BBC Ukraine
BBC Ukraine is the Ukrainian-language service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). It produces news, features and multimedia content for Ukrainian-speaking audiences, operating as part of the BBC World Service and based in London.
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Ukraine's PM says Cabinet will finalise booking-system overhaul this week, insists critical enterprises unaffected
Prime Minister Serhiy Koretsky told BBC News Ukraine on 19 October that the Cabinet of Ministers will finalise this week changes to the conscription deferment (booking) system aimed at curbing large-scale abuses, while guaranteeing that genuinely critical enterprises will keep booking workers as before. He warned that monthly bookings and deferrals have been running into tens of thousands and, if the trend continues, "absolutely everyone" will soon be booked. The statement comes as parliament, the Ministry of Defence and business groups push back against an earlier draft that proposed cutting booking limits for the defence-industrial complex and energy sector from 100% to 85%.
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Ukraine PM puts 2025 business damage from Russian strikes at $7.7 billion
Prime Minister Serhiy Koretsky said Russian attacks caused $7.7 billion in direct damages to Ukrainian businesses this year and destroyed or damaged more than 1 million square meters of warehouse, production, and logistics space. In an interview with BBC Ukraine, he said the economy is still functioning and outlined government relief measures, including transferring state premises to firms and adjusting the subsidized "Affordable Loans 5-7-9%" program. He also said the state has stepped in to partially compensate losses that vessels entering Ukrainian ports cannot insure internationally.
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Zelensky says he expects to meet Trump in late September, with missile defense set as main topic
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on September 8 that he expects to meet US President Donald Trump in the 20s of September, with the supply of American anti-ballistic interceptor missiles as the central item. The announcement came the morning after a massive Russian strike on Kyiv in which most ballistic missiles could not be intercepted, and follows a visit to Kyiv and Moscow by US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner that yielded a short-lived mutual moratorium on capital strikes.
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US envoys visit Kyiv for first time, signal return to trilateral talks but report no breakthrough
US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner travelled to Kyiv on 6 September 2026 for their first visit to Ukraine since Donald Trump's second presidential term began, after meeting Vladimir Putin in Moscow on 5 September. They held three rounds of talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky, joined in the second round by national security advisers from France, Germany and the United Kingdom, and announced a planned return to the US–Ukraine–Russia trilateral format and US support for a 'winter package' of assistance for Ukraine. Zelensky reported receiving a message that 'the Russians are ready to negotiate' but remained sceptical, while the Kremlin, Bloomberg sources and the Institute for the Study of War said the Moscow talks produced no substantive concessions.