UkraineKupiansk sty

An informal memorial next to the former 'PMC Wagner Centre's St.Petersburg, St Petersburg, Russian Federation - 24 Aug 2023

HANDOUT on 6/9/2023

How U.S. military aid has grown since the start of the war

The Washington Post

UKRAINE YOUNG SOLDIERS

UKRAINE DRONES PRODUCTION

Wagner fighters deployed in Rostov-on-Don

Russia Ukraine War

The potent U.S. arsenal for Ukraine’s counteroffensive

Ukraine southern front

Promo image for russia-ukraine-frontline-map 

Ruble Sinks as Russia Isolated by Sanctions

Bloomberg

FTWP

HOGP

United States Russia Nuclear Treaty

Ukraine Russia War Crimes Hospitals

For The Washington Post

U.S. Army M1 Abrams tanks from the 1st Combined Arms Battalion, 163rd Cavalry Regiment prepare to conduct movement operations during Exercise Eager Lion in Jordan, Sept. 6, 2022

Task Force Spartan

handout

UKRAINE-RUSSIA-CONFLICT-WAR

Contributor

Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Blinded in battle, these Ukrainian soldiers will never see their new babies 

Chinese EVs are good for the world. Biden says they’re bad for America. 

Middle East conflict live updates: Blinken urges Hamas to accept deal, says pier for aid close to completion

That time football legend, rig-driving eligible bachelor Biden was arrested

Trump and allies say Biden pays rent for ‘illegals’ in Michigan. Not true.

Eighty percent of Ukraine-Israel bill will be spent in U.S. or by U.S. military

Biden’s internet-for-all program needs Musk’s help

The tech billionaires who helped ban TikTok want to write AI rules for Trump

Microsoft’s “responsible AI” chief worries about the open web

Trevor Williams’s escape act helps Nationals blank Rangers 

How to make the most of Passport DC’s free embassy tours

Dose of adversity gives Dylan Crews a new perspective in Class AA

Taxes are inevitable. Paying to prepare them doesn’t have to be.

A murder plot that cannot be ignored: India must come clean at last

How to confront antisemitism, deal with protests — and respect free speech

World Press Freedom Day, 2024

Democrats hope move to reschedule marijuana will help them in November

Wait, what is Stephen A. Smith talking about? Find out with our quiz.

What makes a great Met Gala outfit

Police march toward Columbia University gate

Stephen A. Smith would like even more of your attention

Local sports networks go dark mid-game amid dispute with Comcast 

Adaptive adventures are making national parks more inclusive

Southwest passengers now get a $75 voucher for big flight disruptions

Man arrested at Yellowstone for allegedly kicking bison while drunk

Cat climbed into Amazon return box, found alive 630 miles away

Brave Little Hunter is free: Baby orca escapes lagoon for open seas

I learned to heal my sadness by cradling dying chickens 

Miss Manners: Offering my bedroom to guests

Carolyn Hax: Will request for a postnup offend much younger wife?

Ask Amy: My wife’s sister confessed her feelings for me

Trump hush money trial live updates: Stormy Daniels’s lawyer testifies

Europe

World

National Security

Military

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/ukraine-russia/

War in Ukraine

Stringer

Anxiety continued to surround the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/20/zaporizhzhia-nuclear-plant-russia-ukraine/" target=_blank>Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant</a> in Ukraine <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/20/russia-ukraine-war-latest-updates/" target=_blank>on Saturday</a> following stark warnings by both sides of a potential attack on the facility, with fear coursing through the region and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/19/zaporizhzhia-nuclear-plant-ukraine-russia/" target=_blank>rippling around the globe</a>.

The specter of a possible attack on the plant, the largest in Europe, loomed large over the grinding war, with Russian and Ukrainian officials accusing the other nation of courting calamity and risking <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/20/zaporizhzhia-nuclear-plant-russia-ukraine/" target=_blank>a nuclear disaster</a>.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of conducting “blackmail with radiation” in <a href="https://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/z-misiyi-na-zaporizku-atomnu-elektrostanciyu-mozhe-pochatisy-77177" target=_blank>an address</a> to the nation. Russian President Vladimir Putin has, in turn, accused Ukraine of shelling the plant and risking a “large-scale catastrophe,” an assertion unsupported by evidence.

What to know about Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant

Even as the situation surrounding the plant remained perilous, Russian authorities were also said to be ramping up their security <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/18/crimea-russia-ukraine-war/" target=_blank>in Crimea</a> amid reports of drone attacks in the region, which Moscow annexed in 2014.

“Russian authorities are visibly increasing security measures in Crimea, indicating growing worry among Russian authorities and civilians about the threat of Ukrainian strikes on rear areas previously believed to be secure,” the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based group, said in an assessment Friday.

The governor of Sevastopol said Russian forces had shot down a drone approaching the headquarters of its Black Sea fleet. The claim could not be independently verified.

The status of some Russian forces also came into question following a new report about damage stemming from <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/18/crimea-russia-ukraine-war/" target=_blank>recent explosions</a> at an air base in the Crimean Peninsula. Ukrainian officials have previously said that their special forces were <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/17/ukraine-defense-minister-special-forces-new-strategy/" target=_blank>behind multiple explosions</a> hitting targets within the Russian-occupied region.

A <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2022/08/14/crimea-airbase-attack/" target=_blank>Washington Post analysis</a> found that at least six explosions rocked the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2022/08/14/crimea-airbase-attack/" target=_blank>Saki air base</a>, near Crimea’s western Black Sea coast, over nearly an hour earlier this month.

The news agency <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/half-russias-black-sea-fleets-combat-jets-out-operation-western-official-2022-08-19/?utm_source=pocket_mylist" target=_blank>Reuters</a> reported Friday that an unnamed Western official said the explosions at <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2022/08/14/crimea-airbase-attack/" target=_blank>the Saki base</a> knocked more than half of the Russian Black Sea fleet’s naval aviation combat jets out of commission.

Speaking on Friday, a senior U.S. defense official said they did not “have an overall assessment” of “the total impact of the recent attacks.”

“Certainly, we are seeing this overarching picture of Russian forces being much more vulnerable than they thought they were, and we are seeing movements of Russian forces as a result to try to protect their capabilities,” said the official, who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Pentagon.

Road to war: U.S. struggled to convince allies, and Zelensky, of risk of invasion

The official said the U.S. government was concerned about the situation around the Zaporizhzhia plant and watching it closely, saying that any “fighting near a nuclear power plant is dangerous.”

“We see Russia’s current actions in and around this plant as really the height of irresponsibility,” the official said.

Zelensky, in his address to the nation, said that Ukrainian officials and others were working out details for sending a group — including representatives from the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) — to visit the plant.

World leaders want U.N. experts to visit the plant. António Guterres, the U.N. Secretary General, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/world/un-chief-damage-to-zaporizhzhia-plant-would-be-suicide/2022/08/19/130929ab-71c3-4f98-a0cf-cc56cb864072_video.html" target=_blank>said</a> that “any potential damage to Zaporizhzhia is suicide.”

Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the IAEA, <a href="https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/pressreleases/update-92-iaea-director-general-statement-on-situation-in-ukraine" target=_blank>called for</a> restraint amid “this highly volatile and fragile situation,” saying tensions needed to be lowered “to help ensure nuclear safety and security and prevent any radiological consequences for the population and the environment.”

Putin supports sending IAEA officials to the plant, according to a <a href="http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/69183" target=_blank>Kremlin readout</a> of a phone call he held with French President Emmanuel Macron, but finding a formula for an inspection acceptable to both sides in the war has proved elusive.

While fears about the impact of a potential attack on Zaporizhzhia reverberated worldwide, the threat also <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/19/ukraine-nuclear-plant-zaporizhzhia-neighbors-nikopol/" target=_blank>loomed in the region</a> surrounding the plant. Although many people had left — some a few months into the war, others since shelling began — <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/19/ukraine-nuclear-plant-zaporizhzhia-neighbors-nikopol/" target=_blank>others have stayed put</a>, enduring the shelling and waiting out the uncertainty.

Across the river from Ukraine nuclear plant, shelling adds to fear

Officials from both countries  lobbed accusations at each other on social media over the weekend. On Saturday, Oleg Nikolenko, spokesman for the Ukraine Ministry of Foreign Affairs, <a href="https://twitter.com/OlegNikolenko_/status/1560952848623476737?s=20&t=Dr_uefWLeGShK5pxjLaDgA" target=_blank>tweeted</a> a call for “the entire diplomatic community in Vienna” to boycott Mikhail Ulyanov, the Russian ambassador there.

Ulyanov had tweeted “No mercy to the Ukrainian population!” in response to a post about American aid to Ukraine. He said his words were being <a href="https://twitter.com/Amb_Ulyanov/status/1560939946189389824" target=_blank>misinterpreted</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/Amb_Ulyanov/status/1560940057783042050" target=_blank>argued</a> that he was criticizing “the policy of pumping Ukraine with weapons combined with the rejection of diplomacy (leading to further suffering).”

Nikolenko said Ulyanov used “genocidal language” and was “calling for the elimination of the Ukrainian nation,” while Ulyanov <a href="https://twitter.com/Amb_Ulyanov/status/1560939946189389824" target=_blank>tweeted</a> that efforts to link his words “with a call for genocide are outrageous and absolutely unacceptable.”

Russia’s spies misread Ukraine and misled Kremlin as war loomed

On the ground in Ukraine, meanwhile, nine people in Mykolaiv were injured on Saturday — four of them children — following Russian strikes on a tower block there, the regional governor said.

In the city of Kharkiv, the regional governor said, overnight Russian rocket attacks struck “critical infrastructure facilities,” damaging homes and commercial buildings but not killing anyone.

Zelensky, in <a href="https://president.gov.ua/en/news/zaradi-peremogi-she-potribno-borotisya-ale-ukrayinci-vzhe-mo-77181" target=_blank>another address</a> over the weekend, emphasized that the war was far from over, saying, “We still need to fight.”

“We must all be strong enough to endure and go all the way to Ukrainian victory,” he said.

Ukraine is one of the world’s largest exporters of grain, though huge amounts <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/01/ukraine-grain-hunger-faq/" target=_blank>were trapped in the country</a> since <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/interactive/2022/ukraine-road-to-war/" target=_blank>Russia’s invasion</a> earlier this year.

On Friday, the World Food Program chief told the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-droughts-united-states-nations-africa-7fc5a61b8728fd962128afb40acb0cbf" target=_blank>Associated Press</a> that the United States was preparing to buy 150,000 metric tons of grain from Ukraine in the next few weeks for an upcoming shipment of food aid, though the destinations were not confirmed.

<i>Alex Horton in Washington, and Loveday Morris and Ievgeniia Sivorka in Nikopol, Ukraine, contributed to this report.</i>

University of Florida

Mark Berman is a national reporter for The Washington Post who covers law enforcement and criminal justice issues. He has been with The Post since 2007. 

Mark Berman

Social Impact Media Award winner (SIMA), 2020

Religion Newswriters Association, Handa Fellow, 2016.

 Women’s International Leadership Scholar, 2016.

School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, LLB Law

Columbia University, MS in Journalism

Adela Suliman is a breaking-news reporter in The Washington Post's London hub. 

Adela Suliman

Columbia University, BA in History

Katerina Ang is an assignment editor at The Washington Post’s hub in Seoul. Before joining The Post in May 2021, she worked as an editor and reporter for the Wall Street Journal and Vogue Business. 

Katerina Ang

Gates Cambridge Scholarship, 2021; Overseas Press Club Foundation Scholarship, 2021

Harvard University, BA in English

University of Cambridge, MPhil in English

Meena Venkataramanan writes stories on identity, culture and Asian American communities for The Washington Post.