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Here’s where things stand on Saturday 12 July 2025:

Fighting

• Russia launched 597 drones and 26 missiles in an overnight attack on Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.
• A Russian drone attack on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv damaged a maternity hospital, authorities said, terrifying patients as windows shattered and shards of glass fell onto the beds, leaving families rushing to shelter their babies. Three women and three newborns suffered acute stress and received medical help.
• Nine people were injured in Kharkiv, and an apartment building was also damaged in Russian attacks over the past day, while one person was killed and five others injured as a result of various Russian attacks in the surrounding region, governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
• Ukraine said its drones struck a Russian fighter aircraft plant in the Moscow region and a missile production facility in the Tula region, causing explosions and fires at both.
• The Russian Ministry of Defence said that 155 Ukrainian drones were downed between Thursday and Friday, including 11 bound for Moscow.
• Dmitry Milyaev, Tula regional governor, said on Telegram that one person was killed and another injured in a Ukrainian attack on the region, approximately 200km (124 miles) south of Moscow.
• Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had taken the village of Zelena Dolyna in Donetsk, northeast of the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, as their troops move westward.

Politics and diplomacy

• The United States has resumed military supplies to Ukraine, and senior officials in Kyiv will work on military cooperation next week with US special envoy Keith Kellogg, who will visit next week, Zelenskyy said.
• Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Russian media covering his ASEAN meeting in Malaysia that he outlined Russian President Vladimir Putin’s position on settling the Ukraine war during a meeting with top US diplomat Marco Rubio the day before.
• Lavrov has arrived in North Korea, according to North Korea’s state media KCNA, the latest visit by a senior Russian official to the isolated state amid warming ties between the countries. The visit, scheduled for Sunday, includes a meeting with the country’s foreign minister.
• After North Korea, Lavrov is expected to travel to China to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting, which is set to take place on Monday and Tuesday.
• South Korean intelligence service said North Korea may be preparing to deploy additional troops in July or August, after sending more than 10,000 soldiers to fight with Russia in the war against Ukraine.
• Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has described as “unacceptable” French President Emmanuel Macron’s proposal to send a peacekeeping force to Ukraine should Moscow and Kyiv agree to an elusive ceasefire. He also accused European leaders of a “pattern of militaristic anti-Russian sentiment”.
• Russia is awaiting the “major statement” that US President Donald Trump announced he would deliver on Monday, Peskov said.
• Peskov also said wartime censorship in Russia is justified amid the conflict with Ukraine and the closure of opposition-minded media. Several Russian-language media outlets have been blocked since the start of the war in February 2022, as well as social media platforms like X, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
• Fatigue over the war in Ukraine and US-led foreign aid cuts are jeopardising efforts to support people fleeing hardship, International Organization for Migration (IOM) Director-General Amy Pope warned, a day after a Ukraine recovery conference in Rome mobilised over 10 billion euros ($11.69bn) for the country.
• The United Nations trade and development agency, UNCTAD, has announced that its agreement with Moscow to facilitate exports of Russian foodstuffs and fertiliser to international markets in a bid to rein in global food prices “will not be renewed” when it expires on July 22, citing disagreements.

Weapons

• Germany has no plans to procure additional F-35 fighter jets, a Federal Ministry of Defence spokesperson said on Friday, denying a Politico report that the country planned to grow its planned fleet to 50 amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
• NATO will need more long-range missiles in its arsenal to deter Russia from attacking Europe because Moscow is expected to increase production of long-range weapons, US Army Major-General John Rafferty told the Reuters news agency.
• Kyiv will allocate 260 million hryvnias ($6.2m) for a drone interceptor programme to defend the capital’s skies from Russian drones, city authorities said.

Russia’s Lavrov meets Kim Jong Un in North Korea with Ukraine war at fore

North Korean officials have “reaffirmed their support for all objectives” in the Russia-Ukraine war, says Russian FM.

Russian  Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has met with Kim Jong Un in North Korea, during which Pyongyang reaffirmed its support for Russia’s war in Ukraine in which thousands of its soldiers have been killed.

Lavrov “was received” by Kim, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Telegram on Saturday, posting a video of the two men shaking hands and embracing in Wonsan. Russian and North Korean state media had announced the visit earlier, saying Lavrov would stay until Sunday.

It is the latest in a series of high-profile trips by top Moscow officials to North Korea as the countries deepen military and political ties with a focus on Russia’s offensive in Ukraine.

Pyongyang has become one of Moscow’s main allies during its more than three-year-long war in Ukraine, sending thousands of troops and conventional weapons to help the Kremlin remove Ukrainian forces from Kursk in Russia.

More than 6,000 North Korean soldiers have died in the Russia-Ukraine war, according to British Defence Intelligence.

North Korea has also agreed to dispatch 6,000 military engineers and builders to help reconstruction efforts there.

The South Korean intelligence service has said North Korea may be preparing to deploy additional troops in July or August.

The United States and South Korea have expressed concern that, in return, Kim may seek Russian technology transfers that could enhance the threat posed by his nuclear-armed military.

Earlier on Saturday, Lavrov met with his North Korean counterpart Choe Son Hui in Wonsan, a city on the country’s east coast, where a huge resort was opened earlier this month.

“We exchanged views on the situation surrounding the Ukrainian crisis … Our Korean friends confirmed their firm support for all the objectives of the special military operation, as well as for the actions of the Russian leadership and armed forces,” Russian news agency TASS quoted Lavrov as saying.

He also thanked the “heroic” North Korean soldiers, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

In April, the two countries officially confirmed the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia for the first time, saying these troops had helped Russia to recapture the Kursk region – a claim contested by Ukraine.

Since then, Kim has been shown in state media paying tribute in front of flag-draped coffins of North Korean soldiers.

Russia’s Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu has visited Pyongyang multiple times this year.

The two heavily sanctioned nations signed a sweeping military deal last November, including a mutual defence clause, during a rare visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to North Korea. Pyongyang has reportedly been directly arming Moscow to support its war in Ukraine.

In the meantime, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address on Friday that US weapons shipments to his country had resumed, following the Pentagon’s decision to briefly halt the delivery of certain weapons to Kyiv over fears that US stockpiles were dwindling.

The US will deliver military supplies and send its envoy Keith Kellogg to Kyiv early next week, said Zelenskyy.