SAMYA KULLAB

Ukraine reporter

Kullab is an Associarted Press reporter covering Ukraine since June 2023. Before that, she covered Iraq and the wider Middle East from her base in Baghdad since joining the AP in 2019.
Soldiers carry the coffins of two Ukrainian army sergeants during their funeral in Lviv, Ukraine, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Ukraine gets a big boost of US aid. It still faces a long slog to repel Russia
A new package of $61 billion in U.S. aid may prevent Ukraine from losing its war against Russia. But winning it will be a long slog.
 
FILE - Ukrainian soldiers carry shells to fire at Russian positions on the front line, near the city of Bakhmut, in Ukraine's Donetsk region, on March 25, 2024. Approval by the U.S. House of a $61 billion package for Ukraine puts the country a step closer to getting an infusion of new firepower. But the clock is ticking. Russia is using all its might to achieve its most significant gains since the invasion by a May 9 deadline. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)
Aid approval brings Ukraine closer to replenishing troops struggling to hold front lines
Approval by the U.S. House of Representatives of a $61 billion package for Ukraine puts the country a step closer to getting an infusion of new firepower.
 
Women hold "Free Azov" signs during a rally aiming to raise awareness on the fate of Ukrainian prisoners of war in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, April 21, 2024. The U.S. House of Representatives swiftly approved $95 billion in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies in a rare Saturday session as Democrats and Republicans banded together after months of hard-right resistance over renewed American support for repelling Russia's invasion. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Ukrainian and Western leaders laud US aid package while the Kremlin warns of ‘further ruin’
The House approved $61 billion in aid as Democrats and Republicans banded together after months of hard-right resistance over renewed American support for repelling Russia’s invasion.
 
FILE - Olha Faichuk, 79, center, cries as she says goodbye to her neighbors in front of her apartment building, which was heavily damaged by a Russian airstrike, in Lukiantsi, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, on Tuesday, April 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)
As Russia edges toward a possible offensive on Kharkiv, some residents flee. Others refuse to leave
Russia is exploiting air defense shortages in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region by targeting civilian infrastructure and communities to drive away residents.
 
Ukrainian servicemen from the Azov brigade known by call sign Ray, left, and Kiss, right, rest in the trenches on the frontline in Kreminna direction, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Thursday, April 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Alex Babenko)
Ukraine’s parliament passes a controversial law to boost much-needed conscripts as war drags on
Ukraine’s parliament has passed a controversial law on how the country will call up new soldiers at a time when it needs to replenish depleted forces that are increasingly struggling to fend off Russia’s advance.
 
Members of the Siberian Battalion, which was formed mostly of volunteer Russian citizens, of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' International Legion, practice during military exercises, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, at an undisclosed location in Kyiv region, Ukraine, Wednesday, April 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
A Russian attack on a Ukrainian village kills a 14-year-old girl and two others, officials say
Authorities say a Russian attack has hit a grocery store and a pharmacy in a Ukrainian village close to the border with Russia, killing three people.
 
People pay respect at the coffins of Ukrainian servicemen Serhiy Konoval and Taras Petrushun, who were killed in a battle with the Russian troops, during the funeral ceremony in Independence square in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, April 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
UN atomic watchdog says the status of Russian-occupied Ukraine nuclear plant is ‘extremely serious’
The U.N.’s atomic watchdog says an explosion caused by an alleged drone attack at Europe’s largest nuclear plant in Ukraine poses no direct threat to its safety.
 
Workers clear the rubble after a Russian missile attack at DTEK's power plant in Ukraine, on Tuesday, April 2, 2024. Russia is attacking Ukraine’s energy sector with renewed intensity and alarming accuracy, signaling to Ukrainian officials that Russia is armed with better intelligence and fresh tactics in its campaign to annihilate the country’s power generation capacity. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Russia renews big attacks on Ukrainian power grid using better intelligence and new tactics
Russia is renewing its strikes on Ukraine’s energy system. Ukrainian officials, energy workers and analysts say Moscow is using more missiles and better intelligence to strike the electrical grid across the country.
 
Photographs of fallen Ukrainian servicemen are placed at a memorial in Independence Square, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, April 3, 2024. Ukraine on Wednesday lowered the military conscription age from 27 to 25 in an effort to replenish its depleted ranks after more than two years of war following Russia's full-scale invasion. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
Ukraine lowers its conscription age to 25 to replenish its beleaguered troops
Ukraine has lowered the military conscription age from 27 to 25 in an effort to replenish its depleted ranks after more than two years of war following Russia’s full-scale invasion.
 
Oleksandr Turovskyi, whose 35-year old son Sviatoslav was among eight men executed in a vacant lot in the suburb of Bucha in March 2022, takes a moment at a memorial on the lot where his son was found in Bucha, Ukraine, Saturday, March 30, 2024. Days after Russian forces withdrew from the area in late March, in the dramatic first weeks of the full-scale invasion, a photo taken by AP Photographer Vadim Ghirda revealed what happened to the eight men. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
Life has returned to Ukraine’s Bucha. But 2 years after the killings, some families can’t move on
Two years have passed since Russian forces withdrew from the Ukrainian suburb of Bucha and left exposed one of the worst atrocities of the war.
 
A ballet coach teaches girls in a ballet studio in a bomb shelter in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Monday, March 18, 2024. In northeast Ukraine, a dance studio that doubles as a bomb shelter is an escape from the horrors of war for about 20 young girls. The Princess Ballet Studio in Kharkiv is a spartan, windowless room, but practicing underground means they can dance through the almost hourly air raid alerts. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
In one Ukrainian city, ballet in a bomb shelter is an escape from the horrors of war
A dance studio that doubles as a bomb shelter is an escape from the horrors of war for about 20 young girls in Ukraine’s city of Kharkiv.
 
42-year-old Vyacheslav Ryabkov, an internally displaced person from Kozachi Laheri in the Kherson region of Ukraine, shows in Kolomyya on Feb. 13, 2024 the scars on his stomach caused by Russian soldiers who cut him with a knife. Russia has successfully imposed its passports on nearly the entire population of occupied Ukraine by making it impossible to survive without them, coercing hundreds of thousands of people into citizenship. (AP Photo/Vasilisa Stepanenko)
Takeaways into AP investigation into Russian system to force its passports on occupied Ukraine
Russia has successfully imposed its passports on nearly the entire population of occupied Ukraine by making it impossible to survive without them, coercing hundreds of thousands of people into citizenship.
 
50-year-old Natalia Zhyvohliad, an internally displaced person from Nova Petrivka in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, is pictured with her children, daughter-in-law and grandson in their temporary modular house in Kolomyya, Ivano-Frankivsk region on Feb. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Vasilisa Stepanenko)
Russia forces Ukrainians in occupied territories to take its passports – and fight in its army
Russia has successfully imposed its passports on nearly the entire population of occupied Ukraine by making it impossible to survive without them, coercing hundreds of thousands of people into citizenship.
 
Firefighters put out the fire a railway station after Russians hit in Kostiantynivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024. A woman was wounded and a railway station, shops and residential houses were badly damaged amid heavy bombing. (AP Photo/Alex Babenko)
Delays in promised Western military aid to Ukraine are costing lives, the defense minister says
Ukraine’s defense minister says half of all promised Western military support fails to arrive on time.
 
FILE - A Russian TOS-1A Solntsepyok heavy flamethrower rocket launcher, captured by the Ukrainian army battalion "Da Vinci", fires towards the Russian positions on the frontline near Kreminna, Luhansk region, Ukraine, on July 7, 2023. Two years after Russia’s full-scale invasion captured nearly a quarter of the country, the stakes could not be higher for Kyiv. After a string of victories in the first year of the war, fortunes have turned for the Ukrainian military, which is dug in, outgunned and outnumbered against a more powerful opponent. (AP Photo/Libkos, File)
After 2 years of war, questions abound on whether Kyiv can sustain the fight against Russia
The future looks bleak for war-weary Ukraine. It’s beset by shortages in soldiers and ammunition, as well as doubts about the supply of Western aid.
 
Newly recruited soldiers shout slogans as they celebrate the end of their training at a military base close to Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Sept. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Desperate for soldiers, Ukraine weighs unpopular plan to expand the draft
When the Russian army invaded two years ago, Ukrainian men zealously rushed to recruitment centers to enlist, ready to die in defense of their nation.
 
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, shakes hand with a soldier during his visit to the front line city of Kupiansk, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Monday, Feb. 19, 2024. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)
The humanitarian appeal for Ukraine is only 10% funded for 2024, UN envoy says
The U.N’s top representative in Ukraine says the U.N.’s humanitarian appeal to meet needs there is only 10% funded for 2024.
 
FILE - A Ukrainian soldier sits in his position in Avdiivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Aug. 18, 2023. Ukrainian troops are under intense pressure from a determined Russian effort to storm the strategically important eastern Ukraine city of Avdiivka, officials say. Kyiv’s army is struggling with ammunition shortages as the Kremlin’s forces pursue a battlefield triumph around the two-year anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale invasion and ahead of a March presidential election in Russia. (AP Photo/Libkos, File)
Analysis: A key withdrawal shows Ukraine doesn’t have enough artillery to fight Russia
Dwindling ammunition threatens Ukraine’s hold on the 620-mile front line under withering assault by Russian artillery. Its defensive lines are in jeopardy.
 
A Ukrainian officer Maksym listens to Russian chatter in a shelter near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024. Ukrainian forces are increasingly resorting to an age-old tactic — intelligence gleaned from radio intercepts — in a desperate effort to preserve their most vital resources. The painstaking work of eavesdropping is part of a larger effort to beef up and refine electronic warfare capabilities so that soldiers can be warned earlier of impending attacks, while having the battlefield intelligence needed to make their own strikes more deadly. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
By detecting Russian ‘carrots’ and ‘tea bags,’ Ukraine decodes enemy chatter to save lives
Ukrainian forces are increasingly resorting to an age-old tactic — intelligence gleaned from radio intercepts — in a desperate effort to preserve their most vital resources.
 
Firefighters extinguish a fire after a Russian attack on residential neighborhood in Kharkiv, Ukraine Saturday, Feb. 10, 2024. According to the city administration, about a dozen private houses were under fire and scores of people were evacuated after Russian drones strike on a residential area. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)
Russian drone strike on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s 2nd largest city, kills 7
The governor of the Ukrainian region of Kharkiv says a Russian drone strike on the city of the same name, the second-largest city in the country, killed seven people overnight, including three children.
 
CORRECTS SPELLING: FILE - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Commander of Ukraine's Ground Forces Col.-Gen. Oleksandr Syrski, right, look at a map during their visit to the front line city of Kupiansk, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, on Nov. 30, 2023. Oleksandr Syrski was appointed as new Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)
Ukraine’s new army chief signals new momentum, but huge problems stand in the way
Ukraine’s new army chief says his immediate goals include improving the rotation of troops out of the front lines and harnessing the power of new technology. Col. Gen.
 
CORRECTS SPELLING: FILE - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Commander of Ukraine's Ground Forces Col.-Gen. Oleksandr Syrski, right, look at a map during their visit to the front line city of Kupiansk, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, on Nov. 30, 2023. Oleksandr Syrski was appointed as new Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)
Who is Ukraine’s new army chief appointed by Zelenskyy?
The man Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has named to lead the country’s military has played a key role in some of Ukraine’s biggest victories in its war with Russia, including overseeing the successful defense of the capital in the early days of the invasion.
 
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks during his interview with The Associated Press, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2024. The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog says security at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant remains fragile amid recent staff cuts enacted by Russian authorities occupying the facility. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
UN nuclear chief says security is still fragile at Ukraine’s Russian-occupied nuclear power plant
The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog says security at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant remains fragile amid recent staff cuts enacted by Russian authorities occupying the facility.
 
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, centre, during his visit to Zaporizhzhia region, the site of fierce battles with the Russian troops in Ukraine, Sunday, Feb. 4, 2024. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)
Zelenskyy signals a shakeup of Ukraine’s military leadership is imminent at a critical point in war
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is thinking about dismissing the country’s top military officer as part of a broader leadership shakeup.
 
Mykola Soloviov is crippled by illness, as he spends his days bed-ridden in Sloviansk, a city in Donetsk region, his hometown which lies 25 kilometers from the frontline, Ukraine, Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024. Soloviov, 88, is a painter the world does not know. His expressive and imaginative landscapes of eastern Ukraine encapsulate a lost time, and lie undiscovered, tucked away in a modest home under threat of Russian attack. (AP Photo/Vasilisa Stepanenko)
Under bombing in eastern Ukraine and disabled by illness, an unknown painter awaits his fate
In the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk, a disabled painter lies bedridden in an apartment, its window his only view into the changing world he can no longer comprehend.
 
Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, left, hugs Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after signing documents in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
British prime minister visits Ukraine to give aid and reassurances of West’s support against Russia
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has unveiled new military funding for Ukraine during a visit to Kyiv aimed at reassuring the country that the West is still providing support nearly 23 months after Russia’s invasion.
 
FILE - Water flows over the collapsed Kakhovka Dam in Nova Kakhovka, in Russian-occupied Ukraine, June 7, 2023. An AP investigation has found that Russian occupation authorities vastly and deliberately undercounted the dead in one of the most devastating chapters of the 22-month war in Ukraine - the flooding that followed the catastrophic explosion that destroyed the Kakhovka Dam in the southern Kherson region. (AP Photo, File)
Takeaways from AP investigation into Russia’s cover-up of deaths caused by dam explosion in Ukraine
An AP investigation has found that Russian occupation authorities vastly and deliberately undercounted the dead in one of the most devastating chapters of the 22-month war in Ukraine — the flooding that followed the catastrophic explosion that destroyed the Kakhovka Dam in the southern Kherson regio
 
FILE - Houses are seen underwater in the flooded town of Oleshky, Ukraine, June 10, 2023. An AP investigation has found that Russian occupation authorities vastly and deliberately undercounted the dead in one of the most devastating chapters of the 22-month war in Ukraine - the flooding that followed the catastrophic explosion that destroyed the Kakhovka Dam in the southern Kherson region. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)
Russia covered up and undercounted true human cost of floodings after dam explosion, AP investigation finds
An AP investigation has found that Russian occupation authorities vastly and deliberately undercounted the dead in one of the most devastating chapters of the 22-month war in Ukraine.
 
FILE - Ukrainian soldiers practice on a tank during military training, in Ukraine, Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023. A gloomy mood hangs over Ukraine’s soldiers nearly two years after Russia invaded their country. Ukrainian soldiers remain fiercely determined to win, despite a disappointing counteroffensive this summer and signs of wavering financial support from allies. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)
A gloomy mood hangs over Ukraine’s soldiers as war with Russia grinds on
A gloomy mood hangs over Ukraine’s soldiers nearly two years after Russia invaded their country. Ukrainian soldiers remain fiercely determined to win, despite a disappointing counteroffensive this summer and signs of wavering financial support from allies.
 
Ukraine's human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets prepares for press conference during the first meeting of the National Coalition of Countries for the Return of Ukrainian Children in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Dec. 8, 2023. Lubinets said on Friday he hoped a coalition of countries formed to facilitate the return of illegally deported Ukrainian children by Russia will be able to determine a faster mechanism to repatriate the over 19,000 Ukrainian children believed to be in Russia or in occupied areas of Ukraine. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Ukraine’s human rights envoy calls for a faster way to bring back children deported by Russia
Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman has voiced hope that a coalition of countries formed to facilitate the return of Ukrainian children illegally deported by Russia will be able to come up with a faster mechanism to repatriate them.
 
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