Biden administration announces $2.5 billion security assistance package for Ukraine

Russia has been using the "extremism" label to target anything that contradicts the Kremlin's narrative, including the official version of global or Russian history.

Nearly one in five car dealerships in Russia could shut down by the end of the year as the country's auto market struggles from plummeting sales and a worsening economic outlook, the Moscow Times reported.

"President Trump has made clear this must be done by Aug. 8. The United States is prepared to implement additional measures to secure peace," senior American diplomat John Kelley told the United Nations Security Council.

One of the main targets was a radio factory in the western city of Penza, which produces advanced communications systems for the Russian Armed Forces, according to Andrii Kovalenko, head of Ukraine's Center for Countering Disinformation.

"There is preliminary information that there were rocket-powered Shahed-type drones," said Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko.

If formalized, Nicaragua could become the first country to officially recognize Russia's annexation of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts — territories Moscow declared part of Russia in 2022.

Three police officers and 12 children were among the injured. Thirty people, including five children, remain hospitalized as of 2:40 p.m. local time, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

The bill aims to reverse legislation passed last week that effectively destroyed the independence of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor (SAPO).

"The situation in Chasiv Yar is the same as in recent months. Russia is simply lying again, precisely so that the claim spreads through refutations," said Viktor Tregubov, spokesperson of the Khortytsia group of forces, in a comment for the RBK-Ukraine news agency.

Polish President-elect Karol Nawrocki emphasized that cooperation must be based on "mutual respect and genuine partnership," according to his spokesperson Rafal Leskiewicz.

The amendment to the 2025 budget raises total defense and security spending to an estimated $50 billion, or 26% of Ukraine's GDP.

In a piece titled "There is no other option: no one should be left alive in Ukraine," columnist Kirill Strelnikov repeats Kremlin propaganda lines, including the claim that Ukraine is a "military training ground" for the West and that Ukrainians are mere pawns of the U.S. and Europe.

The remarks follow former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's July 28 statement that U.S. President Donald Trump's "ultimatum game" with Moscow amounts to a threat to Russia and pushes the United States itself closer to war.