Region Donbas Financial News

The battle for Soledar raged in freezing temperatures on Wednesday, with Russia's mercenary Wagner Group claiming to have taken control of the eastern Ukrainian salt mining town, as its fighters poured fire on a pocket of resistance in the centre.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. President Trump’s top envoys launched two days of meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders on Sunday as the administration stepped up pressure on Kyiv to put aside its resistance and agree to a peace deal with Russia by year-end. The talks between Ukraine and its Western partners have become a tug of war, even without Russia at the table.

Ukraine at their fastest rate since the early days of the 2022 invasion while they have already captured approximately 235 square kilometers (91 square miles) in just the past week, reported Reuters. This actually marks a record for the year 2024, with eminent analysts noting that Russian troops have taken control of near about 600 square kilometers (232 square miles) throughout the month of November. According to Reuters, the front line which had been largely static for two years is now seeing renewed activity, specifically in the Donetsk region where Russian forces are pushing towards key towns such as Kurakhove and Pokrovsk. The situation is becoming increasingly precarious while reports are claiming that North Korean troops are being deployed to support the Russian operations. Reuters asserted that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has indicated that Russia's main objectives include occupying the entire Donbas region and pushing Ukrainian forces out of areas they have controlled since the month of August.

Yet between 700 and 1,000 local residents remain, most of them living in the basements of apartment buildings, without running water, heating or electricity. The only place to charge phones is in the basement of the building now housing the city administration. The exact number of people is impossible to determine because, since mid-October, no humanitarian volunteers have come to Kurakhove.

Ukraine amidst its ongoing conflict with Russia, reported CNN. Throughout their whole Presidential campaign, Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance expressed severe skepticism regarding the matter of consistent US commitment to Kyiv while suggesting a potential shift towards pressuring Ukraine into an eventual truce with Russia.

Zelenskyy has expressed high hopes for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's potential role in ending the Ukraine war. In an exclusive interview with The Times of India, Zelenskyy stated, “PM Modi can influence the end of the Ukraine war. This is the huge value of him in any conflict.

Ukraine’s top military commander says his forces now control 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles) of Russia’s neighboring Kursk region, the first time a Ukrainian military official has publicly commented on the gains of the lightning incursion that has embarrassed the Kremlin.

The miracle of Ukraine’s most dominant soccer club over the past decade isn’t so much its continued success while the country has been at war. Nor is it the team’s reconstruction after losing all of its foreign players. The real surprise for Shakhtar Donetsk, based in the Donbas region of Eastern Ukraine, is that it has kept winning despite not playing a single home game since 2014.

Vladimir Putin on Thursday urged Russians to stay the course in the face of a «difficult period», hours before polls open in a vote set to extend his hardline rule. The former KGB agent is set to secure another six-year term this weekend in a vote the Kremlin says will show society is fully behind his assault on Ukraine.

Pensions plans made the political headlines in 2023 like seldom before, from Alberta’s threat to pull out of the Canada Pension Plan with more than half of the fund’s assets to Ottawa’s desire, stated in the fall fiscal update, to have the globetrotting trillion-dollar asset managers invest more at home. The Financial Post spoke to Alberta Investment Management Corp. chief executive Evan Siddall about these issues, geopolitics and how AIMCo is evolving its investment strategy for 2024 and beyond. This interview has been edited and condensed for space.

Vivek Ramaswamy will first contest against popular former President Donald Trump in Republican primaries for US presidential polls. He has already laid out his vision on certain issues like the Russia-Ukraine war, cryptocurrency, immigration, etc. “The Biden administration is so stubbornly attached to the idea of getting Xi Jinping to drop Vladimir Putin.

Ukraine said it was strengthening its forces around Bakhmut in the eastern Donbas region and repelling constant attacks there by the Russian mercenary group Wagner, whose leader has vowed to capture the area's vast underground mines.

Ukrainian and Russian troops battled in eastern regions on Thursday as Kyiv tried to push back occupying forces.

The notorious Russian private military company, Wagner Group, has received weapons from North Korea to help bolster its forces as it fights side-by-side with Russian troops in Ukraine, US authorities claimed.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the President of Ukraine, on Tuesday visited Bakhmut, which has been at the epicentre of fierce fighting in recent weeks. 

Although many parts of Ukraine have been in the grip of wintry conditions for weeks already, the official meteorological start of winter happens on 21 December, the Winter Solstice, and the shortest day of the year.

Ukraine has encircled thousands of Russian troops at the eastern town of Lyman, a bastion that is critical for Moscow, in an operation that is still under way, a Ukrainian military spokesperson said on Saturday.

"At the moment, Lyman is partially surrounded," said Denis Pushilin, the Russian-installed governor in the Donetsk region.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch and a close ally of Vladimir Putin, admitted on Monday that he was behind the Wagner paramilitary group.

Four occupied regions in Ukraine are set to start voting Friday in Kremlin-engineered referendums on whether to become part of Russia, setting the stage for Moscow to annex the areas in a sharp escalation of the nearly seven-month war.

A group of ten foreign captives - including five British men, two Americans, a Swede, Croat, and a Moroccan - have been released from jail in separatist-controlled east Ukraine in a deal negotiated by Saudi Arabia.