Fighting

• The death toll from Russian strikes on Ukraine’s Kyiv on Thursday rose to 26, including three children, Ukraine’s interior ministry said on Friday. It added that 159 people were also wounded, including 16 children.
• Before dawn on Thursday, Russia had launched waves of missiles and drones at Kyiv. Ukrainian officials earlier said 16 people had died, including two children. Russia’s Ministry of Defence claimed it targeted and hit Ukrainian military airfields and ammunition depots as well as businesses linked to what it called Kyiv’s military-industrial complex.
• Russia claimed to have taken full control of the shattered town of Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine after nearly 16 months of fighting, an assertion which Kyiv dismissed as “propaganda”.
• Ukrainian drones, operated by the state security agency SBU, struck an electronics plant which produces combat control systems for the Russian military in the western Russian city of Penza.

Military aid

• A powerful United States Senate committee has approved a military spending bill that includes about $1bn to support Ukraine, despite US President Donald Trump’s administration having asked Congress to eliminate such funding in its budget request.

Ceasefire

• US special envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Russia after his current trip to Israel, President Trump said. Trump did not provide an itinerary for Witkoff, who has held extensive ceasefire talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the past.
• Trump has sharply criticised Russia’s “disgusting” behaviour against Ukraine and said he plans to impose sanctions on Moscow if no agreement can be reached on a ceasefire. The US president has given Putin until August 8 to reach a deal to halt the fighting.
• The US reiterated its Ukraine war ceasefire deadline to the United Nations Security Council, with senior US diplomat John Kelley telling the 15-member council that “both Russia and Ukraine must negotiate a ceasefire and durable peace”. Kelley said: “It is time to make a deal. President Trump has made clear this must be done by August 8. The United States is prepared to implement additional measures to secure peace”.
• Trump also told Dmitry Medvedev to “watch his words” after the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council said Washington’s threats of hitting Moscow and buyers of its oil with punitive tariffs were “a game of ultimatums” and a step closer towards a war between Russia and the US.
• In response, the former Russian president said Trump should remember that Moscow possessed Soviet-era nuclear strike capabilities of last resort.

Ukrainian affairs

• Ukraine’s parliament voted to restore the independence of two key anticorruption agencies, moving to defuse the country’s biggest political crisis since Russia’s invasion.
• Lawmakers voted 331 to 0 in favour of the bill, which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy submitted last week following pressure from thousands of protesters and top European officials to reverse course on the issue.

Regional developments

• Chinese naval vessels have steamed into Russia’s far eastern port of Vladivostok in advance of joint drills scheduled from August 1-5.

Russia’s actions in Ukraine ‘disgusting’, says Trump

US president condemns Russian attacks on Kyiv as Ukraine’s Zelenskyy calls for ‘regime change’ in Moscow.

United States President Donald Trump has threatened new sanctions while slamming Russia’s military actions in Ukraine as “disgusting”.

“Russia – I think it’s disgusting what they’re doing. I think it’s disgusting,” Trump told reporters on Thursday, the same day Moscow’s attacks on Kyiv killed more than two dozen people.

Trump  also said he would send his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, currently in the Middle East, to visit Russia next.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has already met Witkoff multiple times in Moscow, before Trump’s efforts to mend ties with the Kremlin came to a grinding halt.

Washington has given Moscow until the end of next week to cease hostilities in Ukraine, under threat of severe economic sanctions.

Trump reiterated the deadline on Thursday.

“We’re going to put sanctions. I don’t know that sanctions bother him,” the US president said, referring to Putin.

Trump has previously threatened that new measures could mean “secondary tariffs” targeting Russia’s remaining trade partners, such as China and India. This would further stifle Russia, but would risk significant international disruption.

The US president began his second term with his own rosy predictions that the war in Ukraine, raging since Russia invaded its neighbour in February 2022, would soon end.

In recent weeks, Trump has increasingly voiced frustration with Putin over Moscow’s unrelenting offensive.

Call for ‘regime change’

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Friday that rescue operations were complete in Kyiv following Russian drone and missile strikes a day earlier.

“Unfortunately , as of now, 31 people are known to have died, including five children. The youngest child was only two years old,” he wrote on social media.

Russia used over 3,800 drones and nearly 260 missiles for its attacks on Ukraine in July, the president also said.

In an earlier statement, Zelenskyy urged his allies to bring about “regime change” in Russia, hours after the deadly attack on Kyiv.

Speaking virtually to a conference marking 50 years since the signing of the Cold War-era Helsinki Accords on Thursday, Zelenskyy said he believed Russia could be “pushed” to stop the war.

“But if the world doesn’t aim to change the regime in Russia, that means even after the war ends, Moscow will still try to destabilise neighbouring countries,” he said.

From late Wednesday to early Thursday, Russia fired at least 300 drones and eight cruise missiles at Ukraine, with Kyiv the main target, the Ukrainian air force said.

The  Russian army, meanwhile, claimed to have captured Chasiv Yar, a strategically important hillside town in eastern Ukraine where the two sides have been fiercely fighting for months.

Moscow has stepped up its deadly aerial assaults on Ukraine in recent months in the conflict, resisting US pressure to end its nearly three-and-a-half-year invasion as its forces grind forward on the battlefield.

Germany said on Friday it will soon start delivering two more Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine, as Kyiv faces a growing number of Russian drone and missile attacks.

After reaching an agreement with the United States, the German military will deliver additional Patriot launchers in the coming days, and will supply further components in the next two to three months, the defence ministry said in a statement.

Zelensky demands tougher sanctions after Russian strikes kill 31 in Kyiv

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for stronger international sanctions on Russia after a deadly attack on Kyiv killed at least 31 people.

Zelensky said five children – the youngest aged two – were among the dead and 159 people – including 16 children – had been wounded in the assault on the Ukrainian capital on Thursday.

“No matter how much the Kremlin denies their effectiveness, sanctions do work – and they must be strengthened,” he said.

Kyiv observed a day of mourning after the attack collapsed an apartment block and damaged a hospital, school, nursery and university.

Russia launched more than 300 drones and eight cruise missiles in Thursday’s assault, Ukraine’s air force said. The attack was one of the deadliest Kyiv has experienced since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a large-scale invasion in February 2022.

US President Donald Trump condemned Russia’s actions in Ukraine and suggested new sanctions against Moscow were coming.

“Russia, I think it’s disgusting what they’re doing. I think it’s disgusting,” he told journalists.

In July, Trump said Putin had 50 days to end the war, or Russia would face severe tariffs targeting its oil and other exports.

On Monday, Trump set a new “10 or 12” day deadline. He later set a new deadline, which would expire on 8 August.

Senior US diplomat John Kelley told the UN Security Council on Thursday that Russia and Ukraine “must negotiate a ceasefire and durable peace”.

“It is time to make a deal,” he said.

Ukrainian officials on Friday said Kyiv had received “positive signals” from the US about potential new sanctions, particularly targeting Russian oil and secondary markets.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Trump has been “generous and patient”, but that “now is the time to put maximum pressure on Moscow”.

Meanwhile, Germany pledged on Friday to deliver two additional US-made Patriot air defence systems in the coming days.

Zelensky said in July alone, Russia launched more than 5,100 glide bombs, 3,800 Shahed drones, and 260 missiles, including 128 ballistic.

“Every day matters,” he said. “This can only be stopped through joint efforts – by America, Europe, and other global actors.”