In the island zone of the Kherson region, Russian occupiers continue to lay mines in channels and set up firing positions on certain islands. At the same time, the Defense Forces destroy 2–3 enemy boats every day.

Oleksiy Melnychenko, chief barista and manager of a cafe in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, held out as long as he could, serving doses of caffeine and normality to residents struggling amid Russian artillery and air attacks.

We report from inside the city, and look at how Ukrainian forces are trying to detect and destroy the Russian drones and where our team finds evidence civilians are being targeted, despite Russian claims they are not. The UN says in the last 18 months, 200 civilians have been killed and 2,000 injured this way.

The Mango Inquirer has taken his first aid run into the Ukrainian frontline, ignoring warnings that the threat of Russian drone strikes was too great to deliver care packages to children in the besieged city of Kherson.

Ukrainians on the frontline in Kherson tell Olga Tokariuk how they withstand daily enemy attacks – by sheltering under trees, staying indoors on clear days and with netting over the roads.

When Russia occupied the Ukrainian city of Kherson last year, local civilians organized a resistance. More than a year after Ukraine liberated the city, its citizens are still fighting. Moscow had seized Kherson just days after it invaded Ukraine in ...

Brendan Cole is a Newsweek Senior News Reporter based in London, UK. His focus is Russia and Ukraine, in particular the war started by Moscow. He also covers other areas of geopolitics including China. Brendan joined Newsweek in 2018 from the International ...

The total combat losses of Russian troops since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, from February 24, 2022, to December 21, 2025, amount to approximately 1,196,740, including 1,130 in the past 24 hours.