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Ukraine is very close to obtaining its own ballistic missiles, Defense Minister Denis Shmygal said in his first interview since taking the position of Defense Minister, BBC Ukraine reported on 30 July. Denys Shmyhal was appointed Ukraine’s Minister of Defense on 17 July 2025, following his resignation as Prime Minister during a major government reshuffle. His appointment aimed to boost domestic arms production and improve defense management amid ongoing war with Russia. “Ukraine’s president has already announced that Ukraine will have its own ballistics. We are very close to this. That’s basically all I can say publicly on this matter,”...

Amid Russia's deadly attacks on Ukrainian training grounds, Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said military training should be moved underground as much as possible to better protect soldiers. "The entire territory of Ukraine is within range of enemy missiles and drones," Syrskyi said after a monthly meeting on troop preparedness. "The training process must be moved underground as much as possible." A Russian missile hit a Ground Forces training facility on July 29, prompting Ukraine's military to launch an official investigation. The attack left three people dead and 18 wounded. A special commission was formed to determine whether lapses by military...

A Russian missile hit a Ukrainian army training ground, killing three soldiers and wounding 18 others, authorities said, in the latest attack to embarrass military officials as they struggle to make up a severe manpower shortage in the nearly 3½-year war. The Russian Defense Ministry said that the strike killed or wounded about 200 Ukrainian troops. The ministry said that Ukraine’s 169th training center near Honcharivske in the Chernihiv region was hit with two Iskander missiles, one armed with multiple submunitions and another with high explosives. A Russian Defense Ministry video showed multiple small explosions apparently caused by a missile...

Western arms makers aren't just sending weapons to Ukraine these days; they're moving in. As Russia's war drags on, NATO defense companies are opening offices, setting up new production lines, and working closely with Ukrainian partners inside the country at war. For Ukraine, the payoff is that it gets faster, more customized firepower. For the West, it's access to something money can't usually buy: real-time lessons in modern warfare. Ukraine's defense industry is offering hard-earned insights, and NATO countries are able to bring those secrets home before they need to use them themselves. Talking with Business Insider, representatives of Ukraine's...

When Russia invaded Ukraine, its primary objective was not just territorial expansion—it was the outright elimination of Ukraine’s independent government. Russian leader Vladimir Putin even claimed that the bloodshed caused by Russia’s invasion is “fully and wholly” the responsibility of “the ruling Ukrainian regime” in his address on February 24, 2022. As Ukraine’s political and military heart, Kyiv was the ultimate target. Historically, the fall of a nation’s capital has often signaled the collapse of its government and the end of organized defense. Russia’s plan closely mirrored the Blitzkrieg tactics of Nazi Germany in 1940, when swift mechanized assaults and...

Donald Trump has said he will shorten the deadline he gave Vladimir Putin to reach a deal to end the war in Ukraine, giving Russia '10 or 12' days to move. In a clear bid to apply more pressure, the US president said he had wanted to be generous with his original 50-day deadline, but that with no progress being made there was no reason to keep waiting.

Russian occupiers attempted to eliminate the leadership of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' unmanned units simultaneously. This likely occurred during a meeting in the Donetsk region, according to Robert Brovdi, call sign Madyar, commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' Unmanned Systems Forces. Madyar said that he held a working meeting with the commanders of the unmanned units Phoenix, K-2, Madyar's Birds, Rarog, and Achilles. He addressed the Russians, stating that we have assessed your attempt to stab us all at once yesterday. Madyar did not disclose any other details. Robert Brovdi, known as Madyar, became the new commander of the Ukrainian...

Officials in three of the five Russian regions bordering Ukraine have been accused of embezzling funds for border defenses. -snip- The border fortification embezzlement cases seem in part to be aimed at quelling anger among Russians in the border regions over Moscow’s failure to protect them from Ukrainian attacks, especially after Ukrainian forces occupied part of the Kursk region. The charges imply that the border with Ukraine would have been better protected had local officials not stolen the money for the defenses, claims that also deflect blame from the Kremlin. The legal actions attracted attention this month when Russia’s transportation...

Putin's summer offensive is stalling as Ukraine puts up a heroic defense leaving Russia resorting to teens to fill the ranks. Despite Putin’s promises, Russian 18-year-olds are being press ganged into the army straight out of school and sent into the meatgrinder on Ukraine’s battlefields. The Russian despot has made repeated promises to his people that no 18-year-olds will be called up to serve but evidence is emerging that at least 245 teens have been killed in Ukraine in the last couple of years. New government rules mean those fresh out of school can bypass military service and instead sign...

An RAF signals intelligence aircraft has been deployed over the Black Sea to monitor the movements of the Russian military across the region. The operation, conducted under the watchful eye of NATO and Russian air defence units, comes as the war in Ukraine shows no signs of abating in the near future. The plane being used is an RC-135W Rivet Joint, a modified Boeing aircraft, considered to be one of the most technologically sophisticated in the world. Equipped with an array of sensors, its sensors ‘soak up’ electronic emissions from communications, radar and other systems to build a picture of...

Germany needs firm US assurances that it will quickly receive replacement Patriot anti-missile systems if it sends two of its own units to Ukraine, Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said Wednesday.In comments to Der Spiegel news magazine, Pistorius said European NATO members needed "watertight" guarantees that any American-made Patriot air-defence systems sent to Ukraine would be replaced within about six to eight months.US President Donald Trump last week announced a deal with NATO chief Mark Rutte for European alliance members to buy US weaponry -- particularly Patriot systems -- for Kyiv to help it in its war against Russia.

Ukraine urgently needs the United States and Europe to transfer more air defense systems and missiles to Kyiv, Ukraine’s commander in chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky said in an interview with The Washington Post — and without a Biden-era ban on deep strikes against Russian military targets. ... “They are targeting virtually everything — airfields, populated areas, infrastructure facilities,” Syrsky said of Russia. “So, of course, we need supplies of ballistic missiles in order to be able to give the enemy a fitting rebuff.” “The availability of any missile weapons is in itself a deterrent,” he added. “I hope that thanks...

Ukraine will need at least $120 billion for defence spending next year, Ukrainian Defence Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Tuesday. Negotiations are ongoing with NATO and EU members as Ukraine seeks $60 billion in funding from partners, he added in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.

UKRAINE unleashed chaos at Moscow’s four airports with a fourth successive drone blitz rocking the city. Hundreds of passenger planes had to be diverted as waves of flying bombs converged on the Russian capital. Footage showed explosions as Russian air defences attacked incoming unmanned planes in Zelenograd, a district 23 miles northwest of the Kremlin. Ukraine has stepped up assaults since Donald Trump reportedly told Ukrainian president Volodymr Zelensky it was time to make Russians feel “the pain” of war. Russia's defence ministry claimed to have downed 93 Ukrainian drones overnight across nine regions - 19 of them over the...

NATO allies will buy arms, then give them to Ukraine, President Trump said.SNIPMr. Rutte said that at least eight NATO countries were ready to pay for the arms and praised Mr. Trump for helping Ukraine obtain “what it needs.”“But you do want Europeans to pay for it, which is totally logical,” Mr. Rutte said.President Trump said on Tuesday that the United States was not considering sending long-range missiles to Ukraine and that he did not think Ukraine should target Moscow, the Russian capital.SNIPMore Ukrainians were killed in June than in any other single month so far in the three-year war,...

Ukrainians have had enough of Zelensky.During the three and a half years of the war in Ukraine, the western Globalist politicians and the obedient mainstream media have painted Volodymyr Zelensky as the defender of democracy, a historical, mythological figure comparable to WW2’s Winston Churchill.Then, of course, came Donald J. Trump, calling him ‘a moderately successful comedian’, ‘the greatest salesman on earth’, and ‘a dictator, with no elections’.Now, even as Trump promised Kiev air defenses with new Patriot batteries and is threatening Russia’s Vladimir Putin with sanctions, a Spectator article shows Ukraine about to be ‘engulfed in a critical military, political...

Russia launched a massive attack on Ukraine overnight into Saturday with hundreds of drones, killing at least one person, part of a stepped-up bombing campaign that has dashed hopes for a breakthrough in efforts to end the more than 3-year-old war. Russia has been intensifying its long-range attacks on Ukrainian cities. It now often batters Ukraine with more drones in a single night than it did during some entire months in 2024, and analysts say the barrages are likely to escalate. On July 8, Russia unleashed more than 700 drones — a record. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it shot down...

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that Kyiv has sent Moscow an offer to hold another round of peace talks next week, and that he wanted to speed up negotiations for a cease-fire. Ukraine and Russia have held two rounds of talks in Istanbul over the past five months. They have agreed to swap prisoners but made no breakthroughs in ending almost three and a half years of conflict that started with Russia’s 2022 invasion. “Everything should be done to achieve a cease-fire,” Zelensky said in his evening address to the nation. “The Russian side should stop hiding from...

The drone and missile onslaught against Ukraine

Donald Trump this week boosted Ukraine’s air defences with new Patriot batteries, threatened Vladimir Putin with sanctions if he does not agree to a ceasefire, and even reportedly gave tacit approval to more Ukrainian strikes on Moscow. Trump’s newfound support for Ukraine is a welcome lifeline. The question is whether his help will be enough to stop Russia’s relentless attacks before Ukraine is engulfed in a critical military, political and social crisis that threatens to destroy it from within. Putin chose war over peace this spring because his spies and generals told him that Ukraine is on the brink of...