Donald Trump with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (AFP/Getty/File)

Friday’s Coverage: Zelenskiy in the UK

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1425 GMT:

The death toll has risen to four from Friday’s Russian missile attack on Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine.

A man injured in the strike died in hospital. The earlier victims were a 12-year-old boy, an elderly woman, and another man. At least 12 others were injured.

The attack hit a residential area, damaging 19 residential buildings, a kindergarten, and numerous cars.

UPDATE 1205 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has not ruled out Russian involvement in the assassination of Ukrainian language professor and former MP Iryna Farion.

Farion, 60, died in hospital in Lviv on Friday morning, hours afters she was shot by an unidentified attacker.

Zelenskiy said investigators are considering all possible theories, “including the one that leads to Russia”.

Farion was prominent because of her controversial statements on the use of the Russian language in Ukraine. She joined the ultra-nationalist party Svoboda in 2005 and served as an MP between 2012 and 2014.

She was reinstated as a Professor of Ukrainian Language at Lviv Polytechnic University in June 2023. She had been fired for public
comments such as that she could not call Ukraine’s soldiers Ukrainians if they spoke Russian.

Ukraine’s SBU security service said last November that the professor was under criminal investigation both for her statements about Russian-speaking soldiers and for endangering Maksym Hlebov, a pro-Ukrainian student living in occupied Crimea, by publicizing an e-mail from him.

UPDATE 0726 GMT:

Ukraine air defenses downed 12 of 16 Iran-type attack drones fired by Russia overnight.

The Russians also attacked with four missiles.

UPDATE 0647 GMT:

Addressing the Cabinet of the new UK Government on Friday, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy asked it to “show your leadership” and help with Ukraine’s “long-range capability”.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer hailed the visit as a “real piece of history”, as Zelenskiy — the first foreign leader to address the Cabinet in person since 1997 — was greeted with a standing ovation. Starmer said the UK would “double down” on backing for Ukraine, and confirmed he had accepted an invitation to visit Kyiv.

UPDATE 0639 GMT:

A German combat medic has been sentenced to death in Belarus.

The German Foreign Ministry confirmed the planned execution, hours after a Belarusian human rights group said Rico Krieger, 30, would be killed by a firing squad.

The Viasna Human Rights Center said Krieger was convicted under six articles of Belarus’s criminal code in a trial held at the end of June.

The exact charges are not, but Viasna said the case may be linked to the Kastuś Kalinoŭski Regiment, a group of Belarusian volunteer fighters defending Ukraine against Russia’s invasion.

UPDATE 0609 GMT:

A child and two adults were killed and five civilians injured by a Russian missile strike on a children’s playground in Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine on Friday.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy posted about the strike near an “ordinary residential house”:

Every day, Russia proves with its terror that there is not enough pressure on it. This destruction of life must be stopped.

We need new measures to support our defense. Russia must feel the power of the world.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke with US Presidential candidate Donald Trump on Friday, the first direct contact since Trump blackmailed Kyiv in 2019 with a freeze on American military aid.

There was little substance in the conversation. Trump said it was a “very good call” but merely repeated his rhetoric that, as US President, he would quickly “bring peace to the world and end the war that has cost so many lives”.

Without offering any detail, Trump proclaimed, “Both sides will be able to come together and negotiate a deal that ends the violence and paves a path forward to prosperity.”

Zelenskiy posted that he and Trump agreed to arrange a face-to-face meeting on “what steps can make peace fair and truly lasting”.:

Trump has privately said that he will end the 29-month invasion of his friend Vladimir Putin by pressuring Ukraine to give up territory. He has suggested that he would scale back vital US military aid. His Vice Presidential pick J.D. Vance has called for a complete cutoff, voting against the $60.8 billion authorization that was approved by Congress in April.

Zelenskiy said on Friday, “Ukraine will always be grateful to the United States for its help in strengthening our ability to resist Russian terror. Russian attacks on our cities and villages continue every day.”

Trump’s Blackmail of Ukraine

in 2019, Trump demanded that Ukraine publicly spread disinformation about Joe Biden, then a Democratic candidate for the Presidency. He reinforced the ultimatum in a phone call with Zelenskiy.

The conversation took place as Russia, which had seized Crimea in 2014, was pursuing an indirect war to control areas in eastern Ukraine with military, economic, and political support of separatists.

When the demand on Zelenskiy was exposed by a whistle-blower, Trump lied about his freeze of military assistance and the scheming through his lawyer Rudy Giuliani. He insisted that his call with the Ukrainian President was “perfect”.

Trump was impeached over the episode, but escaped conviction because of the Republican majority in the Senate.