Russia Ukraine war latest: Drone attack on Putin’s forces after boats forced from Crimea port

Speaking on Monday, Mr Zelensky welcomed the package, without saying exactly how many jets it will be made up of.

Former NATO leader George Robertson will lead a review of Britain’s military strategy to counter what he calls the “deadly quartet” of China, Iran, Russia and North Korea.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the strategic defense review on Tuesday as one of his first major acts after taking office on July 5. Starmer who leads a center-left Labour Party government, has promised to end the shrinking of the U.K.’s military seen during 14 years of Conservative Party rule.

Starmer also says he will increase defense spending to 2.5% of GDP from its current level of about 2.3%, but has not set a deadline. He said spending would be “responsibly increased” to bolster Britain’s “hollowed-out armed forces.”

On some evenings, Ukrainian mother Margaryta Zakharchuk wanders around her neighbourhood in the sweltering heat waiting for the electricity to come back on so she can take the lift to her 12th-floor apartment.

“We walk around outside until 10 o’clock so we don’t need to climb up with two kids,” she said.

Zakharchuk, 43, is among the millions of Ukrainians struggling amid a record heat wave compounded by regular power cuts that make household appliances like air conditioning units and refrigerators useless.

An International Monetary Fund team began talks with Ukrainian officials on Tuesday as Kyiv looks for ways to increase revenue streams for the war-ravaged economy and plug its 2024 budget deficit, officials said.

The meetings in Kyiv, the IMF said in a statement, will “focus on the authorities’ fiscal policy plans for the remainder of 2024 and the medium term.”

The IMF has already released $3.078 billion to Ukraine this year under its $15.6 billion Extended Fund Facility program.

More than 28 months since Russia‘s full-scale invasion, the government faces a budget gap of between 400 billion hryvnias ($9.8 billion) and 500 billion hryvnias for this year, said Roksolana Pidlasa, head of the parliament budget committee.

Officials and analysts say the government plans to cover its budget deficit this year by raising taxes and increasing domestic borrowing.

“The IMF mission starts this week,” Yaroslav Zheleznyak, a lawmaker from the Holos party, said on the Telegram messaging app. “I think after that there will be news from the government on budget changes and tax increases.”

The chief of Russia‘s general staff, Valery Gerasimov, thanked Russian forces on Tuesday for taking over the village of Urozhaine in Ukraine‘s eastern Donetsk region, the RIA news agency cited Russia‘s defence ministry as saying.

Gerasimov, who visited the war zone, then set new targets for the troops in the area, it said, without providing any details.

Roberta Metsola, a Maltese lawmaker from the centre-right European People’s Party, easily won a second term on Tuesday as president of the European Parliament and she appealed for a more inclusive politics to help combat polarisation.

Metsola, who in 2022 became the first woman in 20 years to head the European Union assembly, has emerged as a strong supporter of Ukraine in its war with Russia and its bid to join the EU. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy sent his congratulations.

Some 562 EU lawmakers out of the 623 who took part in Tuesday’s vote backed her reappointment to the mainly ceremonial role for a further two and a half years, the largest margin of victory ever for a president of the European Parliament.

“Polarisation in our societies has led to more confrontational politics, even political violence,” Metsola, 45, told the assembly.

“We need to move beyond this zero-sum thinking that has excluded people, that turns people away,” she said.

Metsola urged the European Parliament to remain a strong supporter of Ukraine, the rule of law, and women’s rights, while preparing to add new countries to the EU.

In his message of congratulations, Zelenskiy wrote on X: “I greatly appreciate President Metsola’s personal involvement in supporting Ukraine, as well as her unwavering commitment to protecting people and upholding our European way of life.”

Metsola was the first leader of an EU institution to visit Kyiv following Russia‘s February 2022 invasion.

The power grid operators of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have signed an agreement to decouple from the Soviet-era joint BRELL power grid with Russia and Belarus in February 2025, Lithuania’s energy minister said on Tuesday.

“We have always strongly known that, like we’ve become part of the European Union and NATO, so we will become part of the European power system”, Energy Minister Dainius Kreivys wrote in a post on Facebook.

The three Baltic countries, as part of the BRELL circuit, are relying on Russian operators to control frequencies and balance the grid.

In his letter to EU leaders, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban suggested “reopening direct lines of diplomatic communication with Russia“.

He also proposed simultaneously maintaining high-level contacts with Kyiv as well as conducting talks with China “on the modalities of the next peace conference”.

On the topic of the US, Orban said Joe Biden was “making immense efforts” to remain in the electoral race, and suggested he was “not capable of modifying the current US pro-war policy.”

The Hungarian leader said a Trump victory would change the burden between the United States and the EU when it comes to financial support for Ukraine, to the disadvantage of the Europeans.

Orban has long criticised European military support for Ukraine in contrast to most allies who support Kyiv’s war effort.

“Our European strategy in the name of transatlantic unity has copied the pro-war policy of the US. We have not had a sovereign and independent European strategy or political action plan up to now,” he said.

“I propose discussing whether the continuation of this policy is rational in the future.”

Donald Trump’s choice for his running mate is a “disaster” for Ukraine, a senior EU official has said.

Speaking to Politico under the condition of anonymity, the official’s comments reflected the bleak future in store for US-Ukraine support with JP Vance as the new candidate for vice president.

The 39-year-old Ohio senator has backed attempts by the US Republican Party to end support for Ukraine in its war against Russia since the invasion began.

In a speech at the National Conservatism conference, he criticised the decision to send Ukraine “hundreds of billions of dollars of weaponry with no obvious end in sight and no obvious conclusion or even objective that we are close to getting accomplished”.

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is ready to act “immediately” as a peace broker in the Russia-Ukraine war if he is elected in November, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said in a letter to EU leaders.

The letter, addressed to European Council President Charles Michel and shared with all EU leaders, was drafted after Orban held talks with Trump as well as with the leaders of Ukraine, Russia and China.

“I can (…) surely state that shortly after his election victory, he will not wait until his inauguration, (Trump) will be ready to act as a peace broker immediately. He has detailed and well-founded plans for this,” Orban wrote.