Trump 'concedes' to Russia before Ukraine peace talks begin
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Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,255
Here is how things stand on Saturday, August 2: Fighting Ukrainian rescuers recovered more than a dozen more bodies from the rubble of a collapsed apartment block in Kyiv overnight, bringing the death toll from Thursday's attack by Russia to 31. A two-year-old was among five children found dead as a result of what is now Russia's worst air strike of the year on Ukraine's capital, which also injured 159 people, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said as he announced the end of a more than 24-hour-long rescue operation at the site. Russia launched more than 3,800 drones and nearly 260 missiles for its attacks on Ukraine throughout July, Zelenskyy said. Military aid NATO countries, Ukraine and the United States are developing a new mechanism that will focus on getting US weapons to Ukraine from the Priority Ukraine Requirements List, known under the acronym PURL, the Reuters news agency reports, citing three sources familiar with the matter. As part of the PURL mechanism, Ukraine would prioritise the weapons it needs in tranches of roughly $500m, and NATO allies would then negotiate among themselves who would donate or pay for items on the list. Germany said it will deliver two Patriot missile defence systems to Ukraine after reaching an agreement with the US that Berlin will be first in line to receive the latest Patriot systems to replenish the weapons donated to Kyiv. A top adviser to President Zelenskyy said Russia is providing North Korea with technology for Shahed-type attack drones and assisting in their production. Ceasefire British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and President Zelenskyy welcomed US President Donald Trump's new deadline for Russia to make progress towards ending its more than three-year-long war on Ukraine. Zelenskyy said he had discussed with Starmer the potential formats for a summit of leaders to discuss peace in Ukraine. Russia's President Vladimir Putin said Moscow hoped for more peace talks with Ukraine but that the momentum of the war was in Moscow's favour, signalling no shift in his stance despite a looming sanctions deadline issued by Trump. Putin also said that the first batch of mass-produced Oreshnik ballistic missile systems had been delivered to the Russian army. In a post on X responding to Putin's remarks, Zelenskyy repeated his willingness to sit down with the Russian leader, saying Ukraine wants to 'move beyond' statements and lower-level meetings on the matter. 'If these are signals of a genuine willingness to end the war with dignity and establish a truly lasting peace … then Ukraine once again reaffirms its readiness to meet at the level of leaders at any time,' Zelenskyy said. Regional developments President Trump said he had ordered two nuclear submarines to be positioned in 'the appropriate regions' in response to remarks from the former Russian president and deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, about the risk of war between the two nuclear-armed countries. Europe must start seeing Ukraine as a European country, and the Ukrainian military as a European army, Ilya Yashin, a prominent Russian opposition activist, said in Belgrade. 'The Ukrainian army is not only protecting Ukraine, it is protecting Europe from Russian aggression,' Yashin told hundreds of Russians who now live in Serbia.
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Russia's actions in Ukraine ‘disgusting', says Trump
United States President Donald Trump has threatened new sanctions while slamming Russia's military actions in Ukraine as 'disgusting'. 'Russia – I think it's disgusting what they're doing. I think it's disgusting,' Trump told reporters on Thursday, the same day Moscow's attacks on Kyiv killed more than a dozen people. Trump also said he would send his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, currently in Israel, to visit Russia next. Russian President Vladimir Putin has already met Witkoff multiple times in Moscow, before Trump's efforts to mend ties with the Kremlin came to a grinding halt. Washington has given Moscow until the end of next week to cease hostilities in Ukraine, under threat of severe economic sanctions. Trump reiterated the deadline on Thursday. 'We're going to put sanctions. I don't know that sanctions bother him,' the US president said, referring to Putin. Trump has previously threatened that new measures could mean 'secondary tariffs' targeting Russia's remaining trade partners, such as China and India. This would further stifle Russia, but would risk significant international disruption. The US president began his second term with his own rosy predictions that the war in Ukraine, raging since Russia invaded its neighbour in February 2022, would soon end. In recent weeks, Trump has increasingly voiced frustration with Putin over Moscow's unrelenting offensive. Call for 'regime change' Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged his allies to bring about 'regime change' in Russia, hours after the deadly attack on Kyiv. Speaking virtually to a conference marking 50 years since the signing of the Cold War-era Helsinki Accords on Thursday, Zelenskyy said he believed Russia could be 'pushed' to stop 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. Russia's predawn attacks on Kyiv on Thursday killed 26 people, including three children, and wounded 159, Ukraine's interior ministry said on Friday. On Thursday, officials said the drone and missile strikes had killed at least 18 people, and reduced part of a nine-storey apartment block in Kyiv's western suburbs to rubble. Among the victims was a six-year-old boy who died on the way to hospital, the head of the city's military administration, Tymur Tkachenko, posted on Telegram. From late Wednesday to early Thursday, Russia fired at least 300 drones and eight cruise missiles at Ukraine, with Kyiv the main target, the Ukrainian air force said. Zelenskyy late on Thursday denounced the 'unimaginable scale of terror and brutality' of the Russian strikes. The Russian army, meanwhile, claimed to have captured Chasiv Yar, a strategically important hillside town in eastern Ukraine where the two sides have been fiercely fighting for months. Moscow has stepped up its deadly aerial assaults on Ukraine in recent months in the conflict, resisting US pressure to end its nearly three-and-a-half-year invasion as its forces grind forward on the battlefield.
