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Here’s where things stand on Friday 18 July 2025:

Fighting

• The Russian Ministry of Defence claimed that its forces have captured three Ukrainian settlements: Kamianske in the southeastern Zaporizhia region, Dehtiarne in the northeastern Kharkiv region, and Popiv Yar in the Donetsk region.
• Russia’s Defence Ministry said that it shot down 73 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 10 in the Moscow region. No casualties have been reported. Most were downed in areas near the Ukraine border, including 31 over Russia’s Bryansk region and 10 over the Russian-annexed Crimea peninsula.
• Russian air defences destroyed a Ukrainian drone headed for Moscow, the city’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said.
• Russia and Ukraine have exchanged more bodies of their war dead, a Kremlin aide said, part of an agreement struck at the second round of peace talks in Istanbul in June. A total of 1,000 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers were turned over in exchange for 19 bodies of Russian soldiers.

Military aid

• Preparations are under way to quickly transfer additional Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine, NATO’s top military commander, Alexus Grynkewich, said.
• Czech-coordinated shipments of artillery ammunition for Ukraine are rising this year, according to Ales Vytecka, director of the Czech Defence Ministry’s AMOS international cooperation agency. So far this year, shipments have totalled 850,000 shells, including 320,000 NATO 155mm calibre projectiles.
• Ukraine will let foreign arms companies test out their latest weapons on the front line of its war against Russia, Kyiv’s state-backed arms investment and procurement group Brave1 said.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the US publication The New York Post that he and United States President Donald Trump are considering a deal that involves Washington buying battlefield-tested Ukrainian drones in exchange for Kyiv purchasing weapons from the US.
• Zelenskyy told the country’s parliament that he expects his new government to increase the amount of domestically-produced weapons on Ukraine’s battlefield from 40 percent to 50 percent within the next six months.
• The US has informed Switzerland of delays to the delivery of Patriot air defence systems, the Swiss Defence Ministry said, adding that Washington wants to prioritise delivery of the systems to Ukraine.
• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said clarity is needed on how the US could replace any weapons that Europe plans to send to Ukraine. He issued the statement during a visit to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Politics and diplomacy

• President Trump’s decision to ramp up arms shipments to Ukraine is a signal to Kyiv to abandon peace efforts, Russia Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
• Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Russia had no plans to attack NATO or Europe but floated the idea of preemptive strikes if it believed the West was escalating what he cast as its full-scale war against Russia.
• Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico said his country will stop blocking the approval of the 18th package of European Union sanctions against Russia, which could be approved on Friday.
• Ukraine’s parliament appointed Yulia Svyrydenko, 39, as the country’s first new prime minister in five years, part of a major cabinet overhaul aimed at revitalising wartime management of the country as prospects for peace with Russia grow dim. Ukraine’s former Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has been named defence minister.
• Ukraine’s parliament also voted to keep Andrii Sybiha as foreign minister, while appointing Olha Stefanishyna, a deputy prime minister responsible for Euro-Atlantic integration, as the country’s new ambassador to the US.
• Russian lawmakers have advanced a bill that would outlaw opening or searching for content online judged to be “extremist” in nature, such as songs glorifying Ukraine and material by the feminist rock band, Pussy Riot.

EU hits Russian oil, shadow fleet with new sanctions over Ukraine war

European Union says move amounts to one of the strongest sanctions packages against Russia to date linked to the war.

The European Union has approved a new raft of stiff sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine, including a lower oil price cap, a ban on transactions with Nord Stream gas pipelines, and the targeting of more shadow fleet ships.

“The message is clear: Europe will not back down in its support for Ukraine. The EU will keep raising the pressure until Russia ends its war,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said in a statement on Friday.

Kallas said the EU move amounts to “one of its strongest sanctions packages against Russia to date” linked to the war, which is now in its fourth year.

Ukraine’s newly appointed Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko welcomed the EU’s agreement on an 18th sanctions package against Russia, saying it “strengthens the pressure where it counts”. Svyrydenko added on X that there was more to be done in terms of measures to help bring peace closer.

French President Emmanuel Macron said that he spoke with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy and added he also welcomed the adoption of the sanctions. “The Russian attacks must stop immediately,” he wrote in a post on social media platform X. “France is and remains at Ukraine’s side.”

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that the bloc is “keeping up the pressure on Russia” following the announcement. “It’s good that we in the EU have now agreed on the 18th sanctions package against Russia,” Merz wrote on X.

“It targets banks, energy and the military industry. This weakens Russia’s ability to continue financing the war against Ukraine,” he added.

Kremlin  spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that Russia has built up an immunity to Western sanctions and adapted to them. Peskov also called the sanctions illegal, saying every new restriction creates negative consequences for those countries that back them.

The move comes as European countries start to buy United States weapons for Ukraine to help the country better defend itself.

US President Donald Trump announced the deal to supply more weapons to Ukraine and threatened earlier this week to impose steep tariffs on Russia unless a peace deal is reached within 50 days.

The  European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, had proposed to lower the oil price cap from $60 to $45, which is lower than the market price, to target Russia’s vast energy revenues.

The EU had hoped to get major international powers in the Group of Seven countries involved in the price cap to broaden the effect, but conflict in the Middle East pushed up oil prices, and the US administration could not be brought on board.

In 2023, Ukraine’s Western allies limited sales of Russian oil to $60 per barrel, but the price cap was largely symbolic as most of Moscow’s crude – its main moneymaker – cost less than that. Still, the cap was there in case oil prices rose.

Oil is Russia’s main source of income

The linchpin of Russia’s economy is oil income, allowing President Vladimir Putin to pour money into the armed forces without worsening inflation for people, and avoiding a currency collapse.

The EU has also targeted the Nord Stream pipelines between Russia and Germany to prevent Putin from generating any revenue from them in future, notably by discouraging would-be investors. Russian energy giant Rosneft’s refinery in India was hit, as well.

The pipelines were built to carry Russian natural gas to Germany but are not in operation. They were targeted by sabotage in 2022, but the source of the underwater explosions has remained a major international mystery.

Additionally, the new EU sanctions are targeting Russia’s banking sector to limit the Kremlin’s ability to raise funds or carry out financial transactions. Two Chinese banks were added to the list.

The EU has slapped several rounds of sanctions on Russia since Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

But each round of sanctions is getting harder to agree on, as measures targeting Russia bite the economies of the 27 member nations. Slovakia held up the latest package over concerns about proposals to stop Russian gas supplies, which it relies on.

Ukraine appoints new prime minister in major government reshuffle

Incoming Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko says she will focus on weapons production and the economy in her new role.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appointed a new prime minister and other key leaders in the largest government reshuffle since Russia invaded three years ago.

Yulia Svyrydenko, 39, took over as prime minister from Denys Shmyhal, who had held the post since 2020, following her confirmation on Thursday by Ukraine’s parliament.

Svyrydenko  previously served as first deputy prime minister and minister of economic development and trade, roles that brought her in close contact with the administration of United States President Donald Trump. She was credited with negotiating a critical mineral deal between Washington and Kyiv earlier this year that helped thaw an initially frosty relationship between Trump and Zelenskyy.

Svyrydenko said on social media that she intends to focus on expanding Ukraine’s domestic weapons production and the strength of its armed forces, and supporting the economy.

“Our Government sets its course toward a Ukraine that stands firm on its own foundations — military, economic, and social,” she said. “My key goal is real, positive results that every Ukrainian will feel in daily life. War leaves no room for delay. We must act swiftly and decisively,” she said.

Outgoing Prime Minister Shmyhal, 49, will step in as defence minister, taking over a ministry that has struggled with a series of corruption scandals.

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, 50, will stay in place, but Zelenskyy has named outgoing Justice Minister Olga Stefanishyna, 39, as his next ambassador to the US, pending US approval. Stefanishyna has experience working with the European Union and NATO and also played a role in negotiating the recent mineral deal with the Trump administration.

Stefanishyna will replace outgoing envoy Oksana Markarova, who earned the ire of Trump due to her positive working relationship with the administration of former US President Joe Biden.

Reports last week indicated that Zelenskyy was planning to choose Defence Minister Rustem Umerov as his next US envoy, but he was allegedly not approved by Washington, according to opposition MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak.

Other reshuffles will see deputies Oleksiy Sobolev and Taras Kachka take over as the minister of economy, environment and agriculture and deputy prime minister for European integration.

Despite the shake-up in positions, critics say the new faces in Zelenskyy’s cabinet remain largely the same. They have also accused the Ukrainian leader of consolidating power by stacking key government posts with his “loyalists”.

Russia, Ukraine exchange more bodies of war dead, Kremlin says

About 1,000 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers have been exchanged for the bodies of 19 Russian soldiers.

Russia  and Ukraine have exchanged more bodies of their war dead, according to a Kremlin aide, as part of an agreement reached during a second round of peace talks in Turkiye last month.

“Following the agreements reached in Istanbul, another 1,000 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers were handed over to Ukraine today,” Vladimir Medinsky, head of Russia’s delegation at the peace talks, said on Telegram on Thursday, adding that Ukraine handed over 19 slain Russian soldiers.

Exchanges of captured soldiers and the repatriation of remains have taken place regularly since the brief renewal of peace talks in Istanbul in May in what amounts to some of the only successful diplomacy between the two sides in their more than three-year war.

Medinsky posted photos on Thursday showing people in white medical suits lifting white body bags from the back of refrigerated trucks.

Russia plans to return the bodies of 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers, and this exchange marked the beginning of that process, Russia’s RIA state news agency reported.

During their direct meeting in Istanbul on June 2, Russia and Ukraine pledged to swap at least 1,000 soldiers on each side.

Negotiators from both sides also agreed to swap all severely wounded soldiers as well as all captured fighters under the age of 25.

But future talks to discuss a path to end the war have stalled as the gulf between Moscow and Kyiv has remained unchanged despite repeated pressure from United States President Donald Trump that Russia agree to a ceasefire.

At the talks, Russia outlined a list of hardline demands, including for Ukraine to cede more territory and to reject all forms of Western military support.

Kyiv dismissed them as unacceptable ultimatums and has questioned the point of further negotiations if Moscow is not willing to make concessions.

In  a further diplomatic development, another round of reunification of minors with their families in Russia and Ukraine took place on Thursday with the mediation of Qatar at its Moscow embassy. Eleven children will reunite with their families in Ukraine and three others with their families in Russia. So far, more than 100 children have reunited with their families since Qatar began facilitating the process.

Ukraine said Russia took 20,000 children during the war and has given Moscow a list of hundreds who, they said, were taken from Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions since 2022.

Russian President Vladimir Putin faces war crime charges before the International Criminal Court in The Hague for the alleged “unlawful deportation and transfer of children”.

Before the latest prisoner exchange, a Russian air strike on a shopping centre and market in Dobropillia in eastern Ukraine killed at least two people, wounded 22 and caused widespread damage on Wednesday, Governor Vadym Filashkin said. Filashkin said the building was struck by a 500kg (1,100lb) bomb.

In its latest overnight attacks, Russia launched 400 Shahed and decoy drones as well as one ballistic missile, the Ukrainian air force said. The strikes targeted the northeastern city of Kharkiv, the central city of Kryvyi Rih, Vinnytsia in the west and Odesa in the south.

The Russian Ministry of Defence announced that its forces had captured the settlements of Popiv Yar in the eastern region of Donetsk, Degtiarne in Kharkiv in the northeast and Kamianske in Zaporizhia in the south.

In the meantime, Ukraine’s economy minister, and key negotiator in the US mineral deal, Yuliia Svyrydenko, was appointed as the country’s new prime minister Thursday. She is Ukraine’s first new head of government since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.