Wars 2022 02/24 Monitoring Russian and Ukraine War.

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Russia must be ready to strike West if it escalates Ukraine war, Medvedev says

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday that Russia had no plans to attack NATO or Europe but, if the West escalated the Ukraine war any further, then Moscow should respond and, if necessary, launch preemptive strikes. The remarks by Medvedev, reported in full by the TASS state n

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Russia must be ready to strike West if it escalates Ukraine war, Medvedev says

REUTERS
Published :
Jul 17, 2025 19:25
Updated :
Jul 17, 2025 19:25

Russia's Security Council's Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev attends a meeting of the Council for Science and Education at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in the Moscow region's city of Dubna, Russia June 13, 2024. Photo : Sputnik/Alexei Maishev/Pool via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY./Files

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday that Russia had no plans to attack NATO or Europe but, if the West escalated the Ukraine war any further, then Moscow should respond and, if necessary, launch preemptive strikes.

The remarks by Medvedev, reported in full by the TASS state news agency, indicate that Moscow sees the confrontation with the West over Ukraine escalating after US President Donald Trump demanded a peace deal within 50 days.

Both Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Trump have repeatedly cautioned over the escalatory risks of the war, which both Moscow and the Trump administration cast as a proxy war between the world's two biggest nuclear powers.

Medvedev dismissed repeated NATO and Western European claims that Russia would one day attack a member of the US-dominated military alliance, but also said that Russia needed to be ready to respond "in full" should the West push any further.

"The statements of Western politicians on this topic are complete nonsense," Medvedev said, adding that Western officials were intentionally seeking to ratchet up tensions.

"We need to act accordingly. To respond in full. And if necessary, launch preemptive strikes," Medvedev was quoted as saying. He said that many in the West had "treachery in their blood" and an outdated view of their own superiority.

The Kremlin, asked about Medvedev's remarks, said that he had expressed his opinion and that his concerns about the "confrontational" environment of Europe were justified.

Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, was analysing Trump's threat to slap 100% secondary sanctions on the purchasers of Russian exports unless Putin agreed to a peace deal in 50 days.

Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, cast himself as a liberal moderniser when he was president from 2008 to 2012. But he has since emerged as an anti-Western Kremlin hawk. Diplomats say his remarks give an indication of thinking among some within the political elite.

WAR RHETORIC

The United States says 1.2 million people have been injured or killed in the war, Europe's deadliest conflict since World War Two.

Trump, who has repeatedly stated he wants to end the war, said on Monday that he was "very unhappy" and "disappointed" with Putin, though he cast his decision to send weapons to Ukraine as intended to jolt Russia towards peace.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that Putin intends to keep fighting in Ukraine until the West engages on his terms for peace, unfazed by threats of tougher sanctions, and that his territorial demands may widen as Russian forces advance.

Russia and the United States are by far the world's biggest nuclear powers, with about 87% of all nuclear weapons, followed by China, France, Britain, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea, according to the Federation of American Scientists.

"What is happening today is a proxy war, but in essence it is a full-scale war (launches of Western missiles, satellite intelligence, etc.), sanctions packages, loud statements about the militarisation of Europe," Medvedev said, according to TASS.

"It's another attempt to destroy the 'historical anomaly' hated by the West - Russia, our country," he said.​

 

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Russia captures villages in three separate areas of Ukraine

Russia said Thursday it had captured Ukrainian villages in three separate areas of the front line, expanding its summer offensive despite US calls to end the fighting.

www.newagebd.net

Russia captures villages in three separate areas of Ukraine
Agence France-Presse . Moscow 18 July, 2025, 02:01

Russia said Thursday it had captured Ukrainian villages in three separate areas of the front line, expanding its summer offensive despite US calls to end the fighting.

Ukraine did not immediately comment on Moscow’s claims. In a statement, the Russian defence ministry said its forces had ‘liberated’ the settlements of Popiv Yar in the eastern Donetsk region, Degtiarne in the northeast Kharkiv region and Kamianske in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.

Kamianske, on the banks of the Dnipro river, was home to around 2,000 people before the conflict.

Degtiarne is a tiny hamlet near the Russian border, but lies in an area of the front line that Moscow’s forces had not penetrated since the early months of its offensive.

Popiv Yar is a small village south of the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk. The Russian military accelerated its advances for a third consecutive month in June.

Meanwhile, Russia gave Ukraine the bodies of 1,000 soldiers on Thursday as part of an agreement reached at peace talks last month, Moscow’s top negotiator said on social media.

Two rounds of negotiations in Istanbul between Moscow and Kyiv have failed to result in any progress towards a ceasefire, instead yielding large-scale prisoner exchanges and deals to return the bodies of killed soldiers.

‘Following the agreements reached in Istanbul, another 1,000 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers were handed over to Ukraine today,’ Russian negotiator and Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky said on Telegram.

Ukraine handed over 19 killed Russian soldiers, he added. He posted photos showing people in white medical suits lifting white body bags from the back of refrigerated trucks. Exchanges of captured soldiers and the repatriation of remains have taken place regularly throughout the conflict in some of the only successful diplomacy between the sides.

Despite pressure from US president Donald Trump, Russia has rejected calls for a ceasefire and the two sides appear no closer to agreeing an end to the three-year conflict.​

 

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undefined | The Financial Express

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US and Ukraine in talks on drone investment deal

REUTERS
Published :
Jul 18, 2025 22:33
Updated :
Jul 18, 2025 22:33

Newly appointed Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko attends a session of Ukrainian parliament, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine July 17, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Andrii Nesterenko/Files

Ukraine and the United States are in detailed talks on a deal involving US investment in Kyiv's domestic drone production, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on Friday.

The announcement comes a day after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy tasked a reshuffled new government with scaling up Ukraine's arms industry and strengthening ties with its strategic partners.

Svyrydenko, speaking to reporters alongside several other new ministers in the capital Kyiv, said the deal would also lead to the US, Ukraine's biggest military backer in its war with Russia, purchasing Ukrainian drones.

"We plan to sign a 'drone deal' with the United States. We are discussing investments in the expansion of production of Ukrainian drones by the US," she said.

"That is, we are talking about the purchase of a large batch of Ukrainian drones."

Svyrydenko added that a political decision on the deal had been made by Zelenskiy and President Donald Trump, and that officials were already hashing out the details.

Zelenskiy told the New York Post this week that he and Trump were considering a deal for Washington to buy battlefield-tested Ukrainian drones in exchange for Kyiv purchasing weapons from the US.

The Ukrainian government under Svyrydenko is expected to shore up ties with the Trump administration, which has grown increasingly critical of Russia since it stepped up air strikes on Ukraine.

Svyrydenko is well-known in Washington, having negotiated a high-level deal offering the US preferential access to Ukraine's mineral wealth that will feed a reconstruction fund.

At the briefing in Kyiv, economy minister Oleksiy Sobolev said the board of a joint US-Ukrainian fund will meet for the first time by the end of the summer.

US President Donald Trump's 30 per cent tariffs are threatening to take the fizz out of the French champagne industry.

Blast at Los Angeles sheriff's facility leaves 3 dead, media reports

An explosion at a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department training facility has killed three deputies, Fox News and local media reported on Friday, though officials have not yet confirmed any deaths.

A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department confirmed that an explosion occurred at the Biscailuz Center Academy Training in East Los Angeles. The spokesperson said the cause was under investigation and that they were not yet ready to confirm any deaths or injuries.

The Los Angeles Times newspaper, citing unnamed sources, reported that a bomb squad was moving some explosives when the blast occurred.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on social media that she had spoken US Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli "about what appears to be a horrific incident that killed at least three at a law enforcement training facility in Los Angeles."

Bondi said that federal agents were at the scene and working to learn more.​

 

[Saif]

Three drones downed en route to Moscow, some flights suspended, officials say

Russian air defence systems shot down three drones en route to Moscow on Saturday, city mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on his Telegram account. Two Moscow airports - Vnukovo and Domodedovo - suspended arrivals and departures for safety reasons but later resumed operations, Russian aviation watchdog Ro

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Three drones downed en route to Moscow, some flights suspended, officials say

REUTERS
Published :
Jul 19, 2025 23:23
Updated :
Jul 19, 2025 23:23

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin attends a military parade on Victory Day, marking the 80th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, in Red Square in central Moscow, Russia, May 9, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/Files

Russian air defence systems shot down three drones en route to Moscow on Saturday, city mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on his Telegram account.

Two Moscow airports - Vnukovo and Domodedovo - suspended arrivals and departures for safety reasons but later resumed operations, Russian aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia said.

The Russian Defence Ministry said its air defence systems intercepted and destroyed 27 Ukrainian drones in total from 3 pm to 7 pm. Moscow time (1200-1600 GMT), including four over Moscow region, 15 over Bryansk region, six over Kaluga region and two over Tula region.​

 

[Saif]

Sleepless in Kyiv: how Ukraine's capital copes with Russia's nighttime attacks

Several nights a week, Daria Slavytska packs a yoga mat, blankets and food into a stroller and descends with her two-year-old Emil into the Kyiv subway. While air raid sirens wail above, the 27-year-old tries to snatch a few hours' sleep safely below ground. For the past two months, Russia has unl

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Sleepless in Kyiv: how Ukraine's capital copes with Russia's nighttime attacks

REUTERS
Published :
Jul 19, 2025 18:09
Updated :
Jul 19, 2025 18:09

Daria Slavytska, 27, takes shelter inside a metro station with her 2-year-old son Emil during a Russian missile and drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine July 9, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Alina Smutko

Several nights a week, Daria Slavytska packs a yoga mat, blankets and food into a stroller and descends with her two-year-old Emil into the Kyiv subway. While air raid sirens wail above, the 27-year-old tries to snatch a few hours' sleep safely below ground.

For the past two months, Russia has unleashed nighttimedrone and missile assaults on Kyiv in a summer offensive that is straining the city's air defences, and has its 3.7 million residents exhausted and on edge.

Other towns and villages have seen far worse since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in early 2022 - especially those close to the frontline far to the east and south.

Many have been damaged or occupied as Russia advances, and thousands of people have fled to the capital, considered the best-defended city in the country.

But recent heavy attacks are beginning to change the mood. At night, residents rush to metro stations deep underground in scenes reminiscent of the German "Blitz" bombings of London during World War Two.

Slavytska has started nervously checking Telegram channels at home even before the city's alarms sound, after she found herself in early July running into the street to reach the metro with explosions already booming in the sky.

The number of people like Slavytska taking refuge in the cavernous Soviet-era ticket halls and drafty platforms of Kyiv's 46 underground stations soared after large-scale bombardments slammed the city five times in June.

Previously, the loud air raid alert on her phone sent Emil into bouts of shaking and he would cry "Corridor, corridor, mum. I'm scared. Corridor, mum," Slavytska said. Now, accustomed to the attacks, he says more calmly "Mum, we should go".

"We used to come here less often, about once a month," Slavytska said, sheltering in Akademmistechko station in western Kyiv. "That was six months ago. Now we come two or three times a week." She spent the night curled up on her pink mat with Emil by a column lining the subway tracks.

The subway system recorded 165,000 visits during June nights, more than double the 65,000 visits in May and nearly five times the number in June last year, its press service told Reuters.

More people were heading to the shelter because of "the scale and lethality" of attacks, the head of Kyiv's military administration, Tymur Tkachenko, told Reuters. He said strikes killed 78 Kyiv residents and injured more than 400 in the first half of the year.

US President Donald Trump cited Russia's strikes on Ukrainian cities when announcing his decision on Monday to offer Kyiv more weapons, including Patriot missiles to boost its air defences.

"It's incredible that (people) stay, knowing that a missile could be hitting your apartment," Trump said.

Russia launched more than 30 missiles and 300 drones during an overnight assault on Saturday that affected 10 regions of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, including a mass drone attack on the Black Sea port city of Odesa.

EXHAUSTION AND TERROR

In April, a strike in Kyiv destroyed a residential building a couple of kilometres from Slavytska's apartment block.

"It was so, so loud. Even my son woke up and I held him in my arms in the corridor," she said. "It was really scary."

With the threat of losing her home suddenly more tangible, she now takes her identity documents with her underground.

After seeing how stressed Emil became after the air alerts, Slavytska sought help from a paediatrician, who recommended she turn off her phone's loud notifications and prescribed a calming medication. Slavytska tells Emil the loud sound during attacks is thunder.

Scientists and psychologists say that the lack of sleep is taking its toll on a population worn down by more than three years of war.

Kateryna Holtsberh, a family psychologist who practices in Kyiv, said sleep deprivation caused by the attacks was causing mood swings, extreme stress and apathy, leading to declined cognitive functions in both kids and adults.

"Many people say that if you sleep poorly, your life will turn into hell and your health will suffer," said Kateryna Storozhuk, another Kyiv region resident. "I didn't understand this until it happened to me."

Anton Kurapov, post-doctoral scholar at the University of Salzburg's Laboratory for Sleep, Cognition and Consciousness Research, said it was hard to convey to outsiders what it felt like to be under attack.

"Imagine a situation where you go out into the street and a person is shot in front of you ... and what fear you experience, your heart sinks," he said. "People experience this every day, this feeling."

Kurapov warned that the impact of such stress could result in lifetime consequences, including chronic illnesses.

A study he led that was published, opens new tab in the European Journal of Psychotraumatology in August 2024 showed that 88 per cent of Ukrainians surveyed reported bad or very bad sleep quality.

Lack of sleep can significantly impact economic performance and soldiers' ability to fight, said Wendy Troxel, senior behavioural scientist at RAND Corporation, a US think-tank.

RAND research, opens new tab in 2016 which Troxel co-authored showed that lack of sleep among the US working population was costing the economy up to $411 billion a year.

As she tries to squeeze out more hours of sleep in the subway, Slavytska is looking into buying a mattress to bring underground that would be more comfortable than her mat. Danish retailer JYSK says the air strikes prompted a 25 per cent jump in sales of inflatable mattresses, camp beds and sleep mats in Kyiv in three weeks of June.

Others are taking more extreme measures. Small business owner Storozhuk, who had no shelter within three km of her home, invested over $2,000 earlier this year in a Ukrainian-made "Capsule of Life" reinforced steel box, capable of withstanding falling concrete slabs.

She climbs in nightly, with her Chihuahua, Zozulia.

"I developed a lot of anxiety and fear," Storozhuk said. "I realized that in order to be able to sleep peacefully in Ukraine, I needed some kind of safe shelter."​