The phone call comes as Moscow once again rejected a 30-day ceasefire, with Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova claiming that a ceasefire would give "Kyiv a break to restore its military potential and continue its confrontation with Russia."
Flight MH17 departed from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport en-route to Kuala Lumpur International Airport on July 17, 2014. Three hours into the flight, the Boeing-777 was shot down by Russian proxy forces using a Buk surface-to-air missile above Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast.
"I am grateful for the support and the readiness at the highest level to promote diplomacy," President Volodymyr Zelensky said of the phone conservation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "We share the same view on the need for a ceasefire."
The convictions mark a significant development in Britain's efforts to counter Russian intelligence operations amid heightened tensions stemming from Moscow's war against Ukraine and repeated Kremlin threats toward Kyiv's allies.
According to the Verkhovna Rada's website, Ukraine completed the ratification of the U.S.-Ukraine minerals agreement on May 12. President Volodymyr Zelensky signed the deal.
"I myself have heard relatives talking: our village is being attacked, let's roll the car out of the garage, maybe they will shell it — at least we will get money. The car is old, we can't sell it," Belgorod Oblast Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
The new tranche brings total recent EU defense support for Ukraine to 3.3 billion euros ($3.6 billion), marking a significant expansion of European efforts to boost Kyiv's defense industry.
The remains of a Shahed-136 kamikaze drone at an exhibition showing remains of missiles and drones that Russia used in the attack on Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine, on May 12, 2023. (Oleksii Samsonov / Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
Ukrainian air defense shot down 35 of the 39 Shahed-type attack drones launched by Russia overnight on July 21, the Air Force reported.
In addition to drones, Russian forces launched three Iskander-M ballistic missiles and two Kh-59/69 cruise missiles. The Air Force said that the Kh-59/69 missiles didn't reach their targets due to Ukraine's "countermeasures." The military didn't specify where Iskander-M missiles hit and the extent of damage as a result.
Overall, air defense was working in 10 Ukrainian oblasts overnight. No casualties have been reported as a result of the attack as of publication time.
Russian forces regularly attack civilian areas across Ukraine using drones and missiles, often targeting residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure. Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy gridhave intensified in recent months, resulting in the destruction of or severe damage to multiple energy facilities and forcing Ukraine to impose lengthy rolling blackouts.
On the night of July 21, Russian forces launched missiles and drones from three locations, including Russia's Kursk Oblast, Primorsko-Akhtarsk, a town in Krasnodar Krai on the Azov Sea coast, and occupied Crimea, according to the Air Force.
All the drones targeting Kyiv were destroyed by the air defense outside the city, according to the Kyiv City Military Administration.
“Over the past two weeks, this is at least the fifth real attempt by the enemy to attack the capital with drones,” Serhii Popko, the head of the city’s military administration, wrote on social media.
At least one missile hit some critical infrastructure in Sumy Oblast this morning, Sumy Oblast Military Administration said. Rescue services were working at the site as of 7:30 a.m. No information about casualties was reported.
Two drones were also shot down over Sumy Oblast, which borders Russia's Kursk Oblast.
Drones were also downed over Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, and Mykolaiv oblasts, according to reports by local authorities.
Natalia Yermak is a staff writer for the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a fixer-producer and contributing reporter for the New York Times since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion. Previously, she worked in film production and documentary.
Natalia Yermak
