German opposition leader Merz arrives in Kyiv

The sanctions target operatives of Russia's military intelligence (GRU), responsible for widespread malicious cyber activity in the U.K. and Europe, the Foreign Office said.

The project would involve Romanian investment in a local factory, likely in Brasov, where Ukrainian and Romanian teams would collaborate on manufacturing drones based on Ukrainian designs developed through wartime experience.

Ukraine's Air Force said it shot down 11 Shahed-type drones overnight as Russia launched a wave of 35 attack drones, including decoy drones, primarily targeting eastern frontline regions. Six additional decoys were jammed or lost.

The package targets 105 vessels of Russia's shadow fleet, the Russian banking system, Nord Stream pipelines, and lowers the price cap on Russian crude oil.

France has agreed to expand pilot training for Mirage fighter jets, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

The head of Ukraine's Poltava Mining faces criminal charges for allegedly evading over Hr 1.7 billion ($41 million) in corporate taxes through fraudulent export pricing, the Ukraine Economic Security Bureau announced in a press release on July 18.

The cyberattack allegedly destroyed large volumes of data and installed custom software designed to further damage the company's information systems.

The fatalities included a man and a woman. All of the 11 injured victims have been hospitalized, one of whom — a 29-year-old woman — is in serious condition, Governor Serhii Lysak reported.

Rustem Umerov previously served as Ukraine's defense minister, a post he had held since September 2023.

"European countries will have to fund it," Thordis Gylfadottir, an envoy of the Council of Europe, told Politico. "We cannot stop tracking them and then just re-track them (abducted children) in the months ahead."

The source called Igor Nesterov a war criminal and a member of Russia's infamous Wagner company, a mercenary group that was deployed in some of the most brutal battles in Ukraine.

Allied capabilities now allow NATO to "take that (Kaliningrad) down from the ground" faster than ever before, U.S. Army Europe and Africa commander General Chris Donahue said.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said four drones were shot down on approach to the capital, with blasts heard near Zvenigorod, Istra, and Zelenograd — suburban districts and satellite towns located to the west and northwest of central Moscow.

"Fighters from the 31st Separate Mechanized Brigade and the 505th Separate Marine Battalion have raised their battle flags in the settlements of Voskresenka and Yalta in Donetsk Oblast," the 20th Corps said in a statement on social media.