Ireland is stepping up its support for Ukraine with an additional €40 million in aid as Russia’s war grinds on, Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee has announced. The new package comes on top of the €25m already committed by Ireland in February. Minister McEntee unveiled the latest funding during a visit to Kyiv. Of the €40m announced today, more than €26m will go toward humanitarian assistance, while almost €14m is earmarked for long-term development and peacebuilding measures. Another €2m from the overall package…

“Meat grinder” assaults. That was the stark phrase used by Ukraine’s top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, to characterize Russian tactics on parts of the 1,200km front in mid-March. From Tuesday, 17 March through Friday, 20 March, Russian troops carried out more than 600 assault operations across the entire frontline, General Syrskyi said this week in a post on the Facebook page of Ukraine’s armed forces. He said those attacks left Russia with more than 6,000 casualties in only four days. Ukrainian and Western military…

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio pushed back sharply on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, accusing him of misstating Washington’s position and signaling that the United States could redirect weapons support toward Kyiv to bolster its own campaign following attacks on Iran. Zelensky had claimed in an interview that the United States was urging Ukraine to surrender the eastern Donbas region to Russia before any post-war security commitments are finalized. Russia launched the invasion of Ukraine more than four years ago.…

A drone that Romanian authorities say was diverted by Ukrainian air defences crashed near a village after overnight Russian strikes on neighbouring Ukraine, officials reported. Romania, a NATO member and key supporter of Kyiv, has repeatedly experienced airspace violations and falling drone debris since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. "At 00:44, a drone deflected by Ukrainian air defence entered national airspace for a distance of approximately four kilometres," the defence ministry said. "The…

Russian strikes have knocked out two power installations in Ukraine's northern Chernihiv region, cutting electricity to roughly 212,000 customers, the regional distributor said. Chernihivoblenergo reported that an attack on an energy site in Chernihiv district left nearly 150,000 households and businesses in the city of Chernihiv and its environs without power. The company later said an assault on a separate energy facility in Nizhynskyi district deprived almost another 62,000 consumers across three districts of electricity.…

Russia launched nearly 1,000 drones at Ukraine over the past 24 hours, Ukraine’s air force said, after an unprecedented daytime barrage that left at least three people dead across the country. "Taking into account the night attack ... the enemy used almost 1,000 strike drones," the air force wrote on Telegram, saying the daytime strikes covered a broader geographic area than overnight raids and reached western parts of Ukraine, hundreds of kilometres from the front lines. Kyiv's air force reported it shot down 541 of the 556…

For Kyiv, Tehran has become a belligerent power. Over the past four years of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Iran has supplied Moscow with thousands of Shahed kamikaze drones — weapons responsible for killing hundreds of Ukrainian civilians and wounding thousands more. At first glance, a US war with Iran — a partner of Russia — and resultant regime change in Tehran might be expected to strain US-Russian ties and indirectly help Ukraine’s cause. Yet that rupture has not occurred, even after Russian President Vladimir Putin…

Two residents of Zaporizhzhia were killed and much of Chernihiv region was plunged into darkness after Russian strikes, Ukrainian officials reported. Zaporizhzhia Governor Ivan Fedorov said the morning attack on the city claimed the lives of a man and a woman and wounded six other people, among them two children. In neighboring Chernihiv, Governor Viacheslav Chaus said crews were working to repair damage from a drone strike that struck an energy facility. The northern region, which shares borders with Russia and Belarus, had…

A high-stakes push by European Union leaders at a Brussels summit fell short, leaving Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s veto on a €90 billion EU loan for Ukraine firmly in place, officials said. "They tried. They failed," one European official said of the efforts by other EU leaders to convince Mr Orban at a summit in Brussels. The loan was signed off by EU leaders in December, but Mr Orban — who keeps cordial ties with Russia and has clashed with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — has stalled its rollout, citing…

Britain, Ukraine agree drone exports, new AI center Britain and Ukraine agreed to work together to sell drone technology abroad and deepen battlefield AI cooperation during Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to London, according to a Downing Street statement. By Abdiwahab AhmedAxadle Times international–Monitoring Britain said it will combine Ukraine’s drone expertise with the United Kingdom’s manufacturing base under a new military‑industrial partnership aimed at boosting the supply of drones and ensuring artificial intelligence is…