focus of a long and bloody Russian offensive.

These are the indicative estimates of Russia’s combat losses as of Jan. 1, according to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

⚡️ CIA rejects Putin's claim of Ukrainian attack on his residence, CNN reports. The report confirms Ukraine's original denial and undercuts claims made by the Kremlin.

⚡️ Russian shadow fleet ship that sank in 2024 carried nuclear reactor components to North Korea, may have been torpedoed, La Verdad reports. The vessel, the Ursa Major, sank on Dec. 23, 2024, about 60 nautical miles from Cartagena.

⚡️Tumultuous New Year’s Eve in Russia marked by reported drone strikes on oil sites. Several fires were reported at oil facilities in Kaluga Oblast and Krasnodar Krai overnight on Jan. 1, according to Telegram monitoring channels.