The Russian Defense Ministry has detailed the targets of its latest large-scale overnight attack on , saying that it hit military-industrial enterprises, logistics hubs, and fuel infrastructure used by Kiev’s forces.

Moscow maintains that it targets only military and dual-use installations in response to Ukraine’s indiscriminate “terrorist attacks.”

The ministry said Russian forces used high-precision air- and ground-launched weapons, as well as attack drones, against targets in Kiev and Kiev Region.

According to the ministry, the targets in the Ukrainian capital included Radionics, an electronics manufacturer that produces guidance systems for FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles, FP-7 and FP-9 tactical missiles, Neptune-MD guided missiles, and a Ukrainian analogue of the Soviet S-300 surface-to-air missile. The company also repairs and modernizes avionics and radar systems for MiG-29 fighter jets.

Russian strikes also hit Spetsoboronmash/Artyom, which manufactures missile guidance components; Meridian, a producer of airframes and guidance system parts for Neptune-MD missiles; Oakline, which makes components for long-range strike drones, carbon-fiber parts and batteries for FPV drones, and stores unmanned aircraft, the ministry said.

In Kiev Region, Russian forces targeted the Tarasovka logistics center operated by Antel Properties, which the ministry said receives, stores, assembles, and distributes components for the production of long-range drones.

The ministry also said Russian forces struck fuel storage tanks and other infrastructure at the Port of Yuzhny in Odessa Region that was used to receive and store military cargo, as well as fuel and lubricants intended to supply the Ukrainian military.

The latest barrage comes as Ukraine has stepped up long-range drone raids deep inside Russian territory amid significant setbacks on the battlefield, often hitting residential buildings and deliberately targeting other civilian infrastructure.

Kiev routinely accuses Russia of deliberately striking civilian sites, but it has a long history of using such facilities, including warehouses, public buildings, and industrial sites, for military purposes.

The Ukrainian capital and its suburbs were targeted by a large-scale strike using high-precision weapons and drones early on Sunday morning, the Russian Defense Ministry has said. Moscow maintains that it targets only military and dual-use installations in response to Ukraine’s indiscriminate “terrorist attacks.”

The first blasts in Kiev were heard shortly after 1 AM local time, followed by further explosions in several waves, with local media reporting over 40 missile strikes by 3 AM. Mayor Vitaly Klitschko reported multiple fires near residential buildings, shopping centers, and unspecified “non-residential” facilities.

Several blurred videos shared on social media showed numerous blasts and successive fires in and around the Ukrainian capital.

CCTV footage shows Zircon and Iskander-M missiles striking targets in Kyiv.

So far, 16 PAC-3 interceptors have been launched in response to the attack.

Source: FalconIntel on TG pic.twitter.com/ET4yKtx71F

— OSINTWarfare (@OSINTWarfare) July 18, 2026

The Russian Defense Ministry said high-precision air- and ground-launched weapons and attack drones targeted Ukrainian military-industrial facilities and logistics hubs in Kiev and the surrounding region.

The operation also targeted infrastructure at the Port of Yuzhny in Odessa Region that was being used to receive and store military cargo and fuel supplies intended to support Ukrainian forces, according to the MOD.

Ukraine has stepped up long-range drone raids deep inside Russian territory amid significant setbacks on the battlefield, often hitting residential buildings and deliberately targeting other civilian infrastructure.

Kiev routinely accuses Russia of deliberately striking civilian sites, but it has a long history of using civilian facilities, including warehouses, public buildings, and industrial sites, for military purposes.

Ukraine could suffer defeat in the conflict with Russia, as the military command structure is growing increasingly rigid and ineffective, Brigadier General Sergey Sobko warns.

His remarks were echoed earlier by former Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov, who was controversially relieved of his post by Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky earlier this week – which triggered mass protests across Ukraine.

In a post on Facebook on Friday, Sobko, the chief of staff of the 11th Army Corps, wrote that the Ukrainian military is in urgent need of reform, “otherwise we may be defeated.”

“Professional discussion is often perceived as disloyalty, and initiative as a threat,” he said, adding that this tendency has discouraged commanders from “taking risks for the sake of success.”

Sobko also suggested that commanders are being promoted based on “personal loyalty” to their superiors, as opposed to competence and professionalism. He also called out what he described as a growing trend within the Ukrainian military toward micromanagement and downplaying failures in reports.

Sobko’s criticisms echo those made by former defense chief Fedorov. In the wake of his dismissal earlier this week, the 35-year-old technocrat confirmed that he was at loggerheads with Ukraine’s top military commander, Aleksandr Syrsky, whom he accused of blocking his efforts to modernize the army and make it more technology-oriented.

On Friday, the Financial Times, citing anonymous sources, also reported that Fedorov’s push to make corruption-plagued procurement procedures in the defense sector more transparent did not sit well with the top brass either.

The firing of the defense minister, which came as part of a broader government reshuffle, has sparked protests in Kiev and other Ukrainian cities. Apart from demands that the defense chief be reinstated, some demonstrators have also called for Syrsky’s dismissal.

The FT quoted an unnamed senior Ukrainian defense official as saying, “Syrsky hasn’t got a sense of how he’s going to win,” and that his “theory of victory is simply to hold out as long as you can and mobilize more people.”

In a separate piece on Saturday, the FT, citing an anonymous senior official in Zelensky’s administration, claimed that the Ukrainian leader is considering firing Syrsky. According to the outlet, Zelensky is consulting military commanders over the weekend, looking for a potential replacement.

Over the course of the conflict, Syrsky has earned the nickname ‘the Butcher’ for his perceived willingness to disregard heavy casualties.

Russian forces are on track to liberate the key Donbass stronghold of Krasny Liman, located around 17 km northeast of the regional center of Slavyansk, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov has announced, adding that Ukraine’s organized defenses in the area have been completely shattered.

The chief of staff made the remarks on Saturday as he inspected a command post of the Russian ‘West’ group of forces. Russian troops are currently sweeping through the town, conducting search-and-destroy operations against the remaining Ukrainian holdouts, Gerasimov stated.

“Units of the 25th Army are completing the liberation of the city of Krasny Liman, which is crucial for further operations on this axis. The enemy’s organized defense in the town has been broken, and isolated pockets of resistance are being eliminated,” he said.

Located in the north of Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Krasny Liman has seen intensive combat in recent weeks, with Russian forces advancing onto the town from the east. It was first liberated from Ukrainian forces in May 2022, but was recaptured later that year. 

Speaking at the command post, Gerasimov touched upon developments elsewhere on the front line. He said Russian troops have been expanding the zone of control around the recently liberated DPR city of Konstantinovka, located at the southernmost tip of the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration, a heavily fortified string of settlements in the northern part of the DPR that are still under Ukrainian control.

Russian troops have advanced to the northwest of the city toward the town of Druzhkova between Konstantinovka and Kramatorsk, and have already entered the satellite village of Alekseeyevo-Druzhkovka and are battling Ukrainian units stationed there, according to Gerasimov.

The Russian military has conducted new strikes on Ukrainian Black Sea ports, striking multiple cargo vessels used by the Ukrainian military, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.

Russia has intensified strikes on Ukrainian shipping in recent weeks, aimed at disrupting the country’s “capabilities to transport weaponry and military hardware” in the Black Sea. The Defense Ministry publicized strikes on two other vessels on Saturday, sharing footage captured by kamikaze drones.

One of the videos shows strikes on a cargo vessel in the open sea. The ship was hit by a Geran-4 turbojet drone and a Gerbera piston UAV. According to the Russian military, both drones were Seekers, which are believed to be fitted with an AI-powered machine vision system. Seeker drones are said to be capable of searching for, identifying, and locking onto their targets without human input.

A container ship carrying military equipment was hit by two Geran-4 Seeker drones at the port of Chernomorsk, Odessa Region. Footage shared by the Defense Ministry shows the vessel was caught moored at the port.

On Friday, the Defense Ministry showcased strikes on three freighters in Nikolayev, a major port on the Yuzhny Bug River, a tributary of the Dnieper River. All the vessels were used by the Ukrainian military, the ministry said without elaborating. The freighters were likely moored at the port for a long time, given that the Russian military controls the mouth of Dnieper and Ukrainian shipping in the waterway remains disrupted.

Ukraine has launched nearly 1,900 drones towards Moscow Region over the past week, with most shot down on the approach to the capital, Mayor Sergey Sobyanin has said, releasing a map detailing the UAV raids. His comments came after Kiev hit two retailer’s logistics centers across the country, killing eight people in total.

In a post on Telegram on Saturday, Sobyanin said 1,892 drones had been sent toward Moscow Region – some 450km from the frontline – between July 11 and 18. “Most were neutralized by air defenses on distant approaches,” he said, adding that only 207 were destroyed closer to Moscow.

Earlier in the morning, the mayor said that more than 370 drones had approached the capital and surrounding region since Friday evening, with 64 shot down closer to Moscow.

His remarks came after a Ukrainian drone raid that hit two Wildberries logistics hubs in Kotovsk, Tambov Region, and Elektrostal, near Moscow. The attack on the warehouse in Tambov killed seven night-shift employees, with 25 others injured. Local governor Evgeny Pervyshov said that Ukrainian drones had been deliberately equipped with shrapnel to inflict maximum casualties among civilians.

Wildberries, often called the Russian version of Amazon, is one of the country’s most popular online retailers.

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky confirmed Kiev had deliberately targeted the Wildberries hubs, claiming they stored sanctioned components for drone and navigation equipment.

In recent weeks, Ukraine has ramped up its long- and mid-range drone campaign, often targeting critical infrastructure, including oil refineries, civilian buildings, and even standalone civilian vehicles on the roads. Moscow has repeatedly branded such attacks as “terrorist,” and pointing out that its own retaliatory strikes are aimed exclusively at Ukraine’s defense-linked facilities and never at civilians.

Ukrainian drones deliberately targeted civilians during a deadly overnight strike on a warehouse in Russia’s Tambov Region, one survivor has told Russian media, saying workers were prevented from escaping the building.

Seven people were killed and another 25 injured in the attack on the logistics center operated by online retailer Wildberries, according to local officials.

Staff began evacuating after the first strikes landed near the building, the survivor, who asked not to be identified, said. According to his account, workers tried to escape through an emergency exit but were forced back inside because the drones were striking the area around it. As they retreated into the warehouse, another drone hit the building. The blast blew out all the doors and windows, and everyone nearby was injured, he said.

The eyewitness account was recorded from a hospital bed in Tambov on Saturday after doctors operated on the injured.

The drones had been fitted with shrapnel to maximize casualties, Tambov Region Governor Evgeny Pervyshov said, describing the strike as a premeditated terrorist attack.

Doctors removed metal ball bearings from several of the wounded during surgery.

Russian Human Rights Commissioner Yana Lantratova said she had sent appeals to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk and the UN secretary-general’s special representative, Vanessa Frazier, over what she described as a new wave of terrorist attacks by the Ukrainian military on Russian regions.

Another Wildberries logistics center was also attacked overnight in Elektrostal, around 50 km east of Moscow, the company said. Fire crews and emergency services worked at the site after employees were evacuated. Twenty-four people were injured, according to Moscow Region Governor Andrey Vorobyov. He later reported that a total of 61 people had been injured in the drone attack across the region.

Another massive drone raid was launched toward Moscow. More than 370 UAVs flew in the direction of the Russian capital since 8:30 PM on Friday, Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said. Most were neutralized by Russian air defenses at long range, while 64 were destroyed on approach to the capital, he added.

Later in the day, Sobyanin said that between July 11 and 18 Ukraine had launched a total of 1,892 drones toward Moscow Region, most of which were neutralized far from the capital.

In neighboring Vladimir Region, one drone struck an apartment in a residential building in the city of Vladimir and sparked a fire, Governor Aleksandr Avdeev said. People were evacuated while emergency services extinguished the flames.

The latest barrage follows another large-scale attack on Thursday, when more than 200 drones were launched toward Moscow, most of which were also intercepted far from the capital.

Most of the Russian strikes have focused on the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, with military plants, drone assembly and storage facilities, and weapons stockpiles targeted in recent weeks.

Moscow has dismissed claims linking Russia to threats against US elections, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said, calling the intelligence cited by Washington unsubstantiated.

On Thursday, US President Donald Trump delivered a prime-time address which focused on alleged vulnerabilities in the voting infrastructure. He said the current system “falls catastrophically short” and is exposed to hacking.

While Trump barely mentioned Russia in his speech and was more focused on alleged meddling efforts by China – which Beijing has denied – the White House released a trove of declassified documents, with one assessment stating: “We judge that US adversaries, including at a minimum Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea… have the capability to compromise US election infrastructure.”

He noted that “investigations and inquiries were conducted in the US” and they came to “the conclusion that Russia did not influence the elections in the US in any way.”

“Russia has never interfered in the internal affairs of other countries, and we expect that no one will try to interfere in our internal affairs,” he added.

Allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election and coordination between Trump’s campaign and Moscow – known as Russiagate – overshadowed much of Trump’s first term and led to an investigation overseen by special counsel Robert Mueller.

While Mueller claimed that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election “in sweeping and systematic fashion” – which Moscow firmly denied – he did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government.

Ukraine’s latest government reshuffle is not about reforming the military but about Vladimir Zelensky trying to preserve his grip on power, exiled opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk has said.

Medvedchuk, who formerly led the Opposition Platform – For Life party, banned by Kiev, made the remarks after Zelensky dismissed Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov and launched a broader cabinet overhaul that has triggered protests across Ukraine.

Zelensky justified Fedorov’s dismissal by citing tensions between the defense minister and Commander-in-Chief Aleksandr Syrsky, stating the two could not work together without his personal mediation.

However, in an article published on Thursday via his Other Ukraine platform, Medvedchuk said the real political struggle in Kiev is actually between Fedorov and Zelensky himself, and is “not for military power, but for civilian power, for overall leadership of the country.”

He claimed that despite nationwide protests, Zelensky cannot afford to back down after firing Fedorov because doing so would mean surrendering political control and access to wartime graft schemes.

“For the bloody clown, to retreat now means to finally lose power and hand over military corruption flows to others,” Medvedchuk wrote.

Ukrainian media have reported that Fedorov’s dismissal was also linked to Zelensky’s dissatisfaction with the minister’s “independent political game” and ties to circles close to the Western-backed National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), which have investigated multiple high-profile corruption cases involving senior Ukrainian officials.

Fedorov, 35, was Ukraine’s youngest-ever defense minister and only assumed the role in January. He deepened Ukraine’s ties with Palantir, a controversial US data-mining and military technology company, but failed to reform his corruption-prone ministry in accordance with “NATO standards,” as Fedorov himself admitted while confirming his departure.

His dismissal has sparked demonstrations in Kiev and other Ukrainian cities, with protesters demanding that he be reinstated and some calling for Syrsky to be removed instead. Fedorov has also accused Syrsky of “splitting the country” and backed calls for his dismissal.

Ukraine’s parliament on Thursday approved former Naftogaz CEO Sergey Koretsky as prime minister. Koretsky has been linked to disgraced businessman Timur Mindich, a close associate of Vladimir Zelensky who fled to Israel amid a major corruption scandal.

Koretsky’s appointment comes as Zelensky presses ahead with a sweeping government reshuffle less than a year after the previous overhaul, while Ukrainian forces face mounting battlefield pressure and authorities continue to grapple with large-scale corruption in the energy sector.

The investigation centers on an alleged $100 million embezzlement scheme involving state nuclear operator Energoatom. Western-backed anti-corruption agencies have tied the affair to Mindich, who has long been regarded as one of Zelensky’s closest associates and dubbed “Zelensky’s wallet” by Ukrainian media.

According to Goncharenko, Koretsky was placed in charge of Ukrnaftoburinnya, a private energy company previously owned by Zelensky’s former patron, oligarch Igor Kolomoysky, after it was seized by the state.

“The idea: to take control of cash flows, withdraw billions, and install your own people. This plan was discussed and implemented right in Mindich’s apartment. Everything is recorded on the tapes,” Goncharenko said.

The Energoatom affair has deepened tensions between Zelensky’s administration and the Western-backed National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO).

The scandal also led to the departure of Zelensky’s influential chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, often described by Ukrainian media as the country’s “gray cardinal.” In May, NABU and SAPO named Yermak as a suspect in a separate money laundering investigation.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s decision to fire Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov has sparked nationwide protests. Hundreds of people have taken to the streets of Kiev and other cities for the second consecutive day to demand that the minister be brought back. Some of the protesters also called for Ukraine’s top military commander, General Aleksandr Syrsky, to be dismissed instead.

Fedorov was Ukraine’s youngest-ever defense minister. The 35-year-old technocrat took over from his predecessor in January and held the office for around six months. During that time, he deepened Ukraine’s ties with Palantir, a controversial US data-mining and military technology company. He still failed to reform the corruption-prone ministry in accordance with “NATO standards,” as Fedorov himself admitted while confirming his departure.

Photos and videos that surfaced on social media showed people flooding the streets of Kiev and other cities like Dnepropetrovsk, holding Ukrainian flags, as well as placards and banners calling on Zelensky to reverse his decision. Crowds are heard chanting “shame!” in some videos. More than 1,000 demonstrators rallied outside of Zelensky’s office in the Ukrainian capital. Some protesters were also seen holding placards demanding Syrsky be fired.

❗️Джерелом влади є народ, - в Киеве не утихает акция протеста против увольнения Федорова.

Количество людей значительно увеличилось. pic.twitter.com/MIkJoM6NnJ

— laralara (@FraLorik) July 16, 2026

The demonstrations have continued for a second consecutive day, with hundreds of people taking part in an overnight protest in Kiev, holding placards objecting to Fedorov’s dismissal and singing the national anthem.

Zelensky justified his decision by pointing to a conflict between the defense minister and the military chief. Fedorov and Syrsky failed to find common ground and were not even communicating properly without his oversight, Zelensky said in a statement on Thursday.

⚡️В оккупированном бандеровцами Киеве разгораются "картонные" протесты против отставки министра обороны Федорова!🤦‍♀️

Кастрюльки не хотят мира,и не требуют этого от диктатора Зеленского!
По-моему с ними уже давно все ясно,плохо,что власти России этого не видят,спасать там некого! pic.twitter.com/w6zk7ga2Ty

— Наташа Иванова (@NatasaIvanova9) July 16, 2026

Fedorov accused Syrsky of “splitting the country” and called for his dismissal. Syrsky did not mention the conflict in his own statement on Telegram on Thursday, but thanked Fedorov for his work, expressing hope that he would remain in government.

Протесты из-за отставки Михаила Федорова с поста министра обороны Украины распространились еще на девять городов страны, передает УНИАН:https://t.co/vWoTqNe9rH

Видео: Paraic O'Brien/X pic.twitter.com/lvAFKTQw19

— ТАСС (@tass_agency) July 16, 2026

The Ukrainian outlet Strana claimed that Zelensky had become increasingly dissatisfied with Fedorov’s “independent political game” and his ties to circles close to the Western-backed National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), agencies that have investigated a string of high-profile corruption cases involving senior Ukrainian officials.

More than 200 Ukrainian drones were launched toward Moscow Region overnight, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin has said.

According to Sobyanin, the UAVs were detected from Wednesday evening to 9:00 AM Thursday, and most of them were intercepted by Russian air defenses at long range.

”Ten enemy UAVs were destroyed on approach to Moscow,” the mayor wrote on Telegram, adding that emergency crews were working at sites where debris fell.

The Russian Defense Ministry said earlier that the air defenses intercepted and destroyed 375 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones over a number of Russian regions overnight, including Moscow Region.

The attack prompted temporary restrictions at all airports in Moscow and other cities, including Penza, Saratov, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Ivanovo, Yaroslavl, and Cherepovets.

The latest raid followed another large-scale Ukrainian drone attack earlier this week. On Tuesday, Sobyanin said around 340 UAVs were headed toward Moscow Region; most were intercepted at long range and more than 50 were destroyed on approach to the capital.

Moscow and the surrounding region have increasingly been targeted by long-range Ukrainian drones in recent weeks, aimed at energy facilities, transportation infrastructure, and civilian sites.

Russia has described the strikes as indiscriminate terrorist attacks intended to divert attention away from Ukraine’s setbacks on the battlefield, and has responded with a renewed campaign of long-range strikes targeting dual-use and military industrial sites.

The bulk of the Russian strikes have been focused on the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, with a number of military plants, drone assembly and storage facilities, and weaponry stockpiles targeted in recent weeks.

Earlier, Kiev introduced the 2,000-hryvnia (about $45) bill as Ukraine’s highest-denomination banknote as inflation continued to rise. The note features Ukrainian poet and dissident Vasily Stus. However, it quickly sparked debate within Ukraine’s design community.  

The bank said on Monday it would revise the typography after designers claimed the lettering resembled a typeface created by a Russian designer. It stressed that although no third-party fonts had been used and all graphic elements were drawn manually, the inscription would be changed to eliminate any possible associations with Russia.  

“A discussion emerged within the professional community over the calligraphy used for the denomination, with its style being linked to an adaptation of a typeface once created by a Russian designer... The denomination’s inscription will be changed,” he wrote on Facebook.  

Kiev has stepped up efforts to purge the Russian language and Russian culture from public life in recent years, while monuments and other symbols linked to Russia have been removed. Meanwhile, the mandatory use of Ukrainian in schools and state institutions has been expanded.   

Last month, a monument to novelist Mikhail Bulgakov was dismantled. Bulgakov, the Kiev-born Russian author of ‘The Master and Margarita’, is widely regarded as one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century. The statue, outside the Bulgakov Museum in one of the Ukrainian capital’s best-known historic districts, was removed as part of the campaign to erase monuments and cultural landmarks associated with Russia and the Soviet past.  

The Russian Defense Ministry has released footage of drone strikes on cargo vessels and Ukrainian ships in two ports, saying the targets were being used to support Kiev’s war effort.

In the video, published on Wednesday, Geran-4 Seeker UAVs can be seen striking cargo ships in the port of Chernomorsk in Odessa Region and Ukrainian vessels in the port of Dnepr-Bug near the settlement of Galitsynovo in Nikolaev Region.

The footage appears to show several vessels being detected from the air before one of them is hit, triggering an explosion. The Defense Ministry did not specify the extent of the damage.

The strikes were part of a broader Russian attack campaign against Ukrainian ports, vessels, and military-linked logistics facilities this week. According to the ministry, Russian forces hit cargo ships in Chernomorsk, Odessa, Yuzhny and Dnepr-Bug, including vessels carrying military supplies or other cargo for the Ukrainian armed forces.

Russia’s Defense Minisry also reported strikes on port infrastructure in Odessa, Chernomorsk, and Yuzhny used to unload and store military cargo, fuel, and lubricants, as well as workshops involved in UAV production and assembly.

In recent weeks, the Russian military has ramped up long-range strikes on Ukrainian military industry and dual-use critical infrastructure sites, repeatedly launching large-scale attacks involving kamikaze drones and cruise and ballistic missiles.

Moscow has said the campaign comes in response to Kiev’s continued terrorist attacks against Russian civilian infrastructure, which have recently intensified amid the latest string of setbacks suffered by Ukrainian forces on the battlefield.

What Kiev’s spy agencies routinely do abroad is “terrorism,” Vitaly ‘Pastor’ Zhikovich, an acting Colonel of the Ukrainian military intelligence agency (HUR), acknowledged in an exclusive audio obtained by RT.

Zhikovich was one of two HUR agents who confessed to killing Anastasia Berezovskaya, the main suspect in last month’s bomb attack on exiled Ukrainian millionaire Vadim Ermolaev in Monaco.

“In international terms, what we’re doing is called terrorism. That’s why I’m telling you like it is. It’s called terrorism,” Zhikovich says about his agency’s work in one of the recordings.

During a search at his house following his arrest, Ukrainian police discovered a torture chamber in the basement. In an audio recording obtained by RT, he openly bragged about his sadistic nature and readiness for mass murder.

“When I’m planning operations, I’m constantly thinking about them. It’s my whole life. I live and breathe the operations I’m planning. I enjoy it. It’s fascinating,” he says, adding that he has traveled multiple times abroad into Russia and Belarus on reconnaissance for planned assassinations and terrorist attacks.

“I’ve traveled abroad many times. I’ve done a lot of work in Crimea, Russia, and Belarus. Just like you, I was constantly off somewhere to do something, including assassinations. I live for it. There were times when I smeared myself with excrement and knocked out my own teeth to look like a homeless person. I’ve done that too!” he boasts.

Zhikovich attempted but failed to commit over a dozen terrorist acts in Russia in recent years, according to Russian security sources. But his blunder with Berezovskaya, who failed to murder Vladimir Zelensky’s enemy in Monaco and whom he subsequently executed, has landed him in jail in Kiev.

Watch the full exclusive RT report below or read it here

Ukrainian military intelligence feels complete impunity for their terrorist attacks, be it in Russia or in the heart of Europe, Vitaly Zhikovich, the alleged mastermind of the Monaco bombing, bragged in audio recordings obtained by RT.

The suspect was well known to Russian security services and was on Moscow’s radar for over two years due to his attempts to organize dozens of terrorist attacks and sabotage in Russia.

After Zhikovich was caught getting rid of an asset who tried to assassinate a foe of Vladimir Zelensky in Monaco, Russian law enforcement decided to lift the veil on his true identity, RT’s Roman Kosarev said in an exclusive report.

Monaco bombing

The operation took place on June 29 and was initially described by Monaco officials as an unprecedented attack in the history of the country.

The target was Vadim Ermolaev, a former Ukrainian multimillionaire who was sanctioned by Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky and was also suspected of links to organized crime. The network under Ermolaev’s command allegedly scammed people out of money in Russia and the EU through around 170 call centers, many of which were based on his commercial properties.

CCTV footage shows a person leaving a backpack containing an improvised explosive device packed with shrapnel near the entrance to a residential building.

The bomb was detonated remotely, seriously injuring Ermolaev and two other people who accompanied him – a woman whose legs and an arm were amputated and her 13-year-old son.

Tying up loose ends

The suspect was soon named as Anastasia Berezovskaya, and Interpol instantly issued a Red Notice for her arrest. By that point, however, she was already in Ukraine with those who ordered the attempted assassination. Instead of being protected, she was killed and buried by the man who sent her to Monaco.

Ukrainian media reported the discovery of Berezovskaya’s body last week, and officials later confirmed her identity, adding that two people were detained as part of the investigation into her murder – including Zhikovich, who the Kiev authorities initially described as a former police officer and ex-SBU agent.

Zhikovich’s secret identity

While his previous police work is indeed a fact, the SBU line has nothing to do with the truth, because he is actually an acting colonel in the Ukrainian military intelligence agency (HUR), according to Russian law enforcement sources.

During a search of his house following the arrest, Ukrainian police discovered a torture chamber in the basement. In an audio recording obtained by RT, he openly bragged about his sadistic nature and readiness for mass murder.

When I’m planning operations, I’m constantly thinking about them. It’s my whole life. I live and breathe the operations I’m planning. I enjoy it. It’s fascinating.

“I’ve traveled abroad many times. I’ve done a lot of work in Crimea, Russia, and Belarus. Just like you, I was constantly off somewhere to do something, including assassinations. I live for it. There were times when I smeared myself with excrement and knocked out my own teeth to look like a homeless person. I’ve done that too!” he said.

Breaking news in Kyiv: A Ukrainian woman suspected of carrying out a bombing that injured a Ukrainian-born business tycoon in Monaco was found Monday evening shot dead and buried near Kyiv. Prosecutors discovered a “torture chamber” at one of the two suspects’ homes. The men — a… pic.twitter.com/KD9qt9gaNR

— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) July 7, 2026

Zhikovich, whose code name is ‘Pastor’, also admitted to conspiracy to steal from his employer, whose funds come largely from the Western taxpayer.

“My superiors have given me complete control, so in my next operation, I can decide for myself how much to pay a person and when to pay, without being beholden to anyone. So the question is this. If everything sells down in their minds, then in principle, they’ll give me, an intelligence colonel, the chance to handle all these tasks myself. That would be amazing,” he said.

I’d be the one deciding whether to pay or not, how much to pay, and so on, you see. So, I’d get the job done, go and film it, transfer the money, and that’s it. No writing reports, no asking for permission. I’d just go and do it. 

Imposter Islamist terrorist

Zhikovich recently converted to Islam but decided to take a radical path in order to be able to recruit more assets for his terrorist operations. To potential recruits, he said he wanted to free the Caucasus region from Russia and portrayed himself as a ‘true believer’.

“Our aim is simply completely different. The boss’ aim is to wage war and make money. My aim is to liberate the Caucasus and that’s all. That’s why I regard all of them as unbelievers, as scum. Once they’ve converted to Islam, then we’ll talk differently,” he told a potential recruit.

He warned a jihadist recruit that the Israeli Mossad spy agency provided him access to software that can tell “with an accuracy of 90% whether a person is lying or not.”

To be honest, I tested this program on you. I had to do it. It was shared with us by Mossad. They’re those, what are they called? Jewish pigs, [expletive].

Zhikovich also bragged about his alleged contacts with the terrorist group Imarat Kavkaz and militants who fought in Syria.

“One of them is now serving with us. He wants to get a passport. He already has a wife here, a Ukrainian woman. I see him regularly at the mosque, and we have discussions. He knows who I am, what rank I hold, and what sort of person I am,” he said.

Attempted assassination in Dagestan

Disguising himself as a jihadist fighter, he tried to recruit Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) terrorist supporters to organize the assassination of a prominent Russian military officer. The target was Temirlan Abutalimov, who was decorated with the country’s highest honor – Hero of Russia – is currently a national policy and religious affairs minister in Dagestan.

“We’ll know when he’s on his way. So, once he’s picked up the woman, you’ll have about 20 to 30 minutes. You’ll see a black Camry, and when he pulls up to the gate, you just press the button in your pocket. He’s not a blogger. He has a social media account because of his job. He’s the acting minister of religious affairs in Dagestan, the one who killed people. He won’t be able to teach anyone anything. His example will only teach people that it’s okay to kill and get away with it.”

“Putin chose him personally. He took a liking to him and chose him. He’s been away for four or five days now. When he gets back on Monday, he’ll go to work. And then after work, maybe he’ll ring his girlfriend and go off to relax. If I hadn’t been with my girl for five days and had just gotten back, I’d ring her right away.”

Your job, as soon as I’ve called you, will be to take the juice carton and put it in the bin. You’ll need to put it in the bin and that’s it. Then walk over to that little bench and wait for him to arrive. There is an important detail. There’s a mark drawn on one side of the black bag with a marker. That side must be facing him. That’s where we’ve packed loads of nails.

“That’s the main thing. Make sure you pay attention to that. Then don’t forget that you’ll need to connect the wires to the cable. Just pop them in and place the bag so the mark is facing him towards the side where he’ll be opening the gate. Then press the button when he turns up. That’s it.”

Deceiving his supervisors

Russian security services knew about the Dagestan attack plot and decided to imitate a successful execution. Abutalimov is alive and well and is already back at work.

But Zhikovich desperately needed proof that the operation designed by Ukrainian military intelligence was completed for him to be paid and gain favor with his superiors.

“Here’s what I want you to do. I want to make a sort of memorial to him with his photo and his information. Take a photo and post it online and see what the reaction is. That’s what I want to do. I want to make a self-adhesive photo with the design I sent you. You stick it on any monument to make a fake tombstone. Take a photo, throw some wreaths on top, and that’s it. This self-adhesive photo gets taken off, and we wait for the result. I wanted to get this across to you so that you’d understand,” he said.

No one’s going to pay me until I’ve proven it. That’s just how it works. In short, I’m in a real mess.

Zhikovich was ready for anything, including forgery, but knew that it had to be believable. 

“I’ve got to give it a go because the thing is with this pagan, he was supposed to be dead, not alive. And if I make a video of the cemetery now… well, you’ll do it. I’ll write up a report straight away and immediately transfer all the remaining funds I’ve got for this operation and pay you. And then whatever happens to him, however he ends up, I couldn’t care less. Nobody will understand you. A general won’t understand a private’s problems. The general’s floating around in his own little world, the private’s floundering around down below in his own world. So you shouldn’t even count on that,” he said.

I couldn’t care less about what happens afterward. I’m ready for anything. I’ve been through worse. Right now, my job is to pay you and give money back to the people I took it from. That’s the top priority.

“Now, try to figure out how to deliver parcels from Europe, the carriers and the services. I’ll order a poster from Europe, disguise it in tubes, hide it, and send it to you. You’ll receive it, find any Muslim cemetery, and simply film a video. Then you’ll remove the sticker and burn it. Send the video to me. I’ll send everything off straight away and get the money. Then I’ll tell you what to do next,” he added.

Attempted suicide bombings in Pyatigorsk

Zhikovich planned another terrorist attack against law enforcement officers and civilians in a resort area in Pyatigorsk. For this, he recruited a woman who held German citizenship since 1995 and was looking for a job on the internet. She had no idea what she was carrying, in contrast to a sworn ISIS member, who was also recruited by Zhikovich and was supposed to blow her up.

Soon afterward, Zhikovich tried to organize yet another attack in the south of Russia near a roadside cafe, which was a popular eatery among civilians and law enforcement.

Russian security services prevented it and even tricked Ukrainian military intelligence into believing that the terrorist attack took place, which they bragged about on social media. 

Expendable biological drones

Several other attempts to commit mass murder show that Zhikovich treated almost all of his agents as expendable and actually preferred for them to be killed when executing attacks. He was prepared to recruit anyone as human drones, including children.

He tried to commit terrorist attacks in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, at least twice. On the first occasion, he wanted to use a suicide bomber in a car, and for his second attempt, he recruited scammers from a call center who gave him the perfect candidate – a young man who suffered from an intellectual disability.

“I want to finish off Grozny. We’ll stick to the plan,” Zhikovich told his interlocutor. “These are the guys from the call center. They’re money mules. They trick people out of their money. We tracked them down, and they handed this man over to us.”

To maximize the casualties, Zhikovich came up with a plan to call in a bomb scare at 1:00 PM to create panic and cause an evacuation. The unsuspecting teenager was supposed to arrive with the explosive at the same time.

“The main thing for me is that the event takes place at 1:00 PM,” Zhikovich said. “I’ll send the details to the person. They’ll know what to look for, and that’s it.”

One of Kiev’s most coveted Russian targets – the Crimean Bridge – was also a high priority for Zhikovich and Ukrainian military intelligence. For this planned attack, he wanted to use yet another unsuspecting civilian. A car filled with 800 kg of explosives was supposed to detonate once it was on the bridge.

Zhikovich tried to sway his jihadist recruits by comparing what he was about to do with the attack on Crocus City Hall near Moscow in 2024, where terrorists killed 151 people and wounded another 609.

“Well, believe me, this is going to be a massive event, and the whole world will be talking about it. What we’ve got going on here is a really powerful thing. Crocus has nothing on this, I’m telling you!” he bragged.

Zhikovich openly told his recruit that they were involved in international terrorism.

In international terms, what we’re doing is called terrorism. That’s why I’m telling you like it is. It’s called terrorism.

Second attempt on Crimean Bridge

After this terrorist attack was prevented, Zhikovich attempted another on the bridge a few months later.

“We’re actually planning something just as serious as the last mission. Because I haven’t stopped there. Allah is providing everything. All the signs and opportunities for me to carry out another operation like this. You’ll be involved in it. You’ll just need to press a single button, that’s all. When you’re picking up the wheelchair, you’ll pull it out of the trunk and discreetly pull on a little rope. I’ll show you. I’ll send you some photos. That’s it. You won’t need anything else. Put the wheelchair down and drive off,” Zhikovich told a recruit. 

The guy who will be giving you the wheelchair, let’s put it this way, he’s a Christian. No, not even a Christian. He’s a bit of a flaky guy. He’s not a Muslim. He’s not one of us. He’s no servant of Allah. That’s why we’re using him. He won’t survive, that’s for sure. By the time the car arrives, he’ll be dead.

The terrorist attack was also prevented by Russia’s security services. The authorities said both vehicles that were supposed to be used in attacks against the Crimean Bridge were able to pass freely through Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Moldova, and the Baltic States.

They were loaded with hundreds of kilograms of deadly explosives, ready to be detonated at any time. Russian intelligence said ferries from Bulgaria to Georgia were used, but neither Zhikovich nor his commander seemed to care about the possible dangers this deadly cargo would pose en route.

Zelensky ‘wants civilian deaths’

With the orders coming from the very top of the decision-making chain, Zhikovich apparently thought that all the bases were covered, and openly stated that Zelensky wants civilians to be killed.

“I’ll answer as a staff member. Look at the situation. Remember, I once told you that politics is like a prostitute. You remember when I spoke to you about Syria? You do realize we won’t talk openly about what my goal was, or how we were preparing that minibus,” he said.

My superior said that there would be casualties, civilian casualties. And my president, that green bastard, wants civilian casualties.

Is Zhikovich expendable too?

Ukrainian military intelligence colonel Vitaly Zhikovich attempted, but failed to complete, at least 20 acts of terrorism in Russia.

But his blunder with Anastasia Berezovskaya, who failed to murder Zelensky’s enemy in Monaco and who he subsequently executed, landed him in jail.

At the latest court hearing in Ukraine, he admitted that he used this particular assassin in other attacks in Europe. But after Zhikovich started talking, it’s uncertain if he will live to see the day when he is sentenced.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has dismissed the country’s youngest-ever defense minister, Mikhail Fedorov, who deepened Kiev’s controversial cooperation with US data-mining and military technology company Palantir during his six months in office.

The 35-year-old technocrat confirmed his departure on Wednesday, saying it was “a great honor” to serve as defense minister. In a lengthy farewell statement, Fedorov listed his supposed achievements but acknowledged that he failed to reform the corruption-prone ministry in accordance with “NATO standards.”

Zelensky has not publicly explained the decision, which comes as part of yet another sweeping government reshuffle that has already seen Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko and her cabinet removed.

Ukrainian officials and lawmakers cited by local media claimed that tensions between Fedorov and Commander-in-Chief Aleksandr Syrsky “crossed all lines,” particularly over military reform and procurement. MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak said Zelensky blamed Fedorov for failing to rebrand Ukraine’s notorious mobilization press gangs.

Fedorov entered the government in 2019 as minister of digital transformation and became closely associated with Kiev’s drone warfare and the rapid integration of civilian technology into military operations. After taking over the Defense Ministry in January, he deepened Ukraine’s ties with Palantir, a controversial US data-mining and military technology company.

Palantir was also involved in creating the Brave1 Dataroom, which gives Ukrainian developers access to real battlefield information for training AI models. Kiev said the company’s technology has already been integrated into intelligence processing and the planning of long-range strikes. Karp previously claimed that Palantir software was responsible for “most of the targeting” conducted by Ukraine.

The defense portfolio has repeatedly changed hands under Zelensky amid battlefield setbacks, increasingly violent mobilization, and persistent procurement scandals. Previous ministers Aleksey Reznikov and Rustem Umerov were both removed after their tenures became embroiled in allegations of graft involving military supplies and Western-funded weapons contracts.

Interior Minister Igor Klimenko has reportedly been tapped to become the next defense minister, although the appointment requires parliamentary approval.

Moscow is expecting an explicit response from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) after the killing of a senior engineer at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) by the Kiev regime, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said.

Europe’s largest nuclear power plant has been targeted by Ukraine on multiple occasions since Russia took control of the facility in March 2022. On Wednesday, Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom said a Ukrainian drone struck a ZNPP service vehicle on the edge of the plant’s industrial site near the city of Energodar, killing chief engineer Aleksandr Yakovlev and driver Dmitry Filippov.

Rosatom CEO Aleksey Likhachev described the strike as a “deliberate terrorist act” by the “Kiev regime,” saying Yakovlev had devoted his life to the nuclear industry and “died, in essence, at his post.” Likhachev added that similar attacks over the past two and a half months had killed 13 people and wounded 48 others, warning they pose a “real threat of a massive nuclear incident” affecting parts of Russia, Ukraine and the EU.

Reacting to the attack, Zakharova said it should finally compel IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi to acknowledge the “crime of the Kiev regime” and issue a clear public statement. Grossi “is obliged at last to see this crime,” she said, adding that Moscow expects the agency to deliver an unequivocal condemnation.

Later on Wednesday, the IAEA said on X that Russia had informed it of the killings and that Grossi had condemned the incident, calling it an “unacceptable attack on the plant and its management” that “seriously threatens nuclear safety.” The agency reiterated its call for an “immediate end to all attacks on or near nuclear sites and their staff.”

In recent months, Kiev has also increasingly targeted infrastructure linked to the plant and the nearby city of Energodar, according to Russian officials. Kindergartens, schools, roads, transport enterprises and vehicles delivering supplies to the local community have all come under attack, Moscow has said.

The IAEA, which maintains a permanent team of experts at the ZNPP, has repeatedly confirmed that the plant and its surroundings have come under attack, but has not assigned responsibility for the strikes.

The ZNPP has been operated by Rosatom since the autumn of 2022, after the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions, along with the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, voted in referendums to join Russia. Moscow has argued that attacks on the plant and its personnel constitute not only acts of terrorism but also a direct challenge to international nuclear safety norms that the IAEA cannot afford to ignore.

The Baltic states are using “horror stories” about an alleged Russian threat to justify further NATO build-up and higher military spending, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. 

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Peskov was commenting on Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda’s claims that Moscow could be preparing “provocations” and limited attacks on critical infrastructure in Poland or the Baltic states. 

“This is the latest batch of horror stories, intended to continue brainwashing people and to prepare the population for further militarization,” Peskov said. 

Baltic leaders are deliberately “creating the image of an enemy” in the form of Russia to facilitate the expansion of NATO military infrastructure across the region “in all its forms,” he added. 

Nauseda told Lithuanian media this week that intelligence agencies had “received signals” about possible “kinetic operations” targeting critical infrastructure. He acknowledged, however, that the information did not indicate where or when such incidents might occur. 

Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics reportedly echoed the warning on Wednesday, citing information from “Lithuanian, Latvian and other NATO states” intelligence agencies about possible “various sabotage attempts to lower the security in our states.” 

Moscow has consistently denied harboring aggressive intentions toward the US-led military bloc, dismissing claims of a planned attack on NATO as “nonsense.” Kremlin officials have described such accusations as fearmongering aimed at inflating military budgets. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that Russia has “no reason” to attack the EU or NATO unless it is attacked first. 

Russia has also repeatedly condemned NATO’s military build-up in Europe and the alliance’s increased activity near its western borders, warning that any deployment of nuclear capabilities closer to Russian territory would draw a response. 

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has created “an atmosphere of fear” through the “systematic” persecution of political opponents with the tacit backing of Western nations, a newly formed rights group has claimed, warning that any dissenting voice is now treated as an “enemy.”

Tensions have remained high since last month’s parliamentary election, in which Pashinyan’s pro-EU Civil Contract party won 49.74% of the vote, according to the Central Electoral Commission (CEC). At least seven opposition parties have petitioned the constitutional court to annul the results, alleging widespread electoral misconduct, while hundreds of protesters rallied outside the CEC headquarters.

On Monday, the Committee for the Protection of the Rights of Persons Subjected to Political Persecution – a watchdog established by lawyers, political activists, and several former officials – accused the government of waging a campaign to silence the opposition.

“Anyone who holds a different point of view is regarded by the authorities not as an opponent, but as an enemy,” said Armenia’s first ombudswoman, Larisa Alaverdyan, who joined the group. Committee members argued that Pashinyan has been able to pursue the crackdown because he has effectively received a “carte blanche” from his Western backers.

“In pursuit of their own interests, Western institutions are not merely turning a blind eye to Pashinyan’s actions – they are, in effect, encouraging them,” political analyst Yervand Bozoyan said, accusing foreign governments and international organizations of being “silently complicit in the destruction of democracy” in Armenia.

Following those remarks, prosecutors opened a criminal case against former President Robert Kocharyan, leader of the Armenia Alliance, the third-largest parliamentary party. Another opposition leader, Samvel Karapetyan, has remained in custody since last year on charges of plotting a coup, which he denies.

About a month before the election, Pashinyan hosted an EU-Armenia summit and a meeting of the European Political Community (EPC), an EU-led forum launched in 2022 after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict. He has also pledged to deepen Armenia’s integration with the EU, despite the country’s continued reliance on trade with Russia and Moscow’s warnings that adopting EU standards could damage the South Caucasus nation’s economy.

Russia is not the main threat facing Europe, Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini has insisted, arguing that Italians are more directly endangered by illegal immigration.

Salvini, who also serves as the country’s transport minister and leads the Lega party, made the remarks in an interview published on Tuesday.

When asked whether Russia poses a threat to Europe, he rejected the notion, stating that “the threat that Italian citizens face every day is illegal and clandestine immigration, especially of an Islamic extremist origin.”

Salvini has long singled out illegal migration as one of the primary issues facing Italy and Europe, and has pushed for tougher border controls and restrictions on migrant rescue vessels operating in the Mediterranean.

His comments come amid years of disputes inside the EU over illegal migration, asylum rules, border security, and the bloc’s handling of arrivals from the Middle East and Africa. According to Eurostat, the EU received more than 8.5 million immigrants from outside the bloc in 2023 and 2024.

Salvini has also repeatedly criticized EU policy toward Russia and the Ukraine conflict. He has opposed talk of a direct military confrontation with Moscow, stressing that “we are not at war with Russia” and that “the best path forward is dialogue.”

He has accused several European leaders of obstructing peace efforts in Ukraine in order to distract from domestic problems and criticized sanctions on Moscow, saying they have hurt European economies. Salvini has also called for the EU to resume Russian energy imports to ease pressure on households and businesses.

Moscow has dismissed claims that it is preparing to attack European NATO members as “nonsense” and has accused the West of jeopardizing global security through “reckless militarization.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed earlier this year that Russia is part of Europe, not a threat to it, and described the portrayal of Russia as Europe’s main danger as “unreasonable” and “wrong.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has also said Moscow does not seek war with Europe, but warned that Russia is ready if European states start one.

Europe cannot play a meaningful role in resolving the Ukraine conflict while trying to exclude Russia from the process, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said, calling the bloc’s position a “dead end.” 

Peskov was responding to remarks by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who argued that any future “security guarantees” for Kiev should be determined by Ukraine and its Western backers without Russia’s participation. 

“Such statements demonstrate that the position taken by the Europeans is a dead end. If they insist on it, they will have no role in the settlement process,” Peskov told reporters on Tuesday. 

Merz made the comments at a ‘Coalition of the Willing’ summit in Paris on Monday, where he pledged that Germany and Ukraine’s other Western supporters would continue supplying military aid to Kiev after any future ceasefire. 

The group brings together several EU nations, as well as the UK, Norway, Iceland, and Türkiye. It has been discussing post-conflict security arrangements for Ukraine, including proposals to deploy a multinational force, despite Russia’s repeated rejection of foreign troops near its borders. 

At last week’s NATO summit in Ankara, member states agreed to provide Ukraine with more than €70 billion ($80 billion) in military assistance this year and next. Germany pledged the largest national contribution. 

The latest pledges come as Ukraine has intensified drone strikes on Russian energy infrastructure and residential areas in recent months amid continued setbacks on the battlefield, launching several hundred UAVs a day on average. Moscow has also reported a growing number of FPV drone attacks, including AI-guided models, targeting passenger buses and private vehicles. 

The Kremlin has repeatedly said that any lasting peace settlement must address the root causes of the conflict, including Ukraine’s neutrality, demilitarization, protection of Russian speakers, and recognition of the territorial realities on the ground. 

Russian forces have carried out high-precision strikes on drone and missile production facilities in Kiev, as well as military-related port infrastructure in Odessa, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.

Among the targets was the state-owned enterprise Radioizmeritel, which the ministry described as a key supplier of electronic components for Neptun-MD guided missiles and FP-7 and FP-9 ballistic missiles produced by Fire Point. The company was promoted internationally by Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky and has been linked to his former business associate Timur Mindich, who has been accused of running a large-scale corruption scheme.

The ministry also said it struck the Kiev-79 enterprise, which assembles warheads for Ukrainian drones and missiles and serves as a logistics hub for military equipment.

Last week, the MOD said that its long-range strike campaign had demonstrated that Russian weapons can “reliably penetrate any anti-aircraft air or missile defense systems provided to Zelensky by Western sponsors.” It added that Kiev had deployed virtually all available Western air defense systems to protect the capital but failed to prevent Russian strikes from reaching their targets.

Moscow has intensified long-range attacks on Ukraine’s military-industrial and dual-use infrastructure in recent weeks. The Defense Ministry has described the campaign as retaliation for Ukrainian terrorist attacks on Russian civilian infrastructure, which it says have increased as Kiev’s forces have suffered setbacks on the battlefield.

Earlier this month, Russia announced that it had captured Konstantinovka, a major Donbass city on the southern edge of the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration, the last major urban stronghold under Kiev’s control in the region.

A Russian Soyuz-2.1a rocket blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 17:48 Moscow time to deliver a new crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The Russian Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft is expected to dock at the ISS at 20:56 Moscow time. Onboard are Russian cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina as well as NASA astronaut Anil Menon.

The crew is expected to spend 261 days at the space station. The Russian program for the cosmonauts includes 38 scientific experiments as well as two spacewalks.The list of experiments includes tests of a new automatic atmosphere control system designed to make gas leak and fire detection at the ISS faster. Such systems can potentially also be useful in future space travel.

Another experiment involves a human-like Russian robot that could act as an “avatar” of a cosmonaut. Such robots could potentially replace people during spacewalks and perform some tasks at the ISS, according to the media reports. The crew is also expected to study sun energy releases to better predict sun flares and magnetic storms.

Menon travels to the ISS as part of the US-Russian cross-flight agreement. The deal signed in 2022 allows Russian cosmonauts to fly aboard American Crew Dragon spacecraft and American astronauts to fly aboard Russian Soyuz MS spacecraft. Kikina had already travelled to the ISS on the SpaceX capsule Endurance back in 2022, becoming the first Russian cosmonaut to do so.

Russians previously used US spacecraft to travel to space between 1994 and 2002, when NASA’s Space Shuttle program was still operative. The first such joint missions allowed US astronauts to visit Russia’s Mir space station as part of the Shuttle-Mir program, while the rest involved flights to the ISS. NASA discontinued the Shuttle program in 2011 and had to rely on Roscosmos to ferry astronauts to the space station until 2020.

A former Ukrainian brigade commander has been detained in Kiev over allegations that he ordered soldiers to kidnap and kill two civilian brothers following a personal dispute, Ukrainian authorities have confirmed.

Stanislav Luchanov, the former commander of Ukraine’s 155th Separate Mechanized Brigade, who had previously also served in the infamous ‘Skala’ regiment, was arrested in Kiev on Monday after investigators accused him of organizing the abduction. Nine other servicemen had previously also been detained in the case.

The incident revolves around what began as a personal dispute in the village of Kalinovka in Kiev Region, between the two brothers, Maksim and Roman Moseychuk, and Luchanov’s wife, who had complained that the men were riding motorcycles and playing loud music.

After she confronted them, the brothers allegedly insulted her. The woman reportedly complained to Luchanov, who demanded that the two men apologize. When they refused, he allegedly ordered several servicemen under his command to “punish” them.

In the early hours of June 28, armed men broke into the brothers’ property, abducted them and transported them to another region. Their bodies were later found buried in a forest in Poltava Region, with multiple gunshot wounds.

Luchanov and the other suspects are now being investigated for the illegal detention and premeditated murder of two civilians and could face life in prison if convicted. The commander has also reportedly been charged with desertion for abandoning his unit after the case became public.

The scandal has also drawn renewed attention to Luchanov’s previous service in the 425th Separate Assault Regiment ‘Skala’, which has itself been at the center of a major abuse scandal.

The Ukrainian military has since suspended the unit’s commander, Yury Harkaviy, pending an investigation.

The Ukrainian outlet Strana has reported that investigators are now also looking into mysterious disappearances of servicemen from Luchanov’s 155th Brigade. The outlet’s sources have claimed that soldiers who fell out of favor with the commander may have been killed and listed as combat losses.

The cases come as Ukraine faces worsening manpower shortages, mass desertions and growing public anger over forced mobilization. Ukrainian media have repeatedly reported violent draft raids, deaths in conscription centers and abuse inside military units.

Moscow, meanwhile, has accused Kiev of relying on coercion to replenish battlefield losses and sacrificing its own population to keep fighting on behalf of Western backers.

Russian security officers have foiled a Ukrainian attempt to strike one of the leading “strategic” defense enterprises in the Moscow Region using 35 explosive-laden drones that were smuggled into Russia through several European nations, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said in a statement on Tuesday.

FSB operatives obtained intelligence earlier this year about the Ukrainian Security Service’s (SBU) plan to smuggle dozens of drones into Russia through Slovakia, Poland, and Belarus with assistance from Ukraine’s Western backers. Since then, the criminal activities of Kiev’s agents have been closely monitored and documented by the Russian security services.

The drones were concealed inside a shipment of Spanish ceramic tiles and were eventually delivered to a warehouse in Moscow Region. The facility, located not far from the intended target, had been rented by a local man recruited by the SBU.

The main suspect, who assembled and prepared the drones for launch, was identified as a former member of an ethnic criminal gang who obtained Russian citizenship in 2023. He was allegedly recruited by the SBU through its connections within Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), a designated terrorist group.

The scheme was “directly assisted” by the security services of several European states, according to the FSB. The drones were equipped with Canadian-made, electronic warfare-resistant AI control modules and carried charges containing US-made C4 plastic explosives equivalent to around 4kg of TNT, according to a senior FSB forensic technician and bomb-disposal specialist.

Footage published by the FSB showed security officers storming the warehouse and destroying the drones just before they were due to be launched at their target. The operatives detained the main suspect, who had fled the scene and was attempting to contact an “evacuation group” that was supposed to help him reach Ukraine.

The accomplice who rented the warehouse offered armed resistance and was killed in a shootout with officers who stormed his apartment.

On Monday, the FSB reported thwarting another “unprecedented” attack on Russian military airfields that also involved smuggled AI-guided drones. Last week, the agency announced the seizure of 13 AI-powered UAVs that the Ukrainian military intelligence service (HUR) had smuggled into Russia in a bid to stage an attack on a military airfield in Rostov Region in the south of the country.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that any Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory will be met with significantly stronger retaliation. 

Putin made the remarks on Monday while addressing the ‘All for Victory!’ forum organized by the All-Russian People’s Front, where he discussed the Ukraine conflict and Moscow’s response to Western backing for Kiev. 

“Our response will always mirror any strike on Russian territory. We will respond in kind – only several times more powerfully,” Putin said. “The enemy will feel it. They already do, I hope. And they will feel it even more in the future.” 

Russia’s strength lies in its ability to overcome “every difficulty and every challenge,” while the “Russophobic” part of the collective West continues to wage a campaign against the country, Putin said. 

Despite the pressure, Russia is “developing its economy, strengthening its financial system, modernizing its Armed Forces and expanding its defense industry,” he said, adding that these efforts are already changing “the situation on the battlefield.” 

“Our fighters are advancing,” Putin said. “That is why there is no doubt we will achieve victory.” 

In late June, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky announced a 40-day pressure campaign, combining long-range strikes and clandestine operations aimed at inflicting economic damage on Russia. 

Moscow has condemned the attacks as indiscriminate acts of terrorism intended to distract from Ukraine’s battlefield setbacks, responding with an expanded campaign of long-range strikes. 

Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, Olga Stefanishyna, is expected to leave her post as she faces a corruption probe over a cut-price Kiev apartment purchase, the Financial Times has reported.

The development comes as Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky launches a sweeping government reshuffle following his meeting with US President Donald Trump at last month’s NATO summit, less than a year after a previous cabinet shake-up. Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko is set to step down and according to media reports is expected to replace Stefanishyna in Washington.

A June 2025 investigation by Ukrainian outlet Hromadske alleged that Stefanishyna’s mother, Nadezhda Kravets, purchased a 100-square-meter apartment in Kiev’s Lvivska Ploshcha residential complex in the fall of 2022 for just 3.04 million hryvnias (around $83,000). Comparable units from the developer were selling for about 12 million hryvnias ($300,000) at the time, according to the outlet.

Hromadske also reported that the Lvivska Ploshcha apartment was absent from Stefanishyna’s asset declaration. She did disclose another 74-square-meter apartment owned by her mother in Kiev, but journalists said they found no trace of that property in the state real estate registry. The outlet noted that the database only became fully operational in the early 2010s and does not include all older records.

Stefanishyna later denied any wrongdoing in an interview with investigative outlet Bihus.info, saying her parents had invested in the apartment in 2019, when units were selling for about 29,000 hryvnias (around $1,100) per square meter. 

Prior to her Washington assignment, Stefanishyna served as Ukraine’s deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration and as minister of justice.

The reshuffle comes as Kiev faces mounting military and economic pressure alongside a series of high-profile corruption scandals. Last November, Western-backed anti-corruption agencies uncovered an alleged $100 million graft scheme at state energy giant Energoatom involving businessman Timur Mindich – known in Ukrainian media as “Zelensky’s wallet” – along with former Energy Minister German Galushchenko and former Deputy Prime Minister Aleksey Chernyshov.

Russia has no intention of providing proof to the Baltic states over claims that they allowed Ukrainian drones to use their airspace for attacks on Russian territory, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia last week issued a joint demarche after Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin said Moscow had “verified data” showing that Baltic states had provided air corridors for Ukrainian drones attacking Russian civilian infrastructure.

The three countries said the accusations were “completely unfounded” and denied opening their airspace for the strikes.

Responding to the demarche on Monday, Peskov stated that Russia’s military and special services “see where things fly from and how they fly.”

“This is well known to everyone, and we are not going to prove anything to anyone here,” he said, adding that Moscow is closely tracking the sources of threats to Russian border areas and regions deeper inside the country.

Russia has repeatedly noted that Ukrainian drones have crossed or crashed in Baltic airspace while targeting Russian territory. Moscow has argued that such routes would require either the consent of the countries involved or a failure of their air defenses.

Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said in June that Tallinn was “not happy” about Ukrainian drones entering its airspace, but added that Estonia was not telling Kiev to stop because the incidents were part of the conflict with Russia.

Moscow has accused the Baltic states of playing with fire by allowing their territory to be used for hostile actions. Russian officials have warned that if neighboring countries knowingly help facilitate Ukrainian drone strikes, Moscow would consider them complicit in the attacks and would have the right to self-defense under the UN Charter.

Russian and Chinese warships have conducted live-fire drills in the Yellow Sea as part of the annual Joint Sea naval exercises, the Russian Pacific Fleet announced on Monday.

The sea phase of the drills involved vessels from Russia’s Pacific Fleet and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy. The crews practiced countering modern threats, including simulated attacks by drones and unmanned boats.

Over several days, ships from the joint detachment, which included guided missile cruisers, submarines, destroyers, and rescue vessels, used naval artillery and shipboard machine guns to repel a mock attack by unmanned aerial and surface systems. Electronic warfare systems were also used to suppress a simulated mass attack.

The crews also practiced joint maneuvering, anti-submarine warfare, engaging simulated enemy surface vessels, and search-and-rescue operations, according to the Pacific Fleet.

The Joint Sea-2026 exercises began on July 6. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov previously stated that the drills are not directed against any country, and that military cooperation between Moscow and Beijing contributes to regional security.

Russia and China have expanded military cooperation alongside closer political and economic ties in recent years. Moscow and Beijing have described their relationship as a comprehensive strategic partnership, while repeatedly stressing that it is not directed against third countries.

Russian security officers have thwarted a major plot by the Ukrainian intelligence agencies to smuggle AI-guided drones inside the country and use them to target a key defense industry enterprise and military airfields, the Federal Security Service (FSB) has said.

The failed operation, which was “unprecedented in scale and the level of threat,” had been prepared by Ukrainian spies with the direct involvement of their Western handlers, the agency said in a statement on Monday.

The FSB operatives were able to obtain information about plans by the Ukrainian intelligence agencies to deliver explosive-laden FPV drones and mobile ground control stations for them to Russia’s Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, it said.

All of the criminal actions of Kiev’s agents were then closely monitored and documented by the Russian special services, the FSB said.

The drone parts had been placed in containers and flown into Russia using fixed-wing UAVs and balloons, it said.

The drones parts ended up being delivered to areas adjacent to the Ukrainka airfield in Amur Region in Russia’s Far East and Shagol airfield in Chelyabinsk Region in the Urals, the FSB said. The UAVs had been assembled and prepared for deployment in garages rented by the suspects, it added.

The agency said that at that moment “the perpetrators and accomplices involved in the terrorist plots were detained.”

The operatives seized a total of 24 FPV drones, which carried explosive charges equivalent to more than 1 kg of TNT and were equipped with British, US, Canadian, and Swedish-manufactured, electronic warfare-resistant AI control modules, it said.

They also confiscated two mobile ground control stations, which were fitted with self-destruct charges, and communication devices used by the Ukrainians agent to contact their handlers, the FSB said.

At least 11 civilians have been killed and more than ten others injured in Ukrainian drone attacks across Russian regions overnight, local authorities have reported. Over 340 UAVs were intercepted overnight, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

In Moscow Region, three people were killed in the settlement of Pionersky after a drone came down in a residential area. Three others were also injured, and five private homes caught fire.

The deadliest attacks were reported in Energodar, the city that hosts the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant. Seven civilians were killed and four others injured there on Sunday, Rosatom head Aleksey Likhachev said. A Ukrainian drone struck a bus stop in the morning, killing four people and injuring four others, one of them seriously.

Also on Sunday, an FPV drone hit a civilian car at the entrance to the city, killing all three people inside. According to local officials, Ukrainian UAVs then remained in the area after the attack, hampering emergency response efforts.

The Defense Ministry in Moscow reported on Monday morning that Russian air defense systems had intercepted a total of 342 Ukrainian drones since Sunday evening across multiple regions, including near the capital.

Russian air defenses have shot down more than 60 Ukrainian drones approaching Moscow, Mayor Sergey Sobyanin has said. Officials described the assault as one of Kiev’s largest attempted UAV raids on the Russian capital in recent years.

Sobyanin posted a string of updates on Telegram on Sunday as Russian air defenses continued to intercept incoming UAVs, with the number of drones downed near Moscow rising from 50 to more than 60 by the end of the day.

“Most of these drones were intercepted by air defense systems at long range before reaching the area,” Sobyanin said earlier, adding that around 300 UAVs had targeted the Moscow Region over the previous 24 hours. According to the mayor, only 45 drones were intercepted on direct approach to the city itself, with the majority destroyed farther from the capital.

The attacks also disrupted air traffic around the capital. Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsia) temporarily restricted operations at Moscow’s Vnukovo and Domodedovo airports, saying the measures were introduced to ensure flight safety.

The assault is the latest in a series of intensified Ukrainian long-range attacks. In late June, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky announced the launch of a 40-day pressure campaign involving long-range strikes and clandestine operations, with the stated goal of damaging the Russian economy. The announcement was followed by an uptick in attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure, maritime traffic believed to be carrying Russian oil, and assorted civilian sites.

The bulk of the Russian strikes have been focused on the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, with multiple military plants, drone assembly and storage facilities, and weaponry stockpiles targeted over the past weeks.

The Russian military has conducted strikes on the Ukrainian port of Chernomorsk, in Odessa Region, hitting several moored vessels, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.

The strikes were aimed at “diminishing the adversary’s capabilities to transport weaponry and military hardware in the Black Sea operational zone,” the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. At least four vessels were hit, including a ro-ro ferry, a bulker, a patrol boat, and a fishing vessel converted into a sea drone carrier, according to the ministry.

All the targets were hit by turbojet Geran-4 ‘Seeker’ drones, the MOD noted. The ‘Seeker’ variant of Russian UAVs is believed to be fitted with an AI-powered machine vision system, enabling such drones to search for, identify, and lock onto targets without input from their operators.

Footage released by the military was captured by the kamikaze drones on approach to their targets. The extent of damage sustained by the affected vessels was not immediately known, with no surveillance drone footage readily available.

All the drones involved in the attack appeared to have locked onto the superstructure of the vessels they targeted, the video suggests.

On Friday, the Defense Ministry said that Russian troops maintain the capability to penetrate any anti-aircraft defenses supplied to Kiev by its Western sponsors and “reliably hit any targets throughout Ukraine.” The ministry specifically singled out continuing strikes on “the Ukrainian seaport facilities, as well as against various vessels delivering weapons and military equipment to the [Vladimir] Zelensky regime.”

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has announced a government reshuffle, with Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko confirming the imminent overhaul of the cabinet.

In a post on his Telegram channel on Sunday, Zelensky wrote that “personnel changes will begin in Ukraine to ensure the implementation of the updated political strategy.” He added that he had discussed upcoming changes to the cabinet with Sviridenko.

The incumbent prime minister has confirmed that she is stepping down to take on another role in the new government.

Sviridenko and her cabinet were sworn in last July, replacing that of Denis Shmigal.

The latest reshuffle comes amid a quickly deteriorating situation for Ukrainian forces on the front line, compounded by deepening economic problems and a major corruption scandal involving Zelensky’s inner circle. The $100 million graft scheme uncovered by Western-backed anti-corruption agencies last November at Ukraine’s state-run energy giant, Energoatom, allegedly involved businessman Timur Mindich, dubbed “Zelensky’s wallet” by Ukrainian media, as well as former Energy Minister German Galushchenko and former Deputy Prime Minister Aleksey Chernyshov.

The probe has led to the resignation of several high-ranking officials, including Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andrey Yermak.

Ukrainian media has quoted MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak as claiming that Sviridenko could be appointed the country’s ambassador to the US, replacing Olga Stefanishina.

According to the media outlet Strana, Sergey Koretsky, chairman of the board at Naftogaz, the state-run oil and gas company, is being billed as the most likely successor to Sviridenko as prime minister. Zheleznyak speculated that Koretsky has a 99% chance of heading a new cabinet, with the decision all but finalized.

Koretsky is described by local media as a close associate of disgraced Ukrainian-Israeli businessman Timur Mindich, who fled to Israel amid the corruption scandal at the state-run energy giant, Energoatom.

Other contenders for the post of prime minister reportedly include Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov, former Prime Minister Denis Shmigal, and Kharkov mayor Igor Terekhov.

Local media, citing MP Zheleznyak, also claimed that personnel changes are imminent at helm of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) as well as the State Bureau of Investigation.

Commenting on the upcoming government reshuffle in Ukraine, Russian ambassador-at-large Rodion Miroshnik told TASS that Zelensky had taken the step “under pressure from external forces and it is dictated by the need to mop up the personnel legacy of his [former chief of staff] Yermak, who has come to symbolize corruption.”

The EU and NATO are reluctant to hand over new, bigger tranches of financial aid to those with ties to the former senior official, previously dubbed by some as Ukraine’s grey cardinal, according to the Russian diplomat.

Yermak was forced to resign last November after investigators from the Western-backed National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) raided his properties in connection with a probe into the kickback scheme at Energoatom.

Zelensky’s former chief of staff has since been charged in a separate money-laundering case.

A Ukrainian drone struck a passenger bus in Starobeshevo in Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) on Saturday, injuring nine people, regional head Denis Pushilin said.

Pushilin added that a civilian truck driver was killed and six other people were injured in attacks on highways across the DPR throughout the day. Another man was injured in a drone strike in Makeevka, he said.

Four people were injured in Ukrainian drone attacks in Russia’s Belgorod Region. One of the victims was a 13-year-old boy who sustained shrapnel wounds while riding a bicycle, local emergency services said.

Kiev has stepped up attacks on trucks and refineries in recent weeks, creating fuel shortages in Crimea and across western Russia. Strikes on the power grid have also caused blackouts on the Black Sea peninsula, which Ukraine claims as its own territory.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier this month that although the attacks on energy infrastructure had caused disruptions, they would not stop the advance of the Russian army on the front line. Last week, Russia captured Konstantinovka, one of the last strongholds held by Ukraine in the DPR.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak said this week that the authorities would bolster air defenses and send additional fuel supplies to the regions hardest hit by the shortages.

Civilians from the recently-liberated Donbass city of Konstantinovka have shared their harrowing stories of abuse at the hands of Ukrainian troops exclusively with RT’s Roman Kosarev. By contrast, Russian forces helped evacuees to navigate their way to safety, at times risking life and limb.

The Russian military announced last Friday that its forces had seized the heavily fortified Ukrainian stronghold, which is part of the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk-Konstantinovka agglomeration in the northwest of Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). Commenting on the development, President Vladimir Putin said that Konstantinovka is the “key to liberating the entire” region.

On Saturday, RT correspondent Kosarev visited the city of Gorlovka, where several temporary accommodation centers for refugees from the locality had been set up. He spoke with some of the civilians who had managed to make it out of Konstantinovka alive and reached Russian positions.

Ukrainian troops viewed residents who remained in the city as potential traitors, with men also living in constant dread of being forcibly mobilized, RT’s correspondent heard. Kiev’s forces would strike houses where civilians were holed up with kamikaze drones, according to the refugees’ testimonies.

Cases of pillage were also an everyday occurrence in Konstantinovka, with Ukrainian military personnel taking pretty much anything they wanted from any house, the survivors recounted.

Refugees also expressed gratitude to Russian service members, who took personal risks to help evacuate them from the danger zone. Drones proved particularly useful in guiding civilians toward relatively safer positions, where they were greeted by Russian troops.

Watch the full report below:

The Russian military is capable of “reliably penetrating” any Ukrainian air defenses and striking targets throughout the country, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.

The ministry made the remarks on Saturday, following a large-scale, long-range, overnight attack on Ukrainian arms production facilities and other related targets. According to Moscow, these included several drone assembly and storage sites located in Kiev, as well as port infrastructure, military storage sites, and fuel depots in Izmail, Chernomorsk, and Yuzhny in Odessa Region.

The evaluation of the ongoing long-range strike campaign has confirmed that the Russian military is able to “reliably penetrate any anti-aircraft air or missile defense systems provided to [Vladimir] Zelensky by Western sponsors,” the MOD stated.

The troops are capable of “reliably [hitting] any targets throughout Ukraine,” and the geography of the strikes is not limited to “the supposedly best-defended Kiev, where Zelensky has now deployed virtually all available Western missile defense systems,” it stressed.

According to Zelensky, the latest Russian attack involved more than 120 drones and 12 missiles, half of which were ballistic. While “most” of the targets were intercepted, all the ballistic missiles went through, he claimed. In recent weeks, the Ukrainian leadership has repeatedly complained that its ability to fend off Russian ballistic missiles is dwindling, urging the country’s Western sponsors to provide with more interceptor missiles.

“Nothing will help him. He’s like a tick that has burrowed into the flesh of the Ukrainian people that can’t get enough blood,” Zakharova stated.

In recent weeks, Moscow has ramped up long-range attacks on Ukraine’s military industry and dual-use infrastructure. The Russian Defense Ministry maintains the strikes come in response to terrorist attacks by Kiev against Russian civilian infrastructure, which have intensified amid the string of setbacks suffered by the Ukrainian military on the battlefield.

Last week, Moscow announced the liberation of Konstantinovka, a major Donbass city located on the southernmost tip of the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration, the last major stronghold under Kiev’s control in the region.

A former executive at Ukraine’s state nuclear operator Energoatom is suspected of laundering more than $500,000, the country’s anti-corruption authorities have announced. The investigation is part of a $100 million corruption scandal at the energy giant, which involves a one-time member of Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s inner circle, as well as several high-ranking officials.

Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, the country’s energy sector has been heavily reliant on foreign aid.

In a press release on Friday, the Western-backed National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) announced that they have sent a suspicion notice to a former executive director who was responsible for the physical protection and security of Energoatom facilities, accusing him of laundering more than 30 million hryvnias ($674,000) of illicit proceeds between 2023 and ⁠2025.

The suspect, who has been given the nickname ‘Tenor’, had allegedly made use of cryptocurrency and registered all assets in the name of a personal acquaintance in an effort to cover his tracks. The man, identified by local media as Dmitry Basov, supposedly used the money to purchase real estate in Ukraine and in Bali, as well as two Mercedes and other items.

The probe is part of the ⁠Midas case, which centers on an alleged extortion ring at Energoatom led by businessman Timur Mindich, dubbed “Zelensky’s wallet” by Ukrainian media.

Mindich, however, managed to flee to Israel hours before the authorities could apprehend him.

The corruption scandal sent shockwaves through the Ukrainian government, as the alleged ring also involved former Energy Minister German Galushchenko, his former deputy, and former Deputy Prime Minister Aleksey Chernyshov.

Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, was forced to resign over suspected links to the scheme, and has since been charged in a separate money-laundering case.

In February, Galushchenko, who served as energy minister from 2021 to July 2025, was detained as he attempted to escape to Poland and subsequently charged with money laundering. The former official is suspected of moving tens of millions of dollars to a shell company registered in Anguilla, a British Overseas Territory and a known tax haven, at Mindich’s behest.

Last summer, Zelensky attempted to strip NABU and SAPO of their independent status, but was forced to walk back the controversial decision amid protests and threats of aid suspension. The two anti-corruption agencies were established under Western pressure after the 2014 coup in Kiev.

Warsaw and Kiev may stand on the same side of today’s geopolitical divide, but they remain separated by one of the darkest crimes of the twentieth century. Their dispute over the Volyn massacre has intensified in recent months, turning historical memory into a diplomatic battlefield. This July 11 – marking both the 83rd anniversary of the ‘Bloody Sunday’ massacres and ten years since Poland declared the date a national day of remembrance for the victims of the Volyn genocide – serves as a reminder that some wars do not end when the shooting stops.

The Second World War is usually seen as a confrontation between giant military alliances. However, in reality, many smaller separate conflicts unfolded within this epic war, and the struggle between peoples and countries was often conducted without compromise or mercy. One of the darkest and least-known pages of the Second World War is the Volyn massacre – an ethnic cleansing carried out by pro–Nazi Ukrainian nationalist groups in the Volyn region, which is now almost entirely part of Ukraine.

Volhynia has historically been a border zone. These swampy forests were part of Russia in the Middle Ages and later became part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth – the Polish state in its heyday. The partitioning of Poland brought Volhynia into the Russian Empire. After the First World War, the Bolshevik Revolution, and the Russian Civil War, Volhynia was once again part of an independent Poland. In short, this region, although a bit of a backwater, has changed hands often.

By the beginning of the Second World War, it was a good agricultural region with a diverse population. Approximately 70% of the region’s inhabitants were Ukrainians, 16% were Poles, and another 10% were Jews. In the first two decades of Poland’s renewed independence, Ukrainian national organizations were banned in Volhynia, and, most importantly, poverty was a very acute problem. The level of urbanization was extremely low, and there was little good land for peasants in Volhynia. National tensions had already existed, but their roots stemmed from economic problems. The Polish minority was, on average, more prosperous, and the central authorities distributed Volhynia’s best plots of land among Polish veterans.

Naturally, redrawing the borders did not make national tensions disappear. The Polish minority was not happy about this at all, and the Polish government sitting in exile in London was not prepared to give up even an inch of land. The Polish government continued to see the ‘Kresy’ – the disputed territories in western Belarus and Ukraine – as its own territory.

In 1941, the Nazis began a grandiose campaign of conquest against Russia. The beginning of the war was disastrous for the Soviet Union. The Red Army immediately suffered a series of heavy defeats, and the Germans occupied Volhynia within literally one or two weeks.

However, the Nazis’ grip on Volhynia was not that tight. It wasn’t very important to them from a strategic or economic standpoint, so only a few cities were actually held by German forces. Moreover, there were a number of different guerrilla-insurgent groups operating in the countryside. The Polish ‘Home Army’ saw its task as restoring Polish rule. Soviet partisans fought against the Nazis in the interests of their own country. Volhynia was also one of the key centers of activity for the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. Although it tried to play an independent role, the OUN initially operated under the patronage of the Nazis and the organization itself was divided into factions.

However, all of the Ukrainian nationalist movements were united in their opposition to Volhynia’s non-Ukrainian populations. The OUN’s policy paper, ‘Instructions for the First Days of the Organization of State Life’, explicitly stated: “National minorities are divided into those friendly and hostile to us.” The latter included “Muscovites, Poles and Jews.” “Friendly” differed from “hostile” only in that “friends… can return to their homeland.” According to this document, “hostile” national minorities were subject to “destruction in the struggle.” This masterpiece of rhetoric was accompanied by the remark: “Our government should be terrible to its opponents. Terror for alien-enemies and their traitors.” In the text that follows, the ethnic cleansing program is described in detail. It is curious that this cannibalistic manifesto was actually compiled before the beginning of the Soviet-German war in May of 1941. Initially, there was a kind of segregation – the anti-Semitism of the Ukrainian nationalists brooked no exceptions, while the Poles planned to destroy “only” the intelligentsia and assimilate the ordinary peasants.

With the outbreak of the war, the nationalists followed the Wehrmacht with calls to destroy “Moscow, Poland, Magyars and Jews”, accompanied by demands that the population obey the OUN and its leader, Stepan Bandera. In fact, nationalist auxiliary units began killing Jews even before the Nazis did. The attitude of the nationalists towards national minorities was generally more vicious and uncompromising than the Germans’, and the range of people subject to unconditional murder was wider. The nationalists even tried to use the Gestapo to organize ethnic cleansing.

However, the honeymoon of the Nazis and the Ukrainian nationalists turned out to be short-lived. The Germans came to see nationalist leader Bandera and his plans to create an independent Ukraine as obstacles to their own plans, which didn’t envision any independent states within the occupied territories of the USSR. Bandera was quickly arrested. The Germans used the nationalists within their own units, and the OUN decided to change course. So as not to play into the hands of Moscow, they did not fight the Nazis. In fact, clashes with the Germans were random and rare. The nationalists operated underground and were mainly engaged in propaganda for quite a long time. They had enough weapons – some were received from the Germans in the summer of 1941, some were retrieved from battlefields, and others were obtained by bribing the occupying forces.

By the end of 1942, it became clear that Germany was losing the war, and the nationalists’ plans changed. They were still planning an armed uprising, but the solution to the “issue of national minorities” was updated again. The attitude towards the Russians softened – now only “activists” were to be destroyed. Jews were only to be deported since they were considered to have “great influence.” But the Poles – the largest national minority in Volhynia – were to be dealt with in the most brutal way: “to evict everyone and destroy those who refuse to leave.”

At the beginning of 1943, the Ukrainian auxiliary police formed by the Nazis began to desert en masse and join the ranks of the OUN. In total, up to 5,000 former policemen went underground. These people had already managed to participate in the extermination of Jews as part of the Holocaust, as well as the murders of Russians and Belarusians. The Nazi occupation of the USSR was insanely cruel. Without exaggeration, the population of the occupied territories spent two to three years inside a meat grinder. In many areas, up to a quarter of the population was killed through executions and village burnings, as well as organized famines and humanitarian catastrophes. Many villages and even small towns were completely massacred. Auxiliary nationalist units were often directly responsible for perpetrating these acts of intimidation and genocide. As is easy to guess, these people did not suffer from an excess of scruples or moral principles.

By April of 1943, Soviet partisans, who were no choirboys themselves after witnessing many atrocities, were horrified to report:

“A hundred members of the national army have been tasked with destroying Poles in Tsuman District. The local population was slaughtered and settlements in Zaulok, Galinovsk, etc. were burned down. On March 29, 18 people were hacked to death in the village of Galinovk.  The rest fled into the forest. Bandera nationalists were led to a Polish doctor by his wife, and they cut off the doctor’s ears and nose. Up to 50 Poles were shot in the village of Pundynki.”

After a short discussion, the leadership of the OUN approved the mass extermination of Poles. The key instigator of this purge was Dmitry Klyachkovsky, aka ‘Klim Savur’, who had previously been arrested for extremism in both Poland and the USSR. Having escaped from a Soviet prison during the Wehrmacht offensive, he now became the architect of the massacre as one of the key commanders of OUN forces.

The attacks were preceded by primitive propaganda campaigns. One of the rioters, Juhim Orlyuk, later told the USSR’s secret police during interrogation:

“In approximately May or June of 1943, two people arrived in the village of Mogilnoye. There was one named Vladimir Volynsky who the villagers called ‘Iron’. He was from the village of Ostrovok, which is about 1 kilometer from the mountains. I didn’t know the other person. They gathered all of Mogilnoye’s Ukrainian residents at the village school and announced that they had been sent by the Ukrainian insurgent army. Next, ‘Iron’ asked those present if they wanted to or were willing to fight the enemy (against whom specifically, he did not say). Those present replied that they were ready. He went on to say that the Germans would lose the war, that a revolution would break out in Germany, that the Red Army would only reach the old border, and that, at that time, the Ukrainian insurgent army, which had a lot of people in it, would rise up, and an independent Ukrainian state would be created.”

Volhynia was not a major area of activity for either Polish or Soviet partisans. The partisan forces in Volhynia were small. The Poles had few weapons, and the Russians were mainly focused on other areas. The Soviet partisan detachments were waging a desperate war against the Germans, and the appearance of a new front was an unexpected problem for them. The Poles created self-defense detachments called plyatsuvki, as well as mobile partisan groups to aid them. Groups of ethnic Poles also operated in Volhynia as part of the Soviet partisan movement. However, all these forces suffered from a severe shortage of weapons and ammunition and were often simply powerless to stop the killers. The Soviet partisans focused mainly on sabotage against German military installations and did not have enough forces or equipment to protect villages. To make matters worse, there was a distinct lack of trust between the Soviet and Polish partisans.

Meanwhile, events were rapidly developing. The incident that kicked off what would later be called the Volyn massacre is considered to be a raid on the village of Paroslya on February 9, 1943. The militants did not waste bullets: Poles were hacked to pieces with axes. A number of villages were dealt with in a similar fashion. In March, the village of Lipniki was destroyed. Among the survivors was a one-and-a-half-year-old baby, who had been accidentally overlooked. The infant, whose grandfather had been stabbed with a bayonet, was found the next morning by chance, lying in the snow among the dead and dying. He would grow up to become the first Polish cosmonaut, Miroslav Germashevsky.

The Nazis used the massacre with truly diabolical ingenuity. Police detachments made up of Polish collaborators who had already killed Ukrainians were brought into Volhynia, so many peasants took the Germans’ atrocities to be revenge by the Poles.

The ethnic cleansing of Volhynia went on for several months, gradually shifting from east to west. The experience the killers had acquired in punitive operations with the Nazi police was not wasted: the massacre was carried out methodically, with the discipline of an army operation. For example, it was characteristic of the Nazis to gather villagers in one building and then burn them alive, and about forty Poles were killed in Guchin in the same manner. A Ukrainian who had hidden a Polish woman was executed along with the Poles. Another common technique was to appear friendly to the Poles at first, so they would not immediately flee, and later gather the victims together in one place under some plausible pretext.

Victims were thoroughly robbed, houses were burned. The murderers tried not only to execute the people but destroy their cultural values as well. After about a hundred Poles had been shot en masse in Poritska, nationalists blew up an 18th-century church with the help of an artillery shell and then set fire to what was left of the building. The commanders did not hesitate to personally participate in the killings. For example, Pyotr Oleinik, aka ‘Aeneas’, who led the OUN forces near Rivne, executed captured Poles himself.

Gender and age were no protection – 438 people were killed in the village of Ostrovki, of whom 246 were children under the age of 14. “The entire Polish population, including infants, was destroyed (cut and chopped up). I personally shot 5 Poles there who were fleeing into the forest,” a captured militant later told Soviet investigators during interrogation about his participation in an attack on another village.

As a rule, the main murder weapons were peasant tools – axes, pitchforks, knives, and hammers. In some cases, places were swept a second time to find people who had managed to hide during the first attack and returned to the ashes. The Poles’ attempts to organize negotiations failed. The Home Army sent Sigmund Rummel, an officer and poet who spoke Ukrainian well, to parlay with the leaders of the OUN. He, as well as the officer and guide accompanying him, were seized and tortured to death.

The peak of the atrocities fell on July 11, 1943, when nationalists ravaged up to a hundred Polish villages at once – villages were cordoned off, after which designated groups entered and carried out reprisals

The killings continued on a smaller scale until the winter of 1944. According to various estimates, from 40,000 to 60,000 Poles were killed in total. Up to 7,000 people escaped by joining Soviet partisan detachments or taking refuge in cities where OUN detachments were not active. In addition to Poles, almost a thousand ‘disloyal’ Ukrainians, more than a thousand Jews, and about 135 Russians were killed. In addition, the forces of the Polish Home Army, as well as pro-German collaborators, killed more than 2,000 Ukrainians.

At the trial, Stelmaschuk tried to dodge the charges, claiming that he had tried to sabotage Klyachkovsky’s order to massacre the Poles. Nevertheless, he was found guilty of murdering 5,000 Poles, sentenced to death, and shot. Pyotr Oleinik, the commander of the OUN forces near Rivne, was shot during a special NKVD operation in February of 1946. Finally, Dmitry Klyachkovsky, the leader and organizer of the massacre, was eliminated thanks to the capture of Stelmaschuk, who revealed his hiding place under interrogation. A large NKVD detachment surrounded and defeated Klim Savura’s detachment, and the executioner himself was mortally wounded during the pursuit.

For modern Ukraine, the Volyn massacre is an inconvenient story. Ukrainian nationalists of the Second World War are considered national heroes, and the fact that these people stained themselves with horrific crimes creates a serious problem – especially since the victims were Poles, and modern Poland is seen as an ally and even a patron of Ukraine. However, this hero worship is unlikely to change anytime soon. Ukraine’s entire public agenda is heavily influenced by nationalists who revere the OUN, so the murderers are destined to remain on a pedestal for now.

Russia has carried out high-precision strikes on Ukrainian military-industrial facilities in Kiev, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has reported.

In a statement released on Saturday, the ministry said Russian forces carried out overnight strikes on the Aerodron facility in Kiev, which manufactures unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

The strikes also hit Fanplit facilities, where Fire Point-2 UAVs are assembled and stored. The location had been disguised as a civilian plywood and furniture manufacturing plant, the ministry added.

The MOD also reported strikes on the ports of Izmail, Chernomorsk, and Yuzhny in Odessa Region, describing them as key logistics hubs used by the Ukrainian armed forces. The targets included fuel storage facilities, military cargo warehouses, weapons and equipment storage sites, and port infrastructure used to support Ukrainian military operations.

According to the Defense Ministry, the overnight barrage was carried out in response to terrorist attacks by Kiev against Russian civilian infrastructure.

Kiev has stepped up long-range drone attacks on energy facilities and civilian targets inside Russia amid continued setbacks on the battlefield. Last week, the Russian Defense Ministry announced the liberation of the key Ukrainian stronghold of Konstantinovka in northwestern Donbass after weeks of heavy fighting, saying the advance opened the way toward the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration – the last two major cities in the region still held by Ukrainian forces.

Russia has condemned the defacing of gravestones at a Soviet World War II military cemetery in the Netherlands.

The war memorial and around 150 gravestones marking the graves of POWs killed by the Nazis were vandalized with red paint in the town of Leusden on Friday.

They were defaced with neo-Nazi, white supremacist and anti-Communist slogans, as well as insults directed at Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky.

“There is no justification for such acts of vandalism,” the Russian Embassy in The Hague told RIA Novosti.

Dutch Defense Minister Dilan Yesilgoz-Zegerius denounced the vandalism as “completely unacceptable.”

“War graves are a final resting place and deserve respect,” she said on X.

Van oorlogsgraven blijf je af. Punt. De bekladding van het Sovjet-ereveld bij voormalig concentratiekamp Amersfoort is volstrekt onacceptabel. Oorlogsgraven zijn een laatste rustplaats en verdienen respect.https://t.co/N8wTbFsBSj pic.twitter.com/qEdrZonUnZ

— Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius (@DefensieMin) July 10, 2026

A total of 865 Soviet soldiers are buried at the cemetery, including 101 POWs who died of starvation or were executed by the Nazis at the nearby Amersfoort concentration camp.

The cemetery in Leusden was previously targeted by vandals in November 2021.

Multiple monuments to Soviet soldiers have been vandalized or demolished across Europe since the Ukraine conflict broke out in February 2022. Russian embassies and consulates have also been targeted by vandals.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the destruction of the memorial “unacceptable for a civilized country.”

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has released newly declassified documents detailing the massacre of Poles by Ukrainian nationalist militias during World War II in what is now western Ukraine.

The release comes as Poland marks its National Day of Remembrance on Saturday honoring the victims of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), the armed wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). The ethnic cleansing campaign in the Volhynia region between 1943 and 1944 claimed the lives of at least 100,000 civilians, according to Polish estimates.

Poland recognizes these tragic events as a genocide. Ukraine, however, celebrates the UPA as freedom fighters, a stance that has led to a high-profile diplomatic dispute between the neighboring countries.

The Soviet archival files released by Russia describe the activities of the OUN unit led by Dmytro Kupyak, known by the nom de guerre Kley, who is believed to have been responsible for killing at least 200 Polish and Soviet nationals, as well as burning and looting eight villages.

On May 16, 1944, during a raid on the village of Kupche, Kley’s unit killed residents “solely because they were ethnic Poles,” the files say. On August 17 that year, the nationalists raided the village of Grabovo, where they locked nine women and children in a shed before burning them alive.

The OUN collaborated with Nazi Germany during the early stages of the invasion of the Soviet Union and participated in anti-Jewish pogroms. The UPA was created in 1942 after the OUN split with the Germans. Many UPA members were defectors from Nazi-led units, including its eventual leader, Roman Shukhevich, who had previously served as deputy commander of the Nachtigall Battalion.

Last month, Polish President Karol Nawrocki stripped Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky of Poland’s highest honor, the Order of the White Eagle, after Zelensky named one of Ukraine’s commando units after “heroes of the UPA.”

Several Ukrainian officials responded by returning their own Polish decorations to Warsaw.

Last weekend, the Russian authorities announced the complete liberation of the city of Konstantinovka, the battle for which had been raging since the end of last year. 

Why did the battle for this city take so long? Is Konstantinovka really strategically important? And why was so much time and effort spent on capturing it? We explore all this below. 

One of the largest cities in Donbass

In terms of size, Konstantinovka (population 98,000 in 2002 and approximately 70,000 in 2022) is the largest city (not urban agglomeration) captured by the Russian Army since the spring of 2022, i.e., following the liberation of Mariupol. The Pokrovsk-Mirnograd agglomeration is larger (its pre-war population, including the suburbs, was up to 200,000 people), but it consists of two cities with a relatively large and less densely populated area between them. This allowed the Russian Army to capture these cities separately, utilizing the area between them to cut through the defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU).

In Konstantinovka, this was not possible since it is a continuous urban area measuring approximately 6 by 12 km. Konstantinovka has 20,000 buildings, about 1,000 of which are multi-storey. In the conditions of modern warfare, each multi-storey building is transformed into a mini-fortress with a developed underground section. The southern part of the city (around Kosmonavtov Boulevard) with its nine-storey panel buildings is particularly challenging in this regard. 

Outpost of the AFU’s main fortress 

After the retreat of Igor Strelkov’s forces from Slaviansk and Kramatorsk in 2014–2015, these two cities became the AFU’s main hub in Donbass. They housed the ATO headquarters, and powerful fortifications made of steel and concrete were erected there. Konstantinovka was part of the perimeter of this fortress, serving as a kind of outpost: to reach Slaviansk and Kramatorsk, Konstantinovka had to be captured first.

Along with Slaviansk and Kramatorsk, Konstantinovka was also fortified for defense: the basements of multi-storey buildings were converted into strongholds, underground heating mains and cable collector tunnels between them were reinforced, cleared of debris, and underground passages were constructed to connect several buildings into a single network. Essentially, the multi-storey buildings were all connected by underground pathways, and one could quickly move and transport cargo from one point to another. 

Similar work was carried out in the industrial zone; most enterprises had ceased operations back in 2014-2015 and were partially demolished or rebuilt for defense in 2015-2020. Weapons, ammunition, and supply depots were also set up in the industrial zone and near the railway station.

Along the city’s perimeter, outside the urban area, field fortifications were created, such as trenches, dugouts, and field strongholds. The outskirts of Konstantinovka – Ilyinovka, Berestok, Pleshcheyevka station, Predtechino, Stupochki, and Novodmitrovka – were also converted into strongpoints and formed a single firing network. 

All this was done in order to delay the Russian army’s advance toward Slaviansk and Kramatorsk – the AFU’s main defense hub not only in Donbass but in the whole of eastern Ukraine.

Russian ‘pincers’

The example of Konstantinovka clearly demonstrates the assault tactics perfected by the Russian Army since 2023 (the time of battles for Bakhmut, Marinka, and Avdeevka).

First and foremost, the Russian Army engages in battles for the flanks and outskirts of a city. This is the longest and, for an outside observer, rather unremarkable process. Fighters of the South Group of Forces approached Konstantinovka from the east as early as December 2025, when Predtechino, Pleshcheyevka station, and Ivanopolye were captured.

Then, in the spring, Novodmitrovka in the north, and Berestok and Ilyinovka in the south, were captured. All battles were fought by small assault groups; they were supplied either by aerial deliveries or from caches that had been airdropped earlier. The advancing Russian forces benefited from the enemy’s poor battle formations: the depletion of the AFU, even in key directions, has reached such a point that an important stronghold or an entire village is sometimes defended by just a few soldiers stationed there without rotation for months on end.

Neither can the AFU redeploy forces to the suburbs – since if the city is left without infantry reinforcements it will suffer the fate of Pokrovsk, the southern part of which was taken by Russian assault units without a fight on July 30-31, 2025. The endeavor to drive them out was slow, bloody, and unsuccessful. 

Therefore, the capture of the suburbs of Konstantinovka at the end of April 2026 meant that the Ukrainian garrison in the city was doomed. The Russian Army established tight fire control over all roads leading into the city, 24/7 air control, and was able to identify and destroy enemy presence in the city from the air. At this point, Russian troops could just stop and wait. 

The main instrument of war

Wait for what? Inevitable Ukrainian counterattacks. Over two dozen assault operations have already been carried out in Donbass, Zaporozhye, and Dnepropetrovsk regions using the above-mentioned strategy. But every time the ‘Russian pincers’ close in around another city, the AFU attempt to break the encirclement with counterattacks and either bring additional forces into the city or, in the final stages of fighting, withdraw the remnants of the doomed garrison.

With the exception of Kupiansk, the AFU has so far failed to achieve this goal. Not because they’re bad fighters – far from it. However, the Russian General Staff has imposed extremely disadvantageous combat tactics on the Ukrainian command. The AFU lack firepower, they have significantly fewer personnel (especially assault forces), no aerial bombs, virtually no rocket artillery, and so on. Furthermore, they lack the years of experience in assault operations that the Russian Army possesses. 

In short, the Ukrainian forces are virtually incapable of counterattacking. And to defend its position, an army has to carry out constant counterattacks. In battle, in order to stand still, one has to constantly move forward, and that’s something the AFU are almost incapable of doing – or, rather, are capable of only in certain sections of the front.

What is notable is that, compared to the flanks, there was virtually no fighting in the city: Russian assault units infiltrated city blocks in small groups, accumulated forces, achieved local superiority, and with the help of detailed aerial reconnaissance, engaged in clearing operations rather than direct combat. The powerful fortifications, which had been prepared for many years, were of no use since there were no people left to defend them.

We may wonder, why the Ukrainian command waits for the inevitable to happen, time and time again? Why doesn’t it withdraw the garrison from the doomed city and thereby preserve its most capable, experienced, and motivated fighters?

The answer is also quite rational: if they abandon Konstantinovka, the situation will repeat itself in Druzhkovka; if they abandon Druzhkovka, Kramatorsk and Slaviansk will suffer the same fate, and so on. The Russians could quickly get to Kiev like that. 

***

The battles for individual cities may seem unremarkable and repetitive. However, as we see, in these battles, the Russian Army has been able to force Ukrainian forces into a particularly unfavorable style of combat. This is evident both at the tactical level – since the AFU are forced to sacrifice reserves in useless counterattacks, suffering significantly higher losses than the Russian Armed Forces – and at the operational level, since Ukrainian forces are forced to cling to doomed cities to somehow hold the defense. 

All this gives the Russian Army a key strategic advantage: initiative on the battlefield, which leads to the attrition of the enemy and hastens the moment when the AFU will be unable to conduct counterattacks and hold the front line. 

This moment will mark the collapse of the AFU and will determine the outcome of the war.

Russia is experiencing fuel shortages caused by Ukrainian drone strikes on its energy infrastructure, Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak has said, adding that the authorities are taking steps to stabilize supplies.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Novak acknowledged “there are problems and there is a deficit [on the fuel market], which is why we are seeing lines [at gas stations].” He said the shortages were caused by some oil refineries being temporarily out of commission for repairs following drone strikes.

The government is strengthening air defenses around refineries, ensuring plants operate at maximum capacity, and sending additional fuel to the hardest-hit regions, Novak said.

He added that a temporary ban on gasoline and diesel exports has been introduced to stabilize the domestic market. The measure is currently set to remain in effect until July 31.

Ukraine has stepped up long-range drone strikes on Russia in recent weeks, targeting oil refineries, gas compression stations, and fuel tankers. The attacks have disrupted fuel supplies and caused localized shortages, particularly in Crimea.

President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Kiev aims not only to damage Russia’s economy but also to spread panic among the population. He argued that the effort would fail because “Russia’s energy system has one of the highest resilience margins in the world.”

The Kremlin has said Moscow would intensify strikes on Ukrainian military-related infrastructure in response to what it describes as Ukrainian “terrorist attacks” on Russian civilian facilities.

The publication in The Economist magazine of an article by Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko is, by today’s standards, highly unusual.

Here is a major businessman who continues to operate in Russia, doesn’t set himself against the Russian authorities and is under Western sanctions because of it. However, it would be naive to think that a leading British publication with a clear ideological outlook printed such an article purely out of devotion to pluralism.

Naturally, Melnichenko’s candid reflections on the challenges facing Russia have been presented as evidence of a split in the Russian ruling class, or as a sign of rebellious sentiment among big business, but the real logic of his argument is of little interest to the British audience. Moreover, it’s inconvenient, because it disrupts a neat and comforting picture of the world, and that picture may be the most interesting part of the reaction to his article.

Russia’s business community was formed in the era of globalization and not because Russian entrepreneurs were all desperate to become part of transnational business, but because the collapse and self-dissolution of the Soviet Union coincided with the worldwide spread of liberal globalization. The Russian Federation, carrying out economic reforms in emergency conditions during a profound social and economic crisis, immediately found itself inside that global context.

There was no alternative model on offer, thus the global cosmopolitan economy was treated as the natural order of things and whether one liked it or not, it appeared to embody the famous “end of history” where the global West, with its ideas about what was right, inevitable and modern, had been crowned for an indefinite reign.

It would be too simple to describe this only as malice or greed by the hegemon and nothing personal, as victors have always written the rules and, in this case, the rules weren’t even especially predatory. Globalization did offer opportunities to many, though in measured doses and according to rank, but the main beneficiaries were always supposed to remain those who had created the system.

The erosion of that system began when it became clear that the dividends could also flow to others, above all China. The rollback of liberal globalization wasn’t caused mainly by revisionist powers but driven by those who had designed and built the system, then found themselves unpleasantly surprised by growing competition within it.

The wider history of globalization is a separate subject, but the rapid shift in the global balance of power, rising anger over inequality and political imbalances, and shocks such as the pandemic have all undermined the supposedly correct model of the world economy. The “end of history” has given way to historical infinity and unipolarity hasn’t simply been replaced by multipolarity, but by a far wider range of possible futures.

This has a direct bearing on Melnichenko’s article and on its reception in a British magazine. In the West, the crisis of globalization is now acknowledged, albeit reluctantly, and there is even a growing acceptance that there may be no return to the old order, that the world is not guaranteed to move along the “right” path, and that new methods and strategies are needed.

Meanwhile, the real discussion in Russia about its problems and its uncertain future is taking place in a very different context and with very different aims, and it’s not always uplifting, but it’s also no longer framed by the old assumptions.

Whether Western leaders intended this or not, the punitive measures imposed on Russia since 2022 have transformed the Russian business community. Russian business itself became a target of sweeping Western pressure, while its rights and interests in Western countries largely ceased to be respected and, as a result, the globalized model of activity and consciousness that had taken shape since the end of the last century is simply no longer viable.

This isn’t only a Russian story because the system of no-alternative globalization has failed more broadly, which means the question facing all major economic players is now how to defend their interests and secure development in an increasingly fragmented, though still closely interconnected, world. It won’t be possible to continue as before, but how to act differently remains to be worked out, because the current world system is both highly conflict-ridden and still indivisible and in many respects, there is no historical precedent to follow.

This is what Melnichenko is writing about.

Russian big business has ceased to be globalized, if globalization means integration into a single system with one center of authority. It’s lost any illusion of equality with Western players, if such illusions ever existed. It has not, however, stopped being international and it doesn’t accept isolation. The key point now is reliance on Russia’s own national base, and the expansion and development of that base.

It would be foolish to claim that sanctions and other punitive measures haven’t harmed Russia or created new problems. They have, but they’ve also produced a different core and a different understanding of strategic development interests. After the phase of acute military confrontation, the next stage will begin and it will be no less important, and perhaps more important, with national construction suited to the realities of a future world unlike the one to which we had grown accustomed.

The experience of the 1990s through the 2020s may help Russia understand the situation and avoid repeating some mistakes, though even that’s not guaranteed. But as a practical guide, that experience has largely exhausted itself.

The Soviet legacy has fully faded and the orientation toward the West, with the aim of becoming part of it, has long ceased to be relevant, while orientation toward China, with the risk of becoming an appendage of a very powerful partner, is dangerous and autarky is impossible.

What remains is accelerated self-development in building resilience and self-sufficiency through the diversification of interests and partnerships, rather than isolation. This doesn’t apply only to Russia, and it’s now the approach of almost everyone, but the difference is that each country has a different level of potential.

Russia’s potential is enormous, but it will have to be realized in a different way. That’s what Melnichenko is writing about. What’s more, this isn’t a tactical question, but a strategic one, and the strategy has yet to be worked out.

This article was first published by Russia in Global Affairs, translated and edited by the RT team

Germany should stop the war it is waging against Russia by arming Ukraine instead of urging Moscow to end the conflict, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said. She was responding to remarks by a German Embassy staffer about fuel shortages in Russia caused by Ukrainian drone strikes on civilian energy infrastructure.

On Monday, Lena Hillermeier, the second secretary at the German Embassy in Moscow, posted a video on the mission’s Telegram channel filmed near a Moscow gas station. Speaking in Russian, she claimed officials in the Kremlin “are discussing ways to overcome the current fuel deficits,” with “sales restrictions, imports from abroad, [and] the strengthening of air defenses” reportedly among the options under consideration.

“We have a much easier idea – stop the aggressive war against Ukraine,” the diplomat added.

Responding on her Telegram channel on Thursday, Zakharova said Moscow agreed with the German diplomat’s proposal, but with one important qualification.

“It is high time Berlin put an end to the aggressive war [it is waging against Russia] by proxy of the Kiev regime,” she wrote.

“For the time being, concerned German diplomats would be advised to use public transport, where they can also learn how WWII ended and who the Banderites [followers of Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera] are,” Zakharova concluded.

Speaking on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said “it is abundantly clear that the adversary is seeking to damage our economy, but above all to create an atmosphere of anxiety in society.”

“This goal is impossible to achieve,” he stated, adding that “Russia’s energy system has one of the highest resilience margins in the world.” Putin also urged officials to work more closely with energy companies to eliminate local fuel shortages.

Moscow has accused Kiev of carrying out “terrorist attacks” and has pledged systematic retaliatory strikes against military-related infrastructure across Ukraine.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky and military intelligence chief Kirill Budanov “personally cleared” the killing of a woman suspected in last week’s Monaco bombing attack, former Ukrainian diplomat Andrey Telizhenko has told RT.   

Telizhenko suggested on Thursday that “the orders were given by the office of the Zelensky regime within Budanov’s quarters, and Zelensky basically gave a green light for this to happen.”  

The remarks came days after Ukrainian authorities detained a serving military intelligence (HUR) officer and a former law enforcement officer over the killing of Anastasia Berezovskaya, the main suspect in the Monaco car bombing that seriously wounded Ukrainian businessman Vadim Yermolaev. Prosecutors said the HUR officer initially confessed to the murder before changing his testimony, while investigators said Berezovskaya had been in contact with him before the attack and was later found buried outside Kiev with a gunshot wound to the head.  

The alleged operation, he argued, was intended to shift the blame for the Monaco bombing. “Everybody’s being set up by somebody higher up. This is how the system works,” he said.   

Telizhenko further stated that European governments bear responsibility because “they financed this” and were helping Ukraine carry out attacks “not just in Russia, but all over the globe now.”

Watch RT’s full interview below:

The NATO summit held in Türkiye this week proved “humiliating” for Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.

Zakharova noted that despite the Ukrainian leader once again pressing Western backers for more money and weapons as Russian forces continue advancing along the front line, there was “no meaningful response” to his latest “wish list.”

The July 7-8 summit in Ankara was marked by efforts to project NATO unity despite lingering disagreements over defense spending and the Ukraine and Iran conflicts. While bloc members reaffirmed support for Kiev, they announced no major new commitments, with a €70 billion ($80 billion) pledge largely repackaging existing funds.

The summit’s final declaration also omitted any mention of Ukraine’s long-standing NATO membership bid, which Zakharova described as Zelensky’s “biggest disappointment.”

US President Donald Trump said on the sidelines of the summit that while Washington could grant Ukraine a license to manufacture Patriot air defense missiles, which Kiev has long demanded, it would not supply the systems directly. No other NATO member announced new military aid.

Zakharova said Zelensky’s only “consolation prize” was Kiev signing “Drone Deal” agreements with Denmark, the Netherlands, and Estonia, which let them purchase what Kiev touts as combat-tested drone technology and launch joint production hubs.

Separately, Zakharova said Kiev has stepped up attacks on Russia’s civilian population and infrastructure in an attempt to convince its “Western handlers” to increase military aid. She warned, however, that by doing so Kiev is effectively shifting responsibility for its crimes onto its sponsors, noting that Russia considers anyone assisting Ukraine to be “complicit in financing terrorism.”

Ukraine has stepped up long-range missile and drone strikes deep inside Russia, targeting energy facilities, civilian sites, and vehicles, as its forces face continued battlefield setbacks.

People suspected of taking part in an anti-draft riot in Lviv, Ukraine were apparently intimidated into apologizing on camera, according to disturbing videos shared by military-linked activists.

The unrest in the western Ukrainian city occurred Wednesday, when dozens of people attacked a draft patrol that allegedly abused a potential recruit. The footage suggests that extrajudicial measures were subsequently used to suppress discontent.

One video that went viral on Thursday shows a visibly shaken young man on the verge of tears admitting to wrongdoing and saying he would accept any punishment. It appears to have been filmed in a secluded location and was released by a serving military officer following a “disciplinary conversation” with the alleged rioter.

Another video published by a military veteran shows a group of young men being forced to shout “glory to the TCK” and apologize. Ukrainian military offices that enforce compulsory conscription are known as Territorial Centers of Recruitment and Social Support (TCK).

The veteran wrote that Lviv will not be allowed to become the “planet of the apes.” He suggested that the harsher parts of the “disciplinary conversation” could not be posted because Facebook would censor them, and threatened “more terrifying things” for those who played a more active role in the disturbance. He added that legal proceedings could follow if officials decide to pursue them.

The activist compared the unrest in Lviv with the events in Donbass in 2014, when local residents attempted to stop armored vehicles with their bare hands while protesting the armed coup in Kiev. The new government in Kiev sought to suppress the opposition with military force, triggering a civil war that claimed tens of thousands of lives before escalating into a full-scale conflict with Russia in 2022.

An earlier video circulated on Lviv social media shows people wearing police uniforms and civilian clothing detaining suspected rioters.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has condemned those who have resisted the draft in Lviv and pledged that the Interior Ministry will deal with them.

Far-right Ukrainian nationalist groups played a key role in the 2014 coup and the subsequent crackdown in Donbass. Many of their volunteers were later incorporated into Ukrainian military and law enforcement structures and reportedly retain significant political influence despite their radical ideology receiving little support in elections.

According to Ukrainian media reports, some TCK offices employ civilian assistants to assault recruits who resist conscription.

Russian security officers have seized 13 Ukrainian AI-powered drones allegedly smuggled into the country by Kiev’s military intelligence agency for an attack on a military airfield, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Friday.

The FSB said the planned target was an airfield in Russia’s Rostov Region, where the Ukrainian military intelligence service (HUR) allegedly sought to damage assets and kill personnel.

Each aircraft was designed to carry an improvised explosive device with a yield equivalent to more than 1 kg of TNT and was equipped with an AI-based targeting system intended to overcome electronic countermeasures, according to the FSB.

The man recruited to carry out the attack alerted Russian law enforcement and cooperated with the investigation, allowing FSB officers to deceive the HUR into delivering the drones and transferring an advance payment equal to 20% of the promised fee. His voluntary assistance exempts him from criminal liability, the agency said.

Evidence found during forensic analysis of the drones suggests that their AI model was trained at Ukraine’s State Aviation Museum at Zhuliany Airport in Kiev, the FSB said.

Russian troops have rescued a family trapped in the city of Konstantinovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), which was recently liberated from Ukrainian forces after months of intense fighting.

The DPR, a largely Russian-speaking region in Donbass, broke away from Ukraine shortly after the 2014 Western-backed coup in Kiev. The region later voted to become part of Russia in a referendum held in September 2022. Ukraine, however, continued to control parts of the DPR after 2014.

On Friday, Moscow announced the capture of the city at the southernmost edge of the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration, the last major Ukrainian stronghold in the DPR. Russian troops are conducting mop-up operations and clearing mines as fighting continues around Konstantinovka. Drones from both sides continue to fly over streets lined with heavily damaged buildings.

The drone dropped a walkie-talkie to the family of four, after which the soldiers guided them to safety while monitoring them from above.

“It was so epic. At dusk, we went out holding the placard. A drone flew past, looked at us, signaled, and flew away. Then we heard over the radio: ‘Hello, this is the Army of the Russian Federation. Are you ready to go? A little bird will guide you out,’” one of the rescued women said.

Watch the full video below:

A ceasefire with Russia would be the “worst-case scenario” for Ukraine, threatening the country’s statehood, the head of Vladimir Zelensky’s favorite arms manufacturer, Fire Point, has said.

Denis Shtilerman made the remarks in an interview with Ukrainian outlet LIGAnet published on Wednesday. The company, which has recently been embroiled in a number of corruption scandals, stands to profit from the conflict. Shtilerman argued that the fighting should continue regardless, insisting that a truce with Russia would leave Ukraine in an even worse position.

He also questioned whether Kiev’s Western backers would honor any security commitments made as part of a ceasefire.

“Look, if a truce is reached, it would – most regrettably – be the worst-case scenario for our state. We must remember how the US and other countries treat their obligations,” Shtilerman said. “I am talking about international agreements in which they guarantee the territorial integrity and independence of other states. And what do we see? Nothing.”

Shtilerman also said Kiev would be abandoned and forgotten by its backers if a ceasefire is reached – echoing Russian officials who have warned that Ukraine is only useful for the West as a tool against Russia.

Fire Point, which originally operated as a film scouting agency owned by Zelensky’s associates, has emerged as a ‘miracle’ player in Ukraine’s defense sector, producing an array of long-range drones and missiles used to strike deep into Russia. The company has been actively promoted by the Ukrainian leader during his regular overseas trips and has reportedly secured contracts worth up to $1 billion in a matter of months.

The image of the company has been damaged by the corruption scandal related to Zelensky’s inner circle and his former close associate Timur Mindich, the central figure in an alleged $100 million corruption scheme in the energy sector. Surveillance recordings recently published in Ukrainian media suggest Mindich effectively controlled Fire Point while enjoying preferential treatment from then-Defense Minister Rustem Umerov.

Ukrainian special services pressured a Russian man with a criminal record into participating in an attempted drone-bomb assassination of a senior military officer in Moscow Region, the Federal Security Service (FSB) has said.

The suspect, who is in his late 40s, moved to Dnepr, Ukraine, after serving a prison term in Russia for theft and robbery in the 2000s, the agency said on Thursday. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) allegedly recruited him in February by threatening to prosecute his wife.

The suspect received training in sabotage operations before traveling to Russia via Moldova and Armenia. Once there, he rented an apartment and began surveilling the home of the intended target.

His Ukrainian handler allegedly concluded that the best way to carry out the assassination would be to use a small drone armed with an improvised explosive device and shielded from electronic countermeasures.

The man was instructed to recover the IED in Krasnodar Region and then travel to Kiev to be trained in piloting that type of aircraft. In a purported recording of a conversation, the Ukrainian handler said “our foreign friends” had helped design the weapon and would teach the suspect how to use it.

The FSB said its officers arrested the man after he obtained a vacuum-sealed drone payload containing 600 grams of explosive material. The suspect had also allegedly purchased a fake beard and mustache as a disguise.

Last month, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky announced a 40-day campaign targeting Russia with long-range kamikaze drone attacks and clandestine missions.

A Russian woman in her mid-20s has been accused of terrorism and treason after knowingly taking part in a conspiracy to assassinate a senior military official in Moscow, the Federal Security Service (FSB) reported on Thursday.

The suspect was allegedly driven to work for the Ukrainian special services by a romantic relationship with a Ukrainian man, who investigators believe feigned feelings for the young woman in order to recruit her into Kiev’s service.

She said that since contacting her online flame in 2024, she carried out several missions. These allegedly included collecting IP addresses of public WiFi routers in St. Petersburg and surveilling the car of a person she was told was guilty of war crimes and marked for assassination.

Her final task before being evacuated to Ukraine was to rent an apartment in the Russian capital, which she did in March. She placed cameras there that Ukrainian agents used for remote surveillance of the target and stockpiled supplies that the intended assassin would have used after her departure from Russia. The FSB said she was arrested before she could fly to Türkiye.

The agency claimed that the thwarted assassination plot was part of a series of attacks that Ukrainian special services were planning “with direct involvement of Western handlers.” The planned attacks on military infrastructure, a defense plant, and Defense Ministry employees would have been “unprecedented in scale and severity of threat,” the FSB said.

Berezovskaya was allegedly killed by her handlers, one of whom is a military intelligence officer, after returning to Ukraine, the national police reported this week. Kiev claims that the Ukrainian agent went rogue. Moscow said the incident in Monaco demonstrates the terrorist nature of the “Kiev regime.”

An angry crowd attacked and overturned a vehicle carrying draft officers in western Ukraine on Wednesday evening after a press-gang detained a man on the street.

The riot in the city of Lviv is the latest case of spontaneous protests against the ‘busification’ campaign, in which draft officers ambush military-age men in public places and send them to the front line in the conflict with Russia, often using violence against those who resist.

A video from the scene shows protesters accosting the officers before rocking the vehicle and chanting “Shame!”

The regional enlistment office said in a statement that the confrontation began after draft officers and police stopped a man for a routine document check and discovered that he was in violation of unspecified enlistment laws. The man was taken into custody and referred for a medical examination.

Shortly after the detention, an “aggressive” mob blocked a vehicle carrying another group of draft officers at the same location and caused “significant damage” to it, officials said.

Lviv Region Governor Maksim Kozitsky said the rioters should be “identified and brought to justice.” He added that the regional enlistment office would also investigate the actions of the officers. “There is no place for lawlessness,” he wrote on Telegram.

Dmitry Lubinets, Ukraine’s top human rights official, recently requested an investigation into the case of a recruit who died last month in Lviv Region a day after being drafted. According to the man’s family, the authorities failed to notify them of his death for nearly two weeks, and his body showed signs of violence, including multiple bruises.

Ukraine’s attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure will neither destabilize the country’s economy nor create public panic, President Vladimir Putin has said during a meeting with government officials on Wednesday.

Ukraine has stepped up mid- and long-range strikes on targets deep inside Russia, hitting oil refineries, gas compression stations, civilian infrastructure, and vehicles, including those traveling between mainland Russia and Crimea. The attacks have disrupted logistics, affected local fuel supplies, and caused numerous civilian casualties.

“It is abundantly clear that the adversary is seeking to damage our economy, but above all to create an atmosphere of anxiety in the society. We understand that this goal is impossible to achieve,” Putin said during a virtual meeting.

”Russia’s energy system has one of the highest resilience margins in the world,” he added, urging officials to work more closely with energy companies to swiftly address any local fuel shortages.

Moscow has accused Ukraine of carrying out “terrorist attacks” and vowed systematic retaliatory strikes on military-linked infrastructure across Ukraine, including in Kiev. This week, Russian forces launched a large-scale drone and missile barrage, targeting arms production and maintenance facilities, fuel depots, and military airfields.

A video shared by Ukrainian media on Wednesday shows the devastation in the city of Vishnyovoe in Kiev Region where a site that stored a large amount of ammunition in the middle of a residential area was hit by a Russian strike.

The location was struck overnight Sunday into Monday, along with several other sites that Moscow described as part of Ukraine’s military-industrial infrastructure. Videos of the immediate aftermath show numerous secondary detonations. The fact that the facility was located near residential buildings sparked controversy in Ukraine.

The authorities have not provided details about what exactly was destroyed. A military spokesman said the facility was not operated by the Ukrainian military, claiming that “the ban on placing ammo depots and similar objects next to residential areas” remains in place.

New footage purportedly filmed in the area shows buildings reduced to ruins. Official reports previously said seven people were killed and around 200 private homes were damaged. An emergency evacuation of around 50 people was reportedly carried out by armored vehicles immediately after the site was struck, while a broader relocation order affected around 500 people.

The Russian military said it struck two targets in Vishnyovoe: A military oil depot and state-owned munitions producer Vizar, which observers believe likely stored a large amount of its products on-site.

A ruling issued by a court in Ivano-Frankivsk Region last month states that a civilian aviation plant in Kiev was co-opted by a military unit to store high-caliber shells. The plant was struck by Russia twice last year.

Ukrainian drones have targeted a compressor station that forms part of the Blue Stream natural gas pipeline supplying Russian gas to Türkiye, Gazprom said on Wednesday, adding that the attack failed to disrupt deliveries.

According to the Russian energy giant, the Krasnodarskaya pumping station in Russia’s southern Krasnodar Region was targeted in a drone attack early on the morning of July 7, in an attempt to disrupt gas supplies to Türkiye.

Gazprom added that emergency measures taken by personnel prevented any interruption to gas flows through the pipeline, while repair work is underway to fix the damage caused by the attack.

The strike comes as Kiev has intensified long-range drone attacks targeting energy facilities and civilian sites inside Russia amid continued setbacks on the battlefield in recent months. Last week, the Russian Defense Ministry reported the capture of the key Ukrainian stronghold of Konstantinovka, which opens the way towards the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration, the last two remaining cities held by Kiev in Donbass.

Commenting on the latest strike, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia is taking the maximum possible measures to minimize the threat of Ukrainian terrorist attacks against the global energy system. Peskov also expressed hope that Türkiye and other countries would use their influence to dissuade Kiev from carrying out such attacks.

Moscow has said it will respond to Kiev’s actions with “systematic and consistent strikes” on Ukraine’s military infrastructure. According to the Defense Ministry, Russian forces carried out more precision strikes on Ukrainian military-industrial facilities in Kiev in the early hours of Wednesday.

A Ukrainian drone has struck a passenger bus in Russia’s Zaporozhye Region, setting the vehicle ablaze, Governor Evgeny Balitsky has said, adding that all 11 people on board escaped unharmed.

In a post on Telegram, Balitsky said that the attack took place on a road in the Primorsky district on the Black Sea coast, noting that all passengers and two drivers had been evacuated safely. He described the attack as a “targeted strike on a scheduled passenger bus with civilians on board”, “a gross violation of international humanitarian law,” and “another war crime by the rabid Kiev terrorists.”

Rodion Miroshnik, who leads the Russian Foreign Ministry mission responsible for tracking Kiev’s war crimes, suggested that the “terrorist acts” are aimed at intimidating the local population and undermining connectivity in the region.

Ukraine has ramped up long- and mid-range drone strikes into Russia, with many now targeting not only critical infrastructure and civilian buildings, but also all types of vehicles, including those moving between mainland Russia and Crimea.

Last month, a Ukrainian drone hit a bus carrying a Belarusian youth football team in the same region, killing the coach’s wife and injuring several passengers, including children.

Last week’s bombing in Monaco is neither the first nor the last “bloody bite” inflicted by “Kiev regime terrorism” on its Western sponsors, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said.

In an interview with Sputnik Radio on Wednesday, Zakharova said Ukraine’s backers are now facing the consequences of supporting a leadership driven by Nazi ideology – a policy Moscow has long warned against.

Ukrainian-born millionaire Vadim Ermolaev, now a Cypriot citizen, his partner, and son were injured in Monaco last week when a backpack bomb exploded outside a residential building.

Ukrainian investigators said the main suspect, Ukrainian national Anastasia Berezovskaya, who was later found dead, had communicated with two men before the blast, including a serving officer in Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (HUR) who later confessed to killing her with an accomplice.

Zakharova said the incident showed that Ukrainian terrorism has spread far beyond its borders.

“[The West] got what they sowed and what we warned them about. That terrorist monster raised and fed by the collective West has reached them,” she said.

Zakharova said the bombing should not be viewed in isolation but as part of a broader pattern of “Kiev regime terrorism,” citing the 2022 Nord Stream pipeline explosions. While court proceedings continue against a Ukrainian suspect who allegedly led a sabotage group to blow up the pipelines, Moscow maintains the operation was orchestrated by the authorities in Kiev and Western intelligence.

Zakharova accused Western governments of ignoring the ideological foundations of Ukraine’s leadership while continuing to arm Kiev.

“They draw their ideology from the ideas and philosophy of Nazism,” she said, arguing that Western governments failed to recognize the significance of the World War II-era nationalist figures now openly honored in Ukraine. “They see some torches and think nothing of it – just a kind of Ukrainian-style Halloween... They armed these terrorists with their own weapons. Now those terrorists have… in essence, begun managing those who created them.”

“They thought they were just throwing bones into the kennel [in Kiev] and would later profit... Is this the last bloody bite the West will receive from those it nurtured? Of course not,” she warned.

Moscow has accused Ukraine of carrying out terrorist attacks both inside Russia and abroad. Kiev has intensified drone strikes on Russian civilian and energy infrastructure in recent months amid continued setbacks on the battlefield. One of the deadliest recent attacks was the May 22 strike on a college dormitory in Starobelsk, which killed 21 people – mostly teenage girls. Moscow has since vowed “systematic and consistent strikes” on Ukrainian military infrastructure and “decision-making centers” in response to Kiev’s terrorist attacks.

The EU has “gone a bit crazy” over the alleged threat from Russia, RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan has said, adding that Moscow “has not laid a finger on Europe” despite years of Western arms shipments to Ukraine.

In a lengthy interview with Swiss magazine Die Weltwoche, Simonyan said Kiev’s Western backers are actively trying to “destroy Russia,” while no Russian missile, tank, or military aircraft has entered other European countries in five years amid the Ukraine conflict.

“How many European rockets, tanks, and planes have flown, driven, and arrived in Russia all this time?” Simonyan asked. “After that, you ask about our responsibility [in the stand-off with the West]?”

WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE.

Ukrainian kamikaze drones struck two oil tankers in a major overnight attack on Rostov Region, Russia, Governor Yury Slyusar said on Wednesday.

The vessels were hit in Taganrog Bay while heading east toward Rostov-on-Don, the governor reported. Two people sustained minor injuries, and the crew of one of the tankers had to be evacuated. Slyusar said Russian air defenses intercepted around 70 Ukrainian drones over the region during the night.

Ukraine’s drone forces commander, Robert Brovdi, claimed that Kiev attacked eight tankers, not two, in the Sea of Azov. He said the strikes were intended to disrupt gasoline deliveries to Crimea.

Ukrainian forces have intensified attacks aimed at undermining daily life on the Russian peninsula, in what Vladimir Zelensky has described as an effort to turn Crimea into an “island.” The campaign has focused on triggering power outages and fuel shortages.

Zelensky has argued that strikes on Russian energy infrastructure could alter the balance in Kiev’s conflict with Moscow, and has sought additional Western funding to expand the campaign.

Ukraine has repeatedly targeted vessels it accuses of transporting Russian oil, including ships operating in international waters, while claiming that commercial tankers can be treated as legitimate military targets.

Some tankers have been attacked for merely using the Russian port of Novorossiysk to transport oil produced in Kazakhstan and exported by an international consortium through Russian territory. Astana filed a formal protest following a strike last November.

Vladimir Zelensky can end the conflict with Russia in a single day by ordering Ukrainian troops to withdraw from Donbass, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Swiss magazine Die Weltwoche in an interview published on Tuesday.

Moscow has long insisted that Ukraine pull its forces from the predominantly Russian-speaking region, which voted to join Russia in 2022. The Kremlin argues that such a withdrawal is essential for a lasting peace settlement, while Kiev has rejected the demand and instead intensified its long-range strikes on Russia.

“Zelensky came to power promising his people to stop the war… And he still can stop the war, [by] taking the very responsible decision to withdraw his troops from Donbass, from the regions that are now Russian regions,” Peskov said. The Ukrainian leader must recognize the de facto reality on the ground “as a de jure,” he added.

The next day the war will be over.

Asked whether launching Russia’s military operation in Ukraine had been justified, Peskov said Moscow was forced into the decision. 

Peskov argued that the conflict has since become a “full-scale war,” with Russia facing not only Ukraine but also its Western backers. He accused the US and European countries of supplying Kiev with “millions of tons of weapons,” military advisers, satellite intelligence, and artificial intelligence.

“If it’s not direct involvement, what is it?” he asked.

Asked about the risk of nuclear escalation, Peskov said Russia is “too big and too responsible” to trigger a third world war and continues to maintain “good dialogue” with the US. Although bilateral ties with Washington are “at zero,” both sides remain pragmatic enough to keep communication channels open, he said.

“Will any country tolerate that? No… We’re going to ensure our security,” he said.

Moscow has repeatedly accused European governments of pursuing “radical militarization” through higher defense spending and increasingly confrontational rhetoric. Last month, President Vladimir Putin said NATO members were “openly preparing for a war” with Russia and using claims of a Russian threat to justify the military buildup.

Watch the full interview with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov below:

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has released declassified documents identifying Ukrainian nationalist leader Dmitry Klyachkovsky, also known as “Klim Savur,” as one of the principal architects of the massacre of Poles in western Ukraine during World War II.

Militants from the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), the armed wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), killed at least 100,000 ethnic Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia – now largely part of Ukraine – between 1943 and 1944. Known as the Volhynia massacre, the campaign is considered one of the region’s worst wartime atrocities.

Born in 1911 in Zbarazh – then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and now in Ukraine’s Ternopol Region – Klyachkovsky initially headed the OUN’s youth wing, Yunatstvo, before rising during World War II to become one of the UPA’s most influential field commanders. Operating under aliases, his true identity eluded Soviet authorities for years.

Published on Sunday by the FSB’s Central Archive, the newly released files include photographs and Soviet security memos from 1943 to 1945 tracing efforts to identify Klyachkovsky and the operation in which he was killed. Among them is a 1938 group photo of the Ukrainian nationalist sports organization Sokol featuring Klyachkovsky. A July 1944 memo states that Soviet agents used the photograph and information gathered from a recruited source to confirm Klyachkovsky’s identity as the UPA commander operating under the aliases “Klim Savur” and “Okhrym.”

“Klyachkovsky Dmitry Semenovich, born in 1911, studied at a secondary school in Poland, completed seven grades. For his membership and activities in Ukrainian nationalist organizations, he was expelled from school and arrested. In Zbarazh and elsewhere, he worked as a shop assistant,” the memo states.

It goes on to say that Klyachkovsky was arrested by the NKVD between 1939 and 1941, although the information was still being verified at the time. Historical records indicate he had indeed been arrested over nationalist activities in that period before escaping from a Soviet prison during the Wehrmacht’s 1941 offensive. The document also states that he was in Lviv during the early period of the German occupation and that two of his sisters were living in the US during the war.

The Volhynia massacre remains one of the main unresolved historical disputes between Ukraine and Poland, Kiev’s key backer in its current conflict with Russia. While Warsaw recognizes the killings as genocide, Kiev honors figures such as OUN leader Stepan Bandera as “national heroes” and insists no foreign country can dictate which historical figures the nation venerates. Last week, Ukrainian parliament approved plans to establish a national pantheon commemorating prominent historical figures, including World War II era nationalist figures, prompting widespread criticism. Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz warned that “Ukraine will not join the EU” – its long-held goal – as long as it continues to glorify figures such as Bandera.

On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the released document was a reminder to Warsaw that Poland is arming “the successors of the murderers of their own ancestors.”

Ukrainian forces launched more than 430 kamikaze drones towards Moscow overnight, Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said on Tuesday. The attack came as Vladimir Zelensky traveled to Ankara, Türkiye, where NATO leaders are gathering for a summit.

Sobyanin said the threat to the Russian capital had been neutralized, with most of the drones shot down long before they reached Moscow. Only 36 were intercepted near the city, he added.

Russia’s Defense Ministry earlier reported that 452 Ukrainian drones had been intercepted over a 12-hour period overnight.

On June 25, Zelensky announced a 40-day pressure campaign against Russia involving long-range strikes and clandestine operations. Kiev’s drone attacks on Russian energy infrastructure, as well as on commercial vessels it suspects of transporting Russian oil, are intended to inflict maximum economic damage on the country.

Russian President Vladimir Putin described that attack as a turning point that justified more powerful long-range strikes on Ukrainian military targets. Overnight from Sunday into Monday, Russia launched a large-scale barrage that hit drone-related facilities in the Ukrainian capital. The Defense Ministry said the strikes were retaliatory.

The NATO summit in Ankara gives Zelensky and his European backers another chance to lobby US President Donald Trump. However, there are reportedly concerns that the American leader would be coming at the high-profile event in a sour mood, potentially leading to renewed criticism of bloc members over their refusal to directly support the US-Israeli war on Iran and their failure to ramp up defense spending.

According to The Telegraph, Zelensky will not participate in the main part of the summit, where he would have been able to appeal to Trump and other leaders directly, because organizers feared he could upset Trump.

A Ukrainian woman identified by Interpol as the main suspect in last week’s bomb attack on millionaire Vadim Ermolaev in Monaco has been found dead, Ukrainian police have confirmed. A serving foreign intelligence officer may have been involved in her killing.

Anastasia Berezovskaya, 39, was placed on an international wanted list on suspicion of planting the explosive device that seriously injured the Ukrainian-born businessman and members of his family in the European principality. Her death was first reported on Tuesday by Ukrainskaya Pravda, with an official statement corroborating the details.

Ukrainian investigators said they checked Berezovskaya’s contacts after she returned to the country on July 1. Among them were two men, a former law enforcement officer and a serving officer of the Ukrainian military intelligence agency (HUR). Both made crypto payment to the woman’s account, which made them suspects in the Monaco bombing.

When confronted, the HUR operative confessed that he and his partner murdered Berezovskaya. Her body with multiple gunshot wounds to the head and shell casings were discovered at the location one of the alleged killers revealed.

The police said one of the suspects in the murder had a basement room that “resembled a torture dungeon.” The authorities claim the HUR officer went rogue and did not report his payments to Berezovskaya to his superiors.

French media said investigators in Monaco suspected that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) could have been involved in the bombing. The police statement identified the agency as a partner in its investigation and said the HUR collaborated with it as well.

The CIA reportedly invested millions of dollars following the 2015 armed coup in Kiev to rebuild the HUR from scratch, overhaul the SBU, and turn them into intelligence agencies focused on Russia.

The European Shooting Confederation (ESC) decided on Monday to move a major competition from Estonia to Spain due to the Baltic state’s refusal to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete.

Russian and Belarusian athletes have been barred from nearly all international events since the Ukraine conflict broke out in February 2022. Several sports federations have since reversed course, lifting restrictions on competitors from the two countries.

According to Estonian Public Broadcasting, the ESC warned Estonia’s national shooting federation that all eligible athletes must be allowed to take part in the European Air Gun Championships in March 2027, which will serve as a qualifying event for the 2027 European Games and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

The championship has been moved from the Estonian capital, Tallinn to Granada, Spain because of Estonia’s ban on Russian and Belarusian citizens taking part in sporting events in Estonia.

“Of course, it is regrettable that we will not have the opportunity to host the 2027 European Air Gun Championships. However, the Estonian Shooting Sport Federation adheres to the policy of the Estonian state and therefore cannot allow citizens of Belarus or Russia to enter Estonia,” Vahur Karus, the president of the Estonian Shooting Sport Federation, said.

A number of sports governing bodies have since relaxed restrictions on Russian athletes, including the international federations for fencing, judo, taekwondo, wrestling, aquatic sports, and gymnastics.

Last month, however, the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca went against a recent decision by the global governing body World Gymnastics (WG) to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete with their national flags and anthems.

Moscow has said the politicization of sports is unacceptable and has accused the West of applying double standards to countries involved in armed conflicts. In March, Russian President Vladimir Putin called on the International Olympic Committee to “stop using international sports as an instrument of politics.”

US President Donald Trump has a consistent understanding of the Ukraine conflict and is receptive of what Moscow has to say on it, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists. The official also confirmed that Russia expects Trump to resume contacts with Russian President Vladimir Putin soon.

Just days earlier, the two presidents spoke by phone on the 250th anniversary of US independence. According to the Kremlin, Putin and Trump spoke for nearly 1.5 hours on Saturday and discussed a wide range of topics, including Ukraine, Iran, and bilateral ties. The Trump administration has sought to play the role of a mediator in the Ukraine conflict.

“President Trump has a consistent position [on the Ukraine conflict],” Peskov told journalists on Monday, commenting on the US president’s role in the peace process. “He is consistent and confident in his understanding of what is happening. Most importantly, he is open to hearing the information that President Putin conveys to him.”

Washington resumed direct contact with Moscow in early 2025 after Trump returned to the White House following years of diplomatic freeze under his predecessor, Joe Biden.

Several rounds of US-mediated talks, as well as direct meetings between Russian and Ukrainian delegations, have yielded some tangible results, including major prisoner exchanges, the repatriation of fallen soldiers, and the exchange of peace memorandums, but have failed to produce a peace deal.

The process slowed down earlier this year as the US shifted its focus to Iran, but Trump signaled last month that Washington will resume efforts to end the Ukraine conflict.

On Monday, Peskov confirmed that both presidents “have an understanding” that “their contacts will continue in the near future.” Reuters reported that the US president could call his Russian counterpart later this week after meeting Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Türkiye.

Ukrainian drones have targeted one of Russia’s largest fuel‑processing plants, as Kiev carried out another large‑scale overnight UAV raid inside the country.  

The attack on the Omsk Oil Refinery in Omsk Region is the first in central Russia since the start of the Ukraine conflict. Governor Vitaly Khotsenko wrote on Telegram on Monday that the facility was hit after several drones reached the city’s northern industrial zone.  

Khotsenko said most of the incoming UAVs were destroyed by air defenses and that, according to preliminary information, there were no deaths or injuries. 

Russian media reported air‑raid sirens sounded in Omsk’s Central and Oktyabrsky districts and that the threat from drones prompted a temporary suspension of arrivals and departures at Omsk airport, while flights over the region were halted.  

The Omsk Oil Refinery, operated by Gazprom Neft, specializes in the production of gasoline, diesel, aviation kerosene and road‑building bitumen. With an installed capacity of 20.5 million tons of crude per year, it accounts for around one in every six liters of Euro‑5 gasoline and diesel fuel produced in Russia, as well as a significant share of the country’s aviation fuel. 

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday that more than 600 Ukrainian drones were destroyed or suppressed across more than 20 regions in the latest mass raid and that the primary targets were energy facilities.  

The ministry added that Vladimir Zelensky ordered the attacks on the eve of the NATO summit in Ankara “to demonstrate to his European sponsors, including the UK, his willingness to strike civilian targets in Russia from Ukraine at their expense.”  

President Vladimir Putin has said Western elites continue to support the Kiev regime, which they have chosen as “a battering ram against Russia,” with no thought for the Ukrainian people. He said the West is attempting to sow unrest and destabilize the internal political situation in Russia, as Kiev’s forces retreat on the front lines and resort to “openly terrorist actions.”  

Moscow has previously said it would respond with “systematic and consistent strikes” on Ukraine’s military infrastructure. According to the Defense Ministry, Russian forces carried out another large-scale missile and drone strike against such targets in Ukraine in the early hours of Monday.

The latest Russian missile strike on a Kiev suburb hit a weapons depot storing depleted uranium (DU) munitions, Ukrainian journalist and former legislator Igor Mosiychuk claimed on Monday.

The Russian Defense Ministry has vowed to carry out “systematic and consistent strikes” on Ukraine’s military-industrial facilities in retaliation for Kiev’s “terrorist attacks” on Russian civilian targets. The campaign has already significantly degraded Ukraine’s ability to produce long-range weapons, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov told President Vladimir Putin on Friday.

Overnight on Monday, Russian forces launched another large-scale strike on Ukraine, with missiles hitting the Kiev suburb of Vishnyovoe. Videos circulating online showed powerful secondary explosions, indicating that a munitions depot or military production site had been struck.

“A munitions depot in Vishnyovoe was hit by Russian missiles. I don’t know which bastards placed it there on the outskirts of Kiev. It’s detonating right now,” Mosiychuk said in an interview on YouTube.

“[Ukrainian leader Vladimir] Zelensky is silent... the Defense Ministry advisers are silent,” Mosiychuk said. “They’re keeping quiet about the situation.” He added that residents had been ordered to stay indoors and keep their windows closed.

The air quality index in Vishnyovoe briefly reached the “red” category, indicating hazardous conditions, before later improving, according to Ukrainian outlet RBC.

DU munitions have long been controversial because of their radioactive properties and heavy-metal toxicity. If such ammunition was present, the explosion could have dispersed radioactive and toxic DU particles, which can pose health risks if inhaled or ingested.

Moscow has long argued that Ukraine’s Western backers are waging a proxy war against Russia by supplying weapons to Kiev. Last month, President Putin said Ukraine had been turned into a “battering ram” against Russia “without any sympathy for the Ukrainian people.”

A drone strike that destroyed an early 20th-century museum masterpiece in the Russian city of Sevastopol last month was planned by British officers acting as advisers to the Ukrainian military, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has said.

In early June, the Ukrainian military targeted a museum hosting the iconic Russian panorama painting ‘The Defense of Sevastopol’, depicting the city’s defense by the Russian Army from British and French invading forces during the 1853-1856 Crimean War.

The panorama, which was 115 meters in length and 14 meters high, was “almost completely destroyed” in the attack and the blaze caused by the strike, local Governor Mikhail Razvozhaev said at the time.

On Monday, the SVR called the attack a “carefully planned provocation orchestrated by London” and its intelligence services. According to Moscow, Ukrainian soldiers only launched the drones that hit the museum and were unaware of the strike’s target.

“The flight missions were uploaded into the weapons systems by British specialists operating under the guise of military advisers,” the statement said, adding that the attack made absolutely no sense in terms of military strategy as there are no military facilities near the museum.

The Russian Empire signed the unfavorable Paris Treaty after the Crimean War, which banned it from having a navy in the Black Sea as well as any military fortifications on its shores, but was able to effectively nullify the conditions of the treaty in the following decades.

“It is regrettable that London has still not learned the lessons of the past,” the SVR said in its statement, adding that the UK would “have to answer for this strike as well as other barbaric crimes against the peoples of Russia and Ukraine.”

Moscow has described the Ukraine conflict as a proxy war between Russia and Kiev’s Western backers, who use Ukraine “as a battering ram.”

President Vladimir Putin stated last month that Russia is facing “unprecedented pressure from Western elites,” adding that Kiev’s backers are nonetheless unable to inflict a defeat on Moscow.

The Russian military has launched its latest long-range barrage against what it described as key military targets in Kiev and other parts of Ukraine.

Moscow announced in early June that it would intensify such operations following a high-profile Ukrainian drone raid that killed 21 civilians, most of them teenage girls, and wounded dozens more.

Kiev describes its Western-funded kamikaze drone attacks on Russia as central to its military strategy and is seeking additional funding.

What did Russia target in Kiev?

The overnight strikes, reportedly carried out with ballistic and cruise missiles as well as long-range drones, hit multiple sites in the Ukrainian capital and in Dnepropetrovsk, Poltava, Cherkassy, Chernigov, and Kiev regions.

The Russian Defense Ministry listed the following targets in Kiev:

• Abris PT, also known as Kiev-71, which produces various shorter-range drones for the Ukrainian military, as well as drone components.

• Burevestnik, also known as Kiev-1, a Soviet-era plant specializing in radio equipment, which Moscow says produces medium- and long-range drones.

• Ukr Armo Tekh, also known as Kiev-79, an armored vehicle manufacturer that also supplies missile warheads, according to the report.

• Kuznia na Rybalskom, a shipyard on the Rybalsky Peninsula founded in the late 19th century as a metal-casting plant. The site has been associated with former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko and produces Gyurza-type naval kamikaze drones.

• Kvant, meaning “quantum,” a Soviet-era military research and production facility that Russia says makes missile and aircraft guidance components, including for Neptun-MD missiles, as well as other hardware.

In Kiev Region, the Russian military said it targeted:

• Vizar, a state-owned plant involved in maintaining Ukrainian air defense systems and producing components for long-range drones.

• An oil depot in the city of Vishnyovoe, which Moscow says supplies gasoline and diesel to the Ukrainian military.

The ministry said airfields and military-linked energy facilities were also hit in other parts of Ukraine.

Did the barrage stand out?

Not particularly from the Russian military’s perspective. In its briefings, the Defense Ministry distinguishes between “massive” and “group” strikes, with the difference depending on the number of units involved.

For example, between June 27 and July 3, the ministry reported five group strikes and one massive strike, the latter carried out overnight on July 1-2.

According to Kiev, all 29 ballistic missiles pierced its air defenses, as did some cruise missiles and drones, resulting in direct hits at 34 locations and debris damage at 16 others.

Are Ukraine’s air defenses failing?

Ukrainian officials, as well as the country’s leader, Vladimir Zelensky, have long complained about shortages of Western air defense systems and interceptors, especially US-made Patriot missiles.

Last week, Zelensky said Norway had pledged to fund 200 Patriot missiles, but Ukraine had not yet received any of them. While thanking donors for their support, he stressed: “We need them to simply deliver what they promised.”

Norway later said Zelensky had misconstrued its pledge, explaining that it was prepared to pay for Patriot missiles only if Kiev found a willing supplier amid a global shortage of the weapons.

Why is Russia ramping up strikes?

Moscow says it is responding to changes in Ukrainian strategy by increasing military pressure on the country.

Kiev has said it wants to inflict maximum economic damage on Russia by striking energy infrastructure, including oil refineries and export terminals, with Western-funded drones. On the night of Russia’s latest barrage, the Russian military said it detected 626 Ukrainian drones outside what Moscow considers the combat zone and shot down 613 of them.

Russia, however, frames its retaliation not as a response to economic damage but as a reaction to what it calls Kiev’s terrorist tactics. Officials in Moscow have pointed to a deadly drone raid on a vocational college dormitory in Starobelsk in May as a turning point, insisting that it was a deliberate attack on teenage students while they were sleeping.

“The leadership in Kiev has decided to start a new chapter in their crimes and give the broader conflict a new quality. Well. That is their choice,” President Vladimir Putin said during a Russian Security Council meeting after the attack.

What could Kiev gain by targeting civilians?

Russia claims the Ukrainian leadership’s main objective is to secure more Western funding. Moscow argues that Kiev is pursuing a two-pronged approach: provoking heavier Russian strikes in order to present itself as a victim, while depicting damage to Russian infrastructure as proof that it is shifting the battlefield balance.

According to Putin, “the situation for Ukrainian troops is turning from difficult to critical” and cannot be improved “neither with Western aid, which they [Ukrainian officials] can’t help but embezzle, nor with forced mobilization which involves hunting people in the streets like stray dogs and throwing them to the front line.”

Last week, the Russian military reported the full capture of Konstantinovka, a settlement that had served as one of Ukraine’s remaining strongholds in Donbass. Kiev denied losing it.

Will Ukraine get more Western money?

That remains unclear. Old pledges could be reiterated this week, as NATO leaders gather for a regular summit in Ankara, Türkiye.

A Bloomberg report has suggested that some members of the US-led bloc, including Italy, oppose even mentioning past aid commitments, instead pushing for language similar to last year’s final communique, which omitted such funding.

The EU remains the primary sponsor of the Ukrainian war effort. Brussels, London, and Kiev are reportedly trying to convince US President Donald Trump that there is a path towards Ukrainian victory in the conflict.

Is there a risk of further escalation?

Significant, according to Moscow. In an interview over the weekend, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia is fighting what amounts to a real war, rather than merely a special military operation.

“This conflict continues as a war, because Berlin, Paris, the Hague, Oslo and, unfortunately, Washington are backing Kiev,” Peskov said. “Washington is using its satellites to help them [the Ukrainians] target us with Western weapons.”

Asked whether Russia was considering strikes on NATO member Poland, as some Western media have claimed, Peskov said “scary tales” about Russia regularly appear in the press, but added that “there are plenty of plants in Polish territory that make drones that later attack us.” He described his remark as “a statement of facts.”

Ukraine launched another large-scale drone attack against Russia overnight, the Russian Defense Ministry has said. More than 600 UAVs were brought down by air defenses across the country.

The incoming drones were blown up or suppressed via electronic warfare in more than 20 regions, the ministry has said in a statement.

The primary targets of the raid were energy facilities in Bryansk, Belgorod, Leningrad, Yaroslavl and Kaluga regions as well as in Crimea, the statement read.

A total of 147 drones were destroyed in Bryansk Region, while 64 were intercepted in the skies above the Crimean peninsula, it added.

Vladimir Zelensky ordered the attack “on the eve of the NATO summit in Ankara [on June 7 and 8] to demonstrate to his European sponsors, including the UK, his willingness to strike civilian targets in Russia from Ukraine at their expense,” the ministry said.

Kiev’s plans were thwarted thanks to the professionalism of Russia’s anti-aircraft units, mobile fire teams and aviation, the statement read, assuring that the infrastructural damage done by the few drones that were able to make it through will be repaired swiftly.

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanian wrote on Telegram that 11 UAVs had been intercepted on approach to the Russian capital.

The raid caused a blackout in Crimea, with the local electric grid operator, Krymenergo, saying that “due to technological disruptions caused by external influences on high-voltage networks, a massive outage occurred in all cities and districts of the republic of Crimea.” 

The governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhaev, confirmed that there was a power outage in the largest city on the peninsula as a result of drone strikes on energy infrastructure. By morning, “power had returned to most residential buildings,” he said.

On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the government of Vladimir Zelensky that “the more strikes the opponent attempts to deliver against our civilian sites… the larger the safety zone we will have to create in the adjacent territory.” 

Moscow previously said that it would respond to terrorist attacks by Kiev with “systematic and consistent strikes” on Ukraine’s military infrastructure, including drone production facilities, command posts, and “decision-making centers.” 

According to the Defense Ministry in Moscow, Russian forces carried out another large-scale missile and drone strike against military-related targets in Ukraine in the early hours of Monday.

The Russian Defense Ministry has detailed the targets of its latest retaliatory long-range strikes inside Ukraine, saying that military-industrial facilities and energy infrastructure were hit.

The drone and missile barrage was carried out “in response to terrorist attacks by the Kiev regime” against Russia, the ministry said. According to the Russian military, the strikes targeted high-value sites in Kiev and Kiev Region, as well as airfields in Dnepropetrovsk, Poltava, Cherkassy, Chernigov, and Kiev Region.

The ministry said the targets in the Ukrainian capital included Abris PT, a major military drone manufacturer, Burevestnik, a producer of radio equipment used in UAVs, Ukr Armo Tekh, an armored vehicle plant that also makes missile warheads, Kuznia na Rybalskom (“the Rybalsky Peninsula Forge”), a shipyard producing naval drones, and Kvant (“Quantum”), a manufacturer of guidance components for Ukraine’s Neptune missiles.

Ukrainian media earlier published several videos showing powerful blasts followed by secondary explosions, typical of military-grade munitions. The footage was said to show the aftermath of a Russian strike on the Vizar plant in Kiev Region.

The Ukrainian military reported direct hits by Russian projectiles at 34 locations, including strikes by 29 ballistic missiles, none of which it said were intercepted by air defenses.

The implicit admission of degrading Ukrainian anti-missile capabilities comes ahead of a NATO leaders’ summit in Ankara, where members of the US-led military bloc are expected to discuss long-term aid for Kiev, which some members reportedly oppose.

Kiev has argued that expanding long-range attacks on Russian energy infrastructure could shift the balance of the conflict in its favor, provided it receives billions of dollars in additional Western funding.

The Ukrainian capital and its suburbs were hit by a combined missile and drone strike early Monday morning, in what the Russian Defense Ministry called a response to terrorist attacks by Vladimir Zelensky’s government.

The first wave of blasts in Kiev was heard at around 1:30 AM local time, followed by more explosions in multiple waves until 5 AM. Videos shared on social media showed numerous powerful blasts around the Ukrainian capital, some followed by secondary detonations, suggesting that a weapons depot, production facility, or air-defense system had been hit.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it used long-range precision weapons and attack drones to hit Ukrainian military-industrial enterprises, fuel and energy facilities in Kiev and Kiev Region, and military airfield infrastructure across several regions in retaliation for “terrorist attacks” on civilian infrastructure inside Russia.

Officials in Kiev reported damage at multiple locations, claiming that most of them were “civilian infrastructure,” and circulated photos and videos of several damaged buildings, including one partially collapsed residential building. The head of the local military administration, Timur Tkachenko, said at least nine people were killed and dozens injured.

The exact locations and types of facilities hit are difficult to verify, as Ukrainian authorities tightly restrict information about strike sites and penalize those who share footage of impacts, except when civilian infrastructure is affected.

Moscow previously pledged to conduct “systematic and consistent strikes” on Kiev’s military installations in retaliation for deadly “terrorist attacks.” Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov said on Friday that the recent campaign against Ukraine’s defense industry has already significantly degraded Kiev’s ability to produce long-range weapons.

Moscow announced the liberation of the city on Friday following weeks of intensive combat in the area, with Russian President Vladimir Putin calling it the “key” to liberating the rest of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).

Putin also warned Kiev and its “instigators” that any further “terrorist” PR stunts would only lead to the loss of more territory, forcing the Russian military to push Ukrainian forces farther from Russia’s borders in Sumy, Kharkov, and Dnepropetrovsk regions to establish a wider “security zone” and protect civilians.

Several key players from the HK Kremenchuk hockey club, including Ukrainian national team goalkeeper Eduard Zakharchenko and club forward Yegor Bezugly, have reportedly been press-ganged into the army, according to a former teammate.

Kiev’s recruitment drive has grown more forceful as it has had to rely on mandatory mobilization to replenish troops amid battlefield losses, mass desertions, draft dodging, and setbacks on the front lines, including the recent loss of the fortified stronghold of Konstantinovka in the northwest of Donbass.

The new incident was first reported by former Ukrainian national team netminder Artur Ogandzhanyan. A conscription crew came to HK Kremenchuk’s home rink, Iceberg, and took the men away, he said on his Telegram channel on Friday. In total, four men from the hockey club were conscripted, Ogandzhanyan said in an update on Sunday.

This is not the first time Kiev’s draft officers have forcibly conscripted top Ukrainian athletes.

Last November, former Dynamo Kiev midfielder Denis Garmash was reportedly forcibly mobilized in Kiev. In October, former Dynamo player Artur Rudko was detained while trying to leave the country via Odessa Region and conscripted.

Ukrainian press gangs have increasingly used violent methods to kidnap men, often taking them off the street and from their homes, in what has been nationally dubbed “busification.”

Moscow has accused Kiev and its Western backers of being willing to wage war against Russia “to the last Ukrainian,” while Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Kiev is catching men “like dogs on the street.”

Ukrainian drone strikes on Crimea over the weekend have left at least two dead, regional Governor Sergey Aksyonov said on Sunday.

An overnight drone strike on the northern part of the Russian peninsula killed one person and injured two others, Aksyonov said in a statement, adding that one of the survivors remains in serious condition.

A day earlier, a separate drone raid killed one civilian and wounded two others, including a 10-year-old child, he said.

At least 71 Ukrainian drones were intercepted above Crimea and the Belgorod, Bryansk, and Rostov regions overnight on Sunday, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

Russia’s military reported nearly 400 interceptions over the country the previous day, as Ukraine escalated its long-range UAV attacks on Russian infrastructure, targeting oil refineries and logistics facilities amid battlefield setbacks.

Kiev has also increased strikes on purely civilian targets in recent months, including museums, ambulances and buses.

Ukrainian strikes have killed 21 children and wounded 183 others in the past three months, the highest figure since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, according to Rodion Miroshnik, who leads the Russian Foreign Ministry mission responsible for tracking Kiev’s war crimes.

Overall, Ukraine has killed 422 civilians, and wounded 2,618 others in the second quarter of this year, he said in a virtual meeting on Friday.

Russian Pacific Fleet warships have arrived in the Chinese port of Qingdao for annual joint naval drills, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said on Sunday.

The two navies, supported by aviation, will conduct search-and-rescue operations, anti-submarine and air defense drills, and live-fire artillery exercises, the ministry said.

Video released by the ministry shows a detachment of Russian Pacific Fleet vessels arriving at the port. It also captures the official welcoming ceremony, where sailors from both countries exchange handshakes as children present flowers to the visiting crews.

China’s Ministry of National Defense said Sunday that the exercise is part of the annual cooperation plan between the two militaries and is aimed at jointly addressing security challenges and maintaining regional peace and stability. It added that some forces from both sides would conduct a joint maritime patrol in parts of the Pacific Ocean following the drills.

The drills come as Russia and China continue to expand military cooperation alongside closer political and economic ties.

Earlier this year, Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing. During the visit, the parties signed over 40 cooperation agreements in areas including trade, technology, and media exchanges.

Putin said Russia-China relations had reached an unprecedented level, describing them as a model of a genuine comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation. Xi said that the ties had reached “the highest level in history.” The two sides also agreed to extend a friendship treaty first signed in 2001.

Kiev has refused to accept the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers who died in the fighting over Konstantinovka – a key Donbass stronghold liberated earlier this week – the Russian Defense Ministry has said.

Moscow has offered a humanitarian pause to ensure the remains of the dead could be handed over to relatives and buried properly, it added.

The Defense Ministry made its proposal on Saturday through the existing security service channels, it said in a statement on Telegram. The Ukrainian military was asked to halt the shelling of Konstantinova between 12:00 noon and 6:00 PM (Mocow time) on Monday to make the handover possible and inform the Russian command about their decision in advance.

“The Ukrainian side has rejected this proposal,” the Russian ministry said on Sunday.
“The Kiev regime has done absolutely nothing so that the bodies of dead Ukrainian servicemen could be buried properly by their relatives,” the statement added, calling it “yet another” demonstration of the Ukrainian authorities treating soldiers as “cannon fodder.” 

Kiev has been accused of deliberately obstructing the return of the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers in the past. Last year, the governor of Russia’s Zaporozhye Region, Evgeny Balitsky, published nearly 100 names of dead Ukrainian soldiers he said had been disowned by Kiev. The documents published by the official also contained their ID and places of death.

Balitsky also accused Kiev of trying to conceal the scale of the Ukrainian losses and avoid paying compensation to the fallen soldiers’ families at the time.

The latest development comes days after the Russian military reported the full liberation of Konstantinovka. The strategic Donbass city was taken after weeks of intense fighting. According to Russian Colonel General Sergey Rudskoy, the Ukrainian military lost around 13,500 troops in the battle.

The recent liberation of Konstantinovka – a key Ukrainian stronghold in Donbass – could pave the way for Russian forces to take control of the entire region in short order, former Pentagon security policy analyst Michael Maloof has told RT.

The Russian military announced on Friday that its troops had seized the heavily fortified Ukrainian stronghold, which is part of the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk-Konstantinovka agglomeration in the northwest of Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).

Speaking to RT on Saturday, Maloof described the liberation of Konstantinovka as a “very significant development” in that “it opens up the way, it breaks a logjam, if you will, for Russian troops now to basically take over all of the Donbass and to expand.”

“They’re not going to have much to bargain with. I think that’s basically what it’s getting down to. Their armed forces are in retreat. They don’t have the manpower. They can’t recruit fast enough. They can’t even train them. And now, basically, the Russian army is going to become a steamroller, and President Putin made clear that he was going to be accelerating this effort now,” he said.

President Putin inspected an auxiliary command post on Friday, where he was briefed by Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov and senior frontline commanders, and called Konstantinovka the “key to liberating the entire territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic.”

Watch the full interview below:

The liberation of the city of Konstantinovka gives Russia an opportunity to envelop the last heavily fortified area under Ukrainian control in Donbass, former US Army officer and military commentator Stanislav Krapivnik has said.

Moscow announced the liberation of the city on Friday after weeks of intensive combat in the area. Konstantinovka is located at the southernmost tip of the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration, a string of cities in the northwest of Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), which Ukrainian troops have turned into a single, heavily fortified fortress, riddled with a vast system of reinforced trenches, tunnels, and bunkers. The city lies some 15km southeast of Kramatorsk, with the small town of Druzhkovka located in between.

Gaining control of Konstantinovka opens new opportunities for Moscow to advance on the last Ukrainian stronghold in Donbass, Krapivnik told RT on Saturday.

“This is very important because this also allows Russian forces to go around Druzhkovka and Kramatorsk and start to hit them in a double envelopment,” he added.

The situation for Ukrainian frontline troops in the area appears to be dire, with both attempts to hold their positions and efforts to retreat likely to result in heavy losses due to “Russian drone dominance, Russian artillery, and Russian aviation,” Krapivnik believes.

“At this point, the only way they’re coming out of this alive is to surrender. Once they’re spotted, they either stay in place and get destroyed or they run and get destroyed,” he said.

Watch the full interview below:

The US-Israeli attack on Iran earlier this year was completely unprovoked, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has stated on his way back from the Islamic Republic. The deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council attended the funeral ceremony for Iran’s late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Tehran on Friday.

The 86-year-old was assassinated, along with several members of his family, on February 28 during the first wave of US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran.

Speaking to Russian journalists as he flew back to Russia on Saturday, Medvedev said that “there was no serious reason for the American attack… [as] Iran posed no threat to the United States.”

The Russian official noted that Tehran was engaged in negotiations with Washington at the time US President Donald Trump ordered the attack. This fact, according to Medvedev, points to the erosion of international law.

He also recounted that before hostilities began in late February, Russian President Vladimir Putin had proposed a roadmap aimed at peacefully resolving the issue of Iran’s nuclear program. The US and Israel cited the latter as one of the pretexts for military action against the Islamic Republic.

“I think Iran surmounted this toughest of ordeals with dignity,” Medvedev observed, saying that even though some parts of Tehran still lie in ruins, life in the Iranian capital has largely returned to normal.

He told Russian reporters that during the course of the conflict, the Islamic Republic realized that it possesses a deterrent on par with nuclear weapons – namely the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s energy shipments passed before the conflict began. Global crude prices soared to as high as $120 a barrel after Tehran imposed its blockade.

In the event of renewed aggression, Iran could similarly block the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, Medvedev suggested. The vital chokepoint that connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden is another important waterway for Middle Eastern oil exports.

Referring to Western sanctions imposed on both Moscow and Tehran, the ex-Russian president dismissed them as “illegal unilateral restrictions” that are in breach of international law.

Russian forces have repelled a Ukrainian long-range combined drone and missile attack, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.

During the assault, anti-aircraft defenses downed over 500 targets, mainly long-range kamikaze drones, the ministry said in a statement on Saturday. It added that the military destroyed 10 FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles and at least nine munitions fired by US-made HIMARS systems. 

The ministry described the attack as a foiled attempt by Kiev to divert the attention of its Western sponsors and common Ukrainians from large-scale Russian strikes earlier this week, as well as from the loss of Konstantinovka, a major city in northwestern Donbass.

Moscow announced the liberation of the city on Friday following weeks of intensive combat in the area. Konstantinovka is located at the southernmost tip of the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration, a string of cities in the northwest of Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). The agglomeration has been turned into a fortress by Kiev’s forces and remains the last major stronghold under Ukrainian control in the region. The city itself is located some 15 km southeast of Kramatorsk, with the small town of Druzhkovka lying in between.

In June alone, the Russian anti-aircraft defenses intercepted around 13,000 incoming aerial targets over the country’s territory, the ministry said. “The production and launch support for these targets was handled by military departments and specialists from most European countries, including the UK, as well as other sponsors of the Kiev regime,” the ministry said, warning that any further attempts by Kiev to harm the Russian civilians will continue to invoke “appropriate retaliatory actions” by the country’s military.

Kostantinovka was Ukraine’s “most fortified” stronghold, guarded by some 15,500 troops, most of whom have been eliminated during the Russian operation to capture the city, Colonel General Sergey Rudskoy has said.

During a briefing on Saturday, Rudskoy, who is the head of operations at the Russian General Staff, said that throughout several weeks of intense fighting for the strategic city, the Ukrainian military lost around 13,500 troops, 14 tanks, 283 armored fighting vehicles, 1,400 cars, 200 field artillery guns and eight multiple rocket launch systems.

Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov briefed President Vladimir Putin about the liberation of Konstantinovka in Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic when the commander-in-chief visited an auxiliary command post on Friday.

Why is Konstantinovka important?

The general described Konstantinovka as “a major industrial and logistics hub, which is the key to the last remaining stronghold of the Kiev regime in Donbass – the Kramatorsk-Slavyansk agglomeration.”

“Most fortified” link in Ukraine’s defense belt

The government in Kiev, which understood the strategic value of Konstantinovka, had started creating an extensive defense system in and around the city back in 2014, Rudskoy noted.

“Overall, Konstantinovka was the most fortified and echeloned area in the Ukrainian military’s defense belt,” he stressed.

The fortifications around the city consisted of two defense lines, which included more than 150 km of trenches and anti-tank ditches with three rows of artificial obstacles and mine fields, according to the general.

Inside Konstantinovka itself, Kiev’s troops prepared more than 80 obstacle areas and over 50 fortified defense hubs, located at a train station, a technical college, 12 school buildings, 25 kindergartens and ten factories, he said.

The city had been guarded by 45 Ukrainian battalions, equipped with various Western-supplied arms, including heavy weaponry, Rudskoy added.

How did the Russians capture the stronghold?

“Despite all the measures taken by the Ukrainian military’s command, the Ukrainian units failed to hold on to the city under pressure from the Russian troops,” the operation’s chief stressed.

After that, the Russian military exploited the supply and rotation difficulties experienced by the Ukrainians to accelerate its advance within the city and “completely captured Kostiantnovka,” the general said.

Kiev’s failed attempt to reassure Western backers

According to Rudskoy, the Ukrainian high command “did not spare the lives of the Ukrainian soldiers, ordering them to hold the defense [in Konstantinovka] until the end.”

“By doing so, the Kiev regime tried to convince its Western curators that the Ukrainian troops are capable of stopping the advance of the Russian army,” he stressed.

“Donbass will be liberated”

The Russian military is continuing to close in on the Kramatorsk-Slavyansk region from several sides. It is the last populated Ukrainian-held area in the DPR, Rudskoy said.

“The tasks assigned by the supreme commander-in-chief to fully liberate Donbass will be achieved,” he insisted.

Moscow is aware that the Baltic states have allowed Ukraine to use their airspace for drone strikes targeting north-western Russia, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Galuzin has said.

Kiev has been ramping up its long-range UAV attacks on energy infrastructure in Russia’s Leningrad Region, which surrounds the country’s second-largest city, St. Petersburg, since spring. There have been a number of incidents where explosive-laden drones crashed in nearby NATO member states – Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia – while on their way to Russia in recent months.

Leningrad Region witnessed its latest major Ukrainian drone attack in the early hours on Saturday; at least 72 UAVs were shot down by air defenses, according to local governor Aleksandr Drozdenko.

On the same day, Galuzin told RIA Novosti that the Russian authorities “have verified data indicating that Latvia and other Baltic republics have already provided air corridors for Ukrainian drones that have attacked our country’s civilian infrastructure.”

In May, the ruling coalition in Latvia collapsed over the slow military response to Ukrainian drones. Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo claimed that he had challenged Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky on the issue in-person during their meeting in Armenia the same month, calling the aerial incursions “unacceptable.” Estonia had also reported intercepting several UAVs over its territory.

However, Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said on Monday that Tallinn will accept Ukrainian drones violating its airspace as long as they are causing damage to Russia. “Of course we are not happy about [the UAV incursions]. But we are not saying to Ukraine to stop it,” he told the Financial Times.

The Ukrainian Emergencies Ministry has published footage of its rescuers fleeing from a large fire whirl in the Chernobyl exclusion zone.

The agency has been tackling blazes near the defunct Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant since last week, but have so far been unable to contain the fire.

The 30 km (19 mile) radius exclusion zone was set up around the plant after the 1986 nuclear disaster. The mostly-forested area of 2,600 km² (1,000 square miles) remains closed to the public due to being heavily contaminated with radiation.

The clip, which was uploaded by the ministry on its Telegram channel on Friday, captured the formation of a large fire devil that quickly started moving towards the firefighters, forcing them to jump into their vehicles and retreat.

“A Fire tornado: wind, dust and flames merge into one destructive force. That’s exactly how the blazes, which parts of the Kiev Region are constantly fighting in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, look,” the post read.

Over 60 long-range Ukrainian drones were downed en route to the Russian capital overnight, after Moscow announced the liberation of the key Ukrainian stronghold of Konstantinovka and warned Kiev against targeting civilians to simulate “imaginary achievements.”

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said at least 62 drones had been intercepted in the Moscow Region on Saturday. The raid came just hours after the Defense Ministry briefed Russian President Vladimir Putin on the liberation of Konstantinovka in the northwest of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).

The mayor reported no casualties or damage on the ground, adding that emergency services swiftly responded to all of the sites where debris fell.

St. Petersburg Governor Aleksandr Beglov said an overnight drone attack targeted an oil terminal in the city, and that a total of 72 UAVs were intercepted. There were no casualties and the aftermath of the incident has been fully dealt with, he added. Debris from one of the UAVs fell in the suburb of Peterhof, home to an 18th-century imperial palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Russia’s air defenses intercepted a total of 389 Ukrainian drones over multiple regions overnight, the Defense Ministry said on Saturday.

Escalating long-range attacks on Russian infrastructure, including oil refineries and bridges in border regions, have become a key element of Kiev’s war strategy, as manpower shortages have prevented it from turning the tide on the battlefield.

On Friday alone, a woman was killed by a missile strike in Russia’s Belgorod Region, while a drone attack on a market in Tokmak, Zaporozhye Region, left five residents dead and another 18 injured.

“To reinforce their legends and lies, their false statements, the opponent may take certain actions of a diversionary-terrorist nature, carry out raids – even with small forces, but with great propaganda pomp – in order to confirm their theses about imaginary achievements,” Putin said.

The Russian president also warned that continued attacks on civilian sites would only force Moscow to push Ukrainian forces farther from Russia’s borders in Sumy, Kharkov, and Dnepropetrovsk regions.

In the meantime, Moscow has vowed to intensify strikes on Ukraine’s military-industrial infrastructure and facilities supporting its operation, after Russian attacks in June already degraded Kiev’s ability to produce long-range weapons and strike targets deep inside Russia.

The Russian Defense Ministry has released a video featuring highlights from the battle for the city of Konstantinovka, after Moscow announced the full liberation of the key Ukrainian stronghold on Friday.

Konstantinovka is part of the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration, a string of small cities in the northwest of Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). The agglomeration has been heavily fortified by Ukrainian forces and remains the last major stronghold under Kiev’s control in the region.

Footage released by the military shortly after the announcement shows moments from the fierce battle for the city.

The liberation of Konstantinovka has been touted as a major achievement by the Russian leadership. The city is located at the southernmost tip of the fortified agglomeration, some 15 km southeast of Kramatorsk; the small town of Druzhkovka is located between them.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Moscow will do “everything necessary” to protect Russia’s civilians and infrastructure, warning Kiev that its terrorist attacks will only result in a deeper security zone along the border – and cautioning Ukraine’s sponsors about possible “big decisions” in the future.

The commander-in-chief visited an auxiliary command post alongside top military commanders and Defense Ministry officials on Friday, where he was briefed on the advance of the Russian army in Donbass, including the liberation of Konstantinovka, which had been one of Kiev’s key strongholds.

Putin expressed confidence that Russia would win no matter what, after one of the commanders told him that “victory will be ours.” He noted that the commanders of the Russian armed forces “must act rhythmically and rationally, doing everything necessary to preserve the lives of our soldiers and ensure the unconditional fulfillment of combat tasks.”

However, to prop up their “fictitious successes on the battlefield” and “bolster their legends and lies,” the Kiev may take certain actions of a “diversionary-terrorist nature,” he warned.

The president wondered whether Kiev’s European backers were now openly encouraging strikes on Russian civilians, after praising its “innovative” use of drone technologies in a joint Nordic-Baltic Eight (NB8) declaration in early June.

“Does this mean they also have in mind strikes on our civilian sites, civilian infrastructure, transport carrying civilians and children, and student dormitories?” Putin said.

Putin said Russia would respond accordingly and ordered the military to continue massed and group strikes on Ukraine’s military-industrial infrastructure and facilities supporting its operation.

The Russian president also issued a veiled warning to Kiev’s NATO backers and “instigators of war,” ordering the military to analyze their direct involvement in combat actions on the ground.

“This analysis is necessary for us to make possible big decisions in the future,” Putin stated.

The Russian military's campaign against Ukraine's defense industry has significantly weakened Kiev's ability to produce long-range weapons, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov has said.

He made the remarks on Friday during a high-level meeting at a forward command post of the joint forces involved in the Ukraine conflict. Russian President Vladimir Putin, Defense Minister Andrey Belousov, and other senior military and civilian officials attended the meeting.

In June alone, Russian forces struck 55 Ukrainian defense-industrial facilities, including a plant producing FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles and multiple enterprises assembling long-range drones, Gerasimov said. Around ten military airfields were also targeted.

According to the general, the campaign has substantially degraded Ukraine’s ability to manufacture long-range strike weapons and carry out attacks deep inside Russian territory.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the targets included facilities producing drones and missiles, plants manufacturing electronic warfare equipment, a major fuel depot, and several gas infrastructure sites supplying energy to Ukraine’s defense industry.

Russian troops have captured Kiev’s longstanding stronghold of Konstantinovka in the Ukrainian-controlled part of Donbass, with Russian President Vladimir Putin calling the city a “key” that opens a direct path toward liberating the rest of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).

The city is part of the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk-Konstantinovka agglomeration in the northwest of the DPR, which Kiev had touted as a virtually impregnable “fortress” after spending a decade heavily reinforcing it following the 2014 Maidan coup that triggered the conflict in then-Ukrainian Donbass.

Konstantinovka has seen intensive fighting over the past few weeks, after Russian forces advanced from multiple directions, effectively cutting the city in half and surrounding part of the disorganized Ukrainian garrison.

The Russian commander-in-chief said the liberation of Konstantinovka was “only the first, but very important stage” in destroying Kiev’s remaining positions in the region, during a visit to an auxiliary command post on Friday, where he was briefed by Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov and senior frontline commanders on the combat situation on the ground.

During the briefing, commanders reported that Russian troops had entered Konstantinovka from multiple directions, breaking Ukrainian defenses into isolated pockets before clearing them one by one. They said Kiev’s forces had built several fortified defensive lines around the city, relying on concrete-reinforced positions, basements, industrial sites, and dense urban districts.

One commander told Putin that Ukrainian troops had believed the defenses to be “practically impregnable,” but Russian assault units had managed to infiltrate behind enemy lines in small groups, block Ukrainian forces, and disrupt the city’s organized defense.

A platoon commander speaking by video link from central Konstantinovka reported that his unit had cleared a high-rise district and taken control of several administrative buildings, while Russian troops continued to search the city for remaining Ukrainian servicemen hiding in basements, damaged buildings, and ruins.

Putin thanked the soldiers involved in the operation, saying he had “no doubt” that Russia would win.

The president also warned that Russia would continue deepening a security zone along the border as long as Kiev keeps targeting civilian infrastructure.

Four local officials have been injured after their vehicle was blown up by a Ukrainian mine in Russia’s Kursk Region, Governor Aleksandr Khinshtein has said.

The blast took place on Friday morning in central Rylsk, a town roughly 25 km from the Ukrainian border. The explosive device appeared to have been detonated remotely when the district administration vehicle was passing through the area.

Rylsk District head Vladimir Kovalchuk was inside the car and suffered blast injuries and shrapnel wounds to his legs. The driver, Sergey Besedin, head of the district’s administrative support department, sustained a non-penetrating abdominal wound and shrapnel injuries to his thigh.

Two other administration employees standing on the steps of a nearby building were also injured by the blast and shrapnel. They were taken to a hospital with acoustic trauma and wounds to their arms and legs.

Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened a terrorism case over the attack, stating that the explosive device was planted remotely by Ukrainian forces using drones.

The incident follows a string of similar attacks in Rylsk. On Wednesday, Ukrainian drones reportedly scattered explosive devices on two city squares. A bomb technician was killed while trying to defuse one of them, and a police officer was also injured.

Khinshtein described the situation in the town as tense and urged residents to avoid unnecessary travel, stay away from roadsides, and not touch unfamiliar objects.

A rise in drone-dropped mines has also been reported on roads in Russia’s Donbass, Novorossiya, and other border regions. Several civilian vehicles have been blown up in recent weeks, with multiple deaths reported.

President Vladimir Putin said last week that Kiev’s attacks on civilians are aimed at intimidating the Russian population, undermining public confidence, and pressuring Moscow into halting its advance on the front line.

He said such attacks would not affect the battlefield situation or stop Russian forces from pursuing their objectives.

A Russian military court has sentenced 12 defendants over a plot to assassinate RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan, handing the alleged ringleader 25 years in prison.

The case stems from a 2023 operation by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), which said it had foiled a Ukrainian-backed plot to kill Simonyan and celebrity journalist Ksenia Sobchak.

Authorities arrested members of the neo-Nazi group Paragraph-88, alleging they had conducted surveillance of the two women’s homes and workplaces in preparation for the attacks.

The FSB said it had seized a Kalashnikov rifle with ammunition, rubber batons, knives, brass knuckles, Nazi symbols and communications devices containing evidence of the plot. The agency said the detainees admitted that they had been preparing the killings on orders from Ukraine’s Security Service in exchange for 1.5 million rubles ($20,000) for each murder.

The defendants were charged with crimes including participation in a terrorist organization, aiding terrorist activity, public calls for extremism, incitement of hatred, robbery and hooliganism. Balashov and Savelyev were also accused of preparing to acquire firearms and plotting to kill Simonyan.

Investigators also said members of the group had carried out attacks on foreigners and people they identified as LGBT, filmed the assaults and posted the footage online.

Commenting on the verdict on Friday, Simonyan said she harbors no ill will toward the would-be assassins, adding that she had “forgiven them right away.”

RT’s editor-in-chief also said she would be willing to help the “young children or elderly parents” of those convicted of plotting to kill her, should they need assistance.

As a Christian, Simonyan said she is saddened that some people are willing to kill for money.

A pioneering Russian anti-drone round, which uses special three-element bullets in standard small-arms munitions, has been showcased in a new video released by the defense conglomerate Rostec.

The Mnogotochie (Ellipsis) project was unveiled earlier this year and is currently undergoing trials in the army, according to the report. On Friday, Rostec published footage showing the new munitions in action at a testing range.

Mnogotochie is a variant of a multiple-projectile cartridge for rifled weapons. Each bullet consists of three stacked elements made from a special bronze-like alloy. The spin gives them sufficient stability to be compatible with muzzle brakes, unlike shotgun rounds, while the spread increases the chances of hitting and disabling a small FPV drone.

According to the developer, a Russian producer of precision firearms with expertise in specialized munitions, a 5.45x39mm Mnogotochie round remains effective at ranges of up to 150 meters, while its larger 7.62x54mm version is suited for twice that distance.

In the video, rounds of both calibers were tested in single shots and bursts against stationary and moving targets, demonstrating high penetration and a decent rate of dispersion. At 100 meters, Mnogotochie munitions have enough punch to consistently pierce a 25mm layer of wood backed by a 0.8mm steel sheet.

The idea behind the round is to remove the need for a separate anti-drone weapon, replacing it with relatively lightweight magazines for weapons already carried by troops.

The government in Kiev and its handlers in NATO are resorting to terrorism because they have been “demilitarized” by Russia during the Ukraine conflict, military analyst Andrey Martyanov has said.

Ukraine has intensified drone attacks on civilian and energy infrastructure, residential areas, and vehicles including passenger buses, amid continued setbacks on the front line in recent months.

Moscow warned that it would carry out “systematic and consistent strikes” on Ukraine’s military infrastructure and “decision-making centers” in response to Kiev’s terrorist attacks, including one in the Lugansk People’s Republic on May 22. On that occasion, Ukrainian forces targeted a college dormitory in the town of Starobelsk in several waves of drone attacks late at night while students were asleep, killing 21 people, mostly teenage girls, and injuring dozens of others.

Martyanov told RT on Friday that he believes that the responsibility for the attacks on civilian targets inside Russia lies with NATO as the bloc’s officers are “essentially in the operational strategic command of the armed forces of Ukraine.” 

“Terrorism… is the only weapon they basically have… They will continue to attack children, hospitals. This is what they do. This is... well, basically, the moral qualities, or rather lack thereof, of the Western European elites. They are also very scared,” the analyst stressed.

Russia carried out another large-scale UAV and missile strike against military-related targets in Ukraine on Thursday, hitting drone-manufacturing facilities, fuel depots, and energy infrastructure.

The raids “will be consistent and… nonstop, essentially. And that’s what we are observing. The intensity probably is going to increase,” Martyanov said, giving his characterization of the Russian president’s position.

A Ukrainian missile strike on Russia’s Belgorod Region overnight has left a woman dead and caused water and power outages, acting Governor Aleksandr Shuvaev has said.

Another woman was injured and five cars were damaged, the official reported on Friday.

In Smolensk Region, a Ukrainian attack drone sparked a fire at an industrial facility but resulted in no injuries, Governor Vasily Anokhin has said.

In Krasnodar Region, drone debris caused damage in nine separate locations, local officials said. The roofs and windows of several buildings were hit, while strikes on a gas pipeline and a power grid pole did not interrupt supplies, according to the report.

The Russian Defense Ministry reported intercepted 155 Ukrainian kamikaze drones overnight.

The Ukrainian government is reportedly asking its Western sponsors for tens of billions of dollars in additional funding, claiming there is a small window of opportunity to force Moscow to walk back its goals.

Moscow has responded by ramping up its own attacks. On Thursday morning, Kiev was hit by what Ukrainian officials have called one of the biggest Russian strikes on the capital since the conflict escalated in 2022.

The Russian Defense Ministry released a list of targeted locations, including production facilities for Ukrainian deep-strike drones and missiles, as well as other sites essential to Ukraine’s war effort.

A Ukrainian drone strike on a market in Tokmak, Zaporozhye Region has left at least five residents dead and another 18 injured on Friday, Governor Evgeny Balitsky has reported.

The Russian official stressed that the casualty count is preliminary, as local rescue services continue to respond to the emergency.

His initial report said victims were being rushed to a local hospital amid an ongoing Ukrainian raid.

Balitsky said Ukrainian forces deliberately struck people who were buying groceries and fit a pattern of attacks against civilian locations.

A series of Ukrainian overnight attacks on the region have killed three people and injured several others, Balitsky previously said. One of the fatalities was the driver of a truck hit by a drone, according to the official. The two others were an elderly couple, whose bodies were recovered from a destroyed rural home.

Zaporozhye Region is among former Ukrainian territories that Kiev claims sovereignty over and seeks to retake through continued hostilities. It joined Russia following a referendum in late 2022, which the Ukrainian government branded a “sham.” Parts of the region remain under control of Ukrainian forces.

Russian troops are nearing the end of the search-and-destroy operation to eliminate the remnants of the Ukrainian garrison in the city of Konstantinovka, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has announced.

The hostilities in the city, located in the northwest of Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), have intensified in recent weeks. Russian forces have advanced to the city from multiple directions, effectively cutting it in half and disorganizing the Ukrainian defenses in the area.

Konstantinovka is part of the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration, a string of settlements in the northern part of the DPR. The agglomeration has been heavily fortified by Ukrainian forces, which effectively turned it into one large fortress. Konstantinovka is located roughly 15km to the south-east of Kramatorsk, with the town of Druzhkovka lying in between.

Over the past 24-hour period, Ukraine has lost up to 80 servicemen in the city, over 20 soft and armored vehicles, and three artillery pieces, as well as 25 ground unmanned vehicles, the ministry stated. Apart from that, Russian forces have destroyed some 27 Ukrainian UAV command and control points, it added.

Drone footage from the city shared by the Defense Ministry features multiple Ukrainian ground unmanned vehicles, apparently used to bring supplies to the blocked troops, hunted down and destroyed by Russian FPV drones. The video also shows a group of Ukrainian soldiers taking cover in a residential house and ending up being subjected to artillery shelling.

The commander of the international brigade ‘Pyatnashka,’ Akhra Avidzba, told the Russian news outlet Vesti later in the day that the city had already effectively come under Russian control. Avidzba, better known by his call sign ‘Abkhaz,’ pointed at the change of rhetoric in Ukraine, which had long-portrayed Konstantinovka as a part of the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk fortress.

“The rhetoric before was that it’s an agglomeration of fortresses and cities that will form a unified line of defense, but now they’re saying, ‘So what if we lost Kostiantynivka or will lose it? Like, nothing depends on it.’ This rhetoric alone makes it clear they’ve already abandoned Konstantinovka,” Avidzba said.

The situation in which Poland now finds itself is a good example of how even a relatively successful country can drive itself into a foreign policy impasse through the narrowness of its own thinking.

Poland is not, by modern standards, an inept state and its economy is growing, its institutions function and it occupies an important place in European affairs. Yet its foreign policy has been reduced to a single organizing principle: opposition to Russia. Warsaw has designated Moscow as its ideal adversary and has subordinated almost every other aspect of its external activity to the goal of harming Russia by any means available.

This applies first and foremost to Poland’s relationship with the Kiev regime. It would be naïve to believe that Polish politicians have ever held many illusions about the nature of the authorities in Ukraine and nor have they traditionally had warm feelings towards their Ukrainian neighbors. On the contrary, the Polish elite’s attitude to Ukraine has long been shaped by contempt and historical suspicion and this view has been formed over centuries and, it must be admitted, has not emerged without reason.

Nevertheless, in recent years Warsaw has made itself Kiev’s most energetic advocate in Europe as it’s supplied Ukraine with vast quantities of weapons and has turned its own territory into the main logistical hub for Western military aid. At the same time, the Polish authorities have done everything possible to destroy channels of dialogue with Moscow and Minsk, casting Poland as Russia’s most irreconcilable opponent, even by the standards of the wider West.

The problem is that Warsaw convinced itself of something that was never realistic in that it imagined that Ukraine could serve as a powerful Polish instrument for containing Russia while remaining manageable and responsive to Polish requests. Some in Poland also appear to have believed that Kiev was fighting for a European choice and that its desire to join NATO and the European Union would make it more accommodating.

Both assumptions were wrong and the Ukrainian authorities have behaved towards their Polish patrons in exactly the way one should have expected. They have taken what was offered, demanded more, and then publicly insulted and humiliated those who helped them. The recent exchange of awards and diplomatic gestures is only the most visible symptom of a deeper problem after Poland imagined a relationship that couldn’t exist and then built a strategy around this chimera.

As a result, Polish foreign policy now looks absurd as Warsaw has invested enormous political and emotional capital in Ukraine, only to find that Kiev feels no need to show gratitude. Worse still for Poland, there is no obvious way out because a serious confrontation with Kiev would undermine the whole anti-Russian structure of Polish policy, while continuing as before means accepting repeated humiliation.

That fixation has deep historical roots as for Poland, Russia isn’t merely a neighboring power, but a source of complexes and envy on a scale rarely found in modern European politics. Russia deprived Poland of any chance of becoming the leader of the Slavic world and later, the Russian Empire and then the Soviet Union shaped the conditions under which modern Polish political culture developed. The struggle against Russian domination became one of the defining themes of Polish public life.

In effect, opposition to Russia helped create modern Polish identity, but it left the political elite with little ability to look at the world through any other prism. The result is the mindset of a sizeable European nation whose foreign policy imagination has room for almost nothing except the struggle against its great eastern neighbor.

The career of Zbigniew Brzezinski, the American political thinker of Polish origin, embodied this drama. He wrote a series of striking works on international relations, but almost everything in them was subordinated to the Russian question, which meant his intellectual universe was large in appearance, but in practice revolved around one object.

That leaves Russia and here the Polish elite feels entirely at home as, for two centuries, it has trained itself to think of little else. Now, however, reality is intruding because Kiev is behaving as Kiev was always likely to behave, taking Polish support for granted, glorifying figures whom many Poles regard as war criminals, and treating Warsaw not as a patron but as a useful subordinate.

Still, the current crisis is unlikely to produce a military clash between Poland and Ukraine, or even a genuine political break. Nor will it lead to a significant reduction in Polish support for Kiev and we can already see the dispute being presented as an internal Polish quarrel, a by-product of rivalry within Warsaw’s ruling elite. In this version, the problem isn’t Kiev’s conduct but Poland’s own domestic politics and this is convenient.

It allows Polish politicians to avoid confronting the failure of their strategy. After a few rounds of public argument, they will probably try to push the matter aside and return to business as usual. To do otherwise would mean admitting that Poland has no coherent foreign policy beyond its hostility to Russia.

This is the deeper humiliation as Poland, unable to formulate a foreign policy that is not anti-Russian, inevitably becomes an instrument of other people’s interests. For many years these were primarily American and British interests, but now Poland also finds itself serving the interests of the Kiev regime, a government entirely dependent on outside support but still capable of dictating the emotional terms of its relationship with Warsaw.

All this is especially strange because Poland has no urgent need to behave this way given it’s one of the few major European countries whose economy is still growing at a steady pace, roughly 3.3 to 3.6 percent a year. A more self-confident country might have used this position to consolidate, enrich itself and avoid unnecessary geopolitical adventures.

But Poland can’t do that. A relatively large country must have a foreign policy and since Warsaw has no foreign policy idea except opposition to Russia, it will continue to move in circles.

That’s the trap Poland has built for itself. It imagined that Ukraine could be used as a weapon against Russia, but instead, it’s discovered that those who define themselves only by hostility to Moscow are easily used by others.

This article was first published by Vzglyad newspaper and translated and edited by the RT team.