Friday, July 11. Russia's War On Ukraine: News And Information From Ukraine
Dispatches from Ukraine. Day 1,234
Russian Attacks on Ukraine and War Developments
Russia hammered Ukraine with 1,125 drones and decoys and 31 missiles over two consecutive nights of strikes. July 9 saw the most intense Russian barrage of the war, with 728 drones dispatched, surpassing the previous single-attack record by about 200 units. Ukrainian forces intercepted 13 cruise missiles and eight ballistic missiles, while neutralizing 460 drones, as well as electronically jamming an additional 619 drones. Still, impacts were recorded in 12 locations, and none of the six Kinzhal hypersonic missiles were downed. The massive bombardment on July 9, primarily targeting the western city of Lutsk, caused no civilian casualties. By contrast, the attack that followed in the early hours of July 10, with drones seemingly descending on Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, from all directions, killed two residents and wounded 26 others.
In addition to the back-to-back, mammoth overnight strikes, other Russian attacks killed at least 21 civilians across Ukraine on July 7-10. In eastern Donetsk oblast, or region, Russian artillery shelling and drone attacks resulted in 15 civilians deaths, with 31 others wounded. In northeastern Kharkiv oblast, Russian attacks killed two individuals and injured 46 others, while a Russian drone strike killed one resident in the central Dnipropetrovsk region. In southern Kherson oblast, the regional governor reported three residents killed and 35 others injured.
Following a string of Russian aerial strikes of record proportions, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on July 10 that he expects Russia to try to regularly launch mega drone strikes of 700–1,000 units per night against his country. Speaking at the International Ukraine Recovery Conference in Rome, Zelenskyy said that Kyiv has already found a key to neutralizing Russia's drone warfare: cheap, domestically manufactured 'interceptor drones.' He also stated that Ukraine is ready to mass-produce this type of drone but urgently needs more financing.
Ukraine's problems are not limited to the skies. Russia is outpacing Ukrainian recruitment and is now advancing faster than at any point in two years. According to an independent Ukrainian open source intelligence project, Russia seized control of roughly 215 square miles of Ukrainian territory in June, the most since last November.
Russia's current offensive on Ukrainian soil is shaping up to be its deadliest yet, with some 31,000 Russian troops killed since early May. Using NASA satellite data and casualty modeling, British weekly The Economist estimates total Russian losses between 900,000 and 1.3 million since the start of the invasion, including up to 350,000 dead; Ukrainian military deaths, in turn, are estimated between 73,000 to 140,000 troops.
U.S. Renews Military Aid to Ukraine
The U.S. has resumed military aid shipments to Ukraine, following a controversial pause earlier this month. The temporary halt, reportedly authorized by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on July 2 without notifying the White House or U.S. allies, sparked confusion in Ukraine and Europe. According to U.S. and Ukrainian officials, the weapons shipments had already reached as far as Poland when defense officials abruptly stopped them.
According to CNN, Trump ordered Hegseth to renew some Ukraine-bound supplies, such as critical Patriot missiles, shortly after learning about the suspension. On July 7, the Pentagon issued a statement confirming the renewal of support. 'At President Trump's direction, the Defense Department is sending additional defensive weapons to Ukraine to ensure the Ukrainians can defend themselves while we work to secure a lasting peace and ensure the killing stops.'
Trump has in recent weeks expressed a desire to bolster Ukraine's defenses, particularly with Patriot systems, which he has previously called 'very effective,100% effective.' He further expressed frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a Cabinet meeting on July 8, saying that 'He's very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.'
International
The European Court of Human Rights sided with Ukraine and the Netherlands in the largest case involving nation state litigants hitherto brought before the court. The case, which spanned more than a decade and drew support from 26 countries, consolidated four separate complaints, including the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory in 2014, the deadliest plane crash of the 21st century after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York.
The ruling concluded that Russia was behind the downing of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing and found it responsible for the forced deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, as well as the suppression of Ukrainian language and culture. The court affirmed that Moscow's military presence in Ukraine was part of a strategy to exert control over Ukraine's people and sovereignty. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissed the court's judgments, stating that Russia 'has no intention of enforcing them.'
The European Union is racing to plug a shortfall of as much as $19 billion in Ukraine's 2026 annual budget. Among the options EU officials are weighing are speeding up loans from a $50 billion G7 program and turning military aid into off-budget grants that will count toward NATO's new 5% (of GDP) defense spending target for member states. Brussels is also considering shifting frozen Russian assets into riskier, higher-yield investment vehicles to boost profits it can use to aid Ukraine, while diversifying potential losses away from Belgium, where most of the frozen Russian funds are concentrated.
Despite increasing financial support from European allies, Ukraine is facing a growing budget shortfall amid dwindling U.S. aid. On June 30, the Ukrainian government sent an updated budget plan for this year to its parliament, the Verkhovna Rada. The new plan increases total expenditures by about $10.7 billion, most of which will be allocated to weapons procurement.
By Danylo Nosov, Karina L. Tahiliani
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New York Post
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Here's the status of Russia's meat-grinder offensive in Donetsk — as fate of the region hangs on peace deal
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Fast Company
25 minutes ago
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Russia's drones have created a brand-new form of pollution
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And now Ukranians have copied it, as the frontlines are quickly filling up with white plastic cables that sometimes cover entire fields, forests, and small towns. These plastic spider-webs are invading everything, as the two sides relentlessly launch wave after wave of these kamikaze machines, each of them equipped with spools of fiber-optic cables that directly connect the drones to the pilots that use joysticks and virtual reality goggles to control them. At the beginning, they could barely reach 3 to 6 miles. Today, they're striking targets at distances exceeding 25 miles. You would think that 25 miles of cable would be impossible for a light FPV drone to lift, but the fiber-optics cables are so thin and light that only weigh a few pounds. 'Three months ago, we were testing fiber-optic drones with a range of up to 12 miles. Today, these systems are already capable of hitting enemy targets at distances beyond 25 miles,' Mykhailo Fedorov, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, announced on Telegram at the end of July. 'Strikes at a depth of 25+ mils are becoming the new norm for fiber-optic drones,' he said. Russian videos now show spools extending to 31 miles that weigh less than 8.8 pounds—which makes them suitable for larger drones. You can also order the spools from China, complete with all the necessary electronics. Let's do some math. As of 2025, Ukraine's total FPV drone production capacity has surged to 200,000 units per month from the initial 20,000 units produced monthly in early 2024. Approximately 10% of the total Ukrainian drone output is now fiber-optic guided. The Russian numbers are not as clear. As of July 2025, tens of thousands of units of the wire-guided Prince Vandal drone are produced monthly, according to the official news agency TASS. Another source puts that number at 6,000 units per month. Let's say it's a conservative total of 15,000 drones for both sides. At 25 miles of cable per drone, that's 375,000 miles of plastic cable, enough to circle the Earth's equator 15 times. That's a lot of trash which will have a dramatic effect on agriculture, fauna and flora, and people's lives for years to come. Things will get bad before they get worse Of course, with their immediate survival on the line and with Trump and Putin playing Risk with their homeland, infinite plastic spiderwebs are the last thing that the Ukrainians are thinking about right now. But there is no doubt that, as this technological arms race accelerates, so will the environmental catastrophe for a country that has already been razed to the ground in many places. 'Due to their composition, these cables could persist in the environment for more than 600 years, posing a substantial long-term threat,' warns Leon Moreland, researcher at the Conflict and Environmental Observatory. With the new longer-range systems now being deployed on an industrial scale, the environmental impact is multiplying exponentially. The cables form dangerous networks across trees and clearings that will pose a significant risk of entanglement and death to many species, including threatened birds and bats, for years to come, says Charlie Russell, University of East Anglia researcher who focuses on wars' impact on migratory birds. 'The materials used make them difficult to identify and unlikely to naturally degrade, and they already cover vast swathes of important habitats. Removing them will be difficult but integral to long-term conservation efforts post-conflict.' The risks go beyond wildlife. They're also a danger to vehicles, affecting everything from agricultural machinery to fire trucks fighting forest fires. Additionally, they will complicate future de-mining operations, as they can get tangled in the heavy machinery used to clear minefields. Pollution begets more pollution Beyond the direct and immediate issues caused by endless miles of cabling, they will cause even more problems over time as they slowly degrade. They will release contaminants, Moreland says. Their PMMA core (PolymethylMethacrylate) core can generate microplastics and nanoplastics. These tiny particles can inhibit agricultural crop growth, which is a major problem for a country that is one of the main global producers and exporters of corn and wheat. The plastic will inexorably get into the food chain and reach humans, accumulating in different parts of the body, especially on infants. Burning the wires first isn't a solution, as the cables will release toxic gases like nitric oxide. 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Ukraine has now codified and approved about 40 samples of unmanned aircraft systems using fiber-optic control channels since the beginning of 2025, while production capacity keeps ramping up. It's also likely that Ukraine companies will start sharing their extensive expertise with the rest of European countries, which are now quickly rearming to face the imperialist thirst of Vladimir Putin after the United States turned its back on them. Other countries will follow, Moreland points out: China is already testing this technology. The success of fiber-optic drones in Ukraine virtually guarantees their proliferation to other conflicts worldwide. Every successful mission adds to the accumulating miles of fiber-optic cable abandoned on the ground. As production scales from thousands to potentially tens of thousands of drones per month, and as ranges extend from 25 to 40+ miles, the plastic spider web grows ever denser. 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Associated Press
27 minutes ago
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