Drone and missile assault launched by Putin’s forces blown out of sky by Kyiv

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and Hungarian prime minister Victor Orban were seen having an animated exchange at an EU summit in Brussels.

Vladimir Putin says Russia’s navy will be boosted by at least 40 new ships in 2024.

In a report by state-run news agency TASS, the Russian leader is quoted as saying that one of the country’s main objectives is to “comprehensively upgrade” its naval capabilities.

This includes “ship, aircraft and coastal components”, while there are also plans to improve the infrastructure of naval bases to “strengthen its positions in the strategically crucial areas of the world ocean, and to drastically improve its combat potential”.

The European Union has signed a security agreement with Ukraine in Brussels.

The pact, confirmed today, is intended to complement similar agreements sealed between Ukraine and its allies as it continues its defence against Russia’s invasion.

The agreement entrenches the EU’s commitment to help Ukraine in nine areas of security and defence policy – including arms deliveries, military training, defence industry cooperation and demining,

Polish prime minister Donald Tusk will hold talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Warsaw before a NATO summit that starts on July 9 in Washington.

“We agreed with President Zelenskiy to talk in Warsaw before the NATO summit,” Tusk said in a post on social media platform X.

Ukraine‘s president has called on European Union leaders to make good on their pledges to provide military equipment to his war-ravaged country, just days after the bloc launched membership talks with his government.

“We have to work on next steps,” Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters in Brussels as he arrived to attend a summit of EU leaders.

He said he and the leaders would discuss “the urgent things – air defence, that is one”.

Mr Zelensky thanked countries that have promised equipment, weapons and ammunition, but underlined that “we need them urgently on the battlefield”.

Russian forces are seeking to press their advantage in troop numbers and weaponry before Ukraine‘s armed forces are bulked up by promised new western military aid, some of which is trickling to the front line, analysts say.

The EU launched membership talks with Ukraine on Tuesday, a decade after Russian troops seized the Crimean Peninsula to deter the country from moving closer to the West, part of a chain of events that set the two neighbours on the path to war.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Brussels today where he plans to sign three security agreements, including one with the European Union.

“For the first time, this agreement will enshrine the commitment of all 27 member states to provide Ukraine with extensive support, regardless of any internal institutional changes,” he said on X.

Russia claims it has carried out missile strikes on Ukrainian airfields which it believes have been designated to host Western military aircraft, Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Thursday.

Russia used sea-based long-range precision weapons, the Kinzhal hypersonic missile and drones in the attack, it said.

All designated targets were hit, the ministry added, without naming the list of targets.

The Kremlin said that Russia is considering a possible downgrading of diplomatic relations with the West due to the deeper involvement of the United States and its allies in the Ukraine war, though no decision has yet been made.

“The issue of lowering the level of diplomatic relations is a standard practice for states that face unfriendly or hostile manifestations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about the possibility of such a move.

“Due to the growing involvement of the West in the conflict over Ukraine, the Russian Federation cannot but consider various options for responding to such hostile Western intervention in the Ukrainian crisis.”

Mr Peskov said that no decision had yet been made on the matter and that Russia was considering different ways to respond to the West.