Guillaume Ptak

Ukrainian civilians face searing decisions as Russians advance in east

On a grey Tuesday morning in mid-October, a beaten-up Lada comes sputtering around the corner of a destroyed country house in the village of Hryshyne, in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk oblast, stopping in front of what's left of the town's center: A closed-down administrative building with its facade shredded by shrapnel, a few red-brick "Stalinka" housing units damaged by shelling, and a small grocery store with its windows boarded up.

October 29, 2024

In the middle of war, Ukraine’s defense industry stages stunning rebound

It's a silver lining around a very dark cloud: As Ukraine struggles to hold off a massive Russian invasion force, the country's own defense industry has experienced an unprecedented boom that is starting to be felt on the front lines.

October 15, 2024

Into enemy territory: Ukraine makes its points with tour of Russia’s Kursk

It's around noon on Tuesday, Sept. 10, when the Ukrainian armored personnel carrier stops after more than an hourlong drive. We have reached the border and are about to cross into enemy territory, "Vadym," the Ukrainian colonel supervising the press tour, informs us.

September 24, 2024

What now? Success in Kursk raises questions about the road ahead for Ukraine

It was the Ukrainian military's biggest success in months, but the surprise incursion deep into Russia's Kursk region is also raising some difficult questions about what comes next.

August 28, 2024

In contested areas of Ukraine, evangelicals bear the brunt of Russian persecution

For Ukraine's small evangelical Protestant minority, the war with Russia that began in February 2022 only accelerated what they say is a campaign of persecution that was underway long before massed Russian formations rumbled across the country's northern and eastern borders on February 24, 2022.

August 17, 2024

Soldiers won’t let Russia’s war spoil dreams of fatherhood; IVF doctor fights for rebirth of nation

With losses on the battlefield a grim daily reality and no end to the war in sight, Ukrainian soldiers have embraced a modern way of preserving their legacy and helping build the future of their embattled homeland: freezing their sperm so that their partners and wives can bear their children even if they're killed.

July 10, 2024

In a grinding battle far from the spotlight, weary Ukrainian soldiers hold the line

Much of the world's attention in recent months has been focused on Ukraine's desperate battle to hold off a new Russian offensive eyeing Kharkiv, the country's second-largest city after the capital of Kyiv. Yet a momentous strategic battle is being fought in Chasiv Yar, a devastated, obscure city on the front lines some 200 miles from Kharkiv.

June 16, 2024

Fields of nightmares: Russian invasion devastates agriculture, Ukrainian farmers

The breadbasket of Europe is now raising a grim bumper crop of mines, shells and rockets.

May 31, 2024

Russia escalates infrastructure war; assaults on Ukrainian grid cut off services, power to civilians

Russia made clear early on that it considered civilian infrastructure a legitimate target as its armies sought to conquer Ukraine.

May 8, 2024

With guns on the way, Ukraine scrounges for the soldiers to fire them

After months of deadlock, the U.S. Congress has finally approved $61 billion in badly needed military aid to Ukraine. But in a painful irony, with Ukraine's government struggling to replenish the ranks of its army, there may not be enough soldiers to man the new guns and fire the new shells.

April 24, 2024

Once the center of Ukraine’s hopes, the town of Orikhiv now lies in ruins

Once the starting point of Ukraine's 2023 summer counteroffensive, the small town of Orikhiv in southern Ukraine now finds itself in the middle of a two-way artillery firing range.

April 14, 2024

For medics on the front line in Ukraine, the biggest shortfall is people

Overworked Ukrainian medics near the front lines with Russia can hear the enemy shells as they deal with a heavy caseload of the wounded every day. But while short of supplies and equipment, those who staff 'Stabilization Point Azov' say the most glaring need is to find qualified, willing staff.

March 26, 2024

Grim chore: Ukrainian volunteers risk lives to retrieve soldiers’ remains — for both sides

Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine -- As the war in Ukraine drags on into its third year, volunteers of a NGO named "Platzdarm" have taken it upon themselves to carry out one of war's grimmest chores: recover and help identify the remains of Russian and Ukrainian soldiers left to die on the still-contested battlefield.

March 4, 2024

Ukraine’s ammunition shortages offer Russia first win in months

Starved for ammunition, the defenders of Ukraine's eastern town of Avdiivka were ordered last weekend to withdraw from the besieged city, handing Russia its first major victory since the capture of Bakhmut in May 2023.

February 22, 2024

Zelenskyy, in risky move, ousts popular military commander Zaluzhnyi

The collision from a slow-motion car wreck at the top of Ukraine's government finally came off Thursday as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced he was firing the popular commander of the country's armed forces.

February 8, 2024

Ukrainians fight war fatigue as Russia’s friends help replenish its armory

Shell-shocked but defiant residents here don't need satellite photos or top-secret intelligence reports to sense that Russia is getting fresh outside help in a stalemated war that is soon to pass the two-year mark.

January 17, 2024

In devastated Donbas, exhausted Ukrainian soldiers warily eye a new year of war

With casualties mounting and Western support in question, war-weary Ukrainian soldiers fighting on the country's eastern front lines are bracing for the coming year fighting a Russian occupier who shows no signs of quit.

January 1, 2024

Russian drones dominating the front lines as Ukraine’s early aerial advantage overwhelmed

While the Ukrainian army was an early proponent of drone warfare, and initially boasted both a qualitative and quantitative advantage in the nearly 22-month war, Russian forces have quickly adapted their tactics. The Kremlin's UAV production now far outpaces that of Ukraine.

December 13, 2023

War rations: Front-line Ukrainian units deal with ammo shortages in the fight with Russia

"It would be easier to tell you how many shells we fire in a month," sighs 24-year-old "Fritz," looking dejected. "At the moment, we fire about two or three a day on average."

December 7, 2023