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Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s debt-fuelled spending not seen since Germany reunification. Germany plans to borrow more than €800bn by 2030, breaking with decades of fiscal restraint to bring defence spending to levels not seen since the cold war. Next year alone, Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government plans to raise more than €200bn from markets, 12.5 per cent more than this year, the finance ministry said on Monday. Between 2027 and 2030, Germany is expected to borrow about €838bn, according to projections. The budget marks a sharp break with the country’s deep-rooted aversion to debt and with Merz’s own party line on fiscal...

Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that Kyiv and Moscow's troops were still battling for the key eastern town of Kostyantynivka, which the Kremlin has claimed it has captured. Moscow earlier this week announced it had taken the outpost -- on the way to important hubs in the Donetsk region -- but Kyiv has denied that as a "lie", saying that it is defending the town. "Fighting is also continuing for Kostyantynivka, which (Russian leader Vladimir) Putin has already claimed as his own, but it is obvious that he will never dare to appear there," Zelensky said in his daily evening...

Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces (SBS) carried out a large-scale overnight strike on July 6, hitting 47 Russian military targets, including two fuel tankers transporting gasoline to temporarily occupied Crimea, two S-400 Triumf air defense launchers, an oil depot in Kerch, and a Nebo-U radar system. SBS Commander Robert “Madyar” Brovdi on June 6 described the operation as one of the most significant recent strikes against Russian military infrastructure. According to Brovdi, among the most significant targets were two tankers from Russia's so-called shadow fleet operating in the Sea of Azov. The vessels were transporting fuel from the area of Taganrog...

The Ukrainian Air Force says a "serious shortage" of interceptor missiles meant none of the 23 ballistic missiles fired by Russia at Kyiv on Sunday night were shot down. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has appealed for allies to take "strong decisions" at this week's Nato summit to provide Kyiv with air defences. After the strikes, he said the Ukrainian military had been successful in intercepting cruise missiles and drones – but not ballistic missiles. Zelensky warned that Moscow would continue to hit residential buildings as long as defensive Patriot missiles "remain in our allies' stockpiles".

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched waves of missiles and drones targeting Kyiv overnight into Monday that killed at least seven people, authorities said, hours after Ukraine’s president warned that another large-scale attack was imminent.Another 24 were wounded, said Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s City Military Administration in a post on Telegram.A residential building in the Podilskyi district partially collapsed, he said. In the Darnytsia district, several multistory buildings were damaged and people were believed to be trapped under the rubble. “These are residential buildings. Places where people slept and lived their ordinary lives,” he said. The attack, which was...

Ukraine and Germany have formed a joint working group to discuss how to return Ukrainian men of military age who left the country illegally, according to Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, Oleksiy Makeiev. As of late May, Germany hosted approximately 1.35 million Ukrainian refugees, including 356,000 men between the ages of 18 and 63. However, the specific mechanisms currently under discussion have not been disclosed. The development followed German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s April remarks that Berlin would limit the number of Ukrainian men seeking asylum and facilitate their return home during President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Germany. The ambassador outlined broader...

Ukraine still controls the strategically important eastern city of Kostiantynivka, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and the General Staff said on Saturday, rejecting Russian claims that it has been captured. Russia's military told President Vladimir Putin on Friday that its forces had taken control of Kostiantynivka, a target that Moscow has long sought in its advance through the Donetsk region. "Of course, that is not true. It is just another Russian lie, an attempt to generate some kind of a news story," Zelenskiy said on X. "If Kostiantynivka were under Russian control, then perhaps (Russian President Vladimir) Putin would have no problem...

Russia has begun using a new autonomous version of its Molniya strike drone in Ukraine, adapting the cheap fixed-wing attack UAV to hit targets without the control antenna that made earlier models vulnerable to electronic warfare, Defence Blog reported, citing an advisor to the Ukrainian Defense Minister Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov on July 3. The new variant was identified after a Russian Molniya struck a Ukrainian facility and was later found without the usual antenna used for operator control. Ukrainian radio technology specialist Beskrestnov said the drone carried only a camera and an onboard computer, suggesting a different strike profile. Instead...

Russian President Vladimir Putin also noted that the destruction of the Armed Forces of Ukraine continues on the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic, Zaporozhye and Kherson RegionsMOSCOW, July 3. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the territory of the Lugansk People's Republic had been fully liberated. "I note that the tasks of the formations and military units of the united group of forces are carried out in accordance with the plan of the General Staff of the armed forces. The liberation of the Lugansk People's Republic has been fully completed recently," he said during a meeting at one...

These are tricky times for Russian President Vladimir Putin. The “special military operation” he launched against Ukraine in 2022, intended to last a few days until a puppet regime in Kyiv could be installed, has now gone on longer than both the Soviet fight against Nazi Germany and all of World War I. His forces have long ceased making significant gains on the battlefield; some data even suggest that Russian forces lost territory in April and May. What gains the Russians have made have come at enormous cost: Last month, Anna Keast-Butler, the director of British intelligence agency GCHQ, cited...

"As NBC News reports, the account is called "ZnotluvuiSamez," and features the Ukrainian flag as its profile picture. The account made multiple big bets surrounding the Russo-Ukrainian war, including $409,000 on a contract that asks if "Putin out as President of Russia by December 31, 2026?" According to users' overall bets, there's currently a "11 percent chance" that Putin will be out by the end of the year. Of course, a massive bet is far from a guarantee that Putin will no longer be president, whether through an ouster or a decision to step down. For one, Putin isn't up...

The Kremlin is planning an armed incursion on Polish land to test Nato's response, according to Washington. The provocation could see Putin's troops cross over into Poland, and vital infrastructure could be targeted by missiles and drones. Sources close to Polish President Karol Nawrocki told news outlet Onet that the US had been warning Warsaw about the plan for a while. Russia's plan aims to start a crisis to scare Western nations into stopping their support for Ukraine. Polish security experts also warned that Russia and Belarus might send a small number of troops across the Nato border. Power stations...

Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov has appealed to nearly 40 partner countries to urgently transfer Patriot missiles from their stockpiles in July in exchange for future deliveries already contracted for Ukraine, the Defense Ministry said on July 2. The appeal comes after Russia launched one of its largest-ever aerial assaults against Kyiv overnight on July 2, killing at least 22 people and overwhelming Ukraine's air defenses with dozens of ballistic and cruise missiles alongside hundreds of drones. According to the Defense Ministry, Ukraine has already signed contracts for hundreds of PAC-2 Patriot missiles with German support, but deliveries are not expected...

Zaluzhny is considered the favorite in a post-war election.We have been reporting here on TGP that, since May 20, 2024, when his mandate expired, Volodymyr Zelensky has been ruling Ukraine by force of Martial law, becoming illegitimate in the eyes of many. And, for over two years, a figure has been raising its profile to become a challenger if and when presidential elections take place: former Ukrainian top general Valery Zaluzhny, currently ambassador to the UK.

describes the military situation in Ukraine on the 2nd of July 2026 0:00 — 🎬 Intro 0:20 — 🚀 Mega strike on Kyiv begins — largest since 2022 0:48 — 📊 570 air vehicles: 496 drones + 74 missiles 1:15 — 🎯 Kh-101, Kinzhal, Kalibr, Zircon missiles 1:47 — 💥 Energy & military infrastructure destroyed 2:28 — 📦 Nova Poshta terminal in Obolon wiped out 2:55 — ⛽ Oil storage facilities burning 3:21 — 🏭 Drone production facilities hit 3:51 — 🚛 Western Kyiv logistics hub destroyed 5:03 — 🔥 Eastern Kyiv facilities struck 6:04 — 📈 Biggest attack on...

Ukrainian troops will receive cash bonuses for capturing or destroying enemy personnel under the first stage of a sweeping overhaul of the Defense Forces, the Ministry of Defense announced on June 29. The awards stem from the Cabinet of Ministers Resolution, which launched an experimental project introducing additional payments for combat results, according to the ministry. The ministry described the measure as part of the first stage of the Defense Forces’ transformation. It framed the payments as a way to reward front-line service members for confirmed action against enemy personnel. The ministry set two award levels: roughly $2,200 for taking...

More than two million Russian and Ukrainian troops have been killed or wounded in the four years that Russia has been waging war against its neighbor, according to a new study, a bleak milestone as Russia’s assault grinds on. The study, published on Wednesday by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said Russia has borne the heavier toll, with 1.4 million troops killed or wounded since February 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine. Of that total, 450,000 were killed, a number that is four times greater than U.S. fatalities in all wars combined since World War II. Ukrainian...

Russia is grinding its way into Kostiantynivka, a key stronghold in Ukraine's eastern "fortress belt" long coveted by the Kremlin, even as its gains across the rest of the 1,200-km front line have largely stalled. Fighting has begun to seep into the city ​itself. Small groups of Russian soldiers are attempting to infiltrate its outskirts, senior Ukrainian commanders said last week, suggesting close-quarters assaults could follow. Kostiantynivka is the southernmost of four key ‌settlements forming a defensive line central to Ukraine's effort to hold the heavily industrialised Donetsk region. The push towards it underscores Moscow's enduring manpower advantage, even as...

July 1 (Reuters) - Ukraine has struck a Russian oil refinery in the city of Ufa, more than 1,300 km (800 miles) from the frontline for the second time, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday, as Kyiv steps up its strikes deep in Russia. "Every day, our plan for imposing Ukrainian long-range sanctions is being implemented," Zelenskiy said on X, referring to Ukrainian attacks deep inside Russian territory. "This is an entirely just response to everything Russia is doing against us." Zelenskiy also reported a strike on what he said was a "strategic" Russian military-industrial facility in the Penza region,...

BRUSSELS, June 30 (Reuters) - The European Union has transferred €3.9 billion ($4.44 ​billion) to Ukraine to ‌finance drone procurement, the Commission said on Tuesday. The disbursement is ​part of a €90 ​billion loan approved by the ⁠EU earlier this year. This ​disbursement follows the Commission's ​first €3.2 billion instalment to Ukraine made on June 25 to help ​with the country's ​government financing. "We are releasing a first ‌tranche ⁠of €3.9 billion for advanced drone technology to strengthen Ukraine's defence. And more will ​follow. ​These ⁠investments will help Ukraine protect its citizens, ​defend its sovereignty, ​and ⁠reinforce Europe's security," European...