Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York said that Dr. Abdul El-Sayed’s close victory in the Michigan Senate primary put “working-class Americans back at the heart of our politics.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York last month at Gracie Mansion in Manhattan. Mr. Mamdani was asked on Wednesday about similarities between him and Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, who won Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary.
The pro-Israel organization spent $32 million in an unsuccessful effort to defeat Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary. It might try again in the general election.
Tim Balk joins Natalie Kitroeff on “The Call” from Michigan, where he attended the election night watch party of the Democratic Senate primary candidate Abdul El-Sayed. Mr. Balk spoke to supporters of the progressive Democrat as they waited for results in a closer-than-expected race.
Abdul El-Sayed’s Senate candidacy poses a critical challenge for Democrats’ ascendant progressive wing: Can an insurgent candidate, with unabashedly liberal positions, win a general election in a moderate state?
Dr. Abdul El-Sayed narrowly prevailed over Representative Haley Stevens in the Democratic primary for Senate in Michigan, setting up a nervy race to November for the party.
Dr. El-Sayed, a progressive former public health official, narrowly defeated Representative Haley Stevens, a moderate, in a bitter primary dominated by the politics of Israel.
Dr. Abdul El-Sayed pushed Israel to the center of the Democratic Senate primary in Michigan, criticizing the country’s actions in Gaza and promising to pull back American military support.
Ukraine has publicly shown off a homemade air-defense weapon that turns American anti-tank missiles into a drone-killer, The Defence Blog reported. The launcher stacks spare parts from three countries onto an ordinary military truck. It hands Ukraine a cheaper way to knock down the Russian attack drones that hit its cities.
Ukraine has become a proving ground for cheap air defense, forced there by a Russian bombing campaign that leans on mass and low cost. Then what works over Ukrainian cities is increasingly getting copied abroad.
Three countries' parts, one Ukrainian drone-killer
Ukraine's 302nd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade released an official video of the weapon, called STASH. Clips had leaked online for months, but this is the first time the military has shown it openly.
High-quality images of another variant of Ukraine's STASH short-range air defense system, this time mounted on a DAF YA 4442 truck and operated by the 302nd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade.
The STASH system can carry up to four AGM-114L Longbow Hellfire missiles for engaging UAVs.… pic.twitter.com/ewCiLHoJlj
The build is a patchwork. The missile is American. The radar comes from RADA, an Israeli maker of defense electronics. The truck is a Dutch DAF, a type that the Netherlands has long supplied to Ukraine. Crews bolted them together into a single launcher.
Why a tank missile now hunts drones
The missile at the core is the Hellfire, built to punch through tanks and armored vehicles when fired from helicopters. Ukraine repurposed it to shoot things out of the sky instead.
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Not just any Hellfire, though. This is the radar-guided Longbow version (AGM-114L), not the common laser-guided one. After launch, the missile picks out its target and stays on it without further help from the crew. The crew does not have to keep pointing anything at the drone. They can fire without staying locked in place to guide the missile. The Israeli radar spots small, low-flying drones that slip past standard air-defense sets.
What it can and can't do
The weapon reaches about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). That makes it a short-range system, built to guard one specific site rather than cover wide stretches of sky the way Patriot batteries do.
The STASH air defense system mounted on a truck chassis. Ukraine, August 2026. Screenshot from a video by the 302nd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade.
It is built to stop Russia's Shahed and Geran attack drones—including the newer jet-powered versions that now fly too fast for Ukraine's cheap interceptor drones to chase down. What it cannot reach are Russia's cruise and ballistic missiles, which travel much faster still.
The cost math behind the welding
A single Patriot interceptor runs into the millions of dollars. A Shahed-type drone sets Russia back just a few tens of thousands of dollars, and it launches them in swarms of hundreds during a single night. Trading costly missiles for cheap drones is a losing exchange, and it drains Ukraine's limited stock of interceptors.
STASH is how Ukraine tries to rebalance those numbers. It leans on anti-tank missiles that are cheaper and more available than purpose-built interceptors, carried on plain trucks rather than the permanent emplacements a full battery demands. Ukraine has been chasing cheaper ways to stop drones for a while now.
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Not the first improvisation
STASH is not brand-new. It draws its missile and radar from a prior system, Tempest, built by the American contractor V2X and reportedly already flying with Ukraine's Air Force. Footage of Tempest downing drones at night surfaced in January 2026. STASH appears to strip that idea down, swapping the buggy-style chassis for a simpler truck or trailer launcher—less mobile, but cheaper to run and better for guarding fixed sites.
Ukraine has welded mismatched gear together like this before, pairing donated missiles with whatever launchers and trucks it can find.
Minister says PM has agreed to meet victims of sex offender – and is mulling separate inquiry into Mohamed Al Fayed
Andy Burnham is considering launching a public inquiry into the UK activities of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a minister has said.
The victims’ minister, Alex Davies-Jones, said the prime minister had agreed to meet Epstein’s victims, was “looking into” an inquiry and was “taking this very seriously”. A separate inquiry into the alleged actions of the former Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed is also being considered.
The progressive Democrat has consistently had large leads over Representative Haley Stevens, despite debates about which candidate will be more electable in November.
Representative Haley Stevens has been backed by tens of millions of dollars, much of it from pro-Israel groups and hidden donors. Her rival, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, has tried to make that support a liability.
Representative Haley Stevens, the moderate candidate in the Democratic primary for Senate in Michigan, benefited from about $62 million in advertising from half a dozen outside groups.
A changing climate is helping to fuel the growth of a gigantic blob of foul-smelling seaweed that has washed up in some coastal communities. Mexico is fighting back.
Mourners gathered at Azadi Square in Tehran last month, holding flags during the funeral procession for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader killed by an airstrike at the beginning of the U.S.-Iran war in February.
The deal would address President Trump’s most urgent political problem by allowing ships to move again. But it would give Iran strategic leverage it did not have before the war.
Ships in the Strait of Hormuz seen from Musandam, Oman, in June. An emerging deal, if it happens, would reopen shipping traffic in the strait, according to Iranian and U.S. officials.
Ukraine is teaching its Shahed-hunting drone to see its target with French artificial intelligence. The Ukrainian interceptor group "General Cherry" and French firm Alta Ares have signed a memorandum to integrate AI guidance into the BULLET anti-Shahed interceptor, General Cherry announced.
The partnership pairs a combat-proven Ukrainian interceptor with Western AI. General Cherry recently received a US invitation to the Drone Dominance Program, a $1.1 billion effort to select unmanned-systems suppliers for testing and contracts to meet US defense needs, per the War Department.
The AI keeps the target locked without GPS
The collaboration integrates two Alta Ares systems into the front-line interceptor. Pixel Lock guides the drone onto the target in the terminal phase, and Cyclop C2 guides it along the flight route, and both hold the target using computer vision and fused data from several sensors, even without a GPS signal.
That matters against Russia's jamming. An interceptor that tracks its target by vision rather than radio or satellite signal cannot be defeated by the electronic warfare Russia uses to break the control links of guided drones, which is the core problem in shooting down fast, evasive Shaheds.
Alta Ares brings NATO backing and fresh funding
The French firm arrives with a track record against exactly these threats. Alta Ares develops AI systems for the defense sector and autonomous air-intercept tools. It also won a NATO tender in spring 2025 for solutions to counter glide and guided aerial bombs, and opened an office in Ukraine that summer to work with Ukrainian developers, according to Militarnyi.
The deal runs Ukrainian combat experience into global defense
General Cherry has framed the partnership as a step toward joint work on a global security architecture informed by Ukrainian combat experience.
It is the same logic drawing US and NATO programs to Ukrainian drone-makers, the combat record that no peacetime range can produce.
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Analysts and lawmakers are trying to divine whether Mr. Trump’s latest announcement means negotiations with Iran will truly get underway Monday or if the president is just working through unappealing options.
President Donald Trump aboard Air Force One on Sunday. He said that talks with Iran would begin on Monday and that there could be a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
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Russia killed a warehouse worker at Ukraine's largest online retailer with a guided jet-powered drone. On the morning of 1 August, Russia struck a Rozetka building where 270 people were working at the time with a jet-powered Shahed, targeting company employee Volodymyr Melnychenko and hospitalizing seven others, co-owner Iryna Chechotkina said.
Hitting Rozetka extends a Russian pattern of striking the retail and delivery infrastructure that Ukrainians depend on. Russia has repeatedly struck the sorting centers of Nova Poshta and Ukrposhta, and now the warehouses of Ukraine's largest online store.
The operator aimed at the parking lot
The strike was guided and deliberate, not a stray. Presidential adviser Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov said the target was minibusses parked at the warehouse, which were hit by a jet-powered Geran-4 drone whose operator clearly saw where he was aiming, so there was no error in the strike.
Beskrestnov says the warehouse itself was not the point
The warehouse held nothing worth a missile, and Russia knew it, Beskrestnov stated. The expert, who has tracked Russia's drone tactics throughout, said large warehouses hold no goods, that Russian agents watching the sites know this, and that the decision to launch jet-Shahed strikes is made at a lower level than the choice of targets for ballistic missiles.
Wider perspective
Earlier this month, Ukraine expanded its deep-strike campaign from primarily targeting oil refineries and fuel depots in Russia to also targeting Wildberries' warehouses, Russia's largest e-marketplace. The campaign aims at undermining Russia's wartime economy that sustains the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Ukrainian drones have already destroyed eight warehouses of Wildberries in July, about 15.4% of its storage, according to Euromaidan Press reporting. That campaign was itself Ukraine's answer to years of Russian strikes on Nova Poshta and Ukrposhta depots. The Center for Countering Disinformation said on 27 July that the marketplace was selling goods for the Russian military.
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Russia cannot yet use guided kamikaze drones against the regions in the west of Ukraine because of technical limits on its remote-control system. But activating relays in Belarus could change that and put Lviv, Volyn, and other oblasts at risk, presidential adviser Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov said on the national telethon, Telegraf reports.
Russia's online control system currently works only within a limited range of the border, and the front line, Beskrestnov said, so the "red zone" where drones can be steered in real time does not yet reach the west. If relays in Belarus come online, that zone would expand toward the Belarusian border and cover them.
The warning is concrete because Russia has done exactly this before: it built a network of signal repeaters on Belarusian towers and rooftops that boosted Shahed control signals to reach Kyiv, Rivne, and Volyn oblasts, until Ukraine dismantled it in February 2026.
The Belarus threat is a switch Russia can flip back on
The relay question is not hypothetical. Repeaters in Belarus let Shaheds flying the northern route hit targets across Kyiv, Rivne, and Volyn that Russia struggles to reach from its own soil, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said some strikes on Ukrainian energy and railway sites would not have been possible without that help.
Ukraine has fought to keep it off. After Ukraine tore down the network in February, Kyiv gave Belarusian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka a week to pull Russia's drone relays in June, and they went silent in three days. ISW has assessed that operating Shaheds and cheaper Molniyas from Belarusian territory would put the highway and rail line carrying Polish supplies from the border within precision range, and allow Russian operators to hit moving convoys and trains.
The camera-lock tactic is how a guided Shahed hits a moving train
The reason online control matters so much is a new tactic Russia uses to defeat Ukrainian electronic warfare. Russian guided drones now carry powerful cameras with target-capture capability, Beskrestnov said, allowing them to hit specific moving targets rather than fixed coordinates.
He described how it works. From three kilometers out, the pilot sees a locomotive with his own eyes through the drone's camera, switches on a capture box around it, and a Shahed then automatically controls its own flight and attacks the locomotive, Beskrestnov said. Locking onto the target visually and letting the drone fly itself in for the final approach means the operator no longer needs a continuous control link at the moment of impact, which is part of how the drone gets past jamming. Russia understands that mass attacks are ineffective, Beskrestnov said, and is trying to strike important targets with this new tactic.
In some cases, no direct line can be drawn from the president’s domestic nuclear agenda to his family or close allies. But they have overlapping business ties that could position them for gains.
Russia hit a civilian grain ship, waited, and hit it again. A Russian Shahed drone struck a Palau-flagged vessel carrying corn twice as it left a port in Odesa Oblast, setting it on fire, Ukraine's Minister for Restoration, Infrastructure and Transport Mykola Kalashnyk said. Two sailors are missing, and seven crew members and a Ukrainian pilot were rescued.
The double strike on a grain carrier is the maritime edge of Russia's campaign against Ukraine's food exports. The ship was carrying almost 2,800 tons of corn when it was hit as it left the port, and after the strikes, a fire broke out on board.
The State Border Guard Service, which carried out the rescue, reported that the vessel was leaving the mouth of the Danube bound from a Ukrainian port to Greece with nine crew and a pilot aboard when the Shahed hit it, then struck again, the second blast causing a large fire.
This is a deliberate attack on the civilian shipping that carries Ukrainian grain to world markets, and it fits a Russian campaign that has made ports and merchant ships a target through July.
"Russia continues deliberate attacks on civilian shipping and Ukraine's port infrastructure," Kalashnyk said.
The rescue pulled eight from a burning ship
The border guards' maritime security units rescued eight people after the double drone strike, the State Border Guard Service said. The sailors reacted quickly to the distress signal and evacuated eight from the burning vessel, all delivered to safety, with medics monitoring their condition.
The search continues for two crew members who went into the water after the first blast. The two accounts differ slightly on the totals, as they do in the first hours after any strike: Kalashnyk cited seven crew plus a Ukrainian pilot rescued, while the border guards counted eight evacuated. Both agree that two sailors are missing and a search-and-rescue operation is underway. What is confirmed is that a civilian grain ship was struck twice, caught fire, and lost two of its crew to the sea.
The strike is the maritime front of the grain war
The attack extends a campaign that has hammered Ukraine's grain export capacity through July.
From 11 to 15 July, Russian strikes hit three Greater Odesa ports and the merchant ships anchored there, cutting the region's grain-export capacity by roughly a third, according to Reuters. Odesa's ports carry more than 90% of Ukraine's agricultural exports.
A mural commemorating Iran’s former supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Tehran. Since a deal between the United States and Iran was signed last month, nearly all of its provisions have been violated.
Ukraine's latest drone hunter is a surplus European naval helicopter
The nine Sea Kings in or bound for Ukraine are stable, capacious and cheap to operate
That makes them good platforms for launching small interceptor drones
The Ukrainian navy's tiny fleet of donated Westland Sea King helicopters appears to have a new mission: hunting Russian Geran drones.
Aviation reporter H.I. Sutton was the first to note the new mission, when he spotted a specially equipped Sea King on the ground at the Farnborough Air Show in the United Kingdom this week.
The 1970s-vintage Sea King had new equipment: an under-fuselage railing for small interceptor drones. Ukrainian forces use the inexpensive interceptors to chase down and take down Russia's Geran one-way attack drones. Some of the remote-controlled interceptors feature A.I.-assisted targeting and pack tiny explosive charges. Others are strictly manually controlled and knock down their targets through the sheer force of impact.
Regardless of the details of their designs, interceptors costing just a few thousand dollars apiece have helped Ukrainian air defenders blunt the impact of the thousands of Gerans, drones modeled after Iranian-made Shaheds, that Russia launches at Ukrainian cities every month. Air defenders typically take out around 90% of incoming Gerans.
But interceptor drones come with limitations. They're powered by batteries that exhaust themselves after just a few minutes of flight. And they are prone to being blinded by bad weather and low clouds. To prolong the interceptors' flights and get them above the rain and clouds, Ukrainian forces have begun using manned aircraft to loft the interceptors into the air before launching them.
The Sea King, it seems, is Ukraine's latest interceptor drone carrier. While the helicopter Sutton spotted at Farnborough was unmarked, it's likely one of six Sea Kings Germany has donated to the Ukrainian war effort. The United Kingdom previously donated three surplus Sea Kings to Ukraine. The Ukrainian navy's sole helicopter unit, the 10th Naval Aviation Brigade, reportedly operates the Ukrainian Sea Kings.
Before now, it seems the Ukrainian Sea Kings strictly flew coastal search and rescue flights in support of Ukrainian ground and naval forces. But there's an obvious need for more air defenses over the Ukrainian coast. Sea Kings hauling interceptor drones under their bellies, and the drones' operators in their cabins, could be just the thing.
Westland Sea King helicopter of Ukraine's Navy. April 2023. Photo: BBC News
Geran killer
The threat: A.I.-assisted Geran drones. Shortly after Ukrainian drone forces began targeting the tankers, dry cargo ships and auxiliaries belonging to the unregistered "shadow fleet," Russian forces retaliated, launching cruise missiles and Gerans at grain ships and infrastructure in Odesa and other ports in southern Ukraine. Over weeks of near-daily port strikes, Russian missiles and drones have repeatedly hit grain carriers and terminals; the deadliest, a cruise-missile strike on the bulk carrier Golden Leo on 19 July, killed 10 of its crew.
An interceptor drone flying around 350 km/h is too slow to hit a cruise missile flying 900 km/h, but all but the fastest jet-powered Gerans are within the targeting envelope of all but the slowest interceptor drones. The problem, of course, is battery life and weather. To stand the greatest chance of hitting the most Gerans, the interceptors should launch from around a thousand meters in the air.
The Sea King is an old helicopter. But it's also reliable, cheap to operate and capacious. A solid platform for drone launches.
And it's part of a widening trend. This spring, Ukrainian forces armed an Antonov An-28 light turboprop transport with interceptor drones, complementing the An-28's existing side-firing gun and giving the lumbering transport great reach during its drone hunts.
As a drone platform, the An-28 apparently works. Well enough, in fact, that Russian forces have copied the concept. A recent video depicts two old Russian warplanes getting the fittings for aerial interceptor drone launch: a Yakovlev Yak-52 turboprop trainer and an Antonov An-2 piston-powered transport.
Like the Ukrainians do, the Russians hang drones under the planes' wings and seat the drones' operators inside the cabin or cockpit. All aerial drone platforms require add-on radios and antennae to connect the seated operators to their interceptors so that the operators can see what the drones see, and steer them to a hit.
If the Sea Kings also work well as drone platforms (and there's no reason they shouldn't), the Ukrainians may well extend the concept to other airframes. Any helicopter, transport or trainer with a reasonable payload and some space in the cabin or cockpit is eligible.
The Sea King is the latest Ukrainian drone hunter, but it's probably not the last.
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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.
Ukraine has a new drone hunter that outclimbs its prey. Ukraine's Defense Ministry codified the Tsyklop interceptor drone, which can rise above the maximum flight altitude of Russian strike and reconnaissance UAVs and destroy them from there.
Ukraine's interceptor lineup has filled fast with systems that compete on speed and cost, and Tsyklop's distinguishing claim is a ceiling higher than what Russia's drones can reach.
It has a wingspan of a little over a meter, stays airborne for nearly 1.5 hours, and comes in two variants: a cheaper, simpler model for slow, low-flying air and ground targets, and a higher-performance version built to catch fast Shaheds at altitude.
The Ministry says the system's range is enough to cover any Ukrainian regional center against drone attacks, and that its V2 variant has already destroyed more than 100 air targets, and was the first to down a Russian Shahed over Kursk Oblast.
The interceptor was developed by a Ukrainian enterprise experienced in building weapons specifically for high-intensity modern warfare, and various Tsyklop modifications have been at the front for several years already, per the Defense Ministry.
Tsyklop already kills full Russian drone catalog
The V2's more than 100 kills span the range of Russian drones Ukraine faces daily: the Gerbera decoy-and-strike drone, the Zala and Supercam and Orlan reconnaissance UAVs, the Lancet loitering munition, and the Molniya. That target list is the point — it means one interceptor is bringing down both the cheap reconnaissance drones that spot for Russian artillery and the Lancets that follow, as well as Shaheds.
Different Tsyklop modifications have been at the front for several years, the Ministry said, so codification formalizes a system already proven in combat rather than introducing an untested one. The cheaper variant handles slow, low targets; the high-performance variant is built for fast Shaheds at altitude.
Tsyklop joins fast-filling interceptor lineup
Tsyklop enters a market that Ukraine has built at speed. The Defense Ministry codified 413 unmanned aerial systems in the first half of 2026, and interceptors are one of the fastest-growing categories.
The competitors each solve the Shahed problem differently. Ukraine's Defense Ministry is procuring 8,000 Octopus interceptors with automatic terminal guidance. Germany funded 15,000 units of the STRILA, which hits 355 km/h and needs no GPS. Wild Hornets' Sting has destroyed more than 600 aerial targets and became the first Ukrainian drone control system approved to NATO standards.
Tsyklop's contribution to that mix is the vertical dimension: a drone that gets above the target rather than chasing it down.
Altitude answers the jet-Shahed problem
The high-flying variant matters because Russia's drones have been getting faster and higher. Russia has fielded jet-powered Geran-4 Shaheds that cruise at 300 to 350 km/h and can burst to 500 to 600, outrunning much of Ukraine's cheaper interceptor fleet.
U.S. President Donald Trump is considering sending Ukraine an additional Patriot air defense system, a move that would mark his administration's first major weapons transfer to Kyiv, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on July 8, citing two defense officials.
The report is the latest in a series of contradictory messages from the Trump White House in recent days regarding military aid to Ukraine. While the Pentagon on July 2 announced a halt in weapons shipments to Kyiv due to dwindling U.S. stockpiles, Trump later claimed he wasn't responsible for the decision and wanted to send more weapons to Ukraine.
A U.S. defense official told the WSJ that Trump has asked the Pentagon to look into options for supplying Ukraine with more arms, including a Patriot air defense system. Officials are also reportedly exploring whether other nations can send Patriots to Kyiv.
The claim dovetails with recent media reports about the administration's plans to bolster Ukraine's air defenses. Axios reported on July 8 that the White House is pursuing a plan to have Germany sell another Patriot battery to Ukraine, with the U.S. and European allies splitting the cost of the purchase. Sources told the outlet that Trump also pledged to send 10 Patriot interceptor missiles to Kyiv.
If the U.S. provides Ukraine with an additional Patriot system, it would mark the first time Trump has approved a major military aid package to Kyiv that wasn't previously greenlighted by former U.S. President Joe Biden.
Washington has thus far provided Kyiv with three Patriots, a former Pentagon official told the WSJ. Germany has also sent three, while a group of European countries provided one. According to the official, not all systems are in use at the same time due to maintenance issues.
The U.S.-made air defense systems are in high demand around the world. Each system consists of two or three launchers, a radar, a command and control element, and interceptor missiles. Patriot missiles are also in short supply globally: Ukraine faces an urgent need for the munitions amid increased Russian aerial attacks, and the Guardian reported on July 8 that even the U.S. has only 25% of the interceptors required by its defense readiness plans.
According to one of the officials who spoke to the WSJ, the U.S. military would be able to supply an additional Patriot to Ukraine if ordered by the White House.
Ukraine has synchronized its sanctions against Russia with the last three packages of economic penalties imposed by the European Union, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on July 8.
"Three more packages of EU sanctions are fully effective in Ukraine," Zelensky said in his evening address.
Earlier on July 8, the president announced a new round of sanctions, including restrictions on five Chinese-registered companies accused of supplying components found in Russian Shahed-type drones used to attack Ukraine.
Vladyslav Vlasiuk, Zelensky's sanctions commissioner, told reporters on July 8 that the latest decrees bring Ukrainian penalties in line with the EU's 15th, 16th, and 17th packages of sanctions against Russia.
The 15th package targets individuals from Russia, Belarus, and China, among other countries, according to Vlasiuk. It includes the Russian pilot Alexander Azarenkov, who was involved in the deadly attack on the Okhmatdyt children's hospital in Kyiv. Zelensky signed the sanctions decree on the one-year anniversary of the strike.
The 16th package includes individuals from Russia, China, Turkey, and other nations. It also targets the Voin Center, Russia's military-patriotic education organization operating in occupied Ukrainian territories, and Pivdennyi Flot LLC, which transports Russian oil via its "shadow fleet," Vlasiuk said.
The 17th package designates firms from Russia, China, Turkey, and other countries, including the gold-mining company Petropavlovsk and the Chinese company Skywalker Technology Co. Ltd, produce drone parts for Russia.
The EU is expected to approve its 18th package of sanctions against Russia later this week, after facing opposition from pro-Kremlin bloc members Slovakia and Hungary.
Ukraine has taken measures to coordinate sanctions with international partners in order to amplify pressure on Moscow. Zelensky on June 27 signed a decree to synchronize Ukraine's sanctions against Russia with those imposed by the EU and Group of Seven (G7).
The European Commission is discussing with EU member states various options to cover Ukraine's budget deficit for next year, which could range from $8 billion to $19 billion, the Financial Times reported on July 8.
International partners have provided Ukraine with over $39 billion for its wartime economy so far this year, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced.
The financial hole in Ukraine's budget is linked to reduced U.S. support and the lack of prospects for a swift ceasefire with Russia that Europe had hoped for, the Financial Times reported.
A senior EU official told the publication that many of Ukraine's partners had previously counted on a peace deal in 2025, but are now forced to revise their funding plans.
This includes the European Commission, which has already adjusted spending from Ukraine-related funding streams.
Without support from Western partners, Kyiv would face a budget deficit of $19 billion in 2026, according to the Financial Times. However, even if additional international financing for the wartime economy can be secured, a gap of at least $8 billion would remain.
To support Ukraine's budget, Europe is considering providing military aid in the form of off-budget grants that would be recorded separately as external transfers but would count toward NATO member countries' national defense spending targets.
One EU diplomat told the Financial Times that military support for Ukraine is viewed as a contribution to the defense of all of Europe.
In a document for G7 countries reviewed by Financial Times, Kyiv proposed that European allies co-finance Ukrainian forces, framing this as a service to strengthen continental security.
Other support options under discussion include potentially accelerating payments from the existing $50 billion G7 loan program and reinvesting frozen Russian assets in higher-yield financial instruments that the EU allocated to help service the debt.
According to the Financial Times, two sources confirmed that the commission planned to discuss these options with EU finance ministers on July 8.
The funding issue will also be raised at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Rome on July 10-11, dedicated to Ukraine's reconstruction needs. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will attend the event.
Connexion
