Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky (Tetiana Dzhafarova/AFP)

EA on Talk TV: UK Prime Minister Burnham in Ukraine

EA-Ukraine VideoCast: A Federov-Musk Scheme v. President Zelensky?

Sunday’s Coverage: France’s Macron Pledges Help for Air Defenses

UPDATE 1753 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr ⁠Zelensky urged the Coalition of the Willing to ensure a package for ⁠air ​defense package ahead of winter.

He asked partners to help ‌cover a funding gap of €27 ​billion for defense in ⁠2026, citing the possible use of frozen Russian assets in Europe.

The Coalition pledged to continue efforts to “constrain Russia’s war chest” through sanctions and actions against Moscow’s shadow fleet”. They agreed on the need for “immediate assistance” for Ukraine’s energy sector.

Leaders “expressed their determination to increase military support to Ukraine, strengthen its air defense as a matter of urgent priority, enhance cooperation with its defense industry, and share relevant technologies, including through the anti-ballistic missile coalition”.

UPDATE 1343 GMT:

Europe’s Coalition of the Willing have met in an online call.

Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten posted:

Support for Ukraine and pressure on Russia is working. And it strengthens our resolve to continue supporting Ukraine. That is the core of what we discussed today, on the day Ukraine celebrates its independence, with our international partners within the Coalition of the Willing and President Zelensky.

UPDATE 1307 GMT:

European Union Council President António Costa has hailed Ukrainian people for their “courage and bravery” that “inspires the world.”

“We will continue to provide as much support as necessary for as long as necessary,” he pledged, extending beyond the Russian invasion and into Ukraine’s future membership of the European Union.

The international law must prevail. Russia will not prevail.

The European Union cannot be neutral when international law is being violated. We are not neutral. We are Ukrainian supporters.

UPDATE 1156 GMT:

At least eight civilians were murdered and at least 43 injured by Russian attacks as Ukraine marked its Independence Day.

Air defenses downed 109 of 143 drones, three of eight missiles, and two Banderol loitering munitions. Strikes were recorded at 22 locations.

In Lozova in the Kharkiv region in northeast Ukraine, two women were killed and six injured in an attack on railway infrastructure.

An 11-year-old girl, whose mother was murdered, is in serious condition with burns.

Another three people were slain and 11 injured, including a child, across the region.

In the Donetsk region in the east, two people were murdered and seven wounded.

In the Sumy region in the northeast, one person was killed and 12 wounded.

Casualties were also reported in the Zaporizhzhia, and Chernihiv regions.

UPDATE 1041 GMT:

Marking Independence Day, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said at the ceremony in front of St Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv:

Ukrainians restored the independence of their state, and we will definitely protect the independence of Ukraine. No doubt about it….

Ukrainians will not be cobblestones under the feet of tsars and rulers. Ukrainians will not submit. Ukrainians will not be bargaining chips in the disputes of capitals. Ukrainians will not submit to what they do not believe in. And they will definitely not abandon their own dream. Dream to live, dreams to live independently.

UPDATE 1038 GMT:

Speaking in front of St Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said:

My nation kept the flame of European freedom alive in the 20th century, you hold that flame in the 21st.

Despite Russia’s outrageous threats to my country, we will continue our support for Ukraine.

The Prime Minister praised “the sheer strength” of the Ukrainian people: “This is the moment to keep up the pressure on Russia, the moment to squeeze their ability to fund this illegal war.”

UPDATE 0757 GMT:

In an Independence Day address, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has acknowledge that “things are really very difficult for all of us” but the unity of all Ukrainians “is…holding us firmly by the hand”.

As long as the enemy does not break this circle of ours, Ukraine will not fall, will achieve its peace, and will succeed….

Putin hopes that we are tired. But we know that he is mortal. He never understood us. Now he will not have time to.

You wanted to take all our Ukraine, all our land; instead, you lost your oil refineries, your fleet, your profits, your entire generation that you sent into the meat grinder.

You wanted us erased from the map; now you are absent from the international agenda of the future civilisation. For 27 years, the head of Russia has talked about greatness, while Russia is standing in lines for gasoline.

Zelensky told European leader, “We are not asking you to fight for us, [but] to give Ukraine everything it needs to stop this war.”

UPDATE 0746 GMT:

As leaders gather in Kyiv for Ukraine’s Independence Day, the European Union has released another €6.1 billion ($7.1 billion) to boost Ukraine’s air defenses.

The financing is part of a €90 billion loan, including €60 billion in military aid, approved by the EU this spring.

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, on his first overseas trip since taking office last month, is expected to announce consent for defense company MBDA to release classified information about British components used in the Storm Shadow long-range missile.

The information will help France and Kyiv to advance plans for production of French SCALP missile in Ukraine.

UPDATE 0615 GMT:

Russia struck a factory of the US-owned multinational food company Mondelez International in the Sumy region in northeast Ukraine on Sunday, said Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.

Two Russian drones hit the facility in the city of Trostianets, damaging the premises and injuring several employees.

Mondelez’s brands include Oreo, Cadbury, Ritz, and Toblerone.

UPDATE 0603 GMT:

Ukraine has struck four more logistics hubs of Russia’s second-largest ⁠online retailer Ozon, bringing the total to six in three days.

Drones shut down the ​hub ‌in ‌Krasnodar Krai in southwest ‌Russia. Monitors reported that two other Ozon logistics centers, in the Adygea Republic and in Stavropol Krai, have been set afire. Photographs showed smoke rising above a site in the Dagestan Republic.

Stavropol Krai Governor Vladimir Vladimirov confirmed Ukrainian drones attacked the city of Nevinnomyssk’s industrial area, without saying what sites were targeted.

Ukraine attacked Ozon warehouses in the Samara region on Saturday and the Orenburg region on Sunday in central Ukraine.

Since mid-July, Ukraine has caused billions of dollars in damage to “Russia’s Amazon”, Wildberries. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said, “After Ukrainian units hit the 15 largest logistics hubs of Wildberries, it is now Ozon’s turn,” said a Ukrainian defense ministry announcement.

UPDATE 0556 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has insisted his Government was not involved in the September 2022 bombing of the Nord Stream undersea gas pipelines from Russia to Germany.

Three of the four pipelines were damaged by explosives of Denmark’s Bornholm Island in the Baltic Sea. German prosecutors arrested a second Ukrainian suspect, living in Croatia, last Wednesday.

The prosecutors allege the Nord Stream bombings were ordered by the Ukrainian state. Zelensky responded that Kyiv is helping Berlin with its investigation and hoped it would not cause a rift in relations.

“It is very important for us not to lose our partnership, not to lose the trust of European countries that have been helping Ukraine since the very beginning of this war,” he said.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeated that elections cannot be held during Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, dismissed by Zelensky on July 15, called for a vote in an online video released last week.

The President told journalists on Sunday:

If we want to destroy the country, then during a war like this we can move toward elections.

Elections right now are a tsunami for the state that will split Ukraine. My strategy is to bring the country to the end of the war and preserve an independent and sovereign state.

Ukraine’s Constitution bars elections during martial law.

Zelensky said some partners have called for a vote, but have not offered concrete conditions under which it could be conducted safely, legitimately, and democratically.

He noted that any election would have to include military personnel, residents of frontline areas, and millions of Ukrainians living abroad. It would have to ensure voters are protected from Russian attacks.

Russia’s Ballistic Missile Threat

Emphasizing the challenge for Ukraine before winter, Zelensky said Russia has a stockpile of 600-630 high-speed ballistic missiles and is trying to build more than 100 per month.

“I wanted to secure 300 Patriot missiles for the winter package. The request from our air force is 360,” Zelensky said.

The President noted the difficulty as only about 600 of US-made PAC-3 interceptor missiles are manufactured each year. He cited an agreement with France on at least one SAMP/T air-defense system ​this year, and with ‌Germany on the supply of ​about 600 PAC-2 and PAC-3 ​interceptors in 2027-28.

After a conversation with Zelensky on Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron said he had agreed to step up delivery of interceptor missiles.

The US could help by supplying “some small percentage” of its stockpiles – about 5% to 10%, Zelensky explained. He called on the Trump Administration to make “a very significant difference both in protecting lives and diplomatically”. Ukraine was willing to pay and it would mean the country “could get through the winter”.

Zelensky added the expectation that Russia will try to conscript a further 300,000 soldiers after Parliamentary elections in September. The “peripheral mobilisation”, conducted away from Moscow, St Petersburg, and other main cities, will try to regain momentum on stalled frontline.