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Stay on top of Russia-Ukraine war 04-16-2025 developments on the ground with KyivPost fact-based news, exclusive video footage, photos and updated war maps.
Though the two Chinese soldiers who fought for Russia had done so voluntarily, they said they were lured into fighting under false pretenses.
The two Chinese soldiers captured by Kyiv troops for fighting alongside Moscow forces said they were lured into fighting despite knowing full well that they were signing up with the Russian military.
The two made the comments during Monday’s press conference hosted by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), where part of their revelations were covered in an earlier Kyiv Post report.
Russia’s gas giant is considering making household appliances using confiscated facilities from Germany’s Bosch in Russia to offset the historic losses resulting from Moscow’s Ukraine invasion.
Russia’s gas conglomerate, Gazprom, is considering launching the production of fridges and washing machines to offset the historic losses caused by Western sanctions.
The company registered a net loss of more than 1 trillion rubles ($12.89 billion) in 2024, and the collapse of its exports to Europe, down over 90%, has forced it to slash jobs and sell off assets.
It’s probable NATO carrier-launched aircraft were in airspace between Romania and Crimea for the first time ever. Open-source trackers also spotted a rare US Air Force U2 spy plane.
A record-breaking French-British air operation saw NATO fighters make a close approach to Crimea in the rare use of carrier-based aircraft, and a US Air Force U2 spy plane, a leading Russian military information platform confirmed Tuesday.
At least thirteen military aircraft, launched from bases in Britain, Romania, Italy, France and the French Navy’s Charles De Gaulle aircraft carrier, converged in and around airspace over the western Black Sea in a multinational operation flown on April 11, the widely read Dva Majora milblogger reported to more than 1.3 million subscribers.
On a secure site in Kyiv, a Sikorsky S-76 medevac helicopter, donated by Canadians and the Ukrainian diaspora, was handed over in person to Kyrylo Budanov on Tuesday.
On a secure site belonging to Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence (HUR) in Kyiv, the directorate took delivery of a Sikorsky S-76 medical evacuation helicopter. Kyiv Post was invited to attend the event, which took place in the presence of HUR Chief Lt. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov.
The helicopter was donated following a year-long collaboration between the Ukrainian diaspora, international partners, and Canadian philanthropists. In addition to the practical role the aircraft will play in the evacuation of wounded civilians and soldiers, it carries a powerful symbolism: it uses technology that was pioneered by Igor Sikorsky – the Kyiv-born aviation legend.
Kyiv announced major progress with the US on a critical minerals agreement, aimed at boosting investment and economic growth.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Yuliia Svyrydenko announced “substantial progress” in talks with the US on a critical minerals’ deal.
The talks have made strides – particularly in terms of economic partnership, and the creation of an investment fund for Ukraine’s reconstruction, Svyrydenko said in a Facebook post on Wednesday, April 16.
A new intercept reveals a panicked Russian commander shouting at subordinates over failed coordination, admitting troops are dying due to delays and chaos in battlefield operations.
In a newly released intercept published by Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR), a commander of a Russian occupation unit is heard frantically trying to coordinate with his subordinates in a tone bordering on hysteria. The recording reveals a complete breakdown in command, unauthorized decision-making, and a lack of coordination between military groups.
“Why the f**k aren’t you flying yet, you f**kwit? A s**tload of time has already passed, the guys need help!” the Russian officer yells in response to a delay in mission execution.
Ukraine and Russia have technically agreed to implement a ceasefire against each other’s energy infrastructure, though in practice, there’s been no common agreement.
The Kremlin on Wednesday declined to say whether a 30-day moratorium on strikes against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure would be extended, just hours before the pause was set to expire.
Ukraine and Russia have technically agreed to implement a ceasefire against each other’s energy infrastructure, though in practice, there’s been no common agreement between the two.
Moscow, which commands the world’s largest confirmed arsenal of nuclear weapons, has deepened its military ties with Iran since it launched its offensive on Ukraine in February 2022.
The Kremlin said Wednesday that Russia was ready to do “everything” in its powers to help find a diplomatic resolution to the stand-off between the United States and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear programme.
The comments come a day before Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is due in Moscow for talks with top Russian officials, including on the state of the US-Iran talks.
As Easter Sunday approaches in the wake of the Sumy massacre, we must be unequivocal about Moscow’s intentions in any peace talks. Putin, like his predecessors, wants the destruction of Ukraine.
On Sunday, April 13, 2025, the world’s media, including the leading American network CNN, reported:
“Russian missiles hit residents who were gathering for a Sunday church service in the city of Sumy in northeastern Ukraine, killing at least 34 people in the largest attack of the year. According to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, among the dozens killed in the strikes on the city center were 2 children, and 117 people were injured.”
The parliament approved the treaty exit by a large margin. The decision is set to come into effect six months after Latvia formally notifies the United Nations.
Latvian lawmakers voted on Wednesday to quit a treaty banning anti-personnel mines, as the Baltic state bordering Russia seeks to reinforce its security amid the Ukraine war.
The EU and NATO member and other countries in the region have ramped up defence spending and training since Moscow’s troops invaded Ukraine in 2022, voicing fears that Russia could target them next.
The Trump administration still wants to use the mineral deal as a fund to repay aid provided to Ukraine in the form of grants during predecessor Joe Biden’s presidency.
Amid minerals deal talks, the White House has reportedly lowered its demands – from $300 billion to about $100 billion – for payback of US aid allegedly provided to Ukraine since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Even by its own numbers, the US has never been close to pledging – or delivering – $300 billion in aid to Ukraine.
China’s economy grows 5.4% in Q1 2025, beating forecasts amid a US trade war, tariff clashes, and rising global tensions - from Boeing battles to mortgage moves in Ukraine and arms smuggling claims.
China’s economy beat expectations to expand by 5.4 per cent in the first quarter, keeping it broadly on track to meet this year’s official target even as uncertainty remains high over how the economy will fare amid an unprecedented trade war with the United States. The closely watched gross domestic product (GDP) figures, released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Wednesday, came in above the 5.16 per cent forecast by economists polled by Chinese financial data provider Wind. The year-on-year growth in the first three months of 2025 was in line with the 5.4 per cent expansion recorded in the previous quarter. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the economy grew by 1.2 per cent. Beijing has set an annual growth target of around 5 per cent, but worries are mounting over how the country can achieve this challenging goal, which would require strong fiscal support – especially amid escalating external shocks from a tariff tit-for-tat with Washington. Sheng Laiyun, deputy head of the NBS, said the economy “got off to a good and steady start and maintained the recovery momentum, with innovation playing an increasingly leading role”, in the first quarter. But he cautioned that “the external environment is becoming more complex and severe, the drive for the growth of effective domestic demand is insufficient, and the foundation for sustained economic recovery and growth is yet to be consolidated” - SCMP
“The ball is in China’s court: China needs to make a deal with us, we don’t have to make a deal with them,” Trump says, in a statement read out by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt to a press briefing on Tuesday.
Ukraine’s Brave-1 technology cluster tested more than 70 robotic ground vehicles from 50 domestic manufacturers under simulated combat conditions with most performing better than anticipated.
Earlier this week Ukraine carried out the mass testing of unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) under the auspices of its Brave-1 defense technology coordinating agency. The trials involved more than 70 UGV of all shapes and sizes put forward by around 50 domestic manufacturers.
The trials were designed to evaluate the technical reliability and resilience of the vehicles along with an assessment of their suitability for battlefield deployment under extreme simulated combat situations.
Today, shooting competitions – unlike in the old days – gather hundreds of participants, among whom there are veterans of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Ukraine’s martial law has been extended for another 90 days.
Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, voted on Wednesday to extend martial law until Aug. 6.
Lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak, in a Telegram update, said the extension bill was voted on with 346 in favor, one abstained and one against. Lawmakers Heorhiy Mazurashu abstained from the vote and Oleksii Honcharenko voted against.
Rubio is expected to meet with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barraud, while Witkoff will sit down with President Emmanuel Macron.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Donald Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff are set to visit Paris to discuss the war in Ukraine and other subjects of mutual interest with French officials, Politico reports.
Rubio is expected to meet with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barraud, while Witkoff, a former real estate investor with no prior diplomatic experience, will sit down with President Emmanuel Macron.
Pyongyang has become a primary sources of ammunition for Moscow, signaling a new level of military and political cooperation between the two heavily sanctioned nations.
Over the past 20 months, North Korea has supplied Russia with at least 4 million artillery shells, which have been actively used on the front lines in Ukraine. These deliveries have been large-scale and systematic — transported both by sea and rail — significantly boosting Russia’s combat capabilities, according to newswire services.
During this period, North Korea shipped over 15,800 containers filled with ammunition to Russia. Analysts at OSC tracked 64 shipments from the North Korean port of Rajin between September 2023 and March 2025, carried out by four Russian-flagged container ships — Angara, Maria, Maia-1, and Lady R, the reports said.
The media ask whether Trump’s peace initiative has any chance of succeeding - and examine what role Europe can play.
US President Donald Trump has described a Russian missile strike on the city of Sumy in north-eastern Ukraine in which more than 30 civilians were killed as a “horrible thing”. Russian-American negotiations are set to continue this week, but with only a ceasefire on the Black Sea on the table. The media ask whether Trump’s peace initiative has any chance of succeeding - and examine what role Europe can play.
Washington doesn’t get Putin
Biden finally criticizes Trump’s actions, but fails to address issue of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Joe Biden, in his first major speech since leaving the White House, railed Tuesday against his successor Donald Trump’s frenetic government overhaul, claiming the “hatchet” effort put Americans’ retirement benefits at risk.
“Fewer than 100 days, this administration has done so much damage, and so much destruction -- it’s kind of breathtaking it could happen that soon,” Biden told a conference of disability advocates in Chicago.
“China’s ‘no limits’ embrace of Russia and support for its war in Ukraine does not go unnoticed,” Republican Congressman John Moolenaar said when introducing the No Limits Act.
Bipartisan leaders of the US Congressional committee charged with helping the executive branch confront China risks, urged the Trump administration to penalize China and its entities that provide material support to Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine, Kyiv Post’s Washington correspondent reports.
The move comes just days after Ukraine captured two Chinese nationals who were fighting for the Russian army in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region. Kyiv claims that China has been supporting the Kremlin’s war of aggression with both manpower and resources, which Beijing denies.
The statement was intended to condemn the strike and present it as further evidence of Moscow’s intent to continue its war against Ukraine.
The Trump White House informed its Group of Seven (G7) allies that it would not support a statement condemning Russia’s recent missile attack on Ukraine, which was the deadliest of the year, purportedly to ‘keep negotiations with Moscow on track.’
Russia launched the attack on Palm Sunday, April 13, striking the northeastern city of Sumy and killing at least 35 people while wounding 119 others. Ukrainian officials said it was one of the deadliest assaults on Sumy since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022.
Russia invaded Georgia in 2008, capitalizing on escalated tensions between Tbilisi and the Black Sea country’s two separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Georgia’s foreign minister said it is “impossible to talk” about restoring diplomatic relations with Moscow as long as Russia continues its “occupation” of parts of the country.
Russia invaded Georgia in 2008, capitalizing on escalated tensions between Tbilisi and the Black Sea country’s two separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Moscow’s aerial attacks have escalated despite calls by US President Donald Trump for a ceasefire to halt three years of the Kremlin’s full-scale aggression.
A wave of Russian drone strikes ignited multiple fires and injured three people in the southern port city of Odesa early Wednesday, April 16, according to Ukrainian officials.
The attacks, carried out by Russian forces using Shahed kamikaze drones, triggered a series of explosions around 1:50 a.m., Odesa Mayor Hennadii Trukhanov said. Emergency services were dispatched shortly after local media reported a large-scale fire in the area.
Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.
Key Takeaways from the ISW:
Ukrainian forces estimate that up to 200 Russian infantry troops were eliminated during the assault, though they did not specify the exact location where the footage was recorded.
The AFU Separate Presidential Brigade, named after Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, released footage on Facebook Monday demonstrating how soldiers from the 3rd Mechanized Battalion destroyed around 20 Russian motorcycles and well over 20 armored combat vehicles, including tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, along with multiple dozens of items of weaponry and other military equipment.
Ukrainian forces estimate that up to 200 Russian infantry troops were eliminated during the assault, though they did not specify the exact location where the footage was recorded.
Stockholm takes a stance against “continuous attacks against Ukraine’s cities and civilian populations and the serious attacks” against Sumy and Kryvyi Rih. AFP reporters visit the funerals.
Sweden said Tuesday it had summoned the Russian ambassador to its foreign ministry to protest against Moscow’s attacks on civilian populations.
“Russia’s responsibility to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure in accordance with international humanitarian law was emphasized to the Russian ambassador during his appearance,” the Swedish foreign ministry said.
“No evidence was presented that these guys committed any crimes, their guilt was not proven,” one of the journalists’ lawyers, Irina Biryukova, said.
Russia on Tuesday sentenced four journalists it said were associated with late opposition leader Alexei Navalny to five and a half years in a penal colony, intensifying a crackdown on press freedom and Kremlin critics.
Navalny, Kremlin strongman Vladimir Putin’s main opponent before he died, was declared an “extremist” by Russian authorities, a ruling that remains in force despite his death in an Arctic penal colony on February 16, 2024.
Invading forces appear to be intensifying their use of armored vehicles throughout the Donbas theater after mainly relegating such equipment to fire-support roles.
After relying on light-infantry assaults to advance in late 2024 and early 2025, thanks to the efficiency of Ukraine’s drones to neutralize incoming tanks and armored personnel carriers, leadership in Moscow appears to be returning to the original game plan of sending tanks, motorcycles and even civilian cars to carry invading forces toward the front lines, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reports.
Luhansk Group of Forces spokesperson Lt. Col. Dmytro Zaporozhets said over the weekend that Ukraine’s Armed Forces (AFU) repelled a “reinforced company-sized Russian mechanized assault” toward Stupochky (south of Chasiv Yar) and Klishchiivka (southeast of Chasiv Yar) with 13 armored vehicles, several civilian vehicles, and an unspecified number of motorcycles on Sunday in the occupied Donetsk region.
