Ukraine-Russia war latest: Moscow and Kyiv trade aerial attacks as Zelensky signs deals to boost drone production
Russia's defence ministry said its air defences shot down 120 Ukrainian drones during the nighttime attacks, and 39 more before 2pm Moscow time (1100 GMT) yesterday.
The Ukrainian drone attack caused flight disruptions at Moscow's Sheremetyevo and St Petersburg's main Pulkovo airports. Other airports in western and central Russia also faced disruptions.
Russia also fired large-scale drone strikes on Ukraine yesterday, injuring three civilians in Kyiv and at least two in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city in the northeast.
The continuing onslaught comes as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky announced deals with his European allies and a leading US defence company that would allow Kyiv to scale up drone production to 'hundreds of thousands' more this year.
Mr Zelensky also hinted that he spoke to the US president Donald Trump on securing more Patriot systems to fight back Russian attacks.
Russia and Ukraine trade drone strikes in weekend attack
Russia and Ukraine struck each other with hundreds of drones yesterday, forcing shutdown of airports and throwing Russian air travel in disarray.
Russian air defences shot down 120 Ukrainian drones during the nighttime attacks, and 39 more before 2pm Moscow time (1100 GMT) yesterday, Russia's defence ministry said.
It did not clarify how many had hit targets, or how many had been launched in total.
Photos and videos of the attack showed crowds huddling at Russian airports including key international hubs in Moscow and St Petersburg, as hundreds of flights were delayed or canceled due to Ukrainian drone strikes on Saturday and overnight, according to Russia's transport ministry.
The flight disruptions hit Moscow's Sheremetyevo and St. Petersburg's main Pulkovo airports. Other airports in western and central Russia also faced disruptions.
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Daily Mail
18 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Could Putin and Xi really invade Taiwan and Europe at the same time? Experts explain why a simultaneous attack is unlikely despite NATO chief's WW3 warning - but China and Russia are still trying to undermine the West
Leading experts have dismissed NATO chief Mark Rutte's claim that World War III could begin with a simultaneous invasion of Taiwan by China and an assault on NATO 's eastern flank by Russia. In a chilling vision laid out to the New York Times this weekend, the former Dutch prime minister said that Xi Jinping, before launching a long-anticipated attack on Taiwan, would first call Vladimir Putin and ask him to open a second front on NATO's eastern flank. Indeed, Western military chiefs have already begun planning for such a scenario. Last month, the former head of the British Army, General Sir Patrick Sanders, revealed the Ministry of Defence has drawn up a response plan for wars breaking out simultaneously on two fronts and added his ex-colleagues were 'really worried' about the prospect. But Sir Lawrence Freedman, Emeritus Professor of War Studies at King's College London, rejected the idea that Putin would ask how high if Xi tells him to jump - even though he is indebted to China's President. 'China has really helped Russia economically and to a degree technologically with its war in Ukraine. But it hasn't gone as far as North Korea, for example, by deploying troops or sending artillery shells' he told MailOnline. 'There is no reason to expect that Russia would do more for China in return. You don't go to major war as a favour, especially not with NATO. You do it for your own strategic interests.' Still, Freedman warned that NATO leaders and defence chiefs cannot afford to overlook the independent threat posed by each powerful military force - nor the increasingly coordinated efforts to challenge Western power in other domains. Other top analysts argue that even if Putin is unwilling to sacrifice his military for Xi's sake, the two powers are now locked in a new Cold War with the West and preparing in tandem to reshape the global order. Russia and China's 'no limits' partnership At the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping stood shoulder to shoulder as they unveiled a sweeping joint declaration, proclaiming a 'no limits' partnership and hailing the dawn of a new global order. Though they stopped short of signing a formal military alliance, both leaders made clear their intention to reshape the world's balance of power by undermining and degrading what they perceive to be the West's domination of international political and economic forums and mechanisms. What's more, Xi and Putin appear to have formed a genuine friendship, having met with one another dozens of times over the course of their respective presidencies. While the partnership remains asymmetrical - China is the dominant partner by far - both have a clear incentive to keep it going. Beijing has never formally endorsed Russia's war in Ukraine, but it has provided considerable indirect support, albeit to its own benefit - and China's Foreign Minister is said to have told EU diplomats that China 'cannot accept' a Russian loss. China is one of the primary benefactors of the West's ruthless sanctions regime against the Kremlin. It has become the principal buyer of Russian oil and gas, importing huge quantities of energy, thereby ploughing funds into Putin's war chest. Though Beijing has not yet been found to have directly supplied Moscow with arms, it is widely believed to have provided raw materials, vital components and dual-use technologies vital to Russia's defence industry. Freedman said Moscow has little to offer Beijing in the way of defence and military technology, but pointed out that Russia has one thing that no amount of investment can buy that could prove invaluable for Xi's designs on Taiwan. 'What China doesn't have is combat experience,' he said. 'Russia's military has spent more than three years fighting an open war in Ukraine, particularly in land and air domains, deploying a range of modern technologies. It also has experience fighting and countering US and Western-made weapons systems. 'Moscow could certainly provide input to Beijing in terms of the challenges it is likely to face in an invasion of Taiwan,' he said. Other analysts believe the Sino-Russian relationship extends far beyond mere economic, technological and limited military support. Velina Tchakarova, a geopolitical strategist and former Director at the Austrian Institute for European and Security Policy (AIES), argues the powers have formed a broad strategic understanding in which they leverage their unique advantages in tandem to systematically undermine US and Western influence around the world. Coining the term 'DragonBear' to refer to the Sino-Russian axis, Tchakarova claims the pair are performing division of labour in multiple regions, particularly Eurasia and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This sees the economic powerhouse that is China lead on finance, trade and infrastructure, engaging emerging powers and fledgling economies as part of its global Belt and Road Initiative, while Russia acts as a security guarantor and energy partner - an arrangement she believes can function provided neither party encroaches too far on the other's spheres of influence. Meanwhile, both parties occupy leading roles in the development of the BRICS group - a global economic alliance seen by many as an alternative to the G7 and a vehicle for major geopolitical upheaval. 'Russia needs a powerful ally after the precarious isolation by the West, while China seeks a partner with regional power projection,' she wrote in a piece for the Observer Research Foundation. 'The 'DragonBear' is not a classic alliance according to Western ideas and concepts. Rather, China and Russia have tactically entered into a rapprochement... without the need to announce a strategic alliance, let alone a military one. 'China is evidently the stronger partner economically and financially, but it treats Russia as an equal rather than a subordinate counterpart... The unequal collaboration is cemented by the shared geopolitical interest in creating a credible counterweight to US influence in international affairs,' she concluded. Secretary-general Mark Rutte suggested combined attacks from the Chinese and Russian leaders could trigger a World War nightmare and bring the planet to the brink of Armageddon Military equipment takes part in long-range live-fire drills in waters of the East China Sea, in this screenshot from a handout video released by the Eastern Theatre Command of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) on April 2, 2025 How could China's invasion of Taiwan unfold? Though the likelihood of Xi and Putin collaborating to deliver a one-two punch to NATO is scant, according to Freedman, the prospect of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan appears to be growing more likely with each passing year. Measuring just 36,000 square kilometres, Taiwan is roughly 1/25th the size of mainland China, or about half the size of Scotland - but it is a territory of immense strategic and economic importance. Its elected Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presides over a self-governing, democratic society and has sought close ties with the US, hoping its political, military and economic heft will keep Xi's expansionist tendencies at bay. But China continues to conduct huge and increasingly frequent war games around the island, and Xi's Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has openly declared it is willing to reclaim Taiwan by force if necessary. 'These [blockades and military drills] are happening so regularly, it shows that China wishes to maintain psychological pressure on Taiwan and to continue to remind the international community of its claims and its resolve to see them ultimately fulfilled,' Professor Kerry Brown, former First Secretary at the British Embassy in Beijing, told MailOnline. 'Nationalist sentiment in China is high at the moment, but the costs currently of moving against Taiwan are very, very high. Unless provoked, I cannot imagine that China would do this. But we are living in very worrying and uncertain times. Alas, this issue is now more dangerous than it has ever been before.' In one attack scenario, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) would launch a full naval blockade of Taiwan, choking off vital imports of food and minerals and pressuring the island to submit without a shot being fired. Taiwan, which produces only around a third of its own food, would be vulnerable to such a strategy, particularly given China's naval prowess and litany of weaponry designed to make a blockade stick - from cruise missiles and anti-ship weapons to long-range rockets like the DF-26B. A more direct option would see China mount an amphibious invasion of Taiwan in a massive undertaking akin to the D-Day landings. This operation would likely follow a period of extensive missile bombardments designed to cripple Taiwan's air defences, command centres, and logistics hubs. An initial assault could include helicopter-borne special forces and airborne troops equipped with armoured vehicles, followed by waves of amphibious forces from China's Eastern Theatre Command. In recent months, analysts have noted the deployment of new 'invasion barges' designed to offload troops and heavy equipment directly onto Taiwan's often rugged coastline. A successful invasion of Taiwan by China would herald the advent of a new world order, Professor Brown said, because such an outcome presupposes one of two seismic events - a total defeat of the US military in the Indo-Pacific theatre, or Washington abruptly abandoning a decades-long security partnership with Taipei. Both scenarios would be catastrophic for America, and by extension, Western interests in the highly strategic region. Dr Philip Shetler-Jones, Senior Research Fellow in Indo‑Pacific Security at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think-tank, said: 'If the PRC controls Taiwan, it gains an advantage in controlling air, surface and sub-surface areas astride the main shipping and air routes connecting Japan and South Korea to their sources of critical imports - especially energy - and markets. 'It would be enabled to challenge the US Navy more effectively across the Pacific.' Dr Sean Kenji Starrs, Lecturer in International Development at King's College London, warned that such an outcome 'would probably mean the end of freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait.' These waterways account for a vast proportion of the world's electronics trade, including goods bound for Europe and the US. It would also make it much more difficult for the US to blockade the Strait of Malacca - a vital maritime chokepoint linking the Pacific and Indian Oceans that carries much of China's fuel and exports. 'All of this would basically mean that China could become a peer competitor to the United States in East Asia, thus the end of US hegemony in East Asia,' Starrs concluded. How could a Russian attack on NATO unfold? While China looks eastward, Russia is working hard to reconstitute its military capacity amid the ongoing war in Ukraine in preparation for a potential future clash with NATO. Despite the immense costs of its conflict with Kyiv, Moscow has pushed its economy into wartime mobilisation and is rapidly rearming. A major study by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) concluded that Russia could be ready to launch a fresh conflict against NATO's European cohort by 2027 - particularly if the US under Trump scales down its security presence on the continent. 'European allies can no longer assume that the US will provide the necessary military support to defend the continent against Russian aggression,' the IISS warned. 'Were US forces to disengage from the European theatre from mid-2025, Europe's window of vulnerability would open quickly.' In a parallel analysis, the RAND Corporation argued that the Kremlin is likely to maintain its wartime economy and permanent militarisation irrespective of how the war in Ukraine ends. 'Once [the Ukraine war] ends, this shift to a wartime economy, and the attendant effects on the defence industrial sector, will be difficult to reverse without provoking a backlash,' RAND noted. Russia is operating 'according to wartime rules' with '24/7 defence production', the report said. As one expert explained: 'If Russia decides to reconstitute, it will... Russia is not worried about the next election and will sacrifice healthcare and other social benefits to divert resources toward military reconstitution... 'In Russia, "the war has become the political system".' Ed Arnold, a Senior Research Fellow for European Security at RUSI, told MailOnline how Russia could seek to destabilise NATO with a targeted and calculated invasion. 'What Moscow would try to do is launch a small-scale operation to take a part of a NATO territory and hold it,' he said. 'That would put NATO in a difficult position as to how to respond, whether this would meet the conditions for Article 5.' He added: 'If you're Putin, you're going to want to do that when you have a US president who is ambivalent to NATO at best.' A Swedish artillery team fires a projectile from an Archer self-propelled Howitzer during the NATO 'Exercise Lightning Strike' on November 20, 2024 near Heinu, Finland According to various NATO sources, a potential Russian attack plan could involve landing forces in Finnish Lapland or northern Norway, and amphibious operations to capture the Swedish island of Gotland. The most likely objective, however, remains the Suwalki Gap - a narrow land bridge between Belarus and Russia's exclave of Kaliningrad that borders Lithuania and Poland. Arnold said: 'The Russian scenario could be as small as to enter the Suwalki Gap and seize a few miles of territory, widening the gap by a few miles each side. 'This could sow division and discord in NATO - from one perspective, that's a military incursion on NATO territory that must be defended, but there will be others asking whether we want to risk a war with a nuclear-armed power over such a small bit of land.' Arnold concluded that such an operation was not a highly likely scenario, but one that Western leaders cannot afford to ignore. 'Prior to 2022, many would have said that a full-scale [invasion] of Ukraine is silly, but Putin went ahead and did it anyway.'
Reuters
18 minutes ago
- Reuters
One killed, dozens wounded in Russian strikes on Kharkiv in Ukraine
KHARKIV, Ukraine, July 7 (Reuters) - At least one person was killed and 71 wounded in Russian drone attacks on the northeast Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, officials said on Monday, and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called for more support from Kyiv's allies. One person was also killed in a drone attack on the southern city of Odesa and at least 20 were wounded in a morning drone strike on Zaporizhzia in the southeast, regional officials said. In Kharkiv, apartment buildings, a kindergarten and the regional draft office were damaged in two waves of strikes, local officials and the military said. During the second wave, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said six Shahed attack drones had struck Ukraine's second biggest city within 10 minutes, aimed "at residential streets, at cars, at people". He said the 71 people wounded in the two attacks included seven children. Andriy Prenko, 61, said he was having breakfast in his kitchen when he heard a drone approach. "I woke my wife and goddaughter up and took them to the bathroom. I stood behind the partition wall and then there was an explosion," he told Reuters in his damaged apartment. "Glass shattered and the windows were blown off. Then there was another one (attack)." Kharkiv has frequently been targeted since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. Russia has increased the intensity of aerial attacks in recent weeks, and carried out more missile and drone strikes across Ukraine overnight. Russian airstrikes have killed thousands of civilians during the war. Moscow says it does not target civilians directly although it does target infrastructure that it says supports Ukraine's war effort. Ukraine has killed a smaller number of civilians in attacks on Russian territory and Russian-held parts of Ukraine. Zelenskiy urged Kyiv's Western partners to deliver on pledges to boost Ukrainian defences. "We are strongly counting on our partners to fully deliver on what we have agreed," Zelenskiy wrote on X. "Air defense remains the top priority for protecting lives."
Reuters
34 minutes ago
- Reuters
Sacked Russian transport minister found dead in his car with gunshot wound
MOSCOW, July 7 (Reuters) - Russia's sacked transport minister has been found dead in his car outside Moscow with a gunshot wound and the principal hypothesis is that he took his own life, state investigators said on Monday, hours after President Vladimir Putin fired him. A presidential decree published earlier on Monday gave no reason for the dismissal of Roman Starovoit after barely a year in the job, though political analysts were quick to raise the possibility that he may have been dismissed in connection with an investigation into corruption in the region he once ran. Reuters could not independently confirm these suggestions, though a transport industry source, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, said Starovoit's position had been in question for months due to questions about the same corruption scandal, which centred on funds earmarked for fortifying Russia's border with Ukraine in the Kursk region. There were conflicting reports about the timing of Starovoit's death. Russia's Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said in a statement it was working to establish the precise circumstances. Various Russian media cited law enforcement sources as saying a pistol belonging to Starovoit had been found alongside his body in his car. Before being appointed transport minister in May 2024, Starovoit had been governor of the Kursk region for nearly five years. Three months after he became transport minister, Ukrainian troops crossed the border into Kursk in the biggest foreign incursion into Russian territory since World War Two and were only pushed out earlier this year after fierce fighting and widespread destruction. In April this year, Starovoit's successor as governor, Alexei Smirnov, was charged with embezzling money earmarked for defence purposes amid accusations that the funds earmarked for border defences had been stolen, leaving Kursk more vulnerable to Ukrainian attack. Pressed earlier on Monday by reporters on whether his dismissal meant Putin had lost trust in Starovoit over Kursk, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said "a loss of trust is mentioned if there is a loss of trust". "There is no such wording in the (Kremlin) decree." Starovoit's dismissal comes at a time of significant challenges for Russia's transport sector as the war in Ukraine drags on for a fourth year. Russia's aviation sector is short of spare parts and Russian Railways, the country's largest employer, is grappling with soaring interest costs as high rates - needed to curb higher inflation exacerbated by the war - take their toll. The Kremlin said Andrei Nikitin, a former governor of the Novgorod region, had been appointed acting transport minister and it published photographs of him shaking hands with Putin in the Kremlin. Asked about Nikitin's swift appointment, Kremlin spokesman Peskov said: "At present, in the president's opinion, Andrei Nikitin's professional qualities and experience will best contribute to ensuring that this agency, which the president described as extremely important, fulfils its tasks and functions." Two transport industry sources said plans to replace Starovoit with Nikitin had been in the works since before last month's International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg. The transport ministry declined to comment on Monday. At his meeting with Putin, Nikitin spoke about working on the huge task of digitising Russia's transport industry in an effort to reduce cargo bottlenecks and ensure smoother cross-border flows of goods.
