Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces shot down at least 287 Ukrainian drones overnight into Thursday morning.

Ukraine said Thursday its long-range drones had struck a major offshore oil platform in the Caspian Sea this week, signalling an expansion of its target list in a mounting campaign to cut off Russian energy revenues funding its war.

Poland detained a Russian archaeologist who works on an ancient site in Crimea, which Russia seized in 2014. Ukraine calls the work illegal.

Cyprus joined the EU in 2004 as a war-divided island and could offer Ukraine a blueprint for accession. The island will take over the EU’s rotating presidency from Denmark on Jan. 1 and has promised to continue work on Ukraine’s bid.

Russia is pushing to take over all of eastern Ukraine's Donbas region, where one resident tells NPR that she feels her "life depends on how our guys at the front hold on."

The Ukrainian leader rejected the demand, making clear that territorial issues remain unresolved as Ukraine and Europe sent a counterproposal to the United States.

In the early months of the invasion, in 2022, the Russians tried to suffocate Ukraine’s economy by imposing a naval blockade of its ports. About 20 million tons of grain got stuck in the port city of Odesa, causing global food prices to spike and raising fears of famine in parts of Africa and the Middle East that rely on supplies from Ukraine.

Nadia Pishko, 92, was born in Ukraine and fled her home country as child during World War II, eventually building a life in Minneapolis. Despite the current war in Ukraine, she asked to return to her home country​,