Russia says it downed 60 Ukrainian drones
Russia destroyed 60 Ukrainian drones overnight, according to the Russian defence ministry.
Russia’s air defence units took the drones down over regions in southwest Russia and over the Crimean Peninsula, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, it said.
Rachel Clun, Reuters1 July 2025 07:24
North Korea’s Kim Jong Un seen honouring soldiers killed in Ukraine war
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was seen draping coffins with the national flag in what appeared to be the repatriation of soldiers killed fighting for Russia against Ukraine, photos released by its state media showed.
In photos published from a gala performance, Mr Kim is seen standing by half a dozen coffins, covering them with North Korean flags and pausing briefly with both hands resting on them.
The North Korean leader in some pictures seems overcome with emotion, and audience members can be seen wiping away tears.
North Korea and Russia are marking the first anniversary of their landmark strategic defence partnership treaty, with Pyongyang hosting Russia’s culture minister Olga Lyubimova.
This frame grab from Korean Central Television (KCTV) taken on 29 June and released via AFPTV on 1 July shows a screen displaying North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un looking at coffins during a performance attended by Kim and Russian Minister of Culture Olga Lyubimova in Pyongyang (Korean Central Television (KCTV))
State media images show leader Kim Jong Un honouring the flag-draped coffins of North Korean soldiers killed helping Russia fight Ukraine (Korean Central Television (KCTV))
Arpan Rai1 July 2025 06:14
Why has Russia increased its aerial attacks on Ukraine?
Russia has significantly ramped up its drone and missile attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks in a move that is designed to squeeze Ukraine into submission, according to Washington-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War.
“Russia is continuing to use increasingly large numbers of drones in its overnight strike packages in order to overwhelm Ukrainian air defences and enable subsequent cruise and ballistic missile strikes,” the Washington-based think tank said late on Sunday.
“The increases in Russia’s strike packages in recent weeks are largely due to Russia’s efforts to scale up its defence industrial production, particularly of Shahed and decoy drones and ballistic missiles,” the institute added.
Russia has ramped up its overnight aerial attacks targeting civilian areas of Ukrainian cities in the past few weeks.
Over the weekend, Russia launched its biggest combined aerial attack against Ukraine, officials said, in an escalating bombing campaign that has further dashed hopes for a breakthrough in peace efforts.
Ukraine’s air force yesterday said it detected 107 Russian Shahed and decoy drones in the country’s air space overnight.
A view of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv during an air raid alert (Reuters)
Arpan Rai1 July 2025 05:51
Russia claims to take control of Ukrainian village in new advance
Russian forces have reportedly seized their first village in Ukraine’s east-central Dnipropetrovsk region, according to Russian state media and war bloggers, marking a new advance in the ongoing conflict.
There has been no immediate confirmation from Ukrainian sources or the Russian defence ministry regarding the claim.
Russia’s state RIA news agency quoted pro-Russian official Vladimir Rogov as stating that Russian forces had taken control of the village of Dachnoye, located just inside the Dnipropetrovsk region. The claim remains unverified by independent sources.
This reported advance comes as Moscow’s forces have gained significant ground in recent months, seizing approximately 950 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory over the past two months.
Arpan Rai1 July 2025 05:39
EU and Ukraine seal new trade deal but key details awaited
The European Union and Ukraine have struck a long-term trade agreement, ending their wartime trade liberalisation measures.
The agreement is “predictable” and has a “reciprocal” framework, said EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic and agriculture commissioner Christophe Hansen, as they added that the finer points will be finalised “in the coming days”.
The Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine, including a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA), was first negotiated between 2007 and 2011, and signed on 21 March and 27 June 2014, a statement by the EU commission yesterday said.
The DCFTA deal notably removed the vast majority of tariffs on industrial goods.
Under the three tiers of the new framework, there will be modest increases in quotas for products like eggs, poultry, sugar, wheat, maize and honey, which are considered sensitive by EU member states.
In the agreement, the EU and Ukraine will work to adjust the quotas for a second group of products like butter, skimmed milk powder, oats, barley, malt and gluten, to push them to reach peak import levels since the war began in February 2022.
The trade deal will fully liberalise a third section of items like whole milk powder, fermented milk, mushrooms, and grape juice.
Flag during the EU-Ukraine Association Council in the the European Council an institution of the European Union in Brussels (AFP via Getty Images)
Arpan Rai1 July 2025 05:34
Trump’s Ukraine envoy snaps back at Kremlin, says Russia stalling negotiations
US president Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg has reacted to the Kremlin’s claims that the peace talks for Ukraine depend on Kyiv and Washington, calling them “Orwellian”.
Kremlin spokesperson and a close aide of Russian president Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov, on Monday said that the pace of talks to resolve the war in Ukraine depends on Kyiv’s position, the effectiveness of US mediation, and the situation on the ground.
In response, Mr Kellogg said: “Peskov’s recent comments on the state of negotiations are Orwellian. Russian claims that it is the US and Ukraine stalling peace talks are unfounded.”
“President Trump has been consistent and adamant about making progress to end the war. We urge an immediate ceasefire and a move to trilateral talks to end the war. Russia cannot continue to stall for time while it bombs civilian targets in Ukraine,” he said in a post on X.
Arpan Rai1 July 2025 04:52
Lammy discusses Ukraine with Turkish foreign minster during Turkey trip
Foreign secretary David Lammy is set to discuss the Ukraine conflict with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan during his first bilateral visit to Ankara.
The trip comes as talks on a new free trade agreement between the UK and Turkey get under way.
The UK and Turkey are also in talks to export Eurofighter Typhoon jets to Turkey.
Mr Lammy said: “In an increasingly volatile world, the UK and Turkey remain the closest of friends and partners as we work together to find peaceful solutions to conflict in the Middle East and Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.
“Ours is a relationship which delivers directly for Turkish and British citizens at home – trade between our nations is responsible for thousands of jobs, while our security and defence links help keep our people safe.”
Arpan Rai1 July 2025 04:50
Putin’s peace talks are ‘pure mockery’, says German foreign minister
Russian president Vladimir Putin’s talk of wanting peace in the Ukraine war is “pure mockery”, a top German diplomat visiting Kyiv has said.
“When Putin speaks of peace today, it is pure mockery,” said Germany’s foreign minister Johann Wadephul, speaking at a news conference with Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha.
“His apparent readiness to negotiate is only a facade so far,” Mr Wadephul said.
He also announced that Berlin aims to help Ukraine manufacture more weapons more quickly at a time Kyiv is looking to strengthen its negotiating position in peace talks with Russia.
“We see our task as helping Ukraine so that it can negotiate more strongly,” he said.
German foreign minister Johann Wadephul speaks with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky during their meeting in Kyiv (EPA)
Arpan Rai1 July 2025 04:16
Russia’s Lavrov claims Nato defence spending increase could lead to its collapse
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said that a decision by Nato members to increase defence spending was catastrophic for the alliance and could ultimately lead to its collapse, state news agency Tass reported yesterday.
Nato “needs to be guided by common sense”, Mr Lavrov said.
Allies within the alliance last week agreed to raise their collective spending goal to 5 per cent of gross domestic product over the next decade.
Asked about remarks by Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski, who was reported to have said that an arms race between Russia and the West could trigger the fall of president Vladimir Putin, Mr Lavrov instead deflected and said he thought Nato could collapse.
“Since he is such a predictor, he probably foresees that a catastrophic increase in the budget of Nato countries, according to my estimates, will also lead to the collapse of this organisation,” the Russian official said, referring to Nato.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov attends a ceremony to present highest state awards in Moscow (Sputnik)
Arpan Rai1 July 2025 04:08
Russia says it now occupies all of Ukraine’s Luhansk region
A Russia-appointed official in occupied Luhansk claims Moscow’s forces have now taken the whole of the region that it illegally annexed from Ukraine in September 2022.
Leonid Pasechnik, the Moscow-installed leader of the occupied region, said he received a report “literally two days ago” saying that “100 per cent of the region was now under the control of Russian forces”.
The remarks by the Kremlin-backed official to Russia’s state TV Channel One were aired yesterday evening. Kyiv has not commented on the claim made by Mr Pasechnik.
If confirmed, that would make Luhansk the first Ukrainian region fully occupied by Russia after more than three years of war and as recent US-led international peace efforts have failed to make progress on halting the fighting.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has effectively rejected a ceasefire and hasn’t budged from his demands, which include Moscow being given full control over the four illegally annexed regions.
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Map showing major cities in Ukraine as well as Moscow-backed separatist regions which were illegally annexed in September 2022 (The Independent)
Arpan Rai1 July 2025 04:06