Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.
Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in
Next article
Russia’s overnight drone attack on Kyiv killed 26 people
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has urged his allies to bring about “regime change” in Russia after Moscow‘s drone attack on Kyiv killed 26 people, including three children.
At least 150 people sustained injuries after the overnight strikes reduced part of a nine-storey apartment block in Kyiv’s western suburbs to rubble.
“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 at a conference commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Cold War-era Helsinki Accords.
This statement comes as US president Donald Trump, in his latest attack on Vladimir Putin, said that Russia’s war in Ukraine was“disgusting”.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, he said he plans to impose sanctions on Moscow if no agreement can be reached to end the conflict.
Mr Trump said he was not sure whether sanctions would deter Russia. Earlier this week, the president announced that Moscow had until August 8 to make a deal or face sanctions. US special envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Russia after his current trip to Israel, the president said.
Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha has accused Russian president Vladimir Putin of attacking Ukraine on purpose after an overnight attack killed six people, including a child.
“It’s a horrible morning in Kyiv. The brutal Russian strikes destroyed entire residential buildings and damaged schools and hospitals. Civilians are injured and killed. There are still people under the rubble,” Mr Sybiha said, sharing a photo of the devastation from the attack.
He added: “It is probably time to reduce to zero all of the timeframes that had been given to Putin to demonstrate a constructive approach. President Trump has been very generous and very patient with Putin, trying to find a solution.”
“Putin does it on purpose. He does not care about any attempts to put an end to the killing. He only seeks to destroy and kill. Because the entire existence of this war criminal is based on this senseless war, which he cannot win but refuses to end. He must face justice,” the Ukrainian minister said.
The governor of Russia’s Penza region said that Ukrainian drones had struck a local industrial facility this morning.
Separately, Russia’s state railway company said that drone debris had hit railway infrastructure and temporarily halted trains in the southern Volgograd region.
Russia’s defence ministry said that it had downed 32 Ukrainian drones over several Russian regions.
Russian industrial facilities have come under regular drone attack in the course of the war.
Russia unleashed a combined missile and drone attack on Kyiv, killing at least six people, including a child, and wounding dozens more, local officials said this morning.
A six-year-old boy was among those killed, said city military administrator Tymur Tkachenko, who said the overnight attack had caused damage in 27 locations across four districts of the Ukrainian capital.
President Volodymyr Zelensky posted a video of burning ruins, saying people were still trapped under the rubble of one residential building. “It’s a horrible morning in Kyiv. The brutal Russian strikes destroyed entire residential buildings and damaged schools and hospitals,” he said on Telegram.
Russia, which denies targeting civilians, has in recent months stepped up air strikes on Ukrainian towns and cities far from the front line of its invasion, now in its fourth year.
Ukrainian drones, operated by the state security agency SBU, struck an electronics plant in the western Russian city of Penza, an agency official who asked not to be named told Reuters this morning.
Following the drone attack, the plant, which produces combat control systems for the Russian military, caught fire, the source said.
Russia has now acquired immunity to sanctions from the West thanks to long experience, the Kremlin said yesterday, adding that it continues to monitor statements by US president Donald Trump regarding sanctions against Moscow.
“We have been living under a huge number of sanctions for quite a long time, our economy operates under a huge number of restrictions,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“Therefore, of course, we have already developed a certain immunity in this regard, and we continue to note all statements that come from president Trump, from other international representatives on this matter,” the aide to Russian president Vladimir Putin said.
Mr Trump on Tuesday said that the United States would start imposing tariffs and other measures on Russia in 10 days if Moscow showed no progress towards ending its more than three-year-long war in Ukraine.Russia doubled down on its defensive stance against the upcoming sanctions and said that the West seems to be stuck in a pattern.
“We see that the West simply cannot let go of the issue of sanctions. It seems as if they are constantly stuck in a rut,” Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told a news briefing in Moscow yesterday.
“Apparently, there are no other options left – they have been exhausted. We are responding and taking measures to counteract all of this or even turn it to our own advantage,” she said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has suggested Russia needs to “change regime”.
The Ukrainian leader addressed the Finnish Helsinki+50 conference marking the 50th anniversary of the 1975 Helsinki accords.
He said: “Russia keeps launching such attacks, even when the whole world is calling on it to stop the war, a war that Russia started, a war that Russia keeps dragging on, a war that only the Russian leadership wants.”
He added that he thought Russia’s leadership was “mentally stuck in another century, a time of brutal violence … [and] total disregard for human rights and equality.
“We know that such ideas and such times must never return to Europe,” he said.
President Zelensky alleged that Russia completely rejected the post-second wold war world, but insisted Moscow can be pushed to stop the war.
The Ukrainian leader addressed the Finnish Helsinki+50 conference marking the 50th anniversary of the 1975 Helsinki accords.
He said that “a total rejection of the post-second world war world … is the foundation of the current regime in Russia,” but that Moscow “can be pushed to stop this war.”
“We need to fully block Russia’s war machine, cut off its arms industry, limit its energy profits, and finally, put every frozen Russian asset including stolen wealth … to work, defending against the Russian aggression.
“It’s time to confiscate the Russian assets, not just freeze them … to use them to serve peace, not war.”
But he warned: “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.”
Zelenskyy also spoke of President Trump’s interest in ending the war.
“Trump is truly interested in ending the war and we have to do everything we can to make sure the US and Europe act together for security.”
US president Donald Trump has threatened to keep trade with Russia to a minimum amid an escalating war of words with the Kremlin over ceasefire ultimatum.
“I don’t care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care. We have done very little business with India, their Tariffs are too high, among the highest in the World. Likewise, Russia and the USA do almost no business together. Let’s keep it that way, and tell Medvedev, the failed former President of Russia, who thinks he’s still President, to watch his words. He’s entering very dangerous territory!” Mr Trump said on his Truth Social account this morning.
His remarks come hours after the US said it will impose a 25 per cent tariff on goods imported from India starting on Friday. Mr Trump has slammed India’s trade with Russia despite the ongoing war with Ukraine.
The White House had previously warned India about its high average applied tariffs. “While India is our friend, we have, over the years, done relatively little business with them because their Tariffs are far too high,” Trump wrote in the Truth Social post.
“They have always bought a vast majority of their military equipment from Russia, and are Russia’s largest buyer of ENERGY, along with China, at a time when everyone wants Russia to STOP THE KILLING IN UKRAINE — ALL THINGS NOT GOOD!,” Mr Trump said yesterday.
Ukraine’s parliament voted on Thursday to restore the independence of two key anti-corruption agencies, moving to defuse the country’s biggest political crisis since Russia’s invasion.
Lawmakers voted 331 to 0 in favor of the bill, which President Volodymyr Zelensky submitted last week following pressure from thousands of protesters and top European officials.
The measure now goes to Zelensky for a signature.
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in