war

Here are the key events from day 1,349 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is how things stand on Tuesday, November 4:

Fighting

• Russia said on Monday that its troops had advanced in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, an important transport and logistics hub that they have been trying to capture for more than a year, but Ukraine said its forces were holding on.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters that Pokrovsk remained under severe pressure, though Russian troops had made no gains in the past day.
• He also said that Russia was massing troops by the nearby town of Dobropillia, where Kyiv’s forces advanced earlier this year in a successful counteroffensive. He described the situation in Dobropillia as complicated.
• Ukraine’s 7th Rapid Response Corps said that Ukrainian forces had thwarted a Russian attempt to cut off a supply route to Pokrovsk from Rodynske, to the north.
• Elsewhere, Russia said its troops had also attacked Ukrainian forces near another eastern city, Kupiansk, and dislodged them from four fortified positions in the industrial zone on the left bank of the Oskol River. Zelenskyy said that up to 60 Russian soldiers remained in Kupiansk, and that Ukrainian forces were trying to clear them.
• The Russian Ministry of Defence said its forces had carried out heavy overnight strikes on a Ukrainian military airfield, a military equipment repair base and military-industrial facilities, as well as gas infrastructure facilities that supported them.
• Ukraine’s military said it hit an oil refinery in Russia’s Saratov region, adding that a successful strike and resulting fire had been recorded on one of the refining facilities.
• Ukraine also said that it had hit Russian military logistical facilities in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian region of Luhansk.

Weapons

• Zelenskyy announced that Kyiv will set up offices for arms exports and joint weapons production in Berlin and Copenhagen this year.

• Zelenskyy added that Ukraine plans to launch mass production of its domestically produced missiles – the Flamingo and Ruta – by the end of this year.
• He also said that a Ukrainian delegation would visit Washington, DC, next week for further talks on a US-Ukraine drone deal, which Kyiv hopes will bolster ties with the administration of US President Donald Trump.

Politics and diplomacy

• The European Commission (EC) said in a draft text that Ukraine is showing “remarkable commitment” to joining the European Union, but must reverse recent negative trends in the fight against corruption and accelerate rule of law reforms, according to the Reuters news agency.
• The agency reported that the EC also said that Kyiv needed to make more progress on judicial independence, fighting organised crime and respecting civil society.
• Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin departed for a two-day visit to China, which the Kremlin said is significant and includes planned talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Economy

• Zelenskyy said Ukraine still needs to raise $750m to secure gas imports for the upcoming winter. The government wants to increase natural gas imports by about 30 percent after Russia sharply intensified its attacks on Ukraine’s energy sector in recent weeks, focusing on gas facilities.

A senior Sudanese diplomat has accused the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of committing war crimes in the country’s North Darfur state, as survivors who escaped the city of el-Fasher recounted mass killings and sexual assault by the paramilitary troops.

Sudan’s ambassador to Egypt, Imadeldin Mustafa Adawi, made the allegations on Sunday as he accused the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of helping the RSF paramilitary group in the ongoing civil war.

The Gulf state denies the claim.

Adawi’s remarks followed an earlier statement by Sudanese Prime Minister Kamil Idris, who told the Swiss newspaper Blick that the RSF should be tried in the international courts.

But Kamil rejected the “illegal” idea of foreign troops being deployed to his country, which has been ravaged by a civil war between the RSF and the Sudanese army since April 2023.

The calls for action come a week after the RSF seized the capital of North Darfur, el-Fasher, after an 18-month siege and starvation campaign, resulting in thousands of reported civilian deaths. The city was the Sudanese army’s last stronghold in the region.

In the days since its capture, survivors have reported mass executions, pillaging, rape and other atrocities, sparking an international outcry.

The Sudanese government said that at least 2,000 people were killed, but witnesses said the real number could be much higher.

Tens of thousands of civilians are still believed to be trapped in the city.

“The government of Sudan is calling on the international community to act immediately and effectively rather than just make statements of condemnation,” Adawi told reporters during a news conference in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

The envoy urged the world to designate the RSF as a “terrorist” organisation, as well as condemn RSF “for committing massacres amounting to genocide” and denounce “its official regional financier and supporter, the United Arab Emirates”.

He also said that Sudan would not take part in talks led by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United States and the UAE to end the conflict if the latter remains part of the negotiations.

“We do not consider them [the UAE] as a mediator and someone reliable on the issue,” Adawi stressed.

Mass killings, sexual assault

The UAE, however, denies allegations that it is supplying the RSF with weapons.

At a forum in Bahrain’s capital, Manama, an Emirati presidential adviser said that the Gulf state wants to help end the war, and acknowledged that regional and international powers could have done more to prevent the conflict in Sudan.

“We all made the mistake, when the two generals who are fighting the civil war today overthrow the civilian government. That was, in my opinion, looking back, a critical mistake,” Anwar Gargash said.

Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the US, as mediators, have all condemned the mass killings and called for increased humanitarian assistance.

As the world’s worst humanitarian crisis further spirals into chaos, residents who managed to escape el-Fasher recalled their harrowing experience.

Adam Yahya, who fled with four of his children, told Al Jazeera that his wife was killed in an RSF drone strike shortly before el-Fasher fell. He said that he and his children barely had time to mourn before they found themselves on the run from the paramilitary group.

“The streets were full of dead people. We made it to one of the sand barriers set up by the RSF. They were shooting at people, men, women and children, with machineguns. I heard one saying, ‘Kill them all, leave no one alive’,” Yahya recounted.

“We ran back and hid. At night, I slowly crept out with my children and crossed the barrier. We walked to a village, where someone took pity on us and gave us a ride to the camp here.”

Another 45-year-old woman in the displacement camp of Al Dabbah in Sudan’s Northern State told Al Jazeera that RSF fighters sexually assaulted her.

The woman, who only gave her first name, Rasha, said she left her daughters at home when the RSF seized the army headquarters on Sunday and went to look for her sons.

“The RSF asked me where I was going, and I told them I’m looking for my sons. They forced me into a house and started sexually assaulting me. I told them I’m old enough to be their mother. I cried,” she said.

“They then let me go, and I took my daughters and fled, leaving my sons behind. I don’t know where they are now,” she said.

“We just fled and ran past dead bodies till we crossed the barrier and reached a small village outside el-Fasher,” she added.

Aid agencies, meanwhile, said that thousands of people are unaccounted for after fleeing el-Fasher.

Caroline Bouvard, the Sudan country director for Solidarites International, said that only a few hundred more people have turned up in Tawila, the closest town to el-Fasher, in the past few days.

“Those are very small numbers considering the number of people who were stuck in el-Fasher. We keep hearing feedback that people are stuck on the roads and in different villages that are unfortunately still inaccessible due to security reasons,” she said.

Bouvard said there is a “complete blackout” in terms of information coming out of el-Fasher after the RSF takeover, and that aid agencies are getting their information from surrounding areas, where up to 15,000 people are believed to be stuck.

“There’s a strong request for advocacy with the different parties to ensure that humanitarian aid can reach these people or that, at least, we can send in trucks to bring them back to Tawila,” she added.

Here are the key events from day 1,348 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is how things stand on Monday, November 3, 2025:

Fighting

• Russia fired a wave of drones and missiles at Ukraine overnight on Sunday, killing at least 15 people, including two children, the Kyiv Independent reported.
• The attacks cut electricity to nearly 60,000 residents in the southern front-line region of Zaporizhia, Ukrainian authorities said.
• Ukrainian forces launched a drone attack on one of Russia’s main Black Sea oil ports, Tuapse, causing a fire and damaging at least two foreign vessels there, according to local officials.
• The overnight attack on Sunday forced the temporary closure of dozens of Russian airports, chiefly in the country’s south and west, for safety reasons, Russia’s aviation watchdog Rosaviatsiya said on Telegram.

Weapons

• United States President Donald Trump said that he is not considering a deal that would allow Ukraine to obtain the long-range Tomahawk missiles for use against Russia.

Sanctions

• Turkiye’s largest oil refineries are buying more non-Russian oil in response to the latest Western sanctions on Russia, two people with direct knowledge of the matter and several industry sources told the Reuters news agency. Turkiye is a major buyer of Russian crude, along with China and India.

Politics and diplomacy

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the continuing deadly Russian attacks on his country proved that Moscow was aiming to “inflict harm” on civilians, and announced that Kyiv had beefed up its air defences in response.
• Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “painstaking work” on the details of a possible agreement is needed to resolve the war in Ukraine, and not a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The United States and China have declared a truce in the trade war launched by US President Donald Trump in April, argues Evan Medeiros, former US National Security Council director for China.

Medeiros tells host Steve Clemons that the deal reached between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Trump resolves the urgent trade issues between the two sides – tariff rates, soya beans and rare earth minerals – but China “remains committed to ensuring that Russia doesn’t lose” in Ukraine.

The US has more than 200,000 soldiers surrounding China, Medeiros adds, but Washington knows that “nobody wants to choose between the US and China.”

Many people remain unaccounted for while camps and towns surrounding el-Fasher are overwhelmed too.

Millions of people across war-ravaged Sudan, particularly its western parts, remain in dire need of humanitarian aid as key generals show no intention of ending the civil war amid ongoing violence and killings in North Darfur’s el-Fasher.

International aid agencies called on Sunday on the Sudanese armed forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to facilitate increased entry of aid while a roadmap by mediators has failed to produce a ceasefire so far.

A week after the paramilitary force seized el-Fasher, the state capital of North Darfur, after an 18-month siege and starvation campaign, the situation remains catastrophic.

Tens of thousands of civilians are still believed to be trapped in the final major city in the western region of Darfur to fall to the RSF while thousands more are unaccounted for after fleeing el-Fasher.

Only a fraction of those who fled on foot from el-Fasher have made it to Tawila, a town roughly 50km (30 miles) away.

Speaking to Al Jazeera from Tawila, an official with a France-based aid agency said only a few hundred more people have turned up in the town over the past few days.

“Those are very small numbers considering the number of people who were stuck in el-Fasher. We keep hearing feedback that people are stuck on the roads and in different villages that are unfortunately still inaccessible due to security reasons,” said Caroline Bouvard, Sudan country director for Solidarites International.

Bouvard said there is a “complete blackout” in terms of information coming out of el-Fasher after the RSF takeover and aid agencies are getting their information from surrounding areas where up to 15,000 people are believed to be stuck.

“There’s a strong request for advocacy with the different parties to ensure that humanitarian aid can reach these people or that at least we can send in trucks to bring them back to Tawila.”

Many of the people who have managed to survive numerous RSF checkpoints and patrols to reach Tawila have reported seeing mass executions, torture, beatings and sexual violence. Some were abducted by armed men and forced to pay a ransom on pain of death.

Many more have been forcibly displaced to the al-Dabbah refugee camp in Sudan’s Northern State. Some have been there for weeks.

Reporting from the camp, Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan said over the past few days, more displaced people have poured in from el-Fasher, exacerbating the humanitarian situation.

People are in need of food, clean water, medication and shelter as many are sleeping out in the open. Thousands more could turn to the camp as well as other surrounding areas over the coming days as people flee the slaughter by RSF fighters.

The United States, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Egypt, as mediators, have all condemned the mass killings and called for increased humanitarian assistance.

“The RSF must stop engaging in retribution and ethnic violence; the tragedy in El Geneina must not be repeated,” the US Department of State said in a statement on Saturday in reference to the massacre of Masalit people in West Darfur’s capital.

“There isn’t a viable military solution, and external military support only prolongs the conflict. The United States urges both parties to pursue a negotiated path to end the suffering of the Sudanese people,” it said in a post on X.

US lawmakers have also called for action from Washington in the aftermath of the el-Fasher takeover by the RSF.

Republican Senator Jim Risch of Idaho, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Friday called for the US to officially designate the RSF as a “foreign terrorist organisation”.

The battle over Ukraine’s Pokrovsk rages as both Russia and Ukraine continue to hit each other’s energy infrastructure.

Here is how things stand on Sunday, November 2, 2025:

Fighting

• At least four civilians have been killed and 51 injured across Ukraine by Russian attacks, according to local officials.
• A strike blamed on Russia hit a shop in the Samariivskyi district of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, killing two and injuring multiple people, regional military chief Vladyslav Haivanenko said.
• The Ukrainian military has said Russian forces launched four missiles and dropped 139 guided bombs over the past day, as well as thousands of shells and drones.
• Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its air defences intercepted 164 Ukrainian drones, including 39 over the Black Sea and 26 over Crimea, overnight.
• Fighting continues to intensify near the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, with the Russian army saying its forces destroyed Ukrainian military formations near the railway station.
• Oleksandr Syrskii, Ukraine’s top military commander, said Ukrainian troops were facing a “multi-thousand enemy” force in Pokrovsk, but rejected Russian claims that they were surrounded or blocked.
• Ukraine confirmed that its special forces had been deployed to protect key supply lines in Pokrovsk, while Russia claimed Ukrainian troops were surrendering and some of the special forces were killed while landing in a helicopter.
• Ukraine’s military intelligence announced a strike on the Koltsevoy fuel pipeline near Moscow, claiming all three lines were destroyed.
• A drone attack by Ukraine reportedly hit an oil terminal pier and a tanker in Tuapse town, located on the northeast shore of the Black Sea, setting fire to port infrastructure.

Politics

• Ukraine condemned Russia’s attacks on key energy infrastructure. Its Foreign Ministry accused Moscow of carrying out strikes on a power substation feeding nuclear power plants in “nuclear terrorism”.
• The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that its inspectors visited a substation critical to nuclear safety and security in Ukraine, and reported damage “as a result of recent military activities”.
• In a statement on Friday, G7 energy ministers condemned Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, saying they are affecting civilians.
• Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed on Friday that his foreign intelligence service has identified 339 Ukrainian children who have been allegedly abducted by Russia.

Regional security

• Germany’s Defence Minister Boris Pistorius told the Reuters news agency he is confident that the country’s governing coalition can agree on a new model of military service for implementation next year as planned.
• An unidentified drone was spotted over the Kleine Brogel Air Base in Belgium on Saturday, the second such sighting over the previous 24 hours.

Ukrainian army chief says effort continues ‘to destroy and dislodge’ Russian forces from strategic Donetsk region city.

Ukraine has deployed special forces to the embattled eastern city of Pokrovsk, the country’s top military commander said, as Kyiv seeks to maintain control of the area amid an intense Russian offensive.

Russia has been trying to capture Pokrovsk, dubbed “the gateway to Donetsk”, since mid-2024 in its campaign to control the entirety of the eastern Donetsk region.

“We are holding Pokrovsk,” Ukraine’s army chief Oleksandr Syrskii said on Facebook on Saturday. “A comprehensive operation to destroy and dislodge enemy forces from Pokrovsk is ongoing.”

Home to more than 60,000 people before the Russia-Ukraine war began in February 2022, Pokrovsk lies on a major supply route for the Ukrainian army.

Taking control of the city would be the most important Russian territorial gain inside Ukraine since Moscow took over Avdiivka in early 2024 after one of the bloodiest battles of the conflict.

Russia and Ukraine have presented conflicting accounts of what has been happening in Pokrovsk in recent days.

The Russian Ministry of Defence on Saturday claimed its forces had defeated the team of Ukrainian special forces that were sent to the city. It later posted videos showing two men it said were Ukrainians who had surrendered.

The footage shows the men, one dressed in fatigues and the other in a dark green jacket, sitting against a peeling wall in a dark room, as they speak of fierce fighting and encirclement by Russian forces.

The video’s authenticity could not be independently verified, and there was no immediate public comment from Kyiv on the Russian ministry’s claims.

Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed last week that his forces had encircled the city’s Ukrainian defenders.

But Syrskii, the Ukrainian army chief, said on Saturday that while the situation in Pokrovsk remains “hardest” for Ukrainian forces, there is no encirclement or blockade as Russia has claimed.

“The main burden lies on the shoulders of the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, particularly UAV operators and assault units,” Syrskii said.

For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged on Friday that some Russian units had infiltrated Pokrovsk, but he insisted that Kyiv is weeding them out.

Russian officials say control of Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka to its northeast would allow Moscow to drive north towards the two biggest remaining Ukrainian-controlled cities in Donetsk – Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

Tehran, Iran – President Masoud Pezeshkian unveiled a “Gen Z adviser” about a month ago, posing for a smiling photo with him that went viral online.

The adviser, Amirreza Ahmadi, told local media that he sees his mission as listening to the youth of Iran, “from Tehran to the borders of this country”, going so far as to share his mobile number.

But he later blocked commenting on his social media profiles after criticism from users who claimed that Ahmadi did not “resemble” Gen Z Iranians, was using bots to boost his social media accounts, and had no established connection with youth groups or students demanding change.

The appointment appears to have been part of an effort by the moderate administration, which promised improved social freedoms and lifted sanctions during election campaigns, to connect with younger generations, who have been driving political change across Asia and globally.

Pezeshkian and his administration have struggled, though – partly as a result of indifference from many young Iranians to their overtures, and partly because many of the Iranian establishment’s more hardline factions have little interest in appeasing the youth.

Sanam Vakil, director of Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa Programme, said the Iranian state is struggling to speak the language of a generation that grew up online and outside its ideological frame.

As such, she added, its outreach “feels transactional rather than transformative and ultimately is directed to staving off unrest and protests”, while the hardline elite’s fear of losing control outweighs any concern about losing the young.

“That imbalance keeps Iran locked in a politics of repression rather than renewal. I think the system will be locked between conflicting messages, narratives, and policies,” she told Al Jazeera.

Many of the people defying aspects of state controls are Gen Z youth, who are, like most Iranians, also crushed by the deteriorating economic conditions and rampant inflation amid corruption and mismanagement.

Testing the boundaries

With Israel and its Western allies openly touting regime change in Iran since the 12-day war between them in June, authorities say they recognise that public support is needed to get the country through difficult conditions, including reinstated UN sanctions and the lingering threat of war.

This forced some officials, mostly those in the more moderate or pragmatic camps, to advocate for dialling down some controls on social freedoms.

Former President Hassan Rouhani, a moderate camp leader, last week criticised hardline lawmakers and politicians for advancing legislation opposed by an overwhelming majority of Iranians, in a likely reference to the contentious issue of mandatory hijab.

The government has said it will not enforce the law.

Iranshahr, Tehran

pic.twitter.com/8nIaJAZVAO

— Arash Azizi آرش عزیزی (@arash_tehran) October 25, 2025

But, on the other hand, hardline factions within the establishment have mobilised to reintroduce as many restrictions as possible.

A video recorded in downtown Tehran went viral online this week, showing young men and women, who disregarded the dress code imposed by the theological establishment, enjoying a street music performance.

After years of musicians defying a state ban on street performances, they have become increasingly common, but still face crackdowns if they get too much attention.

At least one of the band members had their Instagram account closed by Iranian authorities, with the police posting on the account that it was shut down by judicial order due to “publishing criminal content”.

The authorities have not publicly confirmed whether the band member could face further punishment.

Hardline conservative media outlets this week reported another crackdown in Tehran.

Ticket sales for a “disco that included naked women dancing with boys” in the Pakdasht area were stopped, and legal cases were opened against organisers, according to the state-run Fars news website, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

This was in reference to an electronic music event that had been running for weeks and was selling tickets legally after obtaining the required permits from the authorities.

Dancing in public spaces, especially when done by men and women together, are prohibited and at times, punished by Iranian authorities.

Drinking alcohol remains outlawed, as well, leading to some Iranians purchasing smuggled goods or dangerous homemade products. Alcohol tainted with ethanol and other chemicals continues to claim dozens of lives each year.

But some cafes and restaurants continue to hire DJs – and at times, serve alcohol – despite the restrictions.

In mid-September, authorities permanently shut down a major restaurant located in Tehran’s Nahjol Balaghe Park because a clip showed people dancing to music inside and because alcohol was allegedly served there.

Several clothing shops and other vendors have been shut down over recent weeks after they held events where young people danced in attendance.

In mid-September, authorities also cancelled a major public concert at Tehran’s iconic Azadi Tower that was initially conceived by the government as a demonstration of national unity.

The apparent contradiction between the positions of different factions within the establishment highlights the nature of Iran – with the government not necessarily having the final say in diffferent matters, and other forces, such as the Revolutionary Guard, able to defy government policy.

Hijab laws, online freedoms

The Supreme National Security Council has ordered authorities to stop heavily enforcing the controversial hijab law, which penalises women and men with prison time, being lashed or paying fines if the state determines their attire is improper.

Iran experienced months of deadly nationwide protests in 2022 and 2023 after the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was arrested over her hijab.

However, some so-called “morality police” vans have been seen in cities across the country, even though Pezeshkian’s government said no budget had been dedicated towards it.

Another group defying the system in Iran are women riding motorcycles, as the state still won’t issue them motorcycle licences.

The government introduced legislation to allow women to ride, but it is stuck in a parliament dominated by hardline lawmakers after a record-low turnout in elections since 2020.

More women are riding motorcycles across the country, however, with hundreds filmed recently taking part in group rides in Tehran.

Pezeshkian’s government has also failed to honour another campaign promise: lifting draconian state bans on almost all global social media and tens of thousands of websites.

The government this week blamed Israel for the continued imposition of the tough internet restrictions, claiming that the controls would have been lifted had it not been for the June war.

Azadeh Moaveni, writer and associate professor at New York University, told Al Jazeera she does not believe any faction of the state enjoys broad support from the younger generation, as they haven’t been able to offer them anything substantial.

“Pragmatists within the state are just offering their own frustration, which is of zero value, and at best pointing out, as the president has, that he won’t enforce laws that the majority of the country opposes, like the hijab law,” she said.

Moaveni said the dynamic of loosening and tightening of social freedoms by the state to manage society was no longer working, partly due to the changes taking place in society and also because of the dire economic conditions and multiple ongoing crises reshaping daily life.

Israeli strikes on Gaza this week have killed more than 100 people following the killing of an Israeli soldier, but the shaky ceasefire continues to hold.

British blogger Kieren Adam Owen, better known as JimmyTheGiant, has become a passionate defender of Ukraine since marrying Vlada after meeting her on a holiday in Thailand

“The first thing you notice about Ukraine is how spotless the toilets are.”

British blogger Kieren Adam Owen, better known as JimmyTheGiant, was taken aback by the sparkling state of the bathrooms in Lviv when he visited the Ukrainian city for the first time after meeting his now-wife, Vlada, whom he had fallen head over heels for during a holiday in Thailand.

But it’s not just the immaculate nature of the WCs that caught Keiren’s eye. He is now a great enthusiast for the food, the coffee, the community life in the countryside and much else in Ukraine.

He is not the only one to have fallen for a nation that has been devastated by the war, or who is willing to go to great lengths to get there. According to data compiled by the State Border Service of Ukraine and VisitKyiv.com for the first half of 2025, foreigners crossed the Ukrainian border 1,194,983 times – 6,000 more than in the same period last year. That is, of course, a much smaller number than before the war and the coronavirus pandemic. In 2019, 13.4million tourists visited Ukraine.

All those who do go are risking their lives to varying degrees. As of 30 September 2025, 14,383 civilians had been killed in the war, according to the OHCHR. The UK Foreign Office states bluntly that it “advises against all travel to parts of Ukraine.”

Kieren is clearly aware of these dangers and not immune to fear. When in the country, whenever the air raid sirens begin to ring out, he immediately rushes down to the shelter: unlike some war-weary Ukrainians. “I can imagine that when you live there, you don’t always want to go to a shelter — probably because it’s a headache, and you know that the actual attacks that hit are fewer than the ones you hear the sirens for. But when you’re traveling, you can kind of do it, so I always just go to the shelter whenever,” he told the Mirror.

READ MORE: UK’s ‘most magical street’ is real-life Diagon Alley with quirky shops and hidden gemsREAD MORE: The UK’s ‘most remote village’ where people get stranded in its ‘perfect pub’

While most today are travelling for work or family events, some head to the war-torn country simply to explore. Others are on pilgrimage to Uman – an annual trip when thousands of Hasidim visit the tomb of Rabbi Nachman, founder of Bratslav Hasidism. Humanitarian trips are common, with large numbers travelling to participate in dozens of reconstruction projects crucial for a country that has been battered by missiles and drone strikes since February 2022.

Surprisingly, it is not in the cities that Keiren has felt most scared. Rather, it is in the rural areas without bomb shelters where he’s most feared for his life. There, he has watched rockets falling right above his head, with nowhere to hide except the house he was living in. “You feel more vulnerable there — there’s only ‘God’s protection’,” he said.

Kieren was once best known for his analytical takes on economics and politics, before he began producing documentary reports from Ukraine. The change in direction came after he married Vlada.

Now he spends a significant portion of his time promoting the lesser-known aspects of one of Europe’s poorest countries.

In a 52-minute YouTube video titled ‘How Ukraine changed my life‘, which he published earlier this year, the Milton Keynes lad explained how the country stole his heart.

“Your image of Ukraine is of this very brutalist, post-Soviet, kind of depressing, poor place, and Lviv just shattered this mental image. You’re walking on these cobbled streets, and you see all these beautiful, stunning, classical buildings. Everyone around you is cooler than you, dressed cooler than you, they’re just stylish, chill bras. Every single restaurant or cafe is on the level of the coolest of cool places in London, even better in some cases. The coffee… I literally became a coffee snob because of that trip.”

Keiren’s adulation for Ukraine stretches to the rural areas, where his in-laws live. There, wages are much lower than in Lviv and the capital Kyiv, yet access to great stretches of arable countryside abounds. Many work the land alongside their day jobs, building up larders with conserves and wines, as small-holding, subsistence farmers.

“I would argue in some regards, they live a much more fulfilling life than many poor people in the UK,” Kieren says in his video, noting the level of community cohesion, access to nature and fresh food many rural Ukrainians enjoy.

Kieren makes clear that he “isn’t saying that their lives are heaven” or that serious poverty, access issues for disabled people, and low life expectancy aren’t serious issues in the country.

Kieren has never been close to the front line, where the level of danger is much higher. Despite the risks he runs by being in Ukraine, he is keen to keep returning to a country he has fallen in love with.

“This is how high-quality everything is. I miss how everywhere you go, everything just feels perfect. That’s super nice. And the vibe. It’s just nice to be in Ukraine — the trees, the streets of Kyiv, the people who, despite the war, remain friendly and create an incredible atmosphere,” he continued.

For many Brits who find a second home abroad, the financial clout of the pound is a significant benefit. As he earns money in Britain, Kieren can afford more than he would back in the UK.

“When you come here, you feel like a millionaire,” he joked. “So you can have a really enjoyable week, constantly visiting various establishments.”

Kieren’s top recommendation is the restaurant 100 rokiv tomu vpered (100 Years Ahead), run by renowned Ukrainian chef Yevgen Klopotenko, who serves up traditional dishes, such as borscht, and the less typical fried bees. Another favourite place is Musafir, a Crimean Tatar restaurant known for its fried, doughy chibereks.

When not indulging in the local fare, Keiren enjoys spending time on Reitarska Street, an artistic hub in Kyiv, and Andriivskyi Uzviz. Kieren also recommends visiting the Golden Gate in the city center, a historic structure that was once the entrance to Kyiv, as well as having a picnic in one of Kyiv’s parks, such as Taras Shevchenko Park.

The top 10 countries by number of entries into Ukraine in the first half of 2025

1. Moldova — 509,219
2. Romania — 197,012
3. Poland — 116,589
4. Hungary — 60,400
5. Slovakia — 35,279
6. Israel — 26,869
7. Germany — 23,687
8. Turkey — 22,858
9. United States — 22,840
10. United Kingdom — 17,210