As Russian aerial bombardment of Ukrainian cities claims civilian lives at a pace 37 percent higher than the year before, Ukraine is pressing forward on multiple fronts at once — building its own missiles, striking deep into Russian territory, and seeking to redraw the diplomatic map in Eastern Europe. President Zelenskyy has set a year-end deadline for working prototypes of an indigenous anti-ballistic missile system, a demand born not of ambition but of arithmetic: the cost of waiting, measured in lives, has become too high. In the longer arc of this conflict, Ukraine is attempting a fundame
Zelenskyy Demands Concrete Missile Results by Year's End as Ukraine Expands Weapons Development
Russian attacks killed 1,396 Ukrainian civilians and injured 7,978 in the first six months of 2026, with a 37% increase attributed to escalating long-range aerial bombardment of populated areas.