Here is how things stand on Friday, July 4:
Fighting
- Russia launched 539 drones and 11 ballistic and cruise missiles at Ukraine overnight in the largest aerial attack since the war began, according to Ukraine’s air force.
- The military said its air defences shot down 270 drones while 208 more were redirected by the army or were drone simulators lacking warheads.
- The attacks on Kyiv injured at least 23 people, damaging railway infrastructure and setting buildings and cars on fire, authorities said.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said of the latest attack that Russia will not stop its strikes without large-scale pressure.
- Russia’s air defence units destroyed 48 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russia’s TASS news agency reported.
- Ukraine launched a drone attack on the Sergiyev Posad district near Moscow, injuring one person and leaving parts of the religiously significant centre without power, the head of the district said.
- Ukraine’s drone attack on Russia’s Rostov region killed at least one woman and forced the evacuation of dozens of people from their homes, the acting governor said.
- Russia has increased its use of chemical weapons in Ukraine, Germany’s BND foreign intelligence agency said on Friday, citing evidence it obtained alongside its Dutch counterparts.
Weapons
- Zelenskyy said he hoped to speak with his United States counterpart, Donald Trump, about the supply of US weapons to Ukraine.
- In a phone call on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump did not discuss the US decision to halt some shipments of critical weapons to Ukraine, Putin aide Yuri Ushakov said.
Politics and diplomacy
- Trump said he made no progress during his phone call with Putin, who reportedly reiterated he would stop his invasion only if the conflict’s “root causes” were tackled.
- Trump also said he was planning to discuss the conflict with Ukraine’s Zelenskyy on Friday.
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