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

Zelensky signed a controversial bill undermining Ukraine’s anti-corruption bodies, hours after thousands protested in Kyiv’s largest wartime demonstration.

President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a highly controversial bill into law on Tuesday that effectively strips the country’s top anti-corruption organizations of their power to investigate independently.

The Verkhovna Rada’s website confirmed that the president signed the bill on Tuesday, officially making it law.

Thousands of mostly young protesters defied wartime restrictions in Kyiv, taking to the streets to oppose the government’s move to strip anti-corruption agencies of their independence.

Watch video of thousands rallying in central Kyiv to protest a new law critics say would roll back years of corruption reform. “We won’t go back to Yanukovych times,” protesters are saying.

President Volodymyr Zelensky signed the highly controversial bill into law on Tuesday that effectively guts the country’s top anti-corruption organizations of their power to investigate independently, the Verkhovna Rada confirmed on its website.

Thousands of people gathered outside the presidential office in Kyiv to protest the new law approved on Tuesday that strips Ukraine’s top anti-corruption organizations of their institutional independence in what many fear is a major blow to the country’s push to eliminate graft in government. 

US State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce accused UNESCO of being overly focused on UN sustainability goals, which she described as a “globalist, ideological agenda.”

The United States said Tuesday it would quit UNESCO, saying the UN cultural and education agency, best known for establishing world heritage sites, is biased against Israel and promotes “divisive” causes.

President Donald Trump had already ordered withdrawal from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation once before, in 2017 during his first term. President Joe Biden then reestablished US membership.

The CEO of Ukraine’s state-owned energy giant reported a renewed Russian strike on gas production facilities, marking the first such attack in months after a period of relative calm.

Russia has renewed its attacks on Ukraine’s gas infrastructure, said Serhiy Koretsky, CEO of Ukraine’s gas conglomerate Naftogaz, in a Tuesday update.

Naftogaz’s last report of a Russian attack on its facilities was dated March 28, just days after Kyiv and Moscow proclaimed an energy ceasefire without a mutual agreement following US mediation efforts. 

Russia will spend more than a trillion dollars on rearmament, mobilizing its politics, economy, and society over the next decade for a future large-scale war, Ukraine’s intelligence chief says.

Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to allocate around $1.1 trillion to rearm Russia by 2036, according to Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR).

This will be the most extensive armament program undertaken by Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada has de facto destroyed the independence of Ukraine’s anti-corruption structures – but for how long?

Has Ukraine’s anti-corruption independence come to an end?

On Tuesday, July 22, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine voted to strip the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) of their independence.

The bill has sparked criticism, even from public figures typically supportive of Moscow’s government policies.

Russia’s State Duma passed a new law on Monday introducing fines for searching or accessing so-called extremist materials online, including through the use of VPN services.

A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a tool that hides internet activity and location by routing connection through a secure server – oftentimes used to bypass government censorship.

An SBU officer and two accomplices are accused of extorting $300,000 from a person in exchange for destroying evidence in a case involving the smuggling of conscripts abroad.

Ukraine’s anti-graft agencies have on Tuesday accused a senior official from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) of demanding a $300,000 bribe from a person to destroy evidence on a case related to the illegal smuggling of conscripts abroad.

The high-profile case, initiated by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), came a day after the SBU raided the offices of the two agencies.

Just days after Pentagon Chief Pete Hesgeth said the US would establish military drone dominance, a US Army video of a drone dropping a grenade posted on X sparked ridicule and was quickly deleted.

On Monday, a video with the title “Have you ever seen a drone drop a GRENADE?” was posted on the US Army’s official X channel. 

The accompanying narration proudly announced that troops from the US 7th Army Training Command (7 ATC), Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine (JMTG-U), and the 173rd Airborne Brigade had carried out the army’s “first ever live-grenade drop from an unmanned aircraft system” in Germany’s Grafenwoehr training area.

As Russia intensifies its aerial campaign against Ukraine, the scale and frequency of attacks have begun to echo the devastating patterns of the London Blitz.

The Kremlin has fought for more than a year and suffered tens of thousands of casualties to reach Pokrovsk, in eastern Ukraine. They are now beginning to infiltrate the city.

Small groups of Russian infantry on Monday reached the southern districts of the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, a critical Kremlin objective that Moscow’s troops have fought a bloody campaign to capture for more than a year.

Russian foot patrols were reported by both Russian and Ukrainian milbloggers to have infiltrated into Pokrovsk’s southern districts.

As Ukraine dismantles anti-corruption reforms, Yulia Svyrydenko hopes for backing to reset their end of war assumptions and plan financing for ongoing Russia’s invasion.

Ukraine’s newly appointed Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko is likely to seek more financing from the International Monetary Fund and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, as she aims to cover the financial gap Ukraine faces from Russia’s ongoing  invasion. 

Outside donors have so far earmarked only half of the estimated $75 billion that the war-strained budget needs for the next two years, she told Bloomberg in her first interview after appointment. 

Russian forces encountered yet more Ukrainian innovation when they discovered a PTM-3 anti-tank mine concealed inside a “birch tree.”

A video recently published by Russia’s Ria Novosti showed how Ukrainian forces had disguised a PTM‑3 anti‑tank mine as a lifelike tree stump.

Ria Novosti claimed the log was discovered in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops continue to hold certain positions as of early July. It was likely hidden among the numerous stacks of similar logs that are a common feature of the forested areas where much of the fighting in the region takes place.

Russia is using a new Chinese-made drone for reconnaissance and overloading Ukrainian air defense – despite the Chinese company’s claim that it doesn’t supply either belligerent.

The Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR) has published the technical specifications and components of a new Russian drone that is currently actively used by the Russian army.

According to intelligence officials, this UAV performs reconnaissance tasks and is used as a decoy to detect and overload the Ukrainian air defense system. In addition, according to some reports, the drone is capable of carrying a warhead weighing up to 15 kg (33 lbs).

The petrochemical plant reportedly processes up to 1 million tons of materiel each year and is part of the supply chain for Russia’s military-industrial complex.

A major petrochemical plant in Russia’s Samara region was targeted in a drone strike overnight on July 21-22, Ukrainian officials said Tuesday.

According to Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, the Novokuybyshevsk Petrochemical Company was hit.

The upcoming negotiations, if held, would be the third round of direct talks between Kyiv and Moscow this year – with a ceasefire no longer on the agenda, as hinted by Kyiv.

Former Defense Minister and newly appointed National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov will lead Ukraine’s delegation in the next round of negotiations with Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Tuesday.

Speaking on Monday evening, Zelensky said the meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, July 23, in Istanbul. Turkish media had earlier reported the talks could take place on Wednesday and Thursday.

A rushed hearing on a bill to strip anti-corruption bodies of their independence – placing them under presidential control – has left the public uncertain about the future of high-level graft cases.

Ukraine has voted to strip the anti-graft bodies of their independence from executive power on Tuesday, potentially marking a major blow to the country’s anti-corruption progress. 

On Tuesday, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine voted for Bill No. 12414 which, through a series of amendments, effectively abolishes the independence of anti-corruption law enforcement bodies in conducting investigations – namely, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO).

The “Group of Seven” representatives to Ukraine said they support “transparency, independent institutions, and good governance” and have called for a meeting with government officials.

The “Group of Seven” (G7) Ambassadors for reform in Ukraine have expressed “serious concerns” about reports of mass searches at Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) that have led to charges being laid against Bureau personnel.

Posting on its X channel the group said:

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service neutralized and removed the warhead from a Russian Kh-69 downed during the large-scale airstrike on Kyiv overnight on July 20-21.

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service (DSNS) posted images on Telegram on Monday that showed a team from its Mobile Rescue Rapid Response Center dealing with the warhead from Russia’s Kh-69 stealth cruise missile shot down during the massive July 20-21 overnight attack on Kyiv. The wreckage was recovered from the yard of a residential home in one of the capital’s suburbs.

A DSNS spokesperson said: “DSNS sappers disarmed the warhead of a downed Russian Kh-69 missile, which had landed near a residential building after yet another enemy air attack and could have detonated at any moment.”

South Korea’s military has said the ship could have been developed with Russian help, possibly in exchange for deploying thousands of troops to help Moscow fight in Ukraine.

North Korea vowed to build an additional 5,000-ton destroyer for its navy, state media reported Tuesday, after the nuclear-armed country launched two similar vessels this year.

Leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to ramp up his country’s naval capacities, and presided over the April launch of the country’s first 5,000-ton destroyer-class naval ship, the Choe Hyon.

The country is also preparing to send additional air defense equipment from its stockpiles, including munitions for F-16 fighters, counter-drone technology, and radar systems.

The Netherlands will “substantially contribute” to delivering American Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine, Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans said on Monday during an online meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.

The country is also preparing to send additional air defense equipment from its own stockpiles, including ammunition for F-16 fighter jets, counter-drone technology, and radar systems. 

Russia attacked Odesa with drones overnight, causing fires but no casualties. In Sumy, a guided bomb dropped by a Russian warplane left three wounded, including one child.

Russian forces attacked the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa with drones overnight on July 22, causing fires and damaging buildings, local officials said.

The strikes set several cars on fire, broke windows in residential buildings, and sparked a blaze at an administrative building, according to Odesa Mayor Hennadii Trukhanov. Explosions were heard in the city around 2:23 a.m.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• Russian forces conducted a large-scale series of missile and drone strikes against Ukraine on the night of July 20 to 21 that included over 400 drones as Russia continues to launch significantly larger strike packages in June and July 2025 than in January to May 2025.
• Ukraine’s Western partners pledged additional military and financial assistance to Ukraine during a virtual meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (the Ramstein format) on July 21.
• British Defense Secretary John Healey announced during the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting on July 21 a “50-day drive” to arm Ukraine on the battlefield and help push Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table.
• Ukrainian officials discussed Ukraine’s increasing defense industrial capacity amid ongoing European aid announcements.
• Ukraine officially proposed a third round of negotiations with Russia amid speculation in the Ukrainian and Russian informational spaces. Russian officials continue to feign interest in good-faith negotiations, despite failing to propose or agree to a third round of negotiations.
• Ukrainian forces recently advanced in northern Sumy Oblast. Russian forces recently advanced in northern Sumy Oblast and near Chasiv Yar, Toretsk, and Pokrovsk.

Senator Cornyn: “Authoritarian regimes like Russia and China threaten the universal ideals that bond democracies together, and it’s imperative we stand united in our support for the Ukrainian people.”

WASHINGTON, DC – US legislators and policymakers are intensifying their push to halt American companies’ investments in China’s critical technology sectors, arguing that such financial flows directly bolster Beijing’s military, and drawing stark lessons from Russia’s war in Ukraine for Taiwan’s future.

Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), a prominent Republican on national security, on Monday became the latest voice underscoring concerns that investments by US entities, particularly in semiconductors, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence, contribute to China’s military capabilities due to its “military-civilian fusion” policy. 

A policy analyst and advocate for Ukraine tells Kyiv Post that Washington needs “real sanctions ASAP” on Russia following Trump’s policy shift on Putin’s war.

WASHINGTON, DC – US President Donald Trump is continuing to work “aggressively” to bring an end to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated on Monday.

“He [Trump] continues to work aggressively to end the war in Russia and Ukraine,” Leavitt told reporters outside the White House, offering no further details. The statement follows recent actions by the Trump administration to intensify pressure for a resolution to the more than three-year-old conflict.

EU Commissioner for Defense and Space, Andrius Kubilius: Europe is “stepping up” the 27-member bloc’s responsibility on security amid the Russian threat.

WASHINGTON DC – Europe is stepping up to take greater responsibility for its own defense in the face of growing threats, particularly from Russia, the EU’s first-ever Commissioner for Defense and Space, Andrius Kubilius, stated on Monday.

Speaking at the European Defense Night in Washington, Kubilius highlighted the significance of his newly created role, which he assumed in December 2024, saying that the move signaled a recognition that “times have changed” and “Europe has changed.”