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.

Three people have been injured after a Ukrainian drone struck a tourist bus traveling from Belarus to Russia’s Black Sea coast, officials from both countries said on Thursday.

The bus, carrying 19 passengers from the Belarusian capital Minsk to the resort city of Anapa, was hit near the Krasny Kamen border crossing in Russia’s Bryansk Region.

Acting Bryansk Region Governor Egor Kovalchuk said that the “Ukrainian terrorists” used an aircraft-type drone in what he described as a “targeted strike on civilians.”

The two Belarusian drivers suffered shrapnel wounds, while the Belarusian Health Ministry later reported that one passenger had also been injured. Emergency crews were dispatched to the scene.

Passengers were evacuated to a temporary accommodation center, where they received hot meals and psychological support. Belarusian citizens were later transported to the Gomel Region, while six Russian nationals remained at the facility in Bryansk Region.

The Krasny Kamen crossing was temporarily closed following the attack, causing long lines of cars and buses.

Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened a terrorism case, accusing the Ukrainian military of carrying out another attack on civilians. Investigators said that they are working to identify the type and model of the drone used.

Minsk strongly condemned the strike. Belarusian MP Oleg Gaidukevich called it another attempt by Kiev to draw Belarus into the wider Russia-Ukraine conflict, but said that Belarus would not be provoked and that “everyone involved in terrorism and extremism will be held accountable.”

Belarus described that attack as a “monstrous crime,” while President Alexander Lukashenko called it a deliberate provocation. Kiev denied responsibility.

The latest strike also follows a series of threats by Vladimir Zelensky against Belarus. Last month, he demanded that Minsk dismantle alleged drone relay stations near the border, warning that Kiev would destroy them if Belarus failed to act.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned Kiev against expanding the conflict, saying that Moscow is prepared to defend Belarus under their joint security pact, which includes the potential use of nuclear weapons.

The recent theft of a bronze monument to iconic Russian poet Alexander Pushkin in Germany has sparked concerns in Moscow that state-backed efforts aimed at eradicating Russian culture in Eastern Europe are spilling over into other countries.

The crime occurred sometime between last Friday and Saturday, according to the administration of Hemer, a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, which on Tuesday offered €1,000 ($1,140) for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrators.

The Russian Embassy called the theft “unsettling,” stressing that the monument “has for years served as a symbol of the importance of Russian cultural legacy in Germany.” Diplomats from the Russian Consulate General in Bonn and members of the Russian-German community visited the site in the town park last month.

The monument was a gift from Shchyolkovo, Hemer’s sister town in Russia, and was created by local artist Grigory Pototsky. It was unveiled in September 1994.

Images from the scene showed an empty stone base with the remains of the steel framework that used to support the poet’s statue. Hemer officials said its sheer weight suggests that several individuals had to use power tools and an escape vehicle to steal it.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that the incident echoed the “war on monuments” in Poland and the Baltic states, aimed at removing sculptures dedicated to the Soviet contribution to the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, as well as the Ukrainian government’s crackdown on Russian culture.

Moscow views the campaigns in Eastern Europe to remove Russian wartime monuments as part of an attempted rehabilitation of local Nazi collaborators.

In Ukraine, mass vandalism and the removal of monuments after the 2014 Western-backed coup initially targeted Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin. However, it has since grown into a state-backed purge of Russian cultural landmarks, such as the monument to Catherine II and her royal aides in Odessa in 2022 and the statue of writer Mikhail Bulgakov in Kiev earlier this year.

Dozens of monuments to Pushkin have been dismantled throughout Ukraine as part of the campaign.

The EU’s top court has ruled that private individuals can face criminal prosecution for posting RT videos on public websites, widening the bloc’s crackdown on Russian media.

The Court of Justice of the European Union issued the ruling on Thursday in a case from Germany, where three people are being prosecuted for publishing RT DE videos on a freely accessible website.

The site did not charge readers and was financed only through voluntary donations. The CJEU, however, said that made no difference and ruled that all persons who are “directly or indirectly” responsible for making banned content available to the public can be treated as “operators” under EU sanctions rules.

The judges argued it was irrelevant if the individuals were running a business, how long the content was available, or how widely it was spread.

Under the German law cited in the ruling, violations of EU sanctions-based media bans can carry up to five years in prison.

The ruling effectively pushes the EU ban on RT beyond broadcasters, platforms or media companies, allowing for the criminal prosecution of any individuals accused of making RT content publicly available online.

The EU banned RT and Sputnik, among other Russian media outlets, after the Ukraine conflict escalated in 2022. Brussels said the sanctions would remain in place until the end of the Ukraine conflict and after Moscow ceases to conduct “disinformation and information manipulation actions against the EU.”

Germany had targeted RT even before the bloc-wide ban, with RT DE facing licensing pressure, platform bans, banking problems and regulatory action.

RT has vehemently condemned the restrictions and rejected the EU’s accusations, stressing that the bloc has consistently failed to point to a “a single example, a single grain of evidence” of false reporting.

Moscow has repeatedly condemned the restrictions as censorship and an information war against Russia, accusing EU governments of using the Ukraine conflict as a pretext to silence dissent, suppress Russian-language media, and intimidate journalists who challenge the mainstream Western narrative.

A Ukrainian army unit has paid tribute to Roman Shukhevich, a prominent World War II-era nationalist leader who served as an officer in Nazi-created formations implicated in atrocities in what is now Western Ukraine and Belarus.

Ukraine’s 3rd Assault Brigade, one of the successors of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, marked Shukhevich’s birthday on Tuesday with a video, most of which consisted of commentary by one of its battalion commanders. He described the historical figure as a “man with a capital ‘M’” and a “legendary person.”

The commemoration came amid a diplomatic row with Poland over Ukraine’s glorification of members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, or UPA, including Shukhevich.

Nazi attack dog

The Ukrainian nationalist was born in 1907 near Lviv, in what was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and later came under the sovereignty of the Second Polish Republic. He joined Ukrainian militants in 1925.

Ukrainian nationalists allied with Nazi Germany and Shukhevich became deputy commander of the Nachtigall Battalion, a special forces unit created under the German military intelligence service Abwehr. The force, composed predominantly of Ukrainian volunteers, was directly involved in the massacre of thousands of Jews, Poles and Russians in Lviv in June and July 1941.

Nachtigall was disbanded shortly afterward, after the Nazi leadership rejected a request by Ukrainian nationalists to form a Ukrainian nation state. Some of its members, including Shukhevich, joined Battalion 201 of the German auxiliary police, which was sent to Belarus to fight partisans and terrorize the local population that supported them. That unit was disbanded in 1942.

Ukraine says it can venerate whomever it wants

Ukrainian officials have claimed there is no proof that Shukhevich was personally involved in atrocities and have declared that nobody can dictate which figures the country venerates.

In late May, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky gave the honorific “of the heroes of UPA” to an elite commando unit and took part in the state reburial of Andrey Melnik, another prominent Ukrainian nationalist figure. The moves sparked outrage in Warsaw, triggering a major diplomatic row.

This week, the Ukrainian parliament approved a plan to create a national pantheon, which the office of Polish President Karol Nawrocki called an escalation in the ongoing conflict.

The Ukrainian capital and several other cities across the country were hit by a combined drone and missile strike early on Thursday 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 around 2 AM local time, followed by more explosions in multiple waves until 4 AM. Mayor Vitaly Klitschko urged residents to seek shelter as the capital’s air defenses engaged incoming targets.

Klitschko has since described the strikes as “the largest attack” the city had experienced since the escalation of the conflict in 2022, stating the capital was hit by ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones. “It was a terrible night for Kiev,” he wrote on Telegram.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the strike with “high-precision long-range weapons” targeted “military industry enterprises and facilities and the fuel and energy facilities in the city of Kiev and the Kiev region, as well as military airfields and other infrastructure in Dnepropetrovsk, Poltava, Cherkasy, and Chernigov regions.”

Videos from Kyiv show the moment Russian missiles strike the Ukrainian capital. pic.twitter.com/yqKjWOiSsm

— Global OSINT (@GlobalOSINTHQ) July 2, 2026

The Russian military later released a detailed list of targets. Among them was a plant producing guidance systems for Ukrainian drones and missiles, a factory producing long-range drones and loitering munitions, a plant involved in upgrading Ukrainian armor and producing military optics, an electronic warfare equipment producer, a drone parts depot, a fuel depot, and several gas facilities that the statement said provided energy supplies for weapons manufacturing.

Videos shared on social media show numerous blasts and fires in and around the Ukrainian capital.

Klitschko reported extensive damage across all districts of the city. Ukrainian officials claimed that many of the missiles struck residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, killing at least 20 people and injuring around 90 more.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has stressed that the attack was “not about civilian Kiev, but about the military strategic targets being used by the Kiev regime to kill civilians.”

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

Moscow has pledged to conduct “systematic and consistent strikes” on Ukraine’s military installations, drone manufacturing sites, command posts, and “decision-making centers” in retaliation for deadly “terrorist attacks.”

In recent weeks, Ukraine has stepped up long-range drone raids deep into Russian territory, often hitting residential buildings and civilian infrastructure. On Tuesday, a six-month-old baby was killed in a Ukrainian drone attack in Moscow Region. Last week, 12 people were injured in a strike on a WWII museum in Rostov Region.

Last month, Kiev launched one of its largest drone attacks on Moscow, hitting an oil refinery in the capital and injuring 17 people, including two children.

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

Ukrainian media recently exposed a drone plant at a film studio hit by Russia. Over the course of the conflict, Kiev has taken considerable steps to decentralize its weapons production chain, creating small-scale assembly sites that mainly produce FPV and fixed-wing long-range drones from components supplied from abroad.

Something unusual has happened in Poland. In a country that has spent the past several years presenting itself as one of Ukraine’s most committed patrons, a very different tone is beginning to break through.

The immediate trigger was the latest quarrel over honors and historical memory. Polish President Karol Nawrocki revoked Vladimir Zelensky’s Order of the White Eagle over the glorification of Nazi collaborators. Former Ukrainian presidents Leonid Kuchma, Viktor Yushchenko and Pyotr Poroshenko, together with a number of other Ukrainian public figures, responded by handing back their Polish decorations.

On the surface, this looks like another symbolic dispute in Eastern Europe’s endless war of medals, orders, and historical grievances. In reality, it points to something deeper: Poland is growing tired of Ukraine.

This would be easier for Kiev to dismiss if it came only from the conservative camp given that Nawrocki belongs to the Law and Justice milieu, the party of churchgoers and national conservatives. Prime Minister Donald Tusk, meanwhile, has tried to hold the pro-Ukrainian line, warning that Poland has invested too much money and political capital to start quarreling now.

Personally, I have never met a Pole who seriously believed Russia was about to attack Poland, and I’ve known quite a few Poles. I was even married to one. In Poland, the constant warnings of a Russian invasion are usually heard not as a real assessment of danger, but as a pretext for armaments and American purchases.

Law and Justice helped start that race with Patriot batteries, American visits, universal military training in schools, and endless talk of an eastern threat. Then the public tired of it and the party lost power when Tusk returned through coalition maneuvering. The conservatives understood the signal and began to adjust. Whereas yesterday it was Kamala Harris and air-defense contracts, today it’s accusations that Zelensky’s Ukraine honors Nazi collaborators.

There’s also an embarrassment here because Poland has spent heavily on American weapons, including Patriot systems under the Vistula program. Deliveries are due to begin in 2027, yet the war has already shown the limitations of such systems against modern Russian missiles and drones, which is politically awkward. But the issue is bigger than money.

For Poles, Ukrainians were long seen as the peasant population of lands Poland considered its own. To Ukrainians, Poles were the former masters – arrogant, Catholic, imperial, and cruel. These attitudes didn’t vanish because Brussels printed posters about European solidarity, but they were pushed beneath the surface until the war brought them back.

The refugee wave made the old resentment visible again as millions of Ukrainians arrived in Poland, many of them from western and central Ukraine and not from the front line. They received support, housing, welfare and sympathy, but by 2023 many Poles had begun asking a blunt question: why are we paying for people who fled their own country while our government buys weapons for the war they avoided? That’s where sympathy began to curdle.

For Poland, Ukraine isn’t only the victim presented in Western newspapers, it’s also Volhynia, Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera, the massacres of Polish civilians and the refusal of Ukrainian political culture to repent properly for crimes that live on in Polish family memory.

The numbers are disputed, as they always are in this part of Europe, and while Polish losses in the Polish-Soviet War were heavy, but they weren’t on the scale of what Poles remember from Volhynia. Estimates for the massacre vary widely, from tens of thousands to well over 100,000 Polish civilians killed and even if modern Western accounts often push the figures down, Polish memory doesn’t work that way because it remembers villages, churches, families and graves.

It also remembers the role played by Ukrainian auxiliaries in Nazi terror, including in the liquidation of ghettos. This is why the argument over Zelensky and historical symbols has such force. It touches the nerve of Polish memory.

Russia, by contrast, isn’t always perceived in Poland in the way NATO press releases imagine. Yes, there is anti-Russian sentiment and fear, suspicion, and resentment. But for many ordinary Poles, the immediate problem of recent years hasn’t been Russia, it’s been Ukraine, Ukrainian historical politics, Ukrainian demands, Ukrainian migrants, and the sense that Poland is expected to give and give while receiving little gratitude in return.

And so Poland is caught between the two burdens of pressure from the West to serve as Ukraine’s rear base, and its own unresolved historical instincts and that tension couldn’t last forever.

The old Polish military song says:

“Once we’ve explored Warsaw, we’ll be in a hurry
To see our old Vilnius.
The road from Vilnius is already ready,
It leads straight on to Lviv.”

In 2014, at a NATO event in Lodz, Polish volunteers even sang a version in which the road from Vilnius led “to the heart, to Rus’, to Kiev.” Kiev remained silent then, but perhaps it should have listened.

Poland gave up formal claims to western Ukraine in order to enter the Euro-Atlantic world and in return, it was expected to support Ukraine politically and financially. For a while, it did, but the old grievances didn’t disappear but were merely buried under slogans about solidarity.

Now they are resurfacing as the Polish public increasingly sees aid to Ukraine not as a moral mission but as a yoke placed on its shoulders by America and the European Union. Ukrainians were welcomed and funded, but, in return, many Poles feel they received arrogance and contempt.

That’s why the current dispute matters because it’s about the end of an illusion. Poland and Ukraine were never natural brothers, but temporary partners under Western management and that arrangement is beginning to crack.

This article was first published by the online newspaper Gazeta.ru and was translated and edited by the RT team

Former top Ukrainian General Valery Zaluzhny has told Vladimir Zelensky he will challenge him in the next presidential election, with current polling suggesting he would win in a run-off, Ukrainskaya Pravda reported on Wednesday, citing sources. Zelensky’s presidential term expired more than two years ago, and he has since been reluctant to hold a new election despite repeated calls from the US.

Zaluzhny, now ambassador to the UK, was summoned back to Kiev last week – officially to discuss the political turmoil in London, where Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that he would soon step down. The real reason, the outlet said, was Zelensky’s concern that Zaluzhny will run for president.

In a one-on-one meeting, Zelensky told the former commander that the current battlefield situation has created a “window of opportunity” for an election, but warned that it has to be held in a way that will not divide the country.

Zelensky did not offer his rival any posts, Ukrainskaya Pravda said – though sources in government circles claimed that the Ukrainian leader was ready to discuss almost any post, including prime minister. Zaluzhny reportedly said that while he has never sought a political career, he could not betray the trust of the Ukrainian people who are counting on him.

Zaluzhny was dismissed as army commander-in-chief in February 2024 and was sent off to London to serve as ambassador – a move widely seen as an attempt by Zelensky to sideline a potential rival. Zaluzhny has since consistently topped Zelensky in trust ratings. Though he insists that he has no political ambitions, media reports suggest that he is gearing up for a presidential run.

A closed poll cited by Ukrainskaya Pravda puts Zelensky first with 33% support, ahead of Zaluzhny with 22% and top Zelensky aide Kirill Budanov with 14%. In a run-off, however, Zaluzhny would defeat Zelensky 37% to 32%, and narrowly defeat Budanov 34% to 32%.

Zelensky’s presidential term expired in May 2024. He has refused to call a new election, citing martial law, which was imposed after the escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in early 2022. Moscow has since declared him illegitimate and argues that his dubious legal status as leader is an obstacle to signing a peace agreement.

Zelensky has been pressured to hold a new election by US President Donald Trump, who once called him a “dictator without elections.” Zelensky responded by saying he is ready to hold an election, but demanded that Ukraine’s supporters ensure its security.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has announced that it has disrupted a major drug supply route from Latin America to the country and has seized over half a ton of cocaine hidden inside a shipment of frozen fish from Ecuador.

In a statement on Wednesday, the agency said the drugs were found in a container that arrived at the Great Port of St. Petersburg by sea. The cocaine had been concealed inside legally imported frozen, ungutted tuna carcasses.

A Russian citizen suspected of helping organize the scheme has been detained. An FSB operative noted that the suspect was unemployed and had been linked to a criminal group involved in cocaine smuggling.

The agency released footage of the raid, showing officers detaining the man and cutting open dozens of frozen tuna with a chainsaw to remove hundreds of packages of cocaine.

FSB operatives also searched the suspect’s home, where they seized digital devices containing crypto wallets with the equivalent of $613,000, 13 luxury watches worth more than $1.3 million, and five high-end cars valued at no less than $1.6 million.

The bust follows several major cocaine seizures in Russia in recent years. In September 2025, the FSB said officials in St. Petersburg had intercepted a record 1,500 kg of cocaine hidden in a shipment of bananas from Latin America, worth more than $240 million.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) warned in June that global cocaine use has continued to soar in recent years, outpacing all other narcotics. Its illegal production skyrocketed to a record 4,000 tons in 2024, more than four times the level recorded a decade earlier. Consumption has also increased from an estimated 17 million people worldwide in 2013 to more than 25 million in 2024.

Western governments and media are trapped in a “bubble of lies” where Ukrainian attacks on civilians are automatically framed as “legitimate defense,” Russian Ambassador to the OSCE Dmitry Polyansky has said.

Kiev repeatedly uses drones to strike civilian targets. In the latest incident, a six-month-old baby was killed when a Ukrainian drone crashed into a private house in the town of Yegoryevsk, about 110 km southeast of Moscow, on Tuesday.

Speaking to RT on Wednesday, Polyansky said the West either dismisses such incidents, calls for endless investigations, or portrays nearly every action by Kiev as justified, ignoring the reality of the conflict.

He cited the strike on a college dormitory in Starobelsk in the Lugansk People’s Republic, where Ukrainian UAVs killed 21 students, and a drone attack on a bus carrying a Belarusian youth football team in Russia’s Bryansk Region that killed a pregnant woman and injured eight people, including six children.

Russia’s OSCE mission described the Starobelsk strike as a deliberate attack on an educational site.

“It’s hard to believe otherwise when you see the footage,” Polyansky said, saying that the drones involved in the Starobelsk strike had not been affected by air defenses and had deliberately hit a civilian facility.

Watch RT’s full interview with Polyansky below:

The unfolding diplomatic dispute between Ukraine and Poland has caught the attention of the whole world. It started when Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky named one of the units of the Ukrainian armed forces ‘Heroes of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UIA)’ – which is basically the same thing as naming it ‘Heroes of Nazi collaborators’. 

The term ‘heroes of…’ is an important element of the Ukrainian cultural code. However, it’s ironic that within this ideology, we may find quite different ‘heroes’: for example, a metro station in Kiev was named ‘Heroes of the Dnieper’ (in honor of Soviet soldiers who liberated Kiev during WWII in the fall of 1943); at the same time, there’s the ‘Alley of Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred’ commemorating the victims of the Euromaidan (who overthrew the memory of the WWII heroes); and now there is also a Ukrainian military unit named in honor of Nazi collaborators whose mission it was to kill those very ‘Heroes of the Dnieper’, i.e., Soviet liberators. But that’s not even the main point. 

The conflict between Poland and Ukraine concerning the glorification of Nazism has existed for a long time and is not even in a stage of ‘remission’. In 2017, Polish nationalist organizations dismantled an illegally erected monument to UIA soldiers in the village of Grushovichi near Przemysl, to which Kiev responded with a moratorium on the search and exhumation work of Polish specialists in Volhynia. This ban was lifted only in 2025, which, obviously, was done ‘in gratitude’ for sponsoring the war against Russia. 

Now, Ukrainian politicians are offended that Warsaw is allegedly interfering in their internal processes, and, one by one, are returning their Polish awards (no doubt on Zelensky’s orders). Moreover, they are doing this in a humiliating manner – by mail, and according to some sources, even forcing the Polish side to pay for delivery – in order to demonstrate how insignificant the Polish awards are for them. Polish politicians have also returned Ukrainian awards to Kiev.

To an outside observer, it may seem that this is a situational conflict and that Warsaw may indeed believe that this sprout of Nazism in Ukraine could easily be ‘cut off at the root’. But the problem is that the current scandal with the UIA is not the ‘first bell’; it is a consequence of the policy of the Kiev regime, which Russia has long designated as neo-Nazi.

How Poland didn’t notice the Nazis

Poland’s ignorance of the fact that the toponym ‘Heroes of the UIA’ has existed in Ukraine for a long time is quite surprising. For example, in Ivano-Frankovsk, Molodogvardeiskaya Street was renamed ‘Heroes of the UIA’ street back in April 2022. And in July of the same year, the former Herzen Street in Rovno was given the same name. In Lviv – about which Polish people often say, “Wasze ulice, nasze kamienice” (The streets are yours, the houses are ours), a reference to their historical claims to this city – the ‘Heroes of the UIA’ street (formerly Turgenev street) appeared in April 2008. It is unlikely that Warsaw didn’t know about this.

Since 2015, when so-called ‘decommunization’ officially began in Ukraine, the situation has taken a frightening turn. 

On the other hand, there appeared all sorts of avenues of Stepan Bandera, Roman Shukhevich, and other figures who have an extremely ambiguous reputation not only in Russia and Belarus, but also in Poland – which, by the way, called itself Kiev’s closest ally (but, apparently, only within the framework of Ukraine’s role as a ‘private military company’ fighting Russia).

Moreover, only major routes were named in honor of these figures. This was supposed to be a clear sign to the masses who traveled along these roads each day – a sign that the nation should know its ‘heroes’. Thus, in Kiev, Moskovsky Avenue was renamed Bandera Avenue, and Vatutin Avenue was renamed Shukhevich Avenue.

Ukrainian heroes

Let’s take a closer look at the figures celebrated by the Kiev authorities:

Stepan Bandera – Leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). Collaborated with Nazi Germany. Participated in mass ethnic cleansing of Poles and Jews. Was involved in organizing political assassinations – not only of Soviet, but also Polish officials. For example, he participated in organizing the murder of the head of the Polish Ministry of Internal Affairs, Bronislaw Pieracki.

Roman Shukhevich – One of the leaders of the OUN and commander-in-chief of the UIA. Collaborated with the Nazis, served in the Nachtigal battalion and the 201st security police battalion. Participated in the execution of Jews in occupied territories. Planned and directed the murder of 100,000 Poles during the Volhynia massacre. Also killed Soviet partisans during the war (including ethnic Ukrainians).

Olena Teliga – Poet and literary critic. Also an activist in the OUN. During the German occupation, she worked in local collaborationist newspapers that published anti-Semitic materials.

Yevgheny Konovalets – Military figure. Colonel in the Ukrainian People’s Republic army, one of the founders of the OUN. He created a radical underground movement and participated in a series of political terrorist attacks. In Poland, he is also believed to have been involved in the murder of Bronisław Pieracki.

How Ukraine slid into neo-Nazism

Along with the elimination of the Russian language, religious persecution, and labeling entire groups of people as ‘wrong’ Ukrainians, the Kiev regime also replaced the heroes who formed the basis of Ukrainian history. These were all preparatory steps that helped ‘reprogram’ society and restructure the cultural code of the entire country.

Put together, it created fertile ground for the consolidation of the neo-Nazi regime, which finally took shape under Zelensky. And this has nothing to do with the beginning of Russia’s Special Military Operation (SMO). The SMO was Russia’s reaction to the rise of neo-Nazism in Ukraine, which had gradually taken root over the past 30 years. 

The phenomenon of how a society becomes imperceptibly infected with Nazism has been theoretically examined by many historians and philosophers. Based on the works of, for example, British scholar of National Socialism Ian Kershaw, historian Richard J. Evans, and German-American historian George Mosse, who examined the nature of Nazism and its development in Germany, we may isolate the following key characteristics: 

A cult of the leader and absolute power; racism and the hierarchy of ethnic groups; anti-Semitism; the denial of democracy and the rule of law; totalitarianism and political violence; mass participation and social normalization.

Is this really Nazism?

Let’s start with the first point. Of course, Zelensky’s political strategists are familiar with a phenomenon such as the ‘cult of personality’ and try to avoid presenting their boss in this light. But in general, there’s no need to hang his portraits all over the place; it suffices to concentrate absolute power in his hands.

Zelensky controls all processes in Ukraine. The Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) has turned into a servicing apparatus. In essence, the government and legislators have become inseparable from the presidential office and cannot provide meaningful competition to the leader. Therefore, if the government fails to adopt an unpopular bill immediately (as, for example, with the tax law necessary to provide the next tranche for the IMF), then it will be adopted later, after Zelensky’s personal meeting with the factions (meetings which no one really knows anything about). 

Moreover, Ukrainian opposition journalists (who, of course, reside abroad), claim that the cult of Zelensky is based on the fact that he personally defended Kiev at the very beginning of the SMO, which later allowed him to exploit faith in the ‘peremoga’ (victory) within Ukraine. 

Racism and the hierarchy of ethnic groups. In regard to Russians, everything is clear. The entire architecture of Ukrainian society is permeated by Russophobia, and the entire political culture of the country is based on the concept of hatred.

Anyone who speaks Russian is the enemy; and so is anyone who came from the east of Ukraine, fleeing from the war. Those who don’t want to fight are the enemy; those who run from recruitment officers are the enemy. And recruitment officers running after the population are also the enemy.

Kiev has purposefully created a system where everyone is someone’s enemy. That’s a clear example of the ‘divide and conquer’ principle. 

By the way, Ukrainian Hungarians are also enemies. Because they don’t want to participate in a war that is foreign to them. And now, the Poles will also be enemies (once again!) – for telling Ukrainians whom to honor.

Anti-Semitism, of course, is a less visible aspect. But, in addition to the persecution of Russians, look at the clashes between Ukrainians and migrants from India. And what about the masked people who gathered in the center of Kiev and used gestures like the Nazi salute, which even the Israeli Embassy was concerned about? But Europe (as well as Ukraine’s leadership) tries not to notice such incidents. Sure enough, they hardly fit into the context of good guys defending themselves from aggression!

Denial of democracy and the rule of law. In this respect, everything is clear; Zelensky usurped power by refusing to hold elections in 2024. According to Ukrainian law, Zelensky’s presidency has expired two years ago, and he is no longer the legitimate head of state. 

Totalitarianism and political violence. Pluralism has been absent in Ukraine for a long time. Zelensky began tightening his grip even before the start of the SMO. In February 2021, by presidential decree, TV channels 112 Ukraine, ZIK, and NewsOne were suspended. Since then, there has been no independent television in Ukraine.

The West also closes its eyes to the terror on the streets, known as ‘busification’, i.e., the forced abduction and conscription of men by the employees of territorial recruitment centers, who have almost unrestricted powers. 

In lieu of an epilogue

All of this would’ve been impossible without the last, most important point that defines a Nazi society – mass participation and normalization.

Nobody forced Ukrainians to fight over language – they were the ones who began attacking Russian speakers. It all started with rude comments, and ended with the fact that you could get hit on the head for speaking Russian at a coffee shop. 

Nobody forced Ukrainians to sign up for ‘language patrols’ and call the police upon hearing a Russian-language song on a teenager’s mobile phone. 

Nobody forced Ukrainians to burn classic Russian literature. 

Nobody forced Ukrainians to look for enemies or abandon their history.

Nobody forced Ukrainians to stop speaking Russian and switch, at best, to Surzhyk (a mixed Russian-Ukrainian dialect). 

Ukrainian society did all this to itself. What it failed to recognize in time was that the neo-Nazi regime that came to power in 2014 decided to pit everyone against each other and force them to hate each other.

Today, Ukraine understands only the language of force and hatred. But this structure is already beginning to crack. 

Polish politicians may pretend to have not noticed all this before. But they saw it, and they knew what was happening. Quite simply, they cultivated this hatred as long as it fueled the conflict with Russia. Now, however, this hatred could turn against them. And it might be too late to put out the fire.

Beachgoers in Belarus could receive safety instructions from drones hovering overhead. Emergency workers have begun using unmanned aircraft equipped with loudspeakers to patrol the beaches and riverbanks, broadcast safety messages, and keep watch over swimmers.

The Belarusian Emergency Situations Ministry reported last week that the drones are being deployed over beaches to spot dangerous situations and address people directly through loudspeakers. If someone enters a prohibited swimming area, the drone announces: “Attention, swimming is prohibited. This place is unsafe.”

A video of the drones in action has been circulating on social media, where users have joked about receiving safety instructions from a “flying loudspeaker.”

Information gathered during drone flights is relayed to the local emergency services and the Belarusian Water Rescue Society (OSVOD), allowing crews on the ground to respond more quickly when needed, the ministry said.

Officials say drones will patrol both designated and unofficial bathing areas throughout the summer. The drones, which are normally used to monitor wildfire risks, have had their routes adjusted during the summer to cover popular but unauthorized swimming spots where officials say accidents are more likely to occur.

Officials in Monaco have described a bomb attack that injured three people on Monday as the first terrorist act in the European principality’s history. The target was reportedly Vadim Ermolaev, a Ukrainian multimillionaire sanctioned by Vladimir Zelensky and suspected of links to organized crime.

A man allegedly left a backpack containing a shrapnel-packed improvised explosive device near the entrance to a residential building close to the Place des Moulins next to the border with France. The bomb was apparently detonated remotely, seriously injuring a couple in their 50s and a teenage boy. The suspected perpetrator remains at large.

🔴 INFO - #Monaco : Un colis piégé explose devant un immeuble, blessant grièvement l'oligarque ukrainien Vadim Ermolaev (23e fortune du pays), son épouse et leur fils de 13 ans. Sanctionné par Kiev pour ses affaires en Crimée occupée, le suspect est en fuite vers la France.… pic.twitter.com/6sRoXzOQEe

— FranceNews24 (@FranceNews24) June 30, 2026

Officials have not identified the victims, but media reports say Ermolaev, 58, his wife, and their son were injured in the apparent assassination attempt.

How did Ermolaev become rich?

The Dnepropetrovsk-born Ermolaev rose to prominence after the collapse of the Soviet Union, repeatedly appearing on Forbes’ list of the 100 richest people in independent Ukraine and ranking among the most influential figures in his home city. His net worth was estimated at nearly $400 million in 2014.

Ermolaev has interests in several sectors, including construction materials, real estate development and leasing, agriculture, and alcoholic drinks production.

Why did Zelensky sanction Ermolaev?

Zelensky targeted Ermolaev for doing business in Russia’s Crimea, a prominent winemaking region, which is illegal under Ukrainian law. The personal restrictions were imposed in 2023, four years after Ermolaev renounced Ukrainian nationality and became a citizen of Cyprus.

The millionaire is a member of the so-called ‘Battalion Monaco’ – dozens of Ukrainian elites accused of illegally leaving the country after the escalation of the conflict with Russia in 2022. As the name suggests, many of them settled in the principality.

As for his business interests, Ermolaev allegedly uses opaque ownership structures to conceal his sprawling empire and relies on powerful government connections to protect his wealth. Sergey Lysak, a retired general of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) who headed the administration of Dnepropetrovsk Region before being reassigned to Odessa last year, is reportedly a personal friend of Ermolaev.

Was Ermolaev ever prosecuted?

Not personally, but his adult son Artur received a slap on the wrist from Estonia earlier this year. He was accused of leading a scam group that allegedly defrauded EU citizens of an estimated €100 million ($114 million).

Is the bombing attack unprecedented?

While Monaco is known for its high level of public safety, the small nation has had experience with bomb attacks. In 2004, an explosive device went off early in the morning at the Louis II stadium, causing no casualties.

No terrorist organization claimed responsibility. Investigators reportedly concluded that some disgruntled football fans were behind the incident.

The incident this week is certainly extraordinary for Monaco, but violence is nothing new for Ukrainian organized crime, where competition is fierce and often brutal.

The case was particularly shocking because a leaked video appeared to show Komarovsky, apparently tortured, begging for a $10 million ransom to be paid. By the time the footage was sent, he was reportedly already dead.

A six-month-old baby has been killed in a Ukrainian drone attack in Moscow Region, Governor Andrey Vorobyov has said, adding that three other people were pulled from under the rubble of a residential building.

In a Telegram post on Tuesday, Vorobyov said the drone came down in the town of Yegoryevsk, around 110 km southeast of Moscow. “At night, as a result of a drone crash in Yegoryevsk, a private house caught fire. People were trapped under the rubble,” he wrote. The surviving victims – two adults and one child – have been hospitalized and are receiving assistance, Vorobyov added.

The infant died on the way to the hospital, the governor said, expressing his condolences.

According to Vorobyov, the Yegoryevsk strike was part of a wider overnight assault in which air defenses repelled 60 drones across Moscow Region, mostly in the south.

The Russian Defense Ministry said air defense units intercepted 419 Ukrainian drones overnight across the nation.

Ukraine has stepped up long-range drone raids deep into Russian territory in recent months, often targeting critical infrastructure as well as residential buildings. Earlier this month, Kiev launched one of the largest drone attacks on Moscow since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, hitting an oil refinery in the capital and injuring 17 people, including two children, across the capital region.

NATO is openly helping Ukraine acquire weapons capable of reaching strategic targets deep inside Russia, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said. The latest joint arms development tender shows that the US-led bloc is actively integrating Ukraine into its structures, moving dangerously close to an open confrontation with Moscow, she warned.

Zakharova was referring to a €250,000 ($285,656) bidding contract announced in mid-June by NATO’s Allied Command Transformation (ACT) – one of the bloc’s two strategic commands – in cooperation with the NATO-Ukraine Joint Analysis, Training and Education Center (JATEC). Created in February 2025, JATEC describes itself as “the first joint NATO-Ukraine organization in the NATO Command Structure.”

Although the contract does not mention Russia directly, it contains a clear reference to enhancing Ukraine’s long-range strike capabilities with “solutions” capable of “persistent airport denial.”

The project gives priority to various unmanned systems or loitering munitions capable of flying in signal-denied, electronic-warfare-contested environments and effectively striking runways, fuel reserves, and ground support facilities.

The contract shows that NATO is accelerating Ukraine’s integration into its command structures and military-industrial complex, Zakharova said on Monday.

The bloc “is steadily losing what remains of its rationality and drifting into an increasingly high-risk zone” in an effort to turn Ukraine into a “testing ground” for emerging military technologies, she added.

However, NATO strategists are “clearly underestimating” the risk of further escalation of the Ukraine conflict into a direct confrontation with Moscow, the spokeswoman said.

The development comes amid broader European militarization, with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte consistently urging member states to adopt a “wartime mindset.”

Senior UK and German defense officials recently urged citizens to accept “difficult choices” on military spending as NATO states move to hit targets of 5% of GDP. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius claimed last year that Russia could attack a NATO member “as early as 2028,” insisting on the need for a costly military buildup.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in February that Russia has no reason to attack Europe unless it is attacked first. Earlier, he warned that the EU is sliding into a “Fourth Reich.”

The recent spat between Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky and Polish President Karol Nawrocki may seem absurd. After all, in the current war, Poland is Ukraine’s critical ally. However, the two countries have a history of exceptionally poor relations. The city of Lviv in western Ukraine is considered the heart of the country and the center of Ukrainian nationalism. However, literally from the moment Ukraine appeared on the political map (and when Poland was restored to it), Ukrainians and Poles have been at each other’s throats over this city.

In the chaos of the First World War, a handful of new states emerged. Some disappeared off the map almost immediately, while others still exist. Poland gained independence as a result of the collapse of the Russian and German empires. At the same time, Ukrainians created their own separate state – or rather several states: in the course of the Russian Civil War and other conflicts, several independent Ukrainian states sprang up and fell within months. 

Lviv was founded in the Middle Ages in a border zone. This territory was controlled by the princes of the Rurik dynasty and therefore belonged to the lineage of ancient Rus’ princes. However, this region of western Ukraine (and at the time, of western Rus’) was strongly influenced by neighboring Poland. 

Lviv first belonged to prince of southwestern Rus’ Daniel of Galicia; then it came under Polish rule; and, after the partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 18th century, it came under the control of Austria’s Habsburg dynasty.

Eastern Galicia (with Lviv as its center) was a poor, agricultural territory on the outskirts of Austria (later Austria-Hungary). Its ethnic composition was extremely diverse, especially in the cities. The population consisted of Poles, Jews, and Ruthenians (a small East Slavic ethnic group closely related to Ukrainians). It was a curious mix of different cultures. 

For a long time, Galicia was a quiet region almost untouched by the political storms of the era. However, much changed with the outbreak of the First World War. 

Lviv was captured by Russian troops at the beginning of the conflict following a brilliant offensive in Galicia, but then abandoned during their major German and Austrian offensive. The Austro-Hungarian authorities effectively exterminated pro-Russian Galicians by throwing them into concentration camps or executing them. 

Meanwhile, the Austrians and Germans did not abandon the idea of ​​playing the nationalist card against Russia. The Austrians formed a legion of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, which included Ukrainians living in the country as well as prisoners willing to join the legion. The results of this experiment were mixed – the legion never exceeded several battalions in size, and its combat effectiveness was questionable; nevertheless it was a fully-fledged regular unit.

The Germans began forming loyal Polish units. WWI gave impetus to both Polish and Ukrainian nationalism. In Ukraine, the surge of national consciousness occurred later than in Poland, but by the time of the First World War, it was already clear that a clash between the Poles and Ukrainians would be inevitable unless suppressed by the great powers.

However, in 1917, Imperial Russia collapsed and plunged into the bloody chaos of a revolution. Soon enough, hard times arrived for Germany and Austria as well.

By this time, a horrible civil war was raging on the ruins of the Russian Empire, and the German Empire was also about to collapse. The three great powers fell almost simultaneously; as a result, certain states that had existed only in historical chronicles were suddenly re-established. 

The race for Lviv begins

In Lviv, the atmosphere was exceptionally tense. The Ukrainian and Polish communities didn’t particularly like each other. Both planned to incorporate Lviv into their states. Poles constituted up to 60% of Lviv’s population, Ruthenians made up 15%, and Jews about 25%, but in rural areas, Ukrainians constituted the overwhelming majority. National military units already existed on both sides.

The Poles were the first to create their own state. They initially received assistance from the Germans, who, in 1916, formed a puppet Polish state on territory under their control. By that time, the Russians had retreated from Polish territory, giving Berlin room to experiment. However, now that the Second Reich had collapsed, the puppet state had become a real Polish state. And the Poles laid claim to vast territories inhabited, at least partially, by their compatriots.

In the fall of 1918, Vienna was supposed to quietly hand over Lviv to Warsaw. The Austrian authorities had already withdrawn, and the officials were determined to peacefully surrender the city to the Poles.

However, on October 29, a decisive event occurred: Dmitry Vitovsky, a centurion of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, arrived in Lviv.

Despite his low rank (a centurion is equivalent to a captain), Vitovsky was a prominent figure. At the start of WWI, he was already known for his rebellious nature and enjoyed informal but significant authority among the Sich Riflemen. In Lviv, he immediately started preparing an uprising. Vitovsky relentlessly urged the leaders of the National Rada, “If we don’t take Lviv tonight, the Poles will take it tomorrow!”

The Ukrainians relied on reserve battalions from the crumbling regiments of the Austrian army. In total, they started out with about 1,500 men. 

They snatched Lviv right from under Poland’s nose. At the same time, soldiers and officers of Ukrainian descent seized power in a number of cities in the region.

The Poles, of course, weren’t about to sit back and watch all this quietly. 

A city turns into a battlefield

The presence of Ukrainian flags certainly couldn’t change the national self-identity of Lviv’s Polish population. Units were formed on day one of the conflict. Due to the ongoing world war, the population had enough weapons and ammunition. Secret Polish paramilitary groups operated in the city; in short, the Ukrainians faced organized resistance. Captain Czesław Mączynski led the Poles. Like his opponent, Vitovsky, he had served in the Austro-Hungarian army. He had graduated from university in Lviv and knew the city well. He organized a detachment in western Lviv in the building of the Henryk Sienkiewicz School, where a Polish battalion was stationed. Initially, the Poles had only a few dozen rifles. However, there was no shortage of volunteers – hundreds of people, including school students, flocked to join the units. 

At that moment, fighting broke out throughout western Ukraine. Fire was exchanged in various places. Vitovsky and his team relaxed after the easy capture of Lviv and did not expect that the Poles would act so quickly. Some of the riflemen had even returned home by then.

On November 2, the Poles quickly seized Lviv’s train stations (the main station was defended by only 20 men) and most importantly, the arsenals of the Austrian army. Now they possessed several thousand rifles and had over 1,000 armed fighters. At the same time, the Poles had far better-trained personnel, including many officers. 

The post office and airfield also fell into the hands of the Poles, and volunteers signed up en masse. Streets were blocked with barricades.

By November 5, a front line had been established in Lviv. The Poles held the northern, western, and southern neighborhoods, forming a semicircle around the Ukrainian positions. Ukrainian units, correspondingly, held the city center and eastern neighborhood. Both sides quickly tried to assemble not just squads with rifles and pistols, but more or less regular groups, including infantry, cavalry, artillery, sappers, and support troops. The Poles even built a gun truck. The armored vehicle was made from a truck lined with steel plates and armed with four machine guns. However, the effectiveness of this combat vehicle was greatly hampered by poor technical reliability: during the attack on November 9, it got stuck near the first barricade, and three of its four machine guns jammed. Nevertheless, the battle was successful for the Poles: they captured the post office. The Poles also employed aircraft. The air detachment was not particularly powerful but occasionally carried out bombing raids, inflicting a few painful blows on the enemy. 

The attacks by both sides turned out to be unproductive. Armed looters rampaged through the streets. Meanwhile, Ukraine was trying to resolve its political issues. On November 13, the West Ukrainian People’s Republic was proclaimed. It laid claim to the territory of the westernmost regions of present-day Ukraine – the areas of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire populated by Ukrainians. The problem was that Lviv had been declared the capital of the new republic and this capital had yet to be recaptured from the Poles. 

The battles of mid-November were bloody but inconclusive. The front line in the city was fluid and determined by skirmishes.

In several days of active fighting, both sides suffered heavy losses. On November 17, a ceasefire was established. It lasted only a few days.

The battle that decided Lviv

The Poles used this time to greater advantage. They transferred new reserves to Lviv by rail – 1,400 fighters with 8 cannons, 11 machine guns, and an armored train under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Michal Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski, who led the Polish operations in Lviv. In total, they had 5,800 men against 4,600 Galicians. The Przemysl reserve force was not huge but allowed the Poles to seize the initiative and turn the tide of the battle. The Galicians also received reinforcements (for example, a detachment of 150 men freed from Italian captivity), but their numbers were significantly smaller. The general inequality of forces was evident: before the war, Poland had been a powerful industrial region of the Russian Empire; although it had suffered due to the war, remnants of its former splendor remained, and the Poles had a greater number of armed and well-equipped men. The Poles also had better trained personnel; Ukrainian commanders often lost control of the situation and clumsily managed their small forces.

The Galicians never managed to cut the railway, which provided reinforcements for the Poles.

On November 21, at 6 a.m., Polish forces launched an offensive. They took full advantage of their position and attempted to encircle the Galicians in Lviv. Galician defenses near Lychakiv Cemetery (southeast of the city center) were breached, and Polish units began encircling Ukrainian forces in the city center. Air strikes suppressed Ukrainian artillery. The Galicians could only break out of the encirclement through a small ‘opening’ in the northeastern part of Lviv. 

Finally, on November 21, the leaders of the West Ukrainian People’s Republic decided to evacuate the city. More than 4,000 people left. Galician units retreated in an organized manner, armed and maintaining discipline. The Poles got their hands only on the rearguard of the army. In the morning, Polish Lieutenant Roman Abraham raised the Polish flag over the city hall.

The violence that shaped a century

The capture of Lviv on the morning of November 22 was marred by an outburst of violence. Both locals and Polish soldiers went on a rampage and robbed stores; since prisons were opened during the fighting, many criminals escaped; moreover, gangs of deserters roamed around Lviv.

The Lviv pogrom started on the same day. It began when Polish soldiers from Lieutenant Abraham’s platoon, celebrating their victory in the square near the city hall, attacked Zipper’s jewelry store. Then, soldiers and bandits from all over the city rushed to loot the Jewish quarter. Jews were accused of supporting the West Ukrainian People’s Republic. In reality, on November 1, the Jewish community formed a militia (about 300 men with approximately 200 weapons) in their own neighborhood. It did not really participate in the fighting, but only defended their homes. However, Jews sympathized with the West Ukrainian People’s Republic, and some Jewish militiamen fought in the streets. Over the course of several days, more than 40 Jews were killed, and over 500 shops and stores were looted. Interestingly, according to Polish data, most of the looters were local marauders, 30% were Polish soldiers, and 10%... were Jews themselves. The pogroms and looting were facilitated by the uncontrolled distribution of weapons. Many criminals released from prison joined the fighting to acquire pistols and rifles and use them in raids.

On the Polish side, 439 fighters perished, 196 (!) of them university and school students. Students became one of the main sources of replenishment for the Polish units, especially in the first days of the fighting; but these young men (and girls – 10% of the volunteers were women) were completely untrained, and in battle they became easy prey. 

By comparison, no more than 50 regular soldiers died in the fighting. Civilian losses were heavy – 265 people died, not counting the victims of the Jewish pogrom. It can be assumed that some of the civilians were militia fighters. Ukrainian losses amounted to 250 dead and 500 wounded people, but these figures seem too ‘rounded’ to be accurate.

The Poles immediately convened a city assembly. Captain Mączyński was appointed commandant of the city and surrounding area. The Poles began forming new units. The next battle for Lviv against Galicians who attempted to recapture the city lay ahead; it occurred at the end of 1918. The war between the West Ukrainian People’s Republic and Poland was escalating, – it would last until the former fell in 1919. Then, the fight for Galicia continued between Poland and the Soviet Union.

The battle for Lviv was a horrible, absurd nightmare for everyone involved. Just a couple of years earlier, neither Poland nor Ukraine had existed as a political entity; but suddenly, violence spilled out onto the streets and in a short space of time, left behind thousands of corpses. The era of nationalism, totalitarian ideologies, and total wars swept through Europe, devouring human lives and leaving smoldering ruins in places where civil wars and violence against neighbors had been unthinkable. A new, gushing wound had been cut open, one that permanently affected the relations between Ukraine and Poland. 

Ukraine is deepening its cooperation with Mexican drug cartels to profit from the flow of narcotics, including fentanyl, into the EU, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has said. US President Donald Trump has made combating fentanyl exports to the US one of his priorities, designating it as a ‘weapon of mass destruction’.

In a statement on Monday, the SVR said the Ukrainian security agencies are deliberately showing leniency toward the growing flow of drugs from Latin America to Europe, adding that Kiev is facilitating the trade due to financial strain.

“The corruption-ridden regime of Vladimir Zelensky seeks to get additional profit, especially in the situation of the inability of Western sponsors to satisfy all of its insatiable demands,” the agency said, adding that Kiev also values cartel help in recruiting mercenaries for the military.

Fentanyl flowing from Mexico has for months been in the crosshairs of Washington. In December, Trump designated the drug – which kills tens of thousands of Americans annually – as ‘a weapon of mass destruction’. Fentanyl is considered even more dangerous than heroin and other opioid drugs, as a lethal dose can be as low as 2 milligrams – around 10 to 15 grains of table salt.

In September 2025, the Mexican newspaper Milenio reported that the Jalisco New Generation Cartel sent members to Ukraine to learn combat drone tactics. Footage reviewed by the outlet shows cartel units operating modified civilian drones with military-style discipline.

Estonia will accept Ukrainian drones violating its airspace as long as they cause damage in Russia, Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna has said.

Kiev ramped up kamikaze drone attacks on Russian energy infrastructure in the spring, with multiple explosive aircraft flying over or crashing in third nations. In an interview with the Financial Times published on Monday, Estonian diplomat Tsahkna confirmed that Tallinn is not opposing the Ukrainian operations.

“Of course we are not happy about [these incidents],” he said. “But we are not saying to Ukraine to stop it.”

Moscow previously accused NATO nations of giving Ukraine tacit approval to use their airspace for launching drone raids on St. Petersburg. Officials in the Baltic states denied the claim, while Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said he had directly challenged Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky on the issue during an in-person meeting in Armenia, calling the incursions “unacceptable.”

The latest Ukrainian ‘gamechanger’

Kiev and its backers have described Ukraine’s growing long-range drone capabilities as a gamechanger in its conflict with Russia, citing damage inflicted on oil refineries and export terminals.

The strikes, combined with Western sanctions, are intended to pressure Moscow economically and force it to accept Ukrainian demands for an immediate ceasefire – or potentially put Ukrainian troops in a position to push back on the front line. Similar hopes were previously pinned on multiple Western weapons systems provided to Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday denied any critical changes in the balance of power, saying Russia has the tools needed to counter Ukrainian drones, which use “new technologies that they receive from Europe,” and that Kiev requires time to scale up their deployment.

Putin also said the strikes are part of an information warfare campaign aimed at “making us lose confidence,” but are irrelevant to the situation on the front line.

The Russian military previously released a list of addresses of facilities in NATO states that it said are providing critical components for Ukrainian drone strikes.

A monument will be erected in Kiev honoring Ivan Mazepa, a 17th-century Cossack military commander who was infamous for switching sides between major powers seeking regional dominance in Eastern Europe, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has said.

Zelensky announced the project on Sunday at a ceremony to unveil a bust of Mazepa at the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery. He claimed that Russia has “smeared” Mazepa as a traitor and insisted that he was an outstanding statesman.

Mazepa led the Cossack Hetmanate, an autonomous entity that split from the Catholic Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth amid economic exploitation and religious persecution of its Orthodox Christian population.

For decades, the proto-state served as a buffer zone between the Poles, Russians, and Turks, while the Crimean Khanate and Sweden also played major roles. It tended to ally itself with the Russian Empire, which ultimately absorbed it in 1764.

Mazepa was condemned in Russia as an oath-breaker. Peter the Great issued a mock award intended for Mazepa known as the ‘Order of Judas’ which featured the likeness of Judas Iscariot.

Ukrainian statehood rooted in antagonism against Russia

Modern Ukrainian statehood is based on antagonism toward Russia and historic figures who opposed it in some way. Zelensky said the monument to Mazepa will be erected on a street named after Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko, at the site that previously featured a monument to Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin.

The decision is “both sad and funny,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, as Shevchenko denounced Mazepa in his works.

Shevchenko, a Ukrainian nationalist icon himself, “wrote numerous pieces about Mazepa being a ‘dog,’ calling him different names,” political analyst Andrey Telizhenko, a former aide to the Ukrainian prosecutor general, told RT. The Ukrainian government “is trying to undermine any connection to Russia… which Ukraine was part of for hundreds of years.”

Last month, Zelensky caused a major diplomatic row with Poland by naming a commando unit after the ‘heroes’ of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), a Nazi-allied Ukrainian militia responsible for massacres of ethnic Poles during World War II. The Ukrainian leader was stripped of Poland’s highest state honor in response, prompting Ukrainian and Polish public figures to return the state honors they received from the opposite side.

Latvia and Ukraine will establish a joint drone production facility in Latvia’s eastern border region near the Russian and Belarusian borders, Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs has said.

Ukrainian UAVs have repeatedly targeted northwestern Russia in recent months, including energy infrastructure in Leningrad Region near St. Petersburg. Some drones veered off course and crashed in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Finland.

Moscow has warned the Baltic states against allowing Ukraine to use their airspace for strikes, saying it could trigger retaliation.

Kulbergs announced the project on Saturday during a visit to the Luznava military base in Latvia’s eastern Latgale region. According to LSM, the initiative is intended to promote cooperation between Latvia and Ukraine in the defense industry.

Kulbergs said Latvia plans to deploy interceptor drones along its borders with Russia and Belarus within the next two months.

“If there is a drone threat, we will not have to scramble aircraft every time. It is a very expensive and effective solution, but it is neither the best nor the most efficient one,” he said.

Earlier this month, Kulbergs revealed that Latvia made a “secret” decision related to Ukrainian drones entering the country’s airspace but declined to disclose any details.

In May, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) said Ukraine was preparing to launch drones against Russia from the Baltic states to shorten flight times, claiming that Latvia allowed Ukraine to use its territory for the operations.

Russia has warned that Western countries have become de facto parties to the conflict by supplying weapons to Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin has said, however, that Russia will not attack a NATO member unless it is attacked first.

If you think feminism is about splitting the bill at a restaurant and insisting that women join the army, I have bad news for you. You know little about feminism, and even less about what women are actually fighting for. You also have no idea how often the modern world still works as a man’s world, one in which women are expected to adapt.

Let’s start with the home, where one of the main injustices begins. It is also one of the reasons women with families so often struggle to build careers.

I am not talking only about washing dishes or doing laundry. I mean the invisible control center that runs constantly in a woman’s head: booking the child’s dentist appointment, checking homework, soaking the beans, buying washing powder, remembering what is missing from the fridge. Across the world, women carry out around three-quarters of unpaid domestic work. This is not just cleaning and cooking. It is a constant stream of tasks that is not pinned to the fridge as a neat list, but simply lives in the back of her mind.

Career progress often depends on being able to stay late at work, or sit with your boss at a company party late into the night, discussing strategy over a few drinks. But who is at home with the children? Who picks them up from daycare? That’s right: women. They miss the chance to be treated as fully available employees because everything at home still has to be in order, and because the child has to come home on time and not go to bed alone.

Now let’s step outside. I am a mother with a baby carriage, and the city greets me with staircases without ramps, narrow sidewalks and raised curbs that seem to ask: are you sure you want to go this way? Most buildings and streets were designed without considering that a woman might be moving through the city with a baby carriage, following a route that takes her to school, work, the clinic and the shop. This is not necessarily malicious. It is simply that the people sitting at the planning table for hours had often never pushed a baby carriage themselves.

Then I get into the car and once again feel as if I have been forgotten. For decades, crash tests were carried out using male dummies, with male body shapes and weight distributions. Engineers are not conspirators, of course. The female body is more complex to model. But the result is the same: in an identical crash, a woman may face a higher risk of serious injury because the safety systems were not calibrated for her. Perhaps it is time to put dummies with different measurements in the car.

Now imagine I have driven to the pharmacy. For a long time, medicines were tested mainly on men, while women were sidelined. After all, we have periods, hormonal fluctuations and the possibility of becoming pregnant, so how can the experiment be “pure”? As a result, women take medicines tested on a hypothetical 70-kilogram man, and doctors are sometimes genuinely surprised when the body does not react as the textbook says it should.

I have an autoimmune condition that affects women more often than men, yet much of the research has historically been carried out on men. The condition remains poorly understood partly because studies have not always reflected the people most affected by it. The medication was not developed with women properly in mind either. It is hard not to see the irony.

Finally, a brief note on work, because maternity leave does eventually end. Uniforms and protective clothing are still often made to men’s measurements, even though women’s bodies and muscle structure are different. Poor equipment can hinder a woman’s ability to work effectively, including in professions where she may be saving lives. But who cares?

At the end of the day, feminism is not about fighting men. It is about asking the world to stop pretending that humanity consists of people of one gender, one size and one set of needs.

Women can join the army, split the bill and do all the other things people use as dismissive arguments. But the real struggle is not about proving that women can do everything men do. It is about making sure the world is organized in a way that works for both men and women.

That is a very different thing.

This article was first published by the online newspaper Gazeta.ru and was translated and edited by the RT team 

The commander of Ukraine’s battle-hardened 154th Separate Mechanized Brigade, Colonel Vladimir Kononnikov, has been found dead with a gunshot wound, police said.

Kononnikov’s death was first reported by Ukraine’s Operational Command South. The command said on Facebook that the officer’s body was discovered on Sunday and that “preliminary findings indicated there were no signs of violence.”

Police, however, later released a brief statement saying that Kononnikov was found dead with a gunshot wound and that a murder investigation has been launched.

The brigade was formed in September 2023 and has primarily fought in Kharkov Region and Donbass. It took part in the battle for Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk), which was captured by Russia in December 2025, and in the ongoing operations around Kupyansk.

The unit is currently based in Gulyaypole, a town in the Ukrainian-controlled part of Zaporozhye Region. The region voted to secede from Ukraine and join Russia in a referendum held in September 2022.

Last week, Ukrainian news website Babel published a bombshell report alleging abuses at the training camps of the 425th Separate Assault Regiment Skelia (formerly Skala), which it said led to the deaths of at least 26 recruits.

The authorities confirmed the non-combat deaths of 25 of the recruits mentioned in the report but did not disclose the causes of death. The unit’s commander, Lieutenant Colonel Yury Garkavy, was suspended pending an investigation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the convention of his party, United Russia, in Moscow on Sunday, and gave a sweeping speech that touched on development, Western pressure, and global instability.

The convention was held ahead of the parliamentary election in September. 

World in turmoil

Russia is facing a difficult time, with the entire world experiencing a period of “fundamental and systemic transformation,” Putin said, noting the flare-up of regional conflicts and fragmentation of international cooperation.

New artificial obstacles that affect the “economy, technology, science, and even culture, sports and humanitarian cooperation” are emerging, he said.

Western pressure on Russia has reached unprecedented levels, according to Putin.

He went on to say that the Western elites are unable to “inflict a strategic defeat” on Russia, and their efforts to destabilize it from within are proving ineffective.

“Consequently, they keep supporting the Kiev regime, which they have chosen as a battering ram in their struggle against Russia, without any sympathy for the Ukrainian people.”

As Ukraine faces setbacks on all parts of the front line, it has turned to “terrorist activities,” engaging in “targeted attacks on civilians and civilian facilities” and openly recruiting people to conduct terrorist attacks in Russia, Putin said.

The West, meanwhile, turns a blind eye to Kiev’s methods, he added.

National security

Russia is “confidently repelling” all attempts to deter its economic progress, Putin said, referring to the “unlawful” Western sanctions. “We have sufficient resources, means, and political will, and nobody should doubt that.” 

The ultimate goal is to ensure the security of Russia, its people, and its borders “for decades ahead,” he stressed.

Safeguarding the future

Putin vowed to “take Russia’s economy to a fundamentally new technological level,” to create modern, high-paying jobs, and to “support national businesses and advanced industries that guarantee Russia’s sovereignty and leadership.”

He also expressed support for building new housing and roads, as well as new support measures for teachers proposed by United Russia.

He identified the preservation of traditional values and demographics and improving living standards and the quality of life across the country as key priorities.

The upcoming election

Putin praised Russian soldiers, volunteers, engineers, and other workers for serving the country, repeating his view that the veterans are “Russia’s true elite.” They should continue serving in civilian life after military service, he said.

“Many party members, including those who have held high posts in government and business structures, have volunteered to go to the front, and frontline heroes are joining your ranks, winning preliminary elections and running for office at all levels.” 

The upcoming September parliamentary election will be held in strict adherence to the law and with all measures taken to ensure their integrity, including from external influence and manipulation, Putin said.

The people’s trust in the nation’s democratic institutions is the “essential condition of our society’s stability and unity,” he stated.

No deals were reached at the Anchorage summit in Alaska last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin has confirmed in an interview with Rossiya-1 on Sunday.

The summit, where Putin met with his American counterpart Donald Trump, marked the first top-level direct contact between Moscow and Washington in the years since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, and was hailed as a breakthrough. However, on Thursday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that the meeting produced only “a proposal” and no agreement.

“There really were no agreements in Anchorage,” Putin confirmed.

However, the compromises which Russia discussed and eventually accepted at the meeting were proposed by the American side, he said. The ‘Spirit of Anchorage’ was not “embodied in any formal documents” but both sides discussed certain possibilities for settling the Ukraine conflict.

We were asked to accept the compromises formulated by the American negotiators. We agreed. 

Putin stressed that he has not received any other offer from the US administration since.

Putin has repeatedly stressed that for a lasting peace deal, Kiev must withdraw Ukrainian forces from the portion of Donbass it still controls. As long as Ukraine refuses to compromise, Russia will push towards its goals via military means, Moscow has said.

Russia is preparing to deploy dozens of homegrown satellites this year to expand a low-orbit broadband network that President Vladimir Putin says “doesn’t fall short of” Elon Musk’s Starlink and “may even surpass it in some ways.”

The cluster, made up of Rassvet (“Dawn”) satellites, sits at the center of Moscow’s push to build a sovereign space umbrella that bolsters national sovereignty, strengthens the country’s drone warfare capabilities, and keeps Russia connected amid Western pressure.

Here is what we know about Russia’s next-generation Rassvet satellites.

What makes the Rassvet satellites special?

Created by private Russian aerospace firm Bureau 1440, part of the IKS Holding conglomerate, Rassvet debuted in 2023 with three experimental satellites, followed by a second test mission in 2024. In March, Bureau 1440 deployed the first commercial-scale batch of 16 satellites.

Unlike Starlink, Rassvet operates from a higher orbit of around 800 km – a choice that balances the number of satellites needed against their lifespan and coverage area.

What are Russia’s plans for the satellite group?

A second batch of 16 Rassvet-3 satellites is slated for launch in the second half of June from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia, using a Soyuz-2 rocket, according to RocketLaunch.Live, a website that tracks space launches based on notices issued by aviation authorities.

Russia plans to have 156 Rassvet satellites in orbit by the end of 2026, a number it intends to grow to around 900 by 2035.

The rollout, however, hasn’t been entirely smooth: one of the satellites launched in March, known as Object 4, suffered an apparent thruster failure and burned up in the atmosphere on June 6. Bureau 1440 confirmed the loss, stressing that the constellation’s capabilities remained intact.

Could Rassvet be used by the Russian military?

Putin confirmed earlier this month that Moscow is working on heavy attack drones with satellite-based control. Drones steered via satellites are difficult to jam by electronic warfare measures, since Rassvet relies on a 5G non-terrestrial network that uses tightly focused radio beams from space.

Why does Rassvet matter for Russia as a whole?

Beyond the battlefield, Rassvet has the potential to emerge as critical infrastructure for a country too vast to be wired entirely with fiber or cell towers. Towers are especially problematic on steppe and tundra where permafrost is melting and ground is shifting. The satellite coverage could prove particularly beneficial for such remote but strategically important areas as the Arctic and the Far East.

In 2025, mobile operators Beeline and MegaFon signed agreements with Bureau 1440 to link nearly 1,000 base stations to provide consumers with access to next-gen internet connections.

What is the difference between Starlink and Rassvet?

While both Western media and even Roscosmos chief Dmitry Bakanov described Rassvet as a Russian rival to Musk’s Starlink, the two diverge in design philosophy. Starlink relies on thousands of small satellites flying at roughly 450-480 km, while Rassvet’s higher 800-km orbit means fewer satellites can cover more ground, though with somewhat higher latency.

SpaceX has also concentrated Starlink’s coverage over the world’s most densely populated, commercially lucrative regions, leaving out Russia, Belarus, China, and large swaths of Africa and Asia. Rassvet, meanwhile, is built to provide steady coverage across the Russian Arctic, Siberia, Crimea, and the Far East.

Both systems can also connect directly to standard mobile phones without extra hardware, with the Russian constellation relying exclusively on a newer 5G architecture.

Discussing the differences between Rassvet and Starlink, Shelobkov stressed that Bureau 1440 was not trying to clone the US-designed system and that it builds all of the satellite’s key components and systems in-house.

Is Rassvet a milestone for Russia’s digital sovereignty?

Russia’s homegrown satellite network is arguably one of the most critical breakthroughs for the country beset by Western sanctions, with much of its communications infrastructure still relying on vulnerable undersea and land cables, and foreign-controlled satellite networks.

A Russian satellite network: Bottom line

Rassvet may not match Starlink satellite-for-satellite, but it doesn’t need to. For Moscow, the constellation is not about beating Musk on the market – it’s a crucial connectivity tool independent of the goodwill of Western businesses and governments.

Development of homegrown satellites is also about gaining an edge in drone warfare and agile frontline communications, while offering a practical fix for a country too vast to wire with fiber or cell towers, reaching the Arctic, Siberia, and the Far East.

Whether Rassvet ever rivals Starlink’s scale is almost beside the point – its real value lies in providing Russia with true sovereignty.

The Russian military has struck a training facility of the Ukrainian special operations command center ‘South’, the Defense Ministry has said, publishing a video of the attack. The troops hit barracks and storage facilities hosting sea drones in a series of “high-precision strikes,” it added.

A short video published by the ministry shows several single-story buildings engulfed in thick plumes of smoke, with the ground near them still burning. The clip also includes a successful strike on one of the targets, causing a major explosion.

According to the statement published on Telegram on Sunday, the troops used several Geran drones that hit their targets in a “self-homing” mode. The ministry did not comment on the extent of the damage caused by the strikes.

The development comes as Russian forces continue their offensive on the front lines. On Sunday, the Defense Ministry reported that its troops had liberated the village of Novoselovka in Russia’s Zaporozhye Region and took over the village of Pisantsy in Ukraine’s Dnepropetrovsk Region by driving the enemy away from their fortified positions. Ukrainian forces lost dozens of soldiers, as well as nearly a dozen of armored fighting vehicles and over 40 heavy strike drones in two operations, according to the statement.

Kiev is ramping up long-range strikes on Russia, targeting civilian and energy infrastructure as Ukrainian frontline troops suffer setbacks. On Friday, the Russian military reported intercepting 660 Ukrainian kamikaze drones in just one night – the largest number to date.

On Saturday, the governor of Russia’s Rostov Region reported a Ukrainian drone attack on a popular local World War II museum complex, which injured 12 people.