On Odesa’s sunlit Langeron beach, life resumes under gunfire as residents defy drones and propaganda alike. From fallen imperial statues to frontline defences, this port city fights not just Russia’s attacks, but the lingering shadows of empire today in the streets.
France would only lead a Hormuz mission “once calm returns, once the military objectives of the US are attained”, it said after EU powers met the US secretary of state. Marco Rubio said: “Ukraine is not America’s war, and yet we’ve contributed more to that fight than any other country in the world.”
Russian oil deliveries to Hungary jumped from 61 percent of its imports in 2021 to 93 percent in 2025 despite the Ukraine war.
A report by the All Eyes on Wagner investigative group listed 1,417 fighters from 35 African countries who had joined the Russian army between 2023 and mid-2025, 316 of whom have been killed. Ghana’s West African neighbour Cameroon has suffered the highest losses: 94 of its 335 recruits have been killed during Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Peace talks between Ukraine and Russia are constantly being delayed. That’s what Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky stated last week. As his country begins to run out of missiles and financial support, can Zelensky still hope to get out of this war with dignity?
A leaked transcript of a 2020 phone call suggests Hungary’s foreign minister sought Moscow’s help to bolster a Slovak ally ahead of a pivotal election, raising fresh questions about Budapest’s ties to the Kremlin and deepening concerns within the EU over trust, influence and the handling of sensitive information.
Interview with Anna Thalhammer, who exposed Austrian journalists suspected of working for Moscow, why the country treats Russian espionage so casually, and how its history has shaped this attitude.
EU leaders failed to convince Hungary to lift its veto on Ukraine support, as president Volodomyr Zelensky lamented the blockage.
Croatia says 13 tankers carrying non-Russian oil are ready to supply Hungary, even as Budapest presses Ukraine to deliver cheaper Russian fuel in exchange for lifting its veto on a €90bn loan for Kyiv at Thursday’s EU summit.
Russian president Vladimir Putin’s regime is testing a “sovereign internet” following the Chinese and Iranian model and is preparing a system of total censorship for cases of public discontent.
“This number is larger than some armed forces in some of the European countries,” says Andriy Yusov, a Ukrainian intelligence spokesperson. Many come from post-Soviet states, but around 1,800 are Africans.
Ursula von der Leyen’s flurry of diplomacy after the US-Israel strikes on Iran is very hard to ignore. In the span of one day, she had conversations with eight foreign leaders, as well as with three EU countries — greatly overdoing communications by both the president of the European Council (António Costa) and the high representative (Kaja Kallas). Here’s why this is seen as highly controversial, or even problematic, within the EU institutional system.
“First of all, we want to hear from Israel and the United States of America when they want to achieve their military goals in Iran,” said Germany, while also calling for Israeli restraint in Lebanon.
Slovakia had pushed for the EU to delist two Russian oligarchs, but did a U-turn on Saturday.
We spoke with president Volodymyr Zelensky’s adviser about how he sees the dispute over the Druzhba pipeline, what motivated Russia to attack the pumping station in Brody; why Robert Fico and Viktor Orbán are so obsessed with buying Russian energy, why there should be far more attacks on Russian tankers, and the impact of the war against Iran on developments in Ukraine.
In our regular digest of the week’s news from the Hungarian campaign trail: latest opinion polls, a Hungarian delegation to Ukraine to inspect the damaged Russian oil pipeline, claims Kremlin-approved Russian disinfo is amplifying Fidesz campaign messaging, Hollywood star Mark Ruffalo calls on Hungarians to free themselves from Orban, and physical attacks on independent journalists.
Russia has earned an estimated €6bn in fossil-fuel, or €510m per day, since the attacks on Iran, according to a new analysis published on Thursday.
“One of the archbishops in Armenia had started a movement to [reactivate] … the [Nagorno-Karabakh] conflict”, warned Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan.
Global arms flows are surging to Cold War levels, fuelled by European rearmament and the war in Ukraine. Ukraine, Poland, and the Czech Republic are reshaping Europe’s defence landscape, while a Czechoslovak Group’s record-breaking IPO exposes links between business and politics. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia eyes Ukrainian weapons amid drone threats, highlighting a defence boom that is both highly profitable and increasingly entangled with geopolitics.
Slovakia has said it would block the rollover of the existing visa-bans and asset-freezes on Russia due on 15 March, unless the EU first delists two Russian oligarchs.
