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Kyiv’s most-bombed neighborhood just won’t quit

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Original article contains additional illustrations After four years of war, life in Lukianivka, the most frequently hit part of the Ukrainian capital, is a mix  of adaptability and endurance, defiance and denial, resignation and resilience. July 3, 2026 10 min By Steve Hendrix, Serhiy Morgunov and Kostiantyn Khudov, KYIV — With each cappuccino that barista Anya Balyokha made on a recent morning, the scent of coffee gained a bit more on the smell of burned shopping mall — the air still acrid from the Russian ballistic missile that destroyed the stores across the street a week earlier. But business was still good in Lukianivka, the beleaguered hilltop community that is the most-bombed neighborhood in the most-bombed district in Kyiv. Regulars nursed flat whites, a war-scape of burned brick and shattered glass visible through the windows not covered in plywood. Commuters stopped for lattes on their way to the nearby Metro station, which doubles as an air raid shelter where some may ha...
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Putin visits military installation, vowing to take more of Ukraine

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The Russian president donned military fatigues as he tried to counter a narrative that Moscow is stumbling in its war after Ukrainian drone strikes set off an acute fuel shortage. Today at 4:31 p.m. EDT Russian President Vladimir Putin, shown speaking at a command post in 2025, visited the front line again on Friday in an effort to challenge the narrative that Ukraine holds any military advantage. (AP) By Mary Ilyushina Russian President Vladimir Putin made a rare frontline appearance late Friday, donning green military fatigues, to claim breakthroughs in Russia’s war effort and counter what he called Ukraine’s “information and propaganda operation on illusory battlefield results.” In recent weeks, Kyiv appears to have gained momentum through medium- and long-range drone strikes that have hammered occupied Crimea and damaged oil refineries and other energy infrastructure in Russia, leading to gasoline shortages. That perception of success even drew rare praise from President Donald Tr...
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In Strike After Strike, Ukraine Is Bringing the War to Crimea

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By Marc Santora , Aric Toler and Josh Holder ,  The New York Times , July 4 2026   [ note: most images in the original text could not be reproduced here  for technical reasons; the emphasis on the first two paragraphs was produced mechanically by an unknown individual and or robot.] image from Britannica Celebrating his seizure of Crimea in 2014, President Vladimir V. Putin later called the peninsula an “unsinkable aircraft carrier,” hailing Russia’s return there as a symbol of revanchist ambition. Now the Ukrainian military is hammering Crimea with swarming drone attacks, seeking to transform it from a Russian-occupied fortress into a nightmare for the Kremlin to manage.    All of this has shaken life in Crimea to the greatest extent since Russia illegally annexed the peninsula in 2014. It has also caused some Russian forces along the southern front to shift into defensive operations, according to Kostiantyn Mashovets, a Ukrainian military analyst. Overnight ...
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