Ukraine

KIEV, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Three pilots were killed after two L-39 military trainer jets collided in the sky over Ukraine's northern Zhytomyr region, the country's Air Force said Saturday in a statement on Telegram.

The crash took place on Friday, when two aircraft were performing a combat task, the statement said.

The regional prosecutor's office launched criminal proceedings into the crash on charges of violation of flight rules, said the Prosecutor General's Office.

An investigation into the collision is underway.

KIEV, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine on Saturday denounced the plans of five EU countries to extend Ukrainian grain import ban, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website.

Those countries, including Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, have sought to extend the import ban on Ukrainian grain, so as to protect their own agricultural sector.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces struck a cafe in a key front-line area in northeastern Ukraine Saturday, killing two civilians and wounding a third, regional officials said.

The shelling near the city of Kupiansk came as U.K. officials said that Russia may try to retake the area, which was captured by Kyiv in a lightning counteroffensive last September after more than six months of Russian occupation. Fierce fighting there earlier this month prompted mandatory evacuations and fears of a second Russian takeover.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia and Ukraine traded drone attacks early Wednesday, officials said, with Kyiv apparently targeting Moscow again and the Kremlin’s forces launching another bombardment of Ukrainian grain storage depots in what have recently become signature tactics in the almost 18-month war.

KYIV, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Ukraine lined up the burnt-out husks of Russian tanks and fighting vehicles along the capital Kyiv's central drag on Monday as Ukrainians prepare to mark their second wartime Independence Day this week.

The national holiday, which commemorates 32 years of post-Soviet independence from Moscow on Thursday, falls exactly 18 months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of its southern neighbour.

KIEV, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine will get at least 42 F-16 fighter jets after the end of the training course for pilots, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday.

"F-16. Breakthrough agreement ... Thank you, the Netherlands," Zelensky wrote in a Telegram post after meeting with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte at a Dutch military base in Eindhoven.

The F-16 fighters will help Ukraine to boost its air defense capabilities, Zelensky said.

KYIV/KUPIANSK, Ukraine, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Ukraine announced the recapture of the village of Urozhaine from Russian troops in the southeast on Wednesday, but warned the situation on the northeastern front was deteriorating amid Russian counter-attacks.

Urozhaine, on the edge of Donetsk region, is the first village Kyiv says it has retaken since July 27, a sign of the challenge Ukraine faces advancing through heavily mined Russian defensive lines without powerful air support.

KYIV, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Ukraine said Russia had attacked its grain storage facilities overnight, but a container ship left the Black Sea port of Odesa on Wednesday despite Moscow's threat to target shipping after it abandoned an export deal.

In the Russian capital, five sources said authorities were considering reimposing stringent capital controls as the rouble showed the strains of Russia's invasion of its neighbour, which has brought huge military spending and Western sanctions.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia pounded grain terminals in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region Wednesday, local officials said, hitting storage facilities and ports along the Danube River that Kyiv has increasingly used for grain transport to Europe after Moscow broke off a key wartime export deal through the Black Sea.

At the same time, a loaded container ship stuck at the port of Odesa since Russia’s full-scale invasion more than 17 months ago set sail and was heading through the Black Sea to the Bosporus along a temporary corridor established by Ukraine for merchant shipping.

LVIV, Ukraine, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Russian air strikes hit two western regions of Ukraine bordering NATO member Poland and other areas on Tuesday, killing three people in a factory and wounding more than a dozen, Ukrainian officials said.

Local media said the attacks were the largest air assault on the Lviv region since the Russian invasion in February 2022.