Ukraine just secured access to Europe’s defense strategy table. The EU granted Ukraine “associated country” status in its €1 ($1.17) billion Defense Fund, allowing Ukrainian companies to compete for contracts and co-develop military systems that will protect Europe.

Ukrainian defense firms can now bid for EU contracts, partner with European companies, and help design tomorrow’s battlefield technologies.

According to Delo.ua, if companies prove competitive, up to €1 billion could flow to Ukraine through these partnerships in 2025.

This is not some favor Brussels is doing for Ukraine, but a two-way cooperation in which European financing is helping partners in the EU get access to technological innovations Ukrainian engineers have been forced to solve ahead of anyone else in the world.

European Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius acknowledged this on 30 April when announcing the €910 million ($1 billion) 2025 program covering 33 projects. The timing reflects Europe’s broader strategic shift — on 27 May, EU ministers approved a separate €150 ($175) billion arms fund.

The European Defense Fund operates through competitive consortia where companies from different EU countries collaborate. Ukraine can join these teams on equal terms with German, French, or Polish firms.

Key competition areas:

• Drone technology: Ukraine has demonstrated superiority over European alternatives
• Electronic warfare countermeasures: Battle-tested against Russian jamming
• Battlefield medicine: Innovations developed under combat conditions
• Cyber defense: Systems proven against sustained Russian attacks

The €1 billion figure represents Ukraine’s potential share across multiple projects. Since the total program is worth €1.065 ($1.24) billion, success depends on how competitive Ukrainian solutions prove.

Ukraine’s entry ensures European military systems will be designed with actual combat experience, not theoretical peacetime scenarios. For decades, EU defense companies designed weapons for high-precision small-unit warfare, pinpointing mostly terrorist targets.

The partnership also reduces Ukraine’s dependence on emergency aid. Instead of relying on countries to donate weapons from old stockpiles, Ukraine can help develop next-generation defense systems while securing long-term industrial partnerships.

This signals Europe’s recognition that Ukraine isn’t a temporary security problem but a permanent strategic partner. Whether Ukraine wins major contracts or smaller shares, the access fundamentally changes the relationship from charity recipient to competitive partner.

How is Russia circumventing sanctions? By sea. Ukrainian intelligence has revealed details of operations involving 42 ships engaged in transporting sanctioned Russian and Iranian oil, stolen Ukrainian grain and coal, as well as bunkering activities of the so-called “shadow fleet.”

Floating depots and false flags

Among the identified vessels is a floating storage unit of Russia’s Lukoil company in the Caspian Sea, used for transferring oil to “shadow fleet” tankers. Why does this matter? Under sanction and diplomatic pressure, many countries refuse to register such ships. Moscow responds with fraud: false flags, fake maritime registries, and falsified documents.

Russia’s systematic theft of Ukrainian grain from occupied territories has become a central feature of its war strategy, with millions of tons looted since 2022. The funds from such shadow operations are used to finance its war machine. 

According to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), over 300 ships worldwide currently sail under fake flags and fraudulent documentation, creating global risks for maritime trade and shipping safety.

War&Sanctions reveals the “shadow fleet”

The new “Ships” section on Ukraine’s War&Sanctions portal led by the intelligence agency displays over 100 Russian and Iranian tankers operating under fake flags of Panama, Malawi, Comoros, Guinea, and Palau.

HUR explains that all such vessels should be fully banned from servicing, port calls, and international straits. Flag states and the IMO must exercise strict and timely control.

More than just numbers

Overall, the portal now contains data on over 1,000 ships and 155 captains involved in transporting weapons and stolen products from temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories. This is not mere statistics — each vessel and captain reflects a complex network of Moscow and Tehran’s sanction-evading schemes.

The War&Sanctions portal enables monitoring of these schemes and provides global regulators with concrete data for action against violators. 

Ukraine will become a major military equipment supplier to European countries following the end of its war with Russia, US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said in an interview with Fox News.

The diplomat said that Ukraine would become a major supplier of military equipment to Europe against the backdrop of increased defense spending by its countries.

Whitaker said that substantial financial resources will flow into Ukraine, primarily from Europe, to assist with the country’s post-war reconstruction.

The ambassador’s comments follow December 2024 statements by Donald Trump, who warned the United States could withdraw from NATO if European countries failed to increase their defense spending from the then-current 2% to 5% of GDP.

During the NATO summit in The Hague in June, alliance leaders agreed to raise defense expenditures to 5% of GDP over the next 10 years.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) previously calculated that global defense spending reached record post-Cold War levels last year.

Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief General Oleksandr Syrskyi said in an interview with RBC-Ukraine that Russian forces have suffered defeat in the Sumy direction and are now redeploying troops to other front sections.

“In Sumy Oblast, the enemy (Russian forces) has suffered defeat,” Syrskyi said.

The Ukrainian commander said that Russia had concentrated a powerful grouping in the Sumy Oblast, including elite units.

“Despite the fact that a truly powerful grouping was concentrated there from the best Russian units – paratroopers, marines and the best motorized rifle units of the ground forces, the enemy had no success in the last two months. On the contrary, it lost several settlements,” he said.

Syrskyi highlighted the failure of Russia’s most recent offensive attempts. The latest Russian effort to advance near Stepne and Novokostiantynivka ended in complete failure, according to the commander.

“The Russian forces were destroyed, thrown back beyond the state border,” Syrskyi said.

Ukrainian forces continue their advance in this direction while Russia has begun withdrawing troops from the Sumy Oblast. “The Russian forces, understanding the futility of this direction of its actions, is now transferring units from there to other directions, mainly to Zaporizhzhia,” Syrskyi concluded.

The commander previously said in late June that Ukrainian defenders had managed to stop Russian forces in Sumy Oblast. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported that Ukrainian forces achieved certain successes in northern Sumy Oblast.

The death toll from an explosion at a gunpowder manufacturing facility in Russia’s Ryazan Oblast has risen to 20, according to the regional emergency response headquarters.

The blast occurred on morning of 15 August at the Elastik plant’s powder workshop in Shilovsky district.

The regional operational headquarters reported that some 134 people were injured, with 31 patients currently hospitalized in Ryazan and Moscow medical facilities.

Preliminary investigation findings point to violations of industrial safety requirements as the cause of the explosion and subsequent fire, according to investigators. 

The Elastik plant manufactures explosive materials and gunpowder products, primarily for military use. It has experienced several serious explosions, including a deadly one in 2025 that destroyed its gunpowder workshop. The incident on 15 August marks one of the deadliest industrial accidents in the region in recent years.

Exclusives

Ukraine’s Flamingo missile is for blasting Russian factories. Ukraine has a new cruise missile. It may be one of the hardest-hitting missiles in the world. But it’s unclear how many Kyiv can afford.

144 Russian prison guards exposed for torturing Ukrainian POWs—investigation reveals daily routine of cruelty and family life. The Molfar Intelligence Institute, a Ukrainian NGO, traced how guards commit war crimes and then return to allegedly normal homes.

Hudson Institute lists Russia’s eight most fragile military arteries Ukraine could sever next to break the stalemate. A new report highlights targets ranging from Crimean bridges to drone factories that sustain Moscow’s war effort. Analysts argue that striking these weak points could paralyze Russia’s logistics and increase the cost of occupation.

Alaska surrender: Putin scores total victory, Trump turns pressure on Ukraine. Trump abandoned $205 million daily sanctions against Russia while demanding Ukraine surrender its fortress belt—territorial concessions unprecedented since 1945.

Robot counterattack! Ukraine rolls gun-‘bots into brutal Pokrovsk battle.. Wheeled robots firing machine guns are helping Ukrainian troops defeat a deep Russian incursion near Pokrovsk.

Editorial: The summit that peacewashed genocide. Putin left Alaska knowing genocide pays. Every dictator was watching.

Military

Ukrainian sniper pulls off record 4-km shot that killed two Russians. Yes, it took AI. The strike near Pokrovsk used a 14.5 mm Snipex Alligator rifle guided by drones and AI, doubling the weapon’s official range.

Russia launched 60 drones and a missile overnight—Ukraine downed 40, but 12 locations still hit. Air Force says waves of Shaheds and decoys struck targets in three frontline oblasts late on 16 August.

Kadyrov’s fighters were driving truck into Melitopol base when Ukraine struck, wiping out Russian aresenal. The Ukrainian intelligence struck deep in the occupied city, destroying a key military arsenal.

Frontline report: The clock is ticking for Azov to turn Russia’s Pokrovsk breakthrough into a trap

. Azov’s mission exploits Russian overextension—troops pushed 13 kilometers in four days but left flanks exposed.

Ukraine hit a Russian convoy in Kursk — deputy commander of Moscow’s North grouping lost an arm and leg. The strike in Kursk Oblast forced Moscow to rush its deputy commander to emergency surgery, HUR says.

A direct drone strike lit up Liski rail station—Russia confirmed train delays across its southern network (video). Despite claiming mass interceptions, Russian officials acknowledged the hit on one of their key transport arteries.

Volgograd refinery goes up in smoke again—two days after a major drone strike (video). The fire broke out during reported “repairs” as emergency vehicles rushed in and sirens rang across the city.

Pokrovsk cleared of Russian infiltrators — but Dobropillia front still unstable, Ukrainian military says. Ukrainian forces also cleared villages near Dobropillia, including Hruzke, Rubizhne, Novovodiane, Petrovka, Vesele, and Zolotyi Kolodiaz, dissecting the Russian push.

Frontline report: Russian commanders vanish after questioning orders of “meat grinder” near Pokrovsk. Russia systematically uses deceived Central Asian migrants and forcibly mobilized separatists from occupied areas as cannon fodder, reflecting Moscow’s willingness to sacrifice marginalized populations for symbolic land victories.

Intelligence and technology

Frontline report: Azerbaijan is mass-producing 122mm and 155mm shells — Ukraine wants them all. Russia hit Azerbaijan’s oil sites in Ukraine. Baku answered by threatening to send weapons.

Ukraine sanctions Russia’s international AI drone networks. Russian, Chinese, and Belarusian companies hit with new sanctions for supplying Russian drone manufacturing.

International

The Economist: Trump team is “unbelievably aggressive” toward Ukraine in land concession push. A Kyiv officer warned US negotiators are pressing Ukraine to yield territory, raising fears Washington is advancing Russia’s interests.

Europe ditched Ukraine troop plan 4 days ago — now it’s back after US security promise. Trump’s Article 5-style pledge, reportedly agreed in Alaska talks with Putin, revived plans for a multinational force in Ukraine.

Trump envoy: Putin agrees to NATO-like security guarantees for Ukraine, vows law blocking Russian attacks on Europe

. Steve Witkoff said Russia agreed to NATO-style protections for Kyiv and to pass a law forbidding future Russian invasions of European countries.

Trump met Putin – now Zelenskyy brings 5 European leaders, NATO, and the EU to the Oval Office. The Washington meeting comes days after Donald Trump’s Alaska talks with Vladimir Putin unsettled Kyiv and its allies.

Humanitarian and social impact

One note forced failed Russian businessman to choose survival over duty on Toretsk front. A former crypto entrepreneur, thrown into combat, obeyed a drone’s message and escaped the fate of his comrade.

Read our earlier daily review here.

Russian propagandists published a video showing Russian military forces riding an American-made armored vehicle flying both Russian and American flags allegedly in occupied Ukrainian territory. 

The propaganda video emerges against the backdrop of the controversial Trump-Putin summit that took place on August 15, 2025, in Anchorage, Alaska. The meeting failed to produce a peace deal for Ukraine, despite Trump’s expectations for progress.

The footage shows what was described as a “trophy” American M113 armored personnel carrier adorned with flags from both nations. Russian propagandists claimed the vehicle was “rushing into battle” near the village of Mala Tokmachka in Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

Andriy Yermak, Head of Ukraine’s Presidential Office, strongly condemned the propaganda video.

“How should this be understood? Russian propagandists are showing a video where Russian equipment goes on the attack with flags of Russia and the USA,” Yermak wrote on Telegram. “In fact, Russians are using United States symbols in their own terrorist, aggressive war with the killing of civilian people. Maximum audacity.”

The authenticity of the video could not be verified by Euromaidan Press.

Day 1271

On 17 August, the biggest news comes from the Pokrovsk direction.

The Azov army corps has taken up full operational control over stabilizing the Russian breakthrough at Pokrovsk. With the situation reaching critical levels and threatening to overturn a year of Ukraine’s fortification work, Azov and its battalions are immediately getting to work on smashing the Russian salient back across the river.

As Russians took Ukrainians by surprise, they broke through 18 kilometers deep behind the Ukrainian front line and penetrated through Ukraine’s new Donbas defense line while it was unmanned. However, as the reality of the situation got through to the Ukrainian high command, they acted quickly and redeployed Ukraine’s 1^st national guard army corps, led by the famed Azov brigade at its head. The Russian salient is deep but narrow, enough so that it could be pincered, cut off from reinforcements, and destroyed if the Azov corps was up to the task.

The recently redeployed forces immediately got to work, as the first step was to prevent the Russians from expanding their salient, allowing them to entrench and threaten Ukrainian logistics further on an operational scale. Open source military analysts show that the 1^st Da Vinci assault regiment attacked the Russian breakthrough head-on, and during the first day of clashes, they were able to blunt the spearhead and push the Russians back to Zolotyi Kolodiaz. Recent reports from various Russian, Ukrainian, and Western military analysts now show that they conducted a follow-up operation the next day, and pushed Russians out of the settlement and are overrunning Russian positions up to 4 kilometers below; recapturing the New Donbas Defense line in the process.

Further south along the thin Russian salient, elements of the Azov brigade launched rapid counterattacks on the Russians’ left flank, as the 93^rd mechanized brigade assaulted the Russians from the east. Satellite data shows numerous impact craters of Russian aviation glide bombs all over both sides of the salient, the locations of which indicate the Ukrainian attack was very successful and resulted in the capture of Kutuzivka, with prominent Russian and Ukrainian sources noting Ukrainians have fully encircled the Russians in two separate pockets.

Possibly realizing their goals were becoming too ambitious, Russians attempted an offshoot maneuver between Rodynske and Bilytske, hoping to at least achieve an operational encirclement of Pokrovsk as their larger breakthrough was faltering.

However, Azov quickly responded to this maneuver as well, rapidly cutting off the Russian axis of advance and eliminating dozens of Russian soldiers.

Command of the Azov units reports that in the past several days of fighting, the 1^st Army Corps has eliminated 271 Russian soldiers, wounded over 101, and has taken 13 Russian men as prisoners of war. Geolocated combat footage shows Ukrainian drones dropping grenades on Russian soldiers in fields and captured Ukrainian-made fortifications, fiber optic FPV’s eliminating Russians in houses and around the settlements, and four young Russian men having been taken prisoner after immediately surrendering to Ukrainian forces once the counterattacks commenced.

Notably, while Russians have crossed the Kazenyi Torets River, they did not take control of any major river crossings or a particularly wide base to transfer manpower and logistics over. Therefore, Russian sources report that Ukraine’s highly mobile drone detachments have now focused their fire on the base of the Russian salient at the river.

Russian analysts note they have completely lost control over this area, as Ukrainians have now officially and effectively cut off the Russian breakthrough through drone fire control, without having to expend any manpower to conduct a physical counterattack. Notably, Ukrainians were then able to physically move into Nykanorivka and Nove Sakhove, with the rest of the area being returned to the grey zone and under tight Ukrainian drone control.

Overall, Ukrainians have curbed the immediate threat of the Russian Dobropillia breakthrough and completed the encirclement of an estimated 800 Russian soldiers, hundreds of whom have already been eliminated in the fighting of the past few days. The Azov army corps’ decisive actions have been highly successful, blunting the Russian spearhead, pushing Russian forces away from critical supply lines, dismantling additional attempts to branch out, encircling Russians in several pockets with little cover to hide, and most importantly, clearing Russians out of the New Donbas Defense line; eliminating the operational-level threat posed by the Russian salient only days earlier.

Now, Ukrainians are poised to finish the job, to completely destroy what remains of the already brutalized Russian soldiers.

In our regular frontline report, we pair up with the military blogger Reporting from Ukraine to keep you informed about what is happening on the battlefield in the Russo-Ukrainian war.

Russian forces launched ballistic missile strikes on Zaporizhzhia on the morning of 18 August, injuring six people in the regional center, according to Zaporizhzhia Oblast Governor Ivan Fedorov.

According to Fedorov, at least two explosions followed in the oblast shortly after the warning about the attack.

“Russian Forces deliberately try to hit the city’s critical infrastructure,” Fedorov said.

The casualty count increased throughout the morning. By 10:02 am, six people had been injured, with two hospitalized in serious condition, reports the regional administration.

The attack followed an evening airstrike on 16 August that killed a 15-year-old boy in the village of Novoyakovlivka. The teenager’s entire family – parents and younger siblings – sustained injuries in that strike. Two additional men were also wounded.

The combined casualties from both attacks total 17 people injured and one killed across Zaporizhzhia Oblast over a 12-hour period.

Russian forces have repeatedly targeted energy infrastructure and civilian areas in Zaporizhzhia Oblast since the start of the full-scale invasion. The region hosts Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, currently under Russian occupation.

Overnight on 18 August Russian forces also targeted Kharkiv and Odesa. About six people are killed in Kharkiv, including two children.

Russian forces launched a drone attack on oil terminals belonging to Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR in Odesa Oblast overnight on 18 August, triggering a major fire at the fuel infrastructure facility, according to regional officials.

Odesa Oblast Governor Oleh Kiper said that despite active air defense operations, the attack resulted in significant damage in the Odesa district.

A fire broke out at a fuel and energy infrastructure facility and a two-story building in the suburbs of Odesa, according to Kiper.

Former Deputy Prosecutor General Gunduz Mamedov identified the target as SOCAR’s oil terminals in a social media post. Sources within Ukraine’s State Emergency Service told Ukrainska Pravda that 10 drones were used in the attack on the Azerbaijani facility.

The emergency response involved over 100 personnel, including rescuers, volunteers, National Guard firefighters, and local fire brigade teams. Ukrainian Railways deployed a fire train to assist with extinguishing the blaze.

Preliminary reports indicate no casualties or injuries resulted from the attack.

This marks the second strike on SOCAR facilities in Odesa Oblast within 10 days. On 8 August, Russian forces hit the same oil depot with five Shahed-type drones, causing fires and damaging a diesel fuel pipeline.

The overnight assault was part of a broader Russian attack involving four missiles and 140 drones targeting multiple Ukrainian oblasts. Ukraine’s Air Force reported that air defense systems shot down or suppressed 88 Russian drones across northern, southern, eastern, and central areas of the country by 9:00 am.

The attacks resulted in confirmed strikes at 25 locations across Donetsk, Kharkiv, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, and Kyiv oblasts.

The Russian military regularly attacks Ukrainian oblasts with various types of weapons, killing civilians and destroying hospitals, schools, kindergartens, energy and water supply facilities. The Ukrainian authorities and international organisations qualify these strikes as war crimes by Russia and emphasise that they are of a targeted nature.

Overnight on 18 August, Russian forces also attacked residential building in Kharkiv, killing five people, including two children.

Rescue workers have recovered another body from the rubble of a residential building damaged by Russian strikes in Kharkiv, bringing the death toll to five people, including two children.

According to Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov, there are already four dead, including one child.

Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov later confirmed the fifth casualty, including a 1.5-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy.

The number of injured has reached 20 people as of 9:30 am, with six children among the casualties, according to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine. Rescue teams have saved two people from the debris, and search operations continue.

About five people are currently considered missing, according to Syniehubov.

Russian forces targeted Kharkiv with Geran-2 type drones, with four unmanned aerial vehicles hitting a five-story residential building. The strike caused structural damage and fires broke out in the building.

Mayor Terekhov said that 18 August has been declared a day of mourning in Kharkiv for the victims of the attack.

The Russian military regularly attacks Ukrainian oblasts with various types of weapons, killing civilians and destroying hospitals, schools, kindergartens, energy and water supply facilities. The Ukrainian authorities and international organisations qualify these strikes as war crimes by Russia and emphasise that they are of a targeted nature.

Regional casualties mount across Kharkiv Oblast

The deadly strike on Kharkiv was part of broader attacks across the region that left 34 people injured over the past 24 hours. Russian forces struck the city of Kharkiv and 10 settlements throughout Kharkiv Oblast, according to regional authorities.

In Kupiansk, a 43-year-old man was injured in the attacks. The village of Lisne in the Malodanyliv community saw three casualties: two men aged 49 and 51, and a 48-year-old woman.

Russian forces deployed an extensive arsenal against the region, launching one Iskander-M missile and 33 unmanned aerial vehicles of various types. The attack package included 20 Geran-2 drones, two Lancet drones, two Molnia drones, one FPV drone, and five drones of undetermined type. Russian forces also used two guided aerial bombs in the assault.

Infrastructure damage spreads across multiple districts

The strikes damaged civilian infrastructure across four districts. In Kharkiv city, 19 apartment buildings and 25 vehicles sustained damage from the attacks.

Kupiansk district bore significant damage, with apartment and private buildings hit in Kupiansk city and Pidserednie village. The village of Shevchenkove saw damage to an enterprise and six vehicles, while storage facilities were damaged in Hnylytsya village.

Chuhuiv district reported damage to a warehouse and vehicle in Kochetok village, while a private house was damaged in Horokhovatka village in Izium district.

Ground combat intensifies on two fronts

Ukrainian forces recorded 182 combat clashes across the front over the past 24 hours. On the South Slobozhansk direction, Russian forces launched 13 assault attempts against Ukrainian positions near Vovchansk and toward the settlements of Khatnie and Odradne.

The Kupiansk direction saw 12 Russian attacks throughout the day. Ukrainian defense forces repelled Russian assault actions near Zapadne, Kindrashivka, Petropavlivka, and Stepova Novoselivka, as well as attacks directed toward Kupiansk and Nova Kruhliakivka.

The Flamingo, a product of Kyiv-based manufacturer Fire Point, weighs in a staggering 6,000 kg. That’s four times what the American Tomahawk cruise missile weighs. The rocket-propelled Flamingo should be able to haul a 1,000-kg warhead over a distance of 3,000 km while under satellite and inertial guidance.

Speeding along at 560 km/hr, the ramp-launched missile should be able to avoid all but the best Russian air defenses. Ranging twice as far as the best current Ukrainian deep-strike munitions, and with a warhead that several times heavier, the Flamingo has the potential to significantly escalate Ukraine’s strategic bombardment campaign targeting Russian factories, air bases and oil refineries.

While the Flamingo’s existence has long been rumored, it wasn’t until this weekend that Associated Press journalist Efrem Lukatsky confirmed it—with a photo of two of the huge missiles on their trailers at a workshop somewhere in Ukraine.

If the Flamingo looks familiar, it’s because it’s apparently a development of the FP-5 missile from Emirati firm Milanion. The FP-5 itself seems to borrow heavily from a missile with a storied history in Soviet and Ukrainian service: the Tupolev Tu-141.

The 5,400-kg Tu-141 was a reconnaissance drone—a product of the Kharkiv Aviation Plant in Ukraine. Ranging 1,000 km under inertial guidance at a top speed of 1,000 km/hr, it carried cameras instead of explosives. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, it left potentially dozens of Tu-141s behind in Ukraine along with the type’s assembly line.

A few of the 50-year-old Tu-141s were still flyable when Russia widened its war on Ukraine in February 2022. Enterprising Ukrainian technicians got to work repairing the old drones, testing their engines and replacing with cameras with warheads. They may also have added modern satellite navigation to complement or replace their old analogue inertial computers.

Crude cruise missiles

The rebuilt Tu-141s were some of Ukraine’s first deep-strike munitions. Following a difficult teething period that resulted in at least two Tu-141s crashing, the remaining drones attacked. On Oct. 7, 2022, Ukrainian drones—possibly Tu-141s—struck Shaykovka Air Base, 200 km from the Ukrainian border. There were reports of damage to two Tupolev Tu-22M bombers.

Subsequent drones raids on Dec. 5, 2022—possibly also the work of Tu-141s—targeted the bomber bases at Engels-2 and Dyagilevo, both 600 km from Ukraine. More drones hit Engels-2 on Dec. 26, 2022. By March 2023, the last few Tu-141s had crashed or been shot down, it seems. Soon, much more modern drones replaced the Tu-141s as Ukraine struck more targets inside Russia.

But these modern drones lack range and striking power. Arguably the best Ukrainian deep-strike drone, the propeller-driven, satellite-guided Ukroboronprom An-196, ranges 800 km with a 50-kg warhead. And it does so slowly, cruising at just 320 km/hr.

With their limited range and small warheads, the drones can damage the closest and most delicate Russian targets such as the distillation towers at oil refineries in western Russia. But they can’t do much to halt operations at bigger, more distant strategic facilities—for instance, the Shahed drone factory that sprawls across nearly 160,000 sq m in Yelabuga, 1,500 km from Ukraine.

A barrage of Flamingo missiles just might stand a chance of taking out the Shahed factory and similar hard targets. If Ukraine can afford to build the missiles in large numbers. It’s unclear how much a Flamingo costs, but it’s worth noting that most American and Russian cruise missiles set back their taxpayers more than $1 million per round.

It took German financing for Ukraine to ramp up production of the An-196, which costs around $200,000 per copy. Absent a big financial commitment from an ally, Kyiv may struggle to build up an arsenal of hundreds of Flamingos—which is what it might take to make a real dent in Russian industry in the regions currently beyond reach of Ukraine’s deep-strike munitions.

Today, the biggest news comes from Azerbaijan, where a sudden escalation shattered regional stability as Russian airstrikes targeted and destroyed key Azerbaijani state oil infrastructure in Ukraine. In response, Türkiye signaled its readiness to deploy forces to Azerbaijan, setting the stage for a large-scale rebalancing of power in the South Caucasus.

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Calls for permanent Turkish troop presence in Azerbaijan

In Azerbaijan, calls are growing for Turkish troops to serve as permanent peacekeepers and security guarantors against any future Russian move. The idea gained momentum after an Azerbaijani journalist asked President Recep Tayyip Erdogan when the Turkish Army would come to Azerbaijan, noting that without it, there is always the risk of a new Russian occupation.

Azerbaijanis argue that Turkish soldiers are the ultimate deterrent to Moscow, as Russia continues moving additional troops toward the Azerbaijani border and reinforcing its bases in Armenia, despite Armenian protests.

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Türkiye’s military footprint already expanding

Turkish special forces and advisors already rotate through Azerbaijani units, and the private military company Sadat has an established presence. But the current push is for a permanent, full-scale Turkish military presence in Azerbaijan.

By shaping public debate in both countries, Ankara is testing the waters for permanent deployment — a move that would complicate any Russian military action in the Caucasus.

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Azerbaijan breaks with Soviet military systems

At the same time, Azerbaijan is breaking with Soviet traditions. President Ilham Aliyev has ordered a full switch from Russia’s military coordinate grid system to the US-developed World Geodetic System (WGS), the NATO standard.

This removes one of the last major Russian frameworks still embedded in Azerbaijani defense planning. By adopting it, Azerbaijan can now ensure seamless interoperability with Turkish and allied forces, sharing targeting data and reconnaissance instantly without conversion delays.

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Strategic signal: Preparing for potential conflict with Russia

The technical shift carries a clear strategic signal: Azerbaijan is aligning its military infrastructure with the West, removing dependency on Russian systems in wartime.

This strengthens the case for permanent Turkish troop deployments, ensuring both forces could operate jointly from day one.

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Russia strikes SOCAR facilities in Ukraine

The sharpest warning came after Russian missile and drone strikes destroyed facilities of SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state oil company, in Ukraine.

In response, Baku threatened to go beyond humanitarian and defensive support — raising the possibility of sending weapons directly to Ukraine.

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Azerbaijan’s potential arms supplies to Ukraine

Notably, the Baku-based Avia-Agregat plant began producing 122mm and 155mm artillery shells in 2022, using Turkish and Bulgarian production lines. These are exactly the munitions Ukraine urgently needs.

If Baku scales up deliveries, it would mark a geopolitical turning point: a former Russian ally openly arming Ukraine, signaling Moscow’s deepening isolation.

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Russia’s provocations risk backfiring

By striking SOCAR assets, Russia risks provoking a stronger Azerbaijani military role in Ukraine, one that Baku could pursue without fear if Turkish peacekeepers are deployed in the region.

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From energy strikes to strategic realignment

What began as targeted strikes on energy facilities is now feeding into a broader realignment:

• Azerbaijan seeks Turkish troop deployments.
• It is embedding NATO systems into its military.
• And it is considering weapons deliveries to Ukraine.

Each step directly counters Moscow’s provocations and further isolates Russia.

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Conclusion: A risky gamble for the Kremlin

The irony is clear: by hitting SOCAR in Ukraine, Russia may have accelerated trends already underway, turning Azerbaijan into an active security partner for both Türkiye and Ukraine.

In trying to punish Baku, the Kremlin could instead push it firmly into the opposing camp, with consequences far beyond the oil sector.

In our regular frontline report, we pair up with the military blogger Reporting from Ukraine to keep you informed about what is happening on the battlefield in the Russo-Ukrainian war.

A Ukrainian intelligence officer has warned that the Americans are being “unbelievably aggressive” in pressuring Kyiv to concede more territory to Russia. According to The Economist, Ukrainian officials fear Washington is aligning too closely with Moscow’s terms after last week’s Trump-Putin summit in Alaska.

His remarks come just days after Trump’s highly controversial meeting with Putin in Alaska, where the US president echoed elements of the Kremlin’s peace demands. That encounter alarmed European and Ukrainian leaders, who fear Washington may be edging closer to Moscow’s agenda and weakening Western unity.

“They want to maximise the package they will get in return—from sanctions relief, to the return of seized assets, to the re-opening of energy markets,” the officer said. “What… is far less clear is why the Trump administration was pushing so forcefully to promote Russia’s interests.”

Relief gives way to unease

Initial reaction in Ukraine was one of relief that Donald Trump had not struck a “grand bargain” with Vladimir Putin. “Disaster averted: Trump has not sold us down the river,” one MP commented. But optimism quickly turned to unease as it became clear that Trump had sided with Putin’s sequencing of peace talks.

Instead of insisting on a ceasefire first, Trump embraced the Russian president’s call for a “comprehensive peace.” Adviser Serhiy Leshchenko reiterated that “a ceasefire must come before a more general agreement,” but Washington’s stance appears to have shifted.

Putin’s demands

At the summit, Putin reportedly repeated demands for Ukraine to withdraw from parts of Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts, in exchange for minor territorial concessions in Sumy and Kharkiv. Analysts note this would leave Russia in a stronger position to renew attacks in the future.

Former Ukrainian diplomat Roman Bezsmertny accused Putin of exploiting Trump’s ambitions: “Under Mr Putin’s spell, Trump is an incapacitated politician.”

Public opinion hardens

War fatigue has shifted opinion in Ukraine toward pragmatism. Polls show a majority willing to accept Russia’s current occupation in exchange for strong Western guarantees. But there are clear limits. Anton Hrushetskyi of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology said “less than one in five” Ukrainians would accept the land swaps Trump is said to favour.

Next steps

Zelensky will meet Trump in Washington on 18 August, ahead of a possible three-way summit with Putin later this week. But Ukrainians fear the outcome may already be tilted. As Trump put it on Fox News: “Make a deal. Russia is a very big power. [You] are not.”

After consultations with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Coalition of the Willing confirmed its readiness to provide security guarantees for Ukraine, including the deployment of a multinational military contingent on Ukrainian territory.

Earlier in the year, plans were floated for a 30,000-strong force, but without US participation, European governments were reluctant to commit. As recently as this week, The Times reported the plan was effectively off the table, replaced by scaled-back measures such as air patrols, training Ukrainian forces, and demining the Black Sea.

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US role transforms the scenario

That changed when Donald Trump reportedly agreed to offer Ukraine an Article 5-style security guarantee. Unlike NATO membership, this would not make Ukraine part of the alliance but would still provide a collective-defense commitment resembling NATO’s core clause.

US envoy Steve Witkoff called it “game-changing”, noting that Vladimir Putin had, for the first time, agreed to such protections during talks in Alaska.

The official statement from Macron and Starmer, released by Downing Street, underlined the coalition’s new confidence:

“The leaders reaffirmed support for Ukraine, praised Zelenskyy’s push for peace, and welcomed Trump’s security guarantees—saying the Coalition of the Willing will play a vital role through the Multinational Force Ukraine.”

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Leaders react

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer reiterated:

“Our support for Ukraine is unwavering—international borders must not be changed by force.”

French President Emmanuel Macron warned:

“If we are weak with Russia, we are preparing for tomorrow’s conflicts.”

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What comes next

With US backing secured, the coalition now signals readiness to deploy a peacekeeping and reassurance force once fighting ends, while also securing Ukraine’s skies and seas and helping to rebuild its armed forces. UK Defense Secretary John Healey confirmed that British troops are prepared to take part.

European leaders—including Starmer and Macron—will now travel to Washington DC for talks with Trump and Zelenskyy, aiming to finalize the guarantees and shape the coalition’s role.

A Ukrainian sniper from the elite Pryvyd (“Ghost”) unit has reportedly killed two Russian soldiers with a single bullet through the window of an occupied building from an extraordinary 2.5 miles (4,000 m) away — believed to be the longest confirmed sniper kill ever recorded.

The shot took place on 14 August, between Myrnohrad and Pokrovsk in eastern Donetsk Oblast, just as Russia claimed a breakthrough near Pokrovsk. Although Ukrainian forces have pressed back with some success, the battle remains fierce. At the same time, President Vladimir Putin demanded that Ukraine withdraw from Donetsk and Luhansk to end the war — a proposal Kyiv firmly rejected, insisting it will not surrender land still under its control.

A Ukrainian sniper may have set a world record.

From 4 km (2.5 miles), one round hit a window—
2 Russian soldiers fell instantly.

The rifle: a 14.5 mm Snipex Alligator.
The assist: drones + AI.

If confirmed, it’s the longest sniper shot ever reported.

Video: Butusov+ pic.twitter.com/zxB16TW0pa

— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) August 17, 2025

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How it happened: Tech meets precision

• Rifle Used: 14.5 mm Snipex Alligator, an anti-materiel rifle originally meant to destroy equipment, not personnel. Its official effective range is 2,000 m—only half the distance achieved in this shot.
• Guidance Tools: The sniper used AI-assisted targeting and drone surveillance to calibrate the record-breaking strike.

Journalist Yurii Butusov released the footage and praised the performance:

“Incredible accuracy and a new world record for the longest range!” he wrote on Telegram.

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Shattering sniper records

If confirmed, this milestone surpasses the previous Ukrainian record of 3,800 m, set by Vyacheslav Kovalskyi in November 2023 with the Lord of the Horizon rifle.

Other historic long-range marks include:

• 3,540 m — Canadian sniper vs. ISIS fighter (2017)
• 2,478 m — British sniper Craig Harrison vs. Taliban fighter (2009)

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Innovation born of necessity

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukraine has become a testing ground for battlefield innovation. Sniper teams now regularly combine drones, AI software, and forward observers, often surpassing the original limits of their hardware.

As Defence Express noted:

“Real-life experience has shown … the actual capabilities of Ukrainian weapons, which have far exceeded their creators’ expectations.”

President Donald Trump’s top envoy, Steve Witkoff, said that last week’s Alaska summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin produced “significant progress” on security guarantees for Ukraine and potential compromises over territory.

His remarks come just days after Trump’s highly controversial meeting with Putin in Alaska, where the US president echoed elements of the Kremlin’s peace demands. That encounter alarmed European and Ukrainian leaders, who fear Washington may be edging closer to Moscow’s agenda and weakening Western unity.

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Security guarantees: a “game-changer”

Witkoff told CNN that Putin agreed to “robust security guarantees” for Ukraine, similar to NATO’s Article 5 mutual defense commitment.

“We agreed to robust security guarantees that I would describe as game changing,” Witkoff said, adding that Russia pledged to codify into law a commitment not to invade Ukraine—or any other European country—as part of a final peace deal.

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Russian concessions on territory

According to Witkoff, Putin also made “some concessions” regarding his long-standing demands for Ukrainian land. While the envoy declined to name specific regions, he suggested Moscow is shifting toward negotiating around current front lines, rather than insisting on full administrative control of multiple Ukrainian provinces.

European outlets including Reuters and the Financial Times reported that Russia floated freezing the front lines in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, while potentially withdrawing from parts of Sumy and Kharkiv, in exchange for Ukrainian concessions in the Donbas.

“The Russians made some concessions at the table with regard to all five of those regions,” Witkoff noted. “Hopefully we can cut through and make some decisions right then and there” when Trump meets Ukraine’s leadership.

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White House meeting with Zelenskyy and Europeans

On 18 August, Trump will host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House, joined by European leaders. Discussions are expected to center on both security guarantees and the territorial framework of a potential peace deal.

The meeting follows a late-night phone call after the Alaska summit in which Trump, Witkoff, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and NATO allies coordinated on next steps.

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US officials stress no pressure on Kyiv

Secretary of State Marco Rubio pushed back against speculation that Washington is pressuring Ukraine to surrender territory.

“No one is pressuring Ukraine to give up land,” Rubio told NBC. “Putin is asking for things Ukrainians are not willing to accept—and we’re not going to force them.”

Rubio also downplayed the effectiveness of fresh sanctions, warning they would not push Moscow toward peace:

“They’re already under very tough sanctions. More sanctions won’t make them agree to a ceasefire.”

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Trump declares “BIG PROGRESS”

Shortly after the Alaska talks, Trump posted on Truth Social:

“BIG PROGRESS ON RUSSIA. STAY TUNED!”

The president offered no details, but the message came ahead of Zelenskyy’s Oval Office visit and renewed efforts to shape a broader settlement.

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The road ahead: fragile diplomatic terrain

Despite Witkoff’s upbeat assessment, Ukrainian officials remain wary. According to Financial Times, some in Kyiv described the Alaska summit as “horrible,” warning it could lead to a deal resembling capitulation. European leaders, too, worry that Trump’s closeness to Putin may erode solidarity within NATO.

Rubio tempered expectations, saying that while the summit produced “movement,” a comprehensive peace deal remains far off.

“There has to be talk about territories, about Ukraine’s long-term security, and about rebuilding the country,” Rubio said. “If there’s going to be a deal, each side will have to give up something.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will arrive in Washington on Monday accompanied by an extensive lineup of European leaders for talks with US President Donald Trump.

The meeting, set for 18 August in the Oval Office, comes just days after Trump’s controversial summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska. That encounter, where Trump echoed parts of Putin’s peace demands, has alarmed European and Ukrainian leaders who fear Washington may be drifting toward Moscow’s agenda.

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High-profile delegation

According to international media, the delegation includes:

• French President Emmanuel Macron
• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz
• UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer
• Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni
• Finnish President Alexander Stubb
• European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen
• NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte

Their joint appearance is widely seen as an effort to bolster Zelenskyy’s position in Washington, amid concerns that Trump’s rapport with Putin could undercut Ukraine’s leverage.

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Trump eyes trilateral summit with Putin

Following the Oval Office talks, Trump reportedly wants to stage a trilateral summit with Putin and Zelenskyy on 22 August, according to Axios.

Anonymous sources say Trump has already discussed this idea in phone calls with Zelenskyy and European leaders. His warm embrace of Putin in Alaska raised alarms across Europe.

“European leaders fear Zelenskyy may not receive the same friendly treatment in Washington,” Politico reported.

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A show of support

European capitals are calling this delegation a “desant of support.”

• Macron, Merz, and Starmer form the core of the so-called “coalition of the willing.”
• Meloni, ideologically close to Trump, is expected to add weight to the talks.
• Rutte, who enjoys good relations with Trump, will be present.
• Finland’s Stubb — a personal golfing partner of Trump — may serve as a mediator to keep discussions on track.

As BBC News Ukraine noted, Stubb once spent seven hours at Mar-a-Lago with Trump, using golf diplomacy to build trust.

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Putin’s demands in Alaska

At the Alaska summit, Putin made sweeping demands, described by Reuters as:

• Ukraine’s withdrawal from all government-held Donbas territory, in exchange for Russia giving up small parts of Kharkiv and Sumy Oblasts it occupies.
• US recognition of Crimea as Russian.
• Partial sanctions relief.
• Expanded rights for the Russian language and Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
• A permanent ban on NATO membership for Ukraine, with vague promises of third-party guarantees.

“At least some of the demands represent an enormous challenge for Ukraine’s leadership,” Reuters wrote.

Journalist: “When will you stop killing civilians?”
Putin pretends not to hear.
Minutes later — he and Trump slip into the presidential Cadillac for talks. pic.twitter.com/z7mrfIfIgl

— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) August 15, 2025

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Zelenskyy: No trade on territory

Zelenskyy has firmly rejected any idea of surrendering land.

“Real negotiations must start from the current front line,” he said in Brussels after talks with von der Leyen. “The contact line is the best line for discussions.”

He stressed that under Ukraine’s Constitution, “trading land or surrendering territory is impossible.” If Russia refuses, he added, new sanctions must follow.

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Von der Leyen: “Stop the killings”

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen underlined that ending civilian deaths is the top priority.

“The result must be an end to the killings. That is point number one,” she said.

She also expressed support for a trilateral meeting of Russia, the US, and Ukraine.

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Security guarantees discussed

European officials confirmed that Trump floated the idea of security guarantees for Ukraine, possibly modeled on NATO’s Article 5.

Zelenskyy welcomed the move: “It is important that America agrees to work with Europe to provide security guarantees. This is a significant step forward.”

Yet, details remain unclear. Who would enforce them? What role would the US and EU play? Putin, for his part, suggested China could be a guarantor — a proposal viewed skeptically in the West.

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The “Finnish model” debate

Some Western analysts have floated the idea of Ukraine following a “Finnish path” — ceding territory in exchange for peace, as Finland did with the USSR in 1944.

But Finnish President Stubb rejected the comparison, arguing that Finland lost two of three pillars of its statehood under Stalin’s settlement. He insists such concessions would be disastrous for Ukraine.

The Ukrainian intelligence has dealt a devastating blow to Russian forces in the occupied part of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. A new Kyiv operation has burned down an arsenal, destroyed ammunition, and eliminated Russian marines, together with Kadyrov’s fighters in Melitopol.

Explosion in the industrial zone

According to the Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR), on 16 August 2025, Ukrainian forces incinerated an ammunition depot and blew up Russian military positions.

The explosion occurred when a truck carrying personnel entered the industrial area on Korvatskoho passage.

“As a result, at least six Russian invaders from the marine infantry were eliminated, as well as the UAV crew of the so-called Kadyrov battalion Akhmad-Vostok. The explosion also set fire to the ammunition depot, and secondary detonations were heard,” HUR reports.

“Akhmad-Vostok”: Kadyrov’s punitive squad

The eliminated fighters belonged to the Kadyrovite battalion Akhmad-Vostok. This Chechen formation within the Russian National Guard is controlled by Ramzan Kadyrov.

It is notorious for its brutality, propaganda, and participation in the bloodiest battles in Donbas and Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

Since the beginning of the invasion in 2022, Akhmad-Vostok has performed punitive functions, conducted “cleansing” operations, and terrorized the local population. Ukrainian intelligence has repeatedly recorded the unit’s presence on the front line in the hottest combat zones.

Melitopol: occupiers’ logistics hub and humanitarian catastrophe

Melitopol is a key supply hub for Russian forces in Zaporizhzhia Oblast. The city suffers from a humanitarian crisis: water and power outages, repression against local residents, raids and searches.

The HUR operation in Melitopol sent a clear signal: Ukrainian resistance continues even deep in enemy-held territory, and the occupiers can feel safe nowhere.

Today, there is dangerous news from the Pokrovsk direction. Here, the Russians pushed their breakthrough on the eastern flank in a surprise direction, putting the new Ukrainian Donbas defense line to the northwest in critical danger before it could be manned. With the gap already exploited by the enemy, the Ukrainian command now has a brief window to fix the situation by redeploying its most lethal unit, the Azov Brigade.

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Shift from Avdiivka playbook

After the initial Russian push on the eastern flank, the expectation was that Russian forces would try to repeat their Avdiivka playbook, encircling Pokrovsk from the east through a slow tightening of the flanks. Instead, Russian commanders made a sharper and bolder move, as they identified a thinly held section of the Ukrainian line to the north and rushed it before proper defense and coordination could be established.

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Threat to newly built Donbas defense line

The push was aimed not only at threatening Pokrovsk but also at undermining the newly constructed Donbas defense line, a layered system of trenches, fortified points, and natural barriers designed to slow attackers until drone operators and mobile reserves could respond.

Over several days, Russian forces advanced between Shakhove and Dobropillia, using infiltration tactics to seize or contest multiple settlements. Russian troops used the tree lines to infiltrate the settlements, where they began building up forces. They pushed into several of them, making gains and breaking through at almost 13 kilometers deep in around 3 to 4 days. Alarmingly, they then pressed forward and bypassed the newly built heavy fortifications with ease while they were unmanned, threatening to turn these strongpoints against Ukrainian defenders.

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Russians press toward strategic highway

Now, they are attempting to entrench near Novovodiane, pressing toward the Dobropillia–Kramatorsk highway. This advance was in part made possible by a breakdown in Ukrainian coordination. Although the Armed Forces have largely overcome past issues with communication and transparency, in this most critical sector of the frontline the old weakness resurfaced.

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Breakdown in Ukrainian coordination

Commanders from one brigade reported to higher headquarters that the situation was under control, claiming that all enemy forces had been neutralized, even as soldiers on the ground urgently reported ongoing Russian infiltration and force buildup. A shortage of manpower meant that even well-prepared defensive positions were left under-defended, while the integrated response, combining drones, artillery, and aviation, failed to be deployed with the speed and cohesion required to stop the enemy advance.

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Russian disinformation and recon failures

Government-linked Russian analysts publicly downplayed the gains, calling them reconnaissance and infiltration operations, not a breakthrough, further playing into the Ukrainian underestimation of the Russian threat. But in reality, once the gap was found, the Russian command sent actual assault forces, not just small sabotage teams. This also reveals a failure of Ukrainian reconnaissance and intelligence, as if drone surveillance here had been sufficiently layered and constant, such movements would likely have been detected and targeted long before they reached such dangerous depth.

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Azov brigade redeployed to Pokrovsk

The urgency of the situation is underscored by a public letter from a prominent Azov Brigade commander to President Zelenskyy. He warned that once the Russians take control of Ukraine’s defensive structures, removing them will be close to impossible. The only viable response is an immediate pincer maneuver to cut off the spearhead from reinforcement, followed by a clearing operation.

Yet such a counterattack is risky, as the Russian command almost certainly anticipates it and may be setting a trap. Still, the alternative of letting the Russians dig in further could be far worse, so timing will decide everything. A swift, coordinated counteroffensive while the Russians are still consolidating could succeed, but hesitation would all but guarantee long-term loss of the area.

As a result of the danger, the Azov Brigade has now been redeployed to the Pokrovsk sector, indicating the Ukrainian high command’s intent to act decisively, as the stakes extend far beyond Pokrovsk.

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Strategic and political stakes

The Russian gains threaten not just the town but the broader Donbas defense line and multiple settlements in the Ukrainian-controlled part of Donetsk Oblast. If unhindered, this penetration could unravel months of fortification work and open the way for deeper Russian advances.

The timing is also politically charged, as the breakthrough comes just days before the announced Putin–Trump meeting in Alaska, adding haste to Ukraine’s need to stabilize the front.

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Decisive days ahead

Overall, by moving one of the most experienced and feared formations into the sector of Pokrovsk, Ukraine recognizes both the danger and the need to correct earlier mistakes and failures. The coming days will be decisive, as if Ukrainian forces can seal off and destroy the Russian spearhead, they will not only save Pokrovsk but also preserve the integrity of the Donbas defense system.

In our regular frontline report, we pair up with the military blogger Reporting from Ukraine to keep you informed about what is happening on the battlefield in the Russo-Ukrainian war.

Exclusives

144 Russian prison guards exposed for torturing Ukrainian POWs—investigation reveals daily routine of cruelty and family life. The Molfar Intelligence Institute, a Ukrainian NGO, traced how guards commit war crimes and then return to allegedly normal homes.

Hudson Institute lists Russia’s eight most fragile military arteries Ukraine could sever next to break the stalemate. A new report highlights targets ranging from Crimean bridges to drone factories that sustain Moscow’s war effort. Analysts argue that striking these weak points could paralyze Russia’s logistics and increase the cost of occupation.

Alaska surrender: Putin scores total victory, Trump turns pressure on Ukraine. Trump abandoned $205 million daily sanctions against Russia while demanding Ukraine surrender its fortress belt—territorial concessions unprecedented since 1945.

Robot counterattack! Ukraine rolls gun-‘bots into brutal Pokrovsk battle.. Wheeled robots firing machine guns are helping Ukrainian troops defeat a deep Russian incursion near Pokrovsk.

Editorial: The summit that peacewashed genocide. Putin left Alaska knowing genocide pays. Every dictator was watching.

Military

Ukraine crashes Russian horns of war near Pokrovsk, eliminating 271 occupiers over few days. Smoke and dust rise over the Donetsk horizon as Ukrainian brigades hold the line, crushing Russian attempts to seize Dobropillia and blunting their push toward Pokrovsk.

One note forced failed Russian businessman to choose survival over duty on Toretsk front. A former crypto entrepreneur, thrown into combat, obeyed a drone’s message and escaped the fate of his comrade.

Zelenskyy: Kyiv expects surge in attacks on Ukraine to force concessions after Alaska peace talks

. Russian forces are massing for fresh assaults, yet Kyiv says it is ready to fight fire with fire.

Intelligence and technology

Russian Grad and tank wiped out in Donetsk by Ukraine’s Phoenix drone unit drones in one mission (video). Video from Ukrainian border guards shows FPV drones eliminating the weapons and infantry.

International

Alaska talks end, yet nothing changes: Putin still considers Ukraine “artificial” country. Russia continues its ultimatum, showing zero willingness to compromise on Ukraine’s sovereignty.

War criminal walked red carpet in Alaska like king, while Ukraine’s fate was hanging in shadows

. The summit’s slogans promised dialogue, but the reality reinforced Russia’s immovable demands on territory and neutrality.

EU leaders demand “ironclad security guarantees” for Ukraine, vow stronger Russia sanctions after Trump-Putin talks. The joint statement from Macron, Meloni, Merz, Tusk and other leaders challenged any agreement that would limit Ukraine’s “pathway to EU and NATO.”

Macron warns lessons of 30 years are clear — Russia cannot be trusted to keep promises. After the Alaska talks ended without a deal, the French president stresses that any peace must rest on unwavering guarantees for Ukraine.

Negotiations or blackmail: Ukraine and Trump split over how to end Russia’s war. Trump insists on striking a deal first; Kyiv says that path only rewards Moscow’s missiles.

Kremlin officials celebrate Putin’s “red carpet” treatment as war isolation narrative has collapsed. Russian Deputy Security Council Chairman stated that “negotiations are possible without preconditions and simultaneously with the continuation of the ‘special military operation,'” rejecting Ukrainian demands for a ceasefire first.

Reuters: After Alaska talks, Russia offers US firm return to Russian oil project and demands sanctions relief

. Putin’s new decree requiring foreign investors to “undertake actions to support the lifting of Western sanctions” signals Moscow’s push to end three years of wartime isolation.

“Now it’s up to Zelenskyy”: Trump shifts peace responsibility after Putin talks as Russia denies three-leader meeting claim. After rating his Putin meeting a perfect “10 out of 10,” Trump said that Ukrainian President must “get it done” and that organizers would arrange a summit between all three leaders—but Russian officials say no such trilateral meeting was ever discussed during the three-hour Alaska session.

Putin escapes US sanctions despite leaving Alaska talks without peace deal on Ukraine. After days of speculation, the Trump-Putin summit closes without signatures, only vague promises of progress, while Russia bombardments continue.

LIVE UPDATE: Putin lands in Alaska for meeting with Trump. Earlier, the US President Donald Trump suggested that a potential peace deal between Russia and Ukraine might require some territorial exchange for the benefit of both sides.

Trump says Putin’s “genes” may be responsible for strikes on Ukrainian civilians. He also claimed Ukraine may receive some security guarantees.

Humanitarian and social impact

US First Lady delivers personal letter to Putin via Trump addressing massive child deportation war crimes. Ukraine documented over 19,000 illegally moved children from occupied territories, while the actual number may be much higher, and the Hague court charged Putin for this crime.

Read our earlier daily review here.

Ukrainian forces struck a Russian military convoy in Kursk Oblast, leaving Russia’s deputy commander of the North grouping of forces, General-Lieutenant Essedulla Abatchev, gravely wounded. Ukrainian intelligence reported that Abachev lost both an arm and a leg after the attack.

Ukrainian strike hits Russian convoy in Kursk Oblast

The Defense Intelligence of Ukraine (HUR) announced that Ukrainian units carried out the strike against a Russian convoy moving along the Rylsk–Khomutovka highway in Kursk Oblast overnight on 17 August. According to HUR, the strike inflicted serious injuries on Abachev, who serves as deputy commander of Russia’s North grouping. He was evacuated by military transport aircraft to Moscow and delivered to the Vishnevsky Central Military Hospital, where doctors amputated his arm and leg.

HUR emphasized in its statement that every Russian war crime against the Ukrainian people would face retribution.

OSINT analysis confirms the strike in Kursk Oblast

Militarnyi reported that the strike occurred in the area of Zhuryatino village, citing open-source analysts. While the weapon used was not officially disclosed, analysts suggested it was likely high-precision rocket artillery. Also, the video showing the aftermath of the attack emerged on the evening of 16 August, not in the early hours of 17 August.

Abachev’s military career before the all-out war

Before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Abachev commanded the 2nd Guards Combined Arms Army of the Central Military District. He graduated from the Kharkiv Higher Tank Command School in 1989 and later the Combined Arms Academy in 2002.

He fought in Russia’s Chechen wars, Georgia, and in Syria, later rising to command the 19th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade and serve as chief of staff of the 5th Combined Arms Army. In 2021 he became a major general, in 2022 he was appointed commander of Russia’s 2nd Army Corps in occupied Luhansk and decorated as Hero of Russia, and by 2023 he was promoted to lieutenant general.

Overnight on 17 August, a Ukrainian drone struck the Liski railway station in Voronezh Oblast, disrupting one of Russia’s most important military transport hubs. Exilenova+ published a video capturing the moment of impact. The drone hit set off a fire at the station and damaged power lines, cutting rail traffic. 

Video confirms Liski strike

Ukrainian Telegram channel Exilenova+ reported a drone attack, targeting the Liski railway station in Russia’s Voronezh Oblast. The post described Liski as one of the largest junctions in Russia’s Southeastern Railway system. Liski is located around 120–150 kilometers from Ukraine’s border and serves as a key junction for moving Russian troops and equipment, Militarnyi noted.

Exilenova+ also released video footage showing a fire at the station and the moment of a drone’s impact. Russian news Telegram channel Astra later drew attention to one of the videos, noting it was filmed next to the Berezka shopping center, which sits right beside the station.

The Voronezh Oblast governor admitted a drone hit a railway station, but avoided naming it. He claimed falling drone debris injured a railway technician and damaged a power line. He also said the technician was hospitalized and that the railway service resumed afterward.

Russia’s Federal Passenger Company later confirmed the station as Liski. In its statement, it said the drone’s debris caused delays across 14 trains. 

The governor stated that in the same area, fires ostensibly broke out at a shop and a clothing market. In another municipality, a gas pipe also allegedly caught fire. 

Russian MoD claims mass interceptions but ignores Liski

The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed it shot down 46 Ukrainian drones overnight: 16 over Belgorod, 14 over Nizhny Novgorod, 9 over Voronezh, and others across six more oblasts. Later the same morning, the ministry stated that six more drones were downed over Voronezh Oblast.

A massive fire broke out at the Lukoil refinery in Volgograd on 16 August, two days after Ukrainian drones hit the facility and caused heavy damage. The fire may have started during repair works, but the cause remains unclear.

During the day on 16 August, a thick black column of smoke rose over the refinery. Around the same time, air traffic at Volgograd airport shut down under temporary restrictions, and authorities declared a citywide air raid alert.

The full circumstances remain unknown.

Lukoil-Volgogradneftepererabotka is the largest oil product producer in Russia’s Southern Federal District and the seventh most powerful refinery in the country. Its design capacity stands at 14.8 million tons of crude oil per year.

“Planned discharge,” but emergency vehicles flood the area

Some channels claimed the smoke came from a “planned discharge of petroleum products” related to tank repair preparations. But locals saw fire trucks and ambulances rushing toward the plant. Readers openly mocked the official line.

Astra quoted messages like, “So the ambulances are flying there because of a planned discharge too?” and “And the fire trucks are heading there as part of the plan, or were they not warned?”

Ukrainian drones shut the refinery down on 14 August

Overnight on 14 August, Ukrainian strike drones hit the refinery and caused a massive fire. Astra reported that the plant suspended operations due to the damage. 

Earlier, the Ukrainian Army’s General Staff reported that 42% of Ukrainian deep drone strikes inside Russia this year have targeted oil refineries. 

Ukraine’s Defense Forces cleared Pokrovsk of Russian infiltrators in Donetsk Oblast and liberated several surrounding villages near Dobropillia. On 17 August, the GenStaff said stabilization actions continue in the area as Ukrainian units fight to secure the frontline.

Ukrainian troops clear Pokrovsk and villages near Dobropillia

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said the 7th Air Assault Corps, together with supporting units, eliminated Russian infiltrators in Pokrovsk. Ukraine’s Defense Forces also cleared Hruzke, Rubizhne, Novovodiane, Petrovka, Vesele, and Zolotyi Kolodiaz in Donetsk Oblast. The first corps of the National Guard Azov unit joined the battles and helped reclaim the villages.

The Deep State war zone monitoring map, updated on 16 August, shows that Ukrainian troops cut apart the recent Russian “double panhandle” breakthrough near Dobropillia and surrounded its northern prongs.

Russian forces suffer heavy losses in Donetsk Oblast

From 4 to 16 August, Ukrainian forces killed 910 Russian soldiers, wounded 335, and captured 37, according to the General Staff. Ukrainian strikes also destroyed eight tanks, six armored vehicles, 103 auto and motor vehicles, one multiple launch rocket system, 18 artillery guns, and 91 drones.

The General Staff said Ukrainian units continue stabilization operations near Dobropillia in Donetsk Oblast.

Ukrainian advance in Sumy Oblast

On 16 August, Ukrainian units advanced in several locations on the North Slobozhansky axis. In particular, the Defense Forces gained up to 1,000 meters near Yablunivka in Sumy Oblast, according to the General Staff.

 

Ukraine imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia’s artificial intelligence-powered drone manufacturers on 17 August, targeting 39 individuals and 55 companies across Russia, China, and Belarus.

The restrictions reflect Ukraine’s efforts towards dismantling the entire technological ecosystem of Russia’s drone war, which has escalated dramatically in 2025 with Moscow launching over 27,000 Shahed drones and deploying new AI-guided models that can evade Ukrainian electronic warfare systems.

Ukrainian sanctions have had little impact on Russia, remaining largely symbolic after Kyiv previously seized Russian companies’ assets inside the country. Still, it sets an example for the EU – and possibly the US – to follow if they choose to eventually align their sanctions with Ukraine, a move that would carry far greater weight.

President Zelenskyy signed the decree enacting the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, stating that the country is “working with its partners to ensure the synchronization of these sanctions across global jurisdictions.”

Russia’s AI drone revolution poses new threat

The sanctions target key Russian strike and FPV drone developers including Zala Aero, Smart Birds, and Vostok Design Bureau, as well as specialized centers developing AI solutions for drones, including Neurolab and the Center for Unmanned Systems and Technologies, according to the presidential decree.

These restrictions come as Russia has been deploying increasingly sophisticated AI-powered drones that feature onboard cameras and artificial intelligence, making interception significantly harder than conventional radio-controlled models. Separately, Ukrainian intelligence analysis of Russia’s V2U autonomous attack drone revealed it uses a Chinese Leetop A203 minicomputer and NVIDIA Jetson Orin processor for target selection without human intervention.

Chinese supply chain enables Russian drone production

Among the 55 sanctioned entities, 10 Chinese companies face restrictions for supplying critical components. Recent investigations revealed Chinese firms have been secretly supplying Russia with drone engines disguised as refrigeration equipment to bypass Western sanctions.

Chinese components dominate Russian drone manufacturing, with 80% of critical electronics having Chinese origins. Bloomberg investigations found that Chinese engineers from Autel Robotics worked directly with Russian company Aero-HIT to adapt civilian drones for military use, producing up to 10,000 units monthly.

In the early hours of 17 August, Russia launched 60 long-range drones and one Iskander-M missile from five locations across its territory. Ukraine’s Air Force reported that 40 drones were destroyed or suppressed, but 12 locations were hit in Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts.

Russia launches 60 drones and a missile, strikes 12 targets

According to the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the attack began at 19:30 on 16 August and included both Shahed-type one-way attack UAVs and decoy drones launched from Kursk, Bryansk, Millerovo, Shatalovo and Primorsko-Akhtarsk. Ukrainian defenses used mobile fire groups and electronic warfare systems to counter the assault.

As of 09:00 on 17 August, 40 drones had been downed or neutralized. However, the ballistic missile and 20 drones reached their targets.

The Air Force confirmed strikes in 12 locations across the three frontline oblasts.

Drone strike injures woman in Sloviansk

Vadym Liakh, head of Sloviansk’s City Military Administration, said the Russian Shahed attack injured a woman in the city last night.

“On the evening of Saturday, 16 August, the city came under two enemy attacks. Around 18:15: Zaliznychnyi neighborhood. Detached housing area. A woman was injured. Homes were damaged. Around 19:30″ Lymany neighborhood. Detached housing area. Homes were damaged. In both cases, Italmas drones were used,” Liakh wrote.

The mentioned Italmas UAVs also known as Izdeliye 45 is a simplified and cheaper version of the Iranian-designed Shahed 136 long-range kamikaze drone.

A new investigation by a Ukrainian NGO has identified 144 Russian prison wardens responsible for Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs). The registry names those accused of systemic torture, daily abuse, and coercion in detention facilities across Russia and occupied Ukrainian territories.

Registry exposes 144 Russian wardens of Ukrainian POWs

Working with Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), the Molfar Intelligence Institute, a Ukrainian open-source intelligence NGO, reported that 144 employees of detention facilities across Russia and occupied Ukrainian territories have been identified as jailers responsible for Ukrainian POWs.

The prison guards in question are the employees of:

• Colony No. 36 in the city of Sukhodilsk (occupied Luhansk Oblast);
• Correctional Colony (CC) No. 38 in the city of Sverdlovsk (Dovzhansk) (occupied Luhansk Oblast);
• Kalininska CC No. 27 in the city of Horlivka (occupied Donetsk Oblast);
• State Institution “Donetsk Pre-trial Detention Center of the State Penitentiary Service of the Ministry of Justice of the DNR”, in occupied Donetsk city;
• CC No. 2 in the village of Donskoye, Tula region, Russian Federation;
• Federal State Institution “Pre-trial Detention Center No. 2”, Stary Oskol, Belgorod Oblast, Russian Federation;
• Federal State Institution “Pre-trial Detention Center No. 2”, Taganrog, Rostov Oblast, Russian Federation.

Most of the jailers mentioned in the investigation work at the notorious Taganrog facility.

The registry contains data on rank and position, place of work, known addresses and contacts, passports and other documents, as well as information about relatives and additional details about each identified individual.

Tetiana Katrychenko, executive director of a project documenting prisoners, described Taganrog as “hell on earth.” She noted that Azovstal defenders held there since 2022 faced brutal torture and were forced to incriminate themselves before transfer to Rostov courts.

Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna was also held in Taganrog. She went missing in August 2023 and was later confirmed to have been detained by Russian authorities. She died in captivity in September 2024 allegedly during a prison transfer, according to Russian officials. Her body, showing clear signs of torture, was returned to Ukraine in February 2025, and a farewell ceremony was held in Kyiv in August 2025.

Daily lives of 144 Russian wardens of Ukrainian POWs

The Molfar Intelligence Institute emphasized that many of the 144 identified continue to live ordinary lives. Its report described them commuting to shifts, greeting colleagues, chatting about utilities and coffee, then taking part in torture sessions before returning to families in apartments.

“Russians abuse and torture Ukrainian prisoners in a territory closed to the eyes of human rights defenders,” the Institute says.

The report details information on three jailers.

Profiles of three wardens

One case is Denis Mirchev, an ensign at the Stary Oskol detention center in Belgorod Oblast. According to former prisoners, he conducted searches of Ukrainian captives. Investigators linked him to social media activity including comments on posts by Ukrainian musician Yarmak, now commander of a combat drone unit. Records also show Mirchev’s bankruptcy attempts over debts exceeding one million rubles.

Another prison worker is Vitali Sterzhanov, a Ukrainian citizen who now heads a Russian-run colony in occupied Luhansk Oblast. Ukrainian prosecutors charged him in March 2024 under article 111-1 of the criminal code for joining an illegal occupation body. Registry data shows Sterzhanov’s family also involved in pro-Russian activities, with his mother supporting the so-called “LNR” armed formations and his brother publicly backing the full-scale invasion.

The report further describes Alexei Glaizer, deputy head of the Taganrog pretrial detention center. He previously led Rostov detention center no. 1 and declared assets including a Kia Rio and a Rostov apartment. According to insider accounts, enforcement proceedings were opened against him in 2018 over debts. Investigators documented his marriages and residences in Taganrog, presenting him as another official balancing family life with systemic abuse of Ukrainian POWs.

Wider implications

The registry’s scope cannot be fully covered in one release. Instead, the Molfar Intelligence Institute has published an open database called “Russian jailers of Ukrainian prisoners,” listing names, photos, documents, family ties, and workplaces. Officials stressed that no rank, change of surname, or hidden address will protect those responsible from eventual justice.

“Those employees of pretrial detention centers and colonies who treat Ukrainian prisoners harshly feel safe in Russia. We are convinced that each of them must bear responsibility and believe that they will not be able to escape civilized justice by hiding behind the thick walls of a pretrial detention center, changing their names, or hiding behind an interest in the history of Ukrainian nationalism,” the MII noted regarding making the resistry public.

The current number of Ukrainian POWs in Russian captivity is not publicly known. Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk previously said that as of 1 May 2025, about 8,000 Ukrainians remain in Russian captivity. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on 21 March 2025 that Ukraine had returned 4,306 POWs since the start of the full-scale invasion.

“Every day in captivity for a Ukrainian is torture. Russians must understand that they will be held responsible for crimes against humanity. They will not be protected by official positions, changes of surname, or re-registration of residential addresses,” the report noted.

Call for action

Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation emphasizes that Russia is using prisoners as a propaganda tool. Moscow uses prisoners for staged photos and interviews designed to discredit Kyiv. According to the center and Ukrainian defense forces, Azovstal defenders have been coerced into participating in such propaganda, which violates articles 13 and 14 of the Geneva convention. Analysts say these operations target Western audiences, aiming to fracture support for Ukraine and undermine prisoner exchange agreements.

” it is necessary to strengthen control over compliance with international humanitarian law and monitor cases of forced use of prisoners in propaganda. Abuse of human dignity for political purposes must receive a strong global response,” the Molfar Intelligence Institute stressed. 

The Hudson Institute has identified eight critical targets across Russia and occupied territories that Ukraine could strike to destabilize Moscow’s war effort. The report, authored by Luke Coffey and Can Kasapoğlu and titled “Breaking the Stalemate: Russian Targets Ukraine Should Strike,” argues that sustained pressure on these chokepoints could undermine Russian logistics, weaken the Kremlin’s control over occupied areas.

Volga–Don Canal

The Volga–Don Canal is a 63-mile waterway linking the Caspian and Black Seas. Russia uses it to move vessels from the Caspian Flotilla and to transport Iranian-supplied weapons. The Kremlin has committed $1 billion to modernize the canal, underscoring its importance. Analysts note that damaging Locks 8 and 9, which sit at the canal’s summit, could halt navigation and disrupt water flow, crippling east–west logistics and trade with Iran.

Shahed Drone Plant in Tatarstan

Located in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone, Russia’s main Shahed drone facility produces multiple variants with Iranian support.

Open-source reporting indicates that Russia’s Shahed drone plant in Tatarstan likely produces 170–190 drones per day. In June 2025 alone, Russia launched around 5,500 Shaheds against Ukrainian cities. Production could rise further, with estimates suggesting up to 2,000 drones per month by late 2025.

The facility employs thousands, including foreign workers and students, raising civilian risks. The report suggests Ukraine could instead target the plant’s energy lifeline at the nearby Nizhnekamsk Thermal Power Plant to disrupt production indirectly.

China–Russia Land Routes

Russia’s wartime dependence on Chinese imports has soared, reaching $240 billion annually. These include drones, optics, semiconductors, and weapon components. Around 90% of this trade crosses the border by rail through Manzhouli–Zabaykalsk and Suifenhe–Pogranichny. While directly striking at the crossings could be politically fraught, Hudson Institute identifies rail bridges and railyards within Russia as vulnerable chokepoints that, if disrupted, would slow the flow of critical dual-use goods

.

Crimea’s Access Routes

Crimea remains a central hub for Russia’s southern operations. The Kerch Bridge has been attacked and damaged three times, but never destroyed. The report stresses that Western-supplied long-range missiles, such as Germany’s Taurus, could finish the job. Analysts also highlight smaller but equally vital routes into Crimea: the Chonhar, Syvash, and Henichesk Bridges. These links connect the peninsula to Kherson Oblast and are more vulnerable to attack than Kerch. Severing them would drastically weaken Russian supply lines into occupied southern Ukraine.

Rail Bridges in Western Russia

Russia’s military depends heavily on rail, moving up to 30,000 tons of ammunition and fuel daily. Each division requires about 1,870 tons of cargo, with artillery munitions accounting for half. While trains in motion are difficult to strike, Hudson Institute stresses that rail bridges, transformers, and substations are fixed and exposed. Recent Ukrainian strikes in Samara and along the Oryol–Kursk line show this tactic is viable. Sustained attacks could cripple supply lines across the Russian heartland.

Emerging Russian Base in occupied Abkhazia

Moscow is shifting parts of its Black Sea Fleet to Abkhazia’s Ochamchire port, on occupied Georgian territory, after heavy losses in Crimea. The new base remains under construction and vulnerable. The coastline is exposed, infrastructure is weak, and supply routes rely on a single road and rail link with a bridge that forms a critical choke point. Hudson Institute concludes that striking early could delay or halt Russia’s efforts to diversify its naval footprint in the Black Sea.

Transnistria

The Russian garrison in Moldova’s Transnistria enclave is another fragile point. About 1,500 troops remain there with outdated equipment and no realistic way to reinforce them. Ukraine, the report argues, could eliminate the pocket if necessary, relieving pressure on Odesa. But the analysis also warns that such a move would risk humanitarian fallout in Moldova and Romania, especially near the massive Cobasna ammunition depot.

Russian Pacific Fleet Bases

Though far from the battlefield, Russia’s Pacific Fleet has quietly supported the war. It has transferred naval brigades to Ukraine and redeployed ships to the Black Sea. These distant bases lack the dense defenses seen in Crimea, making them potential targets. Analysts suggest Ukraine could adapt maritime drones to reach the area. Even limited strikes would force Moscow to disperse defenses and reconsider its global naval posture.

After three hours in Alaska, the results are in: Putin scored a perfect diplomatic victory, Trump abandoned his core demands, and Ukraine faces an impossible choice between constitutional suicide and losing American support.

The stunning reversal shows how completely Trump capitulated across every dimension while Putin orchestrated a masterclass in presidential humiliation.

Before Alaska, Trump threatened Putin with “stark economic penalties” and demanded an immediate ceasefire. After three hours with the Russian leader, Trump dropped both threats while pressuring Ukraine to surrender the very fortress belt that has protected its heartland since 2014.

The Alaska report card

The choreography of humiliation

Putin didn’t just win diplomatically—he staged a public humiliation of American power that would have been unthinkable during the Cold War.

Start with the visuals. US soldiers dropped to their knees to unfurl a red carpet for Putin’s arrival. Trump personally drove the Russian leader in the presidential limousine—a gesture so unprecedented that diplomatic protocol experts couldn’t find parallels.

Then came the final briefing, where Putin spoke first from a podium bearing the seal of the US presidency. His remarks ran twice as long as Trump’s, establishing who controlled the narrative.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova captured Moscow’s glee: “Three years [Western media] told us about Russia’s isolation, and today they saw the red carpet that welcomed the Russian president in the USA.”

The optics weren’t accidental—they were psychological warfare. Putin wanted the world to see American soldiers literally bowing before Russian power.

Behind closed doors: Putin controls the agenda

The meeting itself revealed Putin’s control extended beyond ceremony to substance. Russia successfully demanded that General Keith Kellogg—considered too pro-Ukraine by the Kremlin—be excluded from the US delegation.

The summit format also favored Putin. What was supposed to be a broader delegation meeting shrank to just leaders, foreign ministers, translators, and one adviser each. Putin got exactly the intimate setting he wanted, with minimal American institutional pushback.

Even Trump’s famous preference for one-on-one meetings—which led to his Helsinki disaster in 2017, when he publicly sided with Putin over US intelligence agencies, causing a major diplomatic scandal—was limited to a few minutes in the presidential car without a translator. Not enough time for real negotiation, but plenty for Putin to set the tone.

The $205 million daily gift: How Trump saved Putin’s war economy

Here’s what Trump actually abandoned: secondary sanctions targeting countries that buy Russian oil. These weren’t ordinary pressure tactics—they were designed to make Russian energy “too toxic” to purchase by imposing punitive tariffs on entire nations.

Trump had already shown he meant business. Just days before Alaska, he slapped 25% tariffs on India over Russian oil purchases. The threat was credible and escalating.

But three hours with Putin changed everything. “Because of what happened today, I think I don’t have to think about it,” Trump told Fox News about the sanctions. “Maybe I’ll have to think about it in 2-3 weeks, but right now we don’t have to think about it.”

That’s a daily gift worth approximately $205 million to Russia’s war machine. Putin can now fund his military without worrying about economic isolation.

The sanctions relief wasn’t collateral damage—it was Putin’s primary objective.

As Serhiy Sydorenko from European Pravda noted, this became “one of Putin’s key victories” because these nuclear-option sanctions “are considered the most effective for influencing Russia.”

Trump abandons ceasefire demands, accepts Putin’s timeline

The most revealing shift came in what Trump stopped talking about after Alaska. Before the summit, Trump insisted a ceasefire was his “red line” and told reporters he “won’t be happy if I walk away without some form of a ceasefire.”

After three hours with Putin, the word “ceasefire” disappeared entirely from Trump’s vocabulary. Neither the final briefing nor Trump’s 30-minute Fox News interview mentioned it once.

Axios reporter Barak Ravid explained the reversal: “President Trump told Zelensky and NATO leaders that Putin doesn’t want a ceasefire and prefers a comprehensive deal to end the war. Trump said he ‘thinks a quick peace agreement is better than a ceasefire.'”

This represented complete capitulation to Putin’s negotiating position. The Russian leader had consistently rejected temporary ceasefires, demanding instead a permanent settlement that would legitimize territorial gains and prevent Ukraine from rebuilding its defenses.

Security guarantees “like NATO without NATO”: Ukraine’s one major win

The only positive outcome for Ukraine from the Alaska summit deserves a pause. Trump’s agreement to US security guarantees represents a seismic shift that went largely unnoticed.

For months, Trump insisted America had no role in guaranteeing Ukraine’s post-war security. “European affairs,” he called it. Europe’s problem to solve.

That position crumbled in Alaska. Trump not only agreed to participate but told European leaders the guarantees would be “like NATO.” American troops might participate, he indicated—a complete reversal of his isolationist stance.

French President Macron first revealed this shift on August 13, but Trump confirmed it definitively after meeting Putin. Even Putin acknowledged the arrangement during the final briefing.

For Ukraine, this represents genuine strategic value. America’s absence from plans to give Ukraine real protection from further Russian attacks has scared off EU allies from committing boots on the ground, and could be a major step for Ukraine’s security—if they’re credible and long-term.

Trump confirmed this agreement in his Fox News interview with Sean Hannity, and, according to NBC sources, Trump directly engaged with Zelensky and European leaders by phone Saturday morning about “the US being party to a potential NATO-like security guarantee for Ukraine as part of a deal struck with Russia.”

Putin also acknowledged the arrangement back in Moscow, telling officials that future security arrangements for Ukraine had been discussed and calling the talks “frank and substantive.”

The unprecedented demand: No country has voluntarily surrendered territory since WWII

Putin’s territorial demands represent something virtually unprecedented in post-World War II history: demanding a defending country voluntarily surrender its own sovereign territory to end a war. There are no meaningful examples of this happening since 1945.

Even Israel’s return of the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt was the opposite scenario—returning previously occupied foreign territory in exchange for peace and recognition.

Yet Trump is asking Ukraine to do what no country has done in nearly 80 years: hand over its own land to an aggressor. And not just any land—the fortress belt that has protected Ukraine’s heartland since 2014.

The fortress belt ultimatum: Surrender what Russia couldn’t capture

Putin is demanding Ukraine surrender a 50-kilometer chain of fortified cities that Russian forces have repeatedly failed to capture through three years of warfare.

The fortress belt stretches from Sloviansk through Kramatorsk to Kostyantynivka—Ukraine’s eastern shield built over 11 years since 2014. These aren’t just strategic positions; they’re Ukraine’s last major defensive line in the east.

Reuters reports that Trump told Zelenskyy directly: Putin will freeze other front lines if Ukraine surrenders all of Donetsk, including areas Russia doesn’t occupy.

The Institute for the Study of War has repeatedly noted that Russian forces cannot break through or encircle these positions. That’s why Putin wants Ukraine to abandon them voluntarily—he’s asking Trump to achieve what his military couldn’t.

Ukrainian officials called this a “stab in the back.” As one senior official told the Financial Times: “He just wants a quick deal.”

The historical parallel is unavoidable. In 1938, Nazi Germany couldn’t capture Czechoslovakia’s fortified Sudetenland through military force. So Hitler demanded it diplomatically. Six months after Czechoslovakia complied, the entire country was occupied.

Putin’s maximalist agenda: erasing Ukraine entirely

Putin’s demands reveal his true goal isn’t territorial adjustment—it’s systematic elimination of Ukrainian statehood. The New York Times reports Putin also demanded Russian become an official language in Ukraine and protections for Russian Orthodox churches.

These aren’t cultural concessions. They’re tools for permanent Russian influence designed to hollow out Ukrainian sovereignty from within.

Putin also refuses to meet with Zelenskyy, whom he considers “an illegitimate president of an artificial country,” according to European Pravda. That’s not negotiation—that’s denial of Ukraine’s right to exist.

Combined with territorial surrender, these demands would reduce Ukraine to a Russian vassal state while Putin positions himself to complete the country’s elimination.

Monday’s impossible choice

Zelenskyy flies to Washington Monday facing the choice Putin engineered: accept terms that violate Ukraine’s constitution or risk losing American support.

Ukrainian officials told the Financial Times that Zelenskyy won’t agree to surrender Donetsk and Luhansk—a red line written into Ukraine’s constitution. But he’ll discuss territory with Trump, knowing that refusal could mean isolation.

The Monday meeting will happen in the same Oval Office where Trump and JD Vance gave Zelensky a “brutal public dressing-down” six months ago over Ukraine’s reluctance to accept previous territorial demands.

European leaders are considering joining Zelensky in Washington, but their influence is limited. They can’t replace American military backing, and Putin knows it.

As Ukrainian civil society leader Olga Aivazovska noted, territorial concessions would raise fundamental questions: “It will also open the question of why we’ve been defending ourselves all these years.”

How Putin engineered the perfect trap

Step back and see Putin’s strategy. He went to Alaska not to negotiate but to create an impossible situation for Ukraine. Every path now leads toward Russian victory, just through different mechanisms.

• Accept Putin’s terms and Ukraine loses its strongest defenses while becoming a vassal state.
• Reject them and risk losing the American support needed to prevent conquest.
• Try to find middle ground and Putin can always demand more while Trump increases pressure.

Putin couldn’t break Ukraine’s fortress belt through military force, so he got America’s president to demand Ukraine surrender it voluntarily. He couldn’t cut off sanctions through diplomacy, so he manipulated Trump into providing economic amnesty. He couldn’t achieve legitimacy through reform, so he extracted red carpet rehabilitation through personal charm.

The Alaska summit wasn’t diplomacy, but calculated psychological warfare. Putin understood Trump’s psychology and played it perfectly, turning America’s president from Ukraine’s protector into his unwitting agent of pressure.

Ukraine’s only path forward now is hoping Trump’s security guarantee commitment proves more durable than his sanctions threats. But given what happened in Alaska, that’s a dangerous bet to make with national survival.

Today, there are interesting updates from the Pokrovsk direction, Donetsk Oblast.

Here, the Russian command is increasing the use of suicide squads to try to infiltrate Pokrovsk and reach its outskirts. With the Ukrainian defense on high alert, 80% of the Russians are destroyed even before reaching the town, with deceived migrants and forcibly mobilized Ukrainian separatists being thrown into the meat grinder as cannon fodder and acceptable casualties.

Russian forces recently attempted one of their most ambitious infiltration missions yet to penetrate Pokrovsk from the south. Using Pishchane as a forward base, the Russian command formed three tactical groups of 50 men each, tasked with sabotage inside the city. Their goal was to sow panic behind the frontline and force Ukrainian units to abandon positions, as has happened in other settlements along the front.

The infiltration route took 14 days in total: four to reach Pishchane’s industrial zone used as a launch point, and another ten to creep towards the main streets in southern Pokrovsk. Moving roughly 600 meters per day to avoid detection, they relied on drone drops for food, water, and communication updates. 

Despite careful coordination, camouflage ponchos, and preloaded route trackers, Ukrainian drones intercepted and eliminated most of the saboteurs, as of the original 150 infiltrators, around 120 were killed before even reaching their objectives as confirmed by geolocated footage. 

The remainder were hunted down inside the city, with Ukrainian units releasing more footage of how some of the Russians surrendered, while others were eliminated in close combat.

The cost to Russia was staggering, as the operation incurred roughly 80% casualties just to reach Pokrovsk, not counting those later captured or killed after arrival. While a handful of infiltrators ambushed Ukrainian units, the mission failed to achieve its operational aim. 

The Ukrainian Defense Forces not only retained control but also captured dozens of enemy troops. Fighters of Ukraine’s 425th Skala Separate Assault Regiment took 32 prisoners over a week of clearing operations alone. Video evidence from the town shows Russian infiltrators being cleared from buildings and hiding spots, their weapons seized as trophies.

Yet such attritional losses have not dissuaded Russian commanders. On the eastern flank of Pokrovsk, where fighting is intensifying, Moscow is preparing more expendable suicide squads. An entire brigade here is being staffed with deceived migrants from Central Asia and Donetsk People’s Republic volunteers, most of whom are forcibly mobilized men from Russian-controlled Donetsk. 

These units, poorly trained and often unwilling, are tasked with advancing toward Pokrovsk’s eastern outskirts to overwhelm defenses through sheer numbers. Since 2014, many DNR formations have been filled with marginalized individuals and criminals, commanded by Russian officers. 

Now, this volatile mix is being hurled into the bloodiest sector of the front with minimal expectation of survival, with these migrants and separatists being seen as expendable by Russian command.

The brutality extends up the chain of command, as reports from Russian military analysts indicate that separatist officers who question orders or show reluctance to sacrifice their men in large numbers often simply disappear. 

Two battalion commanders in the so-called DNR’s 5th Brigade went missing in five days after being summoned by superiors. In one case, the wife of a vanished commander was told he had run away, but no further contact has been made. Such disappearances serve as a warning: obedience is enforced through fear, and dissent is erased without a trace.

Overall, despite the chaos these infiltration attempts cause for the defenders, the general picture in Pokrovsk remains in Ukraine’s favor. The destruction of the southern sabotage groups, combined with the capture of surviving infiltrators, shows that the Russian command is gambling everything for even minor symbolic gains in Pokrovsk.

With success rates near zero, and casualty rates between 80 and 100%, these operations are less about achieving breakthroughs and more about demonstrating activity to higher political leadership. Ukrainian forces remain on high alert, aware that similar infiltration patterns are now being tested from the east. 

For now, Pokrovsk holds, but the Russians appear willing to keep feeding cannon fodder into the grinder in a desperate bid to change that, regardless of the human cost.

In our regular frontline report, we pair up with the military blogger Reporting from Ukraine to keep you informed about what is happening on the battlefield in the Russo-Ukrainian war.

Fighting hard to roll back a dangerous Russian incursion around Pokrovsk, in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast, the Ukrainian army’s 93rd Mechanized Brigade had a little help—from gun-armed ground robots.

“Ground-based robotic assault systems were used to liberate Ukrainian territories,” the brigade reported. “The robots, equipped with machine guns, fired at the enemy concentration, approaching practically at close range.”

It’s not an isolated incident. All along the 1,100-km front of Russia’s 42-month wider war on Ukraine, more Ukrainian units are deploying ground robots to assist, and in some cases replace, increasingly precious human troops. “These robots are entering logistics, evacuations, mine-clearing and even combat roles,” American-Ukrainian war correspondent David Kirichenko explained.

The 93rd Mechanized Brigade is part of a powerful Ukrainian force counterattacking around Pokrovsk a week after Ukrainian observers confirmed a dangerous Russian infiltration in the sector.

Marching right past empty Ukrainian trenches—an alarmingly common problem as the Ukrainian military struggles with serious manpower shortage—Russian infantry from the 51st Combined Arms Army infiltrated 15 km north of the porous front line and then pivoted west toward the village of Dobropillya, which lies 16 north of Pokrovsk and sits astride the T0515 road, one of two main supply routes into Pokrovsk.

The Russian infiltration, involving potentially thousands of troops from multiple battalions, was “aimed at completing the encirclement of the town of Pokrovsk and possibly Dobropillya, in order to compel Ukrainian forces to withdraw,” the pro-Ukraine Conflict Intelligence Team noted.

It failed. This week, the Ukrainian national guard’s 1st Azov Corps rushed toward Pokrovsk and counterattacked. Army and air-assault brigades joined in as the Azov guardsmen cut across the 15-km-deep Russian salient in at least two places.

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Search and strike

“Our search-and-strike operations have cleared the enemy” from six villages, the 1st Azov Corps announced. The multi-brigade corps, which at full strength can deploy tens of thousands of troops, claimed it killed 271 Russians, wounded 101 and captured 13.

“The enemy has also lost a considerable amount of equipment and weaponry,” the corps added. “This success was made possible through cohesive and well-coordinated action.” The 93rd Mechanized Brigade was part of that coordinated action. It focused its attention on two villages near Dobropillya: Gruzke and Vesele.

The brigade deployed a reconnaissance company, various types of unmanned systems and artillery. A video the unit posted online depicts drone strikes on Russian troops and vehicles—and the gun-armed ground robots rolling down paved roads and into residential yards, blasting left and right with their stabilized guns.

The robots give commanders options they wouldn’t have with human troops. “The vision of front-line commanders is to deploy robots across the front, for these ground robots to take on the greatest risk and most dangerous missions,” Kirichenko wrote.

Ground robots can take the place of human troops, helping mitigate the Ukrainian military’s deepening shortage in certain critical military specialties. US analyst Andrew Perpetua estimated the Ukrainians are short 100,000 trained infantry. It’s that shortage, and the empty trenches that result, that was probably the root cause of the Russians’ initial success marching on Dobropillya.

But that doesn’t mean the unmanned ground vehicle, or UGV, operations don’t require people. They do. “Deploying each UGV mission still needs a large team to manage everything,” Kirichenko explained. But at least that team, lodged in a fighting position potentially kilometers from the fighting, is relatively safe from Russian attack as it controls its ground robots via wireless radio or fiber-optic cable.

The 93rd Mechanized Brigade’s robotic counterattack was a triumph of technology as Ukraine races to preserve a tech edge over its much bigger invader. But it also belies a major problem. Owing to a serious lack of operational reserves, Kyiv had to poach units from potentially vulnerable sectors in order to build up a force powerful enough to defeat the Russian incursion near Pokrovsk.

The 93rd Mechanized Brigade had been holding the line south of Chasiv Yar, 50 km east of Dobropillya. The Russians are steadily advancing through Chasiv Yar as they attempt to squeeze the fortress town of Kostyantynivka.

Russia insists on official status for the Russian language and freedom for its Orthodox Church in Ukraine. The New York Times reports that US President Donald Trump will discuss this Russian ruler Vladimir Putin’s demand with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy on 18 August at the White House. 

European leaders have also been invited to join, officials said, speaking anonymously to discuss private negotiations.

Putin refuses a trilateral meeting

Despite Donald Trump’s hopes to hold a US–Ukraine–Russia trilateral meeting, Putin continues to refuse the proposition, calling Zelenskyy “the illegitimate president of an artificial country.” During a phone call between Trump, Zelenskyy, and European leaders, another demand to cede Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts to Russia and security guarantees for Ukraine were discussed.

As of now, Moscow troops control the big part of these two regions but not all the territory. 

Putin’s conditions for ending the war

According to Trump, Putin reportedly demands that all of Donbas be handed over to Russia. In exchange, he is willing to suspend hostilities in other parts of Ukraine – Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts, freezing the current frontline, and to provide written assurances not to attack Ukraine or other European countries. Security guarantees for Ukraine after the war are included, but strictly outside the framework of NATO.

This information confirms that Moscow is not abandoning political-religious control and continues to push its ultimatum demands even during negotiations with the US and Europe.

A war criminal, accused by the International Criminal Court, was treated like a king in Alaska. From the red carpet to the plane’s flyover — everything went perfectly for Russian President Vladimir Putin, writes Ivor Bennett for Sky News.

In recent years, only China and North Korea, Russia’s longtime allies, have similarly welcomed him.

The most urgent issues were ignored

Putin’s primary goal in Anchorage was to ease Donald Trump’s disappointment. A week ago, Moscow faced an ultimatum: a ceasefire or sanctions. Yet neither was mentioned.

Putin again spoke of “eliminating the root causes” of the war, a phrase that offers little hope to Ukraine. It implies that Russia’s red lines remain unchanged: Ukrainian territory, neutrality, and limitations on its armed forces, with Moscow unwilling to relax any of these demands.

Press conference under Kremlin’s control

At the press conference, it became clear who was running the show. Putin spoke first and did not answer a single question — a unique situation for Trump’s media interactions. The absence of a Q&A session was likely a condition set by the Russian side, which Trump unquestioningly respected. It demonstrates how much he values relations with the Kremlin.

“Quest for peace” or a new order?

The summit’s slogan was “quest for peace,” but it appeared that Putin sought a new stage in US-Russia relations, at Ukraine’s expense. Despite Trump’s statements that many points were agreed upon, Russia made no concessions.

This meeting leaves questions unanswered: why were these vague frameworks set, and what are the Kremlin’s fundamental objectives if details are not disclosed?

Disgusting.

That’s the word watching American soldiers drop to their knees, unrolling a red carpet for the man who killed Ukrainian children yesterday and will kill more tomorrow.

While Putin posed for photos in Alaska, Ukrainian parents were pulling their kids from rubble.

While he grinned in Trump’s limousine, Ukrainian mothers were digging graves.

While an Orthodox bishop exchanged gifts with a war criminal, 19,000 stolen Ukrainian children remained in Russian camps.

What really happened Friday: America told the world that genocide pays. War crimes get you red carpet treatment. Russia’s Foreign Minister showed up wearing a USSR sweatshirt. Russian state media served “chicken Kyiv” on Putin’s plane while actual Kyiv burns nightly from Russia’s drones.

The message was clear: We own you now.

The truth Trump abandoned

Putin didn’t just get legitimacy in Alaska; he got proof that the West has abandoned truth itself.

Genocide became “diplomacy.”

War crimes became “peace talks.”

Child killers become “partners.”

Here are the truths they’ve abandoned:

Truth 1: Peoples have the right to exist. They call this a “territorial dispute” when Russian officials openly admit genocidal intent.

Putin isn’t after land—he’s after eliminating Ukraine itself. But reality doesn’t bend to political convenience. Our right to exist isn’t negotiable.

This is bigger than Ukraine. Russia is fighting against existence itself—the principle that different peoples should exist, should grow, should contribute their own gifts to the world. Every time a people is erased, the world becomes smaller, darker, less human.

While America rolled out the red carpet for our destroyer, Ukraine stood up for the right of all peoples to flourish in this world. Because when the powerful are allowed to erase the weak, you’ve destroyed the only thing standing between civilization and chaos.

Once might makes right, there’s always someone mightier.

Truth 2: Truth and justice make civilizations great, not strongmen. Trump thinks Putin is powerful. He said Russian troops “retreated” from Kyiv because they got stuck in the mud, not because Ukrainians stood and fought.  He looks past Zelenskyy, thinking Ukraine doesn’t have the cards.

But he has it backwards.

Ukraine’s strength doesn’t come from tanks. It comes from standing for truth and justice—the very foundations that once made the West great.

Trump promised to “Make America Great Again.” He could have done exactly that by supporting the nation fighting for the very things that make America great. Instead, he chose a perpetrator of genocide.

Truth 3: Unconfronted evil grows. Politicians say: “This war needs to end, it’s cost thousands of lives.”

The lie is that giving Putin what he wants will make him stop. It won’t.

Putin didn’t stop after Georgia or Crimea, and he won’t stop after Donetsk. Evil doesn’t get satisfied when fed. It gets hungrier.

The choice before us

This is the West’s war being fought with Ukrainian blood. Putin isn’t just trying to erase Ukraine—he’s testing whether democratic civilization will defend itself. Friday gave him his answer.

The West can abandon Ukraine today and face Putin’s tanks in Warsaw tomorrow. America can sell us out now and watch its own children conscripted later.

What must happen now

Friday was America’s test. America failed.

But Ukrainians are still fighting. Still dying for the principles democratic civilization claims to believe in. Still holding the line that Western leaders are too weak to defend.

The West has one chance left:

• Send every weapon Ukraine needs. Now.
• Freeze every Russian asset. Today.
• Cut every pipeline, every bank, every trade deal that feeds Russian aggression.

Ukraine still fights for existence itself. The only question is whether the West will fight for its own.

A drone, suicide, a lover, crypto, and a note. On the Toretsk front, aerial scouts from the Khyzhak Brigade of the Patrol Police Department have conducted a unique psychological operation. As a result, one Russian assault soldier shot himself, and another surrendered after a note was dropped by a drone: “Want to live — follow the drone.”

Assault and surrender

It all began when two Russian occupiers moved toward Ukrainian positions.

“Our aerial scouts from the bomber group met them from the sky. Accurate drops — one wounded soldier couldn’t endure and shot himself. The other, barely breathing, raised his hands and begged for mercy,” the brigade reports.

“Rugby Player” from Kazan

The wounded soldier turned out to be 43-year-old Andryukha, a former Russian national rugby team player, with a call sign “Rugby Player.”

According to the fighters, he previously ran a cryptocurrency company but went bankrupt and fell into 6 million rubles of debt. His lover and promises of easy service pushed him to the war, but he was thrown into an assault unit.

He survived because he followed the drone

“Now he says he never wanted to kill Ukrainians and is not eager for an exchange, because he knows that if he returns, the Russians will send him to die again,” the brigade concludes.

European leaders issued a pointed statement that reveals deep concerns about being sidelined in Ukraine peace negotiations after the 15 August Trump-Putin summit in Alaska.

The joint declaration from seven EU leaders—released early 16 August morning—welcomed President Trump’s diplomatic efforts while laying down non-negotiable red lines that could complicate any future deal.

According to the European Union statement, leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz insisted that Ukraine must receive “ironclad security guarantees to effectively defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

The statement reveals European priorities that may not align with whatever Trump and Putin discussed in their three-hour meeting Friday at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska.

“We are clear that Ukraine must have ironclad security guarantees to effectively defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity. We welcome President Trump’s statement that the US is prepared to give security guarantees. The Coalition of the Willing is ready to play an active role.”

European leaders want direct involvement in any future negotiations, declaring they are “ready to work with President Trump and President Zelenskyy towards a trilateral summit with European support.”

The EU statement offers clues about what European leaders fear most. Their insistence that “no limitations should be placed on Ukraine’s armed forces or on its cooperation with third countries” suggests concern that Trump might agree to constraints on Western military aid.

Even more pointed: “Russia cannot have a veto against Ukraine’s pathway to EU and NATO,” the leaders declared—a direct pushback against any deal that would limit Ukraine’s Western integration.

The Europeans also rejected territorial concessions, stating bluntly that “it will be up to Ukraine to make decisions on its territory. International borders must not be changed by force.”

Europe ready for continued pressure on Russia

The EU leaders’ statement reads like diplomatic insurance—an attempt to lock in principles before Trump sits down with Zelenskyy for follow-up talks, scheduled on 18 August in Washington.

Their promise of continued pressure reveals the leverage they’re prepared to use:

“As long as the killing in Ukraine continues, we stand ready to uphold the pressure on Russia. We will continue to strengthen sanctions and wider economic measures to put pressure on Russia’s war economy.”

The leaders want to ensure “unwavering solidarity” with Ukraine while working toward “a peace that safeguards Ukraine’s and Europe’s vital security interests.”

The next phase will reveal whether Trump’s promised meeting with Zelenskyy can bridge the gap between what Russia might accept and what Europe demands.

The Alaska summit may have been bilateral, but any lasting agreement will need to satisfy a much larger coalition—one that Europe just reminded everyone it intends to lead.

Lessons of the past 30 years cannot be ignored. French President Emmanuel Macron calls to taking into account all the lessons of the past three decades, particularly Russia’s history of ignoring its commitments after the meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska, which ended without a peace agreement or sanctions on Moscow.

“The lessons of Russia must not be forgotten”

“It will also be essential to draw all the lessons from the past 30 years, in particular from Russia’s well-established tendency not to honor its own commitments,” Macron claims.

He added that, together with Trump and Zelenskyy, he will act “in a spirit of unity and responsibility,” supporting Ukraine and maintaining pressure on Russia as long as its aggression continues.

Support for Ukraine and steadfast peace guarantees

According to Macron, any long-term peace must be based on unwavering security guarantees and respect for Ukraine’s rights. The French president emphasized the unity of European and Western leaders on this matter.

Willing coalition and concrete progress

Macron also welcomed the US willingness to contribute to strengthening peace.

“We will work on this with them and all our partners within the Coalition of the Willing, with whom we will meet again soon to achieve concrete progress,” the French president adds. 

Ukraine disagrees with US President Donald Trump’s vision of ending the war. Kyiv insists that there must first be a ceasefire, followed by a negotiating process. Otherwise, Russia could use endless strikes to secure the most favorable terms, UNIAN reports. 

Presidential Office adviser Serhii Leshchenko says that negotiations before a ceasefire create major risks of blackmail for Ukraine.

“Our vision is first a ceasefire, and then everything else. Why? Because if we negotiate before a ceasefire, it creates big risks of blackmail for Ukraine. If there is a ceasefire, space for diplomacy opens,” Leshchenko explains.

The adviser claims that a ceasefire is necessary before starting substantive negotiations. Talks cannot be conducted in parallel with ongoing battles at the front.

“Today the fighting is one way, tomorrow another. This can have serious consequences due to very short-term shifts on the battlefield, in one direction or another,” Leshchenko adds.

Trump has claimed his intention to end the war in Ukraine since the first day he took office. He has called Putin six times, and each time his conversations ended with even more bloody Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilians. 

• On the night of 12 July, Russia launched massive strikes with Shahed drones and cruise missiles on Lviv, Lutsk, Chernivtsi, as well as Kyiv. In Chernivtsi, two people were killed and several were injured. In Lviv, 12 people were wounded, including an 11-year-old child.
• Russia killed 31 civilians in 27 locations in Kyiv on 31 July, including residential buildings. Over 150 people were injured. The month ended with 286 civilians killed and nearly 1,400 injured across Ukraine, the highest monthly toll since May 2022. 

Moscow prepares a new strike, but Kyiv will respond asymmetrically. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warns that in the coming days, Russia may sharply intensify its attacks, trying to create favorable conditions for negotiations. However, Ukraine is ready to counter the aggressor “asymmetrically, if needed.”

Ukrainian military successes in Donbas

According to Zelenskyy, Ukrainian Armed Forces units have been achieving success for the second day in a row on the toughest sections of the front, in the areas of Dobropillia and Pokrovsk.

“The destruction of occupiers who tried to infiltrate deep into our positions continues. Ukraine has received important additions to the exchange fund in the form of captured Russian soldiers,” the president states.

Gratitude to heroes and warning to the enemy

The Ukrainian president also praises the combat performance of the 79th and 82nd Air Assault Brigades, the 1st and 425th Assault Regiments, the 25th Battalion, and other units holding the defense in the Pokrovsk direction.

“We are recording the movement and preparations of Russian troops. Of course, we will respond, asymmetrically if needed,” Zelenskyy adds.

Earlier, we reported that the Trump-Putin meeting ended without signing a treaty or ceasefire agreement. At the same time, no sanctions were imposed on Russia or its main partner, China. The red carpet and warm reception for Putin, who launched Russia’s war that has killed 13,800 civilians, including children, sparked outrage around the world.

Russian Deputy Security Council Chairman Dmitry Medvedev declared that 15 August Trump-Putin summit in Alaska “restored a full-fledged mechanism of meetings” between the two countries at the highest level. But did the three-hour encounter actually produce the breakthrough Moscow claims?

The meeting ended without a concrete agreement on Ukraine, with Trump stating “there’s no deal until there’s a deal” during the joint news conference.

Yet according to Medvedev’s Telegram post, Putin “personally and in detail outlined to the US President” Russia’s conditions for ending the war.

Russian officials celebrate end of isolation

Medvedev writes that the meeting proved “negotiations are possible without preconditions and simultaneously with the continuation of the ‘special military operation.'”

He claimed both sides “directly placed responsibility for achieving future results in negotiations on cessation of military actions on Kyiv and Europe.”

After the talks, Trump urged Zelenskyy to “make a deal” with Russia, emphasizing the need for a direct peace agreement rather than a ceasefire, which often fails to hold.

Why frame it this way? Russian media celebrated what they saw as validation after years of isolation claims, with Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova writing:

“For years they have been talking about the isolation of Russia, and today they saw the red carpet that greeted the Russian president”.

Zakharova separately stated that Russia is “no longer in isolation.”

Journalist: “When will you stop killing civilians?”
Putin pretends not to hear.
Minutes later — he and Trump slip into the presidential Cadillac for talks. pic.twitter.com/z7mrfIfIgl

— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) August 15, 2025

Trump provides red carpet for war criminal

Trump and Putin met for nearly three hours at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson but emerged without taking questions from reporters after their joint briefing.

Trump said he and Putin “made some headway” and “great progress” but offered no specifics about any agreements reached.

The atmospherics favored Moscow. Putin received a red carpet welcome at the Alaska military base despite an International Criminal Court (ICC) war crimes warrant that restricts the Russian leader’s global movements.

In 2023, the Hague’s court found Putin and Russia’s children’s commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova guilty of illegally transferring Ukrainian children from occupied areas.

The First Lady Melania Trump reportedly addressed this humanitarian crisis of Ukrainian children abducted by Russian forces in a letter handed to Putin via Trump.

Russia shows no signs it wants peace

Trump told Fox News there were “one or two pretty significant items” preventing a conclusive peace deal, but declined to specify what they were. He added: “Now it’s really up to President Zelenskyy to get it done.”

The US president also suggested that a future trilateral summit involving himself, Zelenskyy, and Putin could be convened to finalize peace terms, but no specific timeline was given, while Russia denied claims of a planned three-leader meeting.

"Red carpet". Ukrainian artist Oleh Shupliaк depicted meeting of US President Trump and Russian President Putin

Russia's war has killed 13,800 civilians, not counting victims in cities such as Mariupol, where thousands may have been killed in Russian attacks
Oleh Shupliaк pic.twitter.com/79vunGbjz7

— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) August 15, 2025

Meanwhile, Putin showed no signs of backing down from Russia’s core demands, saying any deal needs “to consider all legitimate concerns of Russia and to reinstate a just balance of security in Europe and in the world on the whole”.

Russian key demands for Ukraine include:

• Withdrawal from Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts, including areas not fully under Russian control.
• Abandoning NATO membership aspirations.
• Ending martial law in Ukraine and holding elections.
• International legal recognition of Russia’s annexation of Crimea (2014).
• Limitations on the size of the Ukrainian armed forces.
• Recognition of Russian as an official language on par with Ukrainian.

What happens next

Both leaders expressed interest in future meetings, with Putin suggesting “Next time in Moscow”. Trump held a phone call with Zelenskyy on the next day and expects the Ukrainian president’s visit to Washington on 18 August.

Zelenskyy stressed that Europe needs to be involved every step of the way to make sure Ukraine gets solid security guarantees.

The meeting marked Putin’s first visit to a Western country since ordering the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and his first time on US military property as Russian president.

Vladimir Putin signed a decree on 15 August that could enable foreign investors, including US oil major Exxon Mobil, to reclaim their shares in the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project.

Friday’s announcement serves as a follow-up to Putin’s October 2022 decree that ordered the seizure of the Sakhalin-1 project, Reuters reports.

Exxon previously operated a 30% stake in the project and remains the only non-Russian investor to have exited its position. Other partners—India’s ONGC Videsh and Japan’s SODECO—kept their shares. Only Exxon walked away.

But here’s the catch: Exxon would need to actively work against the very sanctions that pushed it out. The decree requires foreign shareholders to “undertake actions to support the lifting of Western sanctions” if they want back in.

That’s a tall order. Exxon took a $4.6 billion hit to exit Russia after the February 2022 full-scale invasion. Would the company spend resources lobbying against US policy for a project the Kremlin seized?

The mechanics get messier. Foreign investors must also secure contracts for foreign-made equipment and transfer funds to project accounts. Three years after comprehensive sanctions, that equipment pipeline barely exists.

Can Trump deliver? His team has reportedly identified sanctions they could lift quickly with progress on Ukraine. Sakhalin-1 itself hasn’t been directly sanctioned, creating potential wiggle room.

Russia extended the sale deadline for Exxon’s unclaimed stake until 2026 last December. Translation: Moscow still wants that American expertise and technology.

The economics are stark. Russian oil prices have collapsed from $100 to $55 per barrel since the full-scale war began. Budget revenues have plummeted. Russia’s National Welfare Fund could run dry by late 2025, experts estimate.

Oil and gas revenues have been a crucial source of cash for the Kremlin, accounting for a quarter of total federal budget proceeds.

Earlier, Trump also publicly needled Putin about Russia’s economic struggles, saying the Russian leader should focus on rebuilding his country’s finances rather than fighting wars.

The question remains whether any Western company would risk reputational damage to re-enter Russia while the war continues. For now, Putin has opened the door. Whether anyone walks through it depends on factors far beyond oil prices.

 

First Lady Melania Trump sent a personal letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin addressing the deportations of Ukrainian children during the ongoing war, according to Reuters citing White House officials.

Trump hand-delivered the letter during their 15 August summit in Anchorage, Alaska. The officials wouldn’t reveal details beyond confirming it addressed child abductions, Reuters reports.

Why does this matter? Ukraine has documented over 19,000 children illegally removed from their territories. That’s not a disputed number—it’s Ukraine’s official count as of June.

The International Criminal Court took notice. In 2023, judges issued arrest warrants for Putin and Russia’s children’s commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova. The charge: illegally transferring Ukrainian children from occupied areas.

Russia’s position? Moscow says it protects vulnerable children from war zones.

Recovery of deported children is complicated

Some can. The International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children—41 countries plus the Council of Europe—managed to bring back nearly 600 children in 2024 alone.

But the numbers tell a stark story. Nearly 600 returned. Over 19,000 documented as taken but the actual number could be much higher, possibly in the hundreds of thousands.

The deported children include those with and without parents, ranging from infants to 17 years old, many of whom have had their identities changed and been subjected to forced Russification and adoption by Russian families.

Trump rates Putin talks 10 out of 10

The Alaska meeting almost didn’t happen as planned. Initial reports suggested a private conversation between the two leaders. Instead, both sides brought backup.

Trump’s team: Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff. Putin’s delegation: Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Presidential Assistant Yury Ushakov.

Three hours behind closed doors at Elmendorf-Richardson military base but no ceasefire reached. Trump emerged calling it “constructive” and rating the encounter “10 out of 10.”

Trump outlined potential war resolution terms involving territorial swaps and US security guarantees. But here’s the catch: he placed responsibility for any ceasefire deal squarely on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“I think we’re pretty close to the end,” he said, though he added a crucial caveat: “Ukraine has to agree to this.”

Will additional sanctions follow? Not immediately. Trump indicated he would hold off on the “serious consequences”he previously threatened against Russia.

How do you score a three-hour meeting that produces no deal to end a war? If you’re Donald Trump, the answer is simple: 10 out of 10. The president emerged from his Alaska summit with Vladimir Putin declaring total success despite acknowledging that “not all points were agreed upon” and confirming there was “no deal” on ending the Russo-Ukrainian war. His reasoning? “We got along great,” Trump told Fox News. But here’s where it gets interesting. Trump immediately shifted responsibility for any future agreement to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“Now it’s really up to President Zelenskyy to get it done,” he said, announcing plans for a trilateral meeting between himself, Putin, and the Ukrainian leader.

What actually happened in that room? The 15 August meeting at Elmendorf-Richardson military base started as a planned one-on-one but expanded to include six officials total. Trump brought Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff. Putin arrived with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and presidential assistant Yury Ushakov. The substance? Trump says he and Putin agreed on territorial exchanges and American security guarantees for Ukraine.

“I think those are the points we discussed, and those are the points on which we mostly reached agreement,” he told Fox News, describing the atmosphere as “warm.”

Here’s the catch: Trump refused to detail what’s actually preventing a final deal. He would only say he wanted to “see what we can do.” Why the confidence then? Trump believes momentum is building.

“I think we’re pretty close to the end,” he said, though he added a crucial caveat: “Ukraine has to agree to this.”

For Putin, the direct talks with a US leader offered symbolic validation after years of isolation, though his demands—including Ukraine’s withdrawal from occupied regions, forsaking NATO membership, and sanction relief—amount to Ukraine’s capitulation. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was excluded from the summit, sparking concerns among European allies that Kyiv could be pressured into territorial concessions. The US president wasted no time following up. He called Zelenskyy the morning after his Putin meeting—16 August—in what both the White House and Zelenskyy’s office described as a “lengthy” conversation that included NATO leaders. 

Trump’s advice to the Ukrainian president was blunt: “A deal needs to be made.”

Both sides called the nearly three-hour Alaska session “constructive” without providing specifics. Trump said he achieved “really significant progress” with Putin, whom he described as a “strong guy” and “incredibly tough.”

But there’s a complication. Putin’s assistant Yury Ushakov—the same aide who sat in that Alaska meeting—told Russian media that “the topic of holding a trilateral summit of Putin, Trump and Zelenskyy has not yet been raised.” Russian officials also said they don’t know when Putin and Trump will meet again.

The meeting in Alaska has not brought peace to Ukraine. Following talks with Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump stated that no ceasefire or peace deal has been reached so far. While the leaders discussed “many points,” no key agreements were made, Reuters reports. 

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy was not invited to the meeting, and his European allies feared Trump would force Kyiv into territorial concessions, recognizing Russian control over one-fifth of Ukraine.

Trump: “There’s no deal until there is one”

At a joint press conference in Anchorage, Trump called the meeting with Putin “very productive” and stressed that “there were many, many points that we agreed on, most of them, I would say.”

“A couple of big ones that we haven’t quite gotten there but we’ve made some headway. So there’s no deal until there’s a deal,” Trump said. 

The US president briefed other leaders, including Volodymyr Zelenskyy and NATO representatives, on the outcome of the talks, according to CBS News.

Trump also said he would hold off on imposing tariffs on China for buying Russian oil, even after no definite progress was reached. 

“Because of what happened today, I think I don’t have to think about that now. I may have to think about it in two weeks or three weeks or something, but we don’t have to think about that right now,” he claimed. 

Putin demands Ukraine’s capitulation

Earlier, the Russian president said he was ready to “end the war,” but only on the conditions he put forward back in June 2024. These include:

• The withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts
• Abandoning NATO’s membership aspirations, a neutral status
• Recognition of Crimea
• Lifting of sanctions against Russia.

Such demands in effect amount to Ukraine’s capitulation.

Ukraine: ceasefire and return of prisoners

Kyiv, not invited to the talks in Alaska, has also outlined its clear position: before any discussion on territories, there must be a ceasefire, security guarantees, compensation for rebuilding the country, and the return of children and prisoners.

None of these points were agreed upon during the Trump-Putin meeting.

At the same time, Russia continued its drone and missile strikes on Ukraine. During the night of 16 August, Kyiv forces downed 61 Russian drones. They targeted 24 objects in four Ukrainian regions. 

Exclusive

Can anybody tell how many new T-90M tanks Russia is building—300 a year or just 10? NATO’s asking for a friend. The analysis community’s best guesses range from “almost none” to “a lot,” which isn’t much help for military planning.

From myth to genocide: how the Kremlin’s story about Ukraine fuels war. Why are Russians hell-bent on hating Ukrainians? Why do they hate them enough to leave their families and try to kill them in some faraway steppe, inspired by drivel from their TVs? This hatred was cultivated over decades — but what dirty purpose does it serve in the Russian soul? A new book explores precisely that.

Anchorage braces for Trump–Putin summit today as protests warn of deal over Ukraine. Ukraine’s leader and European allies fear Washington could cut a deal over their heads.

Ukraine’s anti-corruption cops just beat the president—but the fight’s not over. Ukraine’s corruption investigators are back to charging million-dollar schemes after surviving a July attempt to strip their independence. But they’re working under a government that still has the administrative tools to derail sensitive cases and has demonstrated its willingness to use them.

The peace that kills: How the Alaska summit could end Ukraine without ending the war. In Washington, they call it peace negotiations. In Moscow, they call it Ukraine’s legal execution.

Russian infiltrators near Pokrovsk are about to get the tank treatment. Ukraine is rushing heavy armor toward Pokrovsk. The tanks could help roll back a dangerous Russian incursion.

Russian Easter vodka binges delayed Ukraine’s covert bomber-killing drone strike, SBU reveals. The Security Service of Ukraine originally planned the operation for early May, but Russian drivers’ Easter drinking binges forced a delay for a month

Military

Ukraine crashes Russian horns of war near Pokrovsk, eliminating 271 occupiers over few days. Smoke and dust rise over the Donetsk horizon as Ukrainian brigades hold the line, crushing Russian attempts to seize Dobropillia and blunting their push toward Pokrovsk.

Russian Grad and tank wiped out in Donetsk by Ukraine’s Phoenix drone unit drones in one mission (video). Video from Ukrainian border guards shows FPV drones eliminating the weapons and infantry.

Putin calls North Korean troops “heroic” – Russia rewards Pyongyang for cannon fodder

. Western intelligence estimates 4,000 of the original 11,000 North Korean soldiers have been killed or injured in Kursk Oblast.

Ukrainian city smaller than Prague faces Russian forces larger than some NATO states’ entire troops. Drawn from Sumy front’s fields, entire Russian brigades roll east, turning a Donetsk town into the focal point of the war in Ukraine

Ukraine’s GenStaff says its deep strikes have erased 4% of Russia’s GDP this year—42% of attacks targeted oil refineries (infographics). Kyiv’s military reveals a breakdown of long-range attacks that have crippled refineries, storage depots, and ports.

Russia abandons foreign fighters in Ukrainian captivity – lured in by promises of riches. Moscow’s foreign recruitment spans six continents while captured fighters remain excluded from all prisoner exchanges.

Russia says 13 drones destroyed — but Syzran refinery burns and videos show fire raging at military-linked fuel plant. Authorities scrambled to impose “Kovyor” plan, grounding aircraft and restricting communications.

Ukraine strikes Russian Olya port in Astrakhan Oblast, targeting vessel with Iranian drone parts. The Astrakhan Oblast port has been used to deliver military cargo for Moscow’s war against Ukraine.

Debris found after Russian Su-30 crash near Ukraine’s Zmiinyi (Snake) Island in Black Sea, Navy says

. Ukrainian officials say radio intercepts showed a Su-30 vanished near Zmiinyi (Snake) Island, with wreckage spotted and the pilot missing.

Intelligence and technology

TWZ: Russia made its missiles smarter — Ukraine’s Patriots are now struggling to catch them. Flight maneuvers and decoys give warheads more ways to beat air defenses.

Militarnyi: Russian Black Sea Fleet’s 43rd Air Regiment loses over half its Su-30SM fighters since 2022. The Crimean-based unit began the war with 12 jets. Seven are now gone, with more damaged.

International

LIVE UPDATE: Putin lands in Alaska for meeting with Trump. Earlier, the US President Donald Trump suggested that a potential peace deal between Russia and Ukraine might require some territorial exchange for the benefit of both sides.

Trump says Putin’s “genes” may be responsible for strikes on Ukrainian civilians

. He also claimed Ukraine may receive some security guarantees.

“War criminal on US soil”: Alaska erupts as Putin lands for Trump summit. Local voices unite against what they see as legitimizing tyranny.

Lavrov wears “USSR” sweater in Alaska, as his colleague makes it clear — no peace deal signing today. Putin and Trump will sit across from each other as Alaska braces for tense discussions that will shape Europe’s future.

Global crowds demand “no new Munich” as Trump-Putin summit excludes Zelenskyy. Global demonstrations reject territorial concessions as bilateral meeting sidelines Ukrainian president

Hungarian opposition leader Péter Magyar says Kremlin has joined Orbán’s campaign against him. The Kremlin’s spy agency echoed Viktor Orbán’s rhetoric, portraying Magyar as a Brussels stooge ahead of April’s elections.

Humanitarian and social impact

From Kharkiv to Kherson, Russia’s war on civilians kills again in latest day of strikes. Ukraine’s Air Force said it intercepted 63 of 97 Russian drones overnight, but two Iskander-M missiles and several UAVs still hit 13 locations.

“Get out now”: Ukraine tells families to flee as 5 more Donetsk towns face Russian guns closing in. Regional officials added Druzhkivka and four nearby villages to the evacuation list as Russian strikes reach 3,000 a day.

Read our earlier daily review here.

On 15 August, Alaska’s Anchorage is hosting a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, a Cold War–era military installation once used to counter the Soviet Union.

11:40 PM: Ukrainian social media burst with anger, fury, and dissapointment after Trump’s warm greeting to Putin and a red carpet welcome. 

“I CAN’T WATCH THIS NEWS!

The world has gone mad.
I want to get off this planet.

In what’s supposed to be a civilized world, shaking the hand of a bloody murderer is pure savagery!” one of the users told Euromaidan Press. 

"Red carpet". Ukrainian artist Oleh Shupliaк depicted meeting of US President Trump and Russian President Putin

Russia's war has killed 13,800 civilians, not counting victims in cities such as Mariupol, where thousands may have been killed in Russian attacks
Oleh Shupliaк pic.twitter.com/79vunGbjz7

— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) August 15, 2025

11:33 PM: The White House posted a photo of Trump and Putin on X. Their closed-door talks are set to last six hours — until 5 a.m. Kyiv time. Trump once vowed to “leave very quickly” if Putin wasn’t serious. Thirty minutes in, he’s still there.

11:00 PM: NBC News has compared Trump’s greetings of Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zerlen, calling the handshake with the Russian president “seemingly warm,” which “stands in stark contrast to the extraordinary White House clash between Trump and Zelenskyy in late February.”

“Trump and Vice President JD Vance chastised Zelenskyy inside the Oval Office, reprimanding the Ukrainian president for not showing enough gratitude to the US for its military assistance,” the report says. 

Kremlin footage shows the Putin–Trump meeting kicking off.

Foreign Minister Lavrov and presidential aide Ushakov flank Putin; US Secretary of State Rubio and special envoy Witkoff flank Trump.

Smiles and handshakes all around. pic.twitter.com/H546AHJikQ

— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) August 15, 2025

10:40 PM: Putin ignores a journalist’s question whether he intends to stop killings of Ukrainian civilians. 

According to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission, July 2025 was the deadliest month for Ukraine since 2022, due to relentless Russian attacks that included 6,000 Shahed-type drones. Some 286 civilians were killed and 1,388 were injured, marking the highest civilian toll since May 2022. 

Presidents Trump and Putin arrive at Anchorage, Alaska, walk the red carpet together, and pose, smiling and relaxed, for some photos.

Journalist. President Putin will you stop killing civilians?

Putin pretends he doesn't hear.https://t.co/J3rW0h0Q0X pic.twitter.com/9OivG6YlIr

— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) August 15, 2025

10:30 PM: When asked by Russian state media if he anticipated US sanctions easing after the Trump–Putin summit in Alaska, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov expressed confidence.

“They will certainly be lifted for some, that’s clear,” Lavrov told the state news agency RIA Novosti.

In the lead-up to Friday’s summit, the US Treasury Department issued a license temporarily suspending certain sanctions on Russia until 20 August.

10:10 PM: Trump and Putin met next to their planes. 

US President Donald Trump shakes hand of Russian ruler Vladimir Putin in Alaska

Since 2022, Russia's war in Ukraine has killed 13,800 civilians, including children
Pravda Gerashchenko pic.twitter.com/Ae97fgUSjy

— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) August 15, 2025

10:00 PM: Trump and Putin will hold talks in “three on three”. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov will join the Russian president’s the negotiations with Trump. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff will meet with Kremlin’s team from the American side, CNN reports. 

9:50 PM: US President Donald Trump landed at the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska. Russian ruler Vladimir Putin also arrived at the base, around 30 minutes after Trump, according to Sky News. 

Ukrainian soldiers were able to break the horns of war of Russian occupiers near Dobropillia in Donetsk Oblast, analysts at DeepState report.

Dobropillia is a city leading to Pokrovsk, which Russia has been trying to capture for one and a half years.

Ahead of the Trump-Putin talks in Alaska, Russia intended to show strength and present the capture of Donetsk Oblast as inevitable. Moscow needs these territories for a more favorable deal, but for the Russian occupiers, it ends in destruction.

“I thank our 79th and 82nd Air Assault Brigades, which are fighting precisely there, on the Dobropillia axis,” Zelenskyy said.

He also highlighted the Azov soldiers, who took defensive positions on the Pokrovsk front to block Russian forces advancing in Donetsk Oblast.

The corps moved into what has been described as “one of the most difficult sections of the front.”

Previously, the area was defended by Tactical Group “Pokrovsk,” which “absolutely could not cope with defense on this section,” according to military sources.

Meanwhile, Azov National Guard Corps soldiers, together with adjacent units, say they have cleared six settlements on the Pokrovsk axis: Hruzke, Rubizhne, Novovodyane, Petrivka, Vesele, and Zolotyi Kolodiaz.

According to the Ukrainian military, 271 Russian occupiers were killed, 101 were wounded, and 13 were taken prisoner. Additionally, one Russian tank and two armored combat vehicles were destroyed or damaged, along with 37 vehicles and motorcycles, and three artillery pieces.

Azov emphasizes that Russian advances in this sector have been halted, though “stabilization operations” are still ongoing.

Earlier, DeepState reported that Russian occupiers were close to breaking through on the Pokrovsk axis.

Russian forces =dramatically expanded their breakthrough along the Pokrovsk–Kostiantynivka road. What began as a 10-kilometer salient in May 2025 near Malynivka, Nova Poltavka, and Novoolenivka extended to 23 kilometers.

During the Alaska meeting, the issue of territorial exchange will be discussed in particular, but any concrete decisions on this will be made by Ukraine, US President Donald Trump told journalists aboard Air Force One en route to Alaska, according to Clash Report. 

His statement came ahead of his meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, which will focus on the end of Russia’s war against Ukraine. One possible subject of discussion is the ceding of part of Ukrainian territory to Russia. At the same time, there is no hint of any security guarantees that the West might offer to prevent another Russian invasion.

The Russian side does not plan to sign any documents or agreements following the Alaska meeting. According to Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, Trump and Putin may address the press to announce agreements reached verbally.

Trump added that he is attending the meeting not to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine, but to bring all parties to the negotiating table. According to the American leader, the US will provide Ukraine with certain security guarantees together with European countries, but this will not be done under NATO’s umbrella.

Trump was also asked to comment on Russian strikes in Ukraine. He speculated that Putin is doing this to strengthen his position ahead of the negotiations. He said that in this way, Putin hopes to help them reach the best possible deal. He also suggested that the killings of Ukrainians could simply be linked to his genetics.

At the same time, the US president expressed some optimism about today’s talks with Putin. He claimed that he likes the process because they want to do business, but the Russians will not conduct business until the war is resolved.

Trump also reminded that the Russian economy is going through difficult times, so if the negotiations fail, Russia will face great problems.

Ukrainian border guard drones from the Phoenix unit have destroyed a Russian BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket system, a main battle tank, and up to 10 Russian soldiers in Donetsk Oblast. On 14 August, the State Border Guard Service released footage of the strikes, showing FPV drones hitting the targets with precision.

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Phoenix unit hits Russian Grad, tank, infantry in Donetsk Oblast

According to the Border Guard Service, the operation targeted high-value Russian assets in the oblast. In addition to the Grad and the tank, the strikes destroyed a UAZ-452 “Bukhanka” van, a Ural military truck, other vehicles, several motorcycles used for troop movement, and fortified positions.

The released video shows FPV drones striking Russian soldiers, on foot and vehicles, the Grad launcher on the move, and the tank — the latter positioned inside a building at the moment of impact.

Around 10 Russian soldiers killed

Preliminary assessments by the Border Guard Service suggest the operation eliminated about ten Russian soldiers. 

Phoenix

Defense Express, commenting on the released video, reported that the border guard pilots used unmanned aerial systems capable of both reconnaissance and precision strikes, allowing the unit to operate deep inside contested areas while minimizing exposure to Russian air defenses.