Why Russia is trying to seize a vital Ukrainian coal mine
Without it, the country’s remaining steel industry will be crippled
ON THE OUTSKIRTS of the eastern city of Pokrovsk two women stand waiting for their lift. Like most civilians in the city they have already fled elsewhere, but they have come back to collect some belongings. They are standing by a boarded-up petrol station which was bustling just a few months ago. Russian troops are creeping ever closer, and a full-scale battle for it is about to be joined. New defensive lines have been dug to the west of Pokrovsk to which, if and when it falls, Ukrainian troops will hope to fall back.
The search for Ukraine’s missing soldiers and sailors
The families of missing loved ones are trying to find them, alive or dead
Europe could become Trump’s geopolitical roadkill
A second dose of MAGA will put the EU in a pickle
Russia continues to advance in eastern Ukraine
But it is encountering growing problems
Turkey’s long hard struggle with inflation
High interest rates are starting to do the trick
Delays on Italy’s spruced-up trains have got worse
Matteo Salvini is making feeble excuses
France stares into a “colossal” budgetary abyss
A fragile new government must try to plug the hole. Fast