“We’re standing as we did before, and we will keep standing.” Talks about peace or Russia’s capitulation are illusions, says military pilot Dmytro, callsign Apostol, Voiin Svitla reports. 

“If the aggressor country capitulates, it means huge reparations. No one will pay them,” he emphasizes.

Dmytro stresses that the Ukrainian army is strong due to the work of the rear, volunteers, and funds. But support has fallen critically now.

“We are raising five million for four army aviation brigades. Donations have critically dropped. No one wants to support,” explains the Ukrainian pilot. 

He emphasizes that the soldiers are not tired but need reinforcements.

“My guys and I are not tired. But we don’t need to bury soldiers; we need to go mobilize,” he says.

The pilot finds his greatest motivation in the civilians who don’t give up even in destroyed villages.

“We’re flying over Donetsk Oblast, one small hut, and a boy runs out waving a flag. Isn’t that motivation? I don’t want my children to be involved in war,” he adds.

Earlier, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry revealed that Kyiv forces eliminated more than 230,000 Russian soldiers in just six months of 2025. 

In June alone, Ukrainian forces inflicted heavy casualties: 32,420 Russian troops were killed or injured. Ukrainian strikes also destroyed 111 tanks, 272 armored vehicles.

Alexander Motyl, a political science professor at Rutgers University-Newark, says the crisis in Los Angeles is overblown, as 90% of the protests were peaceful, Espreso reports. 

There were protests, some involving violence. Groups of anarchists threw stones and set cars on fire. But 90% of the protests were peaceful demonstrations by peaceful people. There was no real crisis, the expert explains. 

“The most important thing is that Trump and his advisors consider this an uprising and believe they have the right to involve the military, calling it an invasion,” Motyl continues.

They refer to a law allowing the US president to deploy the military in case of such an invasion. The expert believes Trump did this intentionally because he wanted to remove the government from California. 

“He hates not only Kamala Harris but also the governor of the state. He hates California because its liberalism represents everything Trump opposes,” Motyl emphasizes. 

Motyl also reports that 1,800 anti-Trump protests were planned across the country today under the slogan “No Kings”.

“People are protesting, and this is very positive. Americans are showing that they are fed up,” he concludes. 

At the same time, two armed attacks on Democratic politicians occurred in the US, resulting in two deaths and two severe injuries, ABC News reports, citing Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, where the attacks took place. According to him, Melissa Hortman, a Democratic member of the Minnesota House of Representatives, and her husband were shot in what is likely a “politically motivated murder.”

Earlier, Konstantin Blokhin, a political scientist with the Russian Academy of Sciences, advised Trump to suppress the California protests by force.

A Russian official, Alexei Pushkov, chair of the Russian Federation Council’s Commission on Information Policy, claimed that the US is “the top candidate for disintegration” due to the protests in Los Angeles.