Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on June 29 that Washington has lifted sanctions that hindered the expansion of the Paks Nuclear Power Plant, where Russia's state-owned energy company Rosatom is to build two new reactors.

"Construction of the major pieces of equipment for the Paks nuclear plant is proceeding in Russia and France," Szijjarto said, as cited by Bloomberg.

"On-site in Paks, construction can now proceed at a faster pace."

The expansion project, which has endured significant delays, is led by Rosatom and will add to the four active reactors.

The anti-Russian sanctions were imposed by former U.S. President Joe Biden's administration. The U.S. has not reacted to Szijjarto's comments so far.

Since returning to the Oval Office in 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump has tried to push Russia and Ukraine into peace talks to end the war at all costs and has not yet imposed additional sanctions on Russia for its ongoing war against Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Russia has found loopholes to circumvent sanctions, such as using its shadow fleet or relying on other financial mechanisms.

Hungary's Energy Minister Csaba Lantos said in 2023 that he expects the Paks II to be finished in 2032.

Vladyslav Vlasiuk, the Ukrainian president's commissioner for sanctions, said the situation with the expansion of the nuclear plant is "much more complicated." He accused the Hungarian foreign minister of "manipulation."

Vlasiuk explained in a Facebook post that Paks faces a sanctions exemption from the EU. The U.S. has not lifted the sanctions, though there is a new licence that offers the possibility of conducting transactions related to civilian nuclear energy that began prior to November 2024.

EU fails to adopt new Russia sanctions due to Hungarian, Slovak opposition, source says

Unlike Ukraine-skeptic Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Slovakia has not previously attempted to block EU sanctions.

The Kyiv IndependentKateryna Hodunova

President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree to withdraw from the Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel mines, a step that follows the Baltic nations and Poland's move to boost their defense as the war rages on in Ukraine.

The 1997 treaty, joined by over 160 countries, bans the use, production, stockpiling, and transfer of anti-personnel landmines in efforts to protect civilians from the scattered explosives that could still injure them long after the conflict is over.

"Russia has never been a party to this convention and uses anti-personnel mines extremely cynically," Zelensky said in justifying the decision. "And not only now, in the war against Ukraine. This is the signature style of Russian killers — to destroy life by all methods at their disposal.

Earlier in March, the Baltic states and Poland announced their intention to withdraw from the Ottawa Convention, a significant shift in defense policy that shows how countries near Ukraine are preparing for a potential war in Europe.

Anti-personnel mines are scattered across the battlefield in Ukraine, with soldiers and civilians often losing their feet or limbs due to detonations. Territories liberated by Ukraine since 2022 have been heavily covered with mines, making it extremely difficult and dangerous to clear them. Russia has used more than a dozen variants of anti-personnel mines since it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, according to Human Rights Watch's June report.

In a surprise move that angered Moscow, the Biden administration in 2024 approved the provision of anti-personnel mines to Ukraine. Then Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said it was to help Ukraine stall the Russian advances in the east as the front-line situation deteriorated.

"This is a step that the reality of war has long demanded," lawmaker Roman Kostenko, secretary of the parliament's defense committee, said in the Facebook post announcing a significant move forward in withdrawing from the major mine treaty.

Now that Zelensky signed the decree enacting the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, it will land on the parliament's table, Kostenko said. The dates when the decision will take effect are still unclear.

Russia revives obsolete T-62 tanks amid equipment shortages, Ukraine’s intel claims

“The key factors limiting the ability to produce modern armored vehicles in Russia are a lack of industrial capacity and a shortage of imported high-tech components,” Ukraine’s military intelligence said.

The Kyiv IndependentKateryna Denisova

A lieutenant colonel flying a U.S.-made F-16 fighter jet was killed during the overnight aerial strike while on duty, the Air Force said on June 29.

Russia launched a "massive" missile and drone strike across Ukraine early on June 29, unleashing 537 aerial targets, including 477 drones and 60 missiles, according to the Air Force..

Maksym Ustymenko, born in 1993, was killed after shooting down seven aerial targets, the Air Force said in a statement. The Air Force added that his aircraft was damaged while he was trying to shoot down the last one, losing altitude and crashing.

"Maksym Ustymenko did his best to take the plane away from the settlement, but did not have time to eject," the Air Force said on Telegram, honoring that he died "like a hero."

"The work of Ukrainian pilots is extremely dangerous and risky, both when striking enemy ground targets and repelling air attacks," the Air Force added, saying that the F-16 pilots destroy dozens of Shahed-type drones.

In his evening address, President Volodymyr Zelensky posthumously awarded Ustymenko with the Hero of Ukraine award.

"Today, he was killed defending our skies and our people from yet another massive Russian attack... It is painful to lose people like him," Zelensky said in offering condolence to loved ones.

Russia has intensified its aerial campaign on Kyiv and other cities over the past month. Zelensky said that Russia has launched over 2,700, or roughly 9.5%, of the total number of Shahed-type drones deployed during the entire full-scale war in June alone.

Though well protected with Western air defense systems compared to other cities, Kyiv has also faced a number of deadly attacks in June, with the June 17 missile and drone strike on Kyiv killing 30.  

The Air Force said that Ukraine had to use "all available means" to repel the Russian aerial attack overnight on June 29, including elite F-16 jets.

Ukraine received its first batch of F-16 jets in the summer of 2024, but it has not revealed many details about how and where they are used in operations since they are a high-priority target for Moscow. Their pilots have received months of training abroad.

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

Russia has lost around 1,018,940 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces reported on June 29.

The number includes 1,220 casualties that Russian forces suffered just over the past day.

According to the report, Russia has also lost 10,976 tanks, 22,915 armored fighting vehicles, 53,508 vehicles and fuel tanks, 29,689 artillery systems, 1,425 multiple launch rocket systems, 1,189 air defense systems, 420 airplanes, 337 helicopters, 42,624 drones, 28 ships and boats, and one submarine.

Ukrainian drone strike on Crimea air base destroys 3 Russian helicopters, SBU claims

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 Security Service of Ukraine told the Kyiv Independent.

The Kyiv IndependentKateryna Denisova