Guillaume Ptak

Capitalizing on wartime expertise: Ukraine weighs formation, export of for-profit military companies

Ukraine is considering a step that would have seemed politically radioactive before the war: legalizing private military companies to turn the country's unmatched experience of modern warfare into an export business.

May 21, 2026

Russia accused of plundering Ukraine’s grain, coal and minerals in occupied territories

First, Russia took Ukraine's land. Now, Ukrainian officials and legal experts say, Moscow is stripping and selling what lies above and beneath it.

May 20, 2026

At Kyiv drone school, young Ukrainians try to shape how they will fight

Inside a former industrial complex turned training ground, students weave first-person view drones through tires, pipes and improvised gates before steering toward mock targets, including a fake Russian tank and an old Soviet-style van.

May 14, 2026

Ukraine’s drone war gives Kyiv new hope as Russian assaults bog down

While Russia still holds the initiative in several sectors and continues to pour men, drones and artillery shells into the fight, Ukrainian soldiers say Moscow's assaults are increasingly being disrupted or destroyed before they can reach their positions.

May 13, 2026

Chernobyl at 40: A disaster contained — and a new threat emerging

Forty years after the explosion of Reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the site remains one of the most complex nuclear cleanup operations on Earth.

April 25, 2026

Italian PM Meloni talks tough on Russia, but Italy still has an energy problem

As EU leaders gathered in Cyprus on Thursday to wrestle with the fallout from the Iran war -- including high fossil-fuel prices, the security situation in the Straits of Hormuz and emergency tools to shield Europe's economy -- Italy arrived with a familiar problem: While Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wants to keep the screws on Moscow, her country is still exposed to the energy shock that comes with it.

April 24, 2026

Ukraine signs Gulf defense deals, aims to turn battlefield edge into global influence

Four years of trading blows with one of the world's most powerful militaries has come at enormous cost in blood and treasure for Ukraine.

April 22, 2026

Hungarian Prime Minister-elect Magyar moves to eliminate bias in public broadcasting

Hungarian Prime Minister-elect Peter Magyar announced Thursday that his government will temporarily suspend public media broadcasts until he's satisfied news outlets can produce unbiased coverage.

April 16, 2026

Domestic deadlock, stalled reforms squeeze Kyiv’s war finances despite Hungary vote

The military picture remains fragile, diplomacy is stalled, and Kyiv is now confronting a second test that could prove nearly as consequential as events at the front: a funding squeeze that threatens its ability to sustain the war.

April 14, 2026

Hungary election could reshape EU policy, Ukraine support

Hungary's parliamentary election on Sunday has become the toughest political test of Prime Minister Viktor Orban's 16-year rule.

April 6, 2026

Ukraine’s home-built strike arsenal carries the war deeper into Russia

From a wartime factory floor to targets deep inside Russia, Ukraine's homegrown drone and missile industry is quietly reshaping the war.

March 30, 2026

What the U.S. can learn from Ukraine about beating Iran’s drones

Just weeks into his tenure as defense minister, Mykhailo Fedorov is already signaling a shift in how Kyiv plans to manage the war against Russia: less bureaucratic oversight, more data-driven management and a new emphasis on leveraging Ukraine's hard-won expertise in defeating Iran's Shahed drones.

March 17, 2026

Putin squeezing internet access, social media amid swirling speculation of another military draft

The Kremlin has been quietly tightening its control over phones, internet access and social media across Russia for months in a move insiders say is aimed at quashing dissent ahead of another possible military call-up.

March 5, 2026

How Belarus became a rear base for Russia’s war on Ukraine

Almost a year ago, in March 2025, Russian officials announced plans to build a large-scale drone factory in neighboring Belarus, presenting the project as a step toward strengthening the "national security and the economy" of Moscow's closest ally.

February 24, 2026

Russia trades men for ground; Ukraine answers with deadly drones

In a dusty basement somewhere along Ukraine's southeastern front, Ukrainian team leader Ihor is sitting at a table, staring intently at a laptop. On the screen, there is an aerial view of a barren treeline demarcating two desolate, snow-covered fields. A man is cautiously moving among the leafless trees, an automatic rifle slung over his shoulder.

February 4, 2026

Trump says Putin won’t fire on Ukrainian cities because of the deep freeze

President Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed not to fire on cities and towns in Ukraine because of the extreme cold in the war-ravaged country.

January 29, 2026

Russia’s winter strikes push freezing Kyiv residents to life-threatening edge

After another wave of Russian missile and drone attacks early Friday against Ukraine's energy infrastructure, almost a million people in the Ukrainian capital were without power on a night when the low temperature hit 10 degrees Fahrenheit.

January 28, 2026

Zelenskyy’s appointment of spy chief reshapes Ukraine’s power structure

For most of the war, 40-year-old Lt. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov has operated in a realm deliberately removed from Ukraine's public political life. As head of the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine, the GUR, he oversaw a service whose successes are at times hard to quantify, with their full extent often discovered long after the fact -- if ever.

January 8, 2026

‘Serious strategic risk’: Ukraine faces a manpower crisis threatening its ability to hold the line

As Ukraine enters a fourth winter of all-out war, the besieged country is facing a mounting crisis that has little to do with Western weapons or Russian firepower: Kyiv is running out of able-bodied men.

December 22, 2025

Ukraine braces for blackouts as Russian strikes pound its energy infrastructure

Russia's barrage of missile and drone attacks against Ukraine's energy infrastructure has intensified just days ahead of Christmas and the cold winter months that follow.

December 10, 2025