Where the two presidents’ war of words will end is anybody’s guess. But if it continues, it could threaten the crucial operational help that Ukraine still gets from the United States.

© Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times

Where the two presidents’ war of words will end is anybody’s guess. But if it continues, it could threaten the crucial operational help that Ukraine still gets from the United States.

© Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times

Where the two presidents’ war of words will end is anybody’s guess. But if it continues, it could threaten the crucial operational help that Ukraine still gets from the United States.

© Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times

The Ukrainian president’s defiant decision to continue attacking Russian refineries underscores President Trump’s inability to end a war he had promised to resolve.

© Doug Mills/The New York Times

The Ukrainian president’s defiant decision to continue attacking Russian refineries underscores President Trump’s inability to end a war he had promised to resolve.

© Doug Mills/The New York Times

The Ukrainian president’s defiant decision to continue attacking Russian refineries underscores President Trump’s inability to end a war he had promised to resolve.

© Doug Mills/The New York Times

President Trump’s latest push to end the war in Ukraine has raised questions about the future of U.S. support.

© Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times

President Trump’s latest push to end the war in Ukraine has raised questions about the future of U.S. support.

© Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times

Republicans joined Democrats in calling on the Pentagon’s inspector general to look into whether the Trump administration was responsible for the interruption.

© Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

The Senate showdown in Texas shows why Donald Trump and the Republican Party are worried about the midterm elections.

© Kenny Holston/The New York Times; Antranik Tavitian for The New York Times

Military forces have sought to damage the computing hubs that power online services and artificial intelligence systems.

© Via Reuters

Moscow is not winning on the battlefield. Instead, it is seizing an opening to inflict immense human suffering in Ukrainian cities.

© Genya Savilov/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Moscow is not winning on the battlefield. Instead, it is seizing an opening to inflict immense human suffering in Ukrainian cities.

© Genya Savilov/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Moscow is not winning on the battlefield. Instead, it is seizing an opening to inflict immense human suffering in Ukrainian cities.

© Genya Savilov/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Plus, the legacy of a competitive eating champion.

© Scott Olson/Getty Images

Ukrainian engineers are rushing to perfect A.I.-guided, jet-driven interceptors. Their goal: to stop a fast Russian threat in the latest round of a deadly tech duel.

© Finbarr O'Reilly for The New York Times

Ukrainian engineers are rushing to perfect A.I.-guided, jet-driven interceptors. Their goal: to stop a fast Russian threat in the latest round of a deadly tech duel.

© Finbarr O'Reilly for The New York Times

Ukrainian engineers are rushing to perfect A.I.-guided, jet-driven interceptors. Their goal: to stop a fast Russian threat in the latest round of a deadly tech duel.

© Finbarr O'Reilly for The New York Times

President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed overt frustration with the United States in an interview with The Financial Times. He had paused the strikes to comply with a demand from the United States.

© Pool photo by Henry Nicholls

President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed overt frustration with the United States in an interview with The Financial Times. He had paused the strikes to comply with a demand from the United States.

© Pool photo by Henry Nicholls

The old world order is fraying. Who gets to shape the next one?

© The New York Times

For years, Ukraine’s armed forces have relied on satellite communication services developed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Recent restrictions have hampered its war effort.

© Sasha Maslov for The New York Times

The United Kingdom has issued economic sanctions against Cryptomus, a chameleonic cryptocurrency platform that experts say serves as a major conduit for payments related to ransomware, narcotics, darknet markets, fraud and cybercrime services that are helping Russia circumvent existing financial restrictions.

On October 8, the U.K. issued sanctions (PDF) against Cryptomus — previously known as Certa Payments and Xeltox Enterprises — for processing payments that benefit the Russian government and its financial institutions. The sanctions freeze any Cryptomus assets at U.K. banks, and bar British companies from offering it any business, virtual or otherwise. Also targeted in these sanctions were the virtual payment platforms VexPay, TokenSpot, and the Tsunami Payments service.

As explained in our December 2024 investigation, “How Cryptocurrency Turns to Cash in Russian Banks,” Cryptomus has been a key payment processor for dozens of Russian cryptocurrency exchanges and websites hawking cybercrime services. The company has changed its name several times since emerging in 2022, most recently to “Heleket” last year after Canada levied a record CAD $176 million fine against the platform for anti-money laundering violations.

The blockchain data-crunching firm Chainalysis said the U.K. sanctions target the broader infrastructure supporting Russia’s wartime economy.

“Cryptomus and Heleket have emerged as major payment hubs for illicit activity,” Chainalysis wrote in an October 8 blog post. “Together, these services received more illicit funds across tracked categories than the mixers in our dataset and the number of illicit counterparties surged to more than 900 in a single month in late 2025.”

In April 2026, the blockchain analysis firm TRM Labs found Cryptomus had processed more than $7 billion in transactions since its inception in 2022, including transactions associated with child sexual abuse material vendors, terrorist financing networks, and human trafficking operations.

TRM noted that Cryptomus’s transaction volume cratered after the platform instituted new “know your customer” or KYC rules, and that the cryptocurrency platform responded to the Canadian fines by launching Heleket as a parallel service that continued to offer no-KYC payment processing.

Richard Sanders is a blockchain analyst and investigator who spent months mapping out Cryptomus’s payment infrastructure and transacting with its customers. Sanders said the U.K. sanctions on Cryptomus are important because Canada’s sanctions against the platform were ultimately unenforceable and uncollectible.

“A fine doesn’t stop a cryptocurrency payment processor from processing payments,” Sanders wrote on LinkedIn. “Sanctions kill the operation. The distinction matters.”

As our 2024 investigation noted, Cryptomus shared a Vancouver address with dozens of other foreign currency dealers and money transfer businesses — none of which appeared to be physically located there. Following the CAD $176 million fine for alleged money laundering violations, Cryptomus appealed the penalty, launched Heleket as a parallel service, and kept on processing large volumes of sketchy transactions, Sanders said.

Sanders said the sanctions also are notable because they are the first known instance of a “Five Eyes” country (referring to the Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S.) sanctioning a cryptocurrency operation incorporated in another Five Eyes jurisdiction.

Where do entities like Cryptomus and Heleket derive their authority to offer international financial services? The answer appears to involve fake financial institutions overseen by a phony regulatory body positioned in a country that is not widely recognized as a sovereign nation.

Our 2024 investigation found the sole shareholder of Cryptomus’s parent company Certa Payments was a 25-year-old Ukrainian woman who also headed several other firms, including the WS Management and Advisory Corporation, which bills itself as the regulatory body that exclusively oversees licenses for cryptocurrency, foreign exchange and online gaming businesses incorporated in the disputed region in northwest Africa known as the Western Sahara.

That entity’s website — crasadr.com — says it assists applicants with bank setup and formation, online gaming licenses, and the creation and licensing of foreign exchange brokers. One of Certa Payments’ former sites — certa[.]website — also shared a server with 12 other domains, including rasd-state[.]ws, a website for the Central Reserve Authority of the Western Sahara.

A huge attack cut power to 600,000 people in Kyiv, and a Pentagon-funded satellite internet program appeared to be curbed without warning.

© Evgeniy Maloletka/Associated Press

A huge attack cut power to 600,000 people in Kyiv, and a Pentagon-funded satellite internet program appeared to be curbed without warning.

© Evgeniy Maloletka/Associated Press

President Volodymyr Zelensky, who met with Britain’s prime minister, has said Ukraine received no warning of Russian attacks, but President Trump has said Washington is still “sharing intel.”

© Jack Taylor/Reuters

President Volodymyr Zelensky, who met with Britain’s prime minister, has said Ukraine received no warning of Russian attacks, but President Trump has said Washington is still “sharing intel.”

© Jack Taylor/Reuters

We look at the state of the U.S.-Ukraine relationship.

© Reuters

The president’s proposed fuel deal with Russia and a one-sided cease-fire plan are putting Kyiv in a tough spot as winter approaches.

© Genya Savilov/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

After a glide bomb killed his wife and younger daughter, Yevhen Ovcharov was determined to prevent other Ukrainians from dying the same way.

Russia has reaped a diesel deal and an increase in U.S. pressure on Ukraine as President Trump’s political needs align with his longstanding inclinations toward Russia.

© Igor Ivanko/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Russia has reaped a diesel deal and an increase in U.S. pressure on Ukraine as President Trump’s political needs align with his longstanding inclinations toward Russia.

© Igor Ivanko/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

After a glide bomb killed his wife and younger daughter, Yevhen Ovcharov was determined to prevent other Ukrainians from dying the same way.

Asked about apparent U.S. threats to cut off intelligence sharing with Kyiv, which can warn of Russian aerial attacks, President Trump said information continued to flow.

© Mauricio Lima for The New York Times

Asked about apparent U.S. threats to cut off intelligence sharing with Kyiv, which can warn of Russian aerial attacks, President Trump said information continued to flow.

© Mauricio Lima for The New York Times

Shocked by the U.S. agreement with Russia, which Ukraine has called “a gift” to President Putin, officials in Europe have coalesced around a cautious diplomatic message.

© Alex Kent/The New York Times

Shocked by the U.S. agreement with Russia, which Ukraine has called “a gift” to President Putin, officials in Europe have coalesced around a cautious diplomatic message.

© Alex Kent/The New York Times

President Trump’s surprise decision to suspend sanctions on Russian diesel fuel stunned Ukrainian and European officials, who were meeting with U.S. envoys at an exclusive golf club near Miami.

© Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters

President Trump’s surprise decision to suspend sanctions on Russian diesel fuel stunned Ukrainian and European officials, who were meeting with U.S. envoys at an exclusive golf club near Miami.

© Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters

President Trump is moving to buy Russian diesel while also pressuring Ukraine to halt attacks on refineries, a lifeblood of Moscow’s war machine.

© Reuters

With the Russians intensifying sabotage, arson and cyberattacks against European nations supporting Ukraine, NATO divulged a blueprint, in case of war, to deter the Kremlin.

© Omar Marques/Getty Images

With the Russians intensifying sabotage, arson and cyberattacks against European nations supporting Ukraine, NATO divulged a blueprint, in case of war, to deter the Kremlin.

© Omar Marques/Getty Images

President Trump is moving to buy Russian diesel while also pressuring Ukraine to halt attacks on refineries, a lifeblood of Moscow’s war machine.

© Reuters