Volodymyr Zelensky declared on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the war in Ukraine that World War Three had already begun.
His statement reflected the increasingly global nature of Russia’s war, which has seen troops from countries across the world brought in to either bolster Putin’s aggression or support Ukraine’s resistance.
Since February 2022, around 55,000 Ukrainians have been killed in bitter fighting on the frontlines, according to Ukrainian estimates. Russia has suffered an estimated 1.2 million casualties, including at least 325,000 deaths, according to recent analysis.
Some 20,000 men from overseas are now estimated to have joined Russia’s invasion. Many have been falsely sold the promise of lucrative employment away from the frontlines. Ukraine has offered professional soldiers fixed contracts paying rates higher than what they could earn at home.
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Moscow has used foreign troops to alleviate the strain on its forces and, crucially, delay another round of politically contentious mobilisation – a move likely to spark public anger.
Ahead of the fourth anniversary of the conflict, The Independent looks at some of the countries dragged into Russia’s war in Ukraine.
North Korea
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North Korea assumed a major role in the conflict in support of Russia in late 2024, helping to set back a bold Ukrainian counteroffensive into Russian-held territory.
The first reports of North Koreans training in Russia came in the weeks after emboldened Ukrainian forces launched a summer offensive into Russia’s Kursk region. Pyongyang would commit some 17,000 troops to Russia in total, according to recent British estimates.
A North Korean Soldier fighting for Russia in Ukraine, according to a video shared by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine (Office of the President of Ukraine)
Most of the soldiers came from North Korea’s elite ‘Storm Corps’, which are trained for infiltration and sabotage operations. They remained in Kursk to help Russia recover control of its own region before mostly withdrawing.
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The UK Ministry of Defence assessed in June that Pyongyang had likely sustained more than 6,000 casualties fighting Ukraine – a little over a third of its forces.
Emil Kastehelmi, military analyst and cofounder of the Finland-based open-source intelligence collective Black Bird Group, told The Independent that “after fighting in Kursk, they’ve taken a less active role against Ukrainians”.
He said that while multiple brigades were used in Kursk, no such force has since been transferred to Donetsk, the region of eastern Ukraine sought by Putin.
North Korea has been fighting its own propaganda war at home, glorifying the troops sent to Kursk with a new memorial complex and a housing district set aside for the families of slain soldiers. Analysis say such treatment is aimed at curbing public discontent.
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Kenya
Harrowing footage showing the abuse of African soldiers by Russian troops sparked outrage late last year.
Francis Ndung’u Ndarua, 35, from Kenya, was filmed in viral footage with a land mine strapped to his chest as a Russian speaker hurled racial slurs at him and said he would be used as a “can opener” to assault Ukrainian positions.
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Relatives of Kenyans believed to be fighting for Russia in Ukraine (Reuters)
Anne Ndarua, his mother, told CNN that Francis had gone to Russia to become an electrical engineer. She was surprised to learn he was being forced into military training, and says he was sent to the front after just three weeks.
Families have petitioned for the Kenyan government to act in recent weeks as soldiers began to return home, recounting how they were lured in by lucrative job offers only to be sent to Ukraine.
A Kenyan intelligence report found this month that around 1,000 Kenyans have been recruited to fight in Ukraine so far. Nearly 90 were on the frontlines this month, while one has died and several have come home injured or traumatised, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) said in its report. The government has recently tried to ban the conscription of Kenyan soldiers.
“They sometimes may not fully understand what is the battlefield they are entering,” Mr Kastehelmi said, adding: “Russians probably can pay better and they may have also more effective recruiting networks.”
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Colombia
Both Russia and Ukraine have recruited soldiers from Latin America to fill in their ranks.
Colombian veterans are considered among the most valuable foreign fighters, arriving hardened from a decades-long civil war, and familiar with Western equipment.
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In December, a Russian-backed court in Donetsk sentenced Colombian national Oscar Mauricio Blanco Lopez to 19 years in jail for fighting for Ukraine (Russian Prosecutor General’s office)
Mario Urueña-Sánchez, a security expert at Rosario University in Bogotá, told The Economist that casualty rates remain high as Colombians arrive to meet a very different conflict from the one at home.
“In Colombia, you can patrol for six months and there isn’t as much risk involved,” a Colombian Army veteran now fighting in Ukraine told El Tiempo. “Here, with every entry (into combat) you know you might not come back or you might come back wounded.”
Figures vary, and recruitment is often informal, but it is estimated that between 3,000 and 7,000 Colombians have fought in Ukraine, on both sides, since 2022.
In 2024, Colombian fighters were offered between $3,000 to $4,000 per month to join existing Ukrainian units on six-month contracts, according to CEPA.
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India
More than 200 Indians have been recruited into the Russian armed forces since the invasion, India’s foreign ministry reported in December, amid rising concern about citizens being lured into the military.
At least 26 people were said to have been killed and seven were still missing at the time of the report.
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Caesar, 50-year-old, a Russian who joined the Freedom of Russia Legion to fight on the side of Ukraine, stands in front of a destroyed monastery in Dolyna, eastern Ukraine on December 26, 2022 (AFP/Getty)
Dozens of families gathered in New Delhi in November to call on the authorities to bring their relatives home, as they too heard that they had been duped into travelling to Russia for paid work only to be forced into military roles.
Among India’s casualties are Ajay Godara, 22, and Rakesh Kumar Maurya, 30, who had travelled to Russia separately on student visas, before taking up non-combat roles as cleaners and helpers, according to their families. Their bodies were returned to their families last year.
British defence minister John Healey said this month that Russia’s military is increasingly reliant on foreign fighters as losses mount faster than Moscow can replenish its frontlines.
These troops are “often recruited under false pretences and press-ganged under pressure without necessarily realising that they’re destined for the Russian meat machine on the front line of Ukraine,” he said.
Originally from creator Chris Carter, the hit 90s drama starring Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny ran for nine seasons until 2002 before briefly returning in 2016 for two seasons.
The eerie series follows two FBI agents, Mulder and Scully, assigned to the newly-opened X-Files division where they investigate unsolved paranormal cases.
It has long held its own in the TV Hall of Fame as an enduring, endlessly rewatchable sci-fi horror classic, dubbed by many as one of the ‘best TV shows of all time’ and the recipient of 16 Emmy awards during its run.
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Now, eight years after the short-lived reboot, the series is being brought back to life with an entirely fresh creative vision from Bafta-winning and Oscar-nominated director Ryan.
Deadline has confirmed the highly-anticipated reboot (three-years in the making) has landed a home with Hulu and has already brought on board a showrunner, Jennifer Yale, as well as one of the leads.
Danielle Deadwyler is set to come on board as one of the series leads (Picture: Paras Griffin/Getty Images for The Ancestors’ Wildest Dreams)
She is best known for her roles in movies like Till and The Piano Lesson (Picture: Lynsey Weatherspoon/Orion Pictures/Shutterstock)
That’s right, Till star Danielle Deadwyler will play one of the two lead FBI agents who will be investigating creepy cold cases alongside her polar opposite partner.
Chris will also return as an executive producer, while Ryan will write and direct the pilot episode.
There’s not much known about what to expect from this new iteration, although the Black Panther filmmaker has previously confirmed he’s been in talks with the ‘great Gillian Anderson’.
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Speaking on the Last Podcast on the Left last April he said ‘she’s incredible. Fingers crossed.’ Exactly how she might be involved, however, remains to be seen.
The Sex Education star later praised the idea of the reboot, calling Ryan ‘a bit of a genius’, although caveated: ‘Whether I am involved in it is a whole other thing.
‘I’m not saying no. I think he’s really cool and I think if he did it, it would probably be done incredibly well. And maybe I’ll pop in for a little something something.’
The award-winning series is making another return (Picture: Bob Riha, Jr./Getty Images)
Hot on the heels of his success with vampire horror Sinners, X-Files is returning (Picture: AP)
And if you thought Sinners had got your heart pounding with its supernatural horror, then you have plenty to look forward to.
As Ryan continued on the podcast: ‘I’ve been excited about that for a long time, and I’m fired up to get back to it. Some of those episodes, if we do our jobs right, will be really f***ing scary.
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‘We’re gonna try to make something really great, bro, and really be something for the real X Files fans, and maybe find some new ones.’
Chris has been coy about the reboot process, simply calling it a ‘diverse reboot’, quipping that Ryan had his ‘work cut out for him’ and acknowledging in the modern era we’re ‘steeped in conspiracies’.
The industry legend will be helming this reboot after a hugely successful year which has included his movie landing a record-breaking 16 Oscar nominations and securing his first Bafta award for best original screenplay.
Beyond a greenlight, there’s no word yet on when the reboot will launch so eager fans will have a little while longer to wait before they can dig their teeth into this timely re-imagining.
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But there’s no time like the present to prepare for its return and, handily, all 11 seasons of the show are available to stream right now on Disney Plus.
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Thomas Robertson called the cops “rats” and “scumbags” as he was taken away from Peden Street, Harthill.
A man threatened to “rip off” police officers’ faces when they arrested him for breaching a court order by pestering his dad in the dead of night.
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Thomas Robertson called the cops “rats” and “scumbags” as he was taken away from Peden Street, Harthill.
Robertson, 25, of Main Street, Salsburgh, was jailed for six months at Hamilton Sheriff Court this week.
He admitted breaching bail conditions and acting in a threatening or abusive manner on July 27 and 28, 2024.
Robertson was also accused of a life-threatening attack on his dad, Thomas senior, at his home in Peden Street six weeks earlier.
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It was alleged that he punched the then 57-year-old, causing him to fall, then stamped on his head, causing him to lose consciousness.
However, Robertson had his not guilty plea to that charge accepted.
The court heard he was given bail in relation to the alleged attack on condition that he stayed out of Harthill and didn’t contact his dad.
Mr Robertson senior was asleep when his son arrived about 11pm on July 27 and started kicking the front door and banging on a window while shouting ‘Dad!’.
PARIS (AP) — France’s spat with the U.S. ambassador to Paris took another turn Tuesday with the French foreign minister saying the top U.S. diplomat in France must respond to a summons and won’t have access to French government officials until he complies.
French authorities had summoned Ambassador Charles Kushner — the father of U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner — for a meeting on Monday evening over comments from the Trump administration that France objected to. French diplomats said Kushner did not show up.
Speaking Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot described the failure to attend the meeting as “a surprise” that flew in the face of diplomatic protocol and will dent Charles Kushner’s ability to serve as an ambassador.
“It will, naturally, affect his capacity to exercise his mission in our country,” Barrot said, speaking to public broadcaster France Info.
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He said that Kushner “is bringing difficulties on himself. Because for an ambassador to be able to do his job he needs access to members of the government. That’s the basics.”
“When these explanations have taken place, then the U.S. ambassador in France will, naturally, regain access to members of the French government,” the minister said.
The U.S. Embassy did not respond to an Associated Press request for comment on Monday and a follow-up request on Tuesday morning also got no immediate reply.
France’s foreign ministry had summoned Kushner over Trump administration tweets relating to the beating death in France of a far-right activist, Quentin Deranque. The 23-year-old student, described as a fervent nationalist, was beaten by a group of people earlier this month in the city of Lyon, in fighting that erupted between far-left and far-right activists. He later died of brain injuries.
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In a post last week on X, the State Department’s Counterterrorism Bureau said “violent radical leftism is on the rise and its role in Quentin Deranque’s death demonstrates the threat it poses to public safety.”
The U.S. Embassy in Paris posted the same statement, in French.
Barrot said France needs to discuss the comments with Kushner.
“We must have an explanation with him,” Barrot said. “We don’t accept that foreign countries can come and interfere, invite themselves, into the national political debate.”
A new car and engine partnership with Honda that struggles for reliability and performance and has Alonso as one of the drivers. If that sounds familiar, it’s because it is.
In 2015, Alonso joined McLaren from Ferrari wooed by the promise of Honda’s potential. That potential was eventually realised – but not until 2020-21, by which time Honda and McLaren had long since split and Honda had joined forces with Red Bull.
Alonso’s career, meanwhile, became a kind of living purgatory. One of the greatest drivers the sport has ever known reduced to fighting for scraps, making up his own targets for motivation, rather than what he should have been gunning for – wins and titles in F1.
He last won a race in May 2013, and he is now 44. But his performances have continued on a high level, and the respect he has from his peers on the grid is higher than ever. For his talent, and his ability to keep up his motivation in the face of everything.
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The Newey-Honda-Aston Martin combination on paper promised Alonso something positive, a last hope of a return to success with which to bring his storied career to a close. Either this year, when his current contract runs out, or perhaps after one more, if glory seemed tangible.
Instead, he has found himself transported back in time 10 years.
Alonso has waited an entire career to work with Newey, the excellence of whose cars – and some terrible luck – have denied the Spaniard at least two further world titles that he should have won.
Alonso won’t doubt Newey can sort this out. Who would? But after his experiences with Honda last time, can he really convince himself it can turn this around in the limited time he surely still has available?
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In public, Alonso is staying hopeful, just as he did with McLaren and Honda, bar one or two public slips when it all got too much.
“Everything can be fixed, for sure,” he says. “Short and medium term. I don’t think there is anything that is impossible to fix.
“We will try to fix everything we can before Australia and after that we try to fix as many things as possible in the first couple of races. Because [otherwise] it’s too late in the championship. But no, I’m optimistic. I think there is a solution in place.”
Alonso’s partner Melissa Jimenez is expecting their first child in late March.
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The emergence of the unfolding catastrophe that is Aston Martin-Honda is so recent he has not yet been asked about his thoughts on his future. But he will already be considering what to do.
Does he roll the dice one last time, try to summon the energy and commitment to go again after what will doubtless be a very trying year? Or call it quits?
The comedian and actor appeared at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday morning
Russell Brand appeared at court on Tuesday morning, where he pleaded not guilty to two further sexual offences.
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The 50-year-old comedian and actor denied one count of rape and one count of sexual assault during an appearance at Southwark Crown Court today, February 24. Both offences were alleged to have taken place in 2009 in London.
Brand, of Oxfordshire, previously denied two counts of rape, one count of indecent assault and two counts of sexual assault in relation to alleged offences between 1999 and 2005, involving four women.
Wearing a leopard print shirt with a number of buttons undone, and holding a white hat, Brand spoke to confirm his name and his not guilty pleas from the dock.
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A trial is scheduled to begin at Southwark Crown Court later this year in relation to the five original charges.
Russian soldiers have exposed the brutality of conditions on the Russian side of the front lines in Ukraine, with two men telling the BBC they saw soldiers being executed on the spot for refusing orders.
The men, who are on the run, spoke about the horror they witnessed from an undisclosed location outside Russia in the documentary, “The Zero Line: Inside Russia’s War”.
Ilya, 35, taught children with special needs before he was drafted into the army for the war. He says he saw four people being shot at point-blank range by a commander – an act known as Zeroing in Russian military slang – because they had fled the front line and refused to return.
Zeroing is usually carried out as punishment for refusing orders, and acts as a means of intimidation for others who may be thinking of doing the same, the men told us.
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Another man, Dima, who also witnessed the executions, said commanders killing their own men was “a normal thing”.
“I see it – just two metres, three metres. Just murders, just click, clack, bang. It’s not a drama, it’s not a movie, it’s a real life,” he says.
The Russian government says its armed forces “operate with utmost restraint, as far as possible under the conditions of a high-intensity conflict, treating their personnel with maximum care”. “Information regarding alleged violations and crimes is duly investigated,” it added.“We are unable to independently verify the accuracy or authenticity of the information you have provided,” it said.
Amanda Smith spent 24 years in limbo, after her mother seemingly vanished into thin air back in 2001 – but now it’s been revealed that Michele Hundley Smith is, in fact, alive and well
When Amanda Smith and her siblings said goodbye to their mum who was popping out to do some Christmas shopping in 2001, they had no idea that they would never see her again.
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For 24 agonising years, Amanda campaigned relentlessly to find Michele Hundley Smith, but all this time, her mother had been living a double life. She has now been left reeling after finding out her mother is “alive and well” but just did not want to be found.
Michele, now 62, has told authorities she does not want her family to be given her location – or for her whereabout to be released, and Amanda released a heartbreaking statement on the Facebook page she has run dedicated to finding her missing mum. She said that since finding out her mother was alive, but did not want to see her family, she has been going through a “whirlwind of emotions”.
She admitted that she was both “ecstatic” to find out her mother is well, but also furious at what she and her siblings, who were seven, 14 and 19 at the time Michele walked out of the door and never came home, have been put through in the years since – constantly questioning what might have happened to their mum.
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Michele’s disappearance was thoroughly investigated by both the police and the FBI at the time she vanished from her home in North Carolina, but her family still have few answers about why she left, and why she has only just revealed she is all right.
In her candid statement, Amanda admitted that her family will likely all have different responses to this update, and that they are all individuals who are entitled to their feelings after being kept in the dark for so long. However, her pain at the conflict she feels herself was palpable. “I am heartbroken, I am all over the map,” she wrote. “Will I have a relationship once more with my mom? Honestly I can’t answer that because I don’t even know…
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“My initial reaction would be yes absolutely but then I think of all the hurt.” However, Amanda writes with great empathy, “My mom is only human just as we all are.”
She adds that she can “absolutely understand taking off and leaving” but that doesn’t mean, in her view, Michele “gets off scot free without accountability or responsibility”. Amanda also pointed out that she shares some coping mechanisms with her mum. “I am a runner as well and while this isn’t something to be proud of at all, it’s a part of being human. Each one of us humans have our faults, we each have a shadow part and we each deserve the chance to better ourselves and to heal from our past.”
Amanda also fiercely defended her father in her statement, hitting back at speculation that had been levied at him that he might have been the reason that Michele chose to make herself disappear.
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The Facebook page where Amanda posted the statement had provided details of the disappearance, including that she had been driving a forest-green 1995 Pontiac Trans Sport van, which was never found. It also showed how desperately some of the family believed that Michele had not gone of her own volition: Michele would have “never left her children by choice”.
However, in 2020, Amanda told Dateline that her father had a far more sinister theory. “He believes she just took off and left him, and us, that night,” she told the programme – now it seems he was correct in his prediciton.
Amanda admitted back in that interview that it was “possible” her mum had left of her own free will, and that it was “hard to rule out that she just left all of us and started a new life”. However, she said that “there’s also something that nags at me that something happened to her on her way back home”.
The Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that they had discovered Michele is “alive and well” but that she does not want her location to be shared with anyone.
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Her cousin, Barbara Byrd told local news station WFMYNews2 that this had not been totally easy to hear. “I kind of want to go outside and scream ‘she’s alive, she’s alive’. For years, we didn’t know if we were grieving or waiting… My biggest question is to her ‘What happened all those years ago in December? What made you leave? What happened?”
She continued: “I understand and respect that she doesn’t want any of us to contact her. I’m not angry. The biggest answer I had today was she was alive. Nothing else matters right at this moment.”
For me, it was relying on the goodwill of friends’ parents, sleeping in cars and wandering around town centres until the early hours in a bid to stay awake.
Not long after my sixteenth birthday, I left home involuntarily after my family relationship broke down.
For the first few months, I crashed on friends’ bedroom floors and on a camp bed in my boyfriend’s conservatory after his mum reluctantly agreed to help.
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The nights when I had nowhere to go would be spent walking around town centres and jumping on and off the Metrolink, hoping that the ticket inspectors weren’t on shift.
I secured a dubious ‘commission only’ sales job and found a room in a house share.
This didn’t last long due to the sporadic low payments, and I found myself once again facing homelessness.
I went back to ‘sofa surfing’ and slept in friends’ cars (I wasn’t even old enough to drive myself) before presenting to the council, who found me accommodation.
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The Greater Manchester council estate I’d grown up on was notoriously ‘rough’, but I made plenty of friends there – until my parents separated when I was around 11 and years of instability followed.
We bounced from one private rented house to another, even ending up in a domestic abuse refuge for a while.
This meant sharing a bedroom with my parent and two siblings, and a living room, bathroom and kitchen with complete strangers.
In the background, I struggled my way through high school, leaving with three GCSEs and no career path ahead of me.
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Instead, I worked night shifts in a care home and various retail jobs to make ends meet.
By the time I was in my mid-20s, I found myself back in the same situation when my own marriage ended, and I had nowhere to go, once again relying on the kindness of others to try and find my feet with nothing but a cheap used car and a few bags of personal possessions to my name.
Even now, more than two decades later, the insecurity and fear of not having a place to call home all those years ago have stayed with me.
It’s almost impossible to think about the future, about building a career and ‘improving’ your situation while living in survival mode and fighting daily to retain any shred of dignity.
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Those who don’t know my past are often surprised to learn of it, given that I’m now a middle-aged homeowner with a full-time job and secure family life.
But that’s the point – it really can happen to anyone.
Centrepoint is the UK’s leading youth homelessness charity, supporting more than 16,000 people aged 16 to 25 into housing and employment each year.
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My own experience took place in a time prior to mobile phones or accessible internet.
I only wish I had known about fantastic support services like this that are making a real difference to the lives of young people.
Richard Duggan, Regional Editor North West, will join our colleagues across the region in supporting Centrepoint’s campaign to end youth homelessness by 2037.
A man who carried out “horrific” sexual crimes against vulnerable people with dementia has been jailed for over 20 years. Joshua Springer was handed a 21-year sentence after appearing at Lincoln Crown Court on Friday (February 20).
The 36-year-old was also given a sexual harm prevention order for the rest of his life. Springer, formerly of Cornstall Buildings in Stamford near the Cambridgeshire border, previously pleaded guilty to nine charges of rape at the same court on December 2, 2025.
His offences were against three victims suffering from dementia at a residential care home for elderly people in the Stamford area. A fourth victim was in the North Yorkshire area. Of Springer’s nine charges, six were evenly split between three women at the Stamford care home, while the remaining three charges were connected to a fourth woman in North Yorkshire.
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The care home and area in Yorkshire are not being named to protect the anonymity of the victims. Springer was also sentenced for making indecent images of children, to which he also pleaded guilty.
Detective chief inspector Jennifer Lovatt, of the East Midlands Special Operations Unit, said: “While Springer has been sentenced for his horrific crimes, that does not mean that our investigations have stopped. [The] result shows that offenders will be brought to justice, so if you think you have been affected, please get in touch.”
DCI Lovatt is appealing for anyone else that may have been a victim of Springer, who is also known as Joshua Kearney and Joshua Kearney Springer, to contact police. The DCI added: “Our team has worked tirelessly for some time in bringing Springer to justice, and there may be other potential victims who perhaps have not yet come forward.
“I’d encourage them to contact us – you can call 101 (ask for Lincolnshire Police) and quote Incident 272 of November 28. If you want to remain anonymous, then you can call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.”
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — More than a dozen senior European officials arrived in the Ukrainian capital on Tuesday in a show of support on the fourth anniversary of Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine — a grim anniversary in a war that has killed tens of thousands of people and put European leaders on edge about the scale of Moscow’s ambitions on the continent.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country has withstood the onslaught by Russia’s bigger and better equipped army, which over the past year of fighting captured just 0.79% of Ukraine’s territory, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.
“Looking back at the beginning of the invasion and reflecting on today, we have every right to say: we have defended our independence, we have not lost our statehood,” Zelenskyy said on social media, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin has “not achieved his goals.”
“He has not broken Ukrainians; he has not won this war,” Zelenskyy also said.
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However, as the corrosive war of attrition enters its fifth year, a U.S.-led diplomatic push to end Europe’s biggest armed conflict since World War II appears no closer to finding compromises that might make a peace deal possible.
Negotiations are stuck on what happens to the Donbas, eastern Ukraine’s industrial heartland which Russian forces mostly occupy but have failed to seize completely, and the terms of a postwar security arrangement that Kyiv is demanding to deter any future Russian invasion.
The number of soldiers killed, injured or missing on both sides could reach 2 million by spring, with Russia sustaining the largest number of troop deaths for any major power in any conflict since World War II, a report last month from the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimated.
European leaders see their countries’ own security at stake in Ukraine amid concerns about Putin’s wider goals and has demanded its leaders be consulted in the ongoing U.S.-brokered talks.
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German Chancellor Friedrich Merz wrote on X that “for four years, every day and every night has been a nightmare for the Ukrainians — and not just for them, but for us all. Because war is back in Europe.”
“We will only end it by being strong together, because the fate of Ukraine is our fate,” he added.
The war has drawn in countries far beyond Ukraine, giving the conflict a global dimension, and threatened to worsen shortages, hunger and political instability in developing countries.
While NATO countries have come to Ukraine’s aid, Russia has been helped by North Korea, which has sent troops and artillery shells; Iran, which has provided drone technology; and China, which the United States and analysts say has provided machine tools and chips.
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Among the European officials visiting Kyiv on Tuesday were the President of the European Council, Antonio Costa, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and Finnish President Alexander Stubb, as well as seven prime ministers and three foreign ministers.
With Ukraine unable to sustain its fight against Russia without foreign help, NATO countries are now providing military help, purchasing American weapons after the Trump administration broke with earlier Washington policy and stopped giving arms to Kyiv.
The European Union has also sent financial aid, but has sometimes met with reluctance from members Hungary and Slovakia.
British Armed Forces Minister Al Carns said Russia’s war on Ukraine was “the most defining conflict” in decades.
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“I don’t think anyone of us would be able to guess (when the war started) the scale and size of what has taken place,” he said.
The cost of rebuilding war-battered Ukraine would amount to almost $588 billion over the next decade, according to World Bank, the European Commission, the United Nations and the Ukrainian government.
That is nearly three times the estimated nominal GDP of Ukraine for last year, they said in a report Monday.
