CNN – Europe/Mideast/Africa

By Mick Krever and Olha Konovalova, CNN The warm spring air is coming to eastern Ukraine. The roads are lined with red tulips, and people are reopening their summer kitchens, small buildings outside traditional homes used to isolate the heat and smells of cooking in the hotter months. It was in her elderly mother’s wood-frame

By Jack Guy and Anna Chernova, CNN Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, and since then President Vladimir Putin has insisted that his troops are carrying out a “special military operation” instead of a war. But speculation is growing that this could change in the coming days. Western officials believe Putin could formally declare war

By Nimi Princewill, CNN Dozens of passengers kidnapped during a train attack in northern Nigeria in late March are being used as human shields by their captors, President Muhammadu Buhari has said. Buhari said this had further complicated rescue efforts. “They are using civilians as human shields, thereby making it difficult to confront them directly

By Erin Burnett, Sahar Akbarzai and Rhea Mogul, CNN As Russian forces close in on the Azovstal steel plant, the Ukrainian civilians and resistance fighters holed up in the last bastion of Mariupol are facing “nonstop” bombardment and running dangerously low on supplies — forcing some to consider desperate measures to survive. Fighters inside the

By Jack Bantock, Andrew Carey, Tim Lister, Camille Knight, Mariya Knight and Niamh Kennedy, CNN The evacuation of civilians from the besieged southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol has been paused until Monday, the Mariupol City Council announced Sunday, citing “security reasons.” The city council said in a Telegram post that the evacuation would recommence at

By Eliza Mackintosh and Oleksandra Ochman, CNN Photographs by Yurko Dyachyshyn for CNN Lviv, Ukraine — At the train station in Lviv, on the westernmost edge of Ukraine, women are at a physical and psychological crossroads. After arriving in the city, now a waypoint for displaced people, humanitarian aid and weapons, they’ve had to ask

CNN By Natasha Bertrand, Katie Bo Lillis, Jennifer Hansler, Alex Marquardt and Brad Lendon, CNN Russian President Vladimir Putin could formally declare war on Ukraine as soon as May 9, a move that would enable the full mobilization of Russia’s reserve forces as invasion efforts continue to falter, US and Western officials believe. May 9,

CNN By Jack Bantock, Andrew Carey, Tim Lister, Camille Knight, Mariya Knight and Niamh Kennedy, CNN The evacuation of civilians from the besieged southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol has been paused until Monday, the Mariupol City Council announced Sunday, citing “security reasons.” The city council said in a Telegram post that the evacuation would recommence

CNN By Ivana Kottasová and Uliana Pavlova, CNN At least five prominent Russian businessmen have reportedly died by suicide since late January, with three of them allegedly killing members of their families before taking their own lives. Four of the dead men were associated with the Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom or one of its

By Ivana Kottasová and Uliana Pavlova, CNN At least five prominent Russian businessmen have reportedly died by suicide since late January, with three of them allegedly killing members of their families before taking their own lives. Four of the dead men were associated with the Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom or one of its subsidiaries.

By Sana Noor Haq, CNN The US military delivered a new birthday cake to an Italian woman, exactly 77 years after American soldiers fighting in her local village ate the original gateau that was made for her 13th birthday. Sgt. Peter Wallis and Col. Matthew Gomlak presented Meri Mion with an icing-covered cake topped with