The European Union on Monday (May 11, 2026) imposed sanctions on 16 officials accused of helping Russia to abduct tens of thousands of children from Ukraine and force many to change their identities or be put up for adoption.

Sanctions were also slapped on seven centres suspected of indoctrinating the children or training them to serve in the armed forces, either for Russia or pro-Russian militias inside Ukraine.

Over 130 people and “entities” are now under EU travel bans and asset freezes over the abductions.

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, about 20,500 children have been unlawfully deported or forcibly transferred to Russia or Russian-held territories in eastern Ukraine.

“Russia is trying to erase their identity,” Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braze said on Monday at a meeting with EU counterparts in Brussels, where the sanctions were endorsed.

“When you look at the Genocide Convention, it’s one of the features of the genocide crime. So, it’s very serious.” The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions.

Around 2,200 children have been returned, but identifying them is complicated. Children taken at a young age can be difficult to recognise just a few years later. Getting them home is a harrowing task, and some children are not necessarily welcomed when they return.

The EU on Monday was hosting, alongside Canada, a meeting of the 47-country International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children to increase diplomatic pressure on Russia and rally support for work to verify and trace those who are taken.

“War has really many faces, but stealing the children is really one of the most horrific,” EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos said ahead of the gathering. “We should stop this, and Russia should pay.”

A ​Russian drone ‌attack overnight damaged port ​infrastructure ⁠in Ukraine’s southern region ‌of Odesa and wounded ‌two ‌in ⁠the city ⁠of Odesa, regional governor Oleh ​Kiper ‌said on Friday (May 1, 2026).

Two high-rise apartment buildings ‌were damaged ​in the attack, which ⁠wrecked apartments and ‌caused fires, Mr. Kiper wrote on the Telegram messaging ‌app.

Ukraine and Russia accused each other on Sunday (April 12, 2026) of violating a truce in place for Orthodox Easter thousands of times, as the war dragged through its fifth year.

Both sides had agreed to observe the ceasefire, which Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered on Thursday (April 9) and which Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed more than a week earlier.

Explosions rocked Kyiv before dawn on Sunday (February 22, 2026) after officials warned of a ballistic missile attack, just two days before the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion.

AFP journalists in the capital heard a series of loud blasts beginning around 4:00 am (0200 GMT), shortly after an air raid alert was issued.

“The enemy is attacking the capital with ballistic weapons,” the head of Kyiv’s military administration Tymur Tkachenko said on Telegram, urging people to remain in shelters.

The air force later extended the alert nationwide, warning of a broader missile threat.

Kyiv, regularly targeted by Russian missile and drone attacks since the start of the invasion on February 24, 2022, has faced waves of overnight strikes in recent weeks as Moscow has intensified its winter assaults on energy and military infrastructure.

Temperatures had plunged to nearly minus 10C when the capital was struck again, with emergency services deployed across the city.

Tkachenko later said the attacks had caused a fire on the roof of a residential building.

The strikes also prompted heightened vigilance across Ukraine’s western border.

Poland’s Operational Command said early Sunday it was scrambling jets after detecting “long range aviation of the Russian federation conducting strikes on the territory of Ukraine”.

It also came hours after blasts in Lviv, a western city near the Polish border that rarely sees deadly attacks.

Explosions ripped through a central shopping street around 12:30 am (2230 GMT Saturday), killing a policewoman and injuring 15 people after officers responded to a reported break?in.

“This is clearly an act of terrorism,” mayor Andriy Sadovyi said, offering no details on perpetrators.

Such attacks far from the front line have become more frequent over the past two years.

Four years of war

Ukraine will mark four years since Russia’s assault on February 24, 2022, a withering war that has shattered towns, uprooted millions and killed large numbers on both sides.

Moscow occupies close to a fifth of Ukrainian territory and continues to grind forward in places, especially in the eastern Donbas region, despite heavy losses and repeated Ukrainian strikes on logistics.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told AFP on Friday that Ukraine “is definitely not losing” the war and that victory remains the goal.

He said Ukrainian forces had clawed back about 300 square kilometres (116 square miles) of territory in recent counter attacks, gains AFP could not immediately verify.

If confirmed, they would be Kyiv’s most significant advances since 2023.

Sweeping outages of Starlink internet terminals across the Ukraine front, shut down by owner Elon Musk following a plea from Kyiv, have enabled the push, according to Mr. Zelenskyy.

The bombardment also came amid a diplomatic push by Washington to end the four-year war.

Ukrainian, Russian and U.S. Envoys have met several times since January, but without a breakthrough.

Mr. Zelenskyy, under mounting pressure from Washington to consider concessions, plans consultations with European leaders in the coming days and wants deeper involvement from Middle Eastern states and Turkey.

“Russia and ‍India will ​hold joint naval exercises ‌in the ​Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean in February 2026,” Russia’s TASS state news ​agency reported ⁠on Wednesday (January 28, 2026), citing the Russian Maritime College’s ​press service.

A ⁠press service statement, cited by TASS, said ‌a frigate of the ‌Russian Navy’s Pacific Fleet ‍would leave the port of ‍Muscat in Oman to take part in the Milan-2026 exercises, and then make an unofficial ⁠visit to the Indian port ​of Visakhapatnam from February ⁠18 to 25.

Russia’s Central Bank has filed a lawsuit seeking 18.2 trillion roubles ($229.36 billion) in damages from Belgian central securities depository Euroclear, a Moscow court said on Monday (December 15, 2025).

Euroclear holds most of the assets that were frozen by the European Union (EU) after Russia launched military action in Ukraine. The lawsuit is a response to EU’s plans to use the frozen assets for financial help for Ukraine.

The Moscow court is widely expected to issue a swift ruling in favour of the Central Bank, which can then pursue its execution in other jurisdictions. “The EU Government agreed on December 12, 2025, to indefinitely freeze the Russian Central Bank assets held in Europe, removing a big obstacle to using the cash to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia.” The Central Bank said

On the same day that the EU plans to use its assets were illegal, it reserves the right to employ all available means to protect its interests.

Russia has tested a new nuclear-capable, nuclear-powered cruise missile named the Burevestnik, Russia’s top General told President Vladimir Putin in remarks released on Sunday (October 26, 2025).

The missile travelled 14,000 km and was in the air for about 15 hours, General Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff of Russia’s armed forces, told Mr. Putin.

Mr. Putin has said the 9M730 Burevestnik (Storm Petrel) — dubbed the SSC-X-9 Skyfall by NATO — is “invincible” to current and future missile defences, with an almost unlimited range and unpredictable flight path.

In his remarks on Sunday (October 26, 2025), Mr. Putin, dressed in camouflage fatigues, told Mr. Gerasimov that the crucial Burevestnik tests have now been completed and that work should start on the final stage before deploying the missiles.

Russia said on Sunday (September 14, 2025) that it had fired a Zircon (Tsirkon) hypersonic cruise missile at a target in the Barents Sea and that Sukoi Su-34 supersonic fighter-bombers had carried out strikes as part of joint military exercises with Belarus.

Russia’s “Zapad”, or West, joint strategic exercise with Belarus began on Sept. 12 aiming to improve military command and coordination in the event of an attack on either Russia or Belarus, the Defence Ministry said.

Moscow and Minsk have said the exercises are exclusively defensive and that they do not intend to attack any NATO member, though the U.S.-led military alliance announced an “Eastern Sentry” operation after the incursion of Russian drones into Poland on Sept. 9-10.

Russia’s defence ministry released footage of the Northern Fleet’s Admiral Golovko frigate firing a Zircon hypersonic missile at a target in the Barents Sea. The footage showed a missile being launched vertically from the frigate and then powering off at an angle into the horizon.

“According to objective monitoring data received in real time, the target was destroyed by a direct hit,” the ministry said.

The ministry said that long-range anti-submarine aircraft of the Northern Fleet’s mixed aviation corps were also involved in the exercise. It said Su-34 crews practiced a bombing strike against ground targets.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in 2019 that the Zircon can fly at nine times the speed of sound and hit targets at sea and on land at a range of more than 1,000 km (600 miles).

Russian media sources say the missile, known as the 3M22 Zircon in Russia and the SS-N-33 by NATO, has a range of 400 km to 1,000 km, and that its warhead mass is around 300 kg-400 kg.