logo
Russia and Ukraine Exchange Series of Major Strikes

Russia and Ukraine Exchange Series of Major Strikes

Miami Herald21-07-2025
Moscow faced a Ukrainian drone attack for the fifth night in a row, the city's mayor has said, as Russia launched yet another bombardment on Ukrainian infrastructure.
Video shared on social media showed chaos at Moscow's airports after the Ukrainian drone threat disrupted flight paths.
Meanwhile, at least one person was killed and several were injured in Ukraine's capital Kyiv following Moscow's latest bombardment.
Newsweek has contacted the Ukrainian and Russian defense ministries for comment.
Russia is showing no sign of letting up in its drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure, despite President Volodymyr Zelensky's invitation to hold peace talks with Moscow in Turkey later this week.
Kyiv's use of drones on Russia follows a warning in May by Serhii Bratchuk, from the Ukrainian Defense Army's Southern Division, about Ukraine's plans to disrupt aviation to make the Russian population pay for Vladimir Putin's aggression.
Russia repeated its mass drone and missile attacks on Kyiv overnight Sunday in strikes which local authorities said killed at least one person and injured six.
Ukraine's Air Force said Russia launched 450 drones and missiles targeting Kyiv, the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk and Kharkiv.
Explosions rocked Kyiv in the early hours of Sunday, with outdoor kiosks burning and smoke pouring from the entrance of the damaged Lukianivska subway station.
In Ivano-Frankivsk, air defenses were deployed during what the city's mayor Ruslan Martsinkiv described as the largest attack on the western region since the start of the war.
Meanwhile, more than 230 Ukrainian drones had been shot down downed over Russia since Saturday morning, including 27 over the capital, according to Russia's defence ministry.
Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said the Russian capital faced a fifth night of Ukrainian drone attacks, but that the devices had been shot down by air defenses. Footage on social media showed debris hitting residential areas where several explosions were recorded.
Damage to a railway station in Kamenolomni, in the Rostov region further south caused by falling drone debris was also reported, causing hours-long train delays.
The threats posed by drones prompted restrictions to be imposed on flights from Moscow's Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports, according to Russia's state aviation agency Rosaviatsia.
Two other major airports in Moscow were also temporarily closed and at least 140 flights were cancelled as images on social media showed disgruntled passengers trapped at the crowded airports for up to 12 hours.
Open source intelligence X channel Visoner said Ukrainian forces had been launching waves of drones at various regions of Russia, including Moscow, with the aim of overloading Russian air defense systems.
Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky said: "Russian strikes are always an assault on humanity."
Moscow's Mayor Sergei Sobyanin: "Two drones attacking Moscow were shot down. Emergency service specialists are working at the crash site."
After months of facing increased attacks by Russia on Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, Ukraine's military appears to have intensified efforts in targeting Russia's capital.
Meanwhile, despite Zelensky's offer for talks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskovsaid "the main thing for us is to achieve our goals". These include Ukraine withdrawing from Russia-annexed regions and abandoning its aspirations to join Nato – terms that Kyiv and its Western allies have rejected.
Related Articles
Russia Touts Trump-Putin Meeting at Major DeadlineNATO Scrambles Fighter Jets Amid 'Massive' Russian AttacksUkraine Launches Fresh Drone Attacks on MoscowZelensky Makes Fresh Offer To Putin
2025 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Russia's rumored jet-powered versions of the Iranian Shahed are appearing in Ukraine's air defense reports
Russia's rumored jet-powered versions of the Iranian Shahed are appearing in Ukraine's air defense reports

Business Insider

time5 minutes ago

  • Business Insider

Russia's rumored jet-powered versions of the Iranian Shahed are appearing in Ukraine's air defense reports

More signs are emerging that Russia is launching a new exploding drone said to fly much faster than its current Shaheds. Ukraine's Air Force Command reported on Wednesday that it had encountered jet-powered attack drones while defending its airspace the night before. "A notable feature of the night attack was the use of up to eight jet-powered UAVs in the northern direction," it wrote in a regular update. The announcement marks one of the first official reports of Ukraine's forces encountering the new loitering munition in combat. In total, the Air Force Command counted 78 Shahed attack drones launched on Tuesday night. The statement added that 51 drones were shot down or disabled by electronic warfare, interceptor drones, anti-air missiles, and mobile fire groups, which typically use truck-mounted machine guns. The Ukrainian air force did not specify if any jet-propelled drones were shot down. "There were 27 drone impacts recorded at 7 locations, and falling debris from downed drones at 2 locations," Air Force Command wrote. On Thursday, a Ukrainian Telegram channel that monitors the flight paths of Russian drones also wrote that it recorded launches of jet-propelled drones. "On the map we've drawn for you, you can see the movement of cruise missiles, jet-powered Shaheds, and regular strike/decoy UAVs," it wrote. While not an official government channel, it's widely followed in Ukraine for city-specific alerts on incoming drones. A major problem for Ukraine's air defenses Russian jet-propelled drones are believed to be closely modeled after Iran's Shahed-238, an upgraded long-range loitering munition Tehran unveiled in November. Moscow has not officially detailed its own version of the new weapon, but Ukraine's intelligence and Western analysts have reported that it's likely building a model with the Tolou‑10/13 jet engine to vastly increase the drone's speed. Open-source intelligence sources said as early as January that Ukraine may have shot down at least one Shahed-238-type drone, indicating limited Russian use. In June, images published by Ukrainian Telegram channels appeared to show destroyed fragments of such drones in the country. In both earlier reports and the Air Force Command's update on Wednesday, it's unclear if these were prototypes or finalized drones. But if deployed en masse against Ukraine, the new upgraded drone could pose a major problem for Kyiv's air defenses. The Shahed-238 is said to be much faster than the Shahed-136, which is locally produced in Russia as the Geran-2 — the Kremlin's main attack drone against Ukraine. While the Shahed-136 is known to fly at top speeds of 115 mph, a Russian general told state media in December that the Shahed-238 could fly as fast as 500 mph. Extended independent analyses on the drone's still aren't publicly available, and it's possible that the munition can only fly that fast while diving. At such speed, however, the jet-powered drone would be nearly as fast as a cruise missile. That would be a nearly impossible target for Ukraine's mobile fire groups, or the vehicle-mounted machine gun crews it's relied on to fight off Shahed-136s. This year, mobile fire groups are already being overwhelmed by the sheer number of Russian Shahed-136s launched every night. To shore up the gap, Ukraine has started prioritizing interceptor drones, which also risk being rendered obsolete if jet-powered Shaheds become mainstream. Interceptor drones, built secretly by Ukrainian companies, already need to fly much faster than the Shahed-136 since they must catch up to the loitering munition after it's detected. A Shahed-238 or Geran-3 moving at 500 mph would require an intercepting drone to fly nearly three times as fast as before. "In such a case, promising antiaircraft interceptor UAVs, unfortunately, will be powerless," wrote a Ukrainian military blogger in late June. Ukraine does have advanced anti-air missile defenses for faster targets, such as the US-made Patriot system, which has even been reported to take down the hypersonic Kinzhal missile. Still, Ukraine typically reserves these expensive anti-air munitions for ballistic missiles; expending them to neutralize waves of Shahed drones would be unsustainable.

Trump sharpens sanctions threat on Russia, while admitting it may not work
Trump sharpens sanctions threat on Russia, while admitting it may not work

Boston Globe

time34 minutes ago

  • Boston Globe

Trump sharpens sanctions threat on Russia, while admitting it may not work

Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Administration officials gave no reasons to believe the latest engagement with Russia would be any more useful. And Trump himself, usually a true believer in the power of economic sanctions to alter the decisions of foreign leaders, admitted for the second time this week that Putin appears to be immune. Advertisement 'I don't know that sanctions bother him,' he said Thursday. Nonetheless, Trump has now executed a 180-degree turn on Russia, at least in tone, in roughly 180 days. He came to office questioning whether Russia was truly the invader of Ukraine, and hinting that the Ukrainians were responsible for their own troubles. His famous blowup with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office in February led him to briefly cut off aid to the Ukrainian military. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared that Ukraine would never join NATO -- a reversal of stated American policy -- and Vice President JD Vance spoke out against arming the Ukrainians. Russia was exempted from most tariffs. Advertisement That has been followed by a series of apparent reversals, with no public acknowledgment from Trump that he is changing strategy. He no longer relies on what he has framed as a deep past relationship with Putin in an effort to win him over. In fact, he has been quite open about his frustration that conversations about ceasefires are usually followed by Russian escalation, often in the pace of drone and missile attacks. 'I think what bothers the president the most is he has these great phone calls where everyone sort of claims yeah, we'd like to see this end, if we could find a way forward,' Rubio said in his Fox interview, 'and then he turns on the news and another city has been bombed, including those far from the front lines.' 'So at some point,' Rubio told his interviewer, Brian Kilmeade of Fox News Radio, 'he's got to make a decision here about what -- how much to continue to engage in an effort to do ceasefires if one of the two sides is not interested.' On Monday, Trump said he would give Russia about 10 to 12 days to end the war before imposing 'sanctions and maybe tariffs, secondary tariffs,' a reference to sanctions on countries that trade with Russia. But there is reason to question how far Trump will push for full secondary sanctions, which would involve threatening the three countries buying much of Russia's oil and gas: China, India and Turkey. All are key to other American interests, and Trump is likely to need future favors and cooperation from them. And it is hard to imagine that China's president, Xi Jinping, would abandon Putin, his most critical partner in challenging American power. Advertisement Rubio took up the hard choices in his conversation with Kilmeade, arguing that 'the president has a lot of options.' He noted that if the United States could get at Russia's oil sales, it 'is a huge part of their revenue.' For their part, Russian officials who have long been presumed to speak with Putin's blessing have dismissed Trump's threats, portraying him in Russian media as erratic and unpredictable. 'Fifty days, it used to be 24 hours, it used to be 100 days,' Sergey Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, said a few weeks ago, as Trump kept moving the deadlines. 'We've been through all this.' Democrats say Trump has other options: He could provide direct military aid to Ukraine, as Congress did during the Biden administration. Instead, he has an elaborate plan to sell arms and related technologies to Europe, which will then donate them to Ukraine. Trump once suggested he could end the war in 24 hours simply by negotiating with Putin, man to man. But now, as Trump's frustration over the conflict grows, his threats have raised questions about how much leverage the United States has with Russia -- and whether Trump is willing to use it. This article originally appeared in Advertisement

What New Satellite Photo Reveals About China's Invasion Plans
What New Satellite Photo Reveals About China's Invasion Plans

Newsweek

timean hour ago

  • Newsweek

What New Satellite Photo Reveals About China's Invasion Plans

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. New satellite imagery has surfaced showing China's enigmatic new landing barges—vessels believed to have been designed to support large-scale amphibious assaults, such as a potential invasion of Taiwan. Newsweek reached out to the Chinese defense ministry by email with a request for comment outside of office hours. Why It Matters Taiwan, a global hub for high-tech supply chains and a major U.S. trade partner, faces increasing pressure from China. Beijing's Chinese Communist Party government claims Taiwan as its territory—despite never having ruled there—and has vowed unification is inevitable. China has intensified pressure on Taiwan through near-daily military sorties in the Taiwan Strait, large-scale exercises and simulated blockades. Current and former U.S. officials believe Chinese President Xi Jinping has directed the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to be capable of taking the island by 2027. What To Know First reported by Naval News in January, the vessels were constructed in Guangzhou Shipyards by the CSSC Offshore & Marine Engineering Company (COMEC), which provides the PLA with provider replenishment oilers and other support ships. The barges, dubbed "Shuiqiao"—Mandarin for "water bridge"—barges, are notable for their jack-up legs and bridges that extend nearly 400 feet. These features allow multiple barges to be connected, forming a single long span, as seen in images and video shared by military enthusiasts on Chinese social media. A Shuiqiao barge functions as a temporary pontoon. Tanks and other armored vehicles ferried to the coast by China's roll-on/roll-off ships could drive over the bridge and disembark farther inland, bypassing heavily defended beaches. 🔎PLAN Shuiqiao Update & Correction Earlier, I noted the absence of the first batch of #Shuqiao class amphibious assault barges. Huge thanks to @SinoTalk (Joaquin Camarena) for the excellent clarification (and great posts on the topic)! New imagery confirms these 3 barges (seen… — MT Anderson (@MT_Anderson) July 30, 2025 A July 27 photo captured by satellite imagery provider SkyFi shows three of the barges near Nantian Island in Zhejiang province, accompanied by a PLA Fujian-class tanker. Open-source analyst MT Anderson, who shared the photos on X, formerly Twitter, wrote that the barges appeared to be undergoing verification testing. Analysts say the choice of location is intentional, as the terrain closely resembles coastal areas northeast of Taipei, the Taiwanese capital. "It reflects a deliberate effort to simulate Taiwan's northeast coastline, particularly areas like Yilan County and New Taipei City, where rugged, less-defended beaches could offer the PLA an asymmetric opening," Bryce Barros, former China affairs analyst with the German Marshall Fund, told Newsweek. This image uploaded to Chinese microblogging site Weibo on June 16 shows three of the Chinese military's "Shuiqiao" amphibious barges. This image uploaded to Chinese microblogging site Weibo on June 16 shows three of the Chinese military's "Shuiqiao" amphibious barges. Weibo "This suggests the PLA may be preparing to rapidly disembark vehicles, troops, and supplies near the capital if a beachhead can be secured," he added. The barges, however, would be highly vulnerable without established air and sea superiority and could still face threats from Taiwanese drones and portable missile launchers like the Javelin, Barros said, pointing to Ukraine's defense against invading Russian forces as an example. What's Next A more recent satellite photo, also shared by Anderson, showed the barges—which bear the hull numbers "Dongong" 401, 402 and 403—were still at Nantian Island as of Sunday. If the ships are undergoing verification training, they could soon be incorporated into the PLA Navy.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store