Europol passed Ukraine intelligence on 45 forcibly displaced or deported children on 21 April — covering transportation routes, individuals responsible, military units that facilitated the crimes, and facilities where the children may have been taken — Ukrinform reported, citing a comment from Europol's spokesperson. The handover builds on a two-day coordinated intelligence operation and forms part of Europol's broader support for Ukrainian war crimes investigations.

What Europol passed to Ukraine

Europol spokesperson Jaap Op Gen Oort told Ukrinform: 

"On Monday (21 April 2026, — Ed.) we passed to the Ukrainian authorities information on 45 Ukrainian children who were forcibly displaced or deported to Russia, Belarus, or temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine."

Op Gen Oort said the intelligence was compiled jointly with the Netherlands and partners from 17 countries. 

"We brought together 40 open-source intelligence experts who gathered important information, including on transportation routes, individuals involved in the deportations, military units that facilitated these crimes, and institutions where the children may have been taken," he said.

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The operation itself took place on 16-17 April, as Ukrinform had previously reported. Europol and the Netherlands led the coordinated effort to identify and track children forcibly displaced or deported to temporarily occupied Ukrainian territory, Russia, and Belarus.

Op Gen Oort described the handover as part of Europol's broader mission: 

"This work is part of our broader mission to support the Ukrainian authorities in their ongoing investigations into the forcible displacement of more than 19,500 children."

The scale of Russia's deportations

Ukraine officially identifies over 19,500 children forcibly displaced or deported since Russia's full-scale invasion began — but the true number is unknown. Ukraine's Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets warned it could reach 150,000 or higher. A Russian official claimed in 2023 that Russia had relocated 700,000 children from Ukrainian war zones — a figure that cannot be independently verified.

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Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha told a UN envoy on 13 April that Russia was systematically changing deported children's documents, placing them in foster families in remote Russian regions, and using them as leverage in negotiations. 

Ukraine has brought back more than 2,000 children through its Bring Kids Back UA initiative, but the vast majority remain unaccounted for.

In 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Putin and Russia's commissioner for children's rights, Maria Lvova-Belova — making Putin a wanted man under international law for this crime specifically. 

A court in Russian-occupied Luhansk sentenced Polish citizen Krzysztof Flaczek to 13 years in a maximum-security penal colony on 16 April 2026 for fighting on Ukraine's side. This was reported by Russia's Prosecutor General's Office.

The verdict landed without a single reference to Russia's own earlier claim that Flaczek had switched sides and joined a pro-Russian battalion.

The propaganda arc

Flaczek, a native of Mysłowice in southern Poland, arrived in Ukraine in September 2024 and joined the International Legion. Russian forces captured him near Chasiv Yar in Donetsk Oblast in November 2024.

From early 2025 through August of that year, RIA Novosti and Sputnik aired a series of videos featuring Flaczek in captivity. In them, he urged fellow Poles not to fight for Ukraine, complained about inadequate training at the front, and compared Ukraine's territorial recruitment centers to Nazi Germany's forced conscription of Poles in World War II.

Russian media also claimed Flaczek had defected to the so-called Maksim Krivonos battalion — a unit Moscow describes as a "liberation movement" of former Ukrainian soldiers fighting Kyiv.

The story Moscow quietly dropped

Flaczek's last RIA Novosti appearance came in late August 2025. Then he vanished from the propaganda feed. Eight months later, the Supreme Court of the self-proclaimed "Luhansk People's Republic" sentenced him as a mercenary who fought for money "against Russian troops and civilians."

Russia's Prosecutor General's Office statement and the follow-up RIA Novosti coverage of the verdict say nothing about the defection to the pro-Russian battalion — the central claim of the entire 2025 propaganda cycle. Independent Russian outlets Mediazona and The Insider flagged the omission.

Russia has documented cases of using prisoners of war, both Ukrainian and foreign, for staged propaganda appearances. Ukrainian former POW Oleksii Chorpita said he had been offered release on condition he record videos praising Russia and denigrating Ukraine. He refused, and remained in captivity until 2025.

The Polish consul in Moscow has requested formal information from Russian authorities about Flaczek's case. Warsaw is treating the situation as a matter of consular protection.

Warsaw went the other way

The verdict landed three weeks after Poland legally amnestied citizens who volunteered for Ukraine's military.

On 27 March 2026, Polish President Karol Nawrocki signed a law retroactively legalizing service in Ukraine's armed forces dating back to 6 April 2014, when fighting began in Donbas. Polish volunteers had previously faced three months to five years in prison for serving in a foreign military without government authorization.

Polish military news service MilMag has confirmed 23 deaths of Poles fighting on Ukraine's side since 2014.

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The pattern

Krzysztof Flaczek is one of many examples of foreign nationals sentenced by Russia for fighting for Ukraine. British volunteer James Scott Rhys Anderson got 19 years in March 2025 on terrorism and mercenary charges after being captured in Kursk Oblast. British volunteer Hayden Davies received 13 years in December 2025.

Both Moscow and Kyiv have recruited foreign fighters. Russia has officially acknowledged only North Korean troops among its own foreign recruits — though journalists and monitoring groups estimate at least 3,300 foreign fighters from the global south have died fighting for Russia, according to figures cited by AFP.

Russian oil began flowing through the Druzhba pipeline's Ukrainian section on 22 April, with deliveries to Slovakia and Hungary expected the following morning, according to statements from Slovak Deputy PM Denisa Saková and Hungarian oil company MOL. The restart ends a nearly three-month halt that sparked a diplomatic crisis between Ukraine and two EU member states, with both Budapest and Bratislava retaliating against Kyiv over a pipeline that Russia itself had struck.

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy announced the completion of repairs on 21 April. Ukrtransnafta officially notified Hungary of the end of the force majeure the same day at 18:00.

Oil is flowing again

Slovak Deputy PM and Economy Minister Saková posted on Facebook that, according to Ukrtransnafta data, pressurizing and filling of the Druzhba pipeline began on the Ukrainian side from Belarus on the morning of 22 April. She said resumption of pumping and deliveries to Slovakia is expected on the morning of 23 April.

MOL separately notified capital market participants that Ukrtransnafta had informed it that crude from Belarus via Druzhba had begun arriving in Ukraine at noon on 22 April. MOL said it expects the first crude shipments following the restart of the Ukrainian section to reach Hungary and Slovakia by 23 April at the latest.

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Russia bombed the pipeline. Hungary blocked the loan. Ukraine is about to pay for both to unblock.

Slovakia's sanctions condition

The day before, at the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg on 21 April, Slovak FM Juraj Blanár stated that Bratislava would not block the 20th EU sanctions package against Russia if Ukraine restored oil flow through Druzhba.

Orbán lost to Péter Magyar's Tisza party in a landslide on 12 April, with Magyar's coalition winning a two-thirds supermajority. Magyar said he sees no reason to block the €90 billion loan — though Tisza MEPs had voted against it during the campaign.

Russia's Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu threatened Moldova with intervention over its measures against Transnistria — a Russian-occupied breakaway strip of Moldovan territory — comparing Chișinău's actions to Ukraine's alleged treatment of Donbas after 2014, in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda cited by The Moscow Times. 

Shoigu's threats and the Donbas comparison

Shoigu, Russia's former defense minister, claimed Moldova, "with Ukraine's participation," had imposed a "blockade" on Transnistria, creating "trade, banking, and transport barriers" and worsening conditions for residents. 

"Movement restrictions, illegal customs duties, arbitrary deprivation of citizenship... the situation, frankly, is serious," he claimed. "Key enterprises are not functioning or are working intermittently, and there is a chronic shortage of energy resources."

He then invoked the language Russia used before its 2014 and 2022 invasions of Ukraine. Moldova's rhetoric toward Transnistria, Shoigu claimed, "increasingly resembles the statements of Ukrainian authorities toward the Donbas after 2014."

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The threat followed directly: 

"More than 220,000 Russian citizens live in Transnistria, whose interests and security — due to the mindless and irresponsible actions of Kyiv and Chișinău — are now under threat. And if necessary, Russia will take all necessary steps and use all available methods to protect them."

Shoigu also accused Moldova of trying to "squeeze out" the Russian military contingent from Transnistria, noting that on 17 April Moldova declared the contingent's commanders persona non grata — effectively barring them from entering Moldovan-controlled territory. He claimed this "unambiguously confirms Chișinău's firm intention to further escalate the situation."

An empty threat Russia cannot easily deliver

What Shoigu did not address is that Russia has no land route to Transnistria. Ukraine lies between Russia and the breakaway region.

Russia's Operational Group of Russian Forces — around 1,500 of the so-called "peacekeeping" troops descended from the Soviet 14th Army, which supported separatist forces in the 1990s conflict — has been stationed in Transnistria since then, with no resupply land corridor and no mechanism for reinforcement or withdrawal. A Ukrainian defense official said in April that Russia lacked the forces to execute its intentions to create a buffer zone within Ukraine near Transnistria.

Shoigu added that Russia had "repeatedly warned at all levels" that any attempt to resolve Transnistria by military force, or to replace Russian troops with a "Western contingent," would "provoke negative consequences for Moldova and the entire region."

Putin scolded his economic team on live television. Western intelligence agencies say Moscow is hiding the economic damage. Russians pulled billions of rubles in cash from their accounts in a single week. But Middle East oil windfalls have papered over the cracks—and bought the Kremlin enough runway to keep fighting.

Each signal is real. Whether they add up to the imminent collapse that Russian opposition economists have predicted for three years is another question. Russian economist Vladislav Inozemtsev told Euromaidan Press in an interview this month that Russia’s financial position has shifted substantially since February. Any relief, he warned, will go straight into military spending—not into the civilian economy Russians live in.

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Vladislav Inozemtsev: A collapse is not imminent

The stress is visible

Russia’s GDP grew 4.9% in 2024. Last year it grew 1%. In January and February 2026, it contracted by 1.8%—a figure Putin himself acknowledged. The federal budget deficit has doubled year-on-year to 4.5 trillion rubles ($60 billion).

Sweden’s military intelligence chief Thomas Nilsson said the Russian Central Bank is understating inflation—the official rate of 5.86% against a reality closer to the 15% key interest rate—and that Moscow is hiding a $30 billion gap in its deficit. German intelligence agrees. The Swedish annual report also flagged an emerging banking crisis in Russia.

Independent analysis is more cautious. An October 2024 Bank of Finland study found Russian budget data deviating from pre-war patterns but no compelling evidence of deliberate manipulation. The irregularities, the Finns concluded, may reflect structural shifts from the war itself rather than deliberate fraud.

Inozemtsev pushes back on the inflation reading. Russian inflation, he told Euromaidan Press, is “not so much monetary as the result of coordinated price hikes by the government.” State monopolies drive the dynamic, he said—tariff hikes feed into tax hikes and spread across the economy. Interest rates alone cannot fix that.

“There is a structural flaw in Russia’s system,” Nilsson said—a war economy that builds military hardware only to see it destroyed in combat.

The anxiety is showing up in cash. Between 3 and 10 April, Russians withdrew 240 billion rubles ($3.19 billion) from bank accounts—the highest weekly figure of the year. Total cash in circulation climbed to 19.85 trillion rubles ($264 billion).

Officials blame mobile internet disruptions. At the same time, the Finance Ministry is preparing to let tax authorities track bank transfers above 200,000 rubles ($2,656) a month. Many are pulling cash out ahead of the new controls.

In this climate, Putin summoned Elvira Nabiullina, his Central Bank chief of nearly 13 years, and the rest of his economic team for a televised scolding. “I hope to hear detailed reports why macroeconomic indicators are falling short of expectations,” he said.

Oil bought him time anyway

Then the Iran war happened. Brent prices surged. Russian crude jumped from around $42–45 per barrel to roughly $100.

Russia’s oil export capacity is already under severe pressure. Reuters calculated on 25 March that roughly 40% of that capacity—around 2 million barrels a day—was offline after Ukrainian drone strikes on the Primorsk and Ust-Luga Baltic ports, pipeline damage, and European tanker seizures.

Even at those reduced volumes, crude at around $100 a barrel generates more revenue than pre-war volumes at pre-war prices.

Washington has also eased the pressure. Trump issued sanctions waivers letting India and other countries buy Russian oil, and now extended them into May. Inozemtsev doubts the previous sanctions regime will be restored.

The IMF has already raised its 2026 forecast for Russian GDP growth to 1.1%, up from 0.8% in its January projection, citing higher commodity prices from the Middle East crisis. The revised figure would put the wartime economy slightly ahead of 2025’s 1% expansion.

Strain is not collapse

Western policy has rested for three years on the assumption that sanctions would end the war. Russia’s military-industrial complex is loss-making outside the drone sector, corrupt, and dependent on state loans.

Swedish intelligence flagged Moscow prioritizing military capability buildup near Sweden even as its economy strains. That damage is real. It is also not collapse.

The Bank of Finland’s statistical analysis from October 2024 found post-invasion irregularities in Russian data but no compelling evidence of the systematic manipulation a regime would need to hide imminent failure.

Oil at $100 a barrel, Trump’s sanctions waivers for India, and Putin’s televised pressure on Nabiullina have bought the Kremlin runway the collapse thesis didn’t anticipate.

“A collapse is not imminent,” Inozemtsev said. “If the Kremlin feels budget pressure easing, it will simply increase military expenditures.”

Ukrainian drone attacks in March were almost twice as intense as Russian ones, Inozemtsev noted—and that is the pressure actually reaching Moscow.

“A weak economy does not change strategic goals,” Nilsson said. Russia’s war aims haven’t shifted. The strain only affects how fast Moscow can build the capabilities to achieve them.

“The war will be won or lost on the front, not in EU headquarters,” Inozemtsev said.

Russia is straining. It is also still paying for the war. The longer Western policy treats sanctions as the finishing move, the longer the war lasts.

Russia's Chief of the General Staff, Army General Valery Gerasimov, made a series of sweeping statements about battlefield progress during a visit to the Southern Grouping of Forces command on 21 April, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), which found that the claims contradicted available evidence, including reporting from pro-Russian sources. ISW assessed that Russia's spring-summer 2026 offensive has produced zero tactically significant gains since it launched no later than 17 March, and that Russian forces have lost ground since 1 March.

What Gerasimov said — and what ISW found

Gerasimov claimed Russian forces had taken over 1,700 km² and 80 settlements across Ukraine since early 2026 — Luhansk Oblast among them — with a further 700 km² and 34 settlements falling in March and April alone. ISW's tracking puts Russian forces at 381.5 km² gained and 13 settlements taken since 1 January — while finding a net 59.79 km² loss across the theater since 1 March.

The Luhansk claim is not new. ISW noted that Russian military command had made the same assertion three times before 21 April — including twice after Ukraine's Fall 2022 counteroffensive retook portions of the oblast.

Gerasimov also stated Russian forces had advanced to within 7 km of Kramatorsk and 12 km of Sloviansk. Even the most optimistic figures from Russian sources ISW had on record placed forces no closer than roughly 14 km from Kramatorsk and 9 km from Sloviansk. On specific settlements, the gap is equally stark: Gerasimov stated 70% of Lyman seized — ISW found no evidence Russian forces had seized any of it — and 75% of Novopavlivka, where ISW assessed 20.51% actual Russian control.

Gerasimov went further, stating Russian forces had entered Borova, Studenok, and Zaporozhets — three settlements ISW places several kilometers from the furthest extent of any confirmed Russian advances. Rybar's pro-Russian frontline map from 20 April depicted Zaporozhets as territory still held by Ukraine.

Even maximalist Russian sources don't support the claims

ISW calculated that combining confirmed Russian advances with all unconfirmed Russian claims produces a total of 715 km² — just 42% of Gerasimov's stated figure. No Russian source published a map consistent with 1,700 km² of gains in 2026. Several of the settlements Gerasimov named sit beyond even the outer edge of what Russia's own milbloggers have claimed. Russian milbloggers have repeatedly accused Gerasimov of sending “beautiful reports” up the chain of command — their term for embellished or fabricated claims of progress.

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ISW also noted that the April speech covered two to four months of "gains" instead of the single month covered in previous addresses — a tactic ISW assessed as designed to disguise the absence of recent progress behind a larger cumulative figure. Gerasimov also recycled previous settlement claims, presenting them as fresh to manufacture an image of rapid ongoing advances. He has now delivered comparable exaggerated claims five times in 2026, on 15 January, 27 January, 15 February, 16 March, and 21 April.

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What the offensive is actually producing

Russia launched its spring-summer 2026 offensive more than a month ago and has made no tactically significant gains since then, losing roughly 10 km² across the theater, and its rate of advance has slowed all across the front. Heavy casualties have forced Russia to reduce its operational tempo in several sectors. ISW assessed that Russia's troop generation is being squeezed from both ends — recruitment falling while casualties climb — eroding the viability of its mass-assault approach.

Spain's Defense Minister Margarita Robles arrived in Kyiv on 22 April 2026 and opened her working visit with a floral tribute to fallen Ukrainian defenders, the Spanish Ministry of Defense reported.

Robles laid flowers at the Wall of Memory on Mykhailivska Square — the central Kyiv site honoring soldiers killed in the war with Russia.

"The first working day of the minister in Kyiv begins, with a floral offering in homage to the defenders of Ukraine," the Spanish Ministry of Defense said in its X post. "The Wall of Memory, in Mykhailivska Square, has been the setting for this tribute to those who gave their lives for their country."

The ministry closed the post with a separate line: "Spain always with Ukraine."

Robles is scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting on Wednesday with Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, following talks with the acting head of Ukraine's State Border Guard Service, Valerii Vavryniuk.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will present Robles with the Order of Princess Olha III degree in recognition of Spain's military and humanitarian support for Ukraine.

The visit comes against the backdrop of Madrid's commitment to provide Ukraine with €1 bn in military assistance in 2026, European Pravda notes.

The 20th package of EU sanctions against Russia has been added to the agenda of the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER) meeting on 22 April, alongside a 90bn euro loan for Ukraine, European Pravda reports, citing its sources.

Both items were placed on the ambassadors' agenda as "non-discussion items," meaning they are not scheduled for debate during the session itself.

How the written procedure could clear both decisions within 24 hours

If the ambassadors of Hungary and Slovakia, which had previously blocked both the loan and the sanctions, do not raise principled objections to the adoption of these decisions, a written procedure for their approval will be announced, according to the outlet.

The written procedure normally runs for 24 hours and is expected to conclude by the morning of 23 April. The decisions can be adopted earlier if all member states sign the document. If the Hungarian or Slovak ambassadors raise reservations — for example, insisting on waiting until Russian oil physically reaches their countries through the Druzhba pipeline — consideration of both items will be postponed.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on 21 April that a decision on providing Ukraine with 90bn euros from the EU is expected within the next 24 hours.

Sybiha: a delayed package is no longer enough

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha told reporters in Kyiv that the belated approval of the 20th sanctions package by the EU is no longer sufficient and that it must be substantially expanded.

Sybiha noted that the package was supposed to have been approved two months earlier, on 24 February, but did not pass due to blocking by Hungary and Slovakia, which demanded in exchange the resumption of operations of the Druzhba oil pipeline.

"We believe that it is already not enough for us that sanctions must be adopted — they must also be an expanded package. Quite a lot of time has passed since 24 February. Our understanding has expanded, as has the need to squeeze the Russians, their industry, the 'shadow fleet,' maritime services," the minister said.

Sybiha added that Ukraine is counting on an expanded 20th package and noted that he had raised this the day before in his address to the EU Foreign Affairs Council.

"And we have encouraging signals that the 20th package will happen," he said.

Hungarian and Slovak conditions tied to the Druzhba pipeline

On 21 April, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine had repaired the Druzhba oil pipeline, which sustained damage in a Russian missile strike in January 2026.

Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanár said the same day that his country is ready to support the 20th sanctions package against Russia after Slovakia "received a signal" about a possible resumption of oil supplies. Blanár had earlier stated that Bratislava would back the package only when "Russian oil reaches Slovakia via the Druzhba pipeline."

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who remains in office, said the previous day that Budapest would unblock the 90bn euro EU loan for Ukraine only after Russian oil supplies via Druzhba are restored.

Czech Foreign Minister Petr Macinka said on 21 April that Hungary and Slovakia had confirmed that, once Russian oil supplies through the Druzhba pipeline resume, both countries would support the EU loan to Kyiv and the 20th sanctions package against Russia.

The European Union will present proposals to restrict former Russian combatants' entry into the bloc by June's European Council, EU High Representative Kaja Kallas announced following a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.

"Finally, we will come with proposals to restrict former Russian combatants' entry to the European Union by the time of June's European Council," Kallas said, listing the initiative among a wider set of measures aimed at countering Russian destabilization efforts.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha endorsed the proposal on X. Sybiha framed the entry ban as a logical response to Russian aggression and argued that participation in the war should carry political consequences alongside military ones.

"This is a timely and welcome step that will show every Russian that by signing a contract to fight a criminal war of agression against Ukraine they also sign an entry ban to Europe," Sybiha said. He called on all EU member states to support the initiative and to adopt corresponding decisions at the national level.

Part of a wider Russia package

The combatants proposal sits alongside other measures the Foreign Affairs Council approved or advanced the same day. Ministers signed off on additional sanctions against those behind disinformation campaigns inside the European Union and extended measures against actors destabilizing Moldova.

Kallas also flagged a cultural front. "While Russia bombs museums, destroys churches and seeks to erase Ukrainian culture, it should not be allowed to exhibit its own," she said, calling Russia's return to the Venice Biennale "morally wrong" and confirming the EU intends to cut its funding.

€90 billion loan and sanctions packages

Kallas said she expects a positive decision on the €90 billion loan to Ukraine within 24 hours, citing new momentum following Hungarian elections. Ministers also urged the bloc to move forward with the 20th sanctions package, which Kallas described as "long overdue," while some ministers floated ideas for a 21st package.

She said the EU's EUMAM mission has trained over 90,000 Ukrainian soldiers, and reported broad support for advancing a fourth pillar of European security guarantees focused on defense sector reform, hybrid and cyber threats, and veterans.

On the Druzhba pipeline dispute, Kallas said Ukraine had committed to resuming flows — the obstacle, she said, for Hungarian and Slovak counterparts. Asked who holds the leverage, she replied: "if you are buying Russian oil and gas, then the leverage is with Russia."

Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces (SBS) — the world's first military branch dedicated entirely to drone warfare — are formally scaling up their middle-strike and deep-strike operations against targets deep inside Russia and occupied territories, SBS commander Major Robert "Madyar" Brovdi announced on 21 April evening. More trained pilots from additional units are set to join the deep-strike campaign from the start of May, Brovdi said.

Six units running, more joining in May

Brovdi confirmed that drone pilots from six SBS units are already running middle-strike and deep-strike missions: 

• the 1st Separate SBS Center
• the Kairos and 13th battalions of the 414th "Madyar's Birds" Brigade
• the 412th Nemesis brigade
• the 413th Raid regiment
• the Feniks unit. 

Behind the loud headlines, it is painstaking and laborious work, according to Brovdi. But he noted that the work of expanding the range and intensity of strikes would continue. From May, trained pilots from several more unnamed SBS units will join deep-strike operations, according to the commander.

Middle-strike drones operate at depths of 50 to 250 km from the front line and, unlike purely GPS-guided platforms, maintain live operator contact throughout the flight — allowing real-time target confirmation and course correction. Deep-strike drones rely on GPS and AI navigation for autonomous flight to targets hundreds of kilometers inside Russia, with some strikes confirmed at distances exceeding 1,700 km from Ukrainian territory.

Campaign already reshaping Russia's war economy

The scaling-up announcement follows a period of intensifying results. In the first two weeks of April alone, SBS put 12 Russian air defense systems out of action — Tor-M1 and Pantsir-S1 systems, ammunition depots, and logistics hubs. In January, a single week of strikes by the 412th Nemesis brigade destroyed an estimated $300 million worth of Russian air defense equipment.

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Tuapse burns again: drones hit the port city three days after the last fire was put out

The campaign has also struck deep into Russia's energy infrastructure. In March alone, Zelenskyy estimated that Ukrainian long-range strikes cost Russia at least $2.3 billion in oil revenue. Reuters reported on 25 March that Ukrainian strikes had halted roughly 40% of Russia's oil export capacity — the worst disruption in modern Russian history. In April, Russia cut oil output by an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 barrels per day, the sharpest monthly drop in six years, according to Reuters sources.

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HUR’s “Ghosts” hit two Russia’s landing ships, $5 million radar, and fuel depot in one overnight peration

Despite the expansion, Ukraine's deep-strike program faces a persistent constraint: the supply of mini jet engines, produced by only three European companies. Faster than propeller drones and cheaper than cruise missiles, jet-powered strike drones are central to the campaign's scaling ambitions — but production bottlenecks continue to limit how fast the program can grow.

A Russian strike on the city of Sumy has destroyed one of Ukraine’s key athletics arenas. The facility served for decades as a training hub for track and field athletes and a venue for national competitions, 24 Channel has reported. 

The building lost its windows, parts of its structure were destroyed, and the facility has effectively been rendered inoperable. Before the full-scale invasion, it regularly hosted Ukraine’s indoor championships and was a cornerstone of the country’s sports infrastructure.

The destruction of the arena is a critical blow to athlete development, as it was the only specialized track-and-field facility in the region.

Sports arena reduced to ruins after Russian night strike

The Sumy arena featured unique features, including specially designed banked curves that enabled athletes to achieve higher performance. It served both elite competitors and young athletes at the start of their careers.

In addition to track and field, the venue hosted other sporting events, including basketball games and bandy tournaments.

Its destruction represents not just the loss of a building, but the collapse of an entire sports development environment in the region.

Years of training and sporting history erased

Ukrainian athlete Olha Liakhova, who spent a significant part of her career training at the facility, reacted to the strike.

“Today, Russians destroyed one of the best indoor athletics arenas in Ukraine. For me, this is not just a building — it’s 15 years of my life," said the Ukrainian athlete.

She emphasized that the arena was a place where future champions were shaped and where key national competitions were held.

“It had unique curves you couldn’t find anywhere else — you could run faster here than anywhere. Children trained here. Future champions grew here. Now — broken walls, shattered windows, and silence," she said. 

Attack undermines future of Ukrainian sports

The destruction of the Sumy arena highlights how the war affects not only military or energy infrastructure, but also the humanitarian and sports sectors.

Losing facilities like this complicates the training of future generations of athletes and limits the country’s ability to host national-level competitions.

Exclusives

Ukraine lost 500 American battle taxis. Now it's building a tougher one. Ukraine's standard M-113 armored personnel carrier is speedy and roomy but lacks protection. A new Ukrainian vehicle addresses that flaw.

Russia bombed the pipeline. Hungary blocked the loan. Ukraine is about to pay for both to unblock.. The timeline firms up: oil Tuesday, veto lift midweek, Brussels vote Wednesday. Kyiv's financing through 2027 hinges on all three.

€90 billion for Ukraine—two-thirds of the 2026–27 budget gap—clears Brussels Wednesday. EU ambassadors vote Wednesday on the final step. Sanctions and military aid remain blocked.

Pro-Russian party entered Lithuania's ruling coalition — and it's already blocking defense projects on the Suwalki Corridor. Still, Latvia may be more vulnerable.

Military

1.5 million more Russian soldiers would have to die to take the rest of Donetsk Oblast — Ukraine's UN ambassador. At 254 Russians killed per square kilometer, Russia needs 183 Years.

Ukraine struck Russian Samara oil terminal, which produces the Urals export grade of crude oil. SBU's Alfa unit struck the Samara oil station overnight on 21 April, damaging five 20,000-cubic-meter crude tanks at the facility that produces Russia's Urals export grade.

Zelenskyy: leaving Donbas means losing war's strongest shield — its cities. Zelenskyy says withdrawing from the Donbas would be a strategic defeat for Ukraine, with urban defenses far stronger than any line built in open fields.

Intelligence and technology

Ukraine lost 500 American battle taxis. Now it's building a tougher one. Ukraine's standard M-113 armored personnel carrier is speedy and roomy but lacks protection. A new Ukrainian vehicle addresses that flaw.

Ukraine has delivered 92% of last year's fiber-optic drone total to front in under four months. Ukraine's just solved the fiber-optic cable price problem.

British Rapid Ranger is downing Shaheds in Ukraine from Spanish armored vehicles. Ukraine's air defense just gained a new super layer.

11 countries want Ukraine's drone defense technology: three Gulf states have already signed 10-year deals. Ukrainian interceptor drones (systems designed to shoot down Russian Shaheds and other attack UAVs) have emerged as one of the most battlefield-validated Ukrainian drone capabilities.

Ukraine's new exoskeleton has no electronics, no power supply, and takes 2 minutes to put on. In a war defined by electronic warfare, a purely mechanical system with no power requirements is specifically suited to frontline conditions.

Ukrainian defense tech is in demand worldwide — German minister Pistorius. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said at the Hannover Messe that Ukrainian defense technologies are in demand worldwide and urged partners to keep them in sight.

Ukraine's drone operators are about to stop carrying five different controllers to front. The country is solving a significant issue.

Swedish Intelligence: Russia's economy is worse than its official data says. Still, it doesn't change Russia's military goals.

International

Russia bombed the pipeline. Hungary blocked the loan. Ukraine is about to pay for both to unblock. The timeline firms up: oil Tuesday, veto lift midweek, Brussels vote Wednesday. Kyiv's financing through 2027 hinges on all three.

€90 billion for Ukraine—two-thirds of the 2026–27 budget gap—clears Brussels Wednesday. EU ambassadors vote Wednesday on the final step. Sanctions and military aid remain blocked.

EU announced funding shortfall for Ukraine in 2027. EU Commissioner Dombrovskis says the €90 bn EU loan covers two-thirds of Ukraine's 2026–2027 needs, but the remaining third is secured only for 2026, leaving a 2027 gap.

EU plans to provide Ukraine with the first tranche of a 90-billion-euro loan in late May or early June. EU Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis says the first tranche of the 90-billion-euro loan for Ukraine will arrive in late May or early June 2026, with no technical delays in preparation.

"No truth" in it: Estonia rejects Zelenskyy's warning of a Russian mobilization aimed at the Baltics. Zelenskyy said Russia may mobilize to attack a Baltic state. Estonia's foreign minister told ERR the claim does not match Tallinn's intelligence or threat assessment.

Pro-Russian party entered Lithuania's ruling coalition — and it's already blocking defense projects on Suwalki Corridor. Still, Latvia may be more vulnerable.

Singer Dua Lipa helped raise funds for a pickup truck for Ukrainian military medics. Ukraine's First Separate Medical Battalion received a pickup truck funded at a Service95 event backed by Dua Lipa, organised with Driving Ukraine in London.

Humanitarian and social impact

Russian drones hit Sumy hospital — 15 injured, three schoolgirls among wounded. Russia launched 143 drones and two Iskander missiles overnight on 21 April. A Sumy medical facility was hit, injuring 15, including three girls; one was killed in Kherson, and the school was destroyed in Sloviansk.

Russia keeps arresting Crimeans. The count just hit 520. The number of Crimean political prisoners has more than doubled since the full-scale invasion. A welder, a human rights defender, a father of four: three faces of the political repressions.

Political and legal developments

EU's hybrid threats sanctions list grows to 88 names. Two Russian information networks has been added.

Weaponized energy: Russia may cut off Kazakh oil to Germany on 1 May, risking Berlin-Brandenburg fuel shock. Russia may plan to reduce Germany's PCK refinery feedstock by 17%.

New developments

Ukrainian actor Oleksandr Rudynskyi joins Netflix's live-action "Gundam" adaptation with Sydney Sweeney. Netflix's biggest Mech adaptation starts filming in Australia.

Read our earlier daily review here.

Russia is manipulating economic data to conceal the true economic state and to create the impression that sanctions are having little effect, according to Swedish intelligence. The report also suggests signs of an emerging banking crisis.

Despite significant economic challenges, Russia continues to sustain its war in Ukraine and carry out hybrid activities in EU and NATO countries. At the same time, priority is being given to expanding military capabilities in close proximity to Sweden.

“Economic difficulties and other costs of the war have not affected Russia’s war objectives in Ukraine or its stance toward NATO and EU countries,” said Thomas Nilsson, head of Sweden’s military intelligence service.

However, sanctions and financial constraints are affecting the type of military capability Russia can obtain and how quickly it can develop it.

Russia’s war machine sustains despite economic pressure

Official Russian data points to negative economic trends, including a decline in GDP and weak industrial production. Swedish intelligence also assesses that Russia is manipulating economic statistics to appear more resilient than it actually is.

Even though recent high oil prices have boosted revenues, crude prices above $100 per barrel would be required for a full year to correct Russia’s budget deficit.

Economic strain has also spread to the defense sector, which is described as loss-making, corruption-prone, and heavily dependent on state funding.

“There is a structural flaw in Russia’s system. Producing military equipment that is immediately destroyed on the battlefield is not a sustainable growth model,” Nilsson said.

He assessed that the real situation in Russia is worse than officially reported, with higher inflation and a larger budget deficit.

Economic weakness does not change Russia’s strategic goals

Still, analysts do not expect Russia’s economic problems to alter its geopolitical or military objectives toward Ukraine, the EU, or NATO.

“A weak economy does not change strategic goals. Russia will remain a threat actor for the armed forces, even if its economy continues to deteriorate,” Nilsson said.

However, a weaker economy may influence how Russia can implement its plans, including how much military capability it can produce, how advanced it can be, and how quickly it can scale it for the war in Ukraine and for potential pressure against Sweden.

Ukrainian actor Oleksandr Rudynskyi has joined a large-scale film project based on the cult anime “Gundam”, which is being developed for release on Netflix, reports Netflix Tudum. 

Production of the live-action adaptation has officially begun in Queensland, Australia, where the team is working on bringing one of the most influential science fiction franchises of modern pop culture to life.

Hollywood and Japanese pop culture unite in new “Gundam” adaptation

The film is directed by Jim Mickle, known for Sweet Tooth and Cold in July. The lead roles are played by Sydney Sweeney and Noah Centineo, who head the cast.

The ensemble also includes, alongside Rudynskyi, Jackson White, Shiori Kutsuna, Nonso Anozie, Michael Mando, Javon Walton, Ida Brooke, Gemma Chua-Tran, and Jason Isaacs.

New cinematic vision of space war between Earth and its colonies

Set in the mech universe, the story follows pilots of combat robots who find themselves on opposing sides of a long-running conflict between Earth and its space colonies.

As alliances shift and tensions escalate, the characters are forced to make critical decisions and undertake dangerous missions that will determine humanity's future.

"With awe-inspiring battles, intimate human emotion, and an epic cinematic scale, this is Gundam like it’s been seen before," reads one of the early descriptions of the film.

Legendary and Bandai Namco launch new era of “Gundam”

The film is being developed by Legendary Pictures in collaboration with Bandai Namco Filmworks, aiming to reimagine the classic franchise for a modern global audience.

The project is positioned as a large-scale cinematic production focused on action sequences, human drama, and a visually complex futuristic world.

Russia now holds 520 Ukrainians on politically motivated criminal charges from occupied Crimea — more than double the 238 documented at the time of the full-scale invasion in February 2022. Many of them are Crimean Tatars, reports the Crimean Tatar Resource Center.

The number has grown through a year of peace talks in Geneva, Abu Dhabi, and Istanbul. Combatants have been exchanged. A handful of 2014-era civilians have trickled home. But the 520 Ukrainians Russia converted into its own "domestic criminals" through the legal fiction of its 2014 annexation are almost never on the lists.

Examples of persecution

Of those political prisoners, 277 are Crimean Tatars, and 351 are in pre-trial detention or serving sentences in penal colonies, according to the Crimean Tatar Resource Center as of 20 April 2026. In the first quarter of 2026, the occupation authorities carried out 57 arrests on the peninsula, 18 of them targeting Crimean Tatars, Zarema Bariiev from the Crimean Tatar Resource Center told Ukrinform.

Behind these figures are individual cases that follow a familiar pattern. Russia has built what the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group and Ukrainian activists have called a conveyor belt of fabricated cases against the peninsula's pro-Ukrainian residents — farmers, pensioners, Muslim believers, human rights defenders, journalists. What has changed is the scale and the silence: the cases multiply, while the diplomatic tables where Ukraine's future is being drawn have no seat for the people Russia is still arresting.

Oleh Prykhodko: the welder, who refused to look away

Oleh Prykhodko was 62 when a Russian military court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced him, on 3 March 2021, to five years in a high-security colony for preparing terrorist attackshe never prepared. He is a welder from the village of Orekhovo, in the Saky region of western Crimea. He had been openly pro-Ukrainian since long before the occupation, flew a Ukrainian flag over his land, and never hid his view that Crimea belonged to Ukraine.

The case against him rested on explosives the FSB said they had found in his garage during a search. The catch: the FSB had already searched his home earlier, during previous rounds of pressure on his pro-Ukrainian activity. When Prykhodko asked the officers to search his second garage, they refused — which suggested, as his defence pointed out, that they knew there was nothing there.

Prykhodko pleaded not guilty and stated at trial that he was an ordinary man who had openly opposed the occupation of Crimea. The court convicted him anyway. An extra month was added to his sentence — officially for contempt of court over insults aimed at the two FSB officers who had fabricated the case. Then, in November 2023, a Russian court added another four-and-a-half years, based on fellow inmates' testimony that he had "promoted terrorism" and "praised Hitler" in prison cell conversations — the sort of charge, as the Memorial Human Rights Centre has warned, that can be mechanically applied to any political prisoner Russia wants to keep.

On 5 March 2026 the FSB announced a fourth criminal case against him. This one charges him with "abetting terrorist activities" and "planning to incite state treason" — based on alleged conversations with cellmates. It can carry up to life in prison. Now 67, he suffers from hearing loss and other untreated health conditions.

Emir-Usein Kuku: the human rights defender Russia keeps breaking

Emir-Usein Kuku lived in the village of Koreiz, near Yalta, with his wife Meriem and their two sons. He is a Crimean Tatar, an economist and accountant by training, and a human rights defender. After the occupation, he helped found the Crimean Contact Group on Human Rights, which monitored the growing list of Crimean Tatars abducted, disappeared, or killed on the peninsula.

In April 2015 the FSB beat him severely on his way home from work, injuring his spine. He never received proper treatment. Russian officers then approached him several times and asked him to become an informant. He refused. In February 2016 they came for him, charging him with membership in Hizb ut-Tahrir — an Islamic political movement legal in Ukraine and most of the world, but which Russia's Supreme Court banned as "terrorist" in 2003. Russia applies the ban on the peninsula it occupies. The only evidence against Kuku was a recording of a kitchen conversation where the participants discussed politics, Islam, and the fate of Crimea; one of the men, his lawyer stated, was likely a planted witness.

A Russian military court sentenced him to 12 years in a maximum-security colony in November 2019. In between, he was subjected to forced psychiatric evaluation, spent almost a month in isolation at Simferopol Psychiatric Hospital No. 1, and went on a 24-day hunger strike in solidarity with filmmaker Oleh Sentsov. Russia moved him to Penal Colony No. 16 in Salavat, Bashkortostan — 2,500 kilometres from his home.

The spine never healed. Neither did the kidneys. In June 2023, Kuku was rushed to hospital with acute abdominal pain; doctors performed emergency surgery for an intestinal obstruction, Front Line Defenders reported. Three days later, against medical advice, he was sent back to the colony. He received no post-operative care, no diet guidance, and no record of what had been done to him. In February 2025 the UN Special Rapporteur on torture publicly called on Russia to provide him with urgent medical care. No response followed.

Server Mustafayev: the man who was punished for helping prisoners' families

Server Mustafayev was born in 1986 in Uzbekistan, where Stalin had deported his family in 1944. As a boy, he returned with his parents to newly independent Ukraine and rebuilt a life in his ancestors' homeland. By the time Russia occupied Crimea, he was a father of four and a co-founder of Crimean Solidarity — the grassroots network that documents searches, arrests, and sham trials, and that raises money for the wives and children of Crimean Tatars imprisoned by Russia.

In May 2018 the FSB detained him. The charge was the familiar one: participation in Hizb ut-Tahrir. On 16 September 2020 a Russian military court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced him and six other defendants in what human rights activists call the "second Bakhchysarai case" to between 13 and 19 years. Mustafayev received 14 years in a strict-regime penal colony. The case rested on covertly recorded conversations inside a mosque, transcribed by an FSB operative who did not know Arabic well and made dozens of errors, and analysed by "experts" from a pedagogical university in Ufa with no background in Islam.

On 20 May 2025, Freedom House awarded Mustafayev its first-ever Alfred Moses Liberty Award for his work with Crimean Solidarity, noting that he had helped victims of Russian persecution before Russia decided he was one of them. He is currently serving his sentence in a Russian colony. His four children have grown up without him.

History, in his case, is repeating itself. His family was exiled from Crimea by the Soviet state in 1944 on invented charges of collective treason. Now a Russian state has again removed him from Crimea and placed him in a colony in Russia — for helping the children of other exiles.

What release looks like

Since 2014, fewer than a dozen political prisoners from Crimea have been returned to Ukraine through exchanges, according to the Crimean Tatar Resource Center's count. The most visible among them show what it takes.

Akhtem Chiygoz, deputy head of the Mejlis, was arrested in January 2015 for his role in organising a rally in Simferopol on 26 February 2014, in support of Ukraine's territorial integrity — a rally held before Russia had even formally extended its "jurisdiction" to the peninsula. He spent 1,000 days in pre-trial detention and was sentenced to eight years. On 25 October 2017 he and fellow Mejlis deputy head Ilmi Umerov were released by Russia and flown to Türkiye, reportedly pardoned by Vladimir Putin after personal intervention by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Nariman Dzhelyal, first deputy chairman of the Mejlis, was taken in September 2021 — days after he attended the inaugural Crimea Platform summit in Kyiv. Russia accused him and his cousins of blowing up a gas pipe in Perevalne. He was sentenced to 17 years. On 28 June 2024 he was returned to Ukraine in a 53rd prisoner exchange brokered with Vatican mediation. The Holy See, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, and the Apostolic Nuncio to Ukraine were publicly credited; the diplomatic weight required was considerable. In January 2025 Ukraine appointed Dzhelyal its ambassador to Türkiye.

Explore further

Ukraine secures release of 10 civilians in Vatican-brokered exchange, including Crimean Tatar leader

Human Rights House Crimea and Crimean Process have launched an AI-assisted platform that makes it possible to write letters to Crimean political prisoners through official channels that work with Russian prisons. The system generates a letter based on answers to a short questionnaire, translates it into Russian to comply with prison censorship requirements, and forwards any response to the sender.

For now, that may be the only channel available. As negotiations continue, the number of Crimean prisoners keeps growing—largely unseen and almost entirely excluded from the deals meant to end the war.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense has reported that it has improved its procurement system for fiber-optic drones to stabilize deliveries to the armed forces amid sharp price fluctuations in key components.

Sharp price spikes created risks for contracts and supply

In 2025, through contracts managed by the Defense Procurement Agency, the military received 374,000 fiber-optic drones, and as of April 2026, more than 92% of last year’s total volume has already been delivered.

Price adjustment mechanism helps sustain production

“Recently, contracting has become more complicated due to global market conditions: fiber-optic prices have increased and fluctuated by 2–6 times,” the Ministry of Defense said.

Because of this, manufacturers initially signed fixed-price contracts, but rapid increases in component costs created risks of delays and failure to meet obligations.

Procurement reform improves supply stability to the front line

Together with the Cabinet of Ministers and the Defense Procurement Agency, the Ministry of Defense introduced a mechanism allowing contract prices to be adjusted based on the cost of fiber-optic cable, spools, and reels.

“Since the end of March, under centralized procurement, the first supplemental agreements have already been signed with updated pricing that reflects the increase in fiber-optic costs,” the ministry stated.

This adjustment has helped maintain stable deliveries to frontline units even amid volatile global component markets.

Earlier, Ukraine introduced a universal ground control station for fiber-optic drones. The solution is intended to replace multiple separate control systems and simplify operators’ work on the front line, Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said.

He explained that “dozens of different solutions from various manufacturers are operating simultaneously on the front line.” As a result, operators are forced to carry 3–5 different systems, which creates additional workload and reduces time available for mission execution.

Ukrainian Defense Ministry of Defense has disclosed the capabilities of the British short-range air defense system Rapid Ranger. It is effectively being used to destroy Shahed-type strike drones.

Since the beginning of 2026, Russia has significantly intensified strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, using a wide range of missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles.

During this period, Ukraine’s Defense Forces have shot down around 9,500 strike drones, along with a large number of missiles, reflecting the unprecedented intensity of aerial attacks and the strain on Ukrainian air defense systems.

Night drone warfare over Ukraine amid record attack waves in 2026

Among the most effective countermeasures are the British Rapid Ranger systems. These are automated mobile platforms capable of detecting targets at up to 15 km and engaging them at up to 7 km with LMM Martlet missiles.

The system is equipped with a 360-degree electro-optical surveillance suite and can use infrared sensors for target detection and tracking. It can also operate with radar support and function either autonomously or as part of a networked air defense system.

High-precision interception against low-signature aerial threats

The LMM Martlet missiles use infrared and laser guidance, allowing them to effectively engage targets with low thermal signatures or those deploying heat decoys. This is particularly relevant against reconnaissance UAVs such as the Orlan-10.

As a result, Rapid Ranger demonstrates high effectiveness against complex aerial threats where conventional detection systems often struggle.

Mobile air defense units are creating fast-response aerial shield

The system has a modular design and can be mounted on various platforms—from pickup trucks to armored vehicles. In Ukraine’s Armed Forces, it is reportedly deployed on Spanish-made URO VAMTAC vehicles, which allow rapid repositioning.

The 13 kg LMM Martlet missile reaches speeds of up to 1,800 km/h and engages targets at distances of up to 7 km. This positions Rapid Ranger between mobile fire groups and heavy air defense systems, filling a critical gap in short-range air defense.

Rapid Ranger effectively creates a new layer of Ukraine’s air defense architecture, operating in the space where other systems cannot respond quickly enough.

Ukraine has lost roughly 500 of the 4,100 M-113 armored personnel carriers its allies supplied. Now a Kyiv manufacturer is building a replacement—and improving on the 1960s American design.

Meet the the Skif by UkrArmoTech, Ukraine's answer to America's iconic M-113 "battle taxi," thousands of which perform an array of lifesaving tasks in Ukrainian brigades.

Designed to match the 14-ton M-113's high speed, impressive maneuverability, flexibility, capaciousness and ease of use, the Skif also improves on the American vehicle's biggest flaw: its thin armor. If it works as advertised, the Skif could speed infantry to and from front-line positions, help wounded troops evacuate to field hospitals and—with add-on weapons—defend against drones or even join mechanized assaults across the 1,200-km no-man's-land.

As a bonus, the tracked Skif could do all these things on rough terrain where Ukrainian forces' other most useful vehicles—its wheeled infantry mobility vehicles—tend to get mired.

The OSINT account Special Kherson Cat helpfully collated the Skif's specifications as the vehicle enters builder's trials.

The Skif's capacity and mobility specifications are similar to the M-113's, but the Ukrainian vehicle has roughly double the protection compared to the American vehicle, which was designed in the 1960s.

It's tall order to replace all the M-113s Ukraine has received from its allies in the 50 months since Russia widened its war of aggression, so don't expect an all-Skif military any time soon. Ukraine has taken delivery of more than 4,100 M-113s, including thousands of standard APC variants as well as specialized models with cargo beds and gun turrets.

The war has been hard on the M-113 fleet, however. The Ukrainians have lost around 500 of the vehicles in combat—and surely written off many more owing to wear and tear.

High demand

Given than a single mechanized brigade might want to possess 100 or so M-113s for various roles, it's easy to imagine overall demand in Ukraine for 10,000 M-113s and similar vehicles. While Ukraine may continue to receive M-113s from allies, it would benefit Ukrainian troops and Ukrainian industry to tap a domestic source for analogue—and improved—vehicles.

It's worth noting that the Americans' own next-generation APC, the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle, costs around $2.5 million per vehicle. A made-in-Ukraine APC, even one with a significant number of imported components, would surely be much cheaper.

Still, it's unclear whether Kyiv is willing to spend potentially $1 billion on a large fleet of new APCs when there are other, seemingly more urgent, priorities. Namely, drones.

But inasmuch as Ukrainian forces still need to maneuver under armor and over rough terrain along or near the wide no-man's-land, they should do so in vehicles that balance mobility and protection. The M-113 already balances those competing requirements pretty well. The Skif may balance them even better—and Ukraine would own the supply chain.

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Attacking through Russia’s best drones, a Ukrainian column lost a precious M-1 tank—and potentially a lot of troops

Russia is preparing for another energy strike on Europe amid restrictions on Kazakh oil exports to Germany. According to Reuters, Russia plans to halt oil exports from Kazakhstan to Germany via the “Druzhba” pipeline starting 1 May.

Sources indicate that an updated supply schedule has already been sent to both Kazakhstan and Germany.

This is seen as a direct form of economic warfare that could escalate, leaving the EU with limited alternatives, according to the head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation (CCD), Andrii Kovalenko. 

“Russia is interested in the destruction and fragmentation of the EU, and of Germany as Europe’s leading economy. It may also be an attempt by Russia to influence the pace of the EU’s militarization,” he said.

Disruption of strategic oil supplies raises fuel shock risks

The suspension of Kazakh flows would add further uncertainty to Germany’s fuel supply, at a time when the war in Iran is already disrupting energy supplies from the Middle East, only a few years after Berlin’s long-standing energy ties with Russia were broken by the war in Ukraine.

Kazakh oil exports to Germany via the Russian “Druzhba” pipeline amounted to 2.146 million metric tons in 2025, or around 43,000 barrels per day, up 44% from 2024, and 730,000 tons in the first quarter of 2026.

A full shutdown would remove around 12 million metric tons per year, which is approximately 17% of the oil processed by Germany’s PCK refinery, one of the country’s largest, located in Schwedt in northeastern Germany. Its fuel supplies power 9 out of 10 vehicles in the Berlin-Brandenburg region.

Russia hints that decision has not yet been made

Russia’s Energy Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said he was unaware of any plan to halt oil exports.

“We will try to verify this,” Peskov told journalists during his daily briefing.

Kazakhstan has been supplying oil to PCK via the northern branch of the Druzhba pipeline, which crosses Poland, since 2023.

The Drone Deal is evolving into a large-scale international program that includes interceptor drones, going far beyond purely military cooperation between Ukraine and other countries. It also integrates air defense systems and electronic warfare capabilities, says Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Army Inform reports. 

It includes the supply of systems, as well as knowledge exchange and the joint development of a broader defense architecture.

Ukraine expands partnerships and launches arms export contracts

According to the president, Ukraine has already signed 10-year agreements with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. In total, 11 countries, particularly from the Middle East, the Gulf region, and the Caucasus, have expressed interest in the initiative.

“We have agreed on 10-year contracts with three key countries… and we already have requests from 11 countries,” the Ukrainian president claims.

The program includes at least 10 contracts for the export of Ukrainian weapons, as well as joint production projects, construction of manufacturing facilities, and long-term financing of defense programs.

European dimension and energy cooperation expand strategic impact

A separate component focuses on Europe. Ukraine is already cooperating with Germany, Norway, Italy, Sweden, and the Netherlands, while also seeking to deepen cooperation with the United Kingdom and France.

“Of course, we have strong relations with the UK and France. I am confident this will also develop there,” the president notes.

Beyond defense, the agreements extend into energy and resource cooperation. In particular, Ukraine is discussing gas partnerships with Norway, infrastructure development with Romania, and potential oil supply support from Middle Eastern partners.

Earlier, Euromaidan Press reported that the US Army was deploying low-cost Merops interceptor drones to protect its forces in the Middle East, amid the growing threat posed by Shahed-136-type drones.

US Army is deploying $3,000 drones to shoot down Shaheds — because Ukraine proved they work

Ukraine is testing an exoskeleton for frontline use that allows soldiers to carry up to 70 kg without excessive strain, significantly increasing endurance in combat conditions. The system is the “Gyurza-1", developed by Military Trade, Defense Express has reported. 

The solution has demonstrated effectiveness both in rear operations and near the frontline, where physical load on personnel is highest.

Fully mechanical design built for harsh war conditions

The Gyurza-1 is a passive exoskeleton, meaning it has no electronics or power supply and requires minimal maintenance. The system relies entirely on durable mechanical components adapted for real battlefield conditions.

It allows for prolonged continuous use and can be donned or removed in under two minutes.

The design includes:

• a rigid composite back plate
• anatomically shaped shoulder supports for even load distribution
• a waist unit transferring weight to the pelvis
• reinforced thigh and knee supports with secure fixation

The adjustable strap system fits a range of body types, while the camouflage design ensures compatibility with standard military gear.

Capable of carrying heavy loads, now undergoing combat testing

Weighing under 2 kg, the system enables soldiers to carry loads of up to 70 kg without critical strain on the spine and back muscles.

Currently, Gyurza-1 exoskeletons are undergoing field testing in multiple units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. According to Oleksii Hridin, head of Military Trade, feedback from both combat and logistical use is being systematically collected and analyzed to further refine the system.

Earlier,

Ukraine is introducing a universal ground control station for fiber-optic drones for the first time. The solution is intended to replace multiple separate control systems and simplify operators’ work on the front line, Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said.

The Kremlin would have to send around 1.5 million more troops to fully occupy the territory of Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Andrii Melnyk, says. Knowing this, Russia wants to take the region through diplomacy, as per Ukraine's Foreign Ministry. 

“This is outright blackmail. We are talking about 6,000 square kilometers. Russia is demanding that Ukraine abandon one of its most fortified defensive lines,” Melnyk emphasizes.

Demand for capitulation meets entrenched defense 

The diplomat stressed that behind these defensive lines are towns and villages with civilian populations who would be placed at risk in the event of a withdrawal.

“How can we leave hundreds of thousands of these people at the mercy of barbarians?” he says, highlighting the humanitarian dimension.

According to his estimates, the calculation is based on an average of about 254 Russian soldiers killed per square kilometer of advance. This “arithmetic of war” leads to the projection of roughly 1.5 million additional losses just to capture the rest of the region.

Strategic pressure instead of military cost

Melnyk noted that at current rates, Russia would theoretically have to lose up to 122 million people to fully occupy Ukraine — a figure that is effectively impossible given the country’s demographics.

“It is difficult to describe the loss of over 122 million lives as a ‘victory,’” he adds.

Against this backdrop, the Kremlin is attempting to achieve its objectives through diplomatic pressure and pseudo-negotiations, as a military path would entail an unsustainable cost for Russia.

British singer Dua Lipa has contributed to a fundraising effort that delivered a pickup truck to Ukraine's First Separate Medical Battalion, the unit announced.

"The probability that Dua Lipa would help to provide a vehicle to our unit might not be high… but it's never be a zero," the battalion said in its statement. The medics added that the vehicle "will help us carry out life-saving missions in the combat zone."

The battalion thanked Dua Lipa, her platform Service95, and the British nonprofit Driving Ukraine, along with individuals Lindsey Carman and Louise Brynteson, describing those involved as "incredible."

How the fundraiser came together

According to the unit, the funds for the pickup truck were raised during an event organised by Service95, the platform founded by Dua Lipa. In March, Service95 backed a charity event in London organised by Driving Ukraine, which was aimed at raising money for vehicles for Ukrainian troops.

Driving Ukraine is a British nonprofit organisation founded by Finn Watt. Since 2022, it has delivered more than 300 vehicles to Ukrainian military units.

The singer comes from a family of ethnic Albanians from Prishtina, Kosovo. Her parents left their homeland in the 1990s and emigrated to London, where Dua was born on 22 August 1995.

In 2017, she released her self-titled debut album, which reached third place in the UK charts. Her second album, Future Nostalgia (2020), topped the UK charts and reached the top three in the US, while its lead single Don't Start Now broke into the top five of the US Billboard Hot 100. Another single from the album, Levitating, went on to top the Billboard Hot 100 year-end chart for 2021 and received a diamond certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

In 2023, Dua Lipa performed the soundtrack Dance the Night for the film Barbie, in which she also made her acting debut in a cameo role. Her third album, Radical Optimism, was released in 2024 and topped the UK charts. That same year, she was included in Time's list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Over her career, Dua Lipa has received seven Brit Awards, three Grammy Awards (including Best New Artist), two MTV Europe Music Awards, one MTV Video Music Award, two Billboard Music Awards, and one American Music Award. In 2024, Ukrainian director Tanu Muino led the team behind the music video for Dua Lipa's song Illusion.

Ukrainian forces struck the "Samara" oil distribution station in Russia's Samara Oblast overnight on 21 April, hitting a facility central to the country's oil transportation infrastructure, hromadske reported, citing its source.

The operation was carried out by the SBU's Alfa Special Operations Center and targeted infrastructure in the settlement of Prosvet, according to the source. Ukrainian drones caused what the source described as a "massive fire" at the station.

The "Samara" linear production dispatch station is located in the settlement of Prosvet, Samara Oblast, and serves as a key node in Russia's oil transportation infrastructure. It is where crude from various fields is blended to produce Urals, Russia's flagship export crude grade.

What was damaged

Preliminary Ukrainian data indicate that five crude oil tanks, each with a capacity of 20,000 cubic meters, were damaged in the strike. A source told hromadske that drones of the SBU's Alfa Special Operations Center caused a large-scale fire at the "Samara" linear production dispatch station.

Why the facility matters

Crude from various fields is blended at the station to produce Urals, Russia's flagship export crude grade, which makes the facility a key component of Russia's oil transportation infrastructure.

The source who spoke to hromadske laid out the logistical consequences: "Damage to such nodal stations directly reduces Russia's ability to assemble oil export shipments and fulfill its contractual obligations. The raw materials balance is disrupted, logistics and storage costs rise, and there are risks of supply disruptions. As a result, Russia receives ever less revenue from oil sales that it can direct toward the war against Ukraine," the source said.

The Russian response

Samara Oblast Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev reported the overnight attack on an industrial facility in the region, stating that drones had fallen in the area. According to the governor, there were no deaths or injuries.

Russia's Defense Ministry claimed that overnight on 21 April, its air defense forces intercepted 97 Ukrainian drones over Astrakhan, Belgorod, Volgograd, Voronezh, Kursk, Rostov, Samara, and Saratov oblasts, as well as over the Black Sea.

Context

Ukraine's General Staff previously reported that Ukrainian forces struck four "important" Russian oil industry facilities, including two oil refineries in Samara Oblast, on 18 April. Ukraine has increasingly targeted Russian oil depots, refineries, and logistics infrastructure with long-range drones as part of a broader campaign against industrial facilities supporting the war effort.

One day after Euromaidan Press reported that the Druzhba pipeline restart could unlock €90 billion in EU financing for Ukraine, the timeline is firming up. Ukraine will resume oil flows on Tuesday, 21 April, ending the three-month blockade that had frozen €90 billion ($106 billion) in EU financing for Kyiv, Bloomberg reported on Monday.

The restart clears the last obstacle before Wednesday’s EU ambassador vote to release the money—two-thirds of what Ukraine needs to keep its state and army running through 2027. Without the loan, Kyiv would have run out of money by June.

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€90 billion for Ukraine—two-thirds of the 2026–27 budget gap—clears Brussels Wednesday

Technical tests on the pipeline are scheduled for Tuesday, according to people familiar with the matter cited in the same Bloomberg report. The Brody pumping station in Lviv Oblast was struck by Russian drones on 27 January, halting deliveries to Hungary and Slovakia—the only two EU states still receiving Russian oil directly by pipeline.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán conditioned his EU veto on the pipeline’s restart, posted on X on Sunday: “no oil = no money.”

Vote lined up for Wednesday

Hungary’s outgoing government signaled on Sunday that it is ready to lift the block and support the loan this week if shipments restart, Bloomberg said. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who had threatened a separate block, indicated last week he would not disrupt EU unity. That leaves Budapest as the sole holdout—and Tuesday’s test as the price of admission.

EU ambassadors meet on Wednesday, 22 April, to approve the amendment to the bloc’s long-term budget that authorizes disbursement. The Cypriot presidency has placed the item as a routine vote with no debate expected, assuming advance consensus.

Incoming Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar, whose Tisza party won the 12 April election, told Euronews on Monday that Ukraine should reopen Druzhba “if it is in a condition to carry oil.”

Reacting to reports that Kyiv could demand faster EU accession progress in exchange, Magyar said Hungary would not “give in to blackmail.”

Why €90 billion matters

Ukraine spends every dollar of domestic tax revenue on defense. Nearly half of the rest of the state budget runs on foreign financing. The EU package is the largest tranche available and unlocks a parallel $8.2 billion IMF program that has been waiting for the European disbursement.

The loan is funded by EU borrowing on capital markets and serviced from interest earned on the €210 billion ($248 billion) in frozen Russian sovereign assets held at Brussels-based Euroclear. Ukraine repays only if Russia pays war reparations. The IMF estimates Kyiv’s total funding gap at €136 billion ($160 billion) across 2026–2027; the EU package covers roughly two-thirds.

The European Commission plans to phase out Hungary and Slovakia’s remaining Russian oil purchases by the end of 2027 at the latest.

The European Union plans to cover two-thirds of Ukraine's external financing needs in 2026 and 2027 through a €90 bn loan, while other international partners have so far confirmed funds to close the remaining third only for 2026, European Pravda's Brussels correspondent reports, citing European Commissioner for Economy Valdis Dombrovskis.

According to Dombrovskis, the picture for next year is largely settled, but 2027 is where attention now needs to turn. "I would say that now (in 2026 – ed.) we are more secured (with funds to finance Ukraine – ed.). This year, a much more acute issue is the financing deficit for 2027," the commissioner said.

How the EU share breaks down

Dombrovskis recalled that the EU will provide Ukraine with €45 bn in each of 2026 and 2027, amounting to two-thirds of what Ukraine's budget and military will require over those two years. In 2026, €16.7 bn of the EU's €45 bn is earmarked for Ukraine's budgetary needs, while €28.3 bn will go to the Ukrainian army, defense, and weapons production. The first tranche of military aid delivered under the €90 bn EU loan is to be spent on procuring Ukrainian-made drones.

Where the rest is meant to come from

The remaining third is expected from other international partners — specifically G7 states, international financial institutions including the IMF, and EU member states providing bilateral support to Ukraine.

The 2027 gap

According to preliminary European Commission estimates, Ukraine will need €71.7 bn in Western assistance in 2026 — €20.1 bn in macro-financial needs and €51.6 bn in military needs. In 2027, international support for Ukraine should amount to at least €64 bn, split between €32.2 bn in macro-financial needs and €31.8 bn in military needs. It is for that second year that the non-EU third of the funding has yet to be secured.

The European Union expects to transfer the first tranche of its 90-billion-euro loan to Ukraine at the end of May or in early June 2026, European Commissioner for Economy Valdis Dombrovskis told reporters in Brussels on 21 April, European Pravda reports from Brussels.

"There are currently no delays in the work (on the technical preparation of the loan. – EP), and we are not creating any potential delays. I think it is possible to schedule plans for late May to early June," Dombrovskis said when asked about the timing of the first disbursement.

Memorandum and reforms in preparation

According to the Commissioner, negotiations on the text of the Memorandum of Understanding with Ukraine are ongoing, and a list of reforms that Kyiv must implement in order to receive the funds is being drawn up.

Dombrovskis stated that Ukraine will have sufficient financial resources to hold out until the EU money arrives in June. "The good news is that we have managed to mobilise financing from other international partners directed at Ukraine. So it has been confirmed by Ukraine and (Ukrainian) authorities that they can wait until our financing arrives," he said.

Vote expected 22 April

Ahead of the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting on 21 April, the bloc's top diplomat Kaja Kallas said she expects "positive decisions" on the 90-billion-euro loan for Ukraine on 22 April. EU ambassadors are set to give final approval to the package at a meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives on 22 April.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said the day before that Ukraine had expressed readiness to resume oil supplies via the Druzhba pipeline on Monday, on condition that Budapest unblocks the 90-billion-euro EU loan.

What is known about the EU's 90-billion-euro loan for Ukraine

On 19 December 2025, EU leaders agreed on a 90-billion-euro support package for Ukraine for 2026–2027. The loan is to be backed by the bloc's budget headroom rather than frozen Russian assets.

On 14 January 2026, the European Commission adopted a package of legislative proposals to enable the loan to Kyiv, designed to cover financial and military needs over two years.

On 21 January, the European Parliament backed the proposal for a Council decision activating enhanced cooperation to establish the Loan for Ukraine of 90 billion euros for 2026–2027.

On 11 February, MEPs voted through three legislative acts allowing Ukraine to receive the loan in 2026 and 2027.

On 20 February, it emerged that Hungary had blocked the disbursement of the 90-billion-euro EU loan to Ukraine, citing the absence of Russian oil transit via the Druzhba pipeline.

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said Kyiv had informed Budapest on 27 January about Russian strikes on the Druzhba pipeline near Brody in Lviv Oblast and the resulting damage, and called accusations that Ukraine was delaying supplies illogical.

Despite this, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó told the EU Foreign Affairs Council on 23 February that Russia had "not shelled" Druzhba infrastructure and that Ukraine had allegedly halted the transit due to an "internal political decision." Ukraine's MFA accused the Hungarian minister of making statements and taking actions in Russia's interests.

On 23 February, Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis told Suspilne that the EU was not discussing alternative arrangements for the 90-billion-euro loan for Ukraine, which Hungary was blocking.

The EU leaders' summit took place on 19 March in Brussels. Ahead of the meeting, the head of the Hungarian government told reporters that Budapest would not support any EU decision in Ukraine's favour until Kyiv resumed oil transit via the Druzhba pipeline — including the unblocking of the 90-billion-euro loan. However, Orbán lost the election. The position will be taken by oposition party leader Peter Magyar. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said the day before that Ukraine had expressed readiness to resume oil supplies via the Druzhba pipeline on Monday, on condition that Budapest unblocks the 90-billion-euro EU loan.

Ukrainian defense technologies are already in demand globally and are becoming a source of innovative solutions, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said during a speech at the Hannover Messe trade fair, Ukrinform reports.

Ukraine as a source of innovation

The minister stressed that Ukrainian developments are currently sought after around the world as innovative solutions.

"We must also keep these developments in sight," the head of Germany's Defense Ministry said.

According to Pistorius, Ukrainian strength is demonstrated not only on the battlefield and through the professionalism of Ukrainian troops, but also lies in the country's high innovative potential, "which is achieving impressive successes and rapid progress in the development of new technologies in the defense sector."

The German minister underlined that this experience should be taken into account by partners, adding that cooperation with Ukraine contributes to the development of industrial capacities and technological innovation in Germany.

Context: the Rheinmetall controversy

Pistorius's remarks follow a recent scandal sparked by comments from Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger, who claimed there was no innovation in Ukrainian drone production and compared it to playing with Lego.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the Rheinmetall chief's words strange, saying that competition should not be waged through rhetoric.

After the backlash, Rheinmetall stated that it respects Ukrainian efforts to defend against the Russian invasion, particularly given the constraints of limited resources.