Ukraine

LUGANSK, July 16. /TASS/: Ukrainian troops hit a storage facility with ammonal and trotyl used in the mining sector near the village of Yubileiny in a Lugansk suburb, Andrey Marochko, a retired colonel of the People’s Militia of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), said on Sunday.

"A shell hit the so-called dynamite depot located near Lugansk’s village of Yubileiny. There is a Mashchinskaya mine in the vicinity and a storage facility with ammonal and trotyl, which are used in the mining sector," he told TASS.

KYIV, July 16 (Reuters) - Fighting in eastern Ukraine has "somewhat intensified" as Ukrainian and Russian forces clash in at least three areas on the eastern front, a senior Ukrainian defence official said on Sunday.

Separately, the Ukrainian military indicated it had taken control of part of a southeastern village in Donetsk region, near a string of small settlements Ukraine recaptured in June.

"The enemy made an unsuccessful attempt to regain lost positions in the northern part of Staromayorske," the general staff of Ukraine's armed forces said in a regular update.

(AP) --- The first phase of Ukraine’s counteroffensive to recapture Russian-occupied territory began weeks ago without fanfare. Apart from claiming that its troops are edging forward, Kyiv has not offered much detail on how it’s going.

Taking place mostly out of sight of impartial observers, the fighting in eastern and southern Ukraine pits troops equipped with new Western-supplied weapons against Kremlin forces that spent months digging formidable defenses and honing tactics.

Here’s a look at what’s happening after more than 16 months of war:

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview published Sunday that Moscow has a “sufficient stockpile” of cluster munitions, and warned that Russia “reserves the right to take reciprocal action” if Ukraine uses the controversial weapons.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol made a surprise visit to Ukraine on Saturday, offering support for the invaded country in its war with Russia while demonstrating his own nation’s cooperation with NATO.

Yoon’s office said he traveled to Ukraine with his wife, Kim Keon Hee, following trips to Lithuania for a NATO summit and to Poland. It’s his first visit since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

KYIV, July 14 (Reuters) - He wears a pistol to interviews with foreign journalists and discusses wartime intelligence. Weapons and military gear are strewn on the floor of his Kyiv office. He says he has "sources" close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

For an intelligence chief running Ukraine's spy operations during war with Russia, Kyrylo Budanov, 37, has built up an unusually public profile that he has used to get his message out and to menace Russia from afar.

These days, a spy boss cannot stay in the shadows, he says.

KYIV, July 13 (Reuters) - After the role of unmanned aerial vehicles in the Ukraine war expanded dramatically since Russia invaded 16 months ago, attention is turning to ground drones that developers say could be the next frontier in military innovation.

Among the Ukrainian engineers working in the sector is 22-year-old Yevhen Hnatok, who said he had already supplied several dozen remote-controlled ground vehicles for the armed forces.

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — The Ukrainian civilians woke long before dawn in the bitter cold, lined up for the single toilet and were loaded at gunpoint into the livestock trailer. They spent the next 12 hours or more digging trenches on the front lines for Russian soldiers.

Many were forced to wear overlarge Russian military uniforms that could make them a target, and a former city administrator trudged around in boots five sizes too big. By the end of the day, their hands curled into icy claws.

KYIV, July 12 (Reuters) - Ukraine on Wednesday reported some success in fighting near the Russian-occupied eastern city of Bakhmut as its troops press on with a counteroffensive against Moscow's forces.

Heavy fighting and Russian drone strikes on Ukrainian cities have continued while President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is in Vilnius for meetings with NATO leaders who are holding a summit in the Lithuanian capital.

KYIV, July 11 (Reuters) - Russia launched attacks on Ukraine's capital Kyiv, the Black Sea port of Odesa and the southern region of Kherson on Tuesday before the start of a NATO summit in Lithuania where security threats from Moscow were on the agenda.