Ukraine War News Today - Top Stories and Breaking Updates from Kyiv Post

Putin’s Belarusian vassal Lukashenko finally frees 14 leading political prisoners, but more than a 1,000 remain imprisoned.

Belarus’s top jailed opposition leader Syarhey Tsikhanouski was freed alongside over a dozen other political prisoners on Saturday in a surprise release hailed as a “symbol of hope.”

His wife Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who took the mantle of the opposition after his jailing, said the United States helped broker the deal and thanked US President Donald Trump.

Estonian Intelligence says Russia is resorting to terrorist attacks on Ukrainian civilians because it can’t make progress on the battlefield, where Ukraine’s defenders have halted any advances.

Russia’s summer offensive, which has been going on for two months, has essentially become bogged down in the stubborn defense of the Ukrainians and has turned into a tactical-level combat operation, which prompts Russia to resort to massive terrorist attacks on peaceful cities.

This opinion was expressed by the commander of the Intelligence Center of the Estonian Armed Forces, Colonel Ants Kiviselg, reports ERR.

Welcome to the Summary of the Week – your weekly briefing on the biggest developments from Ukraine and beyond.

Ukraine’s central bank was skillful in both responding to the economic shock of Russia’s invasion and to its aftermath, the Bank of England governor said on a visit to Kyiv.

Crisis response measures by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion have become a source of knowledge for the UK, according to Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey, speaking at a conference in Kyiv.

Bailey was a keynote speaker during the ninth Annual Research Conference “Economic and financial integration in a stormy and fragmenting world,” organized by the NBU and Narodowy Bank Polski in Kyiv.

Most Iranians want regime change. After brutal crackdowns on protests, Iran nears nuclear arms. Israel strikes; Trump may join. The Ayatollah’s rule faces global, internal, and strategic pressure.

Most Iranians want and deserve the removal of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his brutal police state, and there’s no time like the present to do so. In 2022, the courageous women of Iran launched mass protests against their misogynistic theocracy after police murdered a 22-year-old woman for the “crime” of wearing her hijab improperly. Shortly afterward, a 14-year-old school girl was beaten to death in front of her classmates for tearing up a photo of Iran’s “Supreme Leader” Khamenei. The uprising ended after a brutal crackdown, and now Iran is close to building a nuclear bomb, aids and abets Russia, and also smuggles oil to China, bypassing sanctions. American diplomacy failed to find a solution to the nuclear threat, so Israel attacked Iran. President Donald Trump weighs whether to join Israel’s assault, and Iranian critics of the regime urge action. In February, Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian Nobel Prize Laureate and Judge, said: “The regime cannot be reformed, but it is close to its downfall. The Iranian people disagree with the policies of the Iranian government, and once they achieve victory, the foreign policy will change, and a democratic government can be formed.”

The November 2022 promising revolution by Iran’s victimized females was crushed within months.

In March 2025, Russia reignited its northern offensive by pressing into Ukraine’s Sumy Region, transforming a once-dormant buffer zone into an active front line.

The best way to learn a new language is to read children’s books, or better yet, write them. For Cockell, self-publishing allows for the quiet blossoming of his Ukrainian-English books for children.

They always say that the best way to learn a new language is to read children’s books. The simple sentences and deliberate avoidance of complicated words make them the ideal vehicle for an adult to grow vocabulary and learn sentence structure.

Armed with this advice, my own attempts to learn some Ukrainian in evening classes at the University of Edinburgh over the last year brought me into contact with the colorful world of bilingual Ukrainian-English children’s books.

Key Russian economists warn Putin his war in Ukraine will lead to a major recession, while Ukrainian President Zelensky says Kyiv will capitalize on these economic woes.

In his Friday evening address, President Volodymyr Zelensky said he wants to capitalize on Russia’s impending recession, which Moscow’s economic minister predicted but which Russian leader Vladimir Putin denied.

While Putin was hosting the Saint Petersburg Economic Forum on Friday, a moderator stated that credible reports suggest the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine is “killing” the Russian economy.

Numerous specialists on Russia, Eastern Europe and international relations have signed a collective letter to The Guardian defending the position of former Trump adviser – Dr. Fiona Hill

From the Editors: The following is an important statement published on 20 June in The Guardian in support of the position of an eminent colleague, Fiona Hill, denounced recently by Russia-appeasers as a “war monger.” Kyiv Post’s UK born and educated Chief Editor, Bohdan Nahaylo, is one of the many signatories.  We are republishing the letter in its original British format for the record.

There is only one warmonger on the European stage: Vladimir Putin

In Washington, Sweden’s Foreign Minister said the US ‘might have realized that there is no such thing as a quick end’ to Moscow’s war in Ukraine: ‘It’s obvious that Russia doesn’t want peace now.”

Sweden’s top diplomat Maria Malmer Stenergard is urging the Western allies to ramp up support for Ukraine and to further pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to get him to the negotiating table.

“It’s obvious that Russia doesn’t want peace now. Ukraine has been willing to discuss a peace and show that they’re really willing to find a way forward,” Stenergard said on Friday in Washington after meeting with senior US officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the State Department.

Talks on the historic treaty had long been on ice but may now be completed as early as next month, Euractiv has learned.

BERLIN – Germany and Britain are set to sign a major bilateral friendship treaty as early as next month, according to officials briefed on the plans.

The two governments had announced that they would sign an “unprecedented” large-scale treaty during the inaugural visit to Germany of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. He had framed this as part of his ‘reset’ with EU countries – a bid to rebuild trade and security ties that were severed by Brexit.

Kyiv Post got exclusive insight into Ukraine’s expanding drone program, uncovering the technologies, assembly methods, and testing processes behind the unmanned systems countering Russia’s invasion.

The modern Russo-Ukrainian war is changing all the rules on the battlefield.

While in 2022 traditional means of destruction — aviation, artillery, tanks — played a key role, now everything is different. 

Russia concentrated its attacks over the last 24 hours on the region with Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, using Shahed drones designed in Iran.

Russian forces carried out 343 attacks on 11 settlements across the Zaporizhzhia region in the past 24 hours, injuring a woman in the Zaporizhzhia district.

Ivan Fedorov, head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration, reported the strikes via Telegram, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

What opportunities the Israel-Iran war brings, and who will have the gall to profit from it.

All the focus at present is on the on-going war between Israel and Iran, but this just reminds us again of the importance of geopolitics and its ability to impact on markets and the global economy.

Uncertainty and risks are back with us. The fear is that we see escalation, with potentially devastating impacts on global markets. For example, if we see regional energy sector assets subject to attack, the closing of the Straits of Hormuz could see a repeat of events in the 1970s with potential for an oil price shock to the global economy?

The president said officials from DR Congo and Rwanda would be in Washington on Monday for the signing.

US President Donald Trump took credit Friday for a peace deal negotiated in Washington between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda -- and complained that he would not get a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.

The warring African nations said in a joint statement on Wednesday that they had initialed an agreement aimed at ending the conflict in eastern DRC -- to be formally signed in the US capital next week.

Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate says Russian officers are deserting the front on a large scale, transferring to units in the rear without any proper justification or approval.

Russian officers are reportedly fleeing the front lines en-mass and transferring to units in the rear to avoid combat, according to Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR).

“More than 45% of the officers in the Russian Armed Forces’ reserve units within the Southern Military District have no legal authority to be serving in rear areas,” HUR reported on Telegram.