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Here’s where things stand on Tuesday 8 July 2025:

Fighting

• In Kharkiv, at least one person died and 71 others were wounded following a barrage of Russian drones. Local officials said residential buildings, a kindergarten, and the regional enlistment office sustained damage in two waves of attacks.
• Russia has stepped up its drone campaign across Ukraine, striking two military enlistment centres on Monday in Kharkiv and Zaporizhia, according to Ukraine’s armed forces. Kyiv says the latest attacks aim to disrupt mobilisation efforts.
• A separate drone strike hit a draft office in Kremenchuk on Sunday, signalling what Ukrainian officials describe as a targeted wave of assaults on recruitment infrastructure.
• Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said six Shahed drones struck within a 10-minute window, describing the strikes as targeting “residential streets, cars, and people”.
• Another death was reported in Odesa following a drone attack. Meanwhile, an assault on Zaporizhia on Monday left at least 20 people injured, regional authorities said.

Politics and diplomacy

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy renewed calls for international assistance, stressing the growing urgency in countering Russia’s aerial offensive.
• Amid the escalating violence, United States President Donald Trump pledged on Monday to provide Ukraine with additional military aid, focusing on defensive weaponry. His statement came days after the US paused shipments of key arms, drawing sharp warnings from Kyiv.
• The United Kingdom announced new sanctions targeting Russia’s chemical weapons programme. London imposed asset freezes and travel bans on two senior military figures – Aleksey Viktorovich Rtishchev and Andrei Marchenko – as well as one Russian entity, for their alleged involvement in chemical weapon transfers and use in Ukraine.
• Former Russian Transport Minister Roman Starovoit was found dead from a gunshot wound in his car outside Moscow just hours after President Vladimir Putin dismissed him. Investigators suspect suicide. His removal has raised speculation of a link to a corruption inquiry over missing border defence funds in the Kursk region.
• Zelenskyy reportedly told Trump he plans to replace Ukraine’s ambassador to Washington as part of a major cabinet reshuffle expected next week. Ambassador Oksana Markarova has faced criticism from Trump’s allies in Congress, who say she is too aligned with the Democrats.
• At a White House dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump aired his frustration with Putin, saying: “I’m not happy with President Putin at all.” His administration continues to face pressure over its lack of progress in ending the war.

Russia probes ex-minister’s death as body found hours after sacking

Roman Starovoit was found dead near his car in the Moscow region hours after President Vladimir Putin dismissed him.

Russia’s top criminal investigation agency is probing the death of Roman Starovoit, a former transport minister whose body was found with a gunshot wound near his car, hours after President Vladimir Putin dismissed him from his post.

Authorities on Monday said the 53-year-old politician’s body was discovered near a Tesla vehicle abandoned near a park in the Moscow region, with a pistol, registered in Starovoit’s name, located nearby.

The  Investigative Committee has opened a case to determine the full circumstances of his death, suggesting it could be suicide. Russian media, citing law enforcement sources, said the gunshot appeared to be self-inflicted.

However, the timing of the death has prompted speculation.

Putin issued a decree earlier on Monday, removing Starovoit as transport minister, a role he had held for just more than a year. No explanation was provided.

Political commentators quickly linked the decision to a long-running corruption investigation in the Kursk region, where Starovoit previously served as governor.

The probe centres on whether 19.4 billion roubles ($246m) allocated in 2022 to bolster border defences in Kursk were embezzled.

The funds were meant to reinforce Russia’s frontier with Ukraine, but Ukrainian forces launched a cross-border assault into the region three months into Starovoit’s ministerial term – the largest such incursion since World War II.

In April, his successor and former deputy in Kursk, Alexei Smirnov, was charged with embezzling defence funds. Several Russian outlets reported on Monday that Smirnov, who denies wrongdoing, had told investigators Starovoit was also involved in the alleged fraud.

The  incident casts a shadow over Russia’s transport sector, already grappling with wartime pressures.

Western sanctions have left the aviation industry struggling for spare parts, while soaring interest rates have pushed Russian Railways – the country’s largest employer – into financial strain.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s drone attacks continue to disrupt domestic air traffic, forcing temporary airport closures and leading to logistical uncertainty.

Following Starovoit’s dismissal, the Kremlin announced that Andrei Nikitin, former governor of the Novgorod region, had been appointed as acting transport minister. Photographs released by state media showed him shaking hands with Putin.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Putin believed Nikitin had the necessary experience to steer the ministry through current challenges. At his meeting with the president, Nikitin pledged to modernise the sector by boosting digital infrastructure to improve cargo flows and cross-border trade.

US to send more weapons to Ukraine, Trump says

US president says Ukraine must be able to defend itself and is ‘getting hit very hard’.

United States President Donald Trump has said his administration will send more weapons to Ukraine after an earlier decision to halt some arms shipments drew condemnation from Kyiv and its supporters.

Speaking to reporters ahead of a dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, DC on Monday, Trump said the new shipments would be primarily comprised of “defensive weapons”.

“We’re  going to send some more weapons. We have to. They have to be able to defend themselves,” Trump said.

“They are getting hit very hard now.”

Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell confirmed Trump’s comments later on Monday, saying that Washington would provide “additional defensive weapons” to “ensure the Ukrainians can defend themselves while we work to secure a lasting peace and ensure the killing stops”.

Parnell added that Trump would continue to evaluate military shipments overseas in accordance with “our America First defence priorities”.

Trump’s pledge came after Russia announced on Monday that it had captured the Ukrainian village of Dachne, in Dnipropetrovsk, following a months-long push to seize territory in the central region.

The decision also followed the Pentagon’s announcement last week that it would halt deliveries of some weapons, including air defence missiles and precision-guided artillery, out of concern that stockpiles were running too low.

After a phone call with Trump on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had agreed with his US counterpart to work to strengthen Ukraine’s air defences.

“We spoke about opportunities in air defence and agreed that we will work together to strengthen protection of our skies,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X.

Trump on Friday described the call as “very good” and said his administration was “looking at” selling more Patriot missiles to Kyiv.

“They need them for defence. I don’t want to see people killed,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One.