The small town of Nikopol, Ukraine, sits across the river from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Attacks are causing serious alarm for the community.
Several days after Ukraine said nine planes were destroyed at a Russian air base in Crimea, nobody has publicly claimed responsibility for it — but speculation abounds.
The Russian invasion has taken a toll on Ukrainian metalworks — the country's second-largest industry — and there's still no deal to ship iron and steel products to customers.
Satellite images and social media analyzed by NPR show attacks have hit structures around the plant, coming dangerously close to causing a nuclear disaster.
Evacuation 200 is a special volunteer unit that scours the country for the bodies of soldiers left on battlefields. "My job is to accompany these heroes on their last trip home," one volunteer says.
Ukrainian officials have vowed to retake the strategic city of Kherson. But the battlefield "gray zone," spanning more than 100 miles, is confusing — and danger can come in many forms.
A report says Ukraine placed its forces near noncombatants, putting them in danger. Government officials say they evacuate civilians from combat areas, and that the report depicts "a false reality."
Rumors of a relationship between Putin, 69, and Alina Kabaeva, 39, date back more than a decade. Putin and the former Olympic gymnast are thought to have had at least three children together.
The town of Chernivtsi, once the wedding dress capital of the Soviet Union, is still churning out dresses — for the West. "We are staying in Ukraine," says a dressmaker. "We will build our economy."
A 29-year-old battalion commander is leading 600 men, fighting in Ukraine's counteroffensive near Kherson. "This is war," Col. Serhiy Shatalov says. "You cannot predict nothing, absolutely nothing."
Even relatively inexpensive drones can provide valuable intelligence to units on the battlefield. "This is our task," a Ukrainian drone surveillance unit member says. "We sit the whole day and watch."
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry denounced Saturday's strike as "spit in the face" of Turkey and the United Nations, which brokered the grain export agreements.
The deal would allow Ukraine to resume shipments of grain from the Black Sea to world markets and Russia to export grain and fertilizers, ending a standoff that has threatened world food security.
A Mariupol theater troupe displaced when Russia bombed their historic building have reconstituted what's left of their group and are putting on a play by a famous Ukrainian playwright.
