Nikita Nikolaienko

2 weeks ago | wsj.com | Ian Lovett |Nikita Nikolaienko |Andrew Barnett

Russian forces ate into more Ukrainian territory in May than in almost any month since the end of 2022, as the Kremlin presses a summer offensive to create the impression in the West that victory is within its grasp. For the past two years, battlefield momentum has been incremental and costly for both sides. But Russia has managed to accelerate its rate of advance in recent months, as it did last fall, before wet, cold conditions slowed Moscow’s progress. Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

1 month ago | wsj.com | Ian Lovett |Nikita Nikolaienko

By Ian Lovett and Nikita Nikolaienko / Photographs by Serhii Korovayny for WSJ Ukraine and Russia completed the first day of what is expected to be the largest prisoner swap of the war, with each side ultimately expected to get back 1,000 people. Ukrainian and Russian officials said that each side had received 270 military personnel and 120 civilians on Friday. The rest of the exchanges are scheduled to occur on Saturday and Sunday. Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

2 months ago | lopinion.fr | Ian Lovett |Nikita Nikolaienko

SHEVCHENKOVE, Ukraine — Une colonne de motos russes serpente le long d’un chemin de terre. Un groupe de véhicules blindés traverse un champ. Des fantassins cherchent à s’abriter sous des arbres aux feuilles naissantes.

2 months ago | wsj.com | Ian Lovett |Nikita Nikolaienko

By Ian Lovett and Nikita Nikolaienko | Photographs by Serhii Korovayny for WSJ April 28, 2025 11:00 pm ETSHEVCHENKOVE, Ukraine—A train of Russian motorbikes snaked along a dirt path. A clutch of armored vehicles coursed across a field. Infantry sought cover under trees with budding leaves. The Russian spring offensive is under way, Ukrainian military commanders say, as changing weather is hardening ground and increasing foliage. Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Mar 19, 2025 | wsj.com | Ian Lovett |Nikita Nikolaienko

Natalya, then 55, had traveled from her hometown in search of him and now found herself alone in an alien place where Russian troops cruised the streets in armored vehicles and entered apartments at will. Once, she saw a Russian soldier batter an old woman with a rifle butt. “I’m sitting in a hornet’s nest,” she wrote in a text message to a Wall Street Journal reporter. At the jail days after her first visit, a guard handed her a bag.