A first responder in front of a building struck in a Russian attack on Bukovina in western Ukraine, July 12, 2025

EA on BBC and WION: Will Trump Back Ukraine’s Resistance v. Russia?

Friday’s Coverage: Zelensky Meets With US Senators About Russia Sanctions

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1608 GMT:

In a historic procedure, Ukrainian doctors carried out organ transplants from a deceased 4-year-old girl to save the lives of three critically ill children.

The Okhmatdyt Hospital, Ukraine’s largest for children, used the girl’s heart, liver, and kidneys with her parents’ consent.

“This is a story about humanity, the incredible power of a parent’s decision, and the chance for life even in the most difficult times,” the hospital said in a statement.

The operations, lasting more than 13 hours, were carried out under the threat of Russian drone and missile strikes. A 16-year-old girl with Wilson’s disease received the liver transplant. A 14-year-old boy who had been on dialysis for more than seven months received the kidneys. A 12-year-old girl was given the heart.

The procedure was the first in the hospital’s history.

UPDATE 1023 GMT:

At least 13 civilians have been killed and 46 injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine over the last 24 hours.

Air defenses downed 319 of 597 drones, and 258 were lost to electronic counter-measures. Of 26 missiles fired by Russia, 25 were intercepted.

Four civilians were killed in the Donetsk region in the east, and three in the Dnipropetrovsk region in south-centeral Ukraine.

In Chernivtsi city in the west, two civilians were murdered. Fourteen were injured, one critically and three seriously.

In the Kherson region in the south, two people were slain and eight injured by attacks on more than 30 towns and villages. In the neighboring Zaporizhzhia region, two civilians were murdered.

Casualties were also reported in the Kharkiv, Sumy, and Lviv regions.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky posted:

The pace of Russia’s aerial strikes demands swift decisions – and it can be curbed through sanctions right now….

More air defense systems are needed, along with investments in interceptor drones, which are already delivering good results.

This war can only be stopped through strength. We expect not just signals from our partners, but actions that will save lives.

UPDATE 1016 GMT:

Ukraine’s military will begin receiving hundreds of Ukrainian-constructed, long-range weapon systems by the end of July under a German-financed agreement, says German Maj. Gen. Christian Freuding.

The weapons will be supplied in a “high triple-digit quantity,” said Freuding, the head of the Ukraine task force at the German Defense Ministry.

Berlin agreed in late May, with Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, to fund Ukrainian arms producers.

“We need weapons systems that can reach far into the depth of Russian territory — to hit depots, command centers, airfields and aircraft,” Freuding said. He did not specify what kind of long-range systems Germany is financing.

UPDATE 0710 GMT:

Sources say Col. Ivan Voronych, shot dead in Kyiv on Thursday, oversaw a Ukrainian special operations unit carrying out assassinations in Russian-occupied territory.

The sources said Voronych commanded the Fifth Directorate, which receives technical support from the CIA. Among its operations were the killing in 2016 of Arsen Pavlov, better known as “Motorola,” a prominent commander of Russian proxy units in eastern Ukraine.

Ivan Stupak, a former Ukrainian intelligence operative, said, “We remember Givi, Motorola, various other low-ranking ‘Russian Spring activists’. many were burned, shot, killed. These are the kinds of things this unit dealt with, the unit where the deceased [Voronych] worked.”

UPDATE 0702 GMT:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, on a visit to North Korea, has hailed Pyongyang’s “unequivocal support” for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

After talks with North Korean Foreign Minister Choi Son Hee, Lavrov praised Pyongyang’s assistance in the regaining of the Kursk region in western Russia, part of which was taken by Ukraine from August 2024.

North Korea deployed around 12,000 troops, and has also provided missiles and hundreds of thousands of munition rounds for Russia’s assault.

Intelligence agencies in Ukraine and South Korea expect North Korea to send another 25,000 to 30,000 troops in the coming months. They assess a “high probability” that North Korean troops will participate in operations inside Ukraine.

UPDATE 0653 GMT:

Russia’s last independent election monitor, Golos, is closing after the imprisonment of its co-chair.

The remaining leadership decided to shut rather than subject affiliates to further criminal charges. The organization’s co-chair, Grigory Melkonyants, has been condemned to five years in a prison colony.

For 25 years, Golos trained election observers and provided inforamtion to journalists, activists, and academics. Its web platform invited citizens and civil society activists to report electoral violations they had personally experienced or witnessed.

Citizens were encouraged to submit supporting documentation: emails, screenshots of WhatsApp and text messages, photos of illegal campaign materials, and leaked documents from state and private institutions. These reports were then reviewed and displayed on a national map, Karta Narusheny (“Map of Violations”), run by Gazeta.ru.

UPDATE 0646 GMT:

The commander of an elite Russian marine unit was slain last week in a Ukrainian missile strike that also killed a deputy chief of the Russian Navy, reports the independent Russian news channel Astra.

Col. Sergei Ilyin led the Pacific Fleet’s 155th Guards Naval Infantry Brigade and died “during the special military operation” in Ukraine, according to a post by the Urmarsky district administration in the Chuvashia Republic.

The post, later deleted, did not specify when Ilyin perished. However, Astra shared a photo of a billboard, apparently at a funeral, showing his dates of birth and death as November 26, 1985 and July 2, 2025.

Russian Deputy Commander Mikhail Gudkov were killed on July 2 by the Ukrainian missile which hit a command post in the Kursk region in western Russia.

UPDATE 0638 GMT:

Ukraine Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has posted about Russia’s overnight missile and drone attacks:

UPDATE 0623 GMT:

Germany is providing Ukraine with a grant of €40.5 million ($47.4 million) to support small and medium businesses.

The Ukrainian Finance Ministry said the funds will be sent by Germany’s state development bank KfW and distributed through Ukraine’s Entrepreneurship Development Fund. The loans and grants will primarily support businesses in “de-occupied and war-affected territories,” with average distribution of €250,000.

Norway is allocating 25 million Norwegian krone ($2.5 million) to support Ukraine’s cyber-security defenses.

Oslo announced its accession to the Tallinn Mechanism to help protect Ukraine against cyber-threats.

Ukraine and 10 partners established the mechanism in December 2023.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: At least two civilians have been murdered and 18 injured by Russia’s overnight missile and drone strikes far behind the frontline in Ukraine.

For the third night in a row, Russia targeted the west of the country, including the cities of Lviv and Chernivtsi between 3 a.m. and 4:45 a.m.

In Chernivtsi, a 26-year-old woman and 43-year-old man were killed by falling debris. Another 14 people were injured, including four in serious condition.

Several residential buildings, shops, administrative buildings, and vehicles were damaged.

In Lviv city, four people were wounded, one of them requiring hospital treatment.

A fire was set on the roof of a “non-residential” building in the Zaliznychnyi district. Several residential and industrial buildings, vehicles, and a kindergarten were struck.

In Lutsk, a home and vehicle were damaged.

Poland scrambled fighter jets to protect its airspace during the attack.