Oil prices drop 2% as Trump takes first step toward Ukraine peace talks, Reuters reports

By labeling missing soldiers as deserters, Russia not only conceals its true war losses but also avoids paying social benefits to the families of the deceased, IStories reported.

"We thought we had that settled numerous times, and then President Putin goes out and starts launching rockets into some city like Kyiv and kills a lot of people in a nursing home or whatever," U.S. President Donald Trump said.

Another 555 people were freed separately from prisoner exchanges with Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky added.

The statement follows President Volodymyr Zelensky's July 27 decree imposing sanctions on individuals and entities from Russia and its allies.

"According to received reports, a drone was spotted at an altitude of about 200 meters, last seen near Vilnius," said Darius Buta, a representative of Lithuania's National Crisis Management Center, according to LRT.

The suspected agent was identified as a 24-year-old unemployed local resident who had sought quick money via Telegram.

Ukraine's state energy giant Naftogaz has signed its first agreement to import natural gas from Azerbaijan, the company said in a press release on July 28. The deal comes as gas storage reserves have fallen to their lowest level in at least 11 years, driven by Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy grid.

Protests were held near the hotel housing the Russian fencers and outside the Sports Palace, the venue for the competition.

A pro-Ukrainian hacker group named Silent Crow has claimed responsibility for a large-scale attack on Aeroflot's IT infrastructure, allegedly conducted in cooperation with the Belarusian opposition hacktivist group, Cyber Partisans BY.

The Pokrovsk direction remains the key vector of the Russian offensive, where Russia has concentrated most of its troops, said Victor Tregubov, a spokesperson for Ukraine's Khortytsia group of forces.

Explosions were first reported in the capital late on July 27, according to Kyiv Independent journalists on the ground. The attack comes mere days after Russia and Ukraine held their third round of peace talks in Istanbul on July 23.

Russian forces launched 324 Shahed-type attack drones and other drones, four Kh-101 cruise missiles, and three Kinzhal aeroballistic missiles against Ukraine overnight, the Air Force reported.

Stabilization measures are currently underway in Kindrativka, a spokesperson for the Kursk military group said.

The number includes 1,000 casualties Russian forces suffered just over the past day.

New data from the Kyiv School of Economics Institute indicates that Russia has significantly depleted its vast Soviet-era weaponry stockpiles since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, causing the flow of military goods to the front lines to revert to pre-2022 levels.