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      Ukraine’s Top Diplomat, Dmytro Kuleba, Offers His Resignation, Official Says

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      When Russian forces rolled across the border into Ukraine at the start of their full-scale invasion in February 2022, Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, compared the assault to Nazi Germany’s in World War II. “Ukraine defeated that evil and will defeat this one,” Mr. Kuleba tweeted. Then he spelled out the country’s mission: “Stop Putin.”That remained Mr. Kuleba’s central message for 30 months as he rallied wartime international support for Ukraine, courting allies old and new and becoming one of the most recognizable faces representing Kyiv’s cause.Mr. Kuleba was the most senior of the cabinet officials who Ukraine’s parliament speaker said had offered to resign on Wednesday. It appeared to be the largest reshuffling of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s cabinet since the start of the war, a move Mr. Zelensky described as necessary to “achieve all the results we need.” Mr. Kuleba did not comment publicly on the matter.As Ukraine’s top diplomat, Mr. Kuleba sought to drum up both military and political support. He was a forceful advocate in the monthslong effort — eventually successful — to convince the United States and Germany to supply Ukraine with the Patriot air-defense system in order to protect against Russian missile attacks.“Ukraine is currently the only country in the world that is subject to ballistic missile attacks almost every day,” he said during a news briefing in March. “Patriots should be deployed here, in Ukraine, to protect real human lives, and not to remain in places where the missile threat is zero.”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’s Attack on Poltava Comes After a Week of Strikes in Ukraine

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      The Russian missile strike that killed more than 40 people in the eastern city of Poltava on Tuesday comes after a difficult few days for Ukraine, in which Moscow appears to have stepped up the tempo of its attacks, resulting in a wave of death and destruction.At dawn on Aug. 26, residents of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and many other cities woke to the sound of a Russian aerial assault. Moscow had launched more than 200 missiles and drones that hit targets in 15 regions of Ukraine. At least seven people were killed.President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said that it was one of the largest attacks since Russia’s full-scale invasion began 30 months ago. The strikes knocked out power in some cities, including the capital, continuing a pattern of attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure.Early the next morning, Russia launched another barrage, and one missile hit a hotel in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, killing four people. There was also a smaller round of strikes on Wednesday.Moscow, which has been conducting aerial assaults on Ukraine every few weeks, gave no reason for the timing of the strikes, but it came weeks after Ukraine launched a surprise incursion into the southern Russian region of Kursk. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia had vowed a decisive response.Russia continued to pound urban areas close to the front lines throughout the week. On Wednesday, a Russian attack killed four members of a family in the tiny community of Izmailivka in the Donetsk region, the state prosecutor said. The settlement is a few miles west of Russian lines and close to the city of Pokrovsk, which Moscow is trying to capture.Most of the missiles and drones were shot down by Ukraine’s air defense systems, the Air Force said. F-16 fighter jets, recently delivered by the country’s allies in NATO, were deployed in that effort, intercepting and shooting down three cruise missiles and a drone.But on Thursday, the head of Ukraine’s air force, Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleshchuk, announced that one of the jets had crashed in combat during the operation on Monday and its pilot had been killed. He said that the crash, which came as a shock to many Ukrainians so soon after the deployment of the coveted fighter jets, was being investigated.The following day, Mr. Zelensky announced that Lt. Gen. Oleshchuk had been fired.Russian fire was also directed at Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, which is situated within range of Russian artillery and has been repeatedly assaulted since the start of the full scale war.On Friday, a Russian glide bomb hit a children’s park and a mid-rise apartment block in the city, killing seven people and wounding nearly 60 others, according to the head of the regional military administration, Oleh Syniehubov.Two days later, Russian forces bombarded residential areas of the city, wounding more than 40 civilians, Ukrainian officials said. At least 10 explosions had rocked the city. More

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      As Ukraine Mourns a Pilot’s Death, Jet’s Crash Is Still a Mystery

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      In a reversal, two senior U.S. military officials say the cause of the F-16’s crash was probably not friendly fire.As hundreds of Russian missiles and drones streaked across Ukraine on Monday, the Ukrainian fighter pilot known as Moonfish was exactly where he had said he always wanted to be: in the cockpit of an F-16 giving chase.“The F-16 is a Swiss Army knife,” the pilot, Lt. Col. Oleksiy Mes, told reporters while training on the warplane last fall. “It’s a very good weapon that can carry out any mission.”Colonel Mes helped lead Ukraine’s intense lobbying effort to secure the F-16 fighter jets, a half-dozen of which joined the fight against Russia earlier this month. And he was among the dozen or so pilots trained to fly the sophisticated warplane in combat.After shooting down three Russian cruise missiles and one attack drone in Monday’s assault, he was racing to intercept yet another target when ground control lost communication with his aircraft, Ukrainian Air Force officials said.“The plane crashed, the pilot died,” the Ukrainian military said in a statement.The death of a widely celebrated pilot and the loss of one of the long-coveted fighter jets so soon after their deployment cast a pall over the battlefield just as the giddy first days of the incursion into Russia’s Kursk region were fading away and concerns mounted over an advancing Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine.As the nation mourned the death of the pilot, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine dismissed the head of the country’s Air Force and promised a thorough investigation of the incident, including the possibility raised by a Western official on Friday that it was the result of friendly fire from a Patriot missile battery.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 Investigating Potential Causes of the Crash of an F-16

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      There are indications that friendly fire may have been involved, a Western official said. Ukraine is investigating the crash this week of one of the few F-16 fighter jets that had been delivered to the country by its allies in NATO, and was already collaborating with the United States to try to determine what happened, the head of Ukraine’s air force said on Friday.At the same time, a Western official who has been briefed on the preliminary investigation said that there are “indications” that friendly fire from a Patriot missile battery might be involved in the crash.The United States has supplied Ukraine with Patriots, which include a powerful radar system and mobile launchers that fire missiles at incoming projectiles, and the Ukrainian military has used them frequently as part of its defense against Russian aerial attacks.One possibility being explored is whether a Patriot battery might have accidentally fired at the plane, the official said. A second possibility is system malfunction.F-16 aircrafts flying during Ukraine’s Air Forces Day this month.Valentyn Ogirenko/ReutersUkraine said on Thursday that the plane was destroyed on Monday during a combat mission to repel a barrage of Russian missiles and drones. The loss of the plane is a significant blow to Ukraine’s effort to integrate the aircraft into its war effort, and to convince NATO allies that it can efficiently handle sophisticated western weapons.The pilot who died in the crash, Lt. Col. Oleksiy Mes, was one of the few who had been trained to fly the complex aircraft.The F-16’s, as well as other aspects of U.S. military aid to Ukraine, promised to be on the table at a scheduled meeting in Washington on Friday between the American defense secretary, Lloyd J. Austin III, and Ukraine’s minister of defense, Rustem Umerov.Ukraine took delivery of a small number of F-16s just a few weeks ago. Allies in Europe have promised the country 45 of the fighter aircraft, but so far only about six are believed to have arrived.The aircraft, delivered after many months of pressure by President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and other senior officials, are the most high-profile piece of military hardware supplied by the country’s allies since Russia launched its full scale invasion of the country 30 months ago.As such, they have become a symbol of Ukraine’s defense and their pilots were considered by many people to be national heroes.“We will find out the causes of the air disaster,” said the commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleschuk, in a post on the Telegram social media app on Friday. “We have to thoroughly understand what happened, the circumstances, and whose responsibility it is.” More

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      Shelling Kills 6 in Eastern Ukraine

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      The rest of the country, though, was largely spared from another consecutive night of large-scale Russian bombardment.Bombing eased across Ukraine after two nights of deadly barrages, but strikes near the front line killed six people and Russian troops pressed ahead in the east, closing in on the key city of Pokrovsk.President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has called Moscow’s far-reaching bombing campaign this week one of the largest since the war began 30 months ago. Several people in the capital, Kyiv, said on Wednesday that they were pleased to have been given a respite after air-raid sirens and explosions shattered the pre-dawn calm on Monday and Tuesday.The eastern region of Donetsk, which has seen some of the fiercest fighting this year, came under fire. A Russian attack killed four members of a family in the tiny community of Izmailivka, the state prosecutor’s office said on Facebook. The settlement is a few miles west of Russian lines and in the path of Moscow’s assault on Pokrovsk, a small city that is a vital transport hub for Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk region.“The people died buried under the rubble,” the statement said. The regional military administration said that two other people were killed in another attack on a Ukrainian-held settlement close to the city of Bakhmut, which Russian forces captured more than a year ago after some of the most brutal combat since the full-scale invasion began.The Donetsk region is one of two that make up the Donbas, and Russian forces have been pummeling it with daily barrages of missiles, drones and artillery fire. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has made controlling the whole of the Donbas a major aim.The Ukrainian authorities have for months pressed civilians to evacuate as Russian forces advanced. But many people have stayed for reasons of poverty, ill health or attachment to their homes and farms.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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      Solingen, Germany, Becomes Reluctant Symbol of Migration Battles

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      After a stabbing attack that prosecutors say was committed by a Syrian who was rejected for asylum, the city of Solingen finds itself at the center of a longstanding debate.Two days after a deadly knife attack in the German city of Solingen, the youth wing of the far-right AfD party put out a call for supporters to stage a protest demanding the government do more to deport migrants denied asylum.The authorities had identified the suspect in the stabbing spree that killed three people and wounded eight others as a Syrian man who was in the country despite having been denied asylum and who prosecutors suspected had joined the Islamic State. The attack tore at the fabric of the ethnically diverse, working-class city in the country’s west.But even before the right-wing protests had begun on Sunday, scores of counterprotesters had gathered in front of the group home that housed the suspect and other refugees. They carried banners that read, “Welcome to refugees” and “Fascism is not an opinion, but a crime,” and railed against those who would use the attack to further inflame an already fraught national debate over immigration and refugees.The dueling protests — not unlike those recently in Britain — are emblematic of Germany’s longstanding tug of war over how to deal with a large influx of asylum seekers in recent years. The country needs immigration to bolster its work force, but the government often finds itself on the defensive against an increasingly powerful AfD.The party and its supporters are attempting to use the stabbing attack to bolster their broader anti-immigrant message, with some blaming the assault on “uncontrolled migration” even before the nationality of the suspect was known.“They are trying to use this tragedy to foment fear,” said Matthias Marsch, 67, a Solingen resident who was at Sunday’s counterprotest and worries about a rightward drift in society. “I’m here to stand against that.”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 Attacks Bridges in Russia’s Kursk Region, Aiming to Encircle Troops

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      The attacks look to destroy or damage crossings over a river in the Kursk region that are Russian forces’ only routes for resupply or retreat, military analysts say.Russian troops defending a pocket of territory wedged between a river and the border with Ukraine were at risk of becoming encircled, military analysts said Monday, after Ukraine bombed bridges that are the only routes for resupply or retreat.In their counterattack into Russia, which has been underway now for nearly two weeks, Ukrainian troops quickly broke through thinly manned border defenses, fanned out on highways and captured towns and villages, initially pushing deeper into Russian territory.The bombing of bridges, in contrast, takes aim at land between the Seym River, the border and an area inside Russia already controlled by Ukraine, with the potential to entrap the Russian forces positioned there. Three bridges span this stretch of river, all now destroyed or damaged, according to statements released by the Ukrainian Air Force and to social media posts by Russian officials and military commentators. More

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      Hunter Biden sought US government help for Ukrainian company Burisma

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      Hunter Biden lobbied the US government for help in securing a lucrative energy contract in Italy while his father Joe Biden was vice-president, newly released documents show.A tranche of previously undisclosed documents now made public under a Freedom of Information Act (Foia) request reveals that the president’s son wrote to the then US ambassador to Rome, John Phillips, in 2016 seeking assistance on behalf of the Ukrainian energy company, Burisma, of which he was a board member.The request was revealed in documents issued by the US state department following a protracted effort by the New York Times seeking their release that lasted more than three years.While there is no evidence that the government met Hunter’s request for help or that his father knew of it, the revelation is likely to fuel Republican claims that Joe Biden’s political position was used to help his son’s business activities.The revelations come as Hunter Biden prepares to stand trial in California next month on charges of tax evasion on his income from Burisma and other foreign businesses.They follow his conviction in June on charges of illegal gun ownership during a time when he was using crack cocaine.Republicans have sought for years to tar Joe Biden with his son’s business activities, alleging that they reveal evidence of family corruption in a fruitless impeachment effort against the president last year.Even before the latest release, James Comer, the Republican chair of the House oversight committee, which has spearheaded the congressional investigation into Hunter Biden’s business affairs, called the affair “the biggest political corruption scandal of our history’s lifetime”, in remarks last week to the rightwing channel, Newsmax.The pursuit of Biden has lost much of its political sting since his withdrawal from the presidential race last month, after weeks of pressure from fellow Democrats following a disastrous debate performance.The New York Times reported that the decision to release the documents containing the latest revelations was taken weeks before Biden stepped aside in favour of the vice-president, Kamala Harris, meaning that it was unlikely that the documents had been deliberately withheld until they had become less politically damaging. The White House signed off on the release a week before the president announced his withdrawal, the paper reported.The state department has a track record of being slow to release records in response to requests. The Times said it had challenged the thoroughness of previous releases because they failed to include files stored in a laptop that Hunter Biden had left at a computer repair shop in Delaware.Hunter’s letter to the ambassador – the contents of which were entirely redacted – appeared intended to help secure a meeting with the head of the regional government in Tuscany in furtherance of a geothermal energy project for which Burisma was seeking regulatory approval for in the Italian region.It elicited a cautious response from US officials at the embassy and there is no evidence that a meeting ever took place as a result.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“I want to be careful about promising too much,” a US commerce department official based in the embassy wrote in response.“This is a Ukrainian company and, purely to protect ourselves, U.S.G. [United States government] should not be actively advocating with the government of Italy without the company going through the D.O.C. [Department of Commerce] Advocacy Center.”Enrico Rossi, the president of the Tuscan regional government at the time, told the New York Times that he never met Hunter Biden and had no recollection of the US embassy contacting about the Burisma project.A White House spokesman said Joe Biden was not aware of his son’s letter to the ambassador at the time.Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, called his client’s outreach to the ambassador a “proper request”.“No meeting occurred, no project materialised, no request for anything in the US was ever sought and only an introduction in Italy was requested,” Lowell said in a statement. More