LVIV- Walking to the BANKHOTEL, General Manager Taras Kuzyk, heard the air raid alarm and wondered if people would take it seriously. A short time later from the roof top bar, the 47-year-old Lviv native watched a Shahad drone streaking towards the GUR intelligence service building, though it slammed into another higher property first.
ODESA – The killing of a 26-year-old woman sunbathing on a beach at this Black Sea port city during a Russian drone attack underlines Russian President Vladimir Putin’s contempt for his own people, given that as many as 29 percent of the population here are ethnic Russians and over half of inhabitants still speak Russian at home.
LVIV – It’s not unusual for British politicians to criticise Western policy on Ukraine from the comfort of Westminster or clubland and perhaps to write cheques occasionally for Ukrainian charities. Brooks Newmark’s frustration over the appeasement of Russia, however, galvanised him instead to arrange the rescue of tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians and wounded soldiers from the front lines before starting a defence tech company designing cutting edge drones that have helped Kyiv to take the fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin to Moscow.
KHARKIV – “I AM HERE,” bellows a man from the 9th floor of a swaying, 16-storey apartment block blackened by the smoke of explosions, that stands like a sentry in the desolate landscape of Ukraine’s defiant second city. In the north of Saltvika, an enormous Soviet style dormitory district some 30 km (20 miles) from the Russian border, the rumble of artillery is the constant background to continuous siren alarms that announce the sinister arrival of drones and missiles.
Rome – Artificial intelligence is often discussed in terms of what machines may eventually become. For Vassily (Vasyl) Buzuyev, the more urgent question is what humans choose to become alongside them.
ROME – The Ukrainian community in Rome will hold a march on Sunday 23 August to mark Ukraine’s Independence Day and demonstrate solidarity with the Ukrainian people amid the country’s continuing war with Russia.
Ukraine will celebrate the 35th anniversary of the restoration of its independence on 24 August 2026. The anniversary commemorates the 1991 declaration of independence, when Ukrainians voted overwhelmingly to establish a free, democratic and independent state.
Rome – An explosion and fire at an ammunition factory in Colleferro, south of Rome, caused a powerful blast that was heard across surrounding towns on Sunday, but no deaths or injuries were reported.
The incident occurred at the former Simmel Difesa plant, now owned by KNDS Ammo Italy, in the Quarto Chilometro area along Via Latina between Colleferro and Artena.
The factory specialises in the production of medium and large calibre ammunition for land and naval defence, as well as solid propellants for aerospace vehicles.
