Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 02-05-2025

The company manufacturing the turrets said frontline troops praised them for their accuracy, with two batches of unspecified numbers already delivered for combat use.

Ukrainian defense firm Frontline said its “Burya” (meaning “Storm” in Ukrainian) remote grenade launcher turret has entered serial production.

According to Frontline’s brochure, the Burya can be equipped with the Ukrainian UAH-40 or US Mk 19 40mm grenade launchers, where the mobile turret weighs 47 kilograms (104 pounds) and is equipped with gyrostabilization and an onboard ballistic calculator. The turret is mounted on a tracked platform, but it is also possible to equip it on a tripod.

NATO countries on the Baltic Sea met in Helsinki last month, looking to boost security following the suspected sabotage of undersea cables, widely blamed on Russia.

Norwegian intelligence services said Wednesday that Russia was “likely” to launch sabotage attempts against Norway in 2025, potentially targeting energy infrastructure or aid sent to Ukraine.

Diplomatic relations between Oslo and Moscow have deteriorated sharply since the start of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Almost 300 cars were vandalized across Germany in a concerted campaign that was orchestrated by Russian-backed provocateurs according to Der Spiegel.

A Germany-wide campaign of sabotage on private cars, which was initially put down to environmental activists, was more likely to have been organized by Russia’s security services, the German weekly news site Der Spiegel reported on Wednesday. The motivation behind the attacks remains unclear.

It was easy to understand why climate protestors were considered to be the obvious culprits because the acts of sabotage involved filling car exhausts with construction foam and sticking strips of paper with pictures of the Minister of Economy, Robert Habeck a Green Party member of Germany’s ruling coalition along with the words: “Sei Grüner [Be Green].”

Ukraine plans to sell at least ten large state-owned companies for some $3.2 billion – list includes Shell-branded gas stations, a titanium factory, and the Ocean Plaza shopping mall in Kyiv.

In 2025, the Ukrainian government plans to sell at least ten large companies to foreign investors, exceeding its $3.2 billion privatization revenue target for 2025.

Ukraine is continuing its large-scale privatization drive, aiming to sell off major state-owned enterprises and nationalized assets from sanctioned Russian oligarchs, acting State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPFU) head Ivanna Smachylo told Forbes Ukraine in an interview. 

Some of the servicemen who returned to Ukraine had been in Russian captivity for over two years, Zelensky said. They came from all branches of the military.

Ukraine has secured the return of 150 soldiers from Russian captivity, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Telegram on Wednesday, Feb. 5.

“Today is a good day for all of us. We are bringing home 150 of our defenders from Russian captivity – soldiers, sergeants, and officers,” he wrote.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) attributed the attacks to Russian intelligence, whom it claims ordered unsuspecting agents to plant explosives and detonated them before they could leave.

A series of bombings reportedly carried out by unsuspecting suicide bombers struck Ukrainian military recruitment centers in the first days of February.

At a time when the tactics employed under Ukraine’s recruitment system have been under increasing scrutiny, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) blamed Russia for the latest string of attacks.

Before invading Ukraine, Russia had guaranteed Kyiv’s security as part of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, in which Ukraine gave up its nukes in exchange for such guarantees.

The Kremlin slammed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s suggestion that nuclear weapons could help guarantee Ukraine’s security against another Russian invasion, calling the idea “bordering on madness,” Radio Mayak Telegram channel reported Wednesday.

“There is a nuclear non-proliferation regime,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russian Radio Mayak Telegram channel. “I would like to believe that, despite the shortcomings in the qualifications of the current generation of politicians in Europe, there is still some sober understanding of the absurdity and potential danger of discussing such a topic.”

Iconic Russian massive, WW2-style tank assaults are history. Analysts say Russia is losing tanks far faster than it can build more and that replacement stocks are bare.

The Russian army isn’t making big armored attacks any more and evidence is strong it’s because the Kremlin is losing tanks far faster than it can replace them.

The official Kremlin line contradicts that. The state-run news platform Pravda, for instance, in a November article profiling national tank production, asserted Russia’s armed forces are well-supplied with tanks and more steel behemoths are rolling off production lines every day.

In an interview, Zelensky warns of the risks if US aid stops, calls Putin a “murderer,” and questions whether Ukraine should reacquire nuclear weapons to ensure its security.

President Volodymyr Zelensky gave an hour-and-a-half interview to British journalist Piers Morgan, in which he discussed the role of US President Donald Trump in helping to achieve a just peace for Ukraine, the importance of US military aid, and the need to return nuclear weapons to Ukraine.

Baltic states Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are to disconnect from the Russian power grid on Saturday, a politically-charged move that severs their Soviet-era energy ties with Moscow.

Baltic states Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are to disconnect from the Russian power grid on Saturday, a politically-charged move that severs their Soviet-era energy ties with Moscow.

A giant digital clock in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, is counting down the hours until the states join the western European power grid. “We are now removing Russia’s ability to use the electricity system as a tool of geopolitical blackmail,” Lithuania’s Energy Minister Zygimantas Vaiciunas told AFP.

Speaking to journalists, Peskov confirmed that discussions were taking place “along the lines of individual departments,” but provided no further details.

Contacts between Russia and the United States have picked up in recent weeks, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russian state-run news agency Ria Novosti. Speaking to journalists, Peskov confirmed that discussions were taking place “along the lines of individual departments,” but provided no further details.

“I can’t tell you any other details, there’s nothing else to say,” he said.

Buried deep within a wide-ranging media interview on the activities of his unit the head of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces confirmed use of the Tryzub laser weapon to “hit certain objects.”

In a wide-ranging interview with Radio Svoboda published on Monday Vadym Sukharevsky the Commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces gave his views on a range of strategic, tactical and technical issues in his ever-expanding portfolio.

Towards the end of the interview, Sukharevsky was asked about the progress being made in the development of directed energy (laser) weapons for use in the war against Russia. There were several media reports at the end of last year, including articles in the Interfax.ua and united24 news sites that quoted him as saying Ukraine had developed the Tryzub (Trident) laser weapon that “… can already shoot down aircraft at an altitude of more than 2 kilometers [1.25 miles].”

The system has previously been certified based on NATO standards, and the bloc’s officials now say it is considering using it for joint operational planning.

NATO might consider using Ukraine’s DELTA battlefield management system for joint operation planning, a NATO official said.

NATO might use the system for operations of “different scales and complexity,” US Navy Lt. Cmdr. Danielle Moser, who also works as a public affairs officer for NATO’s Allied Command Transformation (ACT), told British defense outlet Janes.

Pro-Kremlin social media claims that the assassination of Armen Sarkisyan in Moscow on Monday was carried out by a suicide bomber with criminal links to the founder of the ArBat battalion.

Pro-Kremlin social media has accused Ukraine in the assassination of Donetsk People’s Republic military leader Armen Sarkisyan in Moscow on Monday, which was carried out by a suicide bomber with criminal links to the assassination target.

The founder of the pro-Russian ArBat battalion in the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR), Armenian-born Armen Sarkisyan, also known as Armen Gorlovsky, was killed by an explosion in the entrance hall to the Scarlet Sails residential complex in Moscow on Monday. A second individual was killed, and three others were injured. The finger of suspicion was immediately pointed at Ukraine.

The world in focus, as seen by Canadian leading global affairs analyst Michael Bociurkiw in a quick review of the biggest news in international media today.

Donald Trump says the United States should seize control of Gaza and permanently displace the entire Palestinian population of the devastated seaside enclave, one of the most brazen ideas that any American leader has advanced in years. Hosting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel at the White House, Mr. Trump said that all two million Palestinians from Gaza should be moved to countries like Egypt and Jordan because of the devastation wrought by Israel’s campaign against Hamas after the terrorist attack of Oct. 7, 2023. “The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too,” Mr. Trump said at a news conference Tuesday evening. “We’ll own it and be responsible” for disposing of unexploded munitions and rebuilding Gaza into a mecca for jobs and tourism. Sounding like the real estate developer he once was, Mr. Trump vowed to turn it into “the Riviera of the Middle East.” While the president framed the matter as a humanitarian imperative and an economic development opportunity, he effectively reopened a geopolitical Pandora’s box with far-reaching implications for the Middle East. Control over Gaza has been one of the major flash points of the Arab-Israeli conflict for decades, and the idea of relocating its Palestinian residents recalls an era when great Western powers redrew the maps of the region and moved around populations without regard to local autonomy. The notion of the United States taking over territory in the Middle East would be a dramatic reversal for Mr. Trump, who first ran for office in 2016 vowing to extract America from the region after the Iraq war and decried the nation-building of his predecessors. In unveiling the plan, Mr. Trump did not cite any legal authority giving him the right to take over the territory, nor did he address the fact that forcible removal of a population violates international law and decades of American foreign policy consensus in both parties - NYT

Saudi Arabia has reaffirmed its unwavering and non-negotiable stance on the establishment of a Palestinian state, emphasizing that this position remains steadfast and is not subject to political bargaining, the state Saudi Gazette reported. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterated that the Kingdom’s commitment to Palestinian statehood is deeply rooted and unshakable. “This firm stance was explicitly affirmed by Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman during his address on September 18, 2024. In his speech, the Crown Prince made it clear that Saudi Arabia will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel unless an independent Palestinian state is established, with East Jerusalem as its capital.” )Earlier, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had earlier said he believed establishing ties was “going to happen”).

EU leaders convened for a summit to discuss how to finance more spending on defence. Although no agreement was reached, Ursula von der Leyen proposed a generous interpretation of the debt rules.

EU leaders convened for a special summit on Monday to discuss how to finance more spending on defence. Although no agreement was reached on joint European debt, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed a generous interpretation of the debt rules. In addition to defence spending, commentators discuss the larger geopolitical issues at stake.

Robust together

The Georgian government is pushing forward with a legislative package that would increase penalties for protest-related offences – in some cases to many years in prison.

The Georgian government is pushing forward with a legislative package that would increase penalties for protest-related offenses – in some cases to many years in prison – as the South Caucasus country grapples with a protracted political crisis.

Georgians have been rallying nightly since November, when the ruling Georgian Dream party, now in its fourth term in power, said it was suspending European Union accession talks until 2028, abruptly halting a long-standing national goal.

How Germany can prepare for a new role to replace the United States as Ukraine’s backer.

To be independent, Ukraine needs a backer. In 1994, it was US president Bill Clinton who took up this role. That is what Ukraine’s first president, Leonid Kravchuk, told me in 1998, when we met to discuss Ukraine’s decision to give up its nuclear weapons.

From the start Kravchuk was frank that the negotiations with Russia on denuclearization were not about the weapons themselves, but about Russia recognizing Ukraine’s independence. Kravchuk knew from the start that Ukraine would never have been able to control, deploy or maintain the weapons without Moscow’s help. They were therefore a bargaining chip for a bigger prize.

Kyiv has intensified its aerial attacks against Russian energy and military installations in recent months, in what Ukraine says is a just response to Moscow’s bombardment of its towns.

A drone attack in southwestern Russia set an oil depot ablaze on Wednesday, the regional governor said.

Kyiv has intensified its aerial attacks against Russian energy and military installations in recent months, in what Ukraine says is a just response to Moscow’s incessant bombardment of its own energy network and towns.

With Donald Trump back in the White House and the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion approaching, there is growing speculation about potential peace negotiations.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he would be willing to hold direct talks with Vladimir Putin to end the nearly three-year-long war. He stated this in an interview with British journalist Piers Morgan posted on YouTube on Tuesday, Feb. 4.

With Donald Trump back in the White House and the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion approaching, there is growing speculation about potential peace negotiations.

The Ukrainian tank crew, working in coordination with FPV drone operators, reportedly halted a Russian advance at the frontline Toretsk sector in Donetsk region.

A Ukrainian tank was caught on video destroying a building where Russian assault troops had taken cover in the Toretsk sector of the Donetsk region, according to the Khortytsya operational-strategic group of troops via Telegram.

Insider.ru has reported on an upsurge in pro-Kremlin disinformation activity since the newly installed US administration announced its global freeze on aid programs, specifically those in Ukraine.

At the end of January President Donald Trump decided to halt USAID funding to Ukraine that impacted on projects including those focused on war crime monitoring, veteran rehabilitation, work on the media and internally displaced person (IDP) assistance, as Kyiv Post reported.

Within days the Bot Blocker project – @antibot4navalny – identified several articles, ostensibly posted by legitimate European websites including Germany’s Der Spiegel and France’s Le Parisien, that were actually posted by the Russian “Doppelgänger” bot network.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi visited the Kyivska Electrical Substation in Kyiv Oblast on February 4 to assess damage to the substation as Russian long-range strikes targeting energy infrastructure continue to threaten Ukraine’s nuclear power plants (NPPS) and Ukraine’s energy production capabilities
• Russian officials continue to justify the Kremlin’s decision to not conduct an involuntary reserve call up at this time despite indications that the Russian military is struggling to recruit enough new personnel to replace its high casualties.
• Russian occupation authorities continue to discuss Russia’s possible illegal annexation of Kharkiv Oblast but claimed that Ukraine’s September 2022 counteroffensive in Kharkiv Oblast spoiled Russia’s plans to hold a “referendum” in the region at that time.
• A significant number of Russian vessels that had been at the Port of Tartus in recent weeks may have left Syria for Russia as Russian-Syrian negotiations about Russia’s continued access to its bases in Syria reportedly continue.
• Ukrainian naval drone strikes have likely forced Russia to dramatically alter Russian ships’ routes between Russia and Syria.
• Russia has also reportedly used vessels belonging to the MoD’s Oboronlogistika company to monitor NATO vessels in the Baltic Sea.
• Russian forces recently advanced near Kupyansk.
• A Kremlin-affiliated Russian milblogger claimed that Russian forces in the Siversk direction continue to struggle with systemic issues with field commanders filing false progress reports despite recent command changes.

At least 20 US volunteer fighters are MIA in Ukraine, with foreign casualties surging in recent months. Survivors recount harrowing battles and the struggle to retrieve fallen comrades.

At least 20 American citizens who volunteered to fight in Ukraine are currently missing in action, with foreign fighter casualties sharply increasing over the past six months, according to a CNN investigation published Thursday.

The remains of at least five American volunteers who died fighting alongside Ukrainian forces have not been recovered from the front lines, where relentless battles make retrieval efforts nearly impossible. After months of complex negotiations, the bodies of two Americans were recently returned from Russian-controlled areas to Ukrainian soil.

The EU has agreed on the legal foundations for a special tribunal to try Russia for the crime of aggression in Ukraine, as fears that Trump’s peace plans could let Moscow escape justice ramp up.

The European Union on Tuesday said experts had agreed on the “legal foundations” for a special tribunal to try Russia over the war in Ukraine. 

Proposals for establishing a court to hold Russia accountable over its invasion were floated more than two years ago.