Украйн улс ОХУ-ын эсрэг цэргийн ажиллагаагаа эрчимжүүлэв

Ukrainian drones hit a dozen more Russian tankers in the Sea of Azov overnight, Ukraine’s military said on Thursday, the latest in a campaign ⁠aimed at disrupting fuel supplies to Russian forces and isolating Moscow-occupied Crimea.

The vessels were used to supply fuel to the Russian military, and to transport oil and petroleum products in circumvention of international sanctions, the Ukrainian military’s General Staff said on Telegram.

It added that a tugboat and a dry cargo ship were also hit.

The strikes bring the number of vessels targeted in the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea over the past four days to 36, according to Ukraine’s defence ministry.

Those included 32 so-called Russian “shadow fleet” tankers and two dry cargo ships.

“They were ‌all trying to deliver fuel to Crimea,” the ministry said.

The regional governor of Russia’s Rostov region said earlier on Thursday that two tankers had been attacked by Ukrainian drones in the Sea of Azov.

Ukraine has intensified attacks on logistics and energy infrastructure in Crimea in recent weeks, contributing to fuel shortages and prompting authorities to declare a state of emergency in the peninsula, a critical hub ‌for Russia’s war effort.

President Vladimir Putin is rejecting calls to negotiate peace with Kyiv, three sources close to the Kremlin told Reuters, with Ukraine’s recent drone strikes on Russia’s oil refineries and ports strengthening his resolve to keep fighting for now.

Two of ​the sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Putin was instead likely to escalate the conflict, now well into its fifth year.

One of them, who meets regularly with the president, described a “high ‌probability” of escalation in the coming months.

One of the people familiar with Putin’s thinking said he had “dug in his heels” to achieve the key objective of capturing the remainder of ​Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, where Russian advances have slowed this year.

The same source said Putin recently rebuked a group of advisers suggesting a compromise based on a ceasefire along the current front lines. The second source ​said Putin believes Russia will soon capture the Donbas.

Ukraine’s allies have seized on what they call a momentum shift in the war. Some call for additional economic sanctions to force Putin to end the conflict.

Ukraine’s recent successes, however, have made Putin more angry and more determined to give a tough response, according to the person who meets Putin regularly.

Ukraine and the US have reached a political agreement on licences for production of PAC-3 Patriot interceptors, Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday.

The Ukrainian president said key supplies of the missiles were to arrive in the next few days.

The Patriot is a US-made air defence system. Its PAC-3 interceptor – short for Patriot Advanced Capability-3 – is one of the few Western weapons capable of shooting down the ballistic missiles Russia has increasingly fired at Ukrainian cities.

Speaking to reporters after returning from a NATO summit and talks with Donald Trump, said: “I believe ​this ⁠was a productive summit for Ukraine. In the coming days, we’ll receive a package from the United States, and there were also some separate agreements.”

The US is wrong to believe deep Ukrainian strikes into Russian territory could help bring about an end to more than four years of war, the Kremlin has said, warning that they could prolong it.

Speaking at a Nato summit in Turkey on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Russia was finding it harder to defend its own ⁠skies, adding that this would hopefully create more space ​to ⁠negotiate an end to the war.

US president Donald Trump said: “It’s an escalation, but it’s also an escalation that can help lead to an end.”

Asked about their ⁠statements, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters there were “certain misconceptions within the White House administration… regarding ​the ⁠idea that escalation and military pressure can ‌help pave the way for a peaceful settlement”.

He said this was a flawed premise, adding that what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine might go on for longer as a result.

“It ‌will result in our having to establish a larger ‌security zone — a larger buffer zone,” Peskov said.

“Consequently, stoking tensions and taking actions that drive escalation will in no way contribute to the peace process,” he said.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said he discussed China in the context of Russia’s war in Ukraine with US president Donald Trump.

“Of course, president Trump ⁠and I discussed ​China. ⁠Their role in ‌this war, their involvement or ‌potential involvement, and their ‌capabilities,” he told reporters when ⁠asked about Chinese influence on peace talks to end more than four-year full-scale war.

Zelensky added ‌he would prefer ​to ‌keep the ⁠details of that discussion ⁠closed to the ‌public.

Russian strikes killed at least 265 civilians in Ukraine and injured 1,816 in June, the highest combined casualty count since the first months after Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, a top UN official told the Security Council on Thursday.

UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo said the number of civilians killed and injured in Ukraine in May had been the highest since ⁠April 2022, but data ​from ⁠the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) pointed to an even higher toll in ⁠June, and possibly July.

Final data for June will be released in late July, a UN spokesperson said.

“This concerning trend is seemingly continuing into July,” DiCarlo said, citing three massive waves of Russian ‌aerial strikes on Kyiv and other ‌Ukrainian cities this past week alone, many targeting urban centers with large civilian populations.

“Any attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, wherever they occur, are a clear violation of international humanitarian law and must stop immediately,” she said.

In total, DiCarlo said OHCHR had verified that at least 16,402 civilians, including 802 children, had been killed in Ukraine since the start of the war, and 48,428 had been injured, including 2,948 ‌children.

The actual figures were likely higher.

Civilians living in Ukrainian territories under Russian occupation and inside Russia were also being killed, she said.

Russian authorities have reported that ⁠250 civilians were killed and 1,596 were injured inside Russia in the ‌first six months ​of 2026, but the UN ‌was not in a ​position to verify the reports, DiCarlo said.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia struck an ammunition warehouse during its attack on Kyiv region earlier this week, adding that a criminal probe was launched.

In the small town of Vyshneve on Kyiv’s western outskirts, the ⁠Russian strike hit ​the ⁠warehouse and set off massive secondary explosions on 6 July.

Ukrainian officials said 10 people were ​killed ⁠in Vyshneve and ‌hundreds of houses were damaged.

“As for the investigation into the explosion in Vyshneve, the situation is absolutely appalling: There was an ammunition depot in Vyshneve. The enemy struck this depot, causing a large number of casualties and significant losses,” Zelensky told reporters in a WhatsApp media chat.

Ukrainian officials rarely disclose any damage to military targets following Russian attacks.

Zelenskiy said a criminal case had been opened, and officials at the state weapons producer Ukroboronprom, which owned the warehouse, would be held responsible and some of them dismissed.

The episode sparked public ‌outcry, ​with residents claiming negligence ‌and lack of information.

Accompanied by bullets and a cleaning kit, the guns were engraved with the names of each recipient.

It’s been the same for much of Kostyuk’s run to the semifinals.

On Monday, after Russian missiles struck residential buildings close to where Kostyuk’s parents live, she had to block that out to play her fourth-round match at the Grand Slam tournament. Last week, Russia hammered the Ukrainian capital with an 11-hour drone and missile attack that killed at least 21 civilians.