Ukraine's air defense shoots down 8 Iranian-made kamikaze drones.

"I am very open to having a public debate about the future of Austria's security and defense policy," Austria's Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger said. "Although there are currently no majorities in parliament and in the population for joining NATO, such a debate can still be very fruitful."

Protests sweep Ukraine in response to the new controversial law, which carries grim implications for integration into the European Union as peace talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations resume.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed Russia would prefer to resolve the conflict through dialogue, but said military operations continue because "opponents rejected the path of negotiations."

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed its air defenses intercepted or destroyed a total of 99 drones overnight.

Ukraine's Air Force reported that Russian forces launched 83 drones overnight, 78 of which were taken out by air defenses.

"Despite having very good interactions with (Russian President) Vladimir Putin and phone calls, it never leads to anything," U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said. "So, the time has come for some action."

The number includes 920 casualties Russian forces suffered just over the past day.

As another sign of deepening bilateral relations, Russia is set to launch direct passenger flights from Moscow to Pyongyang on July 27, marking the first air connection between the two capitals in decades.

Russian forces launched an overnight attack on Ukraine's northeastern Sumy Oblast on July 26, targeting civilian infrastructure and leaving three people injured, local authorities reported.

The Vatican confirmed that Pope Leo received Metropolitan Anthony, the senior Russian Orthodox Church cleric who chairs its department of external church relations, along with five other high-profile clerics, during a morning audience on July 26.

According to operational data by Ukraine's Khortytsia group of forces, Colonel Lebedev was leading assault operations in the Velykyi Burluk area of Kharkiv Oblast.

Russian forces launched a drone strike on Sumy on July 26, damaging the building of the Sumy Regional Military Administration, regional governor Oleh Hryhorov reported.

Lithuania plans to contribute up to 30 million euro ($32.5 million) toward the joint purchase of U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems for Ukraine, Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT reported on July 26.

"Resistance to the Kremlin regime inside Russia is growing," Ukraine's military intelligence agency said.