Ukraine war briefing: EU and UK increase sanctions on Russia as drone strike on Odesa kills one
The Russian defence ministry said its air defence systems destroyed 87 Ukrainian drones in a five-hour period on Friday evening, including over the Bryansk region bordering northern Ukraine and the Moscow region. Russian aviation authorities were once again forced to suspend flights at Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo airports serving Moscow. The Moscow mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said 13 drones were downed or destroyed after midnight, but made no mention of casualties or damage. The acting governor of Rostov region, on Ukraine's eastern border, said Ukrainian drones triggered fires and knocked down power lines.
The EU on Friday agreed an 18th package of sanctions against Russia, including measures aimed at restricting the Russian oil and energy industry. The EU will set a moving price cap on Russian crude at 15% below its average market price, aiming to improve on a largely ineffective $60 cap that the G7 economies have tried to impose since December 2022. The measures were approved after Slovakia dropped its opposition in exchange for further guarantees on gas imports.
Kaja Kallas said the measures by the EU would be 'one of its strongest sanctions packages against Russia to date'. 'We will keep raising the costs, so stopping the aggression becomes the only path forward for Moscow,' said the EU foreign policy chief.
The UK announced it would join the price cap, dealing a blow to Moscow's oil revenues. 'The UK and its EU allies are turning the screw on the Kremlin's war chest by stemming the most valuable funding stream of its illegal war in Ukraine even further,' said the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, at a G20 meeting in South Africa.
The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, complained to reporters that Russia considered 'such unilateral restrictions illegal'. 'We oppose them,' he said. 'But at the same time, of course, we have already acquired a certain immunity from sanctions. We have adapted to life under sanctions.'
The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said the possibility of Ukraine joining the EU by 2034 was unlikely. 'For us, the absolute top priority is, first and foremost, to do everything possible to end this war,' Merz said on Friday. 'Then we'll talk about the reconstruction of Ukraine … but that's going to take a number of years.' He said it would 'probably not even affect the EU's current medium-term financial outlook', which runs to 2034. The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said in Kyiv in February that Ukraine could join the EU before 2030 if the country continued reforms at the current speed and quality.
Ukraine's top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said on Friday that his forces were 'containing intense pressure' from Russia on Pokrovsk, a logistics hub in eastern Donetsk region that has weathered months of Russian attempts to capture it. Syrskyi said he had presented a report to the president describing the challenges facing Ukrainian troops along the 1,000km (620-mile) front. 'The enemy is continuing to deploy its tactic of small infantry groups, but has proved powerless on its attempts to seize Pokrovsk. Today, they tried to break through with sabotage groups but were exposed and destroyed,' Syrskyi wrote on Telegram.
The first tranche of Australian tanks has been handed over to the Ukrainian army. Australia had previously pledged to give Ukraine 49 Abrams tanks last October. A majority of the tanks have been delivered and a final tranche will arrive in the coming months, but actual numbers have not been released.
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Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Germany's Merz faces pressure to toughen stance on Israel
BERLIN, July 22 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is under pressure to take a firmer stance towards Israel, with members of his own coalition calling for Berlin to join a statement by dozens of Western nations condemning the "inhumane killing" of Palestinians. Merz, who leads Germany's centre-right CDU, has been increasingly critical of Israel. But Germany was notably absent from the joint statement issued on Monday by the EU and 28 Western countries including Britain and France, which called on Israel to immediately end the war. The countries condemned what they called the "drip feeding of aid" to Palestinians in Gaza and said it was "horrifying" that more than 800 civilians had been killed while seeking aid. Reem Alabali Radovan, international development minister in Merz's cabinet and a member of the centre-left SPD junior coalition partners, said on Tuesday she was unhappy with Germany's decision not to sign it. "The demands in the letter from the 29 partners to the Israeli government are understandable to me. I would have wished for Germany to join the signal sent by the 29 partners," she said. Merz's office says Germany's criticism of Israel is similar to that of other allies. Merz said on Tuesday he had told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "very clearly and very explicitly that we do not share the Israeli government's policy on Gaza". "Above all we see the great suffering of the civilian population there. That is why I would like to once again renew my call to truly provide the necessary humanitarian aid to the civilian population in the Gaza Strip. The way the Israeli army is operating there is not acceptable," he said. Government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius said that although Germany did not sign the joint declaration, Merz and his foreign minister "expressed very critical views of Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip yesterday – and in terms of substance and significance, said the same thing." "Their statements are in no way inferior to the joint declaration," Kornelius said. But the decision to withhold Germany's signature from the declaration follows many months in which Germany has taken particular care in public to restrain its criticism of Israeli actions. German officials say their approach to Israel is governed by a special responsibility, known as the Staatsraeson, arising from the legacy of the Nazi Holocaust. They believe they can achieve more through diplomatic back channels than public statements. German statements on Gaza typically include a demand for the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas. The joint statement that Merz declined to sign to this week stopped short of such a demand, although it noted that the hostages were suffering under worsening conditions. Merz is one of the few European leaders who has publicly offered to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, without arresting him on a warrant for suspected war crimes issued by the International Criminal Court in the Hague. Israel rejects the charges against Netanyahu and says they are political motivated. The ICC says all signatories of the court's founding statute, which include all 27 EU members, are obliged to arrest Netanyahu if he enters their territory. Critics of Merz's approach, including within the SPD coalition partners, say the legacy of the Holocaust cannot be an excuse for ignoring Israeli crimes, and, on the contrary, the post-Holocaust motto of "never again" should apply to Gaza now. 'The situation in Gaza is catastrophic and represents a humanitarian abyss," said a joint statement by two senior SPD lawmakers - foreign policy spokesperson Adis Ahmetovic and rapporteur for the Middle East Rolf Mützenich - who called for Berlin to join the joint declaration. There should be "clear and immediate consequences" for Israel, including the suspension of a pact governing EU-Israeli relations and a halt to the export of weapons to Israel that are used in violation of international law, they said.
BreakingNews.ie
an hour ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Zelensky renews offer to meet Putin for face-to-face talks to end war
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday renewed his offer to meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, but hopes of any progress were low as delegations from both governments prepared to hold a third round of direct talks. Russian forces, meanwhile, pounded four Ukrainian cities in night-time attacks that officials said killed a child. Advertisement Mr Putin has spurned Mr Zelensky's previous offers of a face-to-face meeting to end Europe's biggest conflict since the Second World War. But the Ukrainian leader insists that lower-level delegations like the ones expected for talks in Istanbul on Wednesday do not have the political heft to stop the fighting. A resident looks at damaged cars in a residential area following Russia's drone attack in Odesa (Michael Shtekel/AP) Each side's demands for ending Russia's full-scale invasion of its neighbour, launched on February 24 2022, remain far apart. 'Ukraine never wanted this war, and it is Russia that must end the war that it itself started,' Mr Zelensky said in a Telegram post. Advertisement Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that 'a lot of work needs to be done before having a detailed discussion on a possibility of high-level meetings,' effectively scotching hopes of a summit any time soon. He didn't provide a date for the Istanbul talks. Emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Odesa (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP) Ukrainian and Western officials have accused the Kremlin of stalling in talks in order for its bigger army to capture more Ukrainian land. Russia currently holds about 20% of Ukraine. Russia, meanwhile, is driving hard to break through at eastern and north-eastern points on the 620-mile front line. Advertisement It is also firing upwards of 700 drones a night at Ukrainian cities. Russian forces struck four Ukrainian cities in three regions in overnight attacks, killing a child and wounding at least 41 other people, officials said. From dusk on Monday evening, Russia struck the Ukrainian regions of Sumy in the northeast, Odesa in the south and eastern Kramatorsk. In Kramatorsk, a glide bomb hit an apartment building, starting a fire, according to the head of the city's military administration, Oleksandr Honcharenko. Advertisement A boy born in 2015 was killed, local officials said, without giving his exact age. Five other people were reported wounded. The Sumy region came under multiple waves of attacks, the regional military administration reported. A drone hit a gas station in the town of Putyvl, wounding four people, including a five-year-old boy, it said. A second drone strike hit the same location less than two hours later, wounding seven other people. After dark, two powerful Russian glide bombs were dropped on Sumy city, wounding 13 people, including a six-year-old boy. Advertisement Russia's defence ministry, meanwhile, said Tuesday that air defenses downed 35 Ukrainian long-range drones over several regions overnight, including three over the Moscow region.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Trump's shift on Ukraine has been dramatic – but will it change the war?
Donald Trump presents himself as a peerless president, an unrivaled negotiator, even a 'genius'. So it's a unique moment when he comes close – I emphasize the qualifier –to conceding that another leader has outfoxed him. Trump suggested as much recently when characterizing Vladimir Putin's modus operandi. 'Putin,' he told reporters on 13 July, 'really surprised a lot of people. He talks nice and then bombs everybody in the evening.' Melania Trump may have contributed to this reassessment. As Trump recounted recently, when he told her about a 'wonderful conversation' with the Russian leader, she responded, 'Oh, really? Another city was just hit.' Trump's new take on Putin is a break with the past. His esteem for Putin–whose decisions he has described as 'savvy' and 'genius' – has contrasted starkly with his derisive comments about the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whom he memorably disrespected during a White House meeting and even blamed for starting the war. As recently as February, he declared that Russia's invasion didn't matter to the United States because, unlike Europe, it was separated from Ukraine by 'a big, big beautiful ocean'. He criticized Joe Biden's assistance to Ukraine as a waste of taxpayers' money. Now, Trump has not only changed his view of Putin, stunning many within his 'America First' MagaA movement; he's decided to start arming Ukraine. Well, sort of. Trump has gone beyond effectively conceding that Putin has played him. He has decided to sell military equipment to individual European countries so that they can supply Ukraine and restock their arsenals with purchases from the United States. The president formally announced the change during his 14 July meeting with Mark Rutte, Nato's secretary general. There was more. Trump warned Putin that if he did not accept a ceasefire – which he has steadfastly refused, just as he has ignored Trump's demand to stop bombing Ukraine's cities – within 50 days, Russia would be slammed with tariffs as high as 100%, as would countries that continued to trade with it after the deadline. Two things are clear. First, Trump's perspective on Putin has changed, unexpectedly and dramatically. Second, a war that Trump once said was none of America's business now apparently matters. The president said European countries would buy 'top of the line' American military equipment worth 'billions of dollars' to arm Ukraine. According to one report citing 'a source familiar with the plan', the total will be $10bn. This all sounds like a very big deal. But here's where it becomes important to go beyond the headlines and sound bites and delve into the details. Take the $10bn figure. That's certainly not chump change. Moreover, the main piece of equipment specified so far, the Patriot 'long range, high altitude, all weather' missile defense system, will provide desperately needed relief to Ukrainian city dwellers, who have endured relentless waves of drone attacks – several hundred a night – followed by missiles that slice through overwhelmed defenses. Ukraine has some Patriots but needs more: it's a vast country with a dozen cities whose populations exceed 400,000. However, a Patriot battery (launchers, missiles, a radar system, a control center, antenna masts, and a power generator) costs $1bn, the missiles alone $4m apiece. Ukraine may not need 10 Patriot batteries, but even a smaller number will consume a large proportion of the $10bn package. The other system that has been mentioned is the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (Jassm), which combines stealth technology and GPS guidance with a 230-mile range. Ukraine will be able to use its American-made F-16 jets to fire Jassms into Russia from positions beyond the reach of Russian air defense systems. But a single Jassm costs around $1.5m, so the costs will add up quickly. Additional items have been mentioned but only generically; still, their price must also be figured in, bearing in mind that the war could drag on. So, $10bn could be depleted quickly. Moreover, beyond a certain point the US cannot sell equipment from its own stocks without regard to its military readiness requirements. Precisely for that reason, the defense department recently declined to send Ukraine some of the equipment promised under Joe Biden. And Trump has not said that there will be follow-on sales to benefit Ukraine once the $10bn mark is reached. Even if he were to change his mind, individual European countries would be able to buy only so much American weaponry without straining their finances, especially because France and Italy have opted out of the arrangement. Trump has been uninterested in joining the recent move by the UK and the EU to impose a $47.60 per barrel price cap on Russian oil sales, toughening the $60 limit the west enacted in 2022. Finally, Trump isn't going to resume Biden's multi-billion-dollar military assistance packages – 70-plus tranches of equipment, according to the DoD. Trump's 50-day tariff deadline permits Putin to continue his summer offensive, and may even provide an incentive to accelerate it. Russia has already shrugged off Trump's tariff threat. Its exports to the US in 2024 amounted to $526m, a tiny fraction of its global sales. By contrast, Trump's secondary tariffs will hurt Russia, which earned $192bn in 2024 from its global exports of oil and related products, much of that sum from India and China. If the president follows through with his threat, Beijing will surely retaliate, and the consequence will be painful: the United States exports to China totaled $144bn last year. Will Trump proceed anyway, and during his ongoing trade wars, which have already started increasing prices in the US? His track record on tariff threats leaves room for doubt. Ukraine's leaders are understandably elated by Trump's reappraisal of Putin. But it's premature to conclude that it's a turning point that could change the war's trajectory. Washington's new policy may prove far less momentous than Maga critics fear and not quite as transformative as Kyiv and its western supporters hope for. Rajan Menon is a professor emeritus of international relations at the City College of New York and a senior research scholar at Columbia University's Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies
