Ukraine war latest: Zelensky calls for Russia's regime change after Kyiv attack
At least 150 people sustained injuries after the overnight strikes reduced part of a nine-storey apartment block in Kyiv's western suburbs to rubble.
Speaking via video at a conference commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Cold War-era Helsinki Accords, Zelensky said Russia could be 'pushed' to end the war."
But if the world doesn't aim to change the regime in Russia, that means even after the war ends, Moscow will still try to destabilise neighbouring countries," he said, according to AFP.
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar 1 August 2025 04:14
President Volodymyr Zelensky restored the independence of Ukraine's two main anti-corruption agencies on Thursday, moving to defuse a political crisis that has shaken faith in his wartime leadership.
Thousands of protesters rallied in Kyiv and other cities in recent days in a rare show of discontent.
It came after lawmakers led by Zelensky's ruling party rushed through amendments last week defanging the respected agencies.
He signed a new bill on Thursday shortly after lawmakers approved it 331 to 0, saying the legislation "guarantees the absence of any kind of outside influence (or) interference".
"Ukraine is a democracy - there are definitely no doubts," Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messaging app.
Daniel Keane 1 August 2025 03:00
President Donald Trump has made clear that he wants a deal to end Russia's war in Ukraine by August 8, the United States told the United Nations Security Council on Thursday.
'Both Russia and Ukraine must negotiate a ceasefire and durable peace. It is time to make a deal. President Trump has made clear this must be done by August 8. The United States is prepared to implement additional measures to secure peace, senior U.S. diplomat John Kelley told the 15-member council.
Trump said on Tuesday that the US would start imposing tariffs and other measures on Russia "10 days from today" if Moscow showed no progress toward ending its war in Ukraine.
Daniel Keane 1 August 2025 02:00
Syria's top diplomat met with Russian officials on Thursday on the first visit to Moscow by a member of the new government in Damascus since former Syrian President Bashar Assad was ousted.
Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani in the Kremlin, according to Syrian news agency SANA.
Before the talks with Putin, al-Shibani met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who emphasised that the Russian authorities "sincerely wish that the Syrian people, with whom we have long-standing friendship, overcome all existing challenges and completely normalise the situation."
Assad was an ally of Russia, and Moscow's scorched-earth intervention in support of him a decade ago turned the tide of Syria's civil war and kept Assad in his seat until his swift demise in December.
Daniel Keane 1 August 2025 01:00
A powerful US Senate committee approved a military spending bill on Thursday that includes about $1 billion to support Ukraine, despite President Donald Trump's administration having asked Congress to eliminate such funding in its budget request.
The Republican-led Senate Appropriations Committee approved $852 billion for the Department of Defence in the fiscal year ending on Sept. 30, 2026.
This is $21.7 billion, or 2.6%, more than the Republican president requested earlier this year.
The committee voted 26-3 to send the spending measure for a vote in the full Senate, with strong support from both Democrats and Trump's fellow Republicans.
Daniel Keane 1 August 2025 00:01
A pair of bipartisan US senators on Thursday introduced a bill that would provide £40 billion ($54.6bn) in military aid to Ukraine over the next two years.
The bill, introduced by Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski and Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, faces a stiff struggle to become law but follows threats by President Donald Trump to increase military aid to Kyiv if Moscow does not take steps to end the war.
Congress last passed a major aid package for Ukraine - £46 billion ($61bn) - in April 2024, when Democrat Joe Biden was still president and his fellow Democrats had a slim majority in the Senate.
Daniel Keane 31 July 2025 23:00
President Donald Trump has said that Russia's war in Ukraine is 'disgusting'.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, he said he plans to impose sanctions on Moscow if no agreement can be reached to end the conflict.
Trump said he was not sure whether sanctions would deter Russia.
He has given Russian President Vladimir Putin until August 8 to make a deal or else he will respond with economic pressure.
Daniel Keane 31 July 2025 22:09
Former Russian president and prime minister brushed off US officials's warnings that Russia needs to begin peace deal talks to end the war in Ukraine
Bryony Gooch 31 July 2025 22:00
(Russian Defence Ministry/AFP via)
(Russian Defence Ministry/AFP via)
Bryony Gooch 31 July 2025 21:00
Trump escalates his war of words with Dmitry Medvedev, who had recently warned that U.S. actions were driving the country toward direct conflict with Russia
Bryony Gooch 31 July 2025 20:00
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
42 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Ukraine war briefing: Kyiv faces Russian missile attack as both sides trade strikes
Russia launched a missile attack on Kyiv early on Sunday, the military administration of the Ukrainian capital said on the Telegram messaging app. Reuters' witnesses heard a loud blast shaking the city soon after midnight. The reported attack comes days after Russia's worst airstrike of the year on Kyiv, which killed at least 31 people, including five children, and wounded more than 150. Ukraine on Saturday said it hit military targets and a gas pipeline in drone attacks in Russia, where local authorities said three people were killed and two others wounded. Ukraine's SBU security service said the strikes, carried out on Friday night by long-distance drones, hit a military airfield in the south-western town of Primorsko-Akhtarsk. They caused a fire in an areas where Iranian-built Shahed drones – relied on by Russia to attack Ukraine – were stored, the SBU said. The SBU said the strikes also hit a company in Russia's southern Penza region, which it said 'works for the Russian military-industrial complex', making military digital networks, aviation devices, armoured vehicles and ships. The governor for Russia's Penza region, Oleg Melnichenko, said on Telegram that one woman had been killed and two other people were wounded in that attack. Russia's defence ministry said its air-defence systems had destroyed 112 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory – 34 over the Rostov region – in a nearly nine-hour period, from Friday night to Saturday morning. An elderly man was killed inside a house that caught fire due to falling drone debris in the Samara region, governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev posted on Telegram. In the Rostov region, a guard at an industrial facility was killed after a drone attack and a fire in one of the site's buildings, acting Rostov governor Yuri Sliusar said. 'The military repelled a massive air attack during the night,' destroying drones over seven districts, Sliusar posted on Telegram. More than 120 firefighters were trying to extinguish a blaze at an oil depot in the Russian city of Sochi that was sparked by a Ukrainian drone attack, a regional governor said early on Sunday. In the Krasnodar region where Sochi is located, a fuel tank with a capacity of 2,000 cubic metres was on fire, Russia's RIA news agency reported. Rosaviatsia, Russia's civil aviation authority, said on Telegram that flights were halted at Sochi's airport to ensure air safety. Both sides deny targeting civilians in their strike in the war that Russia launched with a full-scale invasion on Ukraine in February 2022. Kyiv says that its attacks inside Russia are aimed at destroying infrastructure key to Moscow's war efforts and are in response to Russia's relentless strikes on Ukraine. Indian oil refineries will continue to buy oil from Russia, officials have said, before threatened US sanctions next week against Moscow's trading partners over the war in Ukraine. Media reports on Friday had suggested India, a big energy importer, would stop buying cheap Russian oil. Trump later told reporters that such a move would be 'a good step' if true. 'I understand that India is no longer going to be buying oil from Russia,' he said. 'That's what I heard. I don't know if that's right or not. That is a good step. We will see what happens.' Ukrainian authorities said on Saturday that they had arrested several politicians in connection with a 'large-scale corruption scheme' in the defence sector, shortly after an uproar over the independence of anti-graft bodies. A law passed in late July stripped the National Anti-Corruption Agency (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP) of their independence and placed them under the supervision of the prosecutor general, himself appointed by the head of state. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday backtracked and restored the bodies' independence after an outcry from the country's allies and the first anti-government street demonstrations since Russia's invasion. The NABU on Saturday said it and the SAP had exposed 'a scheme for the systematic misappropriation of budget funds allocated by local authorities for the needs of the defence forces, as well as the receipt and provision of unlawful benefits on an especially large scale'. It said the scheme involved inflating prices for electronic warfare and drone equipment, and then funnelling off 30% of the contract amounts. The suspects include a member of parliament, heads of district and city administrations, members of the National Guard, and executives at defence companies. The NABU said it has made four arrests so far but did not identify those detained. Zelensky said in a statement: 'I am grateful to the anti-corruption agencies for their work … It is important that anti-corruption institutions operate independently, and the law passed on Thursday guarantees them all the tools necessary for a real fight against corruption.' A fire that broke out near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant after Ukrainian shelling has been brought under control, the Russian-installed administration of the plant in Ukraine said on Saturday. Russian forces seized the Zaporizhzhia plant in the first weeks of Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Both sides have accused each other of firing or taking other actions that could trigger a nuclear accident. The plant's administration said on Telegram that a civilian had been killed in the shelling, but that no plant employees or members of the emergency services had been injured. The station, Europe's biggest nuclear power plant, is not operating but still requires power to keep its nuclear fuel cool.
The Guardian
4 hours ago
- The Guardian
Protests in Israel after Hamas releases video showing emaciated hostage
Protesters gathered in Tel Aviv over the weekend to demand an end to the war in Gaza and the return of all hostages still held in the territory. The rallies took place after Hamas released video footage of the hostage Evyatar David who was in an emaciated state
Reuters
4 hours ago
- Reuters
Who is Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian war hawk who got under Trump's skin?
Aug 3 (Reuters) - Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has become embroiled in a tense back-and-forth on social media that prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to announce he had ordered the re-positioning of two U.S. nuclear submarines. Who is Medvedev, what is his track record and how influential is he? Medvedev was elected Russian president in 2008 when Vladimir Putin, having served two terms, was barred from standing again under the law in force at that time. Medvedev ran the Kremlin for four years, with Putin as his prime minister but widely assumed by analysts in Russia and the West to be still calling the shots, before the two swapped places after the 2012 election - a political manoeuvre that provoked opposition protests. Medvedev, the son of two university professors, had studied law and worked for a time in the private sector. Short in height and quietly spoken, he was described by contemporaries as cultured and intelligent. As president, he was seen initially in the West as a potential moderniser and reformer, prepared to work to thaw relations with the United States. In 2009 he signed the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty with President Barack Obama. But Medvedev's presidency also saw Russia fight a brief war with its neighbour Georgia in 2008, and he failed to achieve his stated goals of tackling pervasive corruption, improving the rule of law in Russia, strengthening the role of civil society and rebalancing the economy to reduce its over-reliance on oil and gas production. Medvedev served as Putin's prime minister for eight years in a period in which tensions with the West escalated anew, particularly over Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. But his political fortunes took a dive when he was removed in January 2020 and replaced by Mikhail Mishustin, who has held the post ever since. Medvedev was shunted into a new role as deputy chairman of the Security Council, a powerful body that includes the heads of Russia's intelligence services. After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Medvedev carved out a new role for himself as an arch-hawk and full-throated champion of the war, hurling aggressive rhetoric at Kyiv and the West and warning repeatedly of the risk of a nuclear "apocalypse". In May 2024 he said it would be a "fatal mistake" on the part of the West to think that Russia was not ready to use tactical nuclear weapons against Ukraine. He also spoke of the potential to strike unnamed hostile countries with strategic nuclear weapons. His statements - including personal attacks on foreign leaders - were frequently designed to shock, insult and provoke. He referred to Ukrainians as "cockroaches", in language Kyiv condemned as openly genocidal, and called President Volodymyr Zelenskiy a criminal, a drug addict, a louse, a rat and a freak. In January 2023, he accused Japan's prime minister of shameful subservience to the United States and suggested he should ritually disembowel himself. Russian opposition figures have dismissed Medvedev's outpourings as sad, impotent rants. However, some Western diplomats say they give a flavour of the thinking in Kremlin policy-making circles. Until now, they have rarely provoked a direct response from Western leaders. That changed last month when Trump rebuked Medvedev and accused him of throwing around the "N" word after the Russian criticised U.S. air strikes on Iran and said "a number of countries" were ready to supply Iran with nuclear warheads. When Trump imposed a deadline on Moscow to end the war in Ukraine or face further sanctions, including on buyers of its exports, Medvedev accused him of playing a "game of ultimatums" and moving a step closer to war between Russia and the U.S. Trump retorted: "Tell Medvedev, the failed former President of Russia, who thinks he's still President, to watch his words. He's entering very dangerous territory!" Medvedev waded in again last Thursday, saying Trump's "nervous reaction" showed Russia was on the right course and referring again to Moscow's nuclear capabilities. Trump delivered his statement the following day on posting U.S. nuclear submarines in "the appropriate regions", since when Medvedev has not posted again.
