Dear Reader, if you find this email interesting, helpful or of value, please do consider forwarding it to your friends or colleagues and encouraging them to subscribe. Thank you.
Morning Headlines
Reuters: Hungary's veteran nationalist leader Viktor Orban lost power to the upstart centre-right Tisza party in Sunday's national election after 16 years in office, marking a setback for his allies in Russia and U.S. President Donald Trump's White House.
Kyiv Post: As Ukrainians marked the end of Easter Sunday, Russian forces launched a wave of nearly 100 drones overnight, targeting settlements across the country in attacks that wounded civilians, knocked out power and triggered air raid alerts from Zaporizhzhia to Chernihiv.
12.04.2026
Reuters: Russia and Ukraine accused each other on Sunday of breaching the 32-hour ceasefire in their four-year war, reporting more than a thousand drone and shelling attacks just hours after the truce began on Saturday to mark Orthodox Easter.
The Kyiv Independent: Russian troops shot dead four Ukrainian prisoners of war on April 11 near the village of Veterynarne in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office reported on April 12.
The Kyiv Independent: Russian forces accidentally killed three of their own personnel while targeting an evacuation of wounded soldiers during what was supposed to be an Easter ceasefire on April 12, Ukraine's 24th Separate Mechanized Brigade reported.
The Kyiv Independent: A Russian drone struck an ambulance in Sumy Oblast, injuring three paramedics overnight on April 12 despite an Easter ceasefire being in place, local authorities reported.
ISW: The Russian Federal Security Service has reportedly taken control of seven of eight Russian pre-trial detention centers as part of the Kremlin’s broader effort to strengthen the internal security apparatus.
11.04.2026
AP News: Russia continued to strike Ukrainian positions with drones after a Kremlin-declared Easter ceasefire took effect on Saturday, a Ukrainian military officer told The Associated Press.
The Kyiv Independent: Russian troops dropped three glide bombs on the city of Kramatorsk in Donetsk Oblast on April 11, injuring at least 10 people, Governor Vadym Filashkin said.
DW: Russia has been holding thousands of Ukrainian civilians behind bars for years, in breach of international humanitarian law. Families have been fighting for their loved ones to be released, some for more than a decade.
The Kyiv Independent: Ukrainian armed forces said they carried out overnight strikes on two oil facilities in Russia and Russian-occupied Crimea on April 11.
The Insider: In the run-up to Hungary’s parliamentary elections, Moscow has pulled out all the stops, mobilizing its propaganda and disinformation apparatus in support of incumbent PM Orbán.
The Guardian: The amount of explosives discovered in Serbia last week would not have been enough to destroy the Balkan Stream gas pipeline, prompting an expert to conclude it was probably a Russian intelligence plot aimed at influencing Hungary’s impending election.
Kyiv Post: Russian forces launched a massive drone offensive across Ukraine in the early hours of Saturday, April 11, killing two people in Odesa and injuring 17 others in Sumy, local officials and military authorities reported.
The Kyiv Independent: ivilian casualties in Ukraine spiked by nearly 49% in March compared to February, the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine reported on April 10. According to the report, at least 211 people were killed in March, and 1,206 were injured.
10.04.2026
The Kyiv Independent: At least 17 European countries are ready to commit to a special tribunal tasked with prosecuting the crime of aggression against Ukraine, passing a critical threshold that allows the idea to progress at a Council of Europe meeting in May.
Politico: Ukraine will receive much-needed fossil fuels from Gulf countries in exchange for the defense assistance it is providing, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
The Kyiv Independent: Ukrainian forces struck two drilling platforms in the northern Caspian Sea overnight on April 10 as part of efforts to reduce Russia's military and economic capacity, Ukraine's General Staff reported.
Reuters: NATO member Estonia will refrain from detaining Russia's "shadow fleet" vessels in the Baltic Sea, worried that seizing oil tankers and other ships sanctioned by the West could lead Moscow to defend them militarily, a senior commander said on Friday.
The Kyiv Independent: A group of members of the European Parliament called for the urgent implementation of reforms to expose and limit espionage activities carried out by pro-Russian colleagues in an open letter made public on April 9.
Reuters: UniCredit said on Friday it had no plans to liquidate its Russian business or return the banking licence held by its local subsidiary, which the Italian lender has held onto during the Ukraine war.
The Kyiv Independent: Russia wants to capture some of the last Ukrainian-held strongholds in eastern Donetsk Oblast, including Druzhkivka, Kostiantynivka, and Pokrovsk, by the end of April, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on April 8 at a closed-door briefing.
Ukrinform: President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russian forces are increasing their troop presence in Ukraine by deploying soldiers from their strategic reserve.
AP News: Ukrainian military personnel have shot down Iranian-designed Shahed drones in multiple Middle Eastern countries during the Iran war, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, describing the operations as part of a broader effort to help partners counter the same weapons used by Russia in Ukraine.
Russa-Ukraine Daily Briefing is sent 5 days a week. Do you think your friend or colleague should know about this newsletter? Forward it to them, please. They can also sign up here.
Please consider supporting my work
