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Here’s where things stand on Tuesday 22 July 2025:

Fighting

• A large-scale Russian drone and missile attack on Kyiv killed two people and wounded 15, including a 12-year-old, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
• The attack caused widespread damage, including when a drone hit the entrance to a subway station in Kyiv’s Shevchenkivskyi district, where people had taken cover.
• Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia launched 426 drones and 24 missiles in the overnight attack, making it one of Russia’s largest aerial assaults in months.
• A Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region injured 11 people, including a five-year-old boy, Governor Oleh Hryhorov said on Telegram.
• Ukraine’s Air Force said it downed or jammed 224 Russian drones and missiles, while another 203 drones disappeared from radars.
• The Russian Ministry of Defence said that Russian air defence systems downed 132 Ukrainian drones on Monday.
• The governor of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhia region, Yevgeny Balitsky, said that fragments of Ukrainian drones fell on a kindergarten and a fire station in the region’s port city of Berdyansk but there were no casualties.

Military aid

• Norway is ready to help fund the deployment of US Patriot missile systems for Ukraine’s air defences, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store told reporters at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin.
• The Netherlands will also make a “substantial contribution” to the delivery of Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine, the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reported on Monday, quoting the country’s Minister of Defence Ruben Brekelmans.
• Zelenskyy wrote on X that “a decision by French companies to begin manufacturing drones in Ukraine” is “highly valuable”.
• Ukrainian Minister for Defence Denys Shmyhal said the country needs $6bn to close this year’s defence procurement gap, in an online meeting with Western allies.
• Ukraine will also need at least $120bn for defence spending next year, Shmyhal adding. He added talks are ongoing with NATO and EU members as Ukraine seeks $60bn in funding from partners.
• The Ukraine Defence Contact Group meeting of high-level military donors to Kyiv was led by the United Kingdom’s defence secretary, John Healey, and his German counterpart, Boris Pistorius. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and NATO leader Mark Rutte were among the attendees.

Politics and diplomacy

• New talks between Russia and Ukraine will take place in Turkiye on Wednesday, Zelenskyy said in his daily public address, with more details to be released on Tuesday.
• “A lot of diplomatic work lies ahead,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters earlier on Monday, commenting on the prospects for a breakthrough with Kyiv on ending the war.
• French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot emphasised France’s support to Ukraine in a surprise visit to Kyiv.
• Ukraine’s security services detained an official from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine on accusations of spying for Russia.
• Italy’s Royal Palace of Caserta cancelled a concert by Russian conductor Valery Gergiev, a vocal backer of Russian President Vladimir Putin, after uproar from Ukraine and its supporters.

‘No miracles’: Russia downplays Ukraine talks as deadly attacks continue

Kremlin plays down expectations for Istanbul negotiations as Ukrainian officials say 10-year-old boy killed in Russian attack on Kramatorsk.

Russia  has played down expectations of any breakthrough in upcoming talks with Ukraine in Turkiye, as Ukrainian officials said one child was killed and more than 20 people were wounded in overnight Russian attacks.

“We don’t have any reason to hope for some miraculous breakthroughs,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday, saying this was “hardly possible in the current situation”.

“We intend to pursue our interests, we intend to ensure our interests and fulfil the tasks that we set for ourselves from the very beginning.”

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy‘s announcement late on Monday that talks would take place generated some hope that negotiators would deliver progress on ending the war that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. United States President Donald Trump has been putting more pressure on Russia to hold talks, which have stalled as Russian President Vladimir Putin stood his ground on his demands.

The third round of talks in recent months is expected to be held in Istanbul on Wednesday. Previous negotiations led to a series of exchanges of prisoners of war and the bodies of fallen soldiers, but produced no breakthrough on a ceasefire.

On Tuesday, Zelenskyy announced on social media that Rustem Umerov, the former defence minister and current secretary of the security council, will head Ukraine’s delegation.

He also said Ukraine was ready to “secure the release of our people from captivity and return of abducted children, to stop the killings, and to prepare a leaders’ meeting”, outlining potential topics for discussion.

Russia  has not yet announced the composition of its team for the talks. Its delegation at the previous round was led by a hawkish historian and the current head of the Russian Union of Writers, Vladimir Medinsky, whom Ukraine described as not a real decision-maker.

Asked on Tuesday if he could give a sense of how the Kremlin saw the potential timeframe of a possible peace agreement, Peskov said he could give no guidance on timing.

“There is a lot of work to be done before we can talk about the possibility of some top-level meetings,” Peskov added, a day after Zelenskyy renewed a call for a meeting with Putin.

Despite the upcoming talks, Russia’s offensive continues, with its forces driving hard to break through at eastern and northeastern points on the 1,000km (620-mile) front line.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia had launched 426 drones and 24 missiles overnight, making it one of Russia’s largest aerial assaults in months. It said it had downed or jammed at least 224 Russian drones and missiles, while 203 drones disappeared from radars.

In one of the attacks, a 10-year-old boy was killed and five people were wounded when guided glide bombs hit a residential building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, according to Mayor Alexander Goncharenko.

Kramatorsk is part of a metropolitan area in Donetsk that remains under Ukrainian control three years after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

A barrage of Russian strikes was also reported in the capital, Kyiv, sparking several fires and damaging an underground air raid shelter where civilians had taken refuge. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region came under multiple waves of attacks, according to regional authorities. A drone hit a petrol station in the town of Putyvl, wounding four people, including a five-year-old boy, the regional military administration reported. A second drone hit the same location less than two hours later, wounding seven people.

Separately, two powerful Russian glide bombs were dropped on Sumy city, wounding at least 13 people, including a six-year-old boy, and damaging five apartment buildings, two private homes and a shopping centre in the attack. The blasts shattered windows and destroyed balconies in residential buildings, acting Mayor Artem Kobzar said.

A few weeks ago, Putin announced his intention to create a “buffer zone” in the Sumy region, effectively by occupying the Ukrainian border areas.

In the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa, there were initial reports of drone attacks in which at least one person was wounded. Fires broke out in several places in the city, according to regional media.

Ukraine also launched attacks, with Russia’s Ministry of Defence saying its air power had downed 35 Ukrainian long-range drones over several regions overnight, including three over the Moscow area.

Italy cancels concert by Putin ally Gergiev

Kremlin critics laud the decision, as Moscow’s ambassador to Italy decries a ‘scandalous situation’.

Italy’s  Royal Palace of Caserta has announced it cancelled a concert by Russian maestro Valery Gergiev, a vocal backer of President Vladimir Putin, after an uproar from politicians and Kremlin critics.

The concert scheduled for Sunday in the 18th-century palace near Naples caused a heated debate in Italy, was slammed by Ukraine and led to calls for protests by Russia’s exiled opposition.

Gergiev has not condemned Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, a stance for which he was fired from the Munich Philharmonic in March 2022. He has since been shunned by the West and has not played concerts in Europe.

Days of uncertainty over the concert ended with the abrupt announcement on Monday.

“The directorate of the Royal Palace of Caserta has ordered the cancellation of the symphony concert conducted by Valery Gergiev, scheduled as part of the Un’Estate da Re festival for July 27,” said a Caserta palace statement.

It gave no official reason for the decision.

Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of late Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, lauded the announcement as “good news”.

“No artist who supports the current dictatorship in Russia should be welcomed in Europe,” Navalnaya wrote on X.

Navalnaya’s team had campaigned against the concert and said in a statement: “Putin’s pals should not be touring Europe like nothing happened.”

Russia’s state TASS news agency said the 72-year-old maestro was not informed of the decision, quoting Gergiev as saying: “I do not have this information.”

‘Scandalous situation’

Gergiev is the director of Russia’s Bolshoi and Mariinsky theatres, and before the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, he regularly played in leading Western theatres.

While  Kremlin critics lauded the cancellation, Moscow’s ambassador to Italy called it a “scandalous situation” that was part of Western politicians’ “policy of ‘cancelling’ Russian culture”.

In a statement on the embassy’s Facebook page, Alexei Paramonov said it was “sad” to watch Italy “subordinate its cultural policy to the demands of Ukrainians and other immigrants”.

Italian Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli – who had warned that the concert risked turning into a propaganda event – said the cancellation was “common sense” and aimed at “protecting the values of the free world”.

Ukraine on Sunday urged organisers to drop the performance, calling Gergiev “Putin’s mouthpiece” who should not be welcomed anywhere “as long as Russian forces continue to commit atrocities” in Ukraine.

Recognised as one of the world’s leading orchestra leaders, Gergiev is known for conducting epic symphonies of Russian classical music by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, among other successes in Western opera houses.

The conductor has stayed silent on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and mostly out of the public eye since 2022, but has played concerts in Asia.