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Here’s where things stand on Thursday 31 July 2025:
Fighting
- A Russian drone attack in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv has killed at least four people, the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Telegram. The debris from downed Russian drones fell near a garage cooperative, which led to the ignition of a gas pipe in a three-storey residential building.
- A Russian missile strike on a Ukrainian military training unit on Tuesday killed three servicemen and injured 18 more, Ukraine’s Ground Forces also announced on Telegram.
- Russian forces shelled Ukrainian emergency service workers who had just put out a fire in the city of Orikhiv in southern Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine said in a post on Facebook. There were no injuries.
- Ukraine’s domestic security agency has detained an air force officer holding the rank of major on charges of having spied for Russia by leaking the location and suggesting strike tactics on prized, Western-donated F-16 and Mirage 2000 fighter jets.
International relations
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he approved key principles for a large-scale weapons deal with the United States. “These are large-scale agreements, which I discussed with President [Donald] Trump, and I hope very much that we will be able to implement them all,” Zelenskyy said in his evening video address to the nation, without providing further details.
- The Italian government said it had summoned the Russian ambassador to protest against Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella being included in a list compiled by Moscow of Western leaders accused of anti-Russian sentiment.
- Moscow said it continues to monitor President Trump’s latest threat to impose sanctions against the country if it does not end its war on Ukraine within days, but that Russia had acquired immunity to such economic measures thanks to long experience.
Economy
- A massive locust invasion is threatening sunflower and other crops in Ukraine’s southern regions, largely caused by the war against Russia’s invasion, which makes it impossible to use traditional pest control methods near the front line, officials and producers say.
Russia kills nine in drone, missile strikes on Ukraine’s Kyiv: Officials
Rescue teams search for people under the rubble after at least 52 people are wounded.
An overnight Russian drone and missile attack on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv has killed at least nine people, including a six-year-old boy, as well as wounding 124 others, according to Ukrainian authorities.
The Russian barrage caused damage at 27 locations across four districts of Kyiv, city military administrator Tymur Tkachenko said on Thursday. Rescue teams were searching for people trapped under the rubble.
Russia’s latest deadly attack on Ukraine came after United States President Donald Trump on Monday issued a 10- or 12-day ultimatum to Moscow to halt its invasion of Ukraine, now in its fourth year, or face sanctions.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday that Russia had used more than 300 drones and eight missiles in the attack as he posted a video of burning ruins on social media.
“Today, the world once again saw Russia’s response to our desire for peace, shared with America and Europe,” Zelenskyy wrote. “That is why peace without strength is impossible. But forcing Moscow to make peace, compelling them to come to a real negotiating table – all the tools needed for this are in the hands of our partners.”
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said it was a “horrible morning in Kyiv”.
“The brutal Russian strikes destroyed entire residential buildings and damaged schools and hospitals,” Sybiha said.
“This is unequivocally one of the largest attacks that we’ve seen in recent weeks and the majority focusing on Kyiv,” Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford said, reporting from Kyiv.
A “large residential area … with box flats all around” was hit, he said, adding, “The majority of the windows in those flats have been blown out.”
“According to the minister of the interior [Ihor Klymenko], … the power of this attack was so strong that people were literally hurled out of their apartment buildings.”
Yana Zhabborova, a resident of one of the damaged buildings, woke up to the sound of the explosions, which blew off the doors and windows of her home.
“It is just stress and shock that there is nothing left,” said Zhabborova, a 35-year-old mother of a five-month-old and a five-year-old.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said the attack had targeted and hit Ukrainian airfields and ammunition depots as well as businesses linked to what it called Kyiv’s military-industrial complex.
The Ukrainian air force later said its air defences intercepted and jammed 288 of the 309 drones involved in the attack and three of the eight missiles.
Ukrainian drones later struck an electronics plant in the western Russian city of Penza, according to Governor Oleg Melnichenko and an official from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). The official said the plant, which produces combat control systems for the Russian military, caught fire. Melnichenko confirmed that it caught fire.
Drone wreckage also halted some trains in the Volgograd region, state rail operator Russian Railways said.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said on Thursday that it had shot down 32 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Ukraine calls on international community to pressure Russia
Meanwhile, Russia said it had captured the town of Chasiv Yar, which had been a strategically important military hub for Ukrainian forces in the east.
The town in the Donetsk region “was liberated by Russian forces”, Russia’s Defence Ministry said in a statement. Ukraine has not commented on the reported retreat.
If confirmed, the capture of the town, which had been the site of battles for months, would be the latest locality to fall to Russia’s incremental but steady territorial gains.
The fall of the hilltop town now paves the way for Russian forces to advance on the remaining civilian strongholds in Donetsk, like the garrison city of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, important logistical bases for the Ukrainian military and home to many civilians who have, up until now, not fled the fighting.
The Kremlin has made the capture of the Donetsk region its military priority and claimed as far back as late 2022 that the industrial territory was part of Russia.
Kyvi has been trying to repel Russia’s summer offensive, which has made advances into areas on the eastern front line largely spared since the start of its invasion.
Thursday’s attacks came on the heels of a Russian strike on a military training camp, which killed at least three Ukrainian soldiers on Tuesday.
After Thursday’s strikes, Sybiha called on the international community to apply utmost pressure on Moscow to end the war it launched in February 2022.
“President Trump has been very generous and very patient with Putin, trying to find a solution,” Sybiha wrote.
But Russian President Vladimir Putin “does not care about any attempts to put an end to the killing”, Sybiha charged. “He only seeks to destroy and kill. Because the entire existence of this war criminal is based on this senseless war, which he cannot win but refuses to end.”
“It’s time to make him feel the pain and consequences of his choices. It’s time to put maximum pressure on Moscow,” Sybiha wrote.
Fires and destruction as missile attacks rattle Ukraine’s capital
Missile strikes on Kyiv leave six dead, including a child, and injure 82 as fires engulf the capital overnight.
Russia launched a barrage of missile and drone attacks on Kyiv, killing at least six people – including a six-year-old boy and his mother – and injuring 52, according to Ukrainian officials.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday that Russian forces launched more than 300 drones and eight missiles, targeting residential buildings throughout the capital.
“Today the world has once again seen Russia’s response to our desire for peace with America and Europe. Therefore, peace without strength is impossible,” Zelenskyy said on the Telegram app.
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed nine children were wounded in the attack, the highest number of child casualties in a single night in the city since Russia’s full-scale invasion began nearly three and a half years ago.
Yurii Kravchuk, 62, stood beside a damaged building wrapped in a blanket with a bandage around his head. He told the Reuters news agency he heard the missile alert but could not shelter in time.
“I started waking up my wife and then there was an explosion… My daughter ended up in the hospital.”
Emergency responders battled fires and cut through concrete blocks searching for survivors across the city.
Explosions rocked Kyiv for hours as fires lit up the night sky. Officials stated that 27 locations were hit, including schools and hospitals.
The air force documented five direct missile hits and 21 drone attacks across 12 locations.
Russia, which denies targeting civilians, has escalated air attacks on Ukrainian towns and cities far from the front line in recent months.
United States President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that his country would impose tariffs and other measures on Russia “ten days from today” if Moscow showed no progress towards ending the conflict.
“This is Putin’s response to Trump’s deadlines,” Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said. “The world must respond with a tribunal and maximum pressure.”
Zelenskyy shared a video of burning ruins, stating that people remained trapped under the rubble of a partially destroyed residential building.
Ukrainian air defence units intercepted 288 attack drones and three cruise missiles, the air force reported.
Trump sells the EU more energy and protection, muscling Russia out
Moscow called an EU-US trade deal ‘anti-Russian’ as the US formally took over its former energy market.
The United States has sought to formally position itself as Europe’s biggest seller of protection and energy security following a $750bn trade deal on Sunday.
The deal, clinched by US President Donald Trump and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen at Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland, imposes a 15 percent tariff on European pharmaceutical, automobile and semiconductor exports to the US, to balance a European trade surplus, von der Leyen said.
Tarrifs of 50 percent, which Trump previously imposed on European aluminium and steel, will also remain, while the European Union will not impose any reciprocal tariffs.
The bloc also committed to spending $250bn a year on US energy exports over and above present levels until 2027, and “hundreds of billions of dollars” on US weapons.
The deputy chairman of Russia’s National Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, called the deal “anti-Russian” since it appeared to seize what was, before the Ukraine war, Russia’s biggest energy market.
The next day, Trump shortened a 50-day deadline he had issued to Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 14 to reach a ceasefire in Ukraine.
“I’m going to make a new deadline of about … 10 or 12 days from today,” Trump told reporters, pulling the deadline back from September 2 to about August 9.
A third round of talks between Russia and Ukraine last week produced no ceasefire, only another exchange of prisoners of war.
For the first time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy instructed his negotiators to seek the return of Ukrainian children Russia has abducted from occupied territories since the start of the war. Kremlin newswire TASS reported that civilians would also be exchanged, without elaborating.
Weapons for Ukraine
Although Trump has not said what he will do when his deadline for a ceasefire agreement expires, it represents an about-turn on his position in February, when he considered Ukraine the main obstacle to peace.
“President Zelenskyy is not ready for peace if America is involved,” he wrote then on his Truth Social account, “because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations.”
Zelenskyy welcomed the shorter deadline, calling it “an extremely significant statement”.
“Every night there are strikes, constant Russian attempts to hurt Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said.
Russia has pounded Ukraine’s cities with combined drone and missile strikes every night for the past week. Ukraine shot down or electronically suppressed 791 out of 891 drones Russia launched between July 23 and 29, almost 90 percent, but fewer than half the missiles – just 20 out of 42.
That difference in ratio underscores Ukraine’s difficulty in intercepting ballistic missiles, against which only US-made Patriot interceptor missiles are effective.
Ukraine’s European allies have been signing onto a framework agreement reached this month between the US and Germany, whereby allies donating Patriot systems to Ukraine are given priority placement in purchasing new ones.
Lithuania said it was ready to help supply $35m in Patriot systems to Ukraine, following Germany, Norway, Denmark and Sweden. Germany’s defence minister, Boris Pistorius, said three Patriot batteries had been sent to Ukraine. In April, Zelenskyy said he was seeking 10 batteries.
Zelenskyy said he had signed $72m in new state contracts for interceptor drones last week, which are among its most effective weapons against Russia’s kamikaze and spy drones.
“A plan has been approved to reach the amount of 500 to 1,000 interceptors [drones] per day,” he said.
The US also approved foreign military sales of Bradley Fighting Vehicles and Hawk air defence systems to Ukraine on Thursday.
Russia makes gains as Zelenskyy faces protests
Russia appeared unfazed by these moves, driving onwards to seize a series of Ukrainian villages during the week, with the worst fighting happening around Pokrovsk, in Ukraine’s east.
The Russian Ministry of Defence said its troops had captured Varachino in Sumy on July 23, and probably seized Novoekonomichne in Donetsk, northeast of Pokrovsk, on Friday.
Zeleni Gai fell on Saturday, and Boykovka and Belgiyka on Monday, all in Donetsk. On Tuesday, Russia seized Novoukrainka and Temirovka in Zaporizhia. A Russian military expert told TASS that it now had control of a 5km section of border with Russia.
Zelenskyy faced his first wartime protests during the past week, after stripping the country’s top anti-corruption authorities of their independence.
The move followed an attempt by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) to indict members of the State Security Service (SBU) for corruption.
Zelenskyy saw this as a Russian attempt to undermine one of Ukraine’s most effective military services.
The SBU has launched a series of successful long-range strikes inside Russia, targeting energy infrastructure and weapons factories.
Perhaps its most famous operation was Operation Spiderweb, which destroyed dozens of Russian long-range bombers on the ground in June.
However, Zelenskyy’s move offended not only Ukrainians, who protested. The EU temporarily froze 1.7 billion euros in aid to Ukraine, and von der Leyen advised Zelenskyy to “preserve independent anti-corruption bodies, which are cornerstones of Ukraine’s rule of law”.
On July 24, Zelenskyy said he had signed new legislation that would “ensure the strength of the rule of law system, and there will be no Russian influence or interference in the activities of law enforcement”.
NABU and SAPO were involved in drafting the new bill, and the EU backed it. “We welcome the Ukrainian government’s decision to act,” said a spokesperson for Brussels.
On Sunday, Zelenskyy said he had increased the SBU’s funding. Its personnel limit was raised from 31,000 to 41,000, with up to a quarter of that number in its Special Operations Centre.
SBU operations appeared to have continued unabated.
Ukraine’s drones intercepted
Russia said it shot down 105 Ukrainian drones overnight on Friday. The drones appeared to have targeted railway power lines and regional airports, and succeeded in causing rail service delays and temporary airport shutdowns in southwest Russia and the Caucasus – Vladikavkaz, Grozny, Magas, Mineralnye Vody, Nalchik, Stavropol, Sochi and Tambov.
The governor of the Leningrad region said at least 10 Ukrainian drones were downed near the city on Sunday. Pulkovo airport was closed during the attack, and the city’s annual Navy Day parade was cancelled, but a navy drill went ahead, watched by Putin on television.
On Monday, pro-Ukrainian hackers disabled the computers of Aeroflot, the state airline, grounding more than 50 round-trip flights and bringing Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport to a standstill.