Russian Invasion of Ukraine (2022)

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    She Worked in a Harvard Lab to Reverse Aging, Until ICE Jailed Her

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    A barracks-style detention center in Louisiana is jammed with around 90 immigrant women, mostly undocumented workers from central and South America, sharing five toilets and following orders shouted by guards.There is also, among them, a Russian scientist.She is 30 years old, shy and prone to nervous laughter. She cannot work, because her laptop was confiscated. She plays chess with other women when the guards allow it. Otherwise, she passes the time reading books about evolution and cell development.For nearly eight weeks, Kseniia Petrova has been captive to the hard-line immigration policies of the Trump administration. A graduate of a renowned Russian physics and technology institute, Ms. Petrova was recruited to work at a laboratory at Harvard Medical School. She was part of a team investigating how cells can rejuvenate themselves, with the goal of fending off the damage of aging.On Feb. 16, customs officials detained her at Logan International Airport in Boston for failing to declare samples of frog embryos she had carried from France at the request of her boss at Harvard. Such an infraction is normally considered minor, punishable with a fine of up to $500. Instead, the customs official canceled Ms. Petrova’s visa on the spot and began deportation proceedings. Then Ms. Petrova told her that she had fled Russia for political reasons and faced arrest if she returned there.This is how she wound up at the Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, La., waiting for the U.S. government to decide what to do with her.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Two Chinese Citizens Captured in Ukraine While Fighting for Russia, Zelensky Says

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      The Ukrainian president did not suggest that they had been sent by Beijing’s military, but he pointed to their presence as further evidence that Moscow was not truly interested in peace.President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said on Tuesday that two Chinese citizens fighting alongside Russian forces had been taken as prisoners of war.Mr. Zelensky said that the two Chinese citizens had been captured while fighting in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. He added that Kyiv had information that “there are many more such Chinese citizens in the enemy’s units,” without providing evidence. The claims could not be independently verified, and there was no immediate comment from the Chinese or Russian governments.The announcement came at a fraught moment for Ukraine as the Trump administration has seemingly drawn closer to Russia while trying to act as a mediator in cease-fire talks.Mr. Zelensky on Tuesday did not suggest that the Chinese fighters had been sent by China’s military, but he pointed to their presence as further evidence that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia was not truly interested in peace.“Russia’s involvement of China, along with other countries, whether directly or indirectly, in this war in Europe is a clear signal that Putin intends to do anything but end the war. He is looking for ways to continue fighting,” he wrote on social media.Mr. Zelensky said that he had instructed his foreign minister to “immediately contact Beijing and clarify how China intends to respond to this.” The foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, confirmed that he had summoned the Chinese chargé d’affaires to demand an explanation.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Russia Strikes Kyiv as Ukraine Mourns Deadly Attack on Zelensky’s Hometown

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      While Russian missile and drone bombardments have been unrelenting over more than three years of war, they have intensified in recent weeks amid U.S.-led peace talks.Russia bombarded Ukraine with ballistic missiles and drones on Sunday that killed one person and wounded at least seven others, the latest in a series of deadly attacks that President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has said makes clear Moscow has little real interest in cease-fire negotiations.While Russian drone and missile attacks have been unrelenting throughout more than three years of war, they have intensified in recent weeks amid ongoing peace talks led by the Trump administration.The Ukrainian authorities said the barrage on Sunday killed one man, damaged buildings and started fires in three neighborhoods of Kyiv, the capital. Damage and injuries were also reported elsewhere in Ukraine, as the country declared a day of mourning for a deadly strike on Friday in the city of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine.A missile strike on a residential neighborhood there killed 19 people, including nine children, and wounded 74 others. It damaged the courtyard of an apartment block, and emergency medical workers found some of the wounded in a playground, videos released by Ukraine’s emergency services showed. Russia’s ministry of defense said the missile hit a gathering of Ukrainian and foreign military personnel.A makeshift memorial at the site of Friday’s deadly strike in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, the hometown of President Volodymyr Zelensky.Violeta Santos Moura/ReutersThough he has expressed support for the Trump administration’s efforts to secure a cease-fire, Mr. Zelensky was critical of the tepid U.S. response to the attack on Kryvyi Rih, his hometown.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The Secret History of America’s Involvement in the Ukraine War

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      <!–> [–><!–> [–><!–>On a spring morning two months after Vladimir Putin’s invading armies marched into Ukraine, a convoy of unmarked cars slid up to a Kyiv street corner and collected two middle-aged men in civilian clothes.–><!–> –><!–> [–><!–> –><!–> [–><!–> –><!–> [–><!–> –><!–> [–><!–> –><!–> [–><!–> –><!–> –> <!–> [–> <!–> ]–> <!–> –><!–> –><!–> […] More

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      How Trump Insists on Thanks From Zelensky and Other Foreign Leaders

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      It’s not unusual for presidents to want to hear some words of gratitude. But the friction usually happens behind closed doors.After President Trump spoke on the phone with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine last week, the White House wanted to make one thing clear: The Ukrainian leader was grateful to the American president. Very grateful.The statement recounting the call mentioned four times that Mr. Zelensky had thanked the president for his efforts to negotiate terms of a ceasefire with Russia. It then went on to note that Mr. Zelensky was “grateful” for Mr. Trump’s leadership.The description revealed a pattern in the Trump administration’s shaping of its foreign policy agenda: When it comes to diplomacy, Mr. Trump wants an implicit or explicit display of personal gratitude from American allies.Michael Froman, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, said that Mr. Trump’s transactional approach to diplomacy suggests that he sees aiding U.S. allies as a favor, rather than as a cornerstone of foreign policy that will pay dividends down the road.“That does sort of signal a fundamentally different notion of order than we have had for the last 80 years, which is that while our allies need to step up and do more for their own defense, our support of their defense is also in our interest,” Mr. Froman said. “ I believe President Trump is questioning that.”The starkest example of Trump’s insistence on a thank-you came during a meeting last month in the Oval Office that included Mr. Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Mr. Zelensky.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Russia and Ukraine to Hold U.S.-Mediated Talks in Riyadh: What to Know

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      American envoys will meet with Ukrainian officials on Sunday and with Russian officials the following day. The discussions are expected to focus on halting attacks on energy facilities.The United States will hold separate talks with Russia and Ukraine in Saudi Arabia to iron out details of a possible limited cease-fire in what could be a crucial step toward a full cessation of hostilities in the war.Russia and Ukraine both agreed this past week to temporarily halt strikes on energy infrastructure, but how and when to implement that partial truce are questions that have yet to be decided as attacks persist.The talks — to be held in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, with American representatives mediating — are expected to focus on hammering out those details and on safety for shipping in the Black Sea. Kyiv’s delegation will first meet with U.S. mediators on Sunday, a Ukrainian official said, followed by Moscow-Washington talks on Monday.The Ukrainian official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, said Sunday’s talks would begin in the evening, Kyiv time. He added that the Ukrainian delegation might hold additional discussions with U.S. officials on Monday, depending on progress.Keith Kellogg, the U.S. special envoy to Ukraine, in Kyiv in February.Evgeniy Maloletka/Associated PressSteve Witkoff, whom President Trump has tapped to be his personal envoy to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, has said that the ultimate goal of the talks is a 30-day full cease-fire that would allow time for negotiations on a permanent truce.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Trump’s Focus on Ukrainian Nuclear Plant Is Partly Linked to Minerals Deal, Officials Say

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      The U.S. is seeking access to Ukrainian minerals, which require extensive energy to process. The Zaporizhzhia power plant in southern Ukraine, which Russia controls, could help with that, Kyiv says.After months of worry over the possibility of nuclear accidents at the Zaporizhzhia power plant in Ukraine, the reactors were stopped in 2022 and the plant mainly dropped off as a topic of discussion. Until last weekend.That was when President Trump suddenly said he intended to bring up Ukrainian power plants in his planned call on Tuesday with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to discuss cease-fire proposals. While he did not specifically identify the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which has been under Russian control since early in the war, his administration has strongly hinted at it.Why did the plant re-emerge as a topic of discussion?According to a current Ukrainian official and a former one, both of whom have knowledge of talks between the United States and Ukraine, the plant may now be on the table because it is partly tied to negotiations over U.S. access to Ukrainian mineral resources.The possible carrot for the United States: the critical minerals deal with Ukraine that Mr. Trump wants is contingent on extracting and processing those minerals. And that takes a lot of energy, which the six-reactor Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, could provide.Kyiv and Washington have been negotiating for weeks over U.S. access to Ukraine’s untapped deposits of critical minerals, including lithium and titanium, which are crucial for manufacturing modern technologies.Ukraine has told the United States that processing the minerals would be viable only if the Zaporizhzhia plant was back under its control, according to the two Ukrainians, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the talks. The currently serving Ukrainian official said the issue came up again last week during a top-level U.S.-Ukraine meeting in Saudi Arabia to discuss a potential cease-fire.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      In Ukraine’s Frontline Town of Sloviansk, a Taste of Normalcy Beckons

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      Serhii Kovalov doesn’t like sushi. Nor does the sushi chef at his restaurant in eastern Ukraine.But when customers started asking for it, Mr. Kovalov navigated both enemy shelling and ordinary supply-chain issues to get fresh fish for Philadelphia rolls to his frontline town, Sloviansk.Now, as Russian forces have drawn closer and life gets more bleak, many Sloviansk residents are weighing whether to flee. Not Mr. Kovalov. He’s determined to keep serving sushi to soldiers and civilians who are seeking comfort, sustenance or a taste of something special after more than three years of war.“I know I’m needed here,” the 30-year-old Mr. Kovalov said, gesturing at the restaurant and the town outside that has long been in Russia’s cross hairs. “So I stay.”Sushi has long been wildly popular in Ukraine, and for people in Sloviansk, this treat provides a sense of much-needed normalcy.When Sloviansk came under attack in February 2022 when Russia’s full-scale invasion began, sushi wasn’t even on the menu at Mr. Kovalov’s restaurant, Slavnyi Horod, or “Glorious City.”Serhii Kovalov, the restaurant’s owner, in front of an apartment he was living in with his wife when it was hit by a Russian missile in 2022.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Ukraine Retreats From Most of Russia’s Kursk Region

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      The daring campaign Ukraine launched last summer to seize and occupy Russian territory appears to be nearing an end.Ukrainian troops have withdrawn from all but a sliver of land in Russia’s Kursk region, according to military analysts and soldiers, as their monthslong campaign to seize and occupy Russian territory appears to be nearing an end in the face of Moscow’s counterattacks.At the height of the offensive, Ukrainian forces controlled some 500 square miles of Russian territory. By Sunday, they were clinging to a narrow strip of land along the Russian-Ukrainian border, covering barely 30 square miles, according to Pasi Paroinen, a military analyst with the Finland-based Black Bird Group.“The end of the battle is coming,” Mr. Paroinen said in a phone interview.The amount of Russian territory still under Ukrainian control could not be independently confirmed, and soldiers reported fierce fighting in the area. But amid a swift Russian advance backed by relentless airstrikes and drone assaults, Ukrainian troops over the past week have withdrawn from several villages in the Kursk region as well as from Sudzha, the main town under their control.The Ukrainian military command said that the troops had pulled back to what it described as more defensible ground inside Russia along the border, using hilly terrain to gain better fire control over approaching Russian forces. On Saturday, it released a map of the battlefield showing the sliver of land that Ukraine still controls in the Kursk region.But it remains unclear how long Ukrainian forces can hold onto that patch.The continuing fighting in Kursk is now less about holding Russian territory, Ukrainian soldiers said, and more about controlling the best defensive positions to prevent the Russians from pushing into the Sumy region of Ukraine and opening a new front in the war.“We continue to hold positions on the Kursk front,” an assault platoon commander, who asked to be identified only by his call sign, Boroda, said by phone. “The only difference is that our positions have shifted significantly closer to the border.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More