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Here’s where things stand on Tuesday 15 July 2025:
- The Kremlin says it needs time to respond to Donald Trump’s statement threatening sanctions unless a Ukraine peace deal is reached within 50 days, as top security official Dmitry Medvedev says Russia “didn’t care” about the “theatrical ultimatum” issued by the US president.
- Trump has announced a deal to supply more weapons to Ukraine and threatened to impose steep tariffs on Russia unless the deal is reached.
- Governors in the Russian regions of Voronezh, Lipetsk and Bryansk say at least 18 people have been wounded in overnight Ukrainian drone attacks.
- EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas says the bloc is “very, very close” to imposing a new sanctions package on Russia.
Photos: Aftermath of drone attack on Russia’s Voronezh
For many Ukrainians, 50 days ‘is a very long time’
Ukrainians have welcomed Trump’s pledge of more US-made weapons being sent to Ukraine, even though it is not clear what exactly they will get and how quickly.
The time frame for further arms deliveries that European countries have agreed to pay for is crucial. Still, some Ukrainians felt the US decision will not change the course of the war.
“If we take the situation as a whole, it hardly looks like this will fundamentally change anything,” Kyiv resident Oles Oliinyk, 33, told AP.
Nina Tokar, 70, was also skeptical. “I have very little faith in [Trump]. He says one thing today, and tomorrow he may say something else.”
A Ukrainian army officer fighting in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region told the news agency the 50-day delay on sanctions “is a very long time.”
“They [the Russians[ will say, ‘Give us two more weeks,’ and then in two weeks, ‘Give us another week.’ It will drag on until October or November,” he told AP, using only the call sign “Cat” in keeping with the rules of the Ukrainian military.
Putin believes in strategy of grinding out an attritional war
Every day, there are announcements from the Ukrainian military or from the Russian military about which village on the front line has changed hands. Those villages are small. Many of the names are unfamiliar even to Ukrainians.
Ukraine has a huge front line. It stretches all the way from Kupiansk in the northeast near Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, down to Kherson, which is located on the Dnipro estuary, which flows out into the Black Sea.
Russia is pushing, and it’s taking territory. However, that territory is being taken at a walking pace. This is not a war at the moment of mechanised breakthroughs and sweeping advances or retreats.
It’s an attritional war being pursued at a high cost to both sides, but particularly the Russians, who are losing huge amounts of men and materiel in grinding out this offensive, and that’s likely to be the forecast going forward.
Vladimir Putin, however, believes he can outlast Ukraine in this attritional war.
‘Every dollar put into Russia’s economy now spent for the war’
Olesia Horiainova, co-founder of the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center, has welcomed Trump’s apparent acknowledgement that Russia is not interested in ending the war.
“We were talking about that for the entirety of the presidency of Trump and his administration for the last half a year, so, yes, this is very good that President Trump is now looking at things as he should be looking at [them],” she told Al Jazeera.
Horiainova expressed hope that the US would continue to sell weaponry to Ukraine but also impose “harsher” sanctions on Russia, which, she said, “is showing no signs of being interested” in “stopping the war”.
Asked about the potential impact of third parties being put off from buying Russian oil, Horiainova said that would be massive.
“Every dollar that is put into Russia’s economy right now is being spent on the war – so, yes, if the sanctions will be imposed eventually on Russia in 50 days, or earlier hopefully, it will feel that hugely.”
How effective will US Patriot systems be in stopping Russian attacks?
The US developed the Patriots in the 1970s to down Soviet missiles. Kyiv first received them in April 2023 from Washington and several of its Western European allies.
Within weeks, they had intercepted Russia’s Kinzhal (Dagger) intercontinental ballistic missiles, which are launched from fighter jets at more than 12km (7.5 miles) above the ground.
In the past two years, about 10 Patriot systems in Ukraine – the exact number is a state secret – stationed in Kyiv and the southern port of Odesa have downed dozens more Kinzhals – along with other cruise and ballistic missiles, including North Korean ones; fighter jets; helicopters; and attack drones.
However, Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Penta think tank, told Al Jazeera that the new Patriots won’t solve Ukraine’s problems with Russian air raids because Russia’s main strike weapon is now drones.
Read more here.
What did Trump say in his announcement and what have the reactions been?
On Monday, Trump announced a deal to supply more weapons to Ukraine via NATO and threatened to impose steep tariffs on Russia unless a peace deal is reached within 50 days.
“We’re going to be doing secondary tariffs,” Trump said. “If we don’t have a deal in 50 days, it’s very simple, and they’ll be at 100 percent.”
Sitting with Rutte in the Oval Office, Trump also told reporters he was “disappointed” in Putin.
The NATO secretary-general commended Trump on his announcement, saying: “It will mean that Ukraine can get its hands on really massive numbers of military equipment.”
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in a statement that Trump’s announcement was a “positive step”.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Trump’s remarks were serious and required careful analysis while former Russian President and top security official Dmitry Medvedev dismissed what he described as Trump’s “theatrical ultimatum”.
The Netherlands looks to join US arms plan for Ukraine
After Denmark, the Netherlands has also said it is looking to take part in the US scheme for Europe to buy US weapons for Ukraine.
“We will look into what we can do in relation to Mr Trump’s announcements and take it from there,” said Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp, underlining the Netherlands’ “positive inclination”.
Separately, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said Trump’s announcements yesterday made it “clear that leadership is once again coming from the US”.
A ‘dream’: US man who spied on Ukraine becomes Russian citizen
Daniel Martindale, a US citizen who spied on Ukrainian troops for two years, has been granted Russian citizenship, Moscow-appointed authorities have announced.
“By decree of our President Vladimir Putin, a passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation was awarded to Daniel Martindale,” Denis Pushilin, the head of the Russian-occupied part of eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region said on Telegram.
Pushilin said Martindale had “long since proven with his loyalty and actions that he is one of us”, adding: “He spent more than two years in the territory under enemy control. And not only did he survive – he helped. He supported our guys, passed on important information to our special services, risked his life.”
Martindale received his passport from Interior Ministry officials at a ceremony in Moscow, according to state media and a video published by Pushilin.
Reports in Russian state media said Martindale spent two years in Ukraine after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, transmitting coordinates of military facilities to Russian secret services. He was extracted in “a complex evacuation operation” after Moscow started to fear his life was in danger if he stayed any longer, Pushilin said.
In November, state media reported Russian security forces had taken him to Russia and Martindale lodged his application for Russian citizenship.
After being granted citizenship, Martindale thanked Russia for “accepting me” and said becoming a Russian citizen was a “dream”.
“Russia is not only my home but my family,” he said in Russian on the video.
‘Russia is ready to negotiate,’ says deputy foreign minister
Russia’s news agency Tass reports that the country’s Deputy Foreign Ministery Sergey Ryabkov says that the diplomatic path to resolving the conflict in Ukraine is “preferable” to the Kremlin.
“We need to focus on political and diplomatic work”, he said, adding that Russia did not warm to ultimatums.
His comments come after Trump threatened sanctions on buyers of Russian exports if no peace deal is reached within 50 days.
Kremlin comments on Trump’s statements
Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said Trump’s remarks yesterday, including a threat of sanctions on buyers of Russian exports, are serious and require analysis.
“We certainly need time to analyse what was said in Washington. And if and when President Putin deems it necessary, he will definitely comment,” he said.
In an apparent reference to news of new weapons deliveries to Ukraine, Peskov said: “Decisions which are being made in Washington, in NATO countries, and squarely in Brussels, are perceived by the Ukrainian side not as a signal for peace, but as a signal to continue the war.”
The Kremlin spokesman also said Russia was ready to continue direct negotiations with Ukraine, adding it was still waiting for a Ukrainian signal on when the next talks could occur.
‘Expectation management is the name of the game in Moscow’
Trump’s announcement that the US will supply more weapons to Ukraine could be the beginning of a new confrontational approach, according to Moscow-based foreign policy analyst Andrey Kortunov.
“If you get back to the first Trump administration in the beginning, there were … a lot of expectations about his ability to put this relationship back on track; however, his first term was the time when these negotiations led to nothing”, he told Al Jazeera.
Kortunov said that it remains an “open question” as to whether Russia will hand Trump a “win” in the negotiations.
“It depends on how much Trump will need to claim victory … I can imagine that there are a lot of consultations between Moscow and Washington right now to figure out whether both Trump and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin can claim victory by the end of this conflict, and to make sure that they can respond to the demands of their respective domestic constituencies,” Kortunov said.
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy says ‘peace only possible through strength’
In a video statement, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has expressed gratitude to Trump, thanking the US president for backing his country’s war effort.
“Peace is only possible through strength. We discussed this with President Trump. We discussed this with members of Congress,” Zelenskyy said.
“We are working at our teams’ level – teams of Ukraine and the United States – to secure the forces and means that we need to protect lives and defend our state: American weapons, American sanctions against Russia,” he added.
“A sanctions bill has already been prepared in Congress as well as European financing to support our joint defence.”
China’s Xi meets Russia’s Lavrov, vows greater support
Chinese President Xi Jinping has told Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that their countries should “strengthen mutual support”, according to China’s state news agency Xinhua, following a meeting of foreign ministers gathered in Beijing for Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) talks.
China has long sought to present the SCO as a counterweight to Western-led power blocs such as NATO and has pushed for greater collaboration between its 10 members.
Beijing and Moscow should work to “unite countries of the Global South and promote the development of the international order in a more just and reasonable direction”, Xi said, according to Xinhua.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in an earlier statement that “a number of issues of bilateral political contacts at the highest and high levels were discussed”.
A lot of speculation about what Trump meant by “17 Patriots”
Much is being speculated about what Trump meant when he talked about 17 Patriots during his comments at the White House yesterday.
Does that mean 17 Patriot systems, 17 Patriot batteries, or 17 Patriot launchers? There’s a significant difference in scale between these three options.
At its most basic, a Patriot battery involves a few launchers, one or more; radar and fire control systems; a power supply and supporting vehicles. But the US scales these up into Patriot battalions, replicating them many times over.
So, no one knows exactly what Trump meant, and people are speculating that perhaps Trump doesn’t know what Trump meant either.
But at its most fundamental, what this signifies is a commitment to Ukraine.
Trump is now angry with Putin. He is siding with Ukraine. He wants Ukraine to receive more weapons. He’s putting pressure on Russia. And he is committing to NATO, as well – and, until recently, none of those things could be assured with any degree of confidence.
Denmark promises support for financing Patriot air defence systems for Ukraine
Denmark will “do its part” to finance the delivery of US-made Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen says without providing details.
“After some US hesitation, it seems that they have joined the right side … and would hand over the Patriot systems if they can be financed. And Denmark will also do its part here,” Rasmussen told journalists in Brussels.
After Trump’s comments, ‘many believe Moscow managed to buy time’
It seems like Russia was expecting probably something else from Trump – at least, harsher sanctions.
But when the US president’s speech ended yesterday, prices on the Moscow stock exchange started growing and increased by several percentage points.
Many believe that Moscow managed to buy time as 50 days to complete a deal looks like a lot of room for manouevre.
Analysts here say it will be hard to replace oil exports from Russia, and that’s why it would be difficult for Donald Trump to impose the 100 percent tariffs on buyers of Russian oil.
They are asking whether the US president is indeed ready to completely spoil relations with countries like China, India and Turkiye – countries which buy Russia’s raw materials.
EU ‘very, very close’ to imposing new sanctions on Russia
European Union foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas says she hopes an agreement will be reached soon on a new round of sanctions by the bloc on Russia, including lowering a price cap on Moscow’s oil exports.
The new round of punishment over the war in Ukraine has been held up for weeks by a wrangle with Slovakia over separate plans to phase out Russian gas imports and resistance from Malta over the price cap.
“We are hoping that it’s either today or tomorrow that we adopt the 18th package of sanctions,” Kallas said before a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
“So I hope it’s today, but it’s still some work to do.”
Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico has signalled he could drop his opposition after talks with Brussels over its plans to cut off Russian gas imports by the end of 2027.
Officials said the bloc is also close to agreeing on a plan to lower its price cap on Russian oil exported to third countries around the world.
“It’s alive,” Kallas told journalists.
Ukrainian drone attacks wound more than a dozen across 3 Russian regions: Local officials
At least 18 people have been wounded and houses and other buildings damaged in Ukrainian drone attacks overnight in the Russian regions of Voronezh, Lipetsk and Bryansk, according to local officials.
Russia’s air defence units destroyed a dozen drones over the Voronezh region, which borders Ukraine, Governor Alexander Gusev said on Telegram. Sixteen people, including a teenager, were hurt as a result of the attack, he added.
Residential buildings in the city of Voronezh and its outskirts were damaged, along with regional commercial facilities.
Unverified video published by Mash, a Telegram channel close to Russian security services, showed an aerial object crashing into a building on a busy residential street in Voronezh, followed by a large fireball.
The city’s mayor, Sergei Petrin, said a kindergarten had been damaged.
In the city of Yelets in the Lipetsk region, a drone crashed in an industrial zone, injuring one person, regional Governor Igor Artamonov said on Telegram.
In the Bryansk region, a woman was injured in a drone attack on the village of Sluchevsk, said Alexander Bogomaz, the regional governor.
Trump says he will send more weapons to Ukraine, threatens tariffs on Russia
Sitting beside NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump announced a deal to supply more weapons to Ukraine and threatened to impose “very severe tariffs” on Russia unless a peace deal is reached within 50 days.
Trump’s comments mark a dramatic U-turn for US policy, as they come weeks after the Pentagon announced it would be pausing weapons shipments to Ukraine.
He also expressed frustration with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, saying he did not want to call the Russian leader “an assassin, but he’s a tough guy”.
“We’re going to make top-of-the-line weapons, and they’ll be sent to NATO,” Trump said, adding that Washington’s NATO allies would pay for them.
The weapons would include Patriot air defence missiles that Ukraine has urgently sought, he said.
“It’s a full complement with the batteries,” Trump said. “We’re going to have some come very soon, within days.”
Russia ‘didn’t care’ about Trump’s ‘theatrical ultimatum’: Medvedev
Russia does not care about Trump’s “theatrical ultimatum to the Kremlin” about slapping sanctions on buyers of Russian exports unless Moscow agrees to a peace deal in Ukraine, Russian Security Council’s Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev has said in a post in English on X.
“The world shuddered, expecting the consequences. Belligerent Europe was disappointed. Russia didn’t care,” the former Russian president added.
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