A drone that crossed into Lithuania from Belarus on 28 July has been located at the Gajžiūnai military training ground in Jonava district, the Belarusian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.

Lithuania’s Defense Minister Dovile Sakaliene confirmed the discovery to the Baltic News Service (BNS). 

The unmanned aircraft was discovered more than 100 kilometers from the Belarusian border. The drone resembles the Russian “Gerbera” decoy drone, designed to deceive air defense systems by mimicking the Iranian Shahed combat drone, according to earlier reports.

Military investigators and bomb disposal experts are working at the site where the drone was found.

On the morning of 28 July, Lithuanian police warned citizens about the intrusion of an unidentified unmanned aircraft from Belarusian territory. Darius Buta, chief advisor of the National Crisis Management Center (NKVC), told the news portal Delfi that the drone was detected at an altitude of approximately 200 meters and was last seen near Vilnius.

Drone incidents

On 10 July, State Border Service personnel spotted an unknown object in the air flying at approximately 100 meters altitude at 50-60 km/h speed. Within minutes, it crashed near the closed Sumskas checkpoint, about one kilometer from the Belarus border. The object was identified as a Russian “Gerbera” type drone.

On 28 July, Lithuanian police reported detecting an unidentified drone type that entered the country from Belarus territory. Social media footage showing the drone suggests it resembles a Shahed or its Russian imitation “Gerbera,” according to Delfi, though the drone type is still being determined.

Belarus is a key ally of Russia, primarily due to their deep military, political, and economic cooperation. The country allowed Russian troops to use its territory for military operations, including during the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and hosts some Russian tactical nuclear weapons.

Lithuania will deploy a Ukrainian-developed acoustic drone detection system starting in 2026, the country’s Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Raimundas Vaiknoras announced to LRT.

The deployment announcement comes after another incident involving a drone entering Lithuanian airspace. When asked whether Lithuania would have an acoustic drone detection system, Vaiksnoras confirmed that budget funds have already been allocated for purchasing the systems.

According to the Armed Forces chief, testing will be conducted by the end of the year, and next year there will be more intensive implementation of these systems.

“They have been known since last autumn, but procedural issues were somewhat delayed because this is a Ukrainian system, one could say, which had to be adapted to our implementation of American systems due to sensitive issues,” Vaiksnoras said.

The general noted that two drones that flew into Lithuania the day before “are not a coincidence.”

“It seems to me that we sometimes forget that we actually live very close to the combat zone. Belarus is used as a platform for Russia’s attack on Ukraine, so drones moving through our territory are the same thing that Poles, Romanians, and Latvians experience. This situation will not change while Ukraine is under attack by Russia,” the Armed Forces chief added.

Exclusives

London court does what Kyiv wouldn’t: PrivatBank wins $ 2bn fraud case against oligarchs. A ruling 2,100 km from Ukraine highlights the cost of oligarchic power over national justice systems.

Inform Napalm: Hungary joins Kazakhstan in shadow network to repair Russian helicopters. A leaked document shows spare parts flow in secret, bypassing EU restrictions.

Inside Zelenskyy’s failed coup against Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies. Parliamentary manipulation, fake security crises, and Telegram warfare met Ukrainian teenagers.

Wounded, cut off and alone: Ukrainian grenadier spends three days in Russian positions and brings back a captive. A 54-year-old fighter survived wounds from shrapnel and being knocked unconscious before crossing back with a captured enemy soldier.

Military

Trump claims Russia has lost nearly 14 times more soldiers than Ukraine in 2025. Russia has lost over 112,500 soldiers since the start of 2025.

Only three of eight Iskander-K missiles were shot down — but why did most slip through Kyiv’s air defenses?. The clock ran out as missiles flew low and fast from the border.

Satellite images show Kamchatka earthquake tears Russia’s submarine stronghold. The pier shifted at a “terrifying angle” as waves crashed into the Pacific Fleet’s dock.

July records 96 Russian drones flying from Ukraine into Belarus, Belsat says

. Belarus airspace saw the heaviest month of Russian drone presence yet.

Intelligence and technology

Ukraine’s Azov member named Europe’s top combat medic after innovative drone rescue. A battlefield transfusion under fire rewrites what’s possible in military medicine.

International

Russian oil floats in limbo as EU sanctions trap tankers near India. The Achilles and Elyte sit stranded, while pressure mounts on Delhi to choose sides in a wartime economy.

Trump promises new sanctions on Russia, Witkoff heads to Moscow as Senate readies a massive bill

. The envoy will return to Moscow while senators prepare a sweeping package.

Humanitarian and social impact

Kharkiv bleeds daily under Russian fire as €10 billion in damage leaves 160,000 homeless. The city hasn’t had a single quiet day since 2022.

Ukrainian man, buried alive between floors, stays conscious for hours after Russian Iskander-K strike. Rescuers tunneled through concrete and chaos, keeping voice contact with the trapped man as debris pressed on his chest for hours.

Death toll from yesterday’s Russian air assault on Kyiv reaches 31 with a 2‑year‑old among victims as city mourns. Crews work nonstop in the Sviatoshynskyi district to reach those trapped beneath tons of rubble.

Young Kyiv woman survives 9th-floor fall as Russian missile flattens another high-rise, killing 16

. A missile hurled 23‑year‑old Veronika from her apartment. She lived; her parents were killed in the building collapse.

Political and legal developments

Ukraine’s government demands lie detector test from its anti-corruption chief candidate. Tsyvinsky passed the tests, won the contest, but now must pass a polygraph.

Putin shrugs off Trump’s ultimatum and says he’s ready to wait until Kyiv agrees to his conditions to end war. His conditions haven’t changed since 2024 — only the body count has.

Kyiv burns in Putin’s calculated act of humiliation against Trump’s peace efforts, says diplomat. As sanctions loom, Russia doubles down on violence, mocking US efforts to end the conflict.

New developments

Ukraine cuts inflation forecast to 9.7% despite ongoing war. Country defies economic patterns typically seen in countries fighting for survival

Read our earlier daily review here.

Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) drones struck a military airfield storing Iranian-made “Shahed” drones in Primorsko-Akhtarsk, Krasnodar Oblast, during the night of 2 August, the SBU press service reported.

The SBU said that the Primorsko-Akhtarsk military airfield became the first target for long-range UAVs. “Storage and launch sites for Shaheds that attack Ukraine were hit on its territory,” the service announced. Fires broke out in the airfield area following the drone strikes.

A second target was the Elektroprilad plant in Penza city, with the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff confirming the strike. The facility produces equipment for the Russian military-industrial complex, manufacturing gear for digital networks in military command systems, aviation devices, armored vehicles, ships, and spacecraft, according to the SBU.

“SBU drones successfully hit the target, with smoke observed in the explosion area,” the security service reported regarding the Penza strike.

The attacks represent a continuation of Ukrainian strikes on Russian military infrastructure. On 31 July, drones had previously targeted a radio plant in Penza, with the SBU later confirming responsibility for that operation as well.

The coordinated strikes demonstrate Ukraine’s expanding capability to conduct long-range operations against military targets deep within Russian territory, specifically targeting facilities involved in producing or storing weapons used against Ukrainian cities.

Multiple Russian oblasts reported explosions and fires at industrial facilities during overnight drone attacks on 2 August, with air defense systems activated across several areas, according to Russian Telegram channels.

Samara Oblast Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev confirmed strikes on Novokuybyshevsk. Social media footage showed a large fire at what appeared to be the Novokuybyshevsk Oil Refinery.

Witnesses reported loud explosions near Dyagilevo airfield in Ryazan Oblast. Another oil refinery in Ryazan city was reportedly struck.

Residents of Lipetsk and Voronezh oblasts also reported UAV attacks and air defense activity during the night.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence has redistributed 8 billion hryvnias ($192 million) for urgent needs of unmanned units, following a decision by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief’s headquarters, Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal said.

The funding will support military units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine involved in the “Drone Line” project and strengthen unmanned systems in newly formed units.

“This will allow for immediate financing of urgent needs of such units as ‘Madyar’s Birds’, K2, ‘Rarog’, ‘Achilles’, ‘Nemesis’, ‘Black Forest’,” Shmyhal said. These units demonstrated high effectiveness, destroying 22,700 Russian targets in the past month alone.

The government allocated an additional 1 billion hryvnias ($24 mn) for anti-drone protection of evacuation and logistics routes.

The funding comes as part of broader defense budget increases. On 31 July, the Verkhovna Rada approved amendments to the state budget, increasing defense sector expenditures by 412.3 billion hryvnias ($10 bn). Of this amount, 115 billion hryvnias ($3 bn) will fund monetary support for servicemembers across all Defense Forces.

Ukraine’s Defense Minister said earlier this week that the country is very close to obtaining its own ballistic missiles. The announcement came after former Deputy Defense Minister Anatoliy Klochko said in June that Ukrainians would soon hear “more concrete statements” about Ukrainian ballistics, as the country had made “serious progress” on the issue.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has posthumously awarded journalist Victoria Roshchyna with the Order of Freedom, according to a presidential decree.

The document states the award recognizes her “civic courage, patriotism, selfless defense of sovereignty and independence of the Ukrainian state, constitutional rights and human freedoms.”

“Today we honor Victoria Roshchyna posthumously. She is awarded the Order of Freedom. For unwavering faith that freedom will overcome everything. Honor and bright memory to Victoria Roshchyna,” Zelenskyy wrote.

Roshchyna disappeared on temporarily occupied territories on 3 August 2023. Russia first confirmed holding her in captivity only in May 2024. This marked her second abduction by Russian forces – she had previously been kidnapped in March 2022 but was released after ten days.

News of her death emerged on 10 October 2024, when Russian officials informed her father Volodymyr, with Ukrainian authorities later confirming the information.

The Media Initiative for Human Rights reported that Roshchyna was held in at least two detention facilities: correctional colony №77 in Berdiansk and detention center №2 in Taganrog, Russia. The Taganrog facility is known as “one of the most brutal detention places for Ukrainians on Russian territory,” according to the organization.

Roshchyna’s body was returned to Ukraine in late February, though this information was first made public on 24 April. Journalists learned that she was initially held in Enerhodar and later transferred to Melitopol.

A cellmate described finding multiple scars on Roshchyna’s arms and legs, as well as knife wounds. The journalist told her she had been tortured with electricity, after which “she was all blue,” according to the cellmate’s account. Roshchyna later began losing weight dramatically, refusing food until she weighed around 30 kilograms.

A group of Ukrainian children has been evacuated from Russian-occupied territories and brought to safety in government-controlled Ukraine, according to organizations Bring Kids Back UA and Save Ukraine.

The children endured systematic persecution for maintaining their Ukrainian identity while living under occupation.

“15-year-old Maria courageously defended her Ukrainian identity – she wore vyshyvanka to Russian school, argued with teachers about Ukraine. For this, classmates called her ‘ukropka,’ bullied and beat her, and teachers wrote denunciations and threatened her mother with deprivation of parental rights,” Bring Kids Back UA reported.

Four-year-old Milana and eight-year-old Sashko lived in occupied territories with their mother and grandmother. The women faced constant threats that children would be taken away if they refused to attend Russian schools. Authorities forced the children’s mother to obtain Russian documents while subjecting the grandmother to polygraph interrogation. Milana, who has a disability requiring medication, suffered as her family struggled to find necessary medicines under occupation.

Another evacuated teenager faced interrogation for online activity. “15-year-old Lina was interrogated for 6 hours straight for a pro-Ukrainian comment on social media, had her phone confiscated and was threatened with arrest by local ‘police.’ After that, the girl was afraid that she was being watched and that one day she would be forcibly sent to a so-called Russian ‘reeducation camp,'” the rescue organization wrote.

Seventeen-year-old Semen fled occupation to avoid conscription into Russian forces. He decided not to wait until adulthood after witnessing classmates forced into Russian military service despite their young age. Military commissariat representatives had already visited Semen’s home, threatening fines and physical violence for failing to appear when summoned.

The evacuation represents part of ongoing efforts to return Ukrainian children from occupied territories, where previous groups have been rescued despite facing pressure while studying online in Ukrainian schools.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham issued a warning to Russia regarding potential escalation, responding to threats made by Dmitry Medvedev against the United States.

Graham wrote on social media platform X that President Donald Trump does not seek conflict but stands ready for decisive action if necessary.

“To my friends in Russia: President Trump seeks peace not conflict. However, please understand that he is not Obama, he is not Biden, and he will not be trifled with. You are overplaying your hand,” Graham wrote.

The US President previously announced on Truth Social that he ordered the deployment of two nuclear submarines to appropriate regions following provocative statements by Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev.

Trump explained that he “was forced to do this” to protect the American people.

Earlier, Medvedev published a post mentioning the Soviet automatic nuclear strike system known as “Dead Hand” and called on Trump to “remember his favorite zombie movies.”

Previously, Medvedev claimed that Trump “is playing a game of ultimatums with Russia.” He added that “every new ultimatum is a threat and a step toward war.”

President Donald Trump has expressed earlier growing frustration with Russia’s continued attacks on Ukraine. Trump, who initially adopted a more conciliatory approach toward Moscow while attempting to end the three-year war, has now threatened to impose tariffs and other measures if Russia shows no progress toward ending the war by 8 August.

The United States and NATO are developing a novel financing mechanism that would allow NATO countries to pay for American weapons transfers to Ukraine, Reuters reported on 31 July, citing three sources.

The initiative comes as President Donald Trump has expressed growing frustration with Russia’s continued attacks on Ukraine. Trump, who initially adopted a more conciliatory approach toward Moscow while attempting to end the three-year war, has now threatened to impose tariffs and other measures if Russia shows no progress toward ending the war by 8 August.

“The president said last month the US would supply weapons to Ukraine, paid for by European allies, but did not indicate how this would be done,” Reuters reported

The new mechanism centers on the Priority Ukraine Requirements List (PURL), a catalog of American weapons systems. Under the proposed structure, Ukraine would prioritize needed weapons in tranches of approximately $500 million each. NATO allies, coordinated by Secretary General Mark Rutte, would then negotiate among themselves to determine funding responsibilities for specific items.

“That is the starting point, and it’s an ambitious target that we’re working towards. We’re currently on that trajectory. We support the ambition. We need that sort of volume,” a European official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The mechanism aims to deliver $10 billion worth of arms to Ukraine, though the timeframe remains unclear. A senior NATO military official described the initiative as “a voluntary effort coordinated by NATO that all allies are encouraged to take part in.”

The system includes a NATO holding account where allies can deposit funds for weapons purchases, subject to approval by NATO’s top military commander. According to a US official, money would be transferred to a US-held account, possibly at the Treasury Department, or to an escrow fund, though the exact structure remains under development.

For NATO countries choosing to donate weapons directly, the mechanism would allow them to bypass lengthy US arms sales procedures when replenishing their own stockpiles, Reuters reports.

The new system would operate alongside existing US efforts under the Presidential Drawdown Authority, which allows the president to transfer weapons from current American stockpiles to assist allies during emergencies.

At least one weapons tranche is currently under negotiation through the new mechanism, according to two sources, though it remains unclear whether any funds have been transferred yet.

Trump’s Republican allies in Congress have introduced the PEACE Act, legislation designed to create a Treasury Department fund where allies could deposit money to pay for replenishing US military equipment donated to Ukraine.

Ukraine’s requirements remain consistent with previous months: air defenses, interceptors, missile systems, rockets, and artillery. The most recent statement of needs came during a 21 July video conference of Ukraine’s allies in the Ramstein group, now led by Britain and Germany.

Russian forces continue their gradual advance against Ukraine and currently control approximately one-fifth of Ukrainian territory.

NATO headquarters in Brussels declined to comment on the mechanism. The White House, Pentagon, and Ukrainian embassy in Washington did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

President Donald Trump ordered two nuclear submarines to be strategically positioned in response to what he called “highly provocative statements” from former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev NBC NewsCNN, escalating tensions between the nuclear superpowers on 1 August.

“I have ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences, I hope this will not be one of those instances.”

The submarine deployment came after Medvedev made reference to Russia’s Soviet-era automatic, retaliatory nuclear strike capabilities on 31 July, after Trump told Medvedev to “watch his words.”

The exchange began after Medvedev said that “each new ultimatum” that Trump makes toward Russia in pressuring an end to the war in Ukraine.

Trump had previously warned of new sanctions against Moscow if Russia did not demonstrate progress in ending the Ukraine war within 10 days.

Multiple Russian oblasts reported explosions and fires at industrial facilities during overnight drone attacks on 2 August, with air defense systems activated across several areas, according to Russian Telegram channels.

Samara Oblast Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev confirmed strikes on Novokuybyshevsk. Social media footage showed a large fire at what appeared to be the Novokuybyshevsk Oil Refinery, with sounds resembling drone operations and air defense systems audible in the videos.

The governor also announced temporary restrictions on mobile internet in the oblast and suspended operations at Samara airport following the attacks.

Defense-related facilities in Penza Oblast also came under attack. Drones reportedly struck JSC Production Association “Elektropribor,” a company specializing in control elements for Russian missile systems and communications equipment. The nearby AT “Radio Plant,” Russia’s sole defense facility producing air defense command centers, was likely also hit, according to reports.

Witnesses reported loud explosions near Dyagilevo airfield in Ryazan Oblast. Another oil refinery in Ryazan city was reportedly struck, with local social media publishing eyewitness videos showing a column of fire. Regional authorities confirmed drone attacks on a local enterprise without specifying which facility was targeted.

Residents of Lipetsk and Voronezh oblasts also reported UAV attacks and air defense activity during the night.

JSC Kuibyshev Oil Refinery produces motor fuels including Euro-5 standard gasoline and diesel fuel, along with dozens of other petroleum products in market demand.

The attacks followed similar overnight explosions in several cities of temporarily occupied Crimea on 1-2 August, after which occupying authorities closed the Crimean Bridge to vehicle traffic.

What does it take to steal $2 billion from your own bank? According to a London High Court, all you need is 50 shell companies, a culture of fear, and four years to perfect the art of making money disappear.

Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoiskyi found out the hard way that his thorough looting of PrivatBank — Ukraine’s largest financial institution —has consequences. On 30 July, Justice Trower ruled that Kolomoiskyi and his longtime partner Hennadii Boholiubov (Bogolyubov) orchestrated a brazen fraud that nearly collapsed Ukraine’s entire banking system.

Ordinary oligarch theft this wasn’t. Kolomoiskyi and Boholyiubov, then Ukraine’s second and third richest persons, spent four years hollowing out Ukraine’s financial backbone while regulators watched—some bought off, others too intimidated to act.

The man behind the scheme

For international readers, Kolomoiskyi isn’t just any businessman.

He’s the oligarch who once controlled roughly 10% of Ukraine’s GDP through his Privat Group empire. His TV channel, 1+1, made Volodymyr Zelenskyy a household name long before anyone imagined the comedian would become president. His private militia helped defend Ukraine against Russian-backed separatists in 2014. His influence reached governorships, media empires, and the very heart of Ukrainian politics.

How to steal a bank in four easy steps

The London court laid out Kolomoiskyi’s playbook with forensic precision:

Step 1: Create the borrowers

Between 2010 and 2014, PrivatBank issued hundreds of loans to over 50 shell companies. These weren’t real businesses — most had no operations, employees, or purpose except to receive money. Kolomoiskyi and Boholiubov secretly controlled all of them.

Step 2: Move the money offshore

Those fraudulent loans were immediately transferred to corporate defendants in the UK and British Virgin Islands under the pretense of “prepayments” for goods. The court’s finding? None of the goods were delivered, and the payments were never returned. Cyprus was the key pipeline, with PrivatBank’s branch facilitating over $2.3 billion in foreign currency transfers.

Step 3: Recycle to hide the theft

When loans came due, new fake loans were issued to repay the old ones. This “loan recycling” created an illusion of solvency while the money flowed to accounts controlled by the oligarchs. In 2016, just before nationalization, PrivatBank issued a final $5.7 billion in “new loans” — a desperate attempt to cover the massive hole in the bank’s balance sheet.

Step 4: Create fake lawsuits for cover

In late 2014, as Ukrainian regulators began asking uncomfortable questions, 46 of the 50 shell companies filed lawsuits demanding repayment from their supposed suppliers. Courts issued favorable rulings that were never enforced. Justice Trower found that “the judgments in the 2014 Ukrainian Proceedings were collusively obtained” — legal theater designed to fool regulators.

The culture of silence

What enabled this massive theft? Fear.

The court found that senior PrivatBank employees, including top management, facilitated the scheme under direct orders from Kolomoiskyi and Boholiubov. Compliance failures weren’t accidental — they were deliberate, driven by intimidation and a culture where asking questions could end careers or worse.

Even National Bank of Ukraine officials faced threats when they tried to investigate. The court noted that Kolomoiskyi made threats against NBU deputy governor Kateryna Rozhkova, telling her he was “a hungry tiger in a cage” with “very long arms” who could reach her anywhere.

In Kolomoiskyi’s Ukraine, silence wasn’t golden — it was survival.

The oligarchs’ desperate defense

When cornered with overwhelming evidence, Kolomoiskyi and Boholiubov deployed every legal argument their top-tier counsel could muster.

Why would sophisticated oligarchs with unlimited legal resources make arguments a London judge would find “procedurally flawed”? The answer reveals just how desperate their situation had become.

Their primary defense was breathtakingly audacious: they claimed they repaid fraudulent loans through later “asset transfers” and “loan transformations.” According to this logic, you can’t defraud someone if you later “repay” them — even if that repayment comes from more fraudulent money.

Justice Trower quickly demolished this argument. The supposed “repayments” were not genuine but part of artificial schemes using further fraudulent loans.

It was circular fraud, not actual repayment.

Boholiubov throws Kolomoiskyi under the bus

Boholiubov claimed complete independence from his longtime partner in a move that backfired spectacularly. He suggested the scheme involved bank management acting without his knowledge or approval, essentially throwing Kolomoiskiy and PrivatBank’s management under the bus.

The court wasn’t buying it. Justice Trower examined Boholiubov’s reaction to devastating NBU audit reports that exposed massive related-party lending consuming over 70% of the bank’s assets.

A truly uninvolved chair would have demanded investigations and fired management. Instead, Boholiubov voted to reappoint the same Management Board and praised their “satisfactory” performance.

“I think that the Bank is correct to submit that Mr Boholiubov’s reaction to this highly critical report was the opposite of what a person in his position with no prior knowledge of these deficiencies would have done,” Justice Trower wrote. The judge found that Boholiubov’s lack of surprise at the audit findings “reflects and corroborates the other circumstantial evidence that they knew and approved of lending in the form of the loan recycling scheme.”

The silence that spoke volumes

Perhaps most damaging was what the oligarchs didn’t do. When confronted with evidence of massive fraud, neither demanded investigations nor took disciplinary action against management, which they now claimed had acted without their knowledge. They withdrew their witness statements, and neither appeared in court to testify under oath.

The court found “it is inherently unlikely that any of the steps in the Misappropriation were not known and approved by both of them.” The judge drew adverse inferences from their refusal to testify and their behavior throughout the proceedings.

The nationalization defense that never was

Kolomoiskyi attempted one final gambit: arguing that PrivatBank’s new management after nationalization had “consciously decided” to treat certain fraudulent transactions as valid when they signed off on 2016 financial statements. This “free-choice extinction” defense suggested the bank had voluntarily accepted the fraud.

Justice Trower noted this argument was never properly pleaded and would have been rejected for causing prejudice anyway. It revealed the desperation of oligarchs grasping at procedural technicalities.

Document destruction and deliberate obstruction

The court found that both oligarchs had destroyed documents that could have been evidence in the case. Justice Trower noted that Kolomoiskyi admitted in his disclosure certificate that his “general practice has been not to retain hard copy documents” and his “practice has been to dispose of the document immediately or once any action points have been completed.”

More damning, the judge found that “Mr Kolomoiskyi took deliberate decisions to procure the destruction of data which was capable of being relevant to the current proceedings.” The court determined that Kolomoiskyi’s approach to disclosure was to “delay and obfuscate for as long as possible in the hope that these documents would not come out.”

This behavior fits a pattern. The court found that Kolomoiskyi “seems to have regarded himself as above the law,”A while Boholiubov’s attempts to claim ignorance were undermined by his actions as chairman of the supervisory board.

From kingmaker to pariah

This judgment captures Kolomoiskyi at a remarkable inflection point.

The transformation has been swift.

• In 2019, Kolomoiskyi’s media empire helped propel Zelenskyy to the presidency.
• By 2021, the US State Department had banned him and his family from American soil due to “significant corruption.”
• The US Department of Justice has filed four separate civil forfeiture cases since 2020 through its Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, targeting hundreds of millions in American real estate allegedly purchased with laundered PrivatBank funds.
• Ukrainian prosecutors have reopened local investigations, and Kolomoiskyi was arrested in September 2023 on separate embezzlement charges.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian investigators report that Boholiubov illegally fled the country in July 2024 using forged documents and was temporarily residing in Vienna. Both maintain their innocence, but their legal options are rapidly narrowing — any appeal of the London judgment has been adjourned until October 2025.

How Boholiubov fled

The Great Escape: How Ukraine’s ninth-richest man slipped out of the country amid fraud allegations

Zelenskyy, meanwhile, has carefully distanced himself from his former media patron — a political necessity as Ukraine seeks international legitimacy and aid.

What this means beyond Ukraine

This isn’t just a Ukrainian story. The London judgment establishes crucial precedents for international asset recovery, applying Ukrainian civil law through English commercial courts. It creates a roadmap for other countries whose oligarchs have hidden stolen assets abroad.

For Ukraine’s international backers — the EU, IMF, and bilateral donors —this ruling sends a clear signal: foreign courts can hold influential figures accountable even when domestic institutions struggle to do so.

The bigger question

While PrivatBank can now pursue enforcement actions to recover assets in the UK and beyond, a fundamental question remains: can Ukraine’s courts deliver similar justice?

The London ruling proves the facts were there all along. The evidence was overwhelming. The legal framework existed. What was missing was the political will and institutional independence to act.

This oligarchic reach seemed to extend even to London.

According to the Law Gazette, Justice Trower expressed alarm after discovering that a draft judgment had been leaked to Ukrainian social media and Cypriot corporate service providers before the official announcement.

The judge told the court he was “very alarmed by some correspondence I received last night,” noting that the draft “seems to have been leaked in such a manner that it would become available on social media sites in Ukraine” and to “one of the corporate service providers in Cyprus.”

He added: “On the face of it, if there has been a leak which looks like it might have been, the court takes that very seriously indeed.” The Law Gazette reported that the source of the leak remains under investigation.

The London victory proves oligarchs can be held accountable—somewhere. Whether Ukraine can build that capacity at home remains the crucial test for a country still battling Russian aggression while trying to build a genuine rule of law.

Kolomoiskyi’s London defeat might be the beginning — or it might remain an exception that proves the rule about where real justice happens for Ukraine’s oligarchs.

Timeline: From fraud to judgment

• 2010-2014: PrivatBank issues over $2.3 billion in fraudulent loans via 50 shell borrowers
• 2014: Bogus repayment lawsuits filed in Ukrainian courts to create cover
• December 2016: National Bank of Ukraine declares PrivatBank insolvent and nationalizes it to prevent financial system collapse
• 2017: UK court grants freezing orders; PrivatBank files civil fraud claim in London
• 2018-2019: Legal disputes over jurisdiction; UK Court of Appeal allows case to proceed
• 2023: Full trial held in London High Court
• 30 July 2025: Final judgment confirms Kolomoiskyi and Boholiubov liable for $1.91 billion

This article was amended after publication to include the Forbes Ukraine data on why Privatbank was unable to sue Kolomoiskyi in Ukraine

What’s happening to PrivatBank now?

Ukraine nationalized its way out of crisis—now it can’t stop making money

Europe has honored a Ukrainian hero who saved lives under Russian fire. Combat medic Volodymyr Ryzhenko, call sign “Druh Sprite”, from the 12th Special Forces Brigade Azov, has been named “Best European Medic of the Year” in the Military Medicine category, according to Ukraine’s National Guard. 

Awarded at Europe’s top military medicine conference

Ryzhenko received his award during the Combat Medical Care Conference 2025, Europe’s largest military medical summit, held in Germany with over 1,400 experts from 44 countries. The event was co-hosted by the German Bundeswehr.

A blood drop from the sky

In winter 2025, Druh Sprite made headlines after he saved a wounded comrade under enemy fire by performing an emergency blood transfusion using donor blood delivered by drone.

“It was a matter of minutes. Without that blood from the sky, he wouldn’t have made it,” his unit reported.

The act has become a landmark in the evolution of combat medical care.

Ukrainian medics share expertise globally

A three-member Azov medical team represented Ukraine at the conference, sharing first-hand battlefield experience.

• Lt. Serhii Rotchuk (“Druh Jedi”) presented innovations in medical logistics,

• Olha Tagirova (“Krava”) discussed treating wounded soldiers beyond the golden hour and the systematic training of personnel.

A sword for courage: a symbol of strength

Alongside the award, Ryzhenko received a ceremonial sword, a symbol of bravery, dignity, and strength. The honor highlights not only his personal heroism but also the excellence of Ukrainian military medicine, which continues to save lives on the front lines every day.

US President Donald Trump has stunned with details on the death toll in Ukraine. The American leader claims that since the start of 2025, Russia has lost over 112,500 soldiers, while Ukraine has suffered around 8,000 military casualties, not including the missing.

“This is Biden’s war, not Trump’s”

“I have just been informed that almost 20,000 Russian soldiers died this month in the ridiculous War with Ukraine. Russia has lost 112,500 soldiers since the beginning of the year,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on 1 August. 

He called it “a lot of unnecessary death” and noted that Russia continues to strike Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, killing civilians.

“This is a War that should have never happened — This is Biden’s War, not ‘TRUMP’s.’ I’m just here to see if I can stop it!” he added. 

Earlier today, Russian ruler Vladimir Putin cynically commented on the war in Ukraine for the first time since US President Donald Trump issued his 10-day ultimatum on Russia. 

Putin confirmed that Russia’s conditions for ending the war, announced back in summer 2024, remain unchanged.

Last year, he insisted on the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the occupied territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia. Moscow has illegally incorporated these Ukrainian regions into its Constitution. Additionally, Russia demands that Ukraine renounce NATO membership, enshrine a non-nuclear status, and lift sanctions.

Only three out of eight Russian Iskander-K cruise missiles launched at Ukraine on the night of 31 July were shot down. This raised questions about why Ukraine’s air defense, usually effective against Kalibr and Kh-101 missiles, failed to destroy most of them, Defense Express reports.

Explosions in Kyiv and a major air raid alert

The key reason is the element of surprise, say the military experts from Defense Express.

“Today’s launches of ‘Iskander-K’ were carried out from Russia’s Kursk Oblasy, practically right at the border, so there was very little time to react and deploy countermeasures,” the analysis states.

The land-based Iskander launchers are harder to detect than ships launching Kalibr missiles or bombers carrying Kh-101s, since those require more flight time and are detected by intelligence before launch.

“He will risk everything in Ukraine”: Putin may be preparing for even harsher war in Ukraine after Trump’s ultimatum

What is known about these missiles? 

Iskander-K is a general term for cruise missiles launched from the Iskander tactical missile system. These include the 9M728 (R-500) with a range up to 500 km and the 9M729 with a range up to 1,500 km. Both have a 480 kg warhead and fly at speeds up to 900 km/h.

This year, Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate announced Russia’s approximate missile production rates. Currently, Russia can produce about 300 cruise missiles per month, including 20-30 Iskander-K. 

Kharkiv stands in ruins after Russia attacks. Daily strikes have devasted the city and caused over €10 billion in damage to Kharkiv, Mayor Ihor Terekhov told Report.

According to the city’s head, Russia has been systematically targeting Kharkiv’s civilian infrastructure for over three years. More than 12,000 sites have been destroyed or damaged, and most of them are residential buildings.

“160,000 Kharkiv residents have lost their homes. Explosions every day, destruction every day, and sadly, deaths and injuries,” says Terekhov. 

Thousands of residents are left homeless

The mayor notes that over 9,500 of the destroyed sites are residential buildings, meaning Russian missiles and drones are primarily targeting civilians. Since February 2022, Kharkiv has not seen a single day without shelling.

“Currently, the need for windows exceeds 50,000. Every strike increases this number by another thousand, one and a half, two. The record was more than five thousand in one attack,” the mayor revealed in June.

Reconstruction will require billions

“We are facing massive destruction. The city will need even more funds to rebuild,” Terekhov states, estimating the damage at around €10 billion.

Still, he stressed, “no amount of money can bring back the lives and health lost.”

Terekhov underscored that Kharkiv is under constant attack and that “civilian targets are primarily being hit.”

The scale of destruction and number of victims make it clear: Russia is deliberately devastating Ukraine’s largest city near the border.

Earlier, Russia tested its new modified bomb in an attack on Kharkiv. Children, an infant, and a pregnant woman were among the wounded. A new type of aerial bomb, the UMPB-5, with 250-kg warhead, hit the central part of the city in the first known use of this weapon.

Two airstrikes were launched from over 100 kilometers away. The strikes damaged 20 residential buildings, including 17 apartment blocks in the Shevchenkivskyi and Kholodnohirskyi districts. The blast wave shattered over 600 windows, forming a crater in the street. Seven cars were destroyed by fire, and 18 more were damaged. One industrial facility caught fire, resulting in a large-scale blaze.

Russian oil is stranded at sea. At least four tankers carrying Russian oil are unable to dock near India’s shores due to the threat of sanctions from the US and EU, Bloomberg reports. 

In mid-July, the EU implemented new sanctions against Russia aimed at cutting its energy revenues. At the same time, US President Donald Trump’s administration has threatened India with high import tariffs and penalties for buying Russian oil. 

Earlier, the head of the Indian Oil Corporation, A.S. Sahni, stated that if Russian supplies are restricted, the company will revert to traditional import schemes used before the war in Ukraine, when Moscow’s export to India was lower than 2%. 

Sanctioned tankers idle off the Indian coast

Satellite tracking data shows that the tankers Achilles and Elyte, which loaded Urals crude in late June from Primorsk and Ust-Luga, are anchored near the port of Jamnagar, although they were scheduled to arrive in Sikka on 30–31 July. Both vessels are listed under EU and UK sanctions.

Two other tankers — Destan (under sanctions) and Horae (not sanctioned) — are also off the coast, awaiting unloading. Destan was due in Sikka on 24–25 July, while Horae is en route to Vadinar and expected to arrive on 1 August.

The delay of four tankers may signal that the era of consequence-free trade is nearing its end. Even if the tankers eventually reroute or unload, the situation marks a new phase of global pressure on countries doing business with Russia.

The Ukrainian government takes an unusual step amid EU pressure. Facing the threat of losing billions in aid, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko has announced that Oleksandr Tsyvinsky, the selected candidate for Director of the Bureau of Economic Security (BEB), has agreed he will undergo a polygraph test.

Svyrydenko: “A civilized solution is the polygraph”

The Ukrainian prime minister says she has held a direct meeting with Tsyvinsky on 1 August, during which they agreed he would take a polygraph test. 

“We agreed with Oleksandr on how to remove all doubts in a civilized manner and arranged for him to take a polygraph test. This guarantees that the situation is free of manipulation and allows us to move forward,” Svyrydenko states. 

She adds that the selection commission has already made its decision and that the government has received the results from additional background checks.

Tsyvinsky is a National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) detective who won the BEB director position in June 2025. The competition involved international experts. Tsyvinsky leads one of NABU’s elite detective units. His appointment was to symbolize the restoration of trust in anti-corruption bodies. 

However, on 7 July, the Ukrainian government refused to approve him, citing “security concerns” as assessed by the Security Service. In response, Tsyvinsky stated that the government’s decision “does not comply with the law.”

Government promises final decision next week

The prime minister emphasizes the shared interest in making the Bureau of Economic Security an effective institution trusted by both business and the public. She expresses hope that the Ukrainian government will reach a final decision next week. 

“This will be a major contribution to rebuilding trust between the state and the business community,” Svyrydenko adds. 

The government’s refusal to approve the competition winner marked another escalation in tense relations between Ukrainian authorities and NABU, which sharply intensified this summer.

On 22 July, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed the controversial bill, which curtails the NABU’s independence, as well as the liberty of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), by requiring their key decisions to be coordinated with the Prosecutor General’s Office.

The law led to mass civil society protests and criticism from international partners as it contradicts Ukraine’s commitments to the EU and the US on anti-corruption reforms.

A powerful tsunami triggered by a magnitude 8.8 earthquake has reportedly struck Russia’s secret nuclear submarine base in Kamchatka. Satellite images obtained by The Telegraph show severe damage to the pier at the Rybachiy base, a key facility of Russia’s Pacific Fleet.

Satellite images reveal a pier shift after a tsunami strike

According to Umbra Space, one of the docking structures was displaced at a “terrifying angle,” indicating the pier may have been partially torn from its foundation. No submarine was docked at the time of the impact, but the base’s vulnerability raises serious concerns. One image shows a submarine moored at the same pier as recently as 17 July.

The nuclear fleet base, just 75 miles from the epicenter struck by a natural disaster

Rybachiy is located in Avacha Bay, only 120 km (75 miles) from the quake’s epicenter. The base hosts Russia’s newest Borei-class and older Delta-class submarines.

Nearby facilities include Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and other strategic military sites.

Although the Kremlin insists the infrastructure is “fully earthquake-proof,” experts warn that even minor pier damage could compromise combat readiness.

Experts question the safety of fleet concentration in one port

Analysts stress that concentrating so many submarines in a single location is a strategic risk.

“This is why having multiple bases is a good idea, because you never know when you’re going to get rogered by something you haven’t seen coming,” said retired Royal Navy officer Tom Sharpe.

He also criticized the pier’s construction.

“It looks classically Russian. Taped on,” he adds. 

While Russian sources deny any major damage, the base’s vulnerability to natural disasters casts doubt on the Pacific Fleet’s readiness for emergency scenarios.

Russian ruler Vladimir Putin has cynically commented on the war in Ukraine for the first time since US President Donald Trump issued his 10-day ultimatum on Russia. Last week, the American president gave Russia ten days to reach a peaceful settlement, threatening massive sanctions if this does not happen by 8 August, UNIAN reports.

Moscow is ready to wait

During a meeting with the self-proclaimed president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, Putin spoke positively about the negotiations in Turkiye and the prisoner exchanges, stating that Moscow is “ready to wait” if Kyiv is not prepared for talks.

At the same time, he said the Ukrainian political regime “is not based on the Constitution” and supports prolonged negotiations “without any time limits.”

In June, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy revealed that the Kremlin used prisoner exchanges as a tool to delay the negotiation process with Ukraine and dodge sanctions. While sending back Ukrainian prisoners of war, beaten and tortured in captivity, Russia does not agree to any other proposition to end the war. 

Ukrainian soldier dies weeks after release from Russian captivity with his organs failing due to torture

Kremlin’s conditions remain the same as last year 

Putin confirmed that Russia’s conditions for ending the war, announced back in summer 2024, remain unchanged.

Last year, he insisted on the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the occupied territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia. Moscow has illegally incorporated these Ukrainian regions into its Constitution. Additionally, Russia demands that Ukraine renounce NATO membership, enshrine a non-nuclear status, and lift sanctions.

Lukashenko says Zelenskyy should ask Putin to negotiate

In talks with propagandists, Putin boasted about the production of the first serial ballistic missile Oreshnik and the Russian army’s offensive along the entire front line.

In 2024, Russia used a Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicle (MIRV) missile armed with conventional warheads to strike Dnipro. While MIRV technology has long been associated with nuclear delivery systems, this marked its first use in combat. The scale of the destruction remains unknown. According to Ukraine’s Air Force, Russia targeted industrial facilities and critical infrastructure in Dnipro.

Meanwhile, Lukashenko urged Zelenskyy “to simply sit down at the negotiating table” with Putin and emphasized that Minsk and Moscow will not kneel because they decisively defend their interests.

The latest deadly attack on Kyiv was an attempt by Russian ruler Vladimir Putin to humiliate American President Donald Trump. For half a year of his presidency, Trump has been trying to stop the war between Ukraine and Russia, says former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Volodymyr Ohryzko, Radio NV reports. 

Last week, Trump announced a new ultimatum to Russia, shortening to 10 days the time Russia has to end the war in Ukraine or face sanctions on its oil exports. The energy sector brings Moscow significant profits, which it directs toward new missiles and drones to terrorize Ukrainian civilians.

Putin was silent for a long time after the ultimatum. Then, on 31 July, he launched 300 drones and 8 missiles at Kyiv. The attack killed 31 people, including 5 children.

“What happened on 31 July once again proves that we are dealing with wild barbarians. And barbarism must be met with a strong and harsh response,” the diplomat says.

The former minister noted that while Trump might be accelerating events, he is unlikely to tolerate Putin’s blatant and public humiliation.

“I think two things must happen now. First, very tough economic sanctions. And very accelerated military aid to Ukraine. These two components, along with all the others, will be key to changing the situation on the battlefield and inside Russia in Ukrainian favor,” he explains. 

On 1 August, Trump promised new sanctions on Russia, but also sent US Envoy Steve Witkoff to visit Moscow for another round of talks after his visit to Israel. 

He again claimed that Russia’s war “is Biden’s war” and claimed it would allegedly not have started if he had been in office when it began. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Congress is ready to advance a sweeping sanctions bill against Russia if Trump decides he wants more pressure. The legislation was introduced by Lindsey Graham and has more than 80 senators signed on. 

According to media reports, at least 96 Russian drones violated Belarusian airspace in July, marking the heaviest month of drone incursions so far. These Russian long-range drones came from Ukraine and crossed into Belarus skies repeatedly during the month, with one night alone seeing 26 of them entering.

96 Russian drones in Belarus create record month of incursions

Belsat reported that in the early hours of 30 July, at least 26 Russian Shahed drones flew into Belarus airspace. According to the Homiel-based news site Flagshtok, this pushed the July total to at least 96 drones. The figure set a new record, with previous months showing far fewer flights. Flagstok said the last peak was in January, but July exceeded it.

Reports described how late in the evening on that day, observers noticed three drones near Khoiniki and Naroulia. Two of them moved toward Brahin. Later, five more drones were seen heading toward Brahin and further toward Ukraine’s Zhytomyr Oblast. Another three drones appeared over Homiel Oblast. One flew over Mazyr, while another was heard south of Homiel. Drones also appeared in the areas of Naroulia and Loieu. Witnesses said the sound of their engines was clearly heard during the night.

On 29 July, one of the Russian drones fell on the outskirts of Minsk. Authorities in Belarus admitted the crash but claimed that the drone was allegedly Ukrainian. This version was met with doubt because witnesses said the drone came from the direction of Russia. BELPOL, citing witnesses, reported that the drone engine noise was heard in Astrashytski Haradok and Baravliany, both located north of Minsk.

Belsat said that in all of 2023, at least 145 Russian Shahed drones entered Belarus. Of those, 109 disappeared from radars, while 36 continued toward Ukraine. 

Ukraine’s central bank reported on 31 July that inflation will moderate to 9.7% by December 2025, down from its May peak of 15.9%. This signaled monetary stability that exceeded many international expectations for a wartime economy.

The encouraging headline masks a troubling contradiction: Ukrainian families now pay more for basic groceries than their counterparts in EU countries, with butter costing 25% more than in Poland, according to Focus.ua analysis. This paradox — macro success alongside micro hardship — tests whether Ukraine can sustain the economic discipline that international lenders and reconstruction investors demand.

Central bank maintains credibility with a tight monetary stance

The National Bank of Ukraine kept its key policy rate at 15.5%, which would be considered restrictive in peacetime economies but demonstrates institutional strength that Western financial markets monitor closely.

“The NBU will stick to a rather tight monetary stance for as long as it is needed in order to ensure that inflation is steadily declining toward its 5% target over the policy horizon,” NBU Governor Andriy Pyshnyy said on 24 July during the monetary policy briefing.

The central bank revised its inflation trajectory, now projecting 9.7% in 2025, 6.6% in 2026, and a return to the 5% target only by 2027. This timeline that aligns with European Central Bank standards and signals Ukraine’s commitment to EU integration despite wartime pressures.

Real GDP growth projections remain modest at 2.1% for 2025, closely matching International Monetary Fund expectations of 2-3% growth and World Bank projections of 2% this year. This consensus among major multilateral institutions suggests Ukraine’s economic management has earned international credibility.

Foreign reserves cover more than five months of imports — exceeding the three-month standard that rating agencies use to assess emerging market stability — supported by continued international funding that maintains confidence among sovereign bond investors.

Household costs expose fragility behind stability

While macroeconomic indicators show stability, Ukrainian households face mounting cost pressures — a fact covered elliptically in the NBU report by the phrase “convergence of food prices.” The average Ukrainian food basket has become increasingly expensive, particularly affecting regions with damaged production capacity.

Weather-related harvest disruptions compound these pressures. The NBU expects agricultural improvements to help cool food inflation, but rising utility costs and excise tax increases offset these gains. Real wages are growing approximately 3-4% annually, providing some relief, but many households struggle with necessities despite overall economic resilience.

This contradiction between institutional success and widespread hardship raises questions about aid model sustainability and long-term economic transformation prospects.

International confidence hinges on continued discipline

Ukraine’s monetary achievement serves multiple strategic purposes that extend beyond domestic concerns. The country’s ability to maintain inflation targeting and currency stability while fighting an existential war demonstrates institutional resilience that reconstruction investors and EU accession evaluators closely monitor.

The contrast with Russia’s economic trajectory remains striking: while Ukraine maintains disciplined monetary policy at 15.5% rates, Russia’s central bank unexpectedly cut its rate by 200 basis points in late July — its biggest reduction since May 2022 — signaling growing economic pressures despite earlier rate hikes to combat inflation.

Yet the food price paradox illustrates Ukraine’s fundamental challenge: maintaining the macroeconomic frameworks needed for post-war integration while supporting a population under extreme stress. How Ukraine manages this balance will determine whether international support translates into genuine economic transformation or merely postpones deeper structural reckonings.

For foreign observers, Ukraine’s inflation report represents more than monetary policy — it’s a test case for whether a country can simultaneously fight for survival and build the institutional foundations for European integration.

Hungary helps Russia by routing helicopter repairs through Kazakhstan while sourcing spare parts from Moscow, InformNapalm reports. InformNapalm is a volunteer intelligence community known for cyber operations exposing Russian military networks. Their latest release reveals a Hungarian company, Milspace Kft, offering a sanctions workaround for Russia’s Mil Design Bureau — the producer of Mi-series helicopters actively used against Ukrainian troops.

Leaked document exposes Hungary’s Milspace Kft in sanction evasion scheme

InformNapalm, working with the Militant Intelligence group, disclosed new data from the OpsHackRussia’sDay cyber operation. The dataset comes from hacked corporate correspondence of Russian defense industry companies. The latest document shows that Milspace Kft sent an official proposal to the Mexican company Personas y Paquetes Por Aire SA de CV. In this letter, Milspace Kft explains that Russian helicopter factories are under sanctions and offers a route to bypass these restrictions.

The leaked letter states:

“The Russian factory in Kazan, Mil Design Bureau and Holding of Russian Helicopters are under sanctions because of Ukrainen (original spelling, – Ed.) war. So, nobody can work with them directly. But we found a solution”

Milspace Kft proposes to act as the formal contractor while repairs would be done in a Kazakhstan plant licensed by Mil Design Bureau.

“Our Milspace is authorized organization of licensed by Mil Design Bureau repairing plant in Kazahstan. We are ready to participate in process of overhaul for your helicopters,” the leaked letter reads.

Spare parts would come from Moscow, specifically from Mi-INTER Ltd. The work would be supervised and coordinated with Mil Design Bureau and Russian Helicopters, both parts of Rostec, a large Russian state-owned conglomerate.

“Every of these organizations ready to participate in our repairing process, so the start was made successfully,” the document states.

Evidence links Hungary to Russian helicopter support

InformNapalm reports that this letter details a service package worth $92,000. The plan includes a team of four “to carry out troubleshooting work on airframe and helicopters under a separate contract.”

“Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has consistently shown loyalty to the Kremlin, delaying EU sanctions and blocking military aid to Ukraine through NATO and EU structures. Therefore, Milspace Kft’s involvement in these operations aligns with Budapest’s geopolitical position, which often conflicts with the core interests of both the EU and NATO,” Inform Napalm says.

Risks for EU and NATO security

InformNapalm warns that Hungary’s involvement undermines NATO collective security. The practice ensures that sanctioned Russian helicopters remain operational, despite restrictions. This leak also highlights a broader pattern of using Kazakhstan as a hub for maintaining Russian equipment, similar to previous findings from the #SU30Leaks series.

Hacktivists call on journalists and European officials to investigate these sanction evasion networks before they grow further. They note that more documents from the OpsHackRussiasDay operation will follow.

US President Donald Trump promises new sanctions on Russia as the US Senate prepares a massive package, and envoy Steve Witkoff is set to visit Moscow for another round of talks. The US President said at a White House briefing that he will impose sanctions, even though he doubts they will make Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin change course.

Despite Trump’s efforts to “end” the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has been repeatedly ignoring any calls for peace, only escalating its attacks against Ukrainian civilians. Yesterday’s Russian air attack on Kyiv killed at least 31 civilians, including three children. In the aftermath, Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said Trump had been “very generous and very patient” with Putin, and called for immediate maximum pressure on Moscow to end the war.

Trump promises sanctions on Russia and sends Witkoff to Moscow

Speaking after Russia’s deadly air assault on Kyiv, Trump said late on 31 July that Russia’s actions in Ukraine are “disgusting” and “a disgrace.” He again claimed that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “is Biden’s war” and claimed the war would allegedly not have started if he had been in office when it began. He again said many people are dying on both sides and that the United States should not be involved in the fighting.

Trump confirmed that sanctions are part of his plan to pressure Moscow, even as he questioned their effect.

“Yeah, we’re going to put sanctions. I don’t know that sanctions bother him (Putin, — Ed.). They know about sanctions. I know better than anybody about sanctions and tariffs and everything else. I don’t know if that has any effect, but we’re going to do it,” he said.

Trump added that the Russo-Ukrainian war “should be stopped. It’s a disgrace.”

“This was a stupid war to get into. Should have never gotten into this war,” he said.

The President also announced that his envoy Steve Witkoff will travel again to Moscow after a stop in Israel.

“Going to Israel. And then he’s going to Russia. Believe it or not,” Trump said.

Witkoff has already been to Moscow several times, but those trips have not brought a ceasefire closer, as Russia continues to demand Ukraine’s de facto capitulation.

Senate prepares its own sweeping sanctions bill

New York Post reports that Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Congress is ready to advance a sweeping sanctions bill against Russia if Trump decides he wants more pressure. The legislation was introduced by Lindsey Graham and has more than 80 senators signed on. Thune said in an interview that he is “hopeful” the bill will help Trump increase pressure on Putin.

Thune explained that the House and Senate are “ready to move” if the President wants harsher penalties for Russia. He said the support of the whole Congress would give the president more leverage in negotiations with Russia.

Trump, speaking earlier in the week to New York Post, expressed disappointment in Putin.

“I’m disappointed in him, I must be honest with you,” he said.

He described their earlier talks as unproductive, saying that each time “very bad things have happened” afterward.

Trump has also said earlier that if sanctions fail to produce results, he will consider tariffs on countries that continue buying Russian oil. According to Graham, these tariffs could target China, India and Brazil, which buy a majority of Russia’s oil.

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service, for over three hours, rescued a man trapped in the rubble of a house hit by a Russian missile on 31 July. The rescuers maintained voice contact with him all that time. He had fallen from the second floor to the first and was pinned by structural debris.

Reaching the injured man was difficult: rescuers broke a hole in the wall of a neighboring apartment and formed a sort of tunnel.

Special stabilizers were attached to the man to avoid causing further harm during the rescue.

Search and rescue operations are continuing at two Kyiv locations, and emergency recovery efforts are underway at six. At the strike sites, all available equipment and specialists have been deployed to save lives. Nearly 2,000 tons of rubble were removed from the strike site. 

Meanwhile, the number of victims continues to rise. Among the victims are a two-year-old and a six-year-old. The number may rise as emergency workers dig through the debris.

Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko announced yesterday that 1 August was declared a day of mourning in the city. Flags were lowered on municipal buildings, and all entertainment events were canceled. Both state and private institutions were asked to lower their flags as well.

A few minutes to strike 

During the night of 31 July, Russian forces attacked Kyiv with drones and later with Iskander-K missiles. According to Ukraine’s Air Force, Moscow used a total of 309 attack drones and eight Iskander-K cruise missiles in the assault on Ukraine, three of which were intercepted.

The Iskander-K missiles were launched from Russia’s Kursk Oblast, practically right on the border, leaving very little time to respond or deploy appropriate countermeasures. Moreover, Iskander ground-based launchers are harder to detect than carriers of Kalibr or Kh-101 missiles, as the latter must first head out to sea, and their flight time is significantly longer, Defense Express reports. 

Ukraine’s intelligence agency has reported that Russia is capable of producing up to 300 cruise missiles per month, including 20–30 Iskander-K missiles. 

Exclusives

Inside Zelenskyy’s failed coup against Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies. Parliamentary manipulation, fake security crises, and Telegram warfare met Ukrainian teenagers.

Wounded, cut off and alone: Ukrainian grenadier spends three days in Russian positions and brings back a captive. A 54-year-old fighter survived wounds from shrapnel and being knocked unconscious before crossing back with a captured enemy soldier.

“Aren’t you tired of feeding people garbage?” Ukrainian parliament reverses anti-corruption law after street protests. After a week of protests, 331 lawmakers voted to restore NABU and SAPO independence, undoing a law passed just days earlier.

Brussels pulls the trigger: Why EU nuked $ 5.5 billion in Ukraine aid – and Kyiv’s path back.

Did Ukraine just unleash its first Bars cruise missiles? A 500 km strike deep inside Russia suggests it. Photos from Stavropol have fueled speculation that Ukraine’s new Bars missiles have entered the war.

Military

Putin’s response to Trump’s ceasefire deadline: Russian missiles and drones kill civilians in Kyiv. Russians killed a six-year-old boy and five more civilians, injured more than 50 other people, including nine more children.

Frontline report: Mines on their chests, drones above as Russia’s summer offensive stops dead. Cut off from supplies near Lyman, Russian troops now carry mines on foot. Most never make it through the drone fire.

Russian military claimed to seize Chasiv Yar. Ukrainian defenders say it is a lie. The Ministry of Defense in Moscow announced victory while fierce fighting continued.

Ukraine’s drone offensive pounds Volgograd–Rostov railway again — Kotelnikovo burns in overnight attack (video). The latest strike left fires raging at a traction substation as trains were halted.

Ukraine’s drones roar deep into Russia — Penza military electronics plant in flames (video). Regional authorities confirmed a large fire at the plant after residents posted videos of drones flying low over the city.

Russia launches record 6,297 drones at Ukraine in July 2025 — a 1,378% increase from last year, OSINT analyst reports. July 2025 became the first month to register over 6,000 Russian drone attacks on Ukraine, following June’s milestone of surpassing 5,000 launches for the first time.

Ukraine is very close to creating its own ballistics – Defense Minister

. An adviser to the head of the Ukraine’s Presidential Office said earlier that its range could reach up to 700 kilometers.

Intelligence and technology

Militarnyi: Russia now using jet-propelled Shaheds—Geran-3 drones—to step up deadly strikes on Ukraine. At least eight of these drones were used during one of the latest air attacks.

China secretly gave Russia cruise missile technology, US officials reveal at UN. Beijing is the “most important supplier to Russia’s military industry,” providing not only dual-use equipment but also cruise missile technology, a US representative told the UN Security Council.

Another Russian spy unmasked: National Guard soldier caught leaking secrets on Ukraine defense facility to Russia. SBU agents arrested him after documenting that he offered classified data in exchange for money.

TWZ: Four Western firms stole Ukraine’s drone tech — Russia and China learned instead. Western companies left Ukraine with new designs but no new methods, letting rivals adapt faster, says Deborah Fairlamb.

Prague announces new anti-air deals for Ukraine as Moscow puts Czech FM on “Russophobe” list. New packages will include ammunition supply and joint production projects aimed at strengthening Ukraine’s military.

WSJ: Republicans develop plan to allow Europeans to buy weapons for Ukraine

. Two Senate committee chairs are pushing a plan to raise up to $8 billion annually from European allies to fund US weapons deliveries to Ukraine.

International

“We’ve not seen any progress,” Rubio reveals secret Russia talks this week. American diplomats conducted previously undisclosed talks with senior Russian officials Monday and Tuesday but achieved no breakthrough on Ukraine peace negotiations, Secretary of State disclosed

Germany says Ukraine’s anti-corruption law “necessary” but not sufficient. The German FM said that Ukraine has to “continue reforms in the sphere of fighting corruption,” welcoming country’s passage of law aimed at strengthening anti-corruption agencies.

Lithuania summons Russian diplomat over deadly Kyiv attack that killed 15 people, including a child. Lithuania joined Baltic neighbors in condemning Russian strikes on Ukraine, summoning Moscow’s diplomat and delivering a formal note protesting attacks that injured over 130 people

Zelenskyy and Poland’s president-elect hold first call, plan mutual visits. Two weeks before taking office, Poland’s president-elect Karol Navrotsky committed to maintaining his country’s support for Ukraine during his first conversation with Zelenskyy

Ukraine’s FM after the night shelling: Trump has been very patient with Putin. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha declared President Trump has shown “generous patience” with Vladimir Putin following overnight strikes on Kyiv that killed eight civilians, calling for immediate maximum pressure on Moscow to end the war.

Reuters: Ukraine’s financing gap could widen due to delayed reforms

. Only 1\3 of Ukraine’s $65 billion financing needs for 2026-2027 has been secured, Central Bank Governor Andriy Pyshnyi revealed, as delayed reforms threaten to widen the country’s funding shortfall

Humanitarian and social impact

Young Kyiv woman survives 9th-floor fall as Russian missile flattens another high-rise, killing 16. A missile hurled 23‑year‑old Veronika from her apartment. She lived; her parents were killed in the building collapse.

Muslim cultural centre damaged in Russian attack on Kyiv. A Russian missile and drone assault on Kyiv killed eight people, including a child, and damaged the city’s Islamic Cultural Centre

Slovenia highway crash kills 5 Ukrainians in collision with Russian truck driver. A pre-dawn collision on 30 July between a passenger van and commercial truck near Slovene Konjice claimed five lives. Slovenian authorities reported that the van’s Ukrainian passengers bore the brunt of the fatal impact.

Political and legal developments

Kyiv’s historic Zhytnii market gets heritage protection as city plans sale in 2025. A 45-year-old Soviet modernist market covering 11,000 square meters in Kyiv’s historic Podil district received official cultural heritage protection, potentially blocking planned municipal sale

RFE/RL reveals Ukraine’s top customs official lives in luxury: Mansions, cars, and lavish foreign schooling. The investigation exposes foreign villas, a million-dollar house near Kyiv and elite education that official income cannot explain.

Read our earlier daily review here.

The death toll from Russia’s attack on 31 July in Kyiv has reached 31 this morning, and the city is mourning as rescuers continue their work. A 2‑year‑old and a six-year-old among the victims. The number may rise as emergency workers dig through the rubble.

Death toll from Russia’s attack rises as searches continue

The combined missile and drone attack on Kyiv overnight on 31 July caused the destruction of an entire section of a residential high‑rise in Sviatoshynskyi district. Crews of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine have worked through the night under spotlights, dismantling 70% of the collapsed structure and recovering bodies from the ruins. The agency confirmed that thousands of tons of rubble have already been removed, but several residents remain missing.

As of 10:39 of 1 August, head of Kyiv City Military Administration Tymur Tkachenko said on Telegram that rescuers had recovered more bodies and that the death toll had risen to 31, including three children. His earlier morning updates showed the toll steadily increasing during the ongoing search.

Dozens wounded and widespread damage

According to the Emergency Service, the Russian attack also wounded 159 people, including 16 children.

Earlier updates from local authorities reported that apart from Sviatoshynskyi district, buildings in Solomianskyi, Shevchenkivskyi, and Holosiivskyi districts were also damaged. Windows were shattered, roofs destroyed, and basic services disrupted in several areas.

The attack also damaged railway infrastructure in one part of Kyiv, the Kyiv Islamic Cultural Center near a central mosque, and the premises of the Dovzhenko National Film Studio.

Mourning declared after the 31 July strike

Kyiv mayor Vitalii Klitschko announced yesterday that 1 August was declared a day of mourning in the city. Flags were lowered on municipal buildings, and all entertainment events were canceled. Both state and private institutions were asked to lower their flags as well.

A local woman stands at the site of search and rescue operations near a destroyed residential building in Sviatoshynskyi district of Kyiv on 1 August 2025. Photo: Suspilne/Nikita Halka.

Survivors recall the moments before the missile hit

Suspilne interviewed long‑time resident Raisa Adamenko, who explained that she was away from home when the strike happened. Her two children managed to escape through smoke moments before the missile destroyed the building. She lost her home and said she knew many of the neighbors who died, including a couple who returned home from a bomb shelter between alarms and were killed.

“From the ninth floor, Andrii and Natasha were in the bomb shelter. When they came back from it, the alarm was announced again. They had a smoke and went home. Then the missile came and they were killed,” Raisa said.

Explore further

Young Kyiv woman survives 9th-floor fall as Russian missile flattens another high-rise, killing 16

Rescue operations still underway

State Emergency Service spokesperson Pavlo Petrov told Suspilne that search operations are ongoing because people remain missing. Once specialists confirm there are no more victims under the rubble, work will move to clearing dangerous fragments so that the site can be made safe.

In June 2025, when corruption investigators reached President Volodymyr Zelensky’s inner circle, his team responded with a systematic operation to eliminate Ukraine’s anti-corruption infrastructure.

They deployed parliamentary manipulation, information warfare through Telegram channels, and legal machinations—the full authoritarian toolkit perfected across the post-Soviet space—all to subordinate two key anti-corruption institutions to the presidentially-appointed prosecutor general through a hastily-passed law on 22 July.

The operation was sophisticated, coordinated, and executed with surgical precision. What Zelenskyy’s team didn’t anticipate was that Ukrainian society had evolved beyond their understanding.

Detailed investigations by Ukrainska Pravda and Texty.org.ua reveal how the operation unfolded—and how Ukrainian civil society and European partners forced a complete retreat that exposed post-Soviet patronage reflexes colliding with European democratic standards.

When investigators reached Zelenskyy’s actual family

By June 2025, corruption investigators had crossed a line that post-Soviet leaders consider sacred: they reached Zelenskyy’s actual inner circle.

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) charged Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov with organizing a land scheme that cost the state over $24 million.

Chernyshov wasn’t just another minister.

During Ukraine’s strict COVID lockdown in 2021, when gatherings were banned, Zelenskyy invited only a handful of intimates to celebrate his birthday. Chernyshov was the sole government official present.

Investigators were also preparing charges against Tymur Mindich, Zelenskyy’s business partner from Kvartal 95, the comedy studio where the current Ukrainian president gained his popularity—and a ticket to power. When pressure intensified, MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak reported that Mindich fled Ukraine and “will likely not return in the near future.”

As anti-corruption expert Olena Shcherban told the Kyiv Independent: “NABU and SAPO [Special Anti-Corrupution Prosecutor’s Office] have actually reached the immediate circle of the president’s ‘family.'” She predicted the Presidential Office would attack the institutions rather than abandon the minister.

She was right. When your survival network gets threatened, you protect the network.

The orchestrators revealed

Ukrainska Pravda’s investigation shows who planned the operation. The key figures were:

• Andriy Yermak (Head of Presidential Office);
• newly appointed Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko;
• and lawyer Dmytro Borzykh—a former military prosecutor positioned as the new behind-the-scenes fixer with histories of manipulating court systems.

Here’s what made the operation cynical: Kravchenko’s appointment coincided precisely with Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov fleeing abroad to avoid corruption charges. The investigation reports that Kravchenko’s final meeting with presidential leadership occurred when Chernyshov “was already abroad and not going to return.”

One law enforcement source told Ukrainska Pravda the instruction was clear: “do everything possible to destroy the influence of NABU and SAPO.” But the plan required parliamentary votes—and that’s where the real manipulation began.

The machinery of power consolidation

The operation deployed multiple tools that aspiring authoritarians use to capture institutions:

• Parliamentary manipulation: On 22 July, deputies were told they were coming to vote on an important appeal to the US Congress about recognizing Russia as a terrorist state. Many had foreign trips canceled. Only when they arrived did faction leaders reveal the “main” vote would come after—a “marker” vote that was “principled for the president.” As one MP told Ukrainska Pravda: “People really had no idea what they would vote for. They said, ‘Why do you need the text?! Vote, it’s important.'” Parliament had roughly one hour to review amendments that fundamentally transformed corruption oversight.
• Buying loyalty through legal deals: MP Robert Horvat from the “Dovira” group had reached a plea agreement with SAPO in his land theft case. But after Kravchenko’s appointment, he refused to sign, telling prosecutors “Klymenko [head of SAPO] will soon be sacked.” Horvat voted both for the anti-corruption law and for Kravchenko’s appointment, along with nine colleagues from his group.
• Manufactured security crisis: On 21 July, SBU conducted 70 searches targeting 15 NABU employees, claiming Russian infiltration. The star villain was Ruslan Magamedrasulov, accused of selling hemp to Dagestan and contacting “FSB agents.” The timing was theatrical—exactly one day before the crucial vote. NABU noted most searches concerned traffic accidents, but Telegram channels immediately called NABU a “branch of the FSB” and photoshopped Russian flags onto its logo.
• Civil society intimidation: Parallel raids targeted anti-corruption activist Vitaliy Shabunin in the run-up to the law. The message was clear: supporting independent oversight brings consequences.
• Information warfare through Telegram: Texty.org.ua’s investigation tracked 246 coordinated posts across 24 popular channels from 5 June to 23 July, revealing a sophisticated influence operation that weaponized Ukraine’s most powerful information medium.

The comedy studio’s systematic capture

This wasn’t just about protecting two friends. After Zelenskyy’s 2019 victory, over 30 former Kvartal 95 employees moved into government positions—what Ukrainian analysts call a “comedy studio government.”

Take Chernyshov himself. In December 2024, Ukraine created the Ministry of National Unity specifically to give him a prominent role.

The new ministry’s purpose remained deliberately vague—supposedly engaging with Ukrainian diaspora abroad, but critics noted this duplicated existing Foreign Ministry functions. Even some ruling party deputies refused to endorse Chernyshov’s nomination due to “lack of clarity regarding the ministry’s purpose.”

Seven months later, after Chernyshov’s corruption charges, the ministry was quietly merged with the Ministry of Social Policy—effectively eliminating it. A ministry created for one man, disbanded when that man became a liability.

But Chernyshov wasn’t appointed for competence—he was appointed for loyalty. He belonged to Zelensky’s intimate circle, invited to birthday celebrations during wartime restrictions. When you staff government based on personal relationships rather than merit, you create a state that can’t tolerate oversight.

The cynical gamble on European integration

What makes the July operation particularly cynical is the timing. European Pravda reveals that Brussels had secretly scheduled 18 July to open Ukraine’s first EU negotiating cluster, bypassing Hungarian obstruction entirely. Zelenskyy knew about these plans—he’d been personally involved in discussions with Danish officials since late June.

But instead of supporting this diplomatic breakthrough, Ukraine systematically undermined its reform credentials. The EU response was swift: Brussels froze $5.5 billion in aid programs, including loans backed by frozen Russian assets. As one European official noted: “Ukraine has done the dirty work instead of Viktor Orbán.”

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The EU is withholding billions from Ukraine and honestly, it’s kinda fair

The Soviet shadow: why personal loyalty trumps law

What happened next follows patterns that Cambridge academic Alena Ledeneva spent decades documenting in post-Soviet informal networks.

During the Soviet era, personal networks weren’t just convenient—they were survival tools. Ledeneva’s research on blat (the Soviet system of personal favors) shows how people learned to rely on informal connections because formal institutions were instruments of arbitrary repression.

When the law serves power rather than justice, personal loyalty becomes rational defense.

But the cruel irony is that this survival strategy becomes democratic poison when institutions actually start working. What protected people under totalitarianism destroys accountability under democracy.

Zelensky’s response perfectly illustrates this post-Soviet reflex. Instead of accepting that even his inner circle must follow the law, his team moved to eliminate the institutions enforcing accountability.

The mentality that personal loyalty creates immunity from prosecution—that being part of the president’s “family” places you above the law—represents exactly the thinking that helped people survive Soviet totalitarianism.

Ukraine had seen this before. Viktor Yanukovych, the fugitive pro-Russian authoritarian president used identical methods during his presidency.

His prosecutor general Viktor Pshonka called himself “a member of President Viktor Yanukovych’s team” and led the crackdown on protesters against the torpedoing of EU integration in 2013-2014, abusing state power to keep Yanukovych in power. His office pursued the politically motivated prosecution of Yulia Tymoshenko, charging her with abuse of power for a 2009 gas contract.

Both men fled to Russia during the 2014 Euromaidan Revolution.

When civil society said no

Ukrainian democracy had evolved since Yanukovych’s time in ways that proved deeper than anyone expected. Mass demonstrations erupted within hours—the largest protests since Russia’s invasion. Instead of riot police (“cosmonauts” in Ukrainian slang), authorities deployed “police of dialogue.” The contrast with Yanukovych’s Berkut units couldn’t have been starker.

Perhaps most telling was the demographic: teenagers and young adults leading chants and organizing through social media.

Ukraine’s response followed patterns that political scientists Ronald Inglehart and Christian Welzel documented in their World Values Survey research: successful democratic transitions correspond with societies shifting from “survival values” (emphasizing economic security and low tolerance) to “self-expression values” (prioritizing individual freedom, tolerance, and political participation).

When Zelensky’s team tried to preserve Soviet-style “family immunity,” Ukrainians chose institutional accountability over patronage protection.

European pressure reinforced Ukrainian resistance. On 31 July, parliament voted 331-0 to restore anti-corruption agency independence.

Explore further

They came. They cussed. They won.

The test and the warning

This was Ukraine’s first major test of whether it had outgrown the post-Soviet patronage trap. Zelensky’s team tried to replicate the loyalty-first system that had dominated Ukrainian politics for decades. When independent institutions threatened their inner circle, they deployed the full authoritarian toolkit.

However, Ukrainian civil society matured during three decades of independence and intensified during three years of war. When citizens recognized the Yanukovych pattern, they defended democratic accountability.

The victory comes with warnings. The machinery for institutional capture remains in place. Just weeks after the crisis, Zelenskyy appointed Yuliia Svyrydenko as Prime Minister—widely viewed as closely aligned with Yermak. As former President Petro Poroshenko noted: “Replacing Shmyhal, who was ‘Yermak in a shirt,’ with Svyrydenko, who will be ‘Yermak in a skirt,’ changes nothing.”

It is telling that in her first major western interview, which ran on the same day as the Rada gutted NABU and SAPO, Svyrydenko played down Ukrainian corruption, alleging that the problem is overstated. The pool of anonymous pro-Zelenskyy Telegram channels pushed this quote extensively while protests flooded four cities.

More substantially, her government has refused to appoint Oleksandr Tsyvinsky as head of the Bureau of Economic Security, despite his selection by an independent commission and backing from the IMF. The refusal continues the same pattern of blocking oversight appointments that triggered the July crisis.

Most concerning, the team that orchestrated this operation—Yermak, Kravchenko, and their networks—remain in position. They’ve learned from this failure and may attempt more subtle approaches next time.

A bitter irony is involved. Zelenskyy built his political career playing a fictional president fighting corrupt officials in his TV show “Servant of the People.” Six years into real power, when investigators reached his actual inner circle—not fictional corrupt officials but his birthday party guests and business partners—he chose loyalty over law. This is precisely why independent oversight exists: power corrupts even those who start as anti-corruption outsiders.

The comedy studio presidency may still view independent oversight as existential threat. But Ukrainian civil society has shown it’s stronger than the survival networks trying to capture it. That’s the foundation democracies are built on.

An earlier version of this article mistakenly said that Svyrydenko’s only comment on the crisis was the corruption in Ukraine is overstated

Kyiv woke up to horror on 31 July after a night of massive Russian drone and missile strikes. In one of the war’s most dramatic and heartbreaking stories, 23‑year‑old Veronika miraculously survived being blown out of her ninth‑floor apartment when a Russian Iskander missile struck a residential building in the Sviatoshyn district. Sixteen people have been confirmed dead so far, and rescue operations continue.

After more than three years of war, as peace talks remain stalled, Russia is intensifying attacks on civilians. Ukrainian cities are increasingly vulnerable despite extensive air defense efforts – a reality Kyiv experienced again during this latest overnight assault.

Thrown from the 9th Floor – and survived

As rescue teams combed through the rubble, the story of Veronika stunned even experienced emergency workers.

“I heard an explosion, and a second later I was on the ground,” she told Ukrainian TV channel 1+1.

The blast was so strong it hurled her – still in bed – straight out of her ninth-floor window. She landed outside the building with a broken leg, a concussion, and severe shock. Doctors described her survival as “nothing short of a miracle.”

Hospital director Serhiy Dubrov told Reuters:

“It’s extraordinary. Falling from the ninth floor and sustaining only relatively minor injuries… But she is in deep psychological distress and does not yet know the fate of her parents.”

Her parents were later confirmed dead, their bodies recovered from the debris.

Night of terror in Kyiv

While Veronika’s survival is extraordinary, the wider destruction across Kyiv is overwhelming.

The missile that destroyed her building was part of a massive overnight Russian attack. One Iskander missile evaded air defenses and hit the high‑rise in Sviatoshyn, collapsing an entire section.

• At least 16 people are confirmed dead, including two children.
• More than 130 are injured, 14 of them children.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko said it was “the highest number of injured children in one night in Kyiv since the start of the full‑scale war.”

Reuters and ABC News published the moment of Russian strikes on Kyiv overnight on 31 July

As a result of the attack, 16 people were killed and 155 were injured, including 16 kids. Rescue operations in Kyiv are still ongoing

ABC pic.twitter.com/4KGmJpujvd

— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) July 31, 2025

Day of mourning

1 August has been declared a day of mourning in Kyiv. Flags will be lowered, and memorial events will be held.

But as many Ukrainians quietly admit, in a country under everyday bombing, every day is a day of mourning.

Ongoing rescues

Rescuers worked through the morning, often tunneling through concrete to reach survivors. A man trapped between floors was freed after three hours, and several others were pulled out alive.

A five-month-old baby was also wounded. “The Russians hit her directly,” said Tymur Tkachenko of the Kyiv City Military Administration.

Victims and damage

Among the dead are:

• 6-year-old karate student Matvii Marchenko
• Senior police lieutenant Liliya Stepanchuk

The strike damaged more than 100 sites across Kyiv, including schools, kindergartens, hospitals, and a mosque. Other districts reported burning cars, shattered windows, and collapsed buildings.

Scale of the Attack

According to Ukraine’s Air Force:

• Russia launched 309 Shahed drones and 8 cruise missiles overnight.
• 288 drones and 3 missiles were intercepted.
• Five missiles hit their targets, including the deadly strike in Kyiv.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote:

“Missile strike. Direct hit on a residential building. People are under the rubble.”

A glimmer of hope

As rescue teams continue to clear debris, Veronika’s miraculous survival has become a symbol of resilience amid devastation.

From the ninth floor to the ground – she lived. But Kyiv, once again, pays a terrible price.

A Ukrainian grenadier survived alone for days behind Russian positions and returned alive with a captured Russian soldier. The 54-year-old fighter — a construction worker from Vinnytsia Oblast —endured injuries, fear, and isolation before making it back.

Cut-off Ukrainian grenadier survives strike and isolation

Texty reports that the Ukrainian grenadier, a sergeant named Pavlo with the call sign Did (“Grandpa”), described how a mission went wrong when his squad came under heavy attack. Five soldiers from the 107th battalion were moving toward their positions on 5 November 2024 when a series of enemy munitions hit close to the trenches. He jumped out of the vehicle and was knocked unconscious by a blast. When he woke up, he realized a fragment had entered near his jaw, his arm was torn and bleeding, but his legs were intact. He wrapped his wounds with a first aid kit and checked his surroundings.

The forest was silent. The rest of the squad and the vehicle were gone. He found the wreck of their transport later, around 200 meters away, smashed by strikes. He later learned that evacuation vehicles had taken away the wounded and the dead. A fallen soldier was mistaken for him in the confusion. Alone, with no radio, he hid in a dugout as Russian artillery and drones worked the area.

Fear, thirst, and survival in the forest

Did decided not to move during the night because the darkness was absolute. The next day, Russian shelling started again. He waited, knowing that only daylight offered any chance of finding a way out. During this time, he drank water he found on the position and discovered a pack of cigarettes, which kept him calm.

The unexpected surrender

While hiding in the dugout, he suddenly heard someone calling in Russian: “Is anyone here?” At first, he thought it could be one of his own, but the accent gave the man away. He answered, “Yes, yes! Come in!” with his weapon ready.

A tall Russian soldier, close to two meters, came in shouting that he wanted to surrender. The grenadier, much shorter, let him in and sat him in a corner, suspecting a trap and glancing outside in case more Russians appeared.

The man explained he was a recruited convict, wounded and concussed, and that their positions had been left without food or water. Weak and desperate, he decided to give himself up.

Escape and return with a captive

By evening it was almost dark, and he knew it was time to try to return. Moving was difficult because the captured Russian walked slowly and was hard of hearing after the blast. The sergeant worried that the constant loud talking would give them away. At one point, he even thought about shooting him to avoid being exposed, but he could not do it. They walked about three kilometers through the forest. Luck was on their side that night, as shelling slowed and Russian troops seemed distracted.

On 30 July, Kyiv’s Zhytnii Market in the historic Podil neighborhood was officially added to the “List of newly identified cultural heritage objects of Kyiv city.”

The order granting heritage status was signed by Marina Soloviova, director of the Department of Cultural Heritage Protection of the Kyiv City State Administration, according to the KMDA website.

The decision reportedly came through collaborative efforts involving activists, capital preservationists, the professional heritage protection team of the Cultural Heritage Protection Department, and the Advisory Council on Cultural Heritage Protection issues.

“The decision was made possible thanks to the work of activists, capital monument protectors, the professional monument protection team of the Department of Cultural Heritage Protection and the Advisory Council on Cultural Heritage Protection,” director of the Department of Cultural Heritage Protection of the KMDA, Marina Soloviova, said.

With this designation, Zhytnii Market now falls under the provisions of Ukraine’s Law “On Protection of Cultural Heritage” and protective measures defined by legislation.

Architectural significance and current state

Zhytnii, which translates as “rye,” spans 11,000 square meters across one of Europe’s largest covered markets. The Soviet-era modernist structure, built in 1980, features an engineering design with a curved glass roof suspended by cables from support columns rather than resting on walls.

The market sits on a site used for trade since medieval times. During construction, archaeological treasures from the time of Kyiv’s founding were discovered. However, the municipally-owned building hasn’t undergone proper renovation since construction, leaving the uniquely designed structure with a deteriorated appearance.

Battle for the market’s future

In 2025, Zhytnii Market celebrated its 45th anniversary amid recurring proposals for demolition or reconstruction. In January, Kyiv City Council registered a draft decision proposing the market’s sale.

Hennadii Kryvoshei, head of the Public Council under KMDA, said market management has driven it to unprofitability over the past 15 years. Now, during martial law, authorities plan to sell it at a reduced price, though the historic object could generate city profits after capital repairs.

Two parties have been fighting for the market’s fate over the past year: the restaurateur and social activist known for his efforts to promote and revive authentic traditional Ukrainian cuisine, Yevhen Klopotenko and investment company Inzhur.

According to Khmarochos publication, Klopotenko proposes granting architectural heritage status to protect the market from demolition, then creating a public organization involving experts and public figures with necessary experience and desire to restore Zhytnii. He suggested conducting repairs in stages without closing the building long-term, continuing to use premises for their intended purpose while renovation work proceeds.

Inzhur has invested over 100,000 euros ($114, 124) of its own funds, engaging international consulting company Colliers to formulate a revitalization concept and business model. Under Inzhur’s project, the building’s exterior appearance would be preserved while using modern, energy-efficient materials for renovation.

Russia has started using jet-propelled Shaheds in its war on Ukraine, Militarnyi says. Russia used at least eight of these Geran-3 drones during the 30 July attack in that strike from the north.

Jet-propelled Shaheds appear in Russian strikes

Militarnyi reports that Russian forces used jet-propelled Shaheds for the first time in large numbers on 30 July. These Geran-3 drones flew together with regular Shaheds and decoy drones in a combined night strike. The Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russian forces launched the air assault from the north and east. Airspace monitoring channels confirm missiles, Shaheds, decoys, and jet-propelled drones in that wave.

Ukrainian air defenses fought back with aviation, missile troops, electronic warfare and mobile fire teams. They downed 51 drones out of 78 launched that night. Twenty-seven drones hit seven locations. Debris from destroyed drones fell in two other locations.

The Air Force did not report whether any of Geran-3s were shot down. 

Details of the Geran-3 model

Russian sources cited by Militarnyi describe the Geran-3. It is 3.5 meters long and has a 3 meter wingspan. It climbs to 9.1 kilometers and can fly for two hours. It has a takeoff weight of 380 kilograms, much more than the 250 kilograms of the Shahed-136, designated by Russia as Geran-2.

Growing danger from jet-propelled Shaheds

Militarnyi notes that Russian forces may have used Geran-3 drones before in strikes on Kyiv. Their use now grows more frequent and organized. These jet-propelled Shaheds are faster and heavier than older models. They add more danger to Russian mixed strikes that combine regilar Shaheds and decoys.

Today, there are interesting updates from the Lyman direction. Here, the Russian frustration grows bigger with every day due to the lack of advances, shortage of supplies, and a disastrous kill-to-loss ratio.

This has forced Russian commanders to order even more desperate attacks with Russian soldiers being turned into unintentional suicide bombers by essentially carrying explosive vests with them during assaults.

Relentless Russian assaults bring only casualties

In the Lyman direction, Russian forces have found themselves hopelessly stuck, unable to advance despite relentless infantry assaults. The repeated frontal attacks have become disastrously costly, leading to massive casualties at unprecedented rates. In addition, frontline Russian units are starved of supplies, making it impossible to sustain effective combat operations.

Drones reveal Russian troops carrying mortar shells by hand

In multiple engagements, Ukrainian drone operators have observed Russian soldiers being sent forward carrying individual mortar rounds to deliver to mortar crews on their way to the front, a desperate measure indicating a total logistical breakdown and highlighting the grim conditions Russian troops face in this sector.

Ukrainian drone crews crush Russian night assaults

Geolocated video evidence has extensively documented how Russian forces continually get bogged down in front of Ukrainian defenses, immobilized by dense minefields, carefully placed caltrops, and relentless drone strikes. Ukrainian drone operators from the 63rd Mechanized Brigade have become exceptionally proficient at hunting down and neutralizing isolated Russian assault groups at night with one crew eliminating 23 enemy soldiers in one night.

Whenever Russian troops manage to briefly occupy new positions, swift Ukrainian counterattacks and drone bombardments immediately push them back or eliminate them. This cycle of attrition leaves Russian infantry units trapped in a futile loop of unsuccessful and deadly assaults. This extreme frustration has led Russian commanders and soldiers to adopt increasingly desperate and reckless methods.

Mine-carrying vests turn soldiers into suicide bombers

One striking phenomenon captured repeatedly in battlefield footage is the unintended emergence of kamikaze-like Russian soldiers. In a released video, a Russian soldier was running to assault Ukrainian positions with a grenade in his hand, but when Ukrainian troops met him with heavy fire, he began to retreat, fell on his grenade, and blew himself up.

Instead of reconsidering their reckless tactics, the Russian command doubled down on the idea. Soldiers were soon seen wearing specially designed vests meant to carry anti-tank mines, intended as a practical way to carry mines to the front, and quickly deploy explosives upon reaching Ukrainian positions, allowing troops to remain armed while carrying the mines.

However, these vests turned into deadly traps, as when these mine-carrying soldiers are hit by Ukrainian fire, their vests detonate, instantly killing the wearer and any comrades nearby. Though not intended as literal suicide vests, the practical outcome has ironically turned Russian soldiers into unintentional suicide bombers, grim evidence of the extreme desperation gripping the Russian frontlines.

Russian war crime: Civilian shot dead in Torske

Beyond battlefield absurdity, this sense of desperation has manifested in horrific violence against Ukrainian civilians as well. Recent footage from the village of Torske captured Russian troops cruelly shooting a civilian riding a bicycle, a clear and disturbing war crime. While desperation offers context, it certainly provides no justification for such barbaric and needless violence.

Unfortunately, such incidents have been systematically documented across multiple sectors of the frontline, revealing a broader pattern of brutality and indiscipline among Russian forces.

Ukrainians track and eliminate the killers

However, Ukrainian drone operators and artillery teams swiftly respond to such atrocities. After observing the killing of the civilian on his bicycle in Torske, Ukrainians methodically tracked down and eliminated the Russian soldiers responsible, delivering some measure of justice and demonstrating Ukraine’s resolve in protecting and defending their civilians’ lives.

Overall, such distressing examples highlight a deeply troubling trend driven by Russian desperation and logistical failure. The inability to adequately supply their forward-deployed troops has created the absurd situation of soldiers advancing while strapped with anti-tank mines, transforming themselves into explosive targets. Such grotesque improvisations underline how disconnected Russian commanders have become from battlefield realities, willing to grasp at even the most dangerous and ill-advised tactics simply to achieve some negligible progress.

More than half of the summer offensive season is already gone with virtually no progress achieved near Lyman, and none at all at Torske specifically. Now, Russian forces have resorted to self-defeating and absurd methods out of sheer frustration and desperation vividly demonstrating the catastrophic failure of their offensive ambitions.

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.

Russia fired 6,297 Shahed-type kamikaze drones and Gerbera-type decoy targets at Ukraine in July 2025, marking an absolute monthly record since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, according to OSINT analyst Kyle Glen who analyzed official Ukrainian Air Force report.

The July figure represents a 1,378% increase compared to July 2024, when 426 drones were launched. The scale of July attacks equals the total number of drones launched over ten months of 2024 — from January through October inclusive.

July is also the first month to see more than 6,000 drones reported by the Ukrainian Air Force, this follows June when more than 5,000 were reported for the first time, according to Glen.

“July also had periods of relative calm when Russia held off on major launches (likely due to poor weather),” he added.

The data revealed a steady monthly escalation in drone attacks. The analyst attributes this trend to Russia’s expansion of drone production facilities in the second half of 2024 and early 2025. Ukrainian air defense forces now operate under unprecedented attack volumes that constantly increase in complexity due to evolving enemy tactics.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported that Russian forces have installed thermal imaging cameras on some Shahed drones to improve strike accuracy.

Previous reports said that Russia prepares thousands of strikes daily.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed that American officials held conversations with high-level Russian representatives earlier this week regarding Ukraine war settlement, but Washington saw no advancement toward peace negotiations, according to his interview with Fox News published by the State Department press service.

“We continue to engage with the Russian side, as early as this week – earlier this week, on Monday or Tuesday.  We had a whole conversation with them as well – not with Putin but with some of Putin’s top people – in hopes of arriving at some understanding on a path forward that would lead to peace, and we’ve not seen any progress on that,” Rubio said.

The Secretary of State said that President Donald Trump has waited over six months and made extensive efforts to establish peace. Rubio said Trump becomes most frustrated with phone calls where Russians claim they want the conflict to end, only for cities to be bombed shortly after.

“What bothers the President the most is he has these great phone calls where everyone sort of claims yeah, we’d like to see this end, if we could find a way forward, and then he turns on the news and another city has been bombed, including those far from the frontlines,” Rubio said.

Rubio added that potential sanctions options available to the President, including secondary sanctions on Russian oil sales and sectoral banking sanctions.

The Secretary claimed that the US remains willing to participate in peace negotiations if the opportunity arises, but warned that Trump “is not going to wait forever.”

Trump recently shortened his ultimatum to Putin from 50 days to 10-12 days for reaching a peace agreement, threatening secondary tariffs on Russian resource buyers otherwise. The following day, the President declared Putin has 10 days to end the war against Ukraine, though Trump believes settling the war will take considerable time.

A senior US diplomat revealed that China has provided cruise missile technology to Russia as part of its support for the country’s military operations, according to statements made during a UN Security Council session.

“North Korea has sent ammunition, missiles, military equipment and approximately 12,000 soldiers to Russia, Iran has provided ballistics, drones and other technologies,” John Kelly, the high-ranking American diplomat, said during the Security Council meeting.

Kelly emphasized China’s particularly crucial role in sustaining Russia’s military capabilities.

“China, as its representatives have noted, does not supply weapons to Russia directly,” he said. “However, China has become a decisive factor contributing to Russia’s military efforts, being the most important supplier to Russia’s military industry.”

According to the diplomat, China has provided Russia with a significant amount of machine tools, microelectronics, optics, drones and cruise missile technology, as well as [a significant amount of] nitrocellulose, which Russia uses to manufacture gunpowder for weapons.

Kelly did not specify which particular cruise missile technology was being referenced in his remarks.

The US official stressed that if China were serious about helping to end the conflict, it would cease supplying these critical components to Russia.

During the same address, the American representative announced that an agreement between Russia and Ukraine must be reached by 8 August, with Washington prepared to take additional measures to ensure peace.

The allegations align with previous Ukrainian intelligence findings from May, which reported discovering over foreign components in Russia’s new “Banderol” cruise missile, including parts from China.

Ukrainian intelligence identified Chinese microchips, what appeared to be a Chinese copy of an Australian telemetry module, a jet engine from China, and an inertial navigation system also possibly from that country.

The Chinese Swiwin engine for model aircraft reportedly is sold through online platforms, with an approximate cost of $16,000 on AliExpress. It remains unclear whether Kelly was referring to the “Banderol” missile or other weaponry.

Germany has called for continued anti-corruption reforms following Ukraine’s parliament approval of law №13533, designed to restore independence to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO).

The German Foreign Ministry described the parliamentary vote as “a positive and necessary step on the path to restoring lost trust.” However, Berlin emphasized that more work remains ahead.

“Now it is necessary to continue reforms in the sphere of fighting corruption,” the German Foreign Ministry reported.

On 31 July, Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine’s Parliament) supported the presidential bill №13533 on restoring the independence of NABU and SAPO. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed the document shortly after its parliamentary passage.

The move represents a reversal from events, when on the evening of 22 July Zelenskyy signed a law that limited the independence of the anti-corruption institutions NABU and SAPO.

That decision prompted thousands of people to participate in protest rallies in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.

Western politicians also pressured Ukraine to strengthen its institutional framework for combating corruption, particularly as the country continues to receive substantial Western financial and military support.

Following the approved law which reportedly restores the independence of anti-corruption agencies, the European Union has confirmed it has no plans to freeze funding for Ukraine, addressing speculation about potential financial consequences tied to the anti-corruption legislation.

On 31 July, Ukrainian forces denied Chasiv Yar capture claims from Russia and say Russian troops do not fully control the city in Donetsk Oblast. This morning, Russia’s Ministry of Defense claimed full occupation of Chasiv Yar, but the spokesman of Ukraine’s Khortytsia Operational-Strategic Grouping of Forces Viktor Trehubov called the announcement “just another Russian fake.” Also, the 11th Army Corps also confirmed that Russian troops failed to take full control.

The 11th Army Corps explains that despite Russian information manipulation, Ukrainian troops still hold positions inside Chasiv Yar. Soldiers from the 24th Separate Mechanized Brigade continue to defend the city while Russian forces keep trying to advance.

The Ukrainian OSINT project Deepstate also rejects the statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Russian propaganda stunts inside parts of the city to fake Chasiv Yar capture

Military reports from the 11th Army Corps describe what happened on 27, 28 and 29 July. Russian soldiers during daylight entered some locations in Chasiv Yar because they received promises of short leave for such actions. They planted Russian flags on the territory of the refractory plant, which Ukrainian defenders had not controlled for a long time, and on a part of the Pivnichnyi district that remains temporarily under Russian control. Before raising a flag in the Shevchenka district, Russian forces shelled Ukrainian positions with artillery. Ukrainian officers call these actions a performance staged for video and propaganda.

“The enemy did not occupy Chasiv Yar, but only carried out another flag-planting stunt behind the defense lines. Today a video appeared where the enemy placed flags in the Shevchenka district and at Workshop No. 2, but the Russians have no control over the city or over the places where they did that,” DeepState wrote.

According to the project’s data, in the past two months, the occupiers only “managed to advance just a little” from the northeast and east toward the Shevchenka district.

“The rest of the events are just banal penetration behind the lines at night with capes and then raising flags in daylight. Most of those so-called flag-planters are already dead because this action was a one-way mission,” DeepState reported.

Dawn assault on 30 July ends with losses for Russia

On 30 July from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m., Russian troops attacked Ukrainian positions with two assault groups of six soldiers each. Later the same day, they added two armored vehicles to support another push. Ukrainian defenders stopped the attack on the eastern outskirts of Chasiv Yar in Pivnichnyi district.

Soldiers from the 11th Army Corps report that they destroyed both armored vehicles and inflicted heavy losses on Russian troops who tried to hide in nearby buildings. They note that at least three women were among the attackers.

Lithuania’s Foreign Ministry summoned Russia’s temporary chargé d’affaires on 31 July, following massive strikes on Ukrainian cities including Kyiv, according to a statement from the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Russian representative received a protest note regarding strikes on Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson and other Ukrainian oblasts that killed dozens and wounded hundreds of civilians, the ministry reported.

The statement follows a Russian missiles and drones attack that ripped through Kyiv overnight on 31 July, collapsing apartment buildings and setting fires in several districts of the city. The attack killed at least 15 civilians and injured over 130 people. Russian missile struck an apartment building kin one of the Kyiv’s disctrict, collapsing its entire section.

The Lithinuan FM wrote in the statement after the morning attack that “Russia’s military actions against Ukraine’s civilian population and systematic cruel treatment of prisoners of war are unacceptable and illegal.

Lithuania pledged to continue efforts to ensure those responsible for these and other war crimes face criminal prosecution.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys called for “increased pressure” on Russia and its partners following the deadly strike on the Ukrainian capital.

The Russian attack was also condemned by Finland’s Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen, whose country currently chairs the OSCE, and her Estonian counterpart Margus Tsahkna.

Ukraine’s Parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, voted to restore the independence of its main anti-corruption bodies — the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) — by passing presidential draft law No. 13533.

The bill passed with 331 votes and was immediately signed in the chamber by Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

For a week leading up to the vote, thousands of Ukrainians across Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipro and Odesa took to the streets — demanding the reversal of controversial changes even under martial law restrictions on public gatherings. It became the largest wave of protests since Russia’s full‑scale invasion.

Although the effectiveness of these anti-corruption bodies has often been questioned, the earlier law that weakened them was widely condemned at home and abroad as authoritarian and unacceptable, concentrating power in the President’s Office and threatening Ukraine’s reform commitments.

“This is a guarantee of the proper independent functioning of our state’s anti-corruption bodies and all law enforcement agencies. This is the right decision,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.

Mass protests force a U-turn

The debate in the chamber was heated, with shouting, accusations, and visible anger.

MPs insisted that the Speaker and President sign the new law immediately, without delay, to quickly cancel the controversial changes adopted a week earlier.

Outside Parliament, in Mariinskyi Park, protesters gathered to listen to the live broadcast of the vote. When the result was announced, they cheered and shouted: “Power belongs to the people!”

Despite martial law restrictions on public gatherings, police did not disperse the rallies that took place in several Ukrainian cities, and the authorities seemed unprepared for such large‑scale resistance to the new law.

For the first time since the start of Russia’s full‑scale invasion, the session of the Verkhovna Rada was broadcast live on the Rada TV channel — a move widely seen as a concession to public pressure and a demand for transparency.

International pressure grows

After the vote, European Commission spokesperson Guillaume Mercier confirmed that the EU has no plans to freeze financial aid for Ukraine.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos welcomed the move but noted on X:

“Today’s law restores key safeguards, but challenges remain. The EU supports the Ukrainian citizens’ demands for reform.”

Brussels emphasized that Ukraine must continue to strengthen reforms as part of its EU accession process.

What triggered the crisis

In July, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) arrested a NABU detective on charges of spying for Russia, alleging that classified information had been passed to Russian intelligence. Critics said these arrests were used as a pretext to attack and weaken independent anti-corruption agencies.

Anti‑corruption activists further accused President Zelenskyy of retaliating against NABU and SAPO because they had investigated figures close to him, including former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Chernyshov and businessman Timur Mindich, a long‑time associate and former partner in Zelenskyy’s media company Kvartal 95.

Soon after, on 22 July, Parliament passed law No. 12414, originally about missing persons. At the last minute, MPs added amendments that made NABU and SAPO dependent on the Prosecutor General, granting that office the power to seize cases, close investigations, and weaken the agencies’ independence.

The move provoked protests and drew sharp criticism from the US and EU. Despite the backlash, Zelenskyy signed the law the same day.

Reversal under pressure

A week later, under public pressure, threats to cut foreign funding, and continuing protests, Zelenskyy introduced draft law No. 13533, restoring NABU and SAPO’s full powers.

The bill was fast-tracked and adopted in full on 31 July.

Harsh words in Parliament

Before the vote, former Speaker Dmytro Razumkov criticized his colleagues:

“Aren’t you tired of eating excrement in this chamber and feeding it to people??!”

Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze of the opposition party European Solidarity said Parliament is “run like a collective farm from the President’s Office.”

Yulia Tymoshenko, leader of Batkivshchyna, opposed the bill and claimed Ukraine is under “external control.” Meanwhile, Dmytro Kostiuk, a member of the presidential party Servant of the People, announced he was leaving the faction because of the previous controversial vote.

Other members of Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party admitted mistakes and even held up protest-style posters inside the chamber.

The episode also highlighted the growing centralization of power in the President’s Office in Kyiv. With elections suspended due to the war with Russia, Parliament is widely seen as following instructions from the presidential administration rather than acting as an independent branch of government.

What the new law changes

The new law cancels the 22 July amendments and returns NABU and SAPO to full independence.
It adds one condition: NABU staff with access to state secrets must pass a polygraph, carried out by NABU’s own internal control unit rather than the SBU.

According to NABU, more than 200 such tests were already conducted in 2024. NABU and SAPO said they took part in drafting the new law, are satisfied with its provisions, and strongly supported its swift adoption.

Criticism of NABU and SAPO

Ukraine’s anti‑corruption system includes NABU, SAPO, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) and the High Anti‑Corruption Court (HACC).

Despite significant funding and Western support, their effectiveness remains debated. Critics point out that these bodies are costly, operate in a grey constitutional area, lack independent audits, and have brought few senior officials to justice in almost ten years.

Supporters argue that these problems cannot be solved by a single, quickly adopted law, but require long‑term reforms, stronger oversight and real political independence.

The creation of these institutions was one of the EU’s key conditions for granting Ukraine a visa‑free regime and a requirement for Western financial aid. Western partners helped launch and fund them after concluding that Ukraine’s “old” police and prosecution services had failed to eradicate top‑level corruption.

A suspected Russian spy was caught by the Security Service of Ukraine after investigators exposed a National Guard serviceman who leaked secrets about a defense plant. SBU agents said he gave Russian intelligence information about a key Dnipropetrovsk Oblast facility and the unit that guarded it.

Russian spy exposed in National Guard ranks

Ukraine’s Security Service reported on 31 July that it exposed another agent working for Russian intelligence. The SBU said the man served in a National Guard brigade based in Zaporizhzhia. He allegedly sent Russian forces classified data about a strategic defense plant in Dnipropetrovsk oblast. That plant manufactures explosives and different types of ammunition. The mole also passed information about the military unit responsible for guarding the site.

Insider reached out to Russia

According to the SBU, the serviceman had worked at the plant before he was mobilized. Investigators said he personally contacted Russian intelligence and offered them secret information in exchange for money. His knowledge of the site and its security measures came from his previous work there.

Arrest and charges

The SBU, supported by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the command of the National Guard, documented the actions of the suspected “mole.” Agents detained him after confirming his involvement. Investigators from the SBU’s main investigative department notified the suspect of suspicion under part 2 of article 111 of Ukraine’s criminal code. That article covers state treason committed during martial law. The suspect faces life in prison with confiscation of property if found guilty.

Ukraine reversed a controversial oversight law on 31 July, a move that promises to restore the independence of key anti-corruption bodies. However, the damage may already be done: the EU has frozen $1.7 billion in aid, which puts more people at risk. Why did Brussels pull the brakes, and what will it take to unfreeze the funds? Here’s what you need to know.

1

What happened?

On 22 July, Ukrainians took to the streets in mass protests after the Verkhovna Rada hastily passed draft law No. 12414. The law aimed to place Ukraine’s premier anti-corruption agencies — the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) — under broader prosecutorial oversight.

Protesters saw this as an attempt to weaken the country’s flagship anti-corruption institutions. Days later, the European Union froze $1.7 billion in financial support — the first such move under the $57 billion Ukraine Facility fund. Another $3.8 billion now hangs in the balance.

On 31 July, facing pressure from protesters and foreign partners, the Verkhovna Rada repealed the law. This was a victory for civil society, but Brussels remains cautious.

2

Why did Brussels act now?

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion began, the EU has shown considerable patience with reform timelines. But patience has limits. The European Commission clarified that financial support depends on concrete, verifiable reforms — not just promises.

For years, Ukraine has pledged to protect independent anti-corruption institutions, something most Ukrainians see as a tangible result of the 2013-14 Revolution of Dignity. Brussels now believes those promises are eroding.

The hastily passed law on 22 July was the final trigger. Even though Ukraine repealed it nine days later, credibility was damaged.

3

Was this just about one law?

No. Behind the scenes, European diplomats had been signaling concerns for weeks. According to official commentary cited by Serhiy Sydorenko in European Pravda, the European Commission flagged structural problems during an 11 July subcommittee meeting — weeks before the controversial law was passed.

EU officials warned Kyiv of backsliding in anti-corruption policy, including slow appointments to key posts like the SAPO head and a lack of follow-through on previously promised reforms. While the protest and repeal made headlines, the decision to suspend funds had deeper roots.

The EU’s emphasis isn’t on a single legislative act, but on Ukraine’s broader governance trajectory. The freeze wasn’t a reaction — it was a culmination.

4

What’s the problem with NABU and SAPO?

NABU was created in 2015 to investigate high-level corruption. SAPO, its prosecutorial counterpart, was founded the same year to ensure such cases reach court. Together, they form Ukraine’s flagship anti-corruption structure.

Both agencies have delivered results — investigating former MPs and state-owned company executives, exposing schemes like Ukrzaliznytsia officials purchasing more than 11,000 COVID-19 PCR tests at inflated prices. But they’ve also faced internal pressures and political interference.

The now-repealed law would have effectively removed their operational autonomy by altering oversight mechanisms — precisely what the EU wants Ukraine to safeguard. Repealing the law was necessary, but Brussels is watching what comes next.

5

Is it just about NABU and SAPO?

No. The Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA) presents an even bigger problem. ARMA handles confiscated assets from corruption cases: bank accounts, apartments, luxury cars, and company shares. The concept is straightforward — crime shouldn’t pay.

But ARMA has a serious credibility problem. Assets have vanished, and auctions have been opaque, with luxury items sold at suspiciously low prices. Some of ARMA’s officials are under investigation.

A March 2025 audit by Ukraine’s Accounting Chamber revealed the scope of dysfunction. Of more than 100,000 court rulings instructing ARMA to manage seized assets, only 1% were transferred, leaving over UAH 39 billion unmanaged. Over 61% of disposed assets lacked proper market valuation, resulting in estimated losses of UAH 769 million. Staff shortages and underfunding (just 56% of needed resources) have impeded the agency’s ability to conduct proper oversight.

The EU demands serious structural reform: a public asset registry, transparent auction procedures, and an independent supervisory board. Without these, the additional $3.8 billion will be suspended.

6

How does the EU make these freezing decisions?

The Commission’s actions are tied to the European Reform Agenda (ERA), a jointly agreed-upon roadmap between Ukraine and the EU. The ERA outlines reforms needed to keep financial and political support flowing, covering judicial reform, public administration, democratic standards, and anti-corruption.

The Commission can recommend a funding freeze when Ukraine fails to meet ERA milestones. This decision must be endorsed by a qualified majority of EU member states — not a unilateral move, but a multilayered institutional process. Bodies like the European Court of Auditors and the European Anti-Fraud Office also provide input.

This wasn’t a political knee-jerk reaction. It was a coordinated decision by multiple EU institutions concluding that Ukraine had failed to meet key transparency and institutional independence conditions.

7

Is the EU turning its back on Ukraine?

Far from it. Brussels is doubling down on standards. After missteps with countries like Hungary, where Viktor Orbán took EU money while gradually dismantling democratic institutions, Brussels learned that early neglect leads to long-term democratic backsliding.

With Ukraine, the stakes are higher. Never before has the EU committed so much money, and never to a country at war. The EU is holding Ukraine to higher standards precisely because it wants Ukraine to succeed.

8

What’s at risk for Ukraine financially?

The war has ballooned Ukraine’s budget needs. Western aid helps fund pensions, salaries, schools, and basic services — not just weapons. The frozen $1.7 billion was part of that lifeline. The potential additional $3.8 billion represents almost 10% of the total Ukraine Facility.

Even temporary freezes hurt. Creditors grow nervous. Budget planning becomes chaotic. Most importantly, public trust in government commitments begins to erode. Credibility becomes your most valuable currency when you’re fighting a war while depending on international support.

9

Does war excuse reform fatigue?

Ukrainian officials argue that wartime makes reforms harder to implement. Brussels has responded that being at war makes transparent, accountable institutions more critical, not less. When you’re depending on billions in international aid, donors need absolute confidence that money is being handled properly.

The EU’s position is clear: wartime doesn’t justify rolling back anti-corruption measures — it makes them more urgent.

10

Can Ukraine reverse the freeze by year-end?

Yes, and there are signs of movement. Repealing the oversight law on 31 July was a first step. Ukraine must demonstrate “verifiable corrective steps” — actions, not promises.

This means protecting NABU’s independence, restoring SAPO’s prosecutorial authority, and ensuring both agencies can operate without political interference. Some draft laws are already in the works, and civil society remains vocal.

According to European Pravda, EU officials have reportedly received informal commitments from Ukraine to pass corrective measures in the autumn. These will be scrutinized not only for their content, but also for how transparently and independently they’re implemented. There’s quiet hope that the suspension can be reversed before year-end — but only if progress becomes visible soon.

The $1.7 billion freeze stems from three unmet reform indicators:

• Territorial reorganization of executive power (draft law #4298, registered in 2020, costing $570 million in lost funding);
• Selection of High Anti-Corruption Court judges (legally enabled in June but still not implemented);
• ARMA reforms (already discussed above).

Additionally, Ukraine faces another overdue commitment — vocational education reform legislation due by the end of June — which could trigger further funding penalties in the next reporting period.

The EU’s rules give Ukraine 12 months to complete any reform milestone after the original deadline has passed. This grace period means the funds can still be released in full — but with a delay. However, Kyiv has already lost four of those twelve months. In the case of ARMA, that delay is even more tangible. Due to the agency’s non-compliance with basic criteria, Ukraine has definitively lost out on $85 million in performance-based funding tied to asset recovery benchmarks.

11

Can Ukraine save the $3.8 billion?

Saving the $3.8 billion requires comprehensive ARMA reform. Ukraine needs legislation ensuring transparency, accountability, and protection from political interference. This means proper oversight mechanisms, clear asset management procedures, and eliminating corruption opportunities.

The reforms must address ARMA’s documented failures: the suspicious auctions, unexplained losses, and criminal investigations of top officials. Brussels wants systemic changes, not personnel shuffles. A reliable asset registry, transparent valuation processes, and adequate staffing are non-negotiable.

If Ukraine delivers these reforms, the $3.8 billion will remain available. If not, it will join the frozen $1.7 billion.

12

What happens if Ukraine fails both tests?

Failure to restore NABU and SAPO independence keeps the $1.7 billion frozen. Failure to fix ARMA suspends another $3.8 billion. That’s $5.5 billion at risk — nearly 10% of the entire Ukraine Facility.

Beyond immediate financial impact, failure damages Ukraine’s credibility with other international donors and delays EU accession. The EU has clarified that Ukraine’s membership path depends on building accountable, transparent institutions.

The stakes are particularly high because Ukraine’s citizens have demonstrated a desire for better governance. If the government can’t respond to domestic and international pressure for reform, it raises fundamental questions about its commitment to European integration.

13

Why does this matter beyond Europe?

The United States, World Bank, and other international donors are watching closely. For Ukraine, credibility is currency. Others might follow if the EU — Ukraine’s strongest backer — loses confidence. That could slow financial flows and military and political support.

The outcome will help define the kind of state Ukraine is becoming and whether the West can demand reform while supporting a war partner.

×

In the span of two weeks starting in early July, the German government signaled separate investments in Ukraine’s best attack drone—the Ukroboronprom An-196 Liutyi—as well as its first mass-producible cruise missile, apparently the Bars.

With substantial stocks of the new drones and missiles, Ukrainian forces should be capable of striking Russian targets as far away as 800 km. The drones would fly slower and may carry lighter, 50kg warheads. The missiles should fly faster and hit harder with heavier warheads weighing perhaps twice as much.

There’s some evidence the German spend is already making a difference. The An-196 and Bars “are being deployed on the front line with increasing frequency,” the pro-Ukraine Conflict Intelligence Team noted. On July 26, drones slammed into the Signal plant in Stavropol, in southwestern Russia 500 km from the front line in Ukraine. The plant manufactures radar and electronic warfare systems.

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A photo that circulated on Russian social media the same day may depict, for the first time in public, wreckage of one of the Bars missiles. 

In funding Ukraine’s expanding deep-strike complex, Germany is helping Ukraine do to Russia what Russia has been doing to Ukraine throughout its 42-month wider war on the country: disrupt Russian command, logistics and production where the Russians are most vulnerable—at home.

Major Gen. Christian Freuding, the head of the German defense ministry’s Situation Center Ukraine, announced the missile deal in early July. The weapons, apparently Bars, would begin arriving in Ukraine within weeks—meaning now.

Drones galore

Just days prior, Welt broke the news that Germany would also finance as many as 500 of the An-196 drones. The propeller-driven, satellite-guided Liutyi carries a 50-kg warhead farther than 800 kg. The $200,000 drone can follow a complex flight path and change altitude in order to dodge Russian defenses.

The An-196 already had German connections. The 3.5-m drone sports a German-made Hirth F-23 aviation engine producing 50 horsepower.

The Liutyis have been responsible for some of the most damaging strikes on targets deep inside Russia. Before Ukraine largely paused strikes on Russian oil facilities this spring, possibly bowing to pressure from the United States, the An-196s accounted for up to 80% of hits on refineries.

The turbojet Bars ranges around as far as the propeller-driven Liutyi does, but should hit harder thanks to a bigger warhead. And it should be more survivable owing to its likely higher speed. An An-196 motors along at slower than 320 km/hr; most cruise missiles travel twice as fast. 

The Bars is reportedly capable of ground and aerial launch. The Ukrainian air force has modified its Sukhoi Su-24 bombers to carry British-made Storm Shadow and French-made SCALP cruise missiles that are 5 m long and weigh nearly 1,400 kg. The Bars should be smaller and lighter, and may also be compatible with the Su-24s.

We don’t know how much a Bars costs, but it’s almost certainly less than the millions of dollars a Western-made cruise missile can cost. “Its main advantage is reportedly its potential for mass production within Ukraine,” CIT explained.

“The extent to which the new Bars missile will affect the front line will depend entirely on how many are made available to the Ukrainian military,” CIT wrote. Considering that Russia produces 600 or so of its best Kh-101 cruise missiles every year, the hundreds of Bars the Germans may be financing should help the Ukrainians chip away at the Russians’ missile advantage.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held his first phone conversation with Poland’s president-elect Karol Navrotsky on 31 July, Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.

Navrotsky is set to take office on 6 August.

The leaders agreed to exchange visits during the call, according to the statement.

Zelenskyy congratulated Navrotsky on his 1 June election victory and expressed hope that Poland would remain a reliable partner and ally to Ukraine. The Ukrainian president briefed his Polish counterpart on the consequences of overnight shelling and the situation at the front.

“It is very important for us that Poland continues to help Ukraine. After all, we are defending not only ourselves, but all of our Europe, including Poland,” Zelenskyy emphasized during the conversation.

The two leaders reportedly discussed key events scheduled for the coming months.

“We agreed on an exchange of visits, during which we will discuss all current issues of bilateral cooperation. We will definitely determine formats of interaction that will give real results for our countries, our people,” the president wrote.

Zelenskyy thanked Navrotsky “for his readiness to work together and assurance of continued support for Ukraine,” according to the statement.

The conversation follows previous diplomatic signals between the two leaders. On 28 June, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine would continue working to strengthen relations with Poland’s new government, saying the country intended to “do everything that depends on it.”

On 1 July, Navrotsky declared “with complete confidence” that he would meet with the Ukrainian president.

RFE/RL reports that the luxury life of customs official has triggered protests after an investigation revealed villas, cars and expensive foreign schooling that far exceed his declared income. The Schemes investigative unit of RFE/RL examined the finances of 44-year-old Anatolii Komar, head of the Ukrainian Customs Service department that manages duties on energy imports and exports.

Luxury life of customs official draws anger

RFE/RL says Komar’s family has access to luxury real estate, elite foreign education and high-end cars while his official monthly income is about $2,000. His wife Maria declares about $8,000 per month as a tour guide and online course provider, but this sum still cannot cover the expenses shown.

Social media posts reveal their daughter graduating in 2023 from the Pascal English School in Nicosia, Cyprus, with fees close to $30,000 per year. Other posts show her traveling to Venice, Montreux, Dublin and Albania. This year, she appears to be enrolled at King’s College London, where tuition for non-UK students is nearly $35,000 annually.

Mansion near Kyiv and cash from relatives

According to the report, the family does not live in the Kyiv apartment officially registered to Komar in 2021. Instead, they live in an apartment bought by Maria’s father, Serhii Hladkov. Hladkov also built a 450-square-meter house with a pool and staff quarters in February 2025 in the village of Vyshenky near Kyiv. Experts interviewed by RFE/RL valued the property at more than $1 million.

Hladkov and his wife, Lidia, both retired from modestly paid state jobs, later declared self-employment earnings of about $400,000 and $180,000 respectively. Despite this, they have purchased several properties and gifted almost $120,000 to the family. Hladkov told RFE/RL that he had earned the money and then ended the conversation.

The luxury Mercedes and a “wealthy godfather”

Komar has been driving a Mercedes S-class since 2021. He told RFE/RL that the car is rented by his wife and refused to disclose the price. RFE/RL reports that rental companies estimate the cost at $6,000 per month. The vehicle is registered to the Primorskiy Energy Generating Company, which declared only about $14,000 in three years of car rental income, a figure far below market value. The company’s director, Roman Vorobel, refused to answer detailed questions and said he would consult a lawyer.

Conflict of interest questions over VM Groupe

RFE/RL also found that Komar is president of an amateur soccer club in his hometown of Rokyta. The team is sponsored by VM Groupe, an importer of petroleum products that is under investigation by law enforcement for large-scale tax evasion and by the SBU for importing Russian raw materials.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha called for immediate maximum pressure on Moscow following a deadly overnight strike on Kyiv that killed at least eight people and injured over 120 others.

Russian missiles and drones ripped through Kyiv overnight on 31 July, collapsing apartment buildings and setting fires in several districts of the city. The attack killed at least eight civilians and injured over 120 people.

Russian missile struck an apartment building kin one of the Kyiv’s disctrict, collapsing its entire section.

Ukraine’s FM posted photos of a destroyed nine-story building entrance on his X account, detailing the casualties and damage from the night attacks. Schools and hospitals were among the damaged facilities, with some people still trapped under debris.

“It is probably time to reduce to zero all of the timeframes that had been given to Putin to demonstrate a constructive approach. President Trump has been very generous and very patient with Putin, trying to find a solution,” Sybiha said.

The Foreign Minister emphasized Putin’s deliberate actions, saying the Russian leader “clearly acts as he acts with conscious intent.”

“The entire existence of this war criminal is based on this senseless war, which he cannot win but refuses to end… It’s time to put maximum pressure on Moscow. It is time to synchronise all sanctions steps. It’s time to achieve peace through strength,” Sybiha wrote on X.

The statement comes as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently announced that President Donald Trump is “losing patience” while waiting for concrete steps from Moscow to end the war.

Trump has set a 10-day deadline for Russia to demonstrate progress in ending the Ukraine war, threatening to impose tariffs and other measures against Russia if no advancement is shown.

The overnight shelling represents the latest escalation in the war, with civilian infrastructure continuing to bear the brunt of Russian attacks on the Ukrainian capital.

Ukraine faces a potential funding shortfall of $10-15 billion next year as the country struggles to meet reform commitments demanded by international lenders while maintaining intensive defense spending, according to a Reuters analysis.

The government currently directs most state revenues toward military operations, relying on foreign aid totaling $139 billion since Russia’s February 2022 invasion to cover social and humanitarian expenses, state data shows.

Central Bank Governor Andriy Pyshnyi revealed that only one-third of the $65 billion required for 2026-2027 has been secured, with negotiations continuing for the remainder. A survey of eight economists by the Centre for Economic Studies in Kyiv indicates Ukraine will need between $39 billion and $58 billion in external financing for 2025 alone.

“A key challenge for the government now is to look for $10-15 billion in addition to that volume of aid which partners have already pledged for 2026,” ICU investment house stated in a research note, according to Reuters.

The funding gap has widened after Ukraine missed several reform targets agreed with lenders, including judicial appointments and anti-corruption leadership positions. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s decision to tighten control over the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office sparked the largest wartime street protests and drew sharp criticism from European allies.

Zelenskyy subsequently reversed course, submitting new legislation to parliament to restore institutional independence. The draft bill was scheduled for a vote on 31 July.

Last night, Ukrainian drones hit the Volgograd-Rostov railway section again, now setting fires at Kotelnikovo station and forcing Russian authorities to restrict train traffic. The attack caused blazes at an electrical substation. Kotelnikovo is situated around 400 km east of the frontline.

Drones strike Kotelnikovo station on Volgograd-Rostov railway

Telegram channels and OSINT analysts reported that a night drone strike set the Kotelnikovo station area in Russia’s Volgograd oblast on fire. Videos from local residents showed burning railway infrastructure, including a traction substation. Fires were visible across the station area, while the governor of Volgograd oblast, Andrei Bocharov, confirmed that movement of trains was temporarily restricted.

Bocharov wrote, as cited by Astra, that Russian air defenses allegedly repelled what he described as a massive drone attack on transport and energy facilities. He claimed there were no injuries. The governor added that dry grass ostensibly caught fire in Surovikino district and that specialists were working to restore gas supply to about 65 single-family homes in Kotelnikovsky district.

According to him, sappers are clearing drone wreckage from railway tracks near Tinguta station in Svetloyarsky district.

“To clear the wreckage of the drones located on the railway tracks, train traffic was temporarily restricted. No damage to the tracks was recorded,” Bocharov claimed.

Satellite data confirms multiple fires around Kotelnikovo

OSINT analyst Tatarigami, founder of Frontelligence Insight, highlighted numerous heat signatures detected by NASA FIRMS satellites around Kotelnikovo after the night attack. He added that geolocation data confirmed the fires were in the area of the railway’s electrical substation.

He noted that this was another strike on the same Volgograd-Rostov railway section.

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Ukrainian drones turned Russia’s Salsk station into a firestorm — fuel train destroyed (video)

“Another successful drone strike targeted the same railway section between Volgograd and Rostov-on-Don. Multiple fires are visible,” Tatarigami posted. 

This marks the fourth strike on the same Russian rail line since 27 July. On 29 July, drones hit Salsk, a key rail junction in Rostov Oblast, setting a fuel train at the station on fire. The same night, they also struck the railway’s power substation in Orlovsky. Two days earlier, on 27 July, another drone attack destroyed a traction substation in Zhutovo in Volgograd Oblast, causing major delays and forcing Russian trains to be rerouted.

Similar drone strikes also took place two weeks ago in Rostov oblast, hitting a rail station in Kamienolomni on 21 July and a railway substation in Novocherkassk on 23 July. 

The Russian night missile and drone attack on 31 July damaged the Kyiv Islamic Cultural Centre at one of the capital’s central mosques, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said.

Russian missiles and drones ripped through Kyiv overnight on 31 July, collapsing apartment buildings and setting fires in several districts of the city. The attack killed at least eight civilians and injured over 120 people.

Russian missile struck an apartment building kin one of the Kyiv’s disctrict, collapsing its entire section.

According to Ukraine’s FM, the attack also damaged a cultural center, which served as a gathering place for representatives of various religions and denominations for joint prayers for peace and victory in Ukraine since the start of the full-scale war.

“As a result of another brutal Russian strike on Kyiv this night, the Kyiv Islamic Cultural Centre at one of our central mosques was damaged,” Sybiha wrote. “This is another demonstration that Moscow is waging a criminal war against the very foundations of humanity. Russian terror spares no one.”

Ukraine has called on all Islamic countries, international governmental and non-governmental organizations, and Muslim communities worldwide to condemn the attack, Sybiha said. He emphasized that “Russian barbarism must be confronted with the strength and unity of the world.”

“Together we must force Moscow to agree to a ceasefire and put an end to the war and terror,” the foreign minister added.

The Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russian forces used reactive drones for the second consecutive night in their strikes against Ukraine.

Ukraine turned wartime desperation into rapid defense innovation, fielding drones and autonomous systems at unprecedented speed. But the West isn’t learning fast enough, warns American investor Deborah Fairlamb, who co-founded Green Flag Ventures in Kyiv during the war.

Lacking long-range missiles and jets, Ukraine improvised an industry that rapidly designs, builds and fields everything from FPV drones to sea drones—closing capability gaps Russia once held.

“The lessons of success are being lost on or ignored by the US and NATO allies,” Fairlamb told The War Zone.

Battlefield innovation at breakneck speed

Fairlamb described how Ukraine’s defense ecosystem has evolved from almost nothing in 2022 to a network of small workshops and startups producing vast numbers of drones.

“The speed of iteration of everything is just extraordinary,” she said. “The Ukrainians have really had this incredible focus on homegrown drones… It’s navigation systems. It’s resistance to electronic warfare. It’s the ability to fly in GPS-denied environments.”

Unlike Western programs, these systems are created alongside soldiers at the front: build, test; build, test; build, test. By the time the Ministry of Defense sees them, they are already combat-proven. Procurement that once took years now takes three to four months.

What Ukraine does differently

Fairlamb pointed to four battlefield-proven practices that Western defense establishments are ignoring:

• Rapid adaptation – systems change monthly, not yearly
• Decentralized production – thousands of small shops making parts
• Mass, low-cost systems – FPV drones cost $500–$1,000 instead of $100,000+
• Empowering units – frontline units buy directly from vetted suppliers

A model the West isn’t following

Fairlamb believes this speed is something the United States and NATO need to copy – and soon.

“The speed at which things are happening is just completely and utterly incompatible with the processes that exist in most Western systems,” she warned. “This is how Russia and China are going to fight. It is going to be just vast numbers of relatively low-price-point things that are extremely destructive.”

Instead, she sees allies trapped in slow cycles, expensive platforms, and outdated assumptions about war.

Copying without learning

Fairlamb also described a more troubling pattern from early in the war: Western companies arriving in Ukraine under the pretext of partnership, only to walk away and later release similar technology of their own.

“There have been instances… yes, there are Western companies that have come to Ukraine under the guise of: ‘hey, we would like to invest. We would like to partner. Can we spend a couple of days with you, learning what you’re doing?’ … And then they would essentially disappear. And six months later, they would come out with something that was very, very similar to what they wanted to partner with a company about,” Fairlamb said.

She said she personally knows of at least four examples.

Low cost, high impact

The tools Ukraine has built are cheap and expendable. Most FPV drones cost between $500 and $1,000; larger fixed-wings cost a few thousand dollars. These drones are printed, assembled, modified and sent out in weeks, with new versions appearing on the front every month.

Fairlamb contrasted that with Western military systems, where a single drone might cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and require years to reach the field. That, she said, will not work against adversaries who are willing to mass-produce millions of small, smart, disposable machines.

A final warning

“The speed at which this technology is evolving, and that the US, Europe and NATO are all really slow,” she said. “There are a lot of very scary scenarios that are out there that I am not seeing a lot of response to yet.”

For Ukraine, drones have become the answer to weapons it does not have. For the West, Fairlamb’s warning is clear: pay attention, or risk falling behind in a kind of war that is already here.