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Russia’s war against Ukraine
A plume of black smoke rises over the area where a Russian attack drone lands near the Zaporizhzhia Regional Territorial Recruitment Centre in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on July 7, 2025. (Dmytro Smolienko / Ukrinform / NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Ukraine confirms drone strike on Russian chemical plant near Moscow. The Krasnozavodsk Chemical Plant is one of the city’s biggest employers and an important part of Russia’s defense-industrial complex.
Ukrainian drone strike hits major oil refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai, HUR source claims. Located roughly 500 kilometers (311 miles) from Ukrainian-controlled territory, the refinery is among the largest in southern Russia, producing over 6 million tons of fuel annually.
Zelensky, Trump discussed replacement of Ukraine’s US ambassador, source says. Oksana Markarova has held the post since April 2021, and played a central role in coordinating U.S. military and financial support during the early phases of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
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As Ukraine awaits stalled US weapons, Trump says he’s ‘helping a lot’ in war with Russia. “I am helping Ukraine. I’m helping it a lot,” U.S. President Donald Trump said when asked in Washington why the U.S. does not support Ukraine as strongly as it supports Israel.
Russian weapons contain growing number of Chinese components, Zelensky’s adviser says. Russia’s growing ability to sustain weapons production despite Western sanctions is being driven by a flow of Chinese components and materials, Vladyslav Vlasiuk, the Ukrainian president’s commissioner for sanctions, told journalists on July 7.
Russian airlines face $254 million losses from just 2 days of Ukrainian drone strikes, Kremlin media reports. Since the start of mass disruptions on July 5, a total of 485 flights were canceled, 88 were diverted to alternate airports, and another 1,900 were delayed across major hubs, according to Russia’s aviation agency Rosaviatsiya.
Read our exclusives
Ukraine war latest: Russian airports cancel nearly 300 flights amid drone attacks on Russia
Rosaviatsia reported on the evening of July 6 that 287 flights had been grounded across three major airports: Moscow’s Sheremetyevo, St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo, and Strigino Airport in Nizhny Novgorod.
Photo: LightRocket via Getty Images
Russia striking NATO while China invades Taiwan ‘plausible’ scenario, experts say
Beijing and Moscow have tightened their alliance to dethrone the U.S. as the global superpower, and this cooperation is nowhere more visible than in Chinese support for Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Photo: VCG / VCG via Getty Images
Exclusive: Ukraine pitches deepwater gas, oil refinery projects to US under landmark minerals deal
Projects Kyiv has submitted to the U.S. for consideration as part of a profit-sharing deal for Ukraine’s resources include a shelf and deepwater project and an oil refinery that comes under frequent attack by Russia.
Photo: Vincent Mundy / Bloomberg via Getty Images
‘Neither side wasted time’ — Ukraine’s economy minister on minerals deal negotiations with Trump’s ‘business-oriented’ administration
Ukraine’s Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko says her task is to get the investment fund behind the minerals deal with the U.S. off the ground and prove its detractors wrong.
Photo: Genya Savilov / AFP via Getty Images
Ukraine economy minister breaks down US minerals deal
Human cost of Russia’s war
12 killed, 69 injured in Russian attacks on Ukraine over past day. Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia launched 101 drones overnight, including Iranian-designed Shahed-type attack drones, as well as four S-300/400 guided missiles.
Russia strikes conscription offices in Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia, injuring dozens, Ukraine says. Two districts of Kharkiv came under attack that same day, in which one woman was killed and over 80 people, including eight children, were reported injured or suffered shock in Kharkiv, according to the local prosecutor’s office.
Opinions and insights
War has changed: Ukraine’s tech pioneers are leading the fight West can’t afford to ignore
“Ukraine is rewriting the rules of modern ground conflict — and unless we understand and invest in that transformation, Ukraine won’t get the defense funding it needs,” writes Robert Seely, former British MP, head of strategy at Trypillian defense technology startup.
Photo: Dmytro Smolienko / Ukrinform / NurPhoto via Getty Images
International response
UK sanctions Russian officials and lab over chemical weapons use in Ukraine. According to the updated sanctions list published on the U.K. government’s official website, the new measures target Russia’s Scientific Research Institute of Applied Chemistry, as well as Lieutenant General Alexei Rtishchev, head of Russia’s Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense Troops, and his deputy, Andrei Marchenko.
EBRD to unlock $1 billion in credit for Ukraine’s key sectors, considers mineral projects. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will enable Ukrainian banks to provide up to 900 million euros ($1.05 billion) in new loans by sharing credit risks.
In other news
HUR publishes Russian military order, claims proof of Moscow increasing military footprint in Armenia. HUR first made the claim on July 5, saying Russia was increasing its forces at the Gyumri base to exert greater influence in the South Caucasus and “destabilize the global security situation.”
Russia jails former top general for 17 years in massive military graft case. Colonel General Khalil Arslanov, a former head of the Russian military’s communications unit, served as deputy chief of the army’s General Staff from 2013 until his removal in 2020.
Russian transport minister fired by Putin reportedly shoots himself dead. According to Russian media, ex-Transport Minister Roman Starovoit’s body was found near Moscow. Preliminary findings suggest that the suicide may be linked to a possible criminal case.
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