One of the worst consequences of Russia's war, and of Iran's tactics, is that potential aggressors worldwide now see how much damage ballistic missiles can do to human life. So the global ballistic threat will grow, and anti-ballistic defenses must grow with it, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says, according to UNIAN.

Ukraine has put a number on the shield it wants to build itself against ballistic missiles: 100 systems. These systems are planned to be built as part of its FREYJA anti-ballistic project.

Zelenskyy frames the project as an answer to a threat spreading beyond Ukraine.

FREYJA is Ukraine's own interceptor, recycling a Soviet S-300 missile with a German seeker at roughly $700,000 per shot, a fraction of a $3.8 million Patriot, though its maker, Fire Point, does not target a first ballistic intercept until late 2027.

FREYJA as a shared European system

Zelenskyy pitches the Ukrainian project as Europe's future shield.

"Our FREYJA can become a common system for Europe that provides integrated protection. FREYJA will be fast to produce and tested by war," he said, offering to share all the know-how with partners if the system proves itself.

The project already has a coalition. Ten nations joined the European Anti-Ballistic Coalition in July, per Euromaidan Press, with Ukraine contributing the missile and partners supplying radars, command systems, and components Ukraine does not make.

The shield is a bet against a shortage

The 100-systems goal collides with the interceptor shortage that FREYJA is meant to solve. FREYJA has three tracks, including a transatlantic dimension and Ukraine's relationship with the US, Zelenskyy said, without disclosing details, and Ukraine needs both funding and certain components to build it.

In the meantime, Ukraine leans on the countries that already have Patriots. While Ukraine builds FREYJA and runs short on its current anti-ballistic systems, those partners that lack the production Ukraine needs but hold Patriot missiles today can invest those interceptors into Ukraine's defense, Zelenskyy said, welcoming them into the anti-ballistic coalition. The 100-system shield is the long game, while the borrowed Patriots are what keep Ukrainian skies covered until it exists.

A drone came down on a beach full of Russian holidaymakers, and the evidence points to Russia's own air defense bringing it there. On 3 August, drones attacked Krasnodar Krai, and one crashed onto a beach in Arkhipo-Osipovka near Gelendzhik, killing at least six people, three of them children, and injuring around 40, Krasnodar Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said.

Russian outlet Agentstvo and OSINT analysts assessed that the drone likely fell because of Russian air-defense fire rather than a direct hit, citing gunfire audible in footage before the drone dived and an abrupt change in its flight path.

The beach sits directly in front of the Rassvet resort, a facility of NPO Mashinostroyeniya, one of Russia's key missile-manufacturing enterprises.

The warning system did not sound

Survivors say they had no notice. Local residents and holidaymakers complained that no air-raid alert sounded at all, though warning systems are installed in the village, and the Russian channel Astra also noted that no alert was heard in the region during the attack, per the reports.

People on the beach were in the open, with little chance to take cover, even if they had been warned. The absence of a siren in a resort packed at the height of the summer season left sunbathers and swimmers with no warning that a drone was overhead and being fired at.

The target was a missile maker's resort

NPO Mashinostroyeniya develops cruise missiles for the Russian army, and its Rassvet recreation base was the apparent target roughly 300 meters from where the drone came down, the Supernova Telegram channel reported.

Ukraine strikes Russian military-industrial sites across the country, and a missile-development enterprise is a legitimate military target. What turned a strike near a defense plant into a mass-casualty event on a beach was, by the analysts' account, Russian air defense knocking the drone down over the crowd rather than away from it. Ukraine had not commented on the strike.

The dynamic is one Ukraine knows intimately in reverse

Russian air-defense missiles and the debris of intercepted drones regularly fall on Ukrainian cities, killing civilians, and Ukraine has long documented how interception over populated areas kills the people it is meant to protect.

Ukraine's military intelligence turned its newest sea drones into carriers for FPV strike drones and knocked out two Russian radar targets in occupied Crimea, according to Ukraine's Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR). The strike let its uncrewed boats reach Russian targets on land, a move the unit called a shift of the war to a new plane. HUR released footage of the operation on 3 August.

Sea drones that launched FPV drones onto land

HUR's special unit Group 13 ran the operation in occupied Crimea in late July 2026, the agency reported. The operators used the newest versions of Magura naval platforms, this time set up as FPV-drone carriers, to hit Russian ground targets on the peninsula. It was the first operation to show the newest Magura's effectiveness.

The aerial FPV drones struck a control vehicle from a Russian Podlyot radar system. They also hit a Parol-4 radar interrogator, part of the system Russian forces use to tell friendly aircraft from hostile ones.

The footage opens with a Russian projectile fired from the Crimean coast. It streaks past a Ukrainian naval drone and misses. After a cut, a naval drone fires anti-air missiles. The video then shows an FPV aerial drone launching from a naval drone. Two FPV drones then dive into the two radar targets.

The Maguras that hunted ships now threaten land

The Group 13 commander, callsign Thirteenth, framed the strikes as a turn in the war. 

"From now on our Maguras threaten the Russian occupiers on land too, a fundamental shift of the fight to another plane," he said. 

At sea, Group 13 has destroyed nine Russian ships and damaged five, HUR says. It has also destroyed three enemy helicopters and damaged one, and destroyed two Russian fighter jets.

Russia fired more ballistic missiles at Ukraine in July than in any other month of 2026, around 126 of them, according to the monitoring project Oko Gora. The barrage mixed Iskander-M missiles, North Korean rounds, and air-defense missiles repurposed to hit ground targets. It climbed as Ukraine's shield against exactly these weapons kept thinning.

July outran every month this year

The climb is steep. Russia's monthly ballistic launches ran from 74 in January to 116 in February, then fell to 39 in March, 50 in April, 86 in May, and 96 in June, before last month topped them all, the project counted. The notable addition was the S-300 and S-400 air-defense missiles fired at ground targets alongside the Iskander-M and North Korean ballistic missiles.

The North Korean missile returned

One weapon stood out for its comeback. On 30 July, Russia used a North Korean KN-23 for the first time in a long while, striking the village of Radushne near Kryvyi Rih. The strike killed five members of one family, and the missile's reappearance suggested a fresh shipment from Pyongyang.

Interceptions returned, then collapsed

Around 14 July, Ukrainian air defenders resumed shooting down Russian ballistics, and on 9 July President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine would soon receive a US batch of PAC-3 interceptors. By month's end the gains were gone. Ukraine's Air Force downed one missile out of 27 on 1 August, and one of nine on 30 July. As recently as June, Ukraine had stopped about four in ten ballistics, a rate that has since fallen toward zero as PAC-3 stocks run dry.

Ukraine is trying to win back the soldiers who walked away by giving them the choice of where to fight. The voluntary return program for service members who went absent without leave is expanding, and those who qualify can now choose from more than 70 units in the Armed Forces, the National Guard, or the State Special Transport Service, the Defense Ministry announces.

The expansion widens a program that answers Ukraine's deepest manpower problem. Soldiers can file a report to return through 20 September 2026, and the simplified program is open to service members whose unauthorized absence, known in Ukraine as SZCh, was recorded on or before 12 June 2026.

The program is a response to a desertion crisis that has grown throughout the war. Some 51,000 Ukrainian soldiers left their units without leave in 2024, more than double the year before, with fatigue cited as a primary cause, bringing the cumulative total to more than 100,000. The root is a service without an end date: soldiers mobilized in 2022 have had no legal pathway home, and exhausted men have left anyway, chaotically, when the state would not release them on a schedule it managed.

What the expanded program offers

The Defense Ministry has widened the list of units to give returning soldiers more say in where and how they serve. The expansion lets them serve in a preferred direction, choose a desired position and commander, and apply their previous experience, the ministry said.

"Drivers, UAV operators, clerks, rifle troops: the army needs everyone," said Deputy Defense Minister Mstyslav Banik.

The list includes mechanized, assault, airborne, drone, artillery, and other units, each requiring soldiers with different experience and specialties, and is viewable on the program's official site and in the Army+ app when filing the report.

The return program is one half of Ukraine's manpower squeeze

The effort to coax back soldiers who left runs alongside a harder push to find and mobilize more, two sides of the same shortage. The return program is part of the reform package the ousted Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov launched in June 2026, which also created fixed-term contracts with a guaranteed end date to replace open-ended service.

The army's new leadership is working on the same problem from the other end. Commander-in-Chief Mykhailo Drapatyi has launched a force-wide manning audit to identify soldiers who have been kept away from the front lines, and investigators have swept through recruitment offices nationwide. The return program's logic is the gentler side of that drive: rather than only hunting for manpower through mobilization, the state is trying to make it easy and dignified for the soldiers it has already trained to return on their own terms.

On 1 August, Russia burned the vehicles that rushed to Ukrainian civilians after its terrorist attacks. Russian forces hit the territory of Kyivmedspetstrans twice during their massive strike on Kyiv, and while the workers fortunately escaped injury, five ambulances burned down completely, the Kyiv City State Administration reported.

The strike crippled part of the fleet that responds to exactly these attacks. The double strike on the ambulance depot was part of a combined attack that killed at least nine people across Kyiv.

Kyivmedspetstrans is the municipal organization that operates the capital's ambulances and specialized emergency medical transport. The Russian strike partially destroyed four of its buildings while damaging several more premises.

"Twenty vehicles that served the capital's healthcare facilities sustained significant damage," the Ukrainian authorities said.

The barrage that hit the ambulances

The strike on the medical depot came during one of the heaviest ballistic attacks on the capital of the summer. On the night of 1 August, Russian forces launched a combined strike using 35 missiles and 185 attack drones of various types.

The missile mix was overwhelmingly ballistic. Russia fired 27 Iskander-M ballistic missiles, four Zircon anti-ship missiles, two Kh-59/69 guided aviation missiles, and two Kh-31 anti-radar missiles. Ukraine's air defenses managed to shoot down only one Iskander-M ballistic missile and one Kh-59/69.

Against 27 ballistic missiles, Ukraine intercepted only one because the Patriot is the only system that reliably engages Iskander-M, Zircon, and similar high-speed weapons, and Ukraine has run out of Patriot interceptors.

Striking the ambulances twice fits a documented pattern

Hitting a medical-transport depot twice in one attack is not incidental, and it carries the marks of a tactic Ukraine has documented across the war. A second strike on the same site endangers the emergency crews responding to the first, and destroying ambulances degrades the capacity to save the wounded from the very barrage that created them.

Russia has repeatedly used "double-tap" strikes that hit a target, wait for rescuers and medics to arrive, then strike again, a tactic Ukrainian prosecutors and international monitors have flagged as targeting first responders. Ukraine documented the same method days earlier, when Russia struck a passenger train in Zaporizhzhia Oblast twice.

Russia fired 27 ballistic missiles at Kyiv on 1 August, and Ukraine could stop only one. A massive overnight Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv killed at least nine people, damaged the Lithuanian embassy, and destroyed part of the city's ambulance fleet, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine has run out of interceptors for its Patriot systems. Meanwhile, Russia continues to target Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy, Kharkiv, and Poltava oblasts.

The interceptor shortage is now measured in bodies

During the attack, Ukraine's air defenders could engage the drones and the eight non-ballistic missiles, but against 27 ballistic missiles, the weapons, except for the Patriot, could not reliably stop them; they had almost nothing to fire.

"Every package of ballistic missile interceptors saves the lives of our people. Every night without them results in more casualties," Zelenskyy said.

This is the concrete form of a shortage that has run through Ukraine's diplomacy all summer, the 40% ballistic-interception rate in June now fallen closer to zero as stocks run dry.

The strike came days after Zelenskyy met the makers of the Patriot in Washington, where joint production, in the manufacturers' own words, was still in the "early days," and the missiles Ukraine needs tonight still depend on American stocks that are not arriving fast enough.

The strike hit an embassy, a school, and the ambulances

The attack damaged the city's civilian and diplomatic fabric. Russia's attack damaged 18 residential buildings, a school, and critical infrastructure, and the Lithuanian embassy suffered limited damage, though no embassy staff was harmed.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha condemned the embassy strike as a violation of international norms.

"Russian terror spares no one and does not respect any international norms, including the Vienna Convention. It can only be stopped through strength and with sufficient air defense," Sybiha said, thanking Lithuania for standing with Ukraine and offering any help needed.

Russia claimed it hit only military targets

Moscow's account of the night bore no relation to the residential buildings and the dead. Russia's Defense Ministry claimed the strike hit "military-industrial complex facilities and logistics centers" in Kyiv and said nothing about the numerous civilian casualties, per its own statement.

Friday evening, 19:00, they met again. The crowd wasn't uniform: students, pensioners, whole families who'd come with small children, couples. A five-year-old girl in fluffy earmuffs held her own cardboard protest sign. A few soldiers among them. Several hundred people, loose across the steps beneath the Shevchenko monument, the poet's bronze hand open above them.

The mood was quiet, more communion than fury, people just standing together in the fading light. The signs were as diverse as the attendees. One sign, in green marker with a row of red hearts, read "Mykhailo Vasyliovych, we believe in you!!!" Another, block letters on brown card: "Fedorov is our Minister of Defense." A third, held high near the scaffolding: "Fedorov, minister of victory." The child's placard read simply: "My first placard."

Protests like this have been ongoing in cities across Ukraine since 16 July, amid President Zelenskyy's Cabinet shakeup that had the popular defense minister fired. Participants want Mykhailo Fedorov reinstated and say they will stay until their demand is granted.

Fedorov is not a career soldier: he built Ukraine's Diia digital-state platform and, as digital-transformation minister, drove the drone-procurement push that turned cheap unmanned systems into the country's most-used weapon against Russia's invasion. To the people on the square he is the man who stands for winning the war with technology rather than with bodies—and his removal, after barely six months at the ministry, landed as that bet being called off.

A year ago the same kind of crowd defended institutions: the anti-corruption bureau and prosecutor's office, when the government moved to strip their independence. This time the placards carry one man's surname. The instrument is the same; what it is pointed at has narrowed from a rule to a person.

That 2025 anti-corruption protest

They came. They cussed. They won.

What a passerby would not have guessed is that no one on the square could say who had called it. The rally assembles by loudspeaker and group chat—a woman with a megaphone naming the next time to gather, a Telegram channel filling in the rest.

Kyiv-based Zinaida Averina, who helped launch last year's anti-corruption protests, says this wave has no single leader or even a single group of organizers: each local initiative, she wrote, plugs in and syncs "small pieces" into one shared wave. In the middle of a full-scale war, in roughly twenty cities, Ukrainians are holding open-ended nightly rallies that no party organized and no leader directs.

The demand, and the reason behind it

Protesters in Lviv began the open-ended rallies on 24 July. "The main demand is the appointment of Fedorov as minister of defense," said Dmytro, 24, who described the dismissal as a violation of a social contract. "This has become a systemic problem when the entire Cabinet of Ministers is dismissed without any explanation given to us."

The crowds made two demands: remove Oleksandr Syrskyi as commander-in-chief, and bring Fedorov back. The first was met within days—Syrskyi was dismissed and replaced by the more popular Mykhailo Drapatyi. The second was refused.

Iryna, 23, said she felt a violation of reciprocity between citizen and state. "Through documentation, taxes, and declarations, we are always accountable to the state, but the state is not as accountable to us as it should be," she said. She had chosen to stay in Ukraine when she could have left abroad as a refugee, she said, and wanted transparency in how personnel decisions are made.

What almost no Gen-Z on the square could say precisely was what, exactly, was being done wrong—only that something was. It is the same barometer that worked a year ago: most of the anti-corruption protesters could not have explained what the bureau adjudicates, but they knew corruption was being shielded, and they acted the only way they knew.

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Blogger-driven outrage and media bombshells

In many countries, the media struggle to get Gen Zs interested in politics. In Ukraine, bloggers fill that niche. Media activist and volunteer Serhii Sternenko has spent the protest days explaining the firing to a Gen-Z audience—one stream making the case against Syrskyi drew more than 842,000 views.

What they sense, and what Sternenko names for them, is an old-army culture—"sovok," in the protest's own shorthand—of loyalty over competence and lives spent cheaply, against the newer Ukraine Fedorov stood for. Fedorov, in this telling, was pushed out for trying to change it.

The sensing rests on something real. In late June the outlet Babel published a two-month investigation into the 425th "Skelia" assault regiment, reporting at least 25 non-combat deaths of recruits in training over roughly six months—a toll that has since risen past 30 as more families came forward—with accounts of beatings and torture and official causes recorded as illness. State investigators, police, the military prosecutor and the ombudsman have opened proceedings, and the regiment's commander has been suspended. Syrskyi has called it a shameful situation and blamed individual offenders. Sternenko calls it a systemic pattern—a characterization the investigations have not established.

Why the protests went open-ended

The escalation on 24 July followed the president's decision not to nominate Fedorov. "As long as necessary, we will keep coming out until the government hears us," said Yevheniia Kupriienko, 23.

Andrii, 23, rated the government's transparency at one out of ten and said protesters want parliament to act as an independent institution rather than a rubber stamp: "decisions cannot be made by one person in the country without any commentary or communication with the people."

The man at the center of it describes something more tangled than the chant. In an interview on 29 July, Fedorov said the main reason for his removal was not the clash with Syrskyi at all. Reshaping defense procurement and tenders, he said, "stepped on the interests of many people and companies," after which pressure on his team built through the spring. He called the government's collapse a possible "screen" for his dismissal, and said he never fought for the post and would have gone quietly had someone simply explained why.

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Even the adulation makes him uneasy. His wife, Anastasia, called the frenzy around him a "sick cult of personality." The crowd chanted his name at a Kyiv music festival anyway, his face on the big screen. The man the movement is built around, and the person closest to him, are both declining the icon it has made of him.

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A soldier, and a philosopher, dissent

Andrii said he had come to stand up for the voices of Ukraine's soldiers. One serviceman passing by did not recognize himself in that description. "I know neither Drapatyi nor Fedorov. I can talk about my company commander or battalion commander," he said. He questioned how civilians, and young women in particular, could judge how senior officials are appointed, and said of the leadership: "They have big brains, they know what they are doing."

His doubt is not only his. It is the worry named this week by the philosopher Volodymyr Yermolenko, president of PEN Ukraine: that the tech dream the protesters chant for is real but incomplete, and that there is no alternative to massive military mobilization. "Without technology we won't win the war, but with technology alone we won't win it either. We still need people," he said. A street that senses correctly that something is wrong, in his account, is a reliable alarm—not a mechanism for choosing who runs the war.

Yet other soldiers support the protests. Veteran Dmytro Koziatynskyi, one of the Kyiv protest initiators, sparked a march "for dialogue in reform" held on vul. Khreshchatyk on 31 July. He demands Zelenskyy give Fedorov a year to conduct reforms and then "make decisions based on results."

The predictable counter-narratives have arrived too: claims that the rallies are paid, which Fedorov himself has rejected. Ukraine's disinformation center has also flagged Russian attempts to exploit the moment abroad. None of it touches the crowds on Ukraine's own squares.

Is this Euromaidan?

The comparison to the Euromaidan Revolution, in which the Russian-aligned president Yanukovych fled in the winter of 2014 after three months of protests against a rejected EU Association agreement, comes up constantly, and the protesters do not agree on it. One participant argued the mechanism is the same even if the scale is not: "No matter who the president is, if he doesn't listen, that was Yanukovych's mistake."

The serviceman rejected the comparison entirely. In 2013 the choice was between the European Union and Russia, and Russia's response to that choice produced the war Ukraine is now fighting. The present situation—a fired minister—is a different matter entirely, he said.

Halyna, 88, who watched the Euromaidan Revolution from Lviv while her son was in Kyiv, said the two are not comparable in intensity. "In 2013, the Euromaidan was such that I can't even describe it to you," she said. "Well, now the protests are not like that. People are just relaxing."

She supports them anyway. People are tired of lies and tired of a war Russia forced on them, she said, and the worst of it is that young people are dying with no end in sight. She wants to live long enough to see Ukraine at peace and left alone. Whether the rallies continue, she did not know. "I think the clock is ticking."

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Polish prosecutors have identified the cruise missile that crashed in eastern Poland during Russia's mass overnight attack on Ukraine yesterday, according to Ukrinform. Investigators traced the weapon to a recent Russian production run and dated its manufacture, with a Ukrainian expert helping confirm the find. 

Prosecutors trace the missile to a Moscow-area plant

Marcin Kozak, spokesman for the District Prosecutor's Office in Lublin, spoke at a media briefing on Friday, a Ukrinform correspondent reported on 31 July. He said the fallen weapon was a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile. Investigators reached that conclusion after examining the impact site in Lublin Voivodeship and the fragments recovered there. The same work let them date the weapon's manufacture and trace where in Russia it was built.

"Preliminary work examining the site and the traces found — that is, elements of the aerial object — allows us to state unequivocally what object we are dealing with," Kozak said. "This is a Kh-101 missile, manufactured in the second quarter of 2026 at one of the enterprises in Moscow Oblast."

That places the weapon's origin at a plant in the Moscow area, the region ringing the Russian capital. A Ukrainian expert arrived in Poland yesterday evening and joined the identification.

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Warsaw confirms a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile overshot Ukraine and hit a field in Poland

How the missile crossed into Poland

Yesterday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk confirmed that a Kh-101 had crossed into Polish airspace during the overnight barrage. It came down about 50 kilometers from Lublin, leaving behind a crater where its warhead exploded. Poland put its air defenses on alert and scrambled military aircraft as Russia's missiles neared the border. Air raid sirens sounded in Lublin around 03:50 local time, and crews later found the crater and scattered debris around 95 km into Poland.

The Russian missile either strayed into Poland or was deliberately directed there during Russia's mass attack on Ukraine overnight on 30 July. Russia sent missiles and drones across the country, and several areas reported hits and fires. Its strikes hit Lviv, Kyiv, and Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, where the barrage also killed civilians in central Ukraine.

After the missile fell, two disinformation campaigns spread through Poland's information space, one aimed at Ukraine and the other at the Polish government.

Tusk also signaled that Warsaw would soon weigh sending Ukraine more missiles for its Patriot air defense systems.

Poland will consider providing Ukraine with additional Patriot interceptor missiles after a Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace during Moscow's latest mass attack on Ukraine, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on 30 July.

Speaking at the site where a suspected Russian Kh-101 cruise missile crashed in Poland's Lublin Voivodeship, Tusk said Warsaw would review further military assistance to Ukraine following the incident, according to Ukrinform.

Poland weighs additional Patriot missiles

"After this incident, together with the defense minister, we will consider as soon as possible the issue of further assistance to Ukraine, including the transfer of additional missiles for Patriot systems, should such a need arise," Tusk said.

The announcement follows Russia's overnight missile and drone barrage against Ukraine, during which a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile flew roughly 95 kilometers into Polish territory before crashing in a field. Polish authorities said they scrambled an F-16 fighter jet and were prepared to shoot the missile down had it continued deeper into the country.

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Warsaw confirms a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile overshot Ukraine and hit a field in Poland

Patriot interceptor missiles are currently Ukraine's most effective defense against Russian ballistic missiles. Ukraine has repeatedly warned it is running short of interceptor missiles, while Russia has intensified its use of ballistic weapons that can only be shot down by a limited number of advanced air defense systems.

Tusk added that no country has completely secure airspace.

"There is no sky – not in the United States, not in Israel, not in Ukraine, and not in Russia – that is 100% safe," the Polish prime minister said.

Tusk: Next 100 days could decide the war

Tusk said he discussed the battlefield situation and prospects for ending the war during talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday.

"After my conversation with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, one thing is quite clear: the next 100 days could determine the outcome of this war. It's fifty-fifty," Tusk said, according to Ukrinform.

Investigation into missile incursion continues

Tusk said there was currently no evidence that Poland itself had been the intended target of the missile.

He added that the United States, European Union member states, and Norway had offered assistance with the investigation. Ukraine has also proposed helping examine the incident, and Polish authorities plan to use the expertise of Ukrainian specialists.

The missile incursion occurred during one of Russia's largest aerial attacks in recent months, which killed at least eight civilians across Ukraine and injured more than 50 others. Officials have said the object that crashed in Lublin Voivodeship was most likely a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile.

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Two children pulled from the rubble alive, three did not survive—one village near Kryvyi Rih after the Russian missile attack

A Russian cruise missile crossed deep into Poland and crashed in a field during Russia's mass overnight strike on Ukraine, Polish and Ukrainian officials said. Warsaw says it scrambled a fighter jet and was ready to shoot the missile down had it flown on. The same barrage killed civilians across Ukraine and sent hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles at its cities.

A Kh-101 crossed nearly 100 km into Poland

In the early hours of 30 July, a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile flew into Poland and came down about 95 km from the Ukrainian border, the Ukrainian defense outlet Militarnyi reported. 

Poland's Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz called it an extremely difficult night for the country's air defense and said an unidentified object had fallen in a field.

The missile in Poland was one of 74 missiles and 265 drones that Russia fired at Ukraine overnight — 61 Kh-101 and Kalibr cruise missiles, four Zircon and Onyx, and nine ballistic Iskander-M, S-400, and KN-23. 

Ukraine's acting Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha noted that the Kh-101 missile crossed into Poland, called it a violation of NATO airspace, and said Kyiv is informing partners and international organizations about the attack.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk later said everything indicated it was a Kh-101, and that Polish forces were ready to shoot it down had it continued deeper.

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Two children pulled from the rubble alive, three did not survive—one village near Kryvyi Rih after the Russian missile attack

Poland scrambled a jet and tracked the missile

During the attack, Poland's Operational Command set out the sequence. 

• Around 03:29 Polish time, one object came within about 5 km of the border, then turned away. 
• At 3:40, radar caught an unidentified object moving west over Polish territory, and an F-16 went up to identify and intercept it. At 3:46, it vanished from the screens before it could be identified. 
• Sirens sounded for Lublin and much of the voivodeship only around 3:50. 
• A helicopter crew later located the probable crash site in open ground near Tarnawa-Kolonia, in Lublin Voivodeship. 

Ukrainian monitoring channels eRadar and Strategic Aviation placed a cruise missile over Poland at 04:40 Kyiv time, equal to 03:40 in Warsaw. The monitoring channel Strategic Aviation tracked it over Lublin Voivodeship, which borders Ukraine's Volyn Oblast.

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At least eight civilians killed in Ukraine during the same attack

In Ukraine, one of the Russian missiles killed a family — parents and three children — in a direct hit on their home near Kryvyi Rih, while rescuers pulled two more children from the rubble alive. In Lviv, western Ukraine, another missile destroyed apartments, injured dozens including children, and damaged two kindergartens and a school. Russia's strike killed at least eight people across Ukraine and injured dozens, with civilian casualties in Kyiv, Poltava, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Vinnytsia, and Cherkasy.

Not the first Russian missile over Poland

This was not the first Russian cruise missile to cross into Poland. In 2023, a Kh-55 flew several hundred kilometers over Polish territory before it fell near Bydgoszcz. Earlier in July, the Polish outlet Onet, citing intelligence and diplomatic sources, warned that Poland could become a target of Russian provocations meant to test NATO's resolve, with strikes on critical infrastructure among the scenarios named.

Ukraine's military intelligence has destroyed one of Russia's electronic-warfare stations in temporarily occupied Crimea, the country's Defense Intelligence agency (HUR) said. Fighters caught the coastal complex on the peninsula and published video of the strike, the latest in a run of intelligence operations stripping Russia's sensors off Crimea. The station was built to listen in on and jam communications across a wide area, and none of that reach kept it alive.

A jamming station that could not save itself

In the night of 26 to 27 July 2026, fighters from HUR's Department of Unmanned Systems found and destroyed the Russian Murmansk-BN electronic-warfare station near Cape Fiolent in occupied Crimea, HUR reported on Telegram, sharing footage of the hit.

The Murmansk-BN is a coastal complex that Russian forces use for radio reconnaissance, intercepting signals, and jamming shortwave communications, HUR said. Its range can reach up to 5,000 kilometers. A station meant to jam and silence an enemy's communications across that distance did nothing to detect the drone closing on it.

What the Murmansk-BN does

The Murmansk-BN is a strategic, long-range electronic-warfare system. Made by the Russian concern KRET, it entered service in 2014 and was first fielded in occupied Crimea, south of Sevastopol. It works in the high-frequency band, the shortwave range armies use for long-distance radio when other links fail.

Western analysts have documented the same system type suppressing high-frequency traffic over great distances. That is what makes each one Ukraine removes a hole in Russia's electronic cover rather than a small loss.

Days after an S-400, another Crimea kill

The jammer is the second high-value Russian system this unit has taken off the peninsula in days. Days ago, HUR's drone operators burned an S-400 Triumf launcher and its 96L6 radar in occupied Crimea, the long-range battery Russia leans on to shoot down aircraft and missiles.

Both hits fit a wider pattern. Ukraine's drone crews have struck close to 200 Russian air-defense assets in the first half of 2026, and over the unit's life have struck 76 radars and 31 electronic-warfare systems among a larger tally, thinning the cover Russia depends on over occupied territory.

Russia struck cities across Ukraine with a mass wave of missiles and drones overnight into 30 July 2026, killing civilians, including children, and injuring dozens, according to Ukraine's Air Force, State Emergency Service, and local authorities. Rescuers dug through collapsed homes in Lviv, in the capital, and in a village near Kryvyi Rih, and one Russian cruise missile crossed the border into Poland. It was the first mass strike on Ukraine's western oblasts since March.

The scale of the attack

Ukraine's Air Force tracked 358 incoming weapons — 74 missiles and 284 drones of various types. Air defenses shot down or suppressed 320 of them, 55 missiles and 265 drones. The missiles included Tsirkon and Oniks anti-ship missiles, Iskander-M, S-400, and North Korea's KN-23 ballistics, and Kh-101 and Kalibr cruise missiles, alongside Shahed, Gerbera, Italmas, and decoy drones launched from four Russian regions.

The ballistic missiles remain the biggest problem for Ukraine. Of the nine Russia fired, air defenses stopped only one. Impacts landed at 20 locations, with debris falling on 13 more.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy put the current nationwide toll at eight dead and dozens wounded in the capital and across ten oblasts. He tied the losses directly to the missing air defenses. 

"Protection from the Russian missile threat is the most important task for saving our people's lives," he wrote. "Untimely help, delays in supplying anti-ballistic missiles — that is exactly this destruction, exactly these casualties that, unfortunately, we have today."

A family of six killed near Kryvyi Rih

The heaviest loss of life came in Radushne, a village in Kryvyi Rih district of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. An Iskander-M ballistic missile hit a house where a large family lived. Six people died, three of them children, and eight were wounded, the head of the Kryvyi Rih Defense Council, Oleksandr Vilkul, reported.

The head of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Oleksandr Hanzha, named the children killed as a six-year-old girl and boys of 11 and 17. An 84-year-old woman was hospitalized in serious condition, and a 49-year-old woman and boys of 6 and 15 were taken to hospital in moderate condition. Two houses were destroyed and five damaged. Rescuers pulled two children from the rubble alive.

Lviv: homes, a school, two kindergartens

Lviv neighborhoods took some of the worst damage. The number of wounded recently rose to 26, with 15 hospitalized, children among them, the head of Lviv Oblast, Maksym Kozytskyi, reported. One child was in the hospital.

Two residential buildings on Patona and Vyhovskoho streets were hit, and more than 20 apartment buildings were damaged, along with lyceum school No. 15 — where 140 windows and four doors were blown out — and two kindergartens. Mayor Andrii Sadovyi described a direct hit and no military target anywhere near it. 

"Here on Patona we see a direct missile hit. The floors have essentially been sheared off," he said. "They simply attack residential buildings, kill people directly. There are no military targets here, nothing at all."

Rescuers freed a woman, a man, and his six-year-old son from a collapsed building, the Lviv Oblast prosecutor's office said. A crane was used to lift people from a damaged five-story block through a blocked stairwell.

One killed in Kyiv

In the capital, one person died and two were hurt, the Kyiv Military Administration and the Emergency Service reported. Fires broke out in two districts: market pavilions in Obolon and a garage cooperative in Sviatoshyn, where firefighters found a body while putting out the flames and hospitalized an injured man, the emergency service said.

In Skybyn, in Brovary district of Kyiv Oblast, a strike partly destroyed a two-story house and wounded five people, including a 16-year-old boy, the emergency service confirmed.

Poltava, Zhytomyr, Mykolaiv, and the coast

In Poltava district, warehouses caught fire from the strikes and one person died, the head of Poltava Oblast, Vitalii Diakivnych, said. A Nova Poshta parcel terminal was also hit, with no casualties there.

Mykolaiv Oblast came under a night of drone attacks that damaged port infrastructure, warehouses, homes, an ambulance, and an administrative building, but wounded no one, the oblast administration reported. 

In Kharkiv, a jet-powered Shahed hit an industrial zone, Mayor Ihor Terekhov reported. 

The Russian strikes injured three children and two adults in Zhytomyr Oblast, local authorities said.

Air defenses also worked over Kirovohrad Oblast, where a private yard was damaged in Svitlovodsk and no one was hurt, the oblast administration said.

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A cruise missile in Poland

One Russian cruise missile crossed into Poland during the attack and came down in Lublin voivodeship, near the village of Targowisko, where a blast woke residents and rescuers found a crater in a field, the outlet lublin112 reported. Polish forces had put military aircraft into the air hours earlier because of Russia's long-range strikes on Ukraine, the country's Operational Command said, with fighters and an early-warning plane airborne and ground air defenses at readiness.

It was not the first such incursion. In 2023 a Russian Kh-55 flew several hundred kilometers over Polish territory before it fell near the city of Bydgoszcz. Earlier in July, the Polish outlet Onet, citing intelligence and diplomatic sources, warned that Poland could become a target of Russian provocations meant to test NATO's resolve.

Ukraine has lost another F-16. During a combat mission on one sector of the front, an F-16 fighter of the Ukrainian Air Force experienced an onboard emergency, forcing the pilot to eject, the Air Force reported on Telegram.

Every F-16 lost matters more than the airframe, because Ukraine has so few and needs them so badly. The fighters are instrumental as a line of air defense against the missiles and drones Russia launches in massed nightly attacks.

On 29 July 2026, contact was lost with the F-16, which was flying a combat mission to intercept enemy aerial targets on one sector of the front, and preliminary data indicate an onboard emergency forced the pilot to eject, according to the Air Force.

The pilot is now completely safe, was successfully evacuated, and was taken to a medical facility for examination. Experts and law enforcement are working at the crash site, and no civilian casualties or destruction were recorded.

The pilot's survival sets this loss apart

That the pilot survived is the most important fact, because Ukraine's F-16 losses have more often taken the pilot with them.

Ukraine has paid a heavy price for these aircraft and their pilots. Since receiving its first F-16s in mid-2024, Ukraine had lost four of them by August 2025, with three pilots killed and one ejecting safely, per Euromaidan Press.

Oleksii "Moonfish" Mes was killed in the first loss on 26 August 2024.

Captain Pavlo Ivanov, 26, died on 12 April 2025 when his jet was likely shot down over Sumy Oblast.

A third F-16 was destroyed on 16 May 2025 in an onboard emergency from which the pilot ejected.

Lieutenant Colonel Maksym Ustymenko was killed on 29 June 2025 defending against a large-scale Russian assault, per Euromaidan Press.

The jets are scarce and hard to replace

Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Norway committed a total of 80 aircraft, but they arrived in batches, and the pool of trained pilots is limited, so each loss subtracts from a capability that Ukraine cannot quickly regenerate.

Russia may be about to fire its Banderol cruise missiles from the ground, and that could change the warning Ukraine has. Photos of a new Russian ground launcher for the S8000 "Banderol" cruise missile have appeared online, and Russia reportedly presented the launcher to Russian ruler Vladimir Putin at a closed exhibition in 2025, the Ukrainian defense outlet Defense Express reported.

Until now, the only confirmed launch platform for the Banderol was the Orion strike-and-reconnaissance drone, and no ground launcher for the missile had appeared online. That mattered for Ukraine's defense: the Orion is rare, with only nine confirmed losses throughout the war, and it has to be flown in first, where Ukraine can spot it in advance.

A ground launcher removes that warning. The Banderol is a fast, cheap jet-powered cruise missile that flies up to 500 km at 500 to 560 km/h with a 114.3-kg warhead, and Russia has used it in its largest combined strikes on Kyiv. The threat is that ground launchers let Russia fire Banderols without the Orion's telltale takeoff, and can be assembled in large numbers for mass attacks.

The launcher strips away the time Ukraine had to react

The second danger is volume. A single Orion can carry only one Banderol, but ground launchers can be built in dozens and used for mass attacks. That turns a missile previously limited by its scarce drone carrier into one Russia could salvo, the same shift from trickle to swarm that has made Shaheds so hard to stop.

The launcher may still be in testing, the analysts cautioned, and Russia may be trying to conceal its use. But the fact that Russia has ground launchers at all is the threat, because it changes how and how many Banderols can reach Ukraine.

The tradeoff is the range for surprise

Ground launch is not free for Russia either. Fired from a launcher on the ground, the Banderol will have a shorter range than when dropped from an Orion already at altitude and speed. Even with a booster, the missile has to accelerate and climb to its cruising height on its own, spending the energy an air launch provides for free.

The launcher's design reflects that. Judging by its construction, the missile rail can be lowered to a horizontal position, and, given its small size, the launcher could theoretically be mounted on trailers or other mobile platforms. A small solid-fuel booster is probably used to get the missile off the ground. That mobility is its own threat: a trailer-mounted launcher can hide, move, and fire from unexpected locations, trading the Banderol's maximum range for the surprise of a ground launch close to the border.

Ukrainian intelligence has mapped its 30-company foreign component supply chain, down to a Chinese jet engine available on AliExpress, and President's adviser Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov, who first identified the missile, has called it "nothing outstanding, a budget cruise missile with a small warhead."

Ukraine and NATO are funding joint teams to turn battlefield prototypes into weapons. Ukraine's Brave1 defense cluster and its allies have begun accepting applications for their first joint grant program, UNITE - Brave NATO, Ukraine's Defense Ministry announced.

The program helps bring successful defense-technology prototypes to serial production and battlefield use, pairing a Ukrainian company with a company from a NATO country in joint teams.

The competition focuses on developing Ukraine's drone capabilities, protection against enemy drones, and strengthening air defense. Depending on the type of technology, winners can receive up to $293,000 or about $585,000 per side of the joint team.

Applications for the first stage are accepted until 3 August 2026. It is the working phase of a program EP has tracked since NATO and Ukraine launched UNITE - Brave NATO in November 2025, with a €10 million pilot budget split equally between NATO and Ukraine.

The program routes Ukraine's combat experience into the NATO industry

The pairing requirement is the point. By requiring a Ukrainian company and a NATO-country company on each team, UNITE - Brave NATO connects the world's most combat-tested defense innovators with allied industry and channels the real-time battlefield lessons Ukraine generates back into the Alliance.

NATO wants that experience deliberately. NATO's Communications and Information Agency manages the competition on the Alliance side, while Brave1 coordinates it in Ukraine. The first round targets the very technologies Ukraine faces daily: countering unmanned aerial systems, strengthening air defenses, and securing frontline communications.

Brave1 is the hub that the whole system runs through

The grant program is one node in the innovation network Ukraine has built at the center of its war effort. Brave1 has become the central hub of Ukraine's wartime defense innovation, and as of June 2026, the cluster had processed over $235 million in procurement orders, registered more than 3,600 developments, secured 300 NATO-codified items, and disbursed $50 million in defense innovation grants.

UNITE - Brave NATO sits alongside a widening set of bilateral partnerships that Brave1 runs with individual NATO members, including Brave Germany, launched with Berlin in May 2026, and Brave France, a €20 million drone-development program launched with Paris in June. The common thread is the Test in Ukraine framework, which allows foreign manufacturers to trial new technologies under conditions close to actual combat and to obtain performance data that no peacetime range can produce.

Ukraine's counterintelligence of a spy agency has detained a young woman accused of helping Russia prepare an air strike meant to leave Poltava—a city in central Ukraine—without power, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said. Investigators say the student mapped the city's energy sites in Poltava and the surrounding area and filmed Ukrainian air-defense units for Russian handlers before any strike could land. She now sits in custody and faces life imprisonment with confiscation of property.

A student lured by "easy money"

The suspect is a student at a local university in Poltava Oblast, the SBU reported. She came to the attention of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) while hunting for easy money in Telegram channels, according to the agency. After recruiting her, her handlers set her to work in her own hometown.

Mapping the grid, filming the defenses

Under the guise of walks, she moved through the city and surrounding area to fix the locations of energy facilities that feed the oblast center and nearby districts. Those were the sites Russia was preparing to hit from the air. She also rode around Poltava Oblast by taxi, taking photos and video of Ukrainian air-defense units. Officers say they exposed her in advance and detained her before any strike. During a search, they seized smartphones and computer equipment holding evidence of her work for the enemy.

Investigators served her a suspicion notice under Part 2 of Article 111 of Ukraine's Criminal Code, which covers high treason committed under martial law. She is being held without the right to bail. She faces life imprisonment with confiscation of property.

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What came before

Russia keeps leaning on Ukrainians recruited online to scout for its strikes, and Ukraine's security service reports such arrests regularly. Days earlier, officers detained another suspect in Kharkiv Oblast, accused of planting hidden cameras to guide Russian attacks. The kind of energy sites she scouted have sat at the center of Russia's long campaign against Ukraine's power grid, which has forced blackouts through successive winters.

Poland has proposed a three-way defense industry partnership with the United States and Ukraine to produce missiles for Patriot air defense systems, Polish Deputy Defense Minister Magdalena Sobkowiak-Czarnecka said during talks in Washington, according to Polish state news agency PAP.

The proposal comes as Ukraine faces a growing threat from Russian ballistic missile attacks, while supplies of interceptors for the few systems capable of stopping them remain limited. Patriot is currently Ukraine’s main defense against these weapons, making expanded production a key priority for Kyiv.

The proposal would involve cooperation between Poland, Ukraine, and the US, with production located in a secure location. Sobkowiak-Czarnecka said the offer was aimed at addressing concerns over where such manufacturing could take place, as Ukraine remains under Russian missile and drone attacks.

Proposal follows discussions on Patriot production in Ukraine

According to PAP, Sobkowiak-Czarnecka said her talks with officials from the Pentagon and the US State Department included potential Patriot missile production, defense cooperation, US military presence in Poland, and the SAFE financing mechanism.

She said discussions also covered remarks by US President Donald Trump at a NATO summit in Ankara about the possibility of establishing a Patriot production facility in Ukraine.

“The idea is for this production to be connected with Ukraine,” Sobkowiak-Czarnecka said, according to PAP.

The Polish deputy minister proposed expanding the arrangement into a trilateral partnership involving the US, Ukraine, and Poland, arguing that Poland could help provide a safer environment for production.

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Zelenskyy meets team from Raytheon, US company that builds Patriots, and says Ukraine is now negotiating joint interceptor production

Poland seeks role in Patriot maintenance and broader defense cooperation

Sobkowiak-Czarnecka also presented arguments for establishing a Patriot maintenance center in Poland, citing the country’s growing defense industry and strategic location on NATO’s eastern flank.

The talks in Washington also covered additional US military presence in Poland. Sobkowiak-Czarnecka said both countries have established teams working on preparations for a potential US base, though final decisions on troop deployments would depend on President Trump.

She also said discussions continued on a possible $4 billion US Foreign Military Financing loan for Poland to purchase American military equipment, with hopes that an agreement could be signed within weeks.

Ukraine seeks expanded air defense production amid Russian attacks

Patriot systems have become among Ukraine’s most important air defense assets, particularly against Russian ballistic missile attacks that are difficult to intercept with many other systems.

Ukraine has repeatedly called for greater air defense support as Russia continues large-scale missile and drone attacks against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure. Expanding production capacity for Patriot-related systems has become part of wider efforts by Kyiv and its partners to strengthen long-term defense capabilities.

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Ukraine's president has taken the question of Patriot production to the company that builds the missile.  Volodymyr Zelenskyy met a team from the American defense company Raytheon and said Ukraine is negotiating joint production of interceptors for the Patriot air defense systems, one of the country's key air defenses, he announced.

At the Farnborough Airshow this week, senior executives from Raytheon parent RTX and from Lockheed Martin described talks on Ukrainian Patriot production as "early days" and said they were awaiting US government guidance on licensing.

Zelenskyy's meeting, led by Raytheon Vice President Joseph Deantona, is the Ukrainian side pushing that process forward directly with the company rather than waiting on it.

Zelenskyy ties talks back to Ankara

Raytheon is a powerful defense company whose equipment Ukraine has long used to protect people from Russian attacks, Zelenskyy said at the meeting, thanking the team for its readiness to take the partnership to a new level, specifically on joint production of Patriot interceptors.

The sides also discussed other areas of cooperation, including non-offensive military equipment, and agreed that Ukrainian teams at the government level and in the private sector should stay in contact with Raytheon to work out the details of the partnership.

Interceptor shortage is reason for urgency

The Patriot interceptor is the weapon Ukraine most needs and can least produce, which is what makes any production deal so consequential and its timeline so pressing. Ukraine's interception rate against ballistic missiles was roughly 40% in June, against 89% for air threats overall, and only Patriots reliably engage the ballistic and hypersonic missiles in Russia's massed strikes.

The gap between negotiation and missile is the catch. Independent estimates put the first Ukrainian-built interceptors well over a year away, and the deepest bottleneck is a Boeing guidance component made in only two places on Earth.

For the near term, Zelenskyy has been clear that the missiles that matter come from existing American stocks.

He told NATO's United States envoy this week that increased interceptor deliveries through the PURL mechanism are "the key priority, because Russia's massed strikes do not stop." The Raytheon talks are about the year after this one, while the PURL deliveries are about tonight.

A Russian military jet — reported to be the newest Su-57, the country's only operational stealth fighter — crashed in Moscow Oblast on 23 July, Russian and Ukrainian channels reported. The pilot ejected and survived, and officials reported no casualties on the ground. Russia's own pro-war blogger pointed the finger at Russia's air defense.

What is known about the crash

The jet went down around 13:50 in the Odintsovo district near Zvenigorod, west of Moscow. Russian outlet REN TV reported the crash, and local channel Zven_Info published photos of a fire in a field near homes. Russian Telegram channel Mash said the aircraft was a Su-57 on a training flight and that the pilot ejected.

Russia's Defense Ministry, through state news agency TASS, said a combat-trainer crashed during takeoff, that the pilot ejected, and that there was no destruction on the ground. Officials did not confirm the aircraft type or the cause.

Russia's own bloggers point at Moscow's air defense

Russia's bloggers went further than the officials. Milblogger Romanov wrote that "a number of questions" should go to the crew of BARS-Moskva, a mobile air-defense group guarding the capital. Another Russian channel, arrowsmap, said the jet's own air-defense crew shot it down and asked whether a shoulder-fired missile had felled a fifth-generation fighter.

Those bloggers also warned that pulling such crews back would leave Moscow's skies open to Ukrainian drones. Ukraine had no role in the loss, and none of the friendly-fire claims carried official confirmation.

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The Su-57, and how often it meets trouble

The Su-57 is Russia's most advanced fighter, built by Sukhoi and first flown in 2010. Russia took its first serial jet into service in 2020, in small numbers. The type has a rough record: one of the first serial aircraft crashed in Khabarovsk Krai in December 2019, before the military even received it.

Ukrainian drones first damaged two Su-57s at the Akhtubinsk airbase in June 2024. In spring 2026, drones reached more of them at Shagol near the Urals, where Russian unit-cost estimates run to $100–120 million each. Russia has since kept the jet away from missions over Ukraine.

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Friendly fire

More often than not, Russian air defenders are yet another threat to their own pilots. 

Russia's air defenses shot down their own Su-27 over occupied Crimea in March 2024, killed a Su-35 pilot with an S-300 over occupied Tokmak in 2023, and opened fire on one of their own helicopters near Moscow in 2025 after mistaking it for a drone. 

Poor coordination between Russian aviation and its air-defense crews has cost Moscow its own aircraft again and again. Losing a scarce fifth-generation jet the same way would say more about the air defense meant to shield Moscow than about anything Ukraine did that day.

Ukraine could receive laser weapons for countering aerial targets within the next two to three months, Deputy Commander-in-Chief Andrii Lebedenko said at a briefing, according to UNIAN. Teams inside the Armed Forces and private Ukrainian companies are working on the systems.

Ukraine's main laser system is Tryzub, built by the Ukrainian company Celebra Tech, which EP reported in May 2026 was in final testing on a trailer-mounted mobile platform with a stated range of up to 5 km against drones. Ukraine also became the world's fifth country to deploy a combat laser system in December 2024.

"We will have the same kind of means"

"It can already shoot down FPVs today, it is already working today on Shaheds. And this is a story of the next two to three months, when we will have the same kind of means," Lebedenko said.

According to the official, the system will let Ukraine hit aerial attack weapons even better than machine guns.

He called the direction genuinely promising and said that everything is working out today.

Lasers solve cost problem that machine guns only partly solve

The comparison Lebedenko drew to machine guns points to what a laser is for. Ukraine's mobile fire groups shoot down Shaheds with heavy machine guns and cannons because missiles cost more than the drones they kill. A laser takes that logic further, since each shot costs electricity to fire.

The limits are physical rather than financial. Lasers need line of sight, lose power through cloud, rain, smoke, and dust, and must hold a beam on a moving target long enough to burn through it.

Ukraine's laser claims have run ahead of its fielding before

Lebedenko's forecast lands in a program that has been announced repeatedly. Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces demonstrated the Tryzub system in April 2025, and Ukraine's drone forces commander at the time said laser technologies were already striking objects at altitude.

In May 2026, the system was still described as undergoing final testing.

None of that makes the current claim wrong. Directed energy weapons are genuinely difficult, and a system that moved from lab demonstration to trailer-mounted final testing to claimed FPV kills has advanced in that period. But the operational date has shifted multiple times. What would make it verifiable is a documented Shahed kill.

The United States has only about 25% of the Patriot missile interceptors it needs to meet Pentagon military plans, a shortage that led U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to pause a major transfer of weapons to Ukraine, the Guardian reported on July 8.

The decision to halt the delivery, made on July 2, followed an internal review showing low stockpiles of critical air defense systems. The depletion was largely due to recent U.S. operations in the Middle East, including the interception of Iranian missiles after strikes on the American Al Udeid airbase in Qatar, according to the Guardian.

According to officials familiar with the matter, the Pentagon's munitions tracker, used to measure the minimum supplies needed for U.S. war plans, showed Patriot interceptor levels had fallen below acceptable levels. That prompted concerns that sending more to Ukraine could put U.S. defense readiness at risk, the Guardian wrote.

The freeze reportedly affected Ukraine's two key arms transfer methods: drawdowns from Pentagon stockpiles and the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), through which the Defense Department orders new weapons from contractors.

Because U.S. orders take priority, Ukrainian requests for new weapons, including Patriot missiles, face years-long delays.

The pause came at a critical time for Kyiv, as Russia intensifies large-scale aerial attacks on Ukrainian cities. With limited options to acquire precision-guided and other key munitions, Ukrainian forces have increasingly relied on Western-supplied air defenses to counter the growing threat.

For its latest aid package, the U.S. had planned to send dozens of Patriot interceptors, along with Hellfire missiles, air-to-air Sparrows, GMLRS rockets, and anti-tank weapons, according to the Guardian.

NBC News reported on July 4 that U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unilaterally halted a weapons shipment to Ukraine despite internal military assessments showing the aid would not compromise American military readiness.

The assessment concluded that while some munitions stockpiles, including precision weapons, were low, they had not fallen below critical thresholds.

Amid the ongoing questions over Washington's weapons pause, Trump has apparently promised to send 10 Patriot interceptors to Ukraine, Axios reported on July 8. Sources also told the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that Trump claimed he wasn't behind the decision to halt arms to Kyiv in a recent phone call with President Volodymyr Zelensky.

How to enter Ukraine’s defense market: A short guide for foreign companies

Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed in the op-ed section are those of the authors and do not purport to reflect the views of the Kyiv Independent. For editorial coverage of Ukraine’s weapons procurement, the country’s Defense Ministry and the scandal-ridden Defense Procurement Agency click on the links

The Kyiv IndependentVladyslav Bandrovsky

U.S. President Donald Trump has promised to send 10 Patriot interceptors to Ukraine - a smaller number than had been paused previously while en route to the country, Axios reported on July 8, citing its sources.

Trump has also suggested that Germany sell one of its Patriot batteries to Ukraine, according to three sources cited by Axios. They said the U.S. and European allies would split the cost of the purchase.

The discussion comes as Ukraine is calling upon its allies, particularly the United States, to support Ukrainian air defense by supplying "life-saving" Patriot systems and relevant missiles.

The Pentagon said on July 2 that some military assistance to Ukraine had been halted as the U.S. Defense Department conducts a review of foreign aid deliveries.

On July 7, the Pentagon said it would renew shipments, saying the additional defensive weapons were intended to help Ukraine protect itself while the U.S. works toward "a lasting peace."

Merz called Trump to request the release of the paused interceptors, according to Axios. During the call, Trump proposed that Germany sell one of its own Patriot batteries to Ukraine.

While no agreement has been reached, officials on both sides say negotiations are ongoing. German officials maintain that Berlin has already sent a higher share of its available Patriot systems to Ukraine than any other NATO country, including the U.S.

Russia has escalated its aerial campaign against Ukraine in recent weeks, launching large-scale missile and drone attacks that have killed and injured hundreds of civilians across multiple cities.

The suspension of U.S. arms deliveries, which include Patriots and precision-guided munitions, drew criticism from Kyiv. During a July 4 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump said he was not responsible for halting the aid, according to the Wall Street Journal.

He reportedly told Zelensky that a review of U.S. munitions stockpiles was initiated after last month's U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, but denied ordering a full pause in shipments.

NBC News reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth halted the shipments unilaterally on July 2, despite internal Pentagon assessments that the move would not jeopardize U.S. military readiness.

Special Envoy Keith Kellogg and Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov are set to meet in Rome later this week to discuss resuming the stalled military aid, Politico reported on July 7.

Seeing war through the lens of narcissism

We usually think of narcissism as a personal flaw — a grandiose ego, a craving for attention, a lack of empathy. But what if narcissism is not just a diagnosis, but a lens? A way of understanding how individuals — and even entire nations — cope with wounds too painful to face directly?

The Kyiv IndependentDr. Gary E Myers

A former deputy chief of the Russian army's General Staff, Colonel General Khalil Arslanov, was sentenced to 17 years in prison on July 7 over a scheme involving the theft of over 1 billion roubles ($12.7 million) from Defense Ministry contracts, Russia's state-owned TASS news agency reported.

A closed-door military court found Arslanov and others guilty of embezzling millions from state contracts with Voentelecom, a company providing telecommunications services to the Russian military.

Arslanov was also convicted of extorting a 12 million rouble ($152,400) bribe from the head of a military communications company. Two co-defendants, Colonel Pavel Kutakhov and military pensioner Igor Yakovlev, received seven and six years in prison, respectively.

Arslanov, a former head of the Russian military's communications unit, served as deputy chief of the army's General Staff from 2013 until his removal in 2020 and was named a colonel general in 2017.

This high-profile conviction is the latest in a series of corruption scandals that have implicated top echelons of the Russian military establishment over the past year. Russia has significantly stepped up prosecutions of senior defense officials.

Just last week, on July 1, former Russian Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov was sentenced to 13 years in a penal colony after being found guilty of corruption. It was the harshest verdict in a series of high-level military corruption cases until Arslanov's sentencing on July 7.

Authorities initially detained Ivanov in April 2024 on bribery allegations, later adding embezzlement charges in October. His trial, like Arslanov's, was held behind closed doors reportedly due to national security concerns.

Ivanov's co-defendant, Anton Filatov, a former logistics company executive, received a 12.5-year sentence.According to state media, the embezzled amount totaled 4.1 billion roubles ($48.8 million), primarily funneled through bank transfers to two foreign accounts. Ivanov pleaded not guilty.

The court stripped him of all state honors and ordered the confiscation of property, vehicles, and cash valued at 2.5 billion roubles, including a luxury apartment in central Moscow, a three-storey English-style mansion, and a high-end car collection featuring brands like Bentley and Aston Martin.

Russia striking NATO while China invades Taiwan ‘plausible’ scenario, experts say

If Beijing moves against Taiwan, NATO might soon find itself in a two-front war with China and Russia — or so the alliance’s secretary general believes. “If Xi Jinping would attack Taiwan, he would first make sure that he makes a call to his very junior partner in all of this, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin… and telling him, ‘Hey, I’m going to do this, and I need you to to keep them busy in Europe by attacking NATO territory,’” Secretary General Mark Rutte said in a July 5 interview with the New

The Kyiv IndependentMartin Fornusek

Four Alliance 90/Greens party members have sent an open letter to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz calling for a significant increase in military aid to Ukraine, Bild reported on July 5, citing a copy of the document.

The news comes as Russia’s expanded drone production has enabled Moscow to launch as many as 500 drones in a single night against Ukraine on multiple occasions each week.

The letter's authors — Robin Wagener, Sara Nanni, Sebastian Schafer, and Anton Hofreiter — demanded that certain budget items be adjusted, particularly regarding support for Ukraine. They believe that the planned increase in Germany's defense funding for Kyiv from $8.4 billion in 2024 to $9.8 billion in 2025 is insufficient, according to Bild.

The signatories emphasized the need to strengthen Ukraine's air defense systems urgently.

"Without further air defense and assured supplies, Russian dictatorship over Ukraine becomes more likely," the letter read.

The lawmakers also noted that the situation has deteriorated as Russia continues to carry out large-scale attacks on Ukraine, and the United States, for its part, has partially suspended its military aid.

The signatories reminded Merz that, thanks to the Greens party's support in the previous Bundestag, assistance to Ukraine had significantly increased.

Before becoming chancellor, Merz, elected for the CDU/CSU conservative alliance, signaled he could overturn the ban of his predecessor, Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, on delivering Taurus to Ukraine.

The Taurus is a powerful cruise missile capable of striking targets at a distance of 500 kilometers (300 miles), more than the long-range capabilities Ukraine received from other partners.

However, the German government has not approved sending Taurus missiles to Ukraine so far.

Ukraine has been using U.S.-made ATACMS for over a year, and U.K.-French Storm Shadow/SCALP for more than two, initially being allowed to deploy them only against Russian targets on Ukrainian territory.

Only in late 2024, the Biden administration and other allies eased the restrictions, allowing Ukraine to use long-range missiles against Russian military targets on Russian territory.

Russia increasingly targets Ukraine’s cities with cluster munitions, raising civilian toll

Amid stalled peace talks, Russia is increasingly attacking Ukrainian cities with cluster munitions, banned by international organizations for the indiscriminate damage they cause to civilians. The civilian casualty toll in Ukraine in 2025 rose by 37% compared with the same period last year, mostly due to Russia’s use of

The Kyiv IndependentNatalia Yermak

Europe must dramatically ramp up its defenses against a resurgent Russia, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said in an interview with the New York Times published on July 5, crediting U.S. President Donald Trump for driving the alliance to unprecedented levels of commitment.

Rutte, who assumed his role late last year after 14 years as Prime Minister of the Netherlands, has been navigating NATO through a period marked by Russia's expansionist ambitions and questions about the reliability of the United States as an ally.

"Russia is reconstituting itself at a pace and a speed which is unparalleled in recent history," he told the outlet, adding that "...they are now producing three times as much ammunition in three months as the whole of NATO is doing in a year. This is unsustainable, but the Russians are working together with the North Koreans, with the Chinese and Iranians, the mullahs, in fighting this unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine."

He emphasized the interconnectedness of security across different regions, noting that a secure Arctic is vital due to increased Chinese and Russian activity, and a secure Atlantic is "crucial" for the U.S. "If the Arctic, if the Atlantic Ocean, if Europe is not secure, the U.S. has a big problem," Rutte said, arguing that Russia is ultimately aiming to attack the U.S.

The Secretary General strongly dismissed Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's comments that NATO's new defense spending targets would "bankrupt" members.

"I know Sergey Lavrov very well. He has been foreign minister of Russia since the birth of Jesus Christ, and I’ve never taken him seriously. When you talk about fake news, listen to Sergey Lavrov," Rutte told the NYT. He believes Lavrov's comments are "clearly evidence that the deterrence is working."

Rutte acknowledged concerns about the defense industrial output across the alliance, adding that, "we simply lack the defense industrial base to produce the weapons we need to make sure that we can deter the Russians or the North Koreans or whoever to attack us." He underscored the importance of not just financial investment, but also having sufficient personnel and industrial capacity to effectively utilize weaponry.

On the subject of Ukraine, Rutte confirmed that European allies have significantly increased their financial commitment. "The Europeans have now cobbled together $35 billion in military aid this year to deliver to Ukraine, which is more than last year," he said. He viewed this as a logical and fair shift, with the U.S. expecting Europeans to "take more of the burden when it comes to the concrete support to Ukraine."

While acknowledging the complex discussions surrounding peace talks, Rutte recognized President Donald Trump's role in initiating dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"He is the one who broke the deadlock with Putin. When he became president in January, he started these discussions with Putin, and he was the only one who was able to do this. This had to happen. A direct dialogue between the American president and the president of the Russian Federation."

However, Rutte admitted that subsequent peace talks in Istanbul involved Russia sending a less serious delegation, leading to the conclusion that "we are not there yet, and that means that in the meantime you have to make sure that Ukraine has what it needs to stay in the fight."

Despite some perceived divergences in approach between NATO and the U.S. regarding peace talks, Rutte insisted on the American administration's commitment to the conflict's importance.

"The American administration completely takes the view and shares it with the Europeans that this war in Ukraine is crucial for the defense of NATO territory going forward and that we have to make sure that Ukraine is in the strongest possible position to stop the Russians from taking more territory, and that when it comes to a cease-fire or, even better, a peace deal, that Ukraine with some help will be able to prevent Putin from ever attacking Ukraine again in the future."

Trump says Putin ‘wants to keep killing people,’ signals US may send Patriots to Ukraine

“It just seems like he wants to go all the way and just keep killing people. It’s not good,” U.S. President Donald Trump said.

The Kyiv IndependentTim Zadorozhnyy

President Volodymyr Zelensky described his recent phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump as "the best conversation in all this time" in an evening address on July 5.

"Patriot (missiles) are key to protection from ballistic (missiles). We discussed several other important issues that our teams will work out in detail at meetings in the near future," Zelensky said.

The two leaders spoke on July 4, agreeing to strengthen Ukraine's air defenses amid intensified Russian strikes, Zelensky said earlier.

A day prior to speaking with Zelensky, Trump held a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin in an effort to discuss ending Russia's war against Ukraine.

"This was probably the best conversation in all this time, it was maximally productive. We discussed the topic of air defenses. I am grateful for the readiness to help," Zelensky said, describing his phone call with Trump.

Relations between Ukraine and the U.S. have previously been strained as the White House pushed Kyiv to sign a lucrative bilateral minerals deal and tried to broker a peace deal with Moscow that did not rule out major concessions for Ukraine.

Zelensky's phone call with the U.S. leader followed media reports and announcements from Washington of a pause in military assistance to Ukraine. Trump, on July 3, denied that Washington has stopped supplying weapons to Kyiv.

Trump described his July 3 conversation with Putin as disappointing, saying that the call "didn't make any progress" in stopping Russia's war against Ukraine.

"I'm very disappointed with the conversation I had today with President Putin," Trump told journalists. "Because I don't think he's there. And I'm very disappointed.  I don't think he's looking to stop this fighting."

Russia launches another horrific attack on Kyiv hours after Trump-Putin call

Ripe cherries and apricots fill the stalls of fruit vendors, while people bustle about on a scorching July Friday. Yet just a five-minute walk from the stand, the scene shifts dramatically: a gaping hole mars the five-story residential building where the stairwell once stood. Rescuers tirelessly sift through the

The Kyiv IndependentKateryna Hodunova

U.S. Air Force General Alexus G. Grynkewich assumed command as the 21st Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) on July 4 during a ceremony at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte presided over the handover, commending outgoing U.S. Army General Christopher G. Cavoli for his contributions to modernizing NATO's collective defense and bolstering support for Ukraine.

Rutte highlighted Cavoli's efforts to strengthen NATO’s presence in the Baltic Sea in response to threats to critical undersea infrastructure and credited him with conceiving and establishing NATO’s new command in Germany to enhance assistance to Ukraine. He also noted Cavoli's role in refocusing the Alliance on collective defense following the 2022 Madrid Summit, where NATO adopted a new Strategic Concept in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Cavoli played a central role in developing and securing approval for NATO’s regional defense plans at the 2023 Vilnius Summit—a significant overhaul of the Alliance’s military posture since the Cold War.

His tenure also included the integration of Finland and Sweden into NATO’s military structures, expanding the Alliance’s strategic reach. In 2024, Cavoli oversaw "Steadfast Defender," NATO’s largest military exercise since the Cold War, involving approximately 90,000 troops practicing large-scale reinforcement across the eastern flank and validating a new high-readiness force model.

Rutte specifically acknowledged Cavoli's leadership in rapidly reinforcing NATO's Baltic Sea presence during threats to underwater infrastructure and for establishing the NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU), which continues to support Ukraine.

The secretary general welcomed General Grynkewich, noting that, as a former fighter pilot, he brings "a deep understanding of the threats we face from the skies, and across other domains." Rutte added that Grynkewich’s recent role as Director of Operations of the Joint Staff provides him with broad experience in advancing military and security priorities amid global challenges.

Allied Command Operations—responsible for planning and executing all NATO operations—now falls under General Grynkewich's command, a position first held by General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Russia launches another horrific attack on Kyiv hours after Trump-Putin call

Ripe cherries and apricots fill the stalls of fruit vendors, while people bustle about on a scorching July Friday. Yet just a five-minute walk from the stand, the scene shifts dramatically: a gaping hole mars the five-story residential building where the stairwell once stood. Rescuers tirelessly sift through the

The Kyiv IndependentKateryna Hodunova

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unilaterally halted a weapons shipment to Ukraine on July 2 despite internal military assessments showing the aid would not compromise American military readiness, NBC News reported on July 4, citing three U.S. officials.

The pause in aid, which included critical air defense systems and ammunition, reportedly caught the State Department, members of Congress, Ukraine, and key European allies off guard.

Ukraine suffered one of the largest attacks on July 4, with President Volodymyr Zelensky calling for more air defense to protect civilians in the cities. The attack on Kyiv killed one person and injured 23 more.

A senior U.S. military review had concluded that while some munitions stockpiles, including precision weapons, were low, they had not fallen below critical thresholds, according to NBC. Despite this, Hegseth opted to stop the shipment. This is reportedly his third such move since February.

"We are not at any lower point, stockpile-wise, than we’ve been in the three-and-a-half years of the Ukraine conflict," Congressman Adam Smith the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said. Smith, who said his staff reviewed the Pentagon's figures, called the justification "disingenuous."

The shipment reportedly included dozens of Patriot interceptors, 155 mm artillery rounds, Hellfire missiles, guided missile systems (GMLRS), Stinger and AIM air-to-air missiles, and grenade launchers.

Two sources told NBC that some of the weapons had already been loaded onto trucks in Poland when the halt was ordered.

Zelensky recently called Patriot systems "real defenders of life," since Patriot missile systems are the best air defense in Ukraine's arsenal. They are considered to be the most effective measure against Russian ballistic missiles like Iskander and Kinzhal.

‘Major casualties among civilians’ — US freeze on air defense missiles is terrible news for Ukraine

The halting of deliveries of air defense missiles from the U.S. will lead to“major casualties among civilians,” a deputy commander in Ukraine’s air defense told the Kyiv Independent. Politico reported on July 1 that the U.S. Defense Department (DOD) had halted shipments of some weapons previously

The Kyiv IndependentKollen Post

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell described earlier the decision as part of a broader "capability review" to ensure U.S. forces remain equipped.

The halt has initiated debate over the future of U.S. support for Ukraine.

Lawmakers from both parties, including Republican Congressman  Michael McCaul, expressed frustration at the lack of advance notice. "Now is the time to show Putin we mean business," McCaul wrote on X.

Republican Congressman Joe Wilson also reacted to the halt, warning of its consequences amid Russia's ongoing strikes.  

"As Americans begin to enjoy the sounds of fireworks in celebration of our Nation's Independence, war criminal (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, who is losing his pathetic war, resorts to scorched earth tactics across Ukrainian cities that predate Moscow's existence," Wilson wrote.

Wilson said he is "confident the Department of Defense will advance President Trump’s objectives stated at The Hague to send additional air defense and approved weapons to help stop this absolute depravity, as allies have and must continue doing at a rapid pace."

Republican Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick  has requested an emergency White House briefing, warning the decision could cost lives.

Trump has denied that the U.S. paused shipments on July 3, contradicting both Pentagon confirmation and reporting.

"We haven't," Trump told a reporter. "We're giving weapons." He also claimed the Biden administration had "emptied out our whole country" and insisted Washington must prioritize its own defense.

‘Nothing but terror and murder’ — Russia pounds Kyiv with record overnight drone, missile attack, 1 dead, 23 injured

Fires broke out across the city as Russia attacked the capital overnight on July 4. At least 23 people have been injured, with 14 of the victims hospitalized.

The Kyiv IndependentKateryna Hodunova

President Volodymyr Zelensky called for more air defence for Ukraine after a massive drone and missile attack on Ukraine's capital overnight on July 4.

According to Zelensky, as U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin were talking on the phone on July 3, air raid sirens blared across Ukraine.

"Moreover, the first air raids in our cities and regions began yesterday almost simultaneously with the start of media discussions of President Trump's phone call with Putin," Zelensky wrote.

"This was one of the most large-scale air attacks – deliberately massive and cynical... Russia is once again demonstrating that it is not going to end the war and terror."

The overnight attack struck Kyiv and several other regions, injuring at least 23 people and setting off dozens of fires in Ukraine's capital. Russian forces launched more than 550 aerial weapons, including over 330 Iranian-type Shahed drones and multiple types of missiles, including ballistic missiles, Zelensky said.

Kyiv was the main target. Ukraine's military said it shot down 270 aerial threats, while 208 additional drones were jammed by electronic warfare. Interceptor drones also downed dozens more, Zelensky said, calling their growing use a key defense priority.

Zelensky stressed the need for continued and increased military aid from allies, especially air defenses. "Patriots and their missiles are real defenders of life," Zelensky said. "It is very important to maintain the support of partners in ballistic missile defense."

Despite Russia's escalating attacks and Ukraine's desperate need for air defense munitions, the U.S. has decided to halt shipments of Patriot missiles and other promised weapons to Kyiv, claiming it needs to secure its own stockpiles.

Beyond Kyiv, strikes also hit the Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, and Kyiv oblasts, according to Zelensky. Fires and damage were reported in nearly every district of the capital, including residential buildings, schools, medical facilities, and railway infrastructure.

Local authorities described the night as "terroristic." Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported fires in at least five districts. Air quality in the city remained dangerously poor by morning, as noted by the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

Meanwhile, Russian state media reported that during the Trump-Putin call, Putin reiterated his determination to continue pursuing the Kremlin's goals in Ukraine, despite mounting international calls for a ceasefire.

Zelensky called on Ukraine's allies, particularly the United States, to apply massive and immediate pressure on Russia. "We need to ensure that for every such attack on people and lives, they (Russia) feel the corresponding sanctions and other blows to their economy, their earnings, their infrastructure," he said. "Only this can bring faster change."

Ukraine scrambles to clarify extent of US military aid pause and ‘whether everything will continue’

When the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) halted the transfer of critical air defense missiles and other weapons to Ukraine, Kyiv and its partners were caught off-guard and are now left scrambling for clarity on the scope and length of the Trump administration’s decision. The White House confirmed the halt after a July 1 report by Politico said shipments were paused due to concerns over the size of domestic stockpiles. The decision “was made to put America’s interests first following a DOD rev

The Kyiv IndependentAndrea Januta

U.S. President Donald Trump brushed off a reporter's question on July 3 about pausing weapons deliveries to Ukraine, claiming Washington is "giving weapons" to Kyiv.

The Pentagon previously confirmed that the U.S. has already halted some military aid shipments to Ukraine in order to conduct what it calls a "capability review" of its own stockpiles.

"Why did you pause weapons shipments to Ukraine?" a reporter asked Trump as the president prepared to board Air Force One.

"We haven't," Trump replied. "We're giving weapons."

Trump then offered a contradictory answer, saying the U.S. is "trying to help" Ukraine while also claiming that former U.S. President Joe Biden depleted the country's weapons stocks with military aid to Kyiv and that Washington must defend its own interests.

"But we've given so many weapons — but we are giving weapons, and we're working with (Ukraine), we're trying to help them," Trump said.

"But we haven't... You know, Biden emptied out our whole country giving them weapons and we have to make sure that we have enough for ourselves."

Trump then asked the reporter which media outlet he represented.

"The New York Times," the journalist said.

"Ah, no wonder," Trump replied.

Ukraine scrambles to clarify extent of US military aid pause and ‘whether everything will continue’

When the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) halted the transfer of critical air defense missiles and other weapons to Ukraine, Kyiv and its partners were caught off-guard and are now left scrambling for clarity on the scope and length of the Trump administration’s decision. The White House confirmed the halt after a July 1 report by Politico said shipments were paused due to concerns over the size of domestic stockpiles. The decision “was made to put America’s interests first following a DOD rev

The Kyiv IndependentAndrea Januta

Reports that the U.S. had suddenly paused some weapons shipments — including deliveries of desperately needed air defense missiles — left officials in Kyiv scrambling for answers. Trump's response provides little clarity and even less reassurance to Ukrainians facing increasingly deadly Russian missile attacks night after night.

The decision to halt the shipments "was made to put America's interests first following a (U.S. Defense Department) review of our nation's military support and assistance to other countries across the globe," White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement after Politico broke the story on July 1.

The Washington Post later reported that a shipment of U.S. weapons, including advanced air defense systems and precision missiles, was halted in Poland where it was awaiting delivery to Ukraine.

U.S. State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce, like Trump, insisted that the U.S. was not pulling support from Ukraine.

"This is not — I will reinforce this — this is not a cessation of us assisting Ukraine or of providing weapons," Bruce told reporters at a briefing.

"This is one event in one situation, and we'll discuss what else comes up in the future. But be wary of painting too broad a brush there."

Trump's remarks about the weapons shipments followed an update on his July 3 phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"We had a call. It was a pretty long call. We talked about a lot of things," he said.

Their conversation brought the Kremlin no closer to agreeing to a ceasefire, according to Trump.

"No, I didn't make any progress with (Putin) today at all," he said.

Ukraine war latest: Putin tells Trump Russia won’t back down from its war aims in Ukraine

Key developments on July 3: * Putin tells Trump Russia won’t back down from its war aims in Ukraine * Deputy commander of Russian Navy killed in Ukrainian strike in Kursk, Russian official confirms * Ukraine signs major drone co-production deal with US Swift Beat, Zelensky announces * Russia targets Ukrainian conscription offices to disrupt mobilization, military spokesperson says after Poltava attack * ‘One of Russia’s most critical targets’ — Ukraine confirms strike on missile battery pl

The Kyiv IndependentThe Kyiv Independent news desk

U.S. weapons already in Poland en route to Ukraine have been halted, including advanced air defense systems and precision missiles, the Wall Street Journal reported on July 2.

The Pentagon confirmed the halt in a July 2 briefing, citing an ongoing "capability review" aimed at ensuring U.S. military assistance "aligns with its strategic defense priorities."

The shipment in Poland includes over two dozen PAC-3 Patriot missiles, more than two dozen Stinger air-defense systems, Hellfire air-to-ground missiles, and over 90 AIM air-to-air missiles intended for use with Ukraine's F-16 fighter jets, according to U.S. administration and congressional officials cited by the Wall Street Journal.

"We see this as a common-sense, pragmatic step towards having a framework to evaluate what munitions are sent and where," Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said.

The decision has sparked backlash from both sides of the political aisle in Washington. Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, called the pause "unacceptable," while Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal labeled it "fallacious and maybe even disingenuous."

The pause comes at a critical moment for Ukraine, which faces intensified Russian missile and drone strikes. On June 29, Russia launched the largest aerial assault against Ukraine since the start of its full-scale invasion in February 2022, targeting civilian infrastructure and cities far beyond the frontline.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, speaking on July 2, emphasized the urgency of continued Western support for Kyiv. "I totally understand that the U.S. always has to make sure its interests are covered," he said. "But in the short term, Ukraine cannot do without all the support it can get."

The Pentagon has not provided a timeline for when the held-back shipments might resume.

‘Major casualties among civilians’ — US freeze on air defense missiles is terrible news for Ukraine

The halting of deliveries of air defense missiles from the U.S. will lead to“major casualties among civilians,” a deputy commander in Ukraine’s air defense told the Kyiv Independent. Politico reported on July 1 that the U.S. Defense Department (DOD) had halted shipments of some weapons previously

The Kyiv IndependentKollen Post

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell confirmed on July 2 that some military assistance to Ukraine has been halted as the U.S. Defense Department conducts a review of foreign aid deliveries.

"This capability review... is being conducted to ensure U.S. military aid aligns with our defense priorities... We see this as a common-sense, pragmatic step towards having a framework to evaluate what munitions are sent and where," Parnell said.

The White House earlier confirmed the pause in shipments, citing a broader reassessment of U.S. military stockpiles amid media reports of the halt in military assistance.

The weapons reportedly being held back include two dozen Patriot air defense missiles, over two dozen Stinger air-defense systems, precision artillery rounds, Hellfire missiles, drones, and more than 90 AIM air-to-air missiles launched from F-16 fighter jets.

New U.S. military aid packages have not been approved since U.S. President Donald Trump was inaugurated in January, raising concern among Ukraine's allies.

"Ultimately, our job here at the Department of Defense is to pursue the president's 'America First' agenda and make sure that we achieve peace through strength throughout the world," Parnell said at a Pentagon press briefing.

The U.S. Defense Department will not provide updates on the timeline and quantity or type of munitions provided to Ukraine, he added.

"What we've done here at the Department of Defense is create a framework to analyze what munitions we're sending (and) where," Parnell said.

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers has voiced their opposition to the decision to halt military aid shipments to Ukraine.

"We must build up our own Defense Industrial Base here in the U.S. while simultaneously providing the needed assistance to our allies who are defending their freedom from brutal invading dictators. To not do both is unacceptable," Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, the co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, said.

Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, described the military aid pause as "fallacious and maybe even disingenuous."

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on July 2 that he understands the White House's need to safeguard its own defense capabilities, but underscored that Ukraine urgently requires sustained support.

"I totally understand that the U.S. always has to make sure its interests are covered... When it comes to Ukraine, in the short term, Ukraine cannot do without all the support it can get," Rutte said.

The Washington Post reported that the military aid was already in Poland, being prepared for delivery to Ukraine.

‘Major casualties among civilians’ — US freeze on air defense missiles is terrible news for Ukraine

The halting of deliveries of air defense missiles from the U.S. will lead to“major casualties among civilians,” a deputy commander in Ukraine’s air defense told the Kyiv Independent. Politico reported on July 1 that the U.S. Defense Department (DOD) had halted shipments of some weapons previously

The Kyiv IndependentKollen Post

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers are voicing their opposition to the Trump administration's decision to halt shipments of some air defense missiles and other weapons previously promised to Kyiv.

The U.S. Defense Department (DOD) made the decision to pause the aid deliveries after conducting a review of U.S. munitions stocks, reportedly concerned about dwindling levels of artillery rounds, air defense missiles, and precision munitions.

Among the items being held back from Ukraine are over two dozen Patriot air defense missiles, over two dozen Stinger air-defense systems, precision artillery rounds, Hellfire missiles, drones, and more than 90 AIM air-to-air missiles that Ukraine launches from F-16 fighter jets. The Washington Post reported that the weapons were already in Poland being prepped for delivery to Ukraine.

Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, the co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, lambasted the decision in a post on X.

Fitzpatrick, a staunch ally of Ukraine who has previously visited the front line, said he "will be aggressively looking into this matter and will be demanding accountability."

"We must build up our own Defense Industrial Base here in the U.S. while simultaneously providing the needed assistance to our allies who are defending their freedom from brutal invading dictators. To not do both is unacceptable," the Congressman added.

In a letter to U.S. President Donald Trump about the reported halt of air defense deliveries, Fitzpartick requested an emergency briefing from the White House and DOD on the shipments.

"Ukraine's courage must continue to be met with action, and the United States must continue to lead with clarity and purpose," Fitzpartick wrote.

Another Republican House member, Rep. Michael McCaul, said he is examining "very intensely" whether the Pentagon’s freeze breaches legislation on aid to Ukraine passed in 2024, Politico reported.

As Trump continues to call for a ceasefire from Moscow, McCaul said that the decision comes "at the wrong time."

"If you want to get (Russian President Vladimir Putin) to the negotiating table in good faith, you have to put leverage and pressure on him, and that would be (Senator) Lindsey Graham’s economic sanctions and the flow of weapons," McCaul said. "If you take the flow of weapons out, yeah, then you’re not, you don’t have the leverage over Putin to negotiate."

Other Republican members of Congress have thus far dismissed concerns over the reported halts, stating that they are waiting to be briefed with additional information before speaking about the reports.

On the other side of the isle, Democratic lawmakers have also lambasted the real world implications of halting military aid for Ukraine.

Senator Richard Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in an interview that more civilians are "going to lose more lives, more people will be maimed and injured — more homes, hospitals, schools will be destroyed," calling the decision, "fallacious and maybe even disingenuous."

Since his inauguration in January, Trump has not approved any additional military aid packages for Ukraine. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also announced recently that the U.S. will reduce the total aid it sends to Ukraine in its upcoming defense budget.

In his evening address on July 2, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian and U.S. officials are working through the aid issue at a "working level," including discussions on critical air defense support. Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak held a late night phone call with Rep. Brian Mast, Chair of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Ukraine's Defense Ministry said it has not received any formal notification of delays or cancellations but has requested urgent consultations with U.S. defense officials.

The Foreign Ministry also summoned U.S. Charge d'Affaires John Ginkel, warning that "any hesitation" in military support would encourage further Russian aggression.

The Kremlin welcomed the decision, with spokesperson Dmitry Peskov saying, "The fewer weapons that are supplied to Ukraine, the closer the end of the (war)."

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte expressed understanding of Washington's desire to safeguard its stockpiles but said, "Ukraine cannot do without all the support it can get."

Ukraine war latest: As Russia ramps up missile attacks, US halts promised air defense shipments to Ukraine

Key developments on July 2: * As Russia ramps up missile attacks, US halts promised air defense shipments to Ukraine * North Korea to send up to 30,000 more troops to aid Russia’s war against Ukraine, CNN reports * Ukraine denies another Russian claim of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast breakthrough, says small incursion repelled

The Kyiv IndependentThe Kyiv Independent news desk

The United States' reported decision to suspend some arms deliveries to Ukraine could help bring Russia's war in Ukraine to an end, the Kremlin said on July 2, according to Russian state-controlled media.

"The fewer weapons that are supplied to Ukraine, the closer the end of the... (Russia-Ukraine war)," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Peskov's comments came after Politico reported that the U.S. Defense Department has paused shipments of key air defense and precision munitions to Ukraine over concerns about declining U.S. stockpiles.

Among the withheld items are Patriot air defense missiles, precision artillery rounds, Hellfire missiles, and other munitions used by Ukraine's F-16 fighter jets.

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry summoned U.S. Charge d'Affaires John Ginkel on July 2 to voice concern over the reported pause in weapons shipments.

Deputy Foreign Minister Mariana Betsa warned during the meeting that "any delay or hesitation in supporting Ukraine's defense capabilities will only encourage Russia to continue war and terror, rather than pursue peace."

According to Politico, Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby ordered the halt in June following a review of U.S. ammunition levels. The White House confirmed the decision, saying it was part of a broader reassessment of American military aid to foreign partners.

As US aid to Ukraine dries up, new platform connects Americans investors with Ukrainian startups

Ukraine’s startup ecosystem has tripled in five years, even during Russia’s full-scale invasion, to become the second most valuable in Central and Eastern Europe at $28 billion.

The Kyiv IndependentDominic Culverwell

"(The decision) was made to put America's interests first following a DOD review of our nation's military support and assistance to other countries across the globe," White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement.

The move comes as Ukraine faces intensifying Russian attacks. In June, Russia launched a record 5,337 Shahed-type attack drones at Ukrainian targets, the highest monthly total since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The U.S. has not approved any new military aid packages after U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has also signaled that future U.S. defense budgets will reduce the scale of assistance to Ukraine.

At a NATO summit in The Hague in late June, Trump said Washington was considering whether it could help provide more Patriot missiles to Kyiv but emphasized that U.S. and Israeli needs take precedence.

"They are very hard to get. We need them too," Trump said after meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The Kremlin has long argued that Western arms shipments to Ukraine only prolong the conflict and raise the risk of escalation, while continuing to attack Ukrainian cities and advance on the battlefield.  

Smashing previous monthly record, Russia launches 5,337 kamikaze drones against Ukraine during June

Russia launched a record 5,337 Shahed-type drones against Ukraine in June, according to data from the Ukrainian Air Force and Dragon Capital, smashing the previous record of 4,198 set in March. Russia’s bombardments, a fact of life after three years of full-scale war, have intensified dramatically in May

The Kyiv IndependentYuliia Taradiuk

A person claiming to be a Russian officer said he had received an order to open fire at an aerial target last December that turned out to be an Azerbaijani airliner, Azerbaijani news outlet Minval reported on July 1, citing audio and a written statement it had received.

An Embraer 190AR plane operated by Azarbaijan Airlines crashed in Kazakhstan on Dec. 25, 2024, after coming under fire over Grozny, Chechnya. Thirty-eight people were killed.

Azerbaijani authorities laid blame on Russia, with an investigation pointing to a Russian Pantsir-S1 air defense system mistakenly targeting the plane amid a reported Ukrainian drone attack.

Minval wrote it had received three audio recordings, an anonymous letter, and an explanatory note by a man signed as Captain Dmitry Paladichuk, a Russian air defense crew captain who claims to have relayed the order to shoot down the plane.

In the purported explanatory note, Paladichuk said he had no reliable means of communication with the Russian military command other than a cell connection. A radar detected a target at 8:11 a.m. local time, after which Paladichuk was reportedly ordered to destroy the aircraft — which was not visible due to thick fog — over the phone.

The captain claimed that after the first projectile missed the target, he had given the order to fire again. Paladichuk did not explicitly name the Azerbaijani flight in his explanatory letter.

Minval wrote that it could not confirm the authenticity of the written statement but could do so for the three leaked voice messages, which also confirmed the command to shoot down the plane and the subsequent damage.

Russian independent news outlets Agentstvo and the Insider confirmed Paladichuk's identity as an air defense officer who served in various units, including the 14th Army of the Air Force and Air Defense in Novosibirsk.

The Insider also wrote that the note appears to be authentic, and pointed out that the speed of the plane, revealed in the leaked materials, shows that the Russian command must have known the target was not a drone.

The incident led to a public clash between Azerbaijan and Russia, otherwise close political and economic partners. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev accused Moscow of suppressing evidence and criticized his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, for not openly admitting guilt.

Putin offered condolences for the incident taking place in the Russian airspace, but stopped short of admitting Russian responsibility.

New details of the case emerge just as Russian-Azerbaijani relations sour yet again. Over 50 Azerbaijanis were detained as part of a murder investigation in Yekaterinburg on June 27, two of whom died in custody.

Baku called their deaths "ethnically motivated" and "unlawful" killings. A few days later, Azerbaijani authorities raided an office of the Russian propaganda outlet Sputnik in Baku, detaining who they say are Russian spies.

Iran summons Ukraine’s envoy, warns of ‘consequences’ over comments on Israeli, US strikes

Highlighting Iran’s support for Russian aggression against Ukraine, Kyiv has previously called for the dismantling of the Iranian nuclear program to prevent it from threatening the Middle East or the wider world.

The Kyiv IndependentMartin Fornusek

Former Russian Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov was sentenced on July 1 to 13 years in a penal colony after being found guilty of corruption—the toughest sentence so far in a string of graft investigations involving high-level defense officials.

Authorities detained Ivanov in April 2024 on bribery allegations, later adding embezzlement charges in October. Over a dozen individuals, including two other former deputy ministers, have been implicated in separate investigations.

The trial was held behind closed doors due to national security concerns. Ivanov’s co-defendant, Anton Filatov, a former logistics company executive, received a 12.5-year sentence. According to state media, the embezzled amount totaled 4.1 billion roubles ($48.8 million), largely funneled through bank transfers to two foreign accounts.

Ivanov pleaded not guilty. The court stripped him of all state honors and ordered the confiscation of property, vehicles, and cash worth 2.5 billion roubles. Reports in Russian media described his and his wife’s assets, including a luxury apartment in central Moscow, a three-storey English-style mansion outside the city, and a high-end car collection featuring brands such as Bentley and Aston Martin.

Prominent Russian war correspondents known as "Z-bloggers" have publicly condemned the corruption exposed within the defenae sector, especially as the war in Ukraine continues. One of them, Alexander Kots, acknowledged that 13 years is a long sentence but argued that corrupt  officials should face trial during wartime as "traitors to the Motherland."

Since 2016, Ivanov oversaw large logistics contracts at the defence ministry, including those tied to property, housing, and medical support.

He served under Sergei Shoigu, who was replaced as defence minister last year but remains influential as the secretary of Russia’s Security Council. Authorities have also arrested two of Shoigu’s other former deputies in separate cases. In April, a court sentenced Lieutenant-General Vadim Shamarin, the former deputy head of the army’s general staff, to seven years for accepting bribes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The wave of prosecutions reflects what appears to be President Vladimir Putin’s effort to address corruption, inefficiency, and waste in Russia’s expansive military budget, which accounts for 32% of federal spending this year.

Ukraine’s new interceptor UAVs are starting to knock Russia’s long-range Shahed drones out of the sky

Russia’s Shahed drone swarms are pummeling Ukraine on a nightly basis, inflicting ever more death and destruction in cities that had managed to carve out some sense of normalcy amid wartime. Civilian alarm has grown. With traditional air defense stockpiles running low, the government is banking on newly created

The Kyiv IndependentKollen Post

The U.S. Defense Department (DOD) has halted shipments of some air defense missiles and other weapons previously promised to Kyiv out of concerns over the size of U.S. stockpiles, Politico reported on July 1, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The suspension comes as Ukraine faces a shortage of air defense munitions along with increasingly intense and deadly Russian bombardments. In June 2025, Russia launched 5,337 Shahed-type drones at Ukraine, shattering its previous monthly record.

Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby made the decision to pause the aid deliveries after conducting a review of U.S. munitions stocks, three sources told Politico. Colby was reportedly concerned about dwindling levels of artillery rounds, air defense missiles, and precision munitions.

Among the items being held back from Ukraine are Patriot air defense missiles, precision artillery rounds, Hellfire missiles, drones, and other missiles that Ukraine launches from F-16 fighter jets.

Colby made the decision in June, amid a surge in Russian mass aerial attacks against Ukraine. The White House later confirmed the pause.

The Pentagon's decision "was made to put America's interests first following a DOD review of our nation's military support and assistance to other countries across the globe," White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement issued after Politico published the story.

"The strength of the United States Armed Forces remains unquestioned — just ask Iran," she said.

Since his inauguration in January, U.S. President Donald Trump has not approved any additional military aid packages for Ukraine. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also announced recently that the U.S. will reduce the total aid it sends to Ukraine in its upcoming defense budget.

At the NATO summit in The Hague in late June, Trump said he would "see" if the U.S. could supply Kyiv with additional missiles for its Patriot systems.

Want to invest in Ukrainian startups from the US? This platform promises to be the bridge

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The Kyiv IndependentDominic Culverwell

"They (Ukraine) do want to have the anti missiles, as they call them, the Patriots, and we're going to see if we can make some available," he said after meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky.

"They are very hard to get. We need them too. We are supplying them for Israel, and they are very effective."

But according to a source who spoke to Politico, plans to reduce and redirect air defense munitions and other weapons for Ukraine have been in the works for months. The administration is looking to redirect artillery shells, tank shells, and air defense systems to Israel or back to Washington.

"They have proposed repeatedly since March to pause the shipments," the person said.

Colby, the reported architect of the decision, has previously advocated for reducing U.S. military assistance to Ukraine to prioritize deterrence efforts in Asia.

Russia on June 29 launched the largest missile and drone attack against Ukraine since the start of its full-scale war.

Ukraine’s new interceptor UAVs are starting to knock Russia’s long-range Shahed drones out of the sky

Russia’s Shahed drone swarms are pummeling Ukraine on a nightly basis, inflicting ever more death and destruction in cities that had managed to carve out some sense of normalcy amid wartime. Civilian alarm has grown. With traditional air defense stockpiles running low, the government is banking on newly created

The Kyiv IndependentKollen Post

North Korea is already using Russia Pantsir S-1 air defense systems in Pyongyang, Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR), said in an interview with Hromadske Radio on July 1.

The arrival of Pantsir missiles is another sign that North Korea is improving its weapons technology and military might through cooperation with Russia. The two nations signed a defense treaty in June 2024, and North Korea has supplied arms and troops to Moscow in exchange for training and advanced military technology.

"I can tell you that, for example, the first Pantsir S-1 installations have already appeared in Pyongyang," Budanov told Hromadske Radio.

"They are already on combat duty there, guarding their capital. And the Russians are retraining Korean personnel, and soon the Koreans will be working autonomously on this technology."

The Pansir S-1 is the same air defense system Russia uses to guard its military-industrial facilities. It carries an estimated price tag of around $15 million.

North Korea is "currently significantly increasing its military power" through direct cooperation with Russia, Budanov said. It benefits from Russia's ongoing technology transfers and the "real combat experience" personnel gained by fighting alongside Russian troops against Ukraine.  

Budanov also said Ukraine expects "a significant increase" in the number of North Korean citizens in Russia. Some of these citizens will sign up for the Russian military, making it seem less like an official transfer of North Korean personnel and more like voluntary registration from invidivual citizens.

The day before Budanov's comments, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un publicly honored his country's soldiers who were killed fighting in Russia's war against Ukraine. The ceremony coincided with a visit by Russian Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova, illustrating the deepening military alliance between Moscow and Pyongyang continues.

Russia has also reportedly provided North Korea with advanced electronic warfare systems, helped the country build modern warships, and improved its KN-23 ballistic missiles.

In June, Budanov said that Moscow has agreed to assist Pyongyang in mass-producing Shahed-type attack drones.

Russia-Iran alliance wavers as Tehran suffers major blows

Tehran, Russia’s main ally in the Middle East, has been dealt a heavy blow as Israel dismantled its network of proxies and then struck targets in Iran. The recent Iranian-Israeli war, which ended with a ceasefire on June 24, showed that the regional balance of power has shifted in Israel’s favor. This could have a major impact on Russian-Iranian relations as Moscow will have to recalibrate its approach to the region. Russian-Iranian cooperation is likely to continue but Iran’s ability to help

The Kyiv IndependentOleg Sukhov

President Volodymyr Zelensky and German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul met in Kyiv on June 30, where the two leaders discussed Germany supplying additional IRIS-T air defense systems, joint weapons production, and strengthening sanctions against Russia, Zelensky said.

Wadephul earlier said Germany is working with its defense industry, European allies, and the U.S. to secure more air defense systems for Ukraine.

"We are going down every path available... The German defense industry is trying to expand its capacity. We're speaking with our European partners, and I believe we must also move forward with the United States," he said.

Zelensky met with executives of German defense companies alongside Wadephul during the visit to Ukraine's capital.

"We discussed sanctions pressure on Russia, the potential for supplying new IRIS-T systems, and joint weapons production — both in Ukraine and in Germany," Zelensky said in a post to social media.

Zelensky noted Germany signalled it believes that Ukraine's future is in NATO amid Russia's war against Ukraine.

"We will continue to develop relevant military hubs and increase the presence of German companies in Ukraine. We had an in-depth discussion on interceptor drones. I am grateful for the willingness to help," Zelensky said.

Earlier in the visit, Wadephul noted that he remains in close contact with German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius to assess whether existing systems from Germany's own stockpiles can be redirected to Ukraine.

Loss of Ukraine lithium deposit to Russia won’t impact minerals deal, says investor

Russian troops have taken over the site of one of Ukraine’s most valuable lithium deposits near the village of Shevchenko, Donetsk Oblast, as Russia ramps up its summer offensive. While Ukrainian troops control territories near the site, the deposit is now under Russian occupation, Roman Pohorilyi, founder of open-source

The Kyiv IndependentDominic Culverwell

Norway will send F-35 fighter jets to Poland in the fall to protect the Rzeszow-Yasenka airport, one of the key transportation hubs for NATO military aid to Ukraine, Norwegian Defense Ministry announced on June 30.

The news came as Russia has escalated attacks against Ukrainian cities over the past weeks, launching record 400-500 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) per night.

Norway is thus strengthening its contribution to NATO's air and missile defense, while the main goal of the mission is to support the protection of Polish airspace and a key logistics center for assistance to Ukraine, the statement read.

"This is a vital contribution. We are helping ensure that support to Ukraine reaches its destination, and that Ukraine can continue its fight for freedom," Norwegian Defense Minister Tore Sandvik said.

The Rzeszow-Jasionka airport is located less than 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the Ukrainian border and transports a significant percentage of Western materiel bound for the front lines in Ukraine. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that 90% of aid for Ukraine was going through the airport in Rzeszow as of Novermber 2024.

It is also a main stopover point for foreign leadership traveling to Kyiv on official visits.

In January, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced that Berlin will deploy the promised Patriot air defenses around the Polish airport to protect it.

Smashing previous monthly record, Russia launches 5,337 kamikaze drones against Ukraine during June

Russia launched a record 5,337 Shahed-type drones against Ukraine in June, according to data from the Ukrainian Air Force and Dragon Capital, smashing the previous record of 4,198 set in March. Russia’s bombardments, a fact of life after three years of full-scale war, have intensified dramatically in May

The Kyiv IndependentYuliia Taradiuk

Editor's note: The previously published footage, provided by an SBU source, was allegedly related to a different operation and was deleted after the mistake was identified.

Drones operated by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) struck the Kirovske military airfield in occupied Crimea overnight on June 28, the SBU told the Kyiv Independent.

The attack destroyed Mi-8, Mi-26 and Mi-28 attack helicopters, and a Pantsyr-S1 self-propelled anti-aircraft missile and gun system, the SBU claimed.

According to the SBU, Ukraine targeted Russian aviation, air defense systems, as well as ammunition, reconnaissance and attack drones storage facilities.

Secondary explosions were heard at the airfield during the night.

The Kyiv Independent could not verify these claims.

As Russia intensifies aerial attacks on Ukraine and the civilian death toll climbs, Ukraine has stepped up its drone attacks on Russian territory too.

Earlier on June 27, Ukrainian drones struck four Su-34 fighter jets at the Marinovka airfield in Russia's Volgograd Oblast, according to the military.

Preliminary reports indicate that two Russian fighter jets were destroyed in the June 27 attack, and the other two were damaged. Russia uses the aircraft to bomb Ukraine.

Since the start of its full-scale war in February 2022, Russia has lost 420 airplanes and 337 helicopters, Ukraine's General Staff said in its latest update on June 28. The Kyiv Independent could not verify these figures.

Ukraine war latest: Ukrainian drones reportedly strike 4 fighter jets in Russia

Key developments on June 27: * Ukraine war latest: Ukrainian drones reportedly strike 4 fighter jets in Russia * North Korea deployed 20% of Kim’s elite ‘personal reserve’ to fight against Ukraine in Russia, Umerov says * Pro-Palestinian activists reportedly destroy military equipment intended for Ukraine * Zelensky signs decree to synchronize Russia sanctions

The Kyiv IndependentThe Kyiv Independent news desk

Ukrainian drones struck air defense equipment in Russian-occupied Crimea, damaging radar units and components of the S-400 Triumph system, Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR) claimed on June 26.

The drone strike was carried out by the agency's "Ghosts" unit, HUR said. Video footage of the operation published on HUR's official Telegram channel shows the trajectory of multiple drones as they approach and hit their targets.

The attack damaged "critical and expensive components" of Russia's S-400 Triumph air defense system, including two 92N2E multifunctional control radars, two 91N6E detection radars, and an S-400 launcher, according to HUR.

"Radars are the 'eyes' of the enemy's air defense system. Without them, anti-aircraft systems become combat ineffective," HUR wrote.

The Kyiv Independent could not verify these claims.

Earlier this month, the Atesh partisan group reported that a Ukrainian drone attack hit Russian military facilities near Simferopol. The group claimed on June 13 that Ukrainian drone attacks likely hit a Russian air defense system.

Ukraine has previously carried out successful attacks on S-400 radar systems in Crimea and other regions, including Russia's Belgorod Oblast. Kyiv regularly launches strikes on military and industrial targets in both Russia and Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine.

Russia has illegally occupied Crimea since 2014, transforming the peninsula into a heavily militarized stronghold. Moscow uses the region to support its war in Ukraine, launching missiles from the Black Sea and exploiting the peninsula as a key logistics and transport hub.

The Kerch Airport in Crimea has also been repurposed from civilian to military use, with Moscow-backed proxies transferring part of the airport's land to the Russian Defense Ministry in spring 2025, according to an investigation by Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe.

Ukraine war latest: Russia’s advance in Sumy Oblast ‘halted’; Kyiv, Moscow carry out POW swap

Key developments on June 26: * “50,000 Russian troops pinned down” — Ukraine halts advance in Sumy Oblast, summer offensive “faltering,” Syrskyi says * Ukraine, Russia conduct new POW swap under Istanbul deal * North Korea likely to send more troops to Russia by August, South Korea says * Explosions reported in Moscow, Russia

The Kyiv IndependentThe Kyiv Independent news desk

Editor's note: This is a developing story and is being updated.

Explosions were reported in Moscow overnight on June 26, prompting airport closures, with Russia's Defense Ministry claiming 50 Ukrainian drones were downed across the country.

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said emergency services were at the sites where two drones were downed.

According to the Shot Telegram channel, which appears to be close to Russian security forces, debris from a downed drone struck a residential building.

"Alarms went off everywhere," a local resident told the channel.

Ukraine's military regularly strikes military targets deep within Russia in an attempt to diminish Moscow's fighting power as it continues its war against Ukraine.

Russia's Defense Ministry later claimed 50 Ukrainian drones had been downed across the country, two of which were "flying towards Moscow."

The Kyiv Independent could not independently verify these claims.

Kaluga airport and Moscow's Vnukovo airport had flight restrictions imposed amid the drone attack, Artyom Korenyako, a spokesperson for Russia's state aviation agency Rosaviatsia, said early on June 26.

"The airport is temporarily not accepting or sending flights. Aircraft crews, air traffic controllers, and airport services must take all necessary measures to ensure flight safety," he said.

The restrictions were later lifted.

Putin insists the Russian economy is fine, but Kremlin officials say otherwise

In a rare public sign that all is not well in Russia, two high-ranking Moscow officials last week issued separate warnings about the state of the country’s economy. Russian Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina and Economy Minister Maxim Reshetnikov both highlighted that amid the Kremlin’s full-scale war against Ukraine, the tools Moscow once relied on to maintain wartime growth are nearly exhausted. Almost immediately, Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 20 dismissed the concerns, clai

The Kyiv IndependentTim Zadorozhnyy

Ukrainian drones have forced at least 217 temporary airport closures across Russia since Jan. 1, independent Russian outlet Novaya Gazeta Europe reported on May 14, citing data from Russia's state aviation agency Rosaviatsia.

The figure already surpassed the combined total for all of 2023 and 2024, underscoring Kyiv's growing ability to put pressure on Russia, even in areas far from the border with Ukraine.

According to Serhii Bratchuk, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Defense Army's Southern Division, the surge in disruptions reflects a strategic shift in Ukraine's drone campaign.

"Moscow is the biggest aviation hub in the Russian Federation — flights go everywhere, not only across Russia, but worldwide," he told the Kyiv Independent last month.

"This is about the potential disintegration of Russian regions and the weakening of internal control."

Ukraine has also had remarkable success using first person view (FPV) drones — on June 1, Ukraine launched a game-changing drone attack on four key Russian military airfields, damaging 41 planes, including heavy bombers and rare A-50 spy planes.

Kyiv claimed it disabled 34% of Russia's strategic bomber fleet in what is seen as one of the most daring operations during Russia's full-scale war.

Ukraine war latest: US signals more Patriot missiles for Kyiv after Zelensky-Trump talks at NATO summit

Key developments on June 25: * Zelensky, Trump hold talks on NATO summit sidelines * ‘Something unknown’ hits key Russian drone facility in Taganrog, Ukrainian official says * Russia has launched over 28,000 Shahed drones at Ukraine since 2022, with nearly 10% fired in June alone, Zelensky says * Donetsk Oblast city “on

The Kyiv IndependentThe Kyiv Independent news desk

Washington will "see" whether it can supply Kyiv with additional missiles for its Patriot air defense systems, U.S. President Donald Trump said during the NATO summit in The Hague on June 25 as Russia escalates its air strikes against Ukraine.

"They (Ukraine) do want to have the anti missiles, as they call them, the Patriots, and we're going to see if we can make some available," Trump said.

"They are very hard to get. We need them too. We are supplying them for Israel, and they are very effective."

After the meeting with Trump earlier in the day, Zelensky said that the two discussed the purchase of American air defense systems to shield Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure.

In recent weeks, Moscow has intensified its drones and missiles strikes. As NATO leaders gathered for the summit, Russia launched an attack on the city of Dnipro, killing at least 19 people and injuring more than 300 others.

"Ukraine is ready to buy this equipment and support American weapons manufacturers. Europe can help. We also discussed the potential for co-production of drones. We can strengthen each other," Zelensky added.

Previously, despite Kyiv's appeals, Trump has dismissed the request, accusing Ukraine's president of "always looking to purchase missiles" and falsely blaming Ukraine for provoking the war.

The Patriot is a high-precision, U.S.-made surface-to-air missile platform capable of intercepting aircraft, cruise missiles, and ballistic threats. Zelensky has repeatedly said Ukraine needs at least seven more systems to defend its most at-risk regions.

In early June, he confirmed that Trump's administration diverted 20,000 anti-drone missiles originally intended for Ukraine to American forces in the Middle East.

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Moscow has launched 28,743 Shahed-type drones at Ukraine — with 2,736, or roughly 9.5%, fired in June 2025 alone, Zelensky said.

‘It’s possible’ — Trump on Putin’s territorial ambitions beyond Ukraine

“I consider him (Russian President Vladimir Putin) a person I think is misguided,” U.S. President Donald Trump said speaking at a NATO press conference in The Hague on June 25.

The Kyiv IndependentKateryna Denisova

Editor's note: This story was updated with comments made by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

NATO member states have agreed to a new defense spending benchmark, committing to allocate 5% of their gross domestic product annually to defense and security-related expenditures by 2035, according to a joint statement released on June 25 by alliance leaders meeting in the Netherlands.

The decision marks a significant increase from the current 2% guideline and reflects the alliance's response to the push from the U.S. and growing security threats, particularly the long-term challenge posed by Russia.

"We remain united and steadfast in our resolve to protect our one billion citizens," the statement reads. "Allies commit to invest 5% of GDP annually on core defense requirements as well as defense and security related spending."

"The decision we make today makes NATO much stronger. It also makes NATO a much fairer alliance, with Europe and Canada stepping up," NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said during a briefing on June 25.

Unlike in previous years, this year's NATO statement does not include a direct condemnation of Russia's actions, unlike the communique issued during the 2024 NATO summit in Washington, which explicitly condemned Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

But the leaders reaffirmed support for Ukraine, stating that direct contributions to Ukraine's defense and industrial capacity will be counted toward the 5% total.

When asked by a journalist whether the current trajectory of military aid from allies could help Ukraine "not only survive but win the war," Rutte said he is "optimistic."

"You can safely assume that the trajectory in the first almost six months now is really north of last year's," he said. "By the end of the year, it will end up north over $50 billion, which was pledged in 2024. I'm optimistic about that, but I won't make a concrete prediction."

He emphasized the importance of sustained and long-term support.

"We have to make sure Ukraine can stay in the fight, that it has what it needs... But we're also working to secure peace deal or a long-term ceasefire. And then we have to make sure that Ukraine has what it needs to prevent (Russian President) Vladimir Putin from effort ever trying this again in the future,” Rutte said.

Trump says Zelensky is a ‘nice guy,’ will discuss ‘his difficulties’ during meeting at NATO summit

“Obviously we’ll be discussing his difficulties, he’s got a little difficulty,” U.S. President Donald Trump said.

The Kyiv IndependentAnna Fratsyvir

Rutte added that part of the strategy includes supporting Ukraine's defense industrial base, which has an estimated $35 billion in spare capacity.

Rutte emphasized that NATO's immediate priority is to "keep (Ukraine) in the fight," noting that support includes "training, delivering military equipment, but also various streams of money going into Ukraine" to help it defend itself and lay the groundwork for a future peace deal or long-term ceasefire.

Politico earlier reported that the narrowed focus of the NATO summit in The Hague was designed to appease U.S. President Donald Trump.

"(Trump) has to get credit for the 5% — that's why we're having the summit," one unnamed European defense official told Politico.

Under the new framework, at least 3.5% of GDP will be directed toward core defense needs, including NATO capability targets, with the remaining 1.5% covering civil preparedness, infrastructure protection, innovation, and the defense industrial base.

Allies will submit annual plans outlining a credible path to reach the targets, with a mid-term review scheduled for 2029.

Trump has consistently accused NATO members of underfunding their militaries, pushing for raising defense spending target to 5% of GDP.

In 2024, only 23 alliance members met the 2% target, according to NATO estimates. Poland was ahead of all members with 4.12% of GDP allocated to defense, followed by Estonia (3.43%) and the U.S. (3.38%).

Rutte previously said on June 17 that all NATO countries are on track to meet the 2% threshold in 2025.

With Trump disengaged and EU complacent, Ukrainian reforms lose momentum

Russia’s all-out war has accelerated Ukraine’s push to join the European Union and NATO, as well as its dependency on Western loans and aid. Before, these things would have been heavily preconditioned on Ukraine implementing crucial reforms. However, the war has also eased the pressure on Kyiv to carry out

The Kyiv IndependentOleg Sukhov

The U.K. has used interest generated from frozen Russian assets to purchase weapons for Ukraine, buying 350 air defense missiles worth £70 million ($87 million), The Guardian reported on June 25.

The move represents the U.K.'s first direct use of Russia-linked funds to buy weaponry for Kyiv.

The weapons purchase was funded through Britain's Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration (ERA) scheme, which captures interest from frozen Russian central bank assets.

According to The Guardian, the missiles, originally designed as air-to-air weapons, were converted by RAF engineers and MBDA UK in just three months to fire from ground-based systems.

Five additional Raven launcher systems will accompany the missiles to Ukraine, bringing the total to 13.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the package ahead of NATO's annual summit.

"Russia, not Ukraine, should pay the price for Putin's barbaric and illegal war," he said.

The package is part of Britain's largest-ever annual military commitment to Ukraine of £4.5 billion ($5.6 billion), the Guardian reports.

It follows a £1.6 billion ($2.0 billion) deal in March for over 5,000 air defense missiles and a separate £350 million ($436 million) investment to increase drone deliveries tenfold.

The announcement comes as Starmer and President Volodymyr Zelensky agreed to work closely on military production between the UK and Ukraine. On June 24, Ukraine's Defense Minister Rustem Umerov announced that Britain will finance Ukrainian-designed drones manufactured in the UK.

European countries cannot fully confiscate the frozen Russian assets due to concerns about international law and financial stability. The European Central Bank warned that such a move could undermine confidence in the euro as a reserve currency, since most of the assets are euro-denominated.

Instead, only the interest generated from these funds is currently being used to back a $50 billion loan package for Ukraine, while the principal amount of 300 billion euros ($348 billion) remains frozen but not seized.

In June, Ukraine received another 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) from the EU as part of the G7 loan program backed by frozen Russian assets, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced.

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Moscow has launched 28,743 Shahed-type drones at Ukraine — with 2,736, or roughly 9.5%, fired in June 2025 alone, President Volodymyr Zelensky said during a speech to the Dutch Parliament in The Hague.

Speaking on June 24, he stressed that Russia would never have been able to carry out such  drone attacks without support from Iran, and Ukraine, in turn, could not have intercepted most of the drones without the help of its international partners.

Zelensky called for accountability and emphasized that rules must apply to all — including the Kremlin: "Putin pretends not to understand the rules that shape the modern world. And here, in The Hague, I want to say this very clearly to him: There is a rule — do not kill. There is a rule — do not treat people like beasts. There is a rule — do not destroy cities and villages. There is a rule — do not sponsor terror. There is a rule — do not steal children. And if you break these rules, you will be held accountable."

According to Zelensky, these principles — though difficult for Russia to grasp — form the foundation of international norms, from the UN Charter to Europe’s shared vision of life.

To achieve lasting peace, Zelensky outlined two key strategic priorities. First, he called for maximum isolation of Russia which includes full political isolation, comprehensive sanctions, and the termination of any cooperation that allows Russia to survive and continue waging war.

"Every loophole that allows them to keep going must be closed. We need a strong 18th EU sanctions package. We need tough, painful sanctions on Russian oil. Every reduction in Russia’s oil revenue helps bring peace closer," he said.

Investigation: How Russia prepares its strategic missile plant for ‘eternal war’

Key findings: * Despite international sanctions, Russia’s strategic missile plant was able to import complex machinery to dramatically increase missile production. * The Kyiv Independent has identified the equipment supplied to the plant, as well as the supply chains, mostly from China. * We located the plant’s new premises, built to house the

The Kyiv IndependentAlisa Yurchenko

Zelensky argued that the most effective step would be imposing a $30-per-barrel price cap on Russian oil exports.

“The world must reach this threshold — not just to help stop Russia’s war against us, but to prevent any future military operations that Russia might launch against Europe and the Alliance,” he said. “Military plans must become prohibitively expensive for Russia. We must fully block their tanker fleet and cut them off from international banking. That’s what works.”

Second priority, according to Zelensky, is the need for stability in defense support. "Russia must see that Ukraine will not be left alone, and that Europe will not back down."

President Donald Trump refused to give a clear commitment to NATO’s Article 5 — the alliance’s collective defense clause — as he departed for a pivotal summit in The Hague, raising fresh concerns about his stance on one of NATO’s core principles.

When pressed by reporters aboard Air Force One on whether he would uphold the mutual defense obligation, Trump replied, “It depends on your definition of Article 5,” adding, "There’s numerous definitions of Article 5. You know that, right? But I’m committed to being their friends, you know, I’ve become friends with many of those leaders, and I’m committed to helping them."

Although Article 5 is central to NATO’s security framework, Trump has previously expressed skepticism about honoring it, often criticizing member states for not contributing enough to shared defense efforts.

Asked to elaborate, he said, "I’m committed to saving lives. I care about life and safety." He added that he would explain his position in full once at the summit: "I’ll give you an exact definition when I get there — I just don’t want to do it from the back of a plane."

Trump’s remarks come as NATO faces what its leadership describes as its most significant threat in decades.

At a press briefing on June 23, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said Russia remains the primary danger to the alliance, citing its growing alignment with China, North Korea, Iran, and Belarus.

"Moscow continues to wage war against Ukraine, with support of North Korea, Iran, and China, as well as Belarus," Rutte said.

He added that NATO leaders plan to adopt a "historic" defense investment plan at the June 24–25 summit in The Hague, including a new 5% of GDP benchmark for defense spending and stronger backing for Ukraine.

"All leaders will take bold decisions to strengthen our collective defense, making NATO a stronger, fairer, and more lethal alliance," Rutte said. “This is a leap that is ambitious, historic, and fundamental to securing our future.”

While at the summit, Trump is also set to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky, the White House confirmed on June 24.

Their last meeting was in April at Pope Francis' funeral, amid concerns over the U.S. role in peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow. Details of the June 25 meeting are still being finalized, but the talks are expected in the "early afternoon," a source told AFP.

Investigation: How Russia prepares its strategic missile plant for ‘eternal war’

Key findings: * Despite international sanctions, Russia’s strategic missile plant was able to import complex machinery to dramatically increase missile production. * The Kyiv Independent has identified the equipment supplied to the plant, as well as the supply chains, mostly from China. * We located the plant’s new premises, built to house the

The Kyiv IndependentAlisa Yurchenko