Ukraine, Russia to conduct prisoner swap before Easter, Sky News reports

Russia continued its attacks on western Ukrainian cities overnight on July 12, striking communities far from the front line with drone swarms and missile attacks for the third straight night.

Norway will provide Ukraine with 25 million Norwegian krone ($2.5 million) to support the country's cybersecurity defenses by the end of 2025, Ukraine's Digital Transformation Ministry announced on July 11.

The proposed price cap would be set at 15% below the market rate based on a 10-week average, lowering the threshold to $50 down from the current cap of $60, people familiar with the matter said.

The World Bank will provide $200 million over the next five years to prepare Ukrainian projects for large-scale reconstruction, the Economy Ministry announced on July 11.

"We have received political signals at the highest level — good signals — including from the United States and from our European friends. According to all reports, aid shipments have been restored," President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee approved $500 million in aid for Ukraine as part of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), Reuters reported on July 11.

According to Ukraine's military intelligence head Kyrylo Budanov, Russia’s earlier announcement of its entry into Dnipropetrovsk Oblast serves a political goal.

"We consider these searches to be another wave of attack on Vitaliy Shabunin and the Anti-Corruption Action Center for criticizing the Presidential Office and (Presidential Office head) Andrii Yermak personally," the center said.

The Ukraine-U.S. Reconstruction Investment Fund will provide opportunities not only for U.S. companies but also for other countries, representatives of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation said during a workshop at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Rome on July 11.

A source in Ukraine's military intelligence told the Kyiv Independent the attack had destroyed a section of a key pipeline supplying Russian military-industrial facilities in Chelyabinsk, Orenburg, and Sverdlovsk oblasts.

Ukraine and the EU will allocate 100 million euro ($117 million) to boost battlefield-driven solutions under the newly-launched BraveTech EU initiative, announced at the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC) in Rome on July 11.

Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, war has become a daily reality for thousands of Ukrainian children. Some Ukrainian military units, such as the Azov Brigade, offer boot camps for teenagers to teach them the basics of self-defense, first aid, dry firing, and other survival skills — helping them prepare for both the realities of today and the uncertainties of the future.