Ukraine War News Today - Top Stories and Breaking Updates from Kyiv Post

A former Pripyat resident, who later followed in her parents’ footsteps and became a nuclear plant worker, recalled her lost youth and the fading image of a once prosperous city with Kyiv Post.

When the Chornobyl reactor exploded and radioactive dust filled the night sky, Viktoriia Babak was only 16.

She was living in Pripyat, the city housing employees at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), and her class at school was supposed to graduate. But on April 26, 1986, all plans were destroyed a month before the end of the school year.

Berlin believes Russia is behind a cyberattack that compromised high-profile politicians and officials by using fake support messages to gain access to private chats and contacts.

Germany’s government has been caught up in a phishing campaign targeting users of the Signal messaging app, with several cabinet members affected and Russia seen as responsible, according to media reports.

German government sources told Reuters on Saturday that Berlin believes Russia could be behind the phishing attacks aimed at high-profile politicians, diplomats, military officers and journalists.  

Remembering how Moscow dealt with the catastrophe in Chornobyl 40 years ago reveals the cornerstone of the Kremlin’s modus operandi: manage perception first, reality later

April 26, 1986, marks the day the Chornobyl disaster began, and the Kremlin answered with silence. Officials withheld the truth and Soviet propaganda downplayed the danger of radiation. Forty years later, that reflex endures.

Chornobyl is not just history; it is a blueprint for how Vladimir Putin’s Russia pairs nuclear risk with the suppression of truth – threatening nuclear escalation while invoking the catastrophe at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. It is the same Cold War playbook, adapted for a new age.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hezbollah’s actions were threatening the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.

The latest developments in the Middle East war:

- Netanyahu accuses Hezbollah -

Alpha units hit two landing ships, a reconnaissance vessel, and a MiG-31 fighter at Belbek airfield, crippling key naval and air defense infrastructure in Sevastopol.

Special operations units from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) conducted a massive overnight strike on Russian military assets in occupied Crimea, targeting the Black Sea Fleet’s headquarters and several high-value vessels.

The SBU Alpha special forces, acting on instructions from the president, utilized long-range drones to hit the Sevastopol naval base and Belbek airfield.

After 18 years at the helm of the Ivano-Frankivsk drama theater, Rostyslav Derzhypilsky has extended the legacy of a stage founded in the Austro-Hungarian era and reshaped it for a country at war.

Despite the prolonged war, the Ivano-Frankivsk National Academic Drama Theater is launching the Ukrainian Shakespeare Festival. It has become a full-fledged member of the European Shakespeare network, organizing a new international festival this summer, presenting its original vision of world classics abroad, and earning well-deserved recognition.

Kyiv Post presents an exclusive interview with Rostyslav Derzhypilskyi, the theater’s general and artistic director.

President Zelensky announced that three countries contributed €400 million to the PURL mechanism, while the first €45B EU loan tranche will fund domestic drone production and energy security.

Three additional nations have pledged approximately €400 million to the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) program, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Sunday, April 26, Ukrinform reported.

Speaking during a press conference in Kyiv, the president noted that these contributions from three undisclosed countries were finalized during recent meetings in Cyprus.

The defense ministry confirmed that 50 nations have supplied critical weaponry, including F-16 jets and Patriot systems, while the PURL mechanism secured an additional $5 billion in US hardware.

The Ukraine Defense Contact Group, commonly known as the Ramstein format, has provided more than $150 billion in military assistance over the past four years to bolster Ukraine’s defenses, according to the Ministry of Defense.

The ministry highlighted that the coalition of over 50 nations has delivered a wide range of advanced weaponry. This includes NASAMS, Patriot, and IRIS-T air defense systems, Leopard and Abrams tanks, HIMARS rocket launchers, and PzH 2000 self-propelled howitzers. The aid also encompasses M113 armored personnel carriers and multi-role fighter jets, such as the F-16 and Mirage-2000.

During a meeting in Kyiv on the 40th anniversary of Chornobyl, the leaders of Ukraine and Moldova declared that both nations have fulfilled all conditions to open EU accession clusters.

President Volodymyr Zelensky and Moldovan President Maia Sandu held a joint press conference in Kyiv on Sunday, April 26, emphasizing that both nations are ready to begin formal negotiations for EU membership.

Sandu stressed that both Moldova and Ukraine have met the necessary criteria and that the EU must now demonstrate unity by opening negotiation clusters without further delay.

A woman and a man were killed while standing on the street during a morning strike on the Donetsk region city, which also damaged eight homes and wounded a 50-year-old civilian.

Russian forces shelled a residential neighborhood in Kramatorsk on Sunday morning, April 26, killing two civilians and wounding another.

According to the Donetsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office, a woman and a man who were on the street at the time of the attack sustained fatal injuries. A 50-year-old man was also hospitalized in amoderate condition with blast injuries, fractures, and shrapnel wounds.

Following the “Energy Ramstein” conference in Kyiv, Minister Denys Shmyhal announced that partners pledged €100 million to the Energy Support Fund, though a massive funding gap remains.

Ukraine requires at least €5.4 billion to prepare its energy system for the upcoming winter, according to First Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Energy Denys Shmyhal, Ukrinform reported.

Speaking at the Ukraine Energy Coordination Group (UECG) conference in Kyiv on Sunday, April 26, Shmyhal detailed a plan to restore 6.5 GW of power capacity. This includes repairing 4.5 GW of existing infrastructure and adding 2 GW through distributed cogeneration and renewable energy sources.

Radiation and the Russian forces are harmful, but overall, nature in northern Ukraine has proven itself resilient.

In an unplanned win for Mother Nature, 40 years after the worst nuclear power accident in history, the thick forests and wetlands around the Chornobyl atomic power station are a haven for plant and wildlife, and probably Europe’s biggest and richest biosphere.

The forests and marshes along the Pripyat River flowing through a 2,600 square kilometer (around 1,000 square miles), practically uninhabited Exclusion Zone centered on Chornobyl’s still lethally radioactive reactor number four now teems with rare European wildlife, some of it long extinct across the rest of the continent.

Beijing demanded the immediate removal of its firms from the new EU sanctions list, warning of “necessary measures” to protect Chinese interests and a breakdown in bilateral trust.

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce expressed a “resolute protest” on Sunday, April 26, after the European Unio included several Chinese companies in its 20th sanctions package against Russia, Reuters reported.

Beijing has demanded the immediate removal of these firms from the list, which targets suppliers of critical high-tech goods from third countries. The sanctioned Chinese companies are accused of providing dual-use goods or weapons systems to the Russian military-industrial complex.

Hungary’s incoming Prime Minister Péter Magyar urged law enforcement to freeze assets and prevent the departure of influential families as the 16-year Fidesz era draws to a close.

Incoming Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar alleged on Sunday, April 26, that oligarchs close to outgoing leader Viktor Orbán are siphoning tens of billions of euros out of the country as they prepare to flee abroad.

In a video address, Magyar claimed that several influential families have already left Hungary, with others – including the family of multi-billionaire Lorinc Meszaros – reportedly preparing to depart for Dubai in the coming days.

The USS Pinckney intercepted the Sevan on Saturday, forcing the sanctioned vessel to return to Iran as the total number of ships diverted under the US naval blockade reaches 37.

US naval forces intercepted a Russian “shadow fleet” vessel in the Arabian Sea on Saturday, April 25, as Washington intensifies its military enforcement of sanctions against Iranian energy exports.

The vessel, identified as the Sevan, was intercepted by a US Navy helicopter operating from the guided-missile destroyer USS Pinckney (DDG 91). According to US Central Command (CENTCOM), the Sevan is one of 19 shadow fleet vessels sanctioned by the US Treasury Department for transporting billions of dollars worth of Iranian oil, gas, propane, and butane to foreign markets.

The General Staff confirmed a fire at one of Russia’s top refineries and the destruction of high-end air defense systems and military trains in occupied territories.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) carried out a series of high-precision strikes between April 25 and the early hours of Sunday, April 26, targeting a major oil refinery deep inside Russia and critical air defense assets in occupied territories.

The General Staff reported a significant fire at the Yaroslavl refinery (Slavneft-YANOS) following a successful drone strike. The facility is a strategic asset for the Kremlin, processing approximately 15 million tons of oil annually.

Iran on Sunday executed a man convicted of membership in the Sunni militant group Jaish al-Adl and involvement in attacks on security forces in the southeast.

The latest developments in the Middle East war:

- Trump says Washington shooting will not stop Iran war -

How the Soviet Union lied about Its worst nuclear disaster – and how the West helped.

In the spring of 1986, helicopter crews flew more than 1,800 sorties over the burning Chornobyl reactor, initially dumping 5,020 metric tons of sand, clay, lead, and boron into the inferno. Soviet officials called this the defining act of heroism that smothered the fire and saved the world from far worse contamination. The international nuclear establishment endorsed the claim. One problem: almost none of the material reached the reactor core.

The pilots had been told to aim for a “red glow” inside the shattered reactor building. That glow turned out to be fragments of the core hurled about 12 meters east of the reactor shaft by the initial explosion. The actual core – 135 metric tons of uranium fuel, 71 percent of the total load – sat exposed and burning in the shaft below, untouched by the helicopters. Today, in the reactor’s central hall, a mound of sand and debris stands over the now cold “red glow” as an eerie monument to misdirected courage.

The Israeli military launched a wave of attacks against rocket launchers and elite Radwan units in southern Lebanon after two missiles were fired at northern Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to forcefully suppress Hezbollah activity in Lebanon on Sunday, April 26, following a breach of the fragile regional truce, Reuters reported.

The directive from the Prime Minister’s Office instructed the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to “forcefully attack Hezbollah targets” after militants launched two rockets at northern Israel.

An exclusive Kyiv Post report from the city of Slavutych, which hosted a memorial event honoring the deceased liquidators of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident.

Ukraine remembers the largest man-made disaster of the 20th century. Today marks 40 years since an explosion occurred that led to the exposure of an operating nuclear reactor at the fourth power unit of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

The disaster resulted in severe socio-economic, medical, and environmental consequences for tens of thousands of square kilometers of Ukrainian and Belarusian territory and hundreds of thousands of people.

The outgoing Hungarian leader announced he will step down as an MP to focus on reforming his Fidesz party, which recently lost its grip on power after 16 years.

Outgoing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced on Saturday, April 25, that he is resigning his seat in parliament following his party’s recent electoral defeat.

In a video message posted to social media, Orbán stated that he would not take up his mandate in the new legislative session, as he is currently needed to “reform the national camp” rather than serve on the opposition benches.

Sweden received the largest fallout of radioactive cesium outside the Soviet Union – 1,000 km from Chornobyl. Four decades later, what impact has the disaster had on Swedish society?

The discovery

On April 27, 1986, rain fell over parts of Sweden while southeasterly winds were blowing. At half past seven on Monday morning, the operations manager at the Forsmark nuclear power plant (located about 150 kilometers north of Stockholm) received an alarming message: radiation detectors had reacted to an employee’s shoes.

President Zelensky warned that Russian-Iranian drone attacks near the station’s confinement structure are pushing the world toward a new man-made disaster.

President Volodymyr Zelensky marked the 40th anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster on Sunday, April 26, by urging the international community to take decisive action against ongoing Russian nuclear terrorism.

In a statement released on Telegram, Zelensky honored the victims and liquidators of the 1986 explosion, which remains the largest man-made disaster in human history. He emphasized that the safety of the New Safe Confinement structure, built with the support of more than 40 countries, is currently under direct threat from Moscow’s aggression.

For more than three decades, the museum has shaped public memory of the worst technological disaster in human history.

From the editors: This is a press release from the Ukrainian National Chornobyl Museum ahead of its reopening on April 28, 20262.

The renewed National Chornobyl Museum – one of the world’s leading centers for documenting and interpreting the Chornobyl tragedy – will reopen its doors on Tuesday, April 28.

The US president halted a diplomatic mission to Islamabad, prompting a revised proposal from Tehran within minutes, while Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian rejected “forced negotiations.”

US President Donald Trump abruptly canceled a planned high-level diplomatic mission to Pakistan on Saturday, April 25, stating that the US holds a dominant position and has no need to pursue talks on Iranian terms, Fox News reported.

Special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were ordered to stand down just as they were preparing to depart for Islamabad for mediated talks.

A high-pressure acid pipeline was damaged at the Apatit plant and a major Rosneft-Gazprom refinery in Yaroslavl was set ablaze during a massive overnight drone raid across Russia.

Ukrainian long-range drones struck one of Russia’s largest oil refineries and a major chemical plant the night of Saturday-Sunday, as Kyiv continues to degrade the industrial infrastructure funding Moscow’s war effort.

In Yaroslavl, located in Russia’s Central Federal District, drones targeted the Slavneft-YANOS refinery, causing a fire at the facility.

Nuclear terrorism, not accident: Russia's deliberate weaponization of Ukraine's nuclear plants demands the world treat reactor safety as a global security priority.

As another anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster approaches, much of the global conversation will return to familiar ground: a tragic accident, systemic failure, and the long shadow it cast over Ukraine and Europe.

What Russia is doing today, however, is not history repeating itself. It is something far more deliberate – nuclear terrorism.

What occurred was bad enough – the consequences are still with us – but it could have been far worse, not only in Eastern Europe, but for the entire planet.

It’s 40 years since an explosion at one of the reactors at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant north of Kyiv resulted in a horrendous catastrophe that shook the world and contaminated and traumatized Ukraine and parts of Belarus.

What occurred was bad enough – the consequences are still with us – but it could have been far worse, not only in Eastern Europe, but for the entire planet. We survived, though dozens were killed, and a substantial, though unknown, number affected by the deadly, cancerous, and deforming radiation.

The US president and first lady were rushed to safety on Saturday night after a gunman attempted to breach security at the Hilton hotel, injuring a secret service agent.

US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump were emergency evacuated from the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington on Saturday evening, April 25, following an armed attempt to breach the event’s security perimeter, Reuters reported.

The suspect, identified by law enforcement as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, reportedly opened fire on a secret service agent at a checkpoint near the ballroom. The agent sustained a hit to his bulletproof vest and did not suffer serious injuries, according to The Washington Post.

Ukrainian air defenses intercepted 124 drones overnight, but strikes in the Sumy region killed two civilians while a fire broke out at an infrastructure site in Dnipro.

Russian forces launched a fresh wave of aerial attacks across Ukraine from Saturday night into the early hours of Sunday, April 26, killing two civilians in the Sumy region and striking infrastructure in Dnipro.

In the Bilopillia community of the Sumy region, a Russian drone strike targeted two men located less than 5 km from the state border. Oleh Hryhorov, head of the Sumy Regional Military Administration, confirmed that a 48-year-old and a 72-year-old man were killed in the attack.