UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Donald Trump in Turnberry, Scotland, July 28, 2025 (Sky)

EA-Times Radio VideoCast: After A Challenging Week, Ukraine Still Stands

EA on TVP World: Trump-Europe, Tariffs, and Ukraine

Monday’s Coverage: Zelensky — Anti-Corruption Bill Must Be “Adopted Without Delay”

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1622 GMT:

The European Union is reducing its aid payment to Ukraine for the first time during Russia’s full-scale invasion.

The European Commission has proposed paying Kyiv just over €3 billion ($3.46 billion) instead of €4.5 billion ($5.19 billion).

Ukraine acknowledged in June that it hmissed three of 16 reform benchmarks, including the appointment of judges to an anti-corruption court.

The reduction was planned before last week’s passage of a law by the Ukrainian Parliament curbing the independence of two anti-corruption agencies.

UPDATE 1613 GMT:

Five civilians have been murdered and three injured by a Russian rocket attack on residents gathered to receive humanitarian aid in the Kharkiv region in northeast Ukraine.

Three people, including a 23-year-old pregnant woman, were slain and 22 injured in the western part of the Dnipropetrovsk region. A maternity hospital was damaged.

The injured include 10 medical workers. At least two people remain in critical condition, including a medical specialist and a pregnant woman.

UPDATE 1157 GMT:

For the second day in a row, Russia’s State airline Aeroflot has cancelled flights because of a cyber-attack by pro-Ukraine hackers.

The airline canceled 22 outgoing flights and 31 incoming flights at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.

The hacker group Silent Crow has claimed responsibility for the attack, cooperating with the Belarusian opposition Cyber Partisans BY. It says has destroyed Aeroflot’s IT infrastructure, affecting 7,000 physical and virtual servers and accessing 20 terrabytes of data.

UPDATE 1124 GMT:

Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov says the Kremlin “has taken note” of Donald Trump’s warning to cease fire in Ukraine within 10 to 12 days or face toughened sanctions.

Peskov said the invasion continues while posing that Moscow “remains committed to the peace process to resolve the conflict around Ukraine and secure our interests”.

He said there was a “slowdown” in Russian efforts to revive diplomatic relations with the Trump Administration. “This matter [of a Putin-Trump meeting] was not on the substantive agenda before, and it remains so now,” he explained.

UPDATE 0915 GMT:

Writing for The New York Times, Nataliya Vasilyeva and Alina Lobzina report:

Since last month, [Russian] authorities have shut those networks down every day in various parts of the country, in unpredictable patterns, for hours at a time. The goal is to try to thwart attacks by Ukrainian drones that analysts say have used mobile networks for navigation.

It is a big disruption in a country where smartphones provide the only online access for millions of people. The government regularly touts an array of online services, like filing tax returns and applying for jobs, and President Vladimir V. Putin claimed this year that Russia was “a step ahead of many other nations”.

By late July, the cellular internet was down every day for at least a few hours in parts of at least 73 of Russia’s 83 regions, according to a tally by Na Svyazi, a group of volunteers living abroad who monitor Russian internet access.

Mikhail Klimarev, head of the Internet Protection Society, an exiled Russian digital rights group, says, “The Kremlin has been asking regional authorities to put up a defense against the drones — there’s nothing else they can do but turn the internet off.”

UPDATE 0826 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has commented on Russia’s murder of 22 civilians and injuring of 85 overnight:

Every killing of our people by the Russians, every Russian strike – at a time when a ceasefire could have long been in place, if not for Russia’s refusal – all of this shows that Moscow deserves very harsh, truly painful, and therefore just and effective sanctions pressure. They must be compelled to stop the killing and make peace.

Presidential Chief of Staff Andrii Yermak added:

Earlier, Ukrainian officials put the toll at 23 killed and 54 injured over the past 24 hours.

Air defenses intercepted 32 of 37 drones. Russia also fired two ballistic missiles which struck sites.

The toll from Russia’s strike on a prison in the Zaporizhzhia region in southern Ukraine has been revised upward to 17 killed and 42 injured.

Four civilians were slain in the Dnipropetrovsk region in south-central. Two were critically injured and three moderately, as a maternity hospital and several hospital wards were damaged.

In the Kharkiv region in the northeast, two people were killed and one injured. In the Kherson region in the south, one civilian was murdered and three wounded.

Casualties were also reported in the Donetsk and Sumy regions.

UPDATE 0623 GMT:

At least 16 people have been killed and 35 injured by Russian air strikes, including on a prison, in the Zaporizhzhia region in southern Ukraine.

The Russians attacked eight times with FAB bombs, destroying prison buildings and damaging nearby houses, said Governor Ivan Fedorov.

Four civilians were murdered in the neighboring Dnipropetrovsk region.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has praised Donald Trump after the reality TV star warned Vladimir Putin that he might toughen sanctions on Russia over its invasion and mass killing.

Alongside UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Scotland, Trump said he was reducing his 50-day “deadline” for Putin to cease fire — set to expire on September 2 — to 10 or 12 days.

He expressed his frustration with the Kremlin’s escalating drone and missile strikes on Ukrainian civilians:

I’ve spoken to President Putin a lot. I got along with him very well….We thought we had that settled numerous times, and then President Putin goes out and starts launching rockets into some city like Kyiv and kills a lot of people in a nursing home or whatever….

And I say that’s not the way to do it. So we’ll see what happens with that. I’m very disappointed. I’m disappointed in President Putin, very disappointed in him.

Zelensky responded in his nightly address to the nation:

Peace is possible if we act strongly and decisively, and we have repeatedly said — and all partners know this — that sanctions are a key element….

Ukraine, as always, is ready to work with America, with President Trump, in the most productive way possible, to end this war with dignity and lasting peace.

Two weeks ago, Trump proclaimed that he could impose tariffs of 100% on Russia and any country who trades with it, such as China or India.

On Monday, he indicated that he was no longer pursuing a face-to-face meeting with Putin: “If you know what the answer is going to be, why wait? And it would be sanctions and maybe tariffs, secondary tariffs.”

He hedged, “I don’t want to do that to Russia. I love the Russian people.”

Posting video of Trump’s remarks, Zelensky said: “I thank President Trump for his focus on saving lives and stopping this horrible war….Russia pays attention to sanctions, pays attention to such losses.”