Vladimir Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (Reuters)

EA on TVP World: Is Trump Camp Swinging Towards Support of Ukraine v. Russia’s Invasion?

Saturday’s Coverage: 10 Killed, 100+ Wounded in Russia Strike on Kyiv Arms Exhibition

UPDATE 0653 GMT:

Amid Ukraine’s counter-attacks affecting fuel supplies, Russia is extending its ban on gasoline exports until the end of 2026.

Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said the Kremlin will consider lifting the ban on diesel exports “as the market recovers”.

Moscow banned gasoline and diesel exports on April 1 and July 8, respectively. More than 50 Russian regions have imposed rationing.

UPDATE 0647 GMT:

Standing alongside Vladimir Putin on Saturday, Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called for a freezing of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a return to talks.

Tokayev said at the conference in the Siberian city of Omsk:

The nature of this conflict is not entirely clear to many, including us.

If I may offer my humble opinion, since I have been asked, perhaps it is time to freeze this conflict….

With guarantees from the great powers, including Russia, we could move forward toward a long-awaited peace. This must be brought to an end.

Putin did not respond at the press conference, but Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov later declared that “a freeze as such is impossible. For us, there is a key condition: we must achieve our goals.”

UPDATE 0637 GMT:

Tehran has accused Ukraine of attacking an Iranian commercial vessel in the Caspian Sea, killing one sailor and injuring another.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky had posted of “very strong results” with long-range strikes on “vessels used in military cargo shipments involving Iran, as well as a warship” in the Caspian.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry summoned Ukraine’s chargé d’affaires in Tehran over the “hostile and criminal” attack.

Zelensky subsequently posted that Russia has assisted Tehran, during the US-Israel War on Tehran, with satellite imagery of US military sites in Gulf States.

UPDATE 0624 GMT:

Russia fired ballistic missiles on Kyiv overnight, striking an 18-story residential building.

Multiple explosions were heard just before 12:30 a.m. A fire was reported at an unspecified “non-residential site” in the Solomianskyi district. Several cars and an four-story abandoned building were also set ablaze.

Three people were injured, one of whom was hospitalized.

A civilian was murdered and at least six injured, including two children, in Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv.

A shopping center was struck in the city of Kryvyi Rih in the Dnipropetrovsk region early Sunday, setting a large fire.

A Russian double drone strike set ablaze a civilian cargo ship, sailing under the flag of Palau, as it departed a port in the Odesa region.

Thhe vessel was transporting around 2,800 tons of corn to Greece. Two sailors are missing. Seven crew members and a Ukrainian pilot were rescued and given medical treatment.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky says that, facing little progress in his 53-month full-scale invasion, Vladimir Putin is planning to expand Russia’s mobilization.

In his nightly address to the nation, Zelensky noted that Russian casualties now exceed the call-up of personnel. During 2026, Russia has lost almost 225,500 men — 131,000 killed and almost 93,000 wounded — as 221,000 joined the Russian Armed Forces.

Ukraine’s General Staff says the Kremlin has lost 1,419,090 personnel during its invasion. The pace of the losses has increased amid increasing Ukrainian effectiveness, particularly with drones, and the unending Russian assault on the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.

Zelensky asserted:

Putin is preparing to simply send more Russians to war. He disguises it with different words and signals, but that is what he is preparing to do. It is crucial that, together with our partners, we exert enough pressure on Russia so that the idea of ending this aggression becomes the dominant one – the idea of peace, not of another Russian mobilization.

The President warned, “Russia wants to receive another 30,000 troops from North Korea. Since June, preparations have been underway in Russia’s Voronezh region to receive them.”

In autumn 2024, North Korea despatched around 12,000 men to Russia as the Kremlin faced Ukraine’s cross-border incursion into the Kerch region.