Every week we wrap up the must-reads from our coverage of the Ukraine war, from news and features to analysis, visual guides and opinion.
Putin declares victory in Luhansk
Isobel Koshiw covered the moment Vladimir Putin declared victory in the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk – a devastating blow to Ukrainian defenders after weeks of relentless fighting – telling his troops to rest and “increase their combat capabilities”.
The conquest came a day after Ukrainian forces withdrew from the eastern frontline city of Lysychansk, their last remaining stronghold in the province.
The Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said Moscow’s forces had established “full control” over Lysychansk and several nearby settlements, Russian state media reported earlier in the week.
The victory was even apparently reported from space, with Russian cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveyev and Sergey Korsakov holding the flags of the self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk from the International Space Station (ISS).
“Liberation Day of the Luhansk People’s Republic! We celebrate both on Earth and in space,” Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, said in a message published alongside images of the trio.
Ukraine’s military command confirmed that its troops had been forced to pull back from the city, saying there would otherwise be “fatal consequences”.
The Guardian’s defence and security editor, Dan Sabbagh, noted the Russian takeover of Lysychansk brought its forces closer to several other cities and towns in Ukrainian-controlled Donetsk, including Bakhmut, Sloviansk and nearby Kramatorsk – the main urban areas holding out against Russian forces in the province.
Reporting from Mykolaiv, south-west of Ukraine’s bloodiest battle scenes, Lorenzo Tondo covered the mayor’s desperate plea urging remaining residents to evacuate Sloviansk, a city now deemed at risk from Russian bombardment. City officials said dozens of houses were shelled and at least eight people killed in two separate attacks, including a strike on a market and a residential area in the city on Monday.
Ukraine is struggling to resist heavy blows from an unrelenting Russian assault. Ukrainian military intelligence told the Guardian last month that its forces had one artillery piece to 10 to 15 Russian artillery pieces.
But with a recent influx of military aid, most notably rocket artillery donated by the US and the UK, Ukrainian forces may finally be seeing the impact of western weapons on the frontlines.
During an address on Thursday, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said heavy weapons from western allies were now “working very powerfully” and the Ukrainian military had been able to target Russian warehouses and locations that are important for logistics.
Ukraine raises flag on Snake Island
Ukrainian forces arrived on the recaptured outpost of Snake Island to hoist the country’s flag in a symbolic signal of victory after Russian forces withdrew late last month.
Footage released by the Ukrainian military on Thursday morning showed troops installing a huge national flag, later described by the force as a “symbol of victory”.
Shortly after, Russia’s defence ministry said its forces fired missiles at the island, killing Ukrainian soldiers as they hoisted the flag just before dawn.
Ukraine has considered control of the island a critical step in loosening Moscow’s blockade on its southern ports. However, it was not clear if Ukrainian troops would seek to re-establish a permanent presence there, as it is dangerously exposed to bombardment.
A military official told the Guardian the area of the Black Sea around Snake Island was still a “grey zone”, meaning that, technically, the Ukrainians did not intend to bring their forces back.
Borodyanka battles relentless trauma
In Borodyanka, a town north of Kyiv that was pummelled by Russian bombs and then occupied, many of its residents can’t sleep.
Every night, before going to bed, Ludmilla Boiko takes pills that eventually shift her into unconsciousness. “No normal person can go through this and come out without traces,” she tells Isobel Koshiw.
Months after Russian forces were pushed out of the Kyiv region, people are struggling to cope with what they endured.
As director of the town’s rehabilitation centre, Boiko is treating her community while trying to deal with her own trauma. The psychologists in her team say every resident who stayed in the town is suffering from stress, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
“You can visually tell the difference between a person on the street who wasn’t here and a person who stayed [during the occupation],” Boiko explains.
Ukraine lays out $750bn ‘recovery plan’ for postwar future
The eventual restoration of Ukraine through a $750bn (£620bn) recovery plan is the “common task of the entire democratic world”, Zelenskiy told an international conference earlier in the week.
The two-day conference held in the southern Swiss city of Lugano, covered by the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, aimed to sketch out a vision of a Ukrainian economy that dovetails with Europe, providing specialisms in agriculture, renewable energy and technology sectors.
Ukrainian prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, estimated the costs for rebuilding his war-ravaged country at around $750bn (£620bn) and called for the confiscated assets of Russia and Russian oligarchs to be used to help Ukraine put itself back together.
“The Russian authorities unleashed this bloody war, they caused this massive destruction, and they should be held accountable for it,” Shmyhal told attendees.
One of the most sensitive issues facing Ukraine’s recovery will be a programme of de-oligarchisation and how to entrench powerful anti-corruption institutions at a time when large flows of money from the US and Europe are likely.
In practice, the scale of the reconstruction will depend on the outcome and length of the war, and whether eastern Ukraine – where there has been the worst devastation – is returned to Kyiv or remains in Russian hands.
Sex trafficking ring preys on women fleeing Ukraine
A criminal gang who forced women into sex work abroad after luring them with false adverts for legitimate employment was foiled by Ukrainian investigators after the group’s suspected leader was arrested earlier this month.
Lorenzo Tondo spoke to authorities in Kyiv who made the arrest after months of surveillance resulted in them stopping a woman as she was about to cross the border.
The 21-year-old, who has a son to support, had lost her job because of the war and was about to cross into Hungary, travel on to Vienna and, from there, board a flight for Istanbul, where she believed a legitimate job offer waited for her.
After assisting her, prosecutors were then able to arrest a 31-year-old male suspected of being the leader of a trafficking ring. Based in the Kyiv region, the gang allegedly recruited a number of vulnerable Ukrainian women after the Russian invasion with the false prospect of a legal job, sent them to Turkey and forced them into sex work.
“A group of men organised a series of Telegram channels, called ‘Meetings’, ‘Meet your future husband’ or ‘Escort service’ where they recruited these women,” Oleh Tkalenko, a senior prosecutor for the Kyiv region who led the investigation, explained. “Preying on their vulnerable situation, they were offering them jobs in Turkey ... When the women got there, they were involved in prostitution. They were scammed.”
Our visual guide to the invasion is updated regularly and can be found here.
