Putin Minister Found Dead After Ukraine Failures
Starovoyt was found dead at his home on Monday, July 7, with a firearm nearby, RIA Novosti reported.
He was the governor of Russia's Kursk region until May 2024, when he was appointed to the transportation role by Putin.
But Ukraine's incursion into Kursk fueled scrutiny of Starovoyt's job preparing the border defenses, and his deputy is implicated in a corruption scandal related to border fortifications, The Moscow Times reported.
The Kremlin's announcement gave no reason for Starovoyt's dismissal. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on it.
Over the weekend, hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed at Moscow's Sheremetyevo and St. Petersburg's Pulkovo airports, and thousands of travelers faced long waits.
Other airports in western and central Russia also faced disruptions because of Ukrainian drone attacks.
This is a breaking news story. Updates to follow.
This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.
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USA Today
3 minutes ago
- USA Today
Putin stalls. Trump changes his mind. Ukraine targets Moscow. Latest on the war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is stalling over a ceasefire. The White House has changed its mind about sending weapons to Ukraine. A major Ukrainian drone attack on Russia sowed chaos at airports serving Moscow. Russia's summer offensive in Ukraine has seen Moscow make its largest territorial gains in Ukraine since the start of the year, according to the Ukrainian open-source DeepState website and estimates by the Institute for the Study of War, a think tank in Washington, D.C., that specializes in military affairs and warfare. In the past month, Russian military units concentrated in Ukraine's Sumy region, which borders Russia in the northeast, the eastern cities of Pokrovsk and Kostyantynivka, and Zaporizhzhia in the south, have gained about 200 square miles, according to data from the war study institute. That's an area a little larger than the size of Atlanta. Does that mean Russia is prevailing? Not really. It's not that simple. Here's the latest on Russia's war in Ukraine. Why is Russia gaining ground in Ukraine? Ukraine has liberated about 7% of the territory Russia occupied before and after Moscow's full-scale invasion in February 2022, according to Ukrainian estimates and DeepState. That leaves about 19% still in Russian hands. Moscow still controls Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, and about two-thirds of Ukraine's Donetsk region, a vast and heavily industrialized region which remains the center of the ground war. Russia has long had the upper hand in the war in terms of military manpower, but analysts say Moscow has suffered more casualties, and its loss of equipment − vehicles, artillery, tanks − also has been at a higher rate than Ukraine's. Though Russia has been advancing in recent months, those gains have been relatively slow and small, amounting to less than 0.1% of Ukraine's territory in July, according to a manual calculation. Still, one reason Russia may have been able to make progress, according to the war study institute, is that Russia has substantially increased its use of drone attacks, and missiles and shells, on Ukraine. These grew at an average monthly rate of 31% in June and July. Russia has been using drones to pin down Ukrainian troops. No, then yes, to more American weapons for Ukraine. Why? President Donald Trump began his second term promising to end the war in Ukraine in his first 24 hours in office. He quickly halted the flow of military aid to Kyiv and temporarily stopped sharing some intelligence. He also cast blame on Ukraine for the war, giving President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a public dressing down in the Oval Office when he tried to push back on that assertion and counter Trump by saying Putin was not a reliable negotiator. Since then, the leaders have revised their stances and welcomed more nuance in their discussions. The war is still raging. Trump has appeared to change his tune on Ukraine and Putin as the Russian leader has pushed forward with drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities and repeatedly rebuffed Trump's attempts to broker a ceasefire. In early July, Trump said he would resume shipping arms to Ukraine. He also announced a new arrangement with NATO that will see the military alliance transfer advanced U.S.-made air defense systems to Kyiv. He also altered his attitude about the Russian leader. "He's very nice to us all the time," Trump said July 9. "But it turns out to be meaningless." What about the diplomacy? Two rounds of Trump-brokered ceasefire talks between Ukraine and Russia have come to nothing. As the relationship between Putin and Trump has soured, a broad coalition of U.S. lawmakers has lined up ready to place new aggressive sanctions on Russia. Trump also has threatened "severe" economic penalties on Moscow if it does not commit to a ceasefire by early September. The Kremlin has dismissed this as "bluster." The Russian government has suggested that Trump and Putin could meet in Beijing in September when Russia's leader is there for the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. Moscow said it had not heard whether Trump plans to attend. The White House has not commented. But there's little doubt Moscow, for now, is on the back foot geopolitically, and perhaps even militarily. Zelenskyy and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot announced in Kyiv a series of manufacturing deals with French companies on July 21 that will launch drone production in Ukraine. Overnight, Russia launched its latest barrage of drones and missiles at Kyiv. But Ukraine is also fighting back in ways increasingly difficult for Moscow to ignore. Videos published by Russian media showed people sleeping on the floor of Sheremetyevo, Russia's busiest airport, amid long lines and canceled flights after Ukraine bombarded it with drones.
an hour ago
Swarms of Russian drones attack Ukraine nightly as Moscow puts new emphasis on weapon
The long-range Russian drones come in swarms each night, buzzing for hours over Ukraine by the hundreds, terrorizing the population and attacking targets from the industrial east to areas near its western border with Poland. Russia now often batters Ukraine with more drones in a single night than it did during some entire months in 2024, and analysts say the barrages are likely to escalate. On July 8, Russia unleashed more than 700 drones — a record. Some experts say that number could soon top 1,000 a day. The spike comes as U.S. President Donald Trump has given Russia until early September to reach a ceasefire or face new sanctions -– a timeframe Moscow is likely to use to inflict as much damage as possible on Ukraine. Russia has sharply increased its drone output and appears to keep ramping it up. Initially importing Shahed drones from Iran early in the 3 1/2-year-old war, Russia has boosted its domestic production and upgraded the original design. The Russian Defense Ministry says it's turning its drone force into a separate military branch. It also has established a dedicated center for improving drone tactics and better training for those flying them. Russian engineers have changed the original Iranian Shahed to increase its altitude and make it harder to intercept, according to Russian military bloggers and Western analysts. Other modifications include making it more jamming-resistant and able to carry powerful thermobaric warheads. Some use artificial intelligence to operate autonomously. The original Shahed and its Russian replica — called 'Geran,' or 'geranium' — have an engine to propel it at 180 kph (just over 110 mph). A faster jet version is reportedly in the works. The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War noted that cooperation with China has allowed Russia to bypass Western sanctions on imports of electronics for drone production. Ukraine's military intelligence estimates that Russia receives up to 65% of components for its Geran drones from China. Beijing rejects the claims. Russia initially launched its production of the Iranian drones at factory in Alabuga, located in Tatarstan. An Associated Press investigation found employees at the Alabuga plant included young African women who said they were duped into taking jobs there. Geran production later began at a plant in Udmurtia, west of the Ural Mountains. Ukraine has launched drone attacks on both factories but failed to derail production. A report Sunday by state-run Zvezda TV described the Alabuga factory as the world's biggest attack drone plant. 'It's a war of drones. We are ready for it,' said plant director Timur Shagivaleyev, adding it produces all components, including engines and electronics, and has its own training school. The report showed hundreds of black Geran drones stacked in an assembly shop decorated with Soviet-style posters. One featured images of the father of the Soviet nuclear bomb, Igor Kurchatov, legendary Soviet space program chief, Sergei Korolyov, and dictator Josef Stalin, with the words: 'Kurchatov, Korolyov and Stalin live in your DNA.' The Russian military has improved its tactics, increasingly using decoy drones named 'Gerbera' for a type of daisy. They closely resemble the attack drones and are intended to confuse Ukrainian defenses and distract attention from their more deadly twins. By using large numbers of drones in one attack, Russia seeks to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses and keep them from targeting more expensive cruise and ballistic missiles that Moscow often uses alongside the drones to hit targets like key infrastructure facilities, air defense batteries and air bases. Former Russian Defense Ministry press officer Mikhail Zvinchuk, who runs a popular war blog, noted the Russian military has learned to focus on a few targets to maximize the impact. The drones can roam Ukraine's skies for hours, zigzagging past defenses, he wrote. 'Our defense industries' output allows massive strikes on practically a daily basis without the need for breaks to accumulate the necessary resources,' said another military blogger, Alexander Kots. 'We no longer spread our fingers but hit with a punching fist in one spot to make sure we hit the targets.' Ukraine relies on mobile teams armed with machine guns as a low-cost response to the drones to spare the use of expensive Western-supplied air defense missiles. It also has developed interceptor drones and is working to scale up production, but the steady rise in Russian attacks is straining its defenses. Despite international sanctions and a growing load on its economy, Russia's military spending this year has risen 3.4% over 2024, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which estimated it at the equivalent of about $200 billion. While budgetary pressures could increase, it said, the current spending level is manageable for the Kremlin. Over 1.5 million drones of various types were delivered to the military last year, said President Vladimir Putin. Frontelligence Insight, a Ukraine-based open-source intelligence organization, reported this month that Russia launched more than 28,000 Shahed and Geran drones since the full-scale invasion began in 2022, with 10% of the total fired last month alone. While ballistic and cruise missiles are faster and pack a bigger punch, they cost millions and are available only in limited quantities. A Geran drone costs only tens of thousands of dollars — a fraction of a ballistic missile. The drones' range of about 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) allows them to bypass some defenses, and a relatively big load of 40 kilograms (88 pounds) of explosives makes them a highly effective instrument of what the Center for Strategic and International Studies calls 'a cruel attritional logic.' CSIS called them 'the most cost-effective munition in Russia's firepower strike arsenal." 'Russia's plan is to intimidate our society,' Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, adding that Moscow seeks to launch 700 to 1,000 drones a day. Over the weekend, German Maj. Gen. Christian Freuding said in an interview that Russia aims for a capability of launching 2,000 drones in one attack. Along the more than 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line, short-range attack drones have become prolific and transformed the fighting, quickly spotting and targeting troops and weapons within a 10-kilometer (6-mile) kill zone. Russian drone units initially were set on the initiative of midlevel commanders and often relied on equipment purchased with private donations. Once drones became available in big numbers, the military moved last fall to put those units under a single command. Putin has endorsed the Defense Ministry's proposal to make drones a separate branch of the armed forces, dubbed the Unmanned Systems Troops. Russia has increasingly focused on battlefield drones that use thin fiber optic cables, making them immune to jamming and have an extended range of 25 kilometers (over 15 miles). It also has set up Rubicon, a center to train drone operators and develop the best tactics. Such fiber optic drones used by both sides can venture deeper into rear areas, targeting supply, support and command structures that until recently were deemed safe. Michael Kofman, a military expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the Russian advancements have raised new defensive challenges for Ukraine. 'The Ukrainian military has to evolve ways of protecting the rear, entrenching at a much greater depth,' Kofman said in a recent podcast.
Business Insider
2 hours ago
- Business Insider
War footage shows how North Korea's rocket system designs are vulnerable to drone attacks
Combat footage increasingly shows how North Korea's old multiple launch rocket systems sent to Russia are susceptible to attack from first-person-view drones. Ukrainian units have been uploading clips of their drones striking the artillery systems, with some igniting the launchers' exposed munitions to cause catastrophic damage. In one recent clip, posted by Ukraine's 429th "Achilles" Separate Unmanned Systems Regiment on Friday, an FPV drone is seen flying into the rear of a North Korean 107mm Type-75 launcher. Footage captured by the drone showed at least four rockets already loaded into the 12-barrel towed launcher at the moment of impact. The crew is nowhere to be seen as the drone appears to strike one of the missiles. Ukraine's 429th Separate Regiment of Unmanned Systems shared footage of a strike on a North Korean-supplied Type 75 multiple launch rocket system. More on the Type 75 here: #Ukraine #UkraineWar #UkraineRussiaWar — Matthew Moss | The Armourer's Bench (@historicfirearm) July 18, 2025 The Achilles regiment also uploaded a separate reconnaissance clip, filmed from a distance, that appeared to show the system detonating. In the video, a rocket appears to fly out of the treeline, though it's difficult to tell if both clips are definitively linked to the same attack. The Type-75 has repeatedly been sighted in recent months on the Russian frontline and training grounds. It appears to be one of the latest systems that North Korea shipped for Moscow's forces, and is Pyongyang's version of the Chinese lightweight Type-63 launcher — an old 12-tube system that leaves all of its loaded rockets exposed. Another new North Korean weapon in Russian service - 107mm MLRS 'Type75'. — Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) June 12, 2025 Another Type-75 was reported destroyed on July 12 by a unit of Ukraine's National Guard, which uploaded a clip of a drone dropping a munition on the system. North Korea has also sent its longer-range M1991 multiple launch rocket systems for Russia's use, one of which was seen heavily damaged by a drone strike last month. Footage uploaded by Ukraine's 413 Unmanned Systems Battalion in late June showed that a drone ignited one of the launcher's exposed missiles, causing it to fire prematurely and pierce the truck's driver chassis. Two soldiers are seen jumping out of the smoking driver's cabin. Ukraine says North Korea has sent Russia hundreds of artillery pieces, including the M1991, the Type-75, howitzers, and Pyongyang's more modern launchers such as the KN-09 multiple launch rocket system. Much of North Korea's equipment is based on Soviet or Chinese tech, so it's typically highly similar to systems that Russia's troops were already using in Ukraine. The Cold War-era BM-21 Grad, for example, is a rocket system that has featured heavily in the war and is loaded by hand. And its munitions, like the M1991 and Type-75, are exposed and vulnerable to FPV drone attacks. Conversely, modern Western rocket systems, such as the American M142 HIMARS, for example, often use containerized, enclosed munitions that are somewhat shielded from smaller explosions. North Korea's most recent military parades have showcased newer rocket launchers that appear to feature some additional protection, though these largely seem to just come in the form of larger tubes. With the bulk of Pyongyang's artillery arsenal believed by the West and South Korea to consist of older, legacy systems, it's likely many of its launchers will suffer the same disadvantage as the M1991 and Type-75, while militaries around the world bet on the rise of drone warfare.
