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

His “Special Operation” now in its fourth year, the Russian dictator hopes his bombing strategy will beat Ukraine into submission by terrorizing the Ukrainian people and breaking down their morale.

The Ukrainian civilian death toll is rapidly increasing as Russia’s lethal bombing campaign on Ukrainian cities intensifies. The month of June 2025 witnessed the highest monthly casualties in the Ukrainian civilian population in over three years as per statistics from the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine. UN officials reported 232 deaths and some 1,343 Ukrainians injured.

This violent increase in Ukrainian casualties is due to a Russian air offensive that has greatly expanded since late 2024. In June, the number of missiles and drones launched at Ukrainian targets was estimated at ten times higher than those from a year ago. The upswing in long-range missile and drone attacks across Ukraine has resulted in more death and destruction to civilians far away from the war’s frontlines. Ukrainian civilians are facing extents of suffering not seen in over three years.

Netanyahu plans Gaza expansion as Arab states call to disarm Hamas. European media debate peace prospects, Israeli divisions, and calls to stop arms exports fueling the conflict.

Israeli media are reporting that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to expand the military operations and take full control of the Gaza Strip. Europe’s press debates the latest developments, including a declaration signed by the key Arab states Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan calling for the disarmament and disempowerment of the terrorist group Hamas.

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Europe backing Ukraine as Trump seeks to decide its future over its head.

French President Emmanuel Macron warned Saturday that no peace deal can be struck over Ukraine without Kyiv’s consent, joining President Volodymyr Zelensky in urging allies to stand firm ahead of an Aug. 15 US-Russia summit that could help shape the war’s endgame.

“The future of Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukrainians,” Macron wrote on X, after speaking with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday, adding that he also spoke with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “Europeans will also necessarily be part of the solution because their security is at stake.”

From deadly drone strikes to high-stakes diplomacy, here’s how war, politics, and power plays shaped Ukraine and the world this week.

Stefan Korshak, Kyiv Post’s military correspondent, shares his perspective on recent developments in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

This week has been another one full of mostly distracting noise about ceasefires and peace deals. I have a section on that lower down but feel free to skip it as in my view Washington and Moscow are just blowing air in order to seem like they are still dictating events.

In fact, there was more than a normal share of upbeat news this week.

While Trump and Putin plan Ukraine’s future over its head, Russia continues its deadly strikes on civilian targets.

Ukraine won’t surrender land to Russia to buy peace, President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Saturday, after Washington and Moscow agreed to hold a summit in a bid to end the war.

Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump will meet in the US state of Alaska on Aug. 15, to try to resolve the three-year conflict, despite warnings from Ukraine and Europe that Kyiv must be part of negotiations.

Trump delivers the not-unexpected stab in the back to Ukraine – the depressing implications.

News of the venue for the Putin-Trump summit, Alaska, is the clearest indication yet that the two leaders want to showcase a great power summit - akin to Yalta - where the two leaders divide up the world in their own interests. And therein Ukraine will be on the menu for lunch, breakfast and/or dinner.

Remarkably at a summit where Ukraine is center stage, it is not even invited. Greenland should be very worried, it will be next.

Former political prisoner and 2010 Belarusian presidential candidate Andrei Sannikau opens up to Kyiv Post on what his country has become under Lukashenko and Putin.

In an exclusive interview with Kyiv Post’s Special Correspondent in Warsaw, Michał Kujawski, the exiled Belarusian democratic oppositionist Andrei Sannikau describes Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko as a monster who lives in fear and trades political prisoners. He also discusses Lukashenko’s relationship with the Kremlin, a game of bluff involving nuclear weapons, and the murky world of Belarusian intelligence operations in Poland.

Michał Kujawski: Recently, Belarusian opposition leader Siarhei Tsikhanouski was released from jail, along with a dozen other political prisoners. A few days later, Alexander Lukashenko pardoned another 16 people. When US Special Enoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg returned from Minsk with Tsikhanouski, your story immediately came to mind. On May 14, 2011, you were sentenced by a Minsk court to five years in a penal colony for “organizing mass riots” after the rigged Dec. 19, 2010 presidential elections. You were released early in April 2012. The US was also involved in that case. Is history repeating itself?

On the fifth anniversary of the protests in Belarus in 2020, Kyiv Post salutes the courageous defenders of freedom, democracy and the European orientation of Belarus.

Today marks five years since hundreds of thousands of Belarusians took to the streets to peacefully defend their freedom, their dignity and their right to choose the leadership of their country.

They were protesting against the rigging of the presidential elections by Russia’s vassal, dictator Alexander Lukashenko.

The freshly announced peace deal between Azerbaijan and Armenia is part of a broader strategic realignment in the South Caucasus, pushing Putin’s Russia out in the cold.

For most of the millennium, Russia has been the center of gravity in its neighborhood. Since the fragmentation of Kyivan Rus and the rise of the Novgorod Republic in the 12th century, Russia has served as a titular nation for the tribes and ethnicities surrounding it – from the days of the Russian Empire, through the Soviet Union, to today’s Russian Federation.

Many former Soviet states struggled to escape from Moscow’s orbit, partly due to a lack of institutional capacity and partly because of sustained Russian interference aimed at weakening their sovereignty and undermining their agency on the international stage.

Latest from the British Defence Intelligence.

• Russian Ground Forces (RGF) highly likely seized approximately 500-550 sq km of Ukrainian territory in July 2025. RGF seized a similar amount of Ukrainian territory in June 2025, following month on month increases from March 2025. The RGF continued to make tactical advances in Donetsk oblast, primarily to the north-east and south-west of Pokrovsk. RGF are continuing attempts to envelop the town and apply pressure to the remaining logistical routes to the town. Russian forces have now occupiednearly all of Donetsk oblast territory south from Pokrovsk.
• In the last two weeks RGF have not made any observable gains in the Ukrainian oblast of Sumy, which borders the Russian oblasts of Kursk and Belgorod. Continued losses and Ukrainian counterattacks have likely frustrated Russian intent to establish a buffer zone in the Sumy region. Reporting indicates elements of Russia’s 51st Airborne (VDV) Regiment in Sumy are refusing to follow orders, with previous reporting indicating complaintsagainst commanders ordering casualty-heavy infantry assaults.There is limited indication of further RGF reinforcements.
• It is highly likely that Ukrainian forces continue to conduct limited operations in the border region of Russia’s Kursk oblast, over a yearafter launching the initial incursion.

Hoping to replenish state coffers with foreign exchange reserves and offset the post-COVID decline in Chinese tour groups, the Hermit Kingdom has set its sights on holidaymakers from Russia.

Late last month, Russian budget carrier Nordwind Airlines launched the first non-stop civilian flight from Moscow to Pyongyang in 77 years with more than 400 passengers allegedly on board. The inaugural monthly air route between both pariah nations’ capitals came on the heels of DPRK (North Korea) Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un personally unveiling a newly developed, state-of-the-art beach resort in the Wonsan-Kalma Coastal Tourist Area at the end of June – only to prohibit overseas arrivals a week thereafter.

Curiously enough, this blanket entry ban applied to all outsiders except Russians – 15 of whom spent a week in Pyongyang and Wonsan doing the bidding of a pro-Kremlin police state otherwise synonymous with mass starvation, labor camps and funneling whatever surplus funds its corrupt ruling elite can muster into nuclear proliferation. As a reciprocal gesture of goodwill for the roughly 14,000 North Korean troops dispatched just under a year ago to fend off Ukraine’s Kursk offensive on top of Pyongyang supplying up to 40% Moscow’s total ammunition for the “special military operation” since August 2023, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov encouraged leisure-seekers from Russia to visit the luxury seaside complex during his maiden trip there in mid-July.

At least six European journalists have been expelled or denied re-entry into Georgia recent months, sparking fears of a Russian-style crackdown on press freedoms.

Georgian authorities denied entry to French photojournalist Hicham El Bouhmidi on Aug. 2, as he attempted to return to the country from a reporting trip to Armenia. El Bouhmidi, who had been living in Tbilisi and documenting months of anti-government protests, believes the move was politically motivated and part of a broader pattern of repression targeting foreign journalists.

“I was returning to Georgia via the Armenian-Georgian border at Sadakhlo,” El Bouhmidi told Kyiv Post. “At passport control, a police officer informed me that I had a 5,000-lari [$1,850] penalty connected to a protest in March. I then got interrogated in a separate room by a man in civilian clothes, who asked questions on my identity and job. He took a picture of my professional photojournalist card and called someone on the phone with whom they talked about my photography work. The man asked me to pay the fine without providing any official documentation regarding it, or giving details. I declined as I said I don’t have sufficient funds.”

President Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine is open to real peace talks but will never give up its land, criticizing any agreements made without Kyiv’s involvement.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine is prepared to make real decisions to achieve peace but will not cede any territory to Russia.

On his Facebook page, Zelensky wrote: “Ukrainians are defending what is theirs. Even those who are with Russia know that it is doing evil. Of course, we will not reward Russia for what it has done. The Ukrainian people deserve peace. But all partners must understand what a dignified peace is.”

Disability is a rapidly growing issue in Ukraine. But what does golf have to do with it? A visit to a golf training session with veterans and war invalids.

Mykola has titanium plates screwed into his spine. Oleksandr is missing a leg – he wears a prosthesis. Musika is in a wheelchair – he does not yet have a prosthesis. Kyril has a paralyzed arm hanging in a sling, a shattered hip joint, and a scarred eye. And Sasha Kikin stands there on the practice green with his prosthetic leg, leaning on his golf club as if it were a saber, a cigar in the corner of his mouth.

It’s Monday morning at the Kozyn golf course near Kyiv. And the 20 or so men with stabilizers in their legs, fixed arms, prostheses, sitting in wheelchairs or on crutches, hit balls into the holes – or past them. And Sasha Kikin, who staggers among them, a cigar in his mouth, like a steam locomotive, trailing a cloud behind him, gives tips on how to hold the club, where to focus your gaze, how to stand – or sit – in relation to the ball.

The EU approved the long-waited finance tranche after most of Ukraine’s reform goals were met. Funds will support social wages, humanitarian needs, and stability.

The Council of the European Union (EU) has approved €3.2 billion ($3.7 billion) for Ukraine under the Ukraine Facility financial instrument, Ukraine’s Ministry of Finance and European Council reported on Friday.

The Ukraine Facility is the €50 billion ($58.3 billion) EU financial assistance programme for Ukraine, signed in February 2024 and planned for 2024-2027. The program is intended to support Ukraine’s recovery, reconstruction, and modernization.

Inflation in Ukraine saw a sharp slowdown in June, then a slower pace in July.

Inflation in Ukraine fell just 0.2% in July following a sharp reduction a month earlier, with the annual inflation rate slowing down to 14.1% year-over-year in July, according to a press release by Ukraine’s State Statistics Service.

The June figure was estimated at 14.3% - a massive drop from 15.9% year-over-year in May, bringing some relief after a spike that lasted for almost a year. This was fueled by weak 2024 harvests, electricity prices and salaries hikes – all affected by Russia’s fall 2024-2025 attacks.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• Kremlin officials are reportedly demanding that Ukraine cede to Russia strategically vital unoccupied territory in Donetsk Oblast and freeze the frontline in other areas as part of a ceasefire agreement.
• The surrender of the rest of Donetsk Oblast as the prerequisite of a ceasefire with no commitment to a final peace settlement ending the war would position Russian forces extremely well to renew their attacks on much more favorable terms, having avoided a long and bloody struggle for the ground. Conceding such a demand would force Ukraine to abandon its “fortress belt,” the main fortified defensive line in Donetsk Oblast since 2014 — with no guarantee that fighting will not resume.
• Russia’s failure to seize Slovyansk in 2022 and ongoing struggles to envelop the fortress belt underscore the success of Ukraine’s long-term efforts to reinforce the fortress belt cities.
• Russian forces are currently still attempting to envelop the fortress belt from the southwest and are engaged in an effort to seize it that would likely take several years to complete.
• Ceding Ukrainian-held parts of Donetsk Oblast will place Russian forces on the borders of Donetsk Oblast, a position that is significantly less defensible than the current line.
• Russian positions along the Donetsk-Kharkiv and Donetsk-Dnipropetrovsk Oblast border areas would provide a more advantageous launching point for a future Russian offensive into nearby areas of Kharkiv or Dnipropetrovsk oblasts. ISW continues to assess that Russian forces will almost certainly violate any future ceasefire or peace agreement and renew military aggression against Ukraine in the future unless a peace agreement includes robust monitoring mechanisms and security guarantees for Ukraine.
• Putin’s reported proposal once again underscores that he maintains his uncompromising demands for Ukraine’s capitulation and remains disinterested in good-faith negotiations.
• The Kremlin does not appear to be setting the domestic information conditions necessary for the Russian people to accept a settlement short of full victory in Ukraine.
• Ukrainian forces advanced near Kupyansk and Toretsk. Russian forces advanced near Lyman, Toretsk, and Pokrovsk.