US President Donald Trump has said he will shorten the deadline he set for Moscow to avoid secondary sanctions on Russian oil by ending his three-year-old war against Ukraine.
“I'm disappointed in President Putin,” he said, speaking alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer ahead of their meeting in Scotland. “I'm going to reduce that 50 days that I gave him to a lesser number.” He did not give a new deadline.
Trump previously set a 50-day deadline starting 14 July for Putin to avoid what he described as “very severe tariffs” during a meeting in the Oval Office with Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stated that any peace deal requires Ukraine to withdraw from the four regions illegally annexed by Moscow in September 2022, which Russia never fully captured.
It comes after Russian forces downed nearly 100 Ukrainian drones over several regions from Saturday night into Sunday. The drone threat also forced the shutdown of St Petersburg Pulkovo airport, leading to the suspension of dozens of flights in the early hours of Sunday.
Meanwhile, Poland scrambled its warplanes in the early hours of Monday to protect its airspace after Russia launched missiles at western Ukraine, near the border with the Nato country. As of 1.30am GMT, most of Ukraine remained under air raid alerts.
Read More
Key Points
- Russia scales down Navy Day celebrations amid Ukrainian drone attacks
- Poland scrambles aircraft after Russia launches missiles at Ukraine
- Child among eight injured in Russia's overnight air attack on Kyiv
- Russia accuses Kyiv and the West of rejecting diplomacy to end war
- EU urges Ukraine to uphold independent anti-corruption bodies
Trump's 50-day ultimatum re-capped
13:28
,
Steffie Banatvala
- Speaking in the Oval Office on 14 July, alongside NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Donald Trump said the US could impose "very severe" secondary tariffs, potentially 100 per cent, on Russia if the war in Ukraine is not concluded within 50 days.
- Trump expressed strong disappointment with Russian President Putin, accusing him of being "all talk" and condemning Russia's attacks on Ukrainian civilian targets.
- The US said it would also supply additional weaponry to Ukraine, with NATO allies facilitating the purchase and transfer of these arms to Kyiv.
- NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte commended Trump's decision to provide Ukraine with essential defence capabilities and allow European allies to finance the weapons.
- Trump hoped these actions, including increased NATO defence spending, would influence Putin and lead to a lasting peace in Ukraine.
- Now, speaking to Sir Keir Starmer, Trump has said he will shorten this deadline.
In pictures: aftermath of Russian attack
13:00
,
Steffie Banatvala
Russia says its forces took control of two more settlements in eastern Ukraine
12:30
,
Steffie Banatvala
Russian troops have taken control of the settlements of Boikivka and Belhiika in eastern Ukraine, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Monday.
The battlefield report could not independently verified.
In pictures: firefighters work on fire following Russian air attack
12:00
,
Steffie Banatvala
Ukraine on agenda for Trump-Starmer meeting
11:30
,
Steffie Banatvala
Ukraine will be on the agenda for US President Trump and British Prime Minister Starmer’s upcoming meeting in Scotland.
Talks will also range from their recent bilateral trade deal to the worsening hunger crisis in Gaza, the two governments said.
11:00
,
Steffie Banatvala
Kremlin calls Aeroflot cyberattack worrying, seeks more information
10:56
,
Steffie Banatvala
The Kremlin on Monday called reports of a cyberattack attack on Russian flag carrier Aeroflot's internal systems worrying and said it wanted more information about the situation.
Aeroflot AFLT.MM said on Monday that it had cancelled up to 50 flights after reporting a failure in its information systems. A pro-Ukrainian hacking group called Silent Crow claimed responsibility for the attack.
"The information we read in the public domain is quite alarming," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
"The threat of hacking is a threat that remains for all large companies that provide services to the public. We will, of course, (seek to) clarify this information and wait for the relevant explanations."
Hackers claim responsibility for Russia's Aeroflot IT failure
10:40
,
Steffie Banatvala
Russian airline Aeroflot AFLT.MM cancelled dozens of flights on Monday after what it called a failure in its information systems, and a shadowy hacking group claimed responsibility for what it said was a crippling cyberattack.
The national carrier did not provide further details about the cause of the problem or how long it would take to resolve.
A statement purporting to be from a hacking group called Silent Crow said it had carried out the operation together with a Belarusian group called Cyberpartisans BY, and linked it to the war in Ukraine.
"Glory to Ukraine! Long live Belarus!" said the statement, whose authenticity Reuters could not immediately verify.
Silent Crow previously claimed responsibility for an attack on a Russian real estate database in January.
Zelensky says Ukrainian defenders intercept hundreds of Russian drones
10:30
,
Steffie Banatvala
Ukraine’s unmanned systems units, Army and Air Force aviation, anti-aircraft gunners, air defense forces, and mobile fire groups all worked tirelessly throughout the night.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 28, 2025
In total, just in this one night alone, our sky defenders intercepted several hundred Russian attack… pic.twitter.com/0Otit6B7xu
In pictures: Russian attack on Kyiv
10:00
,
Steffie Banatvala
Ukraine signs first Transbalkan gas deal with Azerbaijan's SOCAR
09:30
,
Steffie Banatvala
Ukraine's state-owned oil and gas major Naftogaz has signed its first deal with Azerbaijan's SOCAR to import natural gas via the Transbalkan route, it said on Monday.
"For the first time, a test shipment of gas is being delivered through the Transbalkan route along the Bulgaria–Romania–Ukraine corridor," Naftogaz said in a statement on its website.
The Ukrainian company said the agreement was for a small volume of gas, and did not specify timelines.
"This is a small volume but strategically important step that paves the way for long-term cooperation," Naftogaz CEO Serhiy Koretskyi was quoted in the statement.
Russia's Aeroflot cancels over 40 flights as information systems fail
09:00
,
Steffie Banatvala
Russia's largest airline Aeroflot AFLT.MM said on Monday that it had cancelled more than 40 flights after reporting a failure in its information systems.
Moscow region, Russia ❗
— LX (@LXSummer1) July 28, 2025
✈️ Flight chaos at Sheremetyevo: Numerous Aeroflot flights were canceled or delayed on the morning of July 28! Aeroflot reported a so-called “service malfunction” due to issues with its information systems, though no specific cause was disclosed.… pic.twitter.com/OhnK2RQGNE
German army prepares to develop deep-strike drones: local media
08:30
,
Steffie Banatvala
The German armed forces are preparing to develop long-range combat drones capable of striking targets deep in enemy territory, the Handelsblatt newspaper reported on Monday.
Three consortia are working on concrete concepts after the Luftwaffe airforce sent a request for deep-strike drones to leading defence companies and startups, the report said.
The German defence ministry confirmed preparations for such a project to Handelsblatt, saying that initial talks had taken place but that no formal tender had been issued.
Poland scrambles aircraft after Russia launches missiles at Ukraine
08:04
,
Arpan Rai
Polish and allied aircraft were deployed in the early hours today "to ensure the safety of Polish airspace" after Russia launched missile strikes targeting western Ukraine, the Operational Command of the Polish armed forces said.
At 1.30am GMT, most of Ukraine was under air raid alerts following Ukrainian Air Force warnings of Russian missile and drone attacks.
Russia attacks Ukraine with 324 drones and seven missiles overnight
07:53
,
Arpan Rai
Russia fired a total of 331 missiles and drones at Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian air force said on Telegram this morning.
“On the night of 28 July, the enemy attacked with 331 air attack vehicles (324 UAVs, 4 cruise and 3 aeroballistic missiles),” the air force said.
It added that the Russian missiles and drones were downed by anti-aircraft missiles, electronic warfare and unmanned systems units, and mobile fire groups of the Defence Forces of Ukraine.
The ballistic missiles did not reach their targets, the Ukraine Air Force said.
Russia is deploying more tanks to test Ukrainian defence, ISW warns
07:38
,
Arpan Rai
Russia has increased its use of tanks and other armoured vehicles on the Ukraine frontline in recent days after a long period where such attacks were limited, a think tank says.
“Publicly available combat footage indicates that Russian forces have not conducted a company-sized or larger mechanised assault in Ukraine since April 2025 and have largely leveraged motorcycles and buggies to attack throughout Summer 2025,” the Institute for the Study of War said.
That may be changing, the ISW said, noting that "Russian forces may be temporarily increasing their use of armour to test for weaknesses in Ukraine's drone-based defence in different frontline areas".
The think tank suggested Russia may have improved on its ability to refurbish old Soviet-era tanks and therefore "increased their risk tolerance to use and lose armoured vehicles".
Ultimately though "it is unclear why Russian forces would recalculate this risk", the ISW said, adding that the development needed to be monitored further.
Russia scales down Navy Day celebrations amid Ukrainian drone attacks
07:03
,
Arpan Rai
Russia was forced to scale down the festivities honouring its navy as continuing Ukrainian drone attacks posed a challenge.
Russian authorities cancelled the parades of warships in St Petersburg, in the Kaliningrad region on the Baltic and in the far-eastern port of Vladivostok that are usually held to mark the annual Navy Day celebrations.
Asked about the reason for the cancellation of the parade in St Petersburg even as president Vladimir Putin arrived in his home city to visit the navy headquarters, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that "it's linked to the overall situation, security reasons, which are above all else".
Reducing the scale of the Navy Day celebrations indicates Moscow's worries about Ukraine's sweeping drone attacks across the country.
In a series of strikes earlier in the war now in its fourth year, Ukraine sank several Russian warships in the Black Sea, crippling Moscow's naval capability and forcing it to redeploy its fleet from Russia-occupied Crimea to Novorossiysk.
Russia's national carrier Aeroflot reports failure in information systems
06:36
,
Arpan Rai
Russia's national carrier Aeroflot said a failure has occurred in the airline's information systems, which may cause temporary disruptions in service operations.
"As a result, schedule adjustments for some flights are expected, including delays and cancellations," Aeroflot said in a post on Telegram.
The carrier said that "specialists are currently working to minimise the impact on the flight schedule and to restore normal service operations", but it did not disclose details on the scale of the failure or possible cause.
The carrier, which despite sanctions imposed on Russia for its war in Ukraine that drastically limited travel and routes, remains among the top 20 worldwide by passenger numbers.
In 2024, passenger traffic of the Aeroflot Group reached 55.3 million passengers, according to a statement on the airline's website.
While there is no official statement from Russia at this time to indicate that the outage was caused by a cyberattack, Ukraine in the past has targeted Russia's key infrastructure. Russia has also carried out mass cyberattacks on Ukraine's state registries, taking down several Ukrainian state websites.
Child among eight injured in Russia's night attack
06:11
,
Arpan Rai
A Russian overnight air attack on Kyiv wounded eight residents of an apartment building, including a three-year-old child, authorities in the Ukrainian capital said this morning.
Four of those injured in the attack, which took place soon after midnight, have been hospitalised, with one person in serious condition, said Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv's military administration.
Kyiv's mayor Vitali Klitschko said that all of the people were residents of a multi-storey apartment building in the city's Darnytskyi district on the left bank of the Dnipro River.
"The blast wave damaged windows from the 6th to the 11th floor," Mr Klitschko said in a post on Telegram.
The capital and most of Ukraine were under air raid alerts for several hours overnight following Ukrainian Air Force warnings of Russian missile and drone attacks.
Ukraine says Starlink’s huge global outage hit military communications
05:54
,
Arpan Rai
Ukrainian military Starlink systems were down for two and a half hours overnight, a senior commander confirmed, as part of a global disruption to the satellite internet provider.
Ukraine's forces heavily rely on thousands of SpaceX's Starlink terminals for battlefield communications and drone operations, proving resistant to espionage and signal jamming throughout three and a half years of fighting Russia's invasion.
Starlink's biggest international outage on Thursday, caused by an internal software failure, knocked tens of thousands of users offline.
"Starlink is down across the entire front," Robert Brovdi, the commander of Ukraine's drone forces, wrote on Telegram at 10.41pm (1941 GMT) on Thursday.
In photos: Putin attends Navy Day celebrations despite Ukrainian drone threat
05:32
,
Arpan Rai
Five injured in Russia's overnight air attack on Kyiv
05:22
,
Arpan Rai
At least five people were injured in a Russian attack on the Ukrainian capital in the early hours today, officials said.
Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the military administration of Kyiv, said the Russian air attack left at least five people injured and damaged a residential building.
At 1.30am GMT, most of Ukraine was under air raid alerts following Ukrainian Air Force warnings of Russian missile and drone attacks.
Starmer’s golf swing will be the least of his worries with Trump
05:15
,
Arpan Rai
Sir Keir Starmer has confided that he has never played golf before, which may prove to be a problem when he holds a bilateral with Donald Trump at the US president’s Turnberry course in Scotland today.
Ukraine is among the top three concerns for the British prime minister. The Middle East may not even be Starmer’s biggest international priority in these talks.
He is desperate for a solution to the Ukraine problem and recently, with Macron and Merz, has been pushing ahead with the “coalition of the willing” to provide a safeguard for Ukraine after a peace deal.
He and Macron announced new details and plans for the coalition after the French president’s recent state visit.
But they are moving ahead without the one thing they need – a promise by the US to back them up militarily if things go wrong.
Trump has resisted this idea, much preferring to get a share of Ukraine’s mineral resources. He has shown no interest at all in Starmer’s plan. But the British prime minister needs somehow to get him on side today.
Russia accuses Kyiv and the West of rejecting diplomacy to end war
05:02
,
Arpan Rai
Russia prefers political and diplomatic means to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, but Kyiv and the West reject that path, Russian news agencies reported yesterday, citing Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.
"Our preferred route is through political and diplomatic means," Mr Peskov said, according to TASS state news agency.
The Russian official added, without providing evidence, that Moscow continued its military operation in Ukraine because "all proposals for dialogue were rejected, both by Ukraine and by Western countries”.
ICYMI: Five dead after Ukraine and Russia trade drone and missile attacks
04:45
,
Arpan Rai
Five people have been killed in Ukraine and Russia as both countries launched a wave of overnight drone and missile attacks.
In Ukraine’s Dnipro region on Saturday, three people died in Russian shelling, while two were killed in Russia’s Rostov region after a Ukrainian drone strike.
Ukrainian officials said Russia launched 235 drones and 27 missiles in a “massive combined attack” overnight.
Ten missiles and 25 drones found their targets, striking nine locations, while air defences shot down or intercepted the rest, according to Ukraine’s Air Force.
Jabed Ahmed reports:
EU urges Ukraine to uphold independent anti-corruption bodies
04:42
,
Arpan Rai
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has urged Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky to uphold independent anti-corruption bodies as she also promised continued support for Ukraine on its path to EU membership.
"Ukraine has already achieved a lot on its European path. It must build on these solid foundations and preserve independent anti-corruption bodies, which are cornerstones of Ukraine's rule of law," Ms von der Leyen said in a post on X after a call with Mr Zelensky.
"Ukraine can count on our support to deliver progress on its European path," she added.
Good conversation with @ZelenskyyUa.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) July 27, 2025
Ukraine has already achieved a lot on its European path.
It must build on these solid foundations and preserve independent anti-corruption bodies, which are cornerstones of Ukraine’s rule of law.
Ukraine can count on our support to deliver…
First direct commercial flight launched between Russia and North Korea
04:39
,
Arpan Rai
Russia has inaugurated a new regular air service between Moscow and Pyongyang, a development underscoring the deepening relationship between the two nations.
The inaugural flight, operated by Russian carrier Nordwind, departed Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport yesterday with more than 400 passengers aboard. Russia's transport ministry confirmed plans for one monthly flight to accommodate demand.
Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, who visited North Korea's new Wonsan-Kalma beach resort earlier this month to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, promised to encourage Russian tourists to visit the complex.
Poland scrambles aircraft after Russia launches missiles at Ukraine
04:37
,
Arpan Rai
Polish and allied aircraft were activated in the early hours today to ensure the safety of Polish airspace after Russia launched missiles strikes targeting western Ukraine, near the border with the Poland, the Operational Command of the Polish armed forces said.
At 1.30am GMT, most of Ukraine was under air raid alerts following Ukrainian Air Force warnings of Russian missile and drone attacks.
Russia scales down Navy Day celebrations amid Ukrainian drone attacks
04:33
,
Arpan Rai
Russia was forced to scale down the festivities honouring its navy as continuing Ukrainian drone attacks posed a challenge.
Russian authorities cancelled the parades of warships in St Petersburg, in the Kaliningrad region on the Baltic and in the far-eastern port of Vladivostok that are usually held to mark the annual Navy Day celebrations.
Asked about the reason for the cancellation of the parade in St Petersburg even as president Vladimir Putin arrived in his home city to visit the navy headquarters, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that "it's linked to the overall situation, security reasons, which are above all else".
