Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky to press for Patriot missiles at Nato summit after Moscow’s latest deadly strikes

WorldPolitics
7 Jul 2026 • 2:33 PM MYT
The Independent
The Independent

The world’s most free-thinking newspaper

Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky to press for Patriot missiles at Nato summit after Moscow’s latest deadly strikes

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is to press for interceptors at the Nato summit on Tuesday after Ukraine was unable to down any of the missiles fired by Russia on Monday.

Patriot missiles are the only weapon that can ​shoot ⁠down ballistic projectiles.

He said it was "simply nonsensical that, in the modern world, production has still not been scaled up to the level actually required to protect people from ballistic terror".

Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia fired 351 drones and 68 missiles overnight into Monday, targeting mainly Kyiv, and all 29 ballistic missiles struck their targets.

“Russians are certainly using the fact that there is a serious deficit of interceptor missiles now, in Ukraine and the world,” said Ukraine Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat.

Ukraine’s defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov also warned that Russia is deliberately ramping up ballistic missile attacks on a scale unseen before, exploiting the acute shortage of Patriot interceptors.

This comes as ahead of the Nato summit in Ankara, Turkey today, US president Donald Trump said that a resolution to the more than four-year-old war in Ukraine is "getting closer than people realise" and that he will ⁠talk about Ukraine during talks in Turkey this week at a Nato summit.

Read More

Nato backs Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes to force Putin to negotiate, says Finnish PM

Russia’s population crisis is driving a new push for marriage and bigger families

US tells Nato that spending must increase ‘immediately’ or alliance will face consequences

Paradise lost: How Monaco became the billionaire’s playground with a health warning

Key Points

  • Kyiv says it is facing interceptor missiles shortage as Russia increases attacks
  • Trump says Ukraine war is 'getting closer' to settle after talks with Putin and Zelensky
  • Death toll in Kyiv rises to 28 as Ukraine battles air-defence shortages
  • Norway seeks China's intervention to help bring Russia to Ukraine peace talks
  • US tells Nato that spending must increase ‘immediately’ or alliance will face consequences

Nato readies for a 'big reveal' on arms deals to prove its firepower to Trump

07:55 , Maira Butt

Nato on Tuesday will showcase a series of new military projects worth billions of dollars in an attempt to convince U.S. President Donald Trump that the allies are stepping up defence spending and converting investment into real firepower.

At an event dubbed the “big reveal,” several leaders are due to announce new deals with defense companies, plenty of them in the United States. Trump has branded Nato a “paper tiger” that would cease to function without American arms and leadership.

Image from: Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky to press for Patriot missiles at Nato summit after Moscow’s latest deadly strikes

NATO readies for a 'big reveal' on arms deals to prove its firepower to Trump

Death toll in Kyiv rises to 28 as Ukraine battles air-defence shortages

07:16 , Arpan Rai

Russia hammered Kyiv and the surrounding region with missiles and drones early on Monday, killing at least 28 people and exposing Ukraine's ⁠critical shortage of US-made air-defence interceptors, officials said.

Rescuers were digging bodies from the rubble of a Kyiv high-rise ripped open in the overnight bombardment.

At least 18 people were killed in Kyiv, the Emergency Services said on Telegram as search and rescue operations recovered more bodies as crews worked through the night.

Prosecutors said 10 were killed in the wider Kyiv region.

Emergency Services reported repeated explosions and many damaged residential buildings in Vyshneve, outside the capital.

The governor of southeastern Zaporizhzhia region said a drone strike on a filling station killed two people later on Monday.

And in Sumy region on the Russian border, where Moscow wants to broaden a buffer zone, the regional governor said two residents died in separate Russian drone strikes.

In Kyiv, nearly 30 buildings were significantly damaged, interior minister Ihor Klymenko said.

A search operation dragged into Monday afternoon as crews combed mountains of rubble and twisted metal in the multi-storey building whose top floors had been torn open.

Ukraine's military was unable to down any of the 23 ballistic missiles fired by Russia, according to air force data, reflecting its increasing vulnerability to Moscow's strikes as stocks of its prized Patriot missiles run out.

A resident walks on a street at a site of a Russian attack near Kyiv (Reuters)

Nato to unveil big arms deals in Ankara before summit with Trump

07:14 , Arpan Rai

Nato leaders plan to unveil arms deals worth tens of billions of dollars in Ankara today to show they are heeding US calls to spend more to defend Europe before joining ⁠president Donald Trump for a summit.

European governments will announce the deals at a Nato defence industry forum before Trump flies in to meet Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and join fellow leaders of the military alliance for the summit, which begins with a dinner on Tuesday evening.

Nato secretary general Mark Rutte said on Monday Europeans had made “staggering” increases in defence spending in part due to fears of Russia, which have surged since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but also because Trump had been “extremely forceful” in encouraging them to do so.

Trump has long accused European governments of over-relying on the US to defend them through the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, which has protected the continent since the early years of ⁠the Cold War.

“We are now creating an alliance which is sustainable, where the US knows it is a fair deal,” Rutte told reporters in Ankara on the eve of the summit.

Rutte said last month that Nato's European members and Canada spent $90bn more on defence in real terms in 2025 than in 2024, to reach a total of more than $570bn – an increase of around 20 per cent in a ‌single year.

Ukrainian drone attack sparks fire at industrial facility in Russia's Kaluga

06:47 , Arpan Rai

Six Ukrainian drones have hit an industrial enterprise in Russia's Kaluga region in southwest of Moscow, causing the facility to catch fire overnight on Tuesday, the regional governor said.

There were ⁠no casualties, the governor, Vladislav Shapsha, wrote on Telegram. He did ‌not specify ​which ‌facility was ⁠hit.

Ukraine attacks Moscow with more than 430 drones overnight

06:37 , Arpan Rai

Russian air defences detected more than 430 drones heading towards the wider Moscow region overnight, the city's mayor said, adding that most of the drones were neutralised at long-range.

A total of ‌36 drones were ⁠destroyed as they were approaching the Russian capital, which has a population ‌of 13 ​million, mayor Sergei ‌Sobyanin wrote ⁠on Telegram.

Russia typically reports only how many drones its air defences say they downed, not how many Ukraine launched, and rarely discloses the full extent of damage unless civilians are killed or civilian sites are hit.

People walk through Red Square in Moscow (AP)

Witnesses recount harrowing escape after Kyiv attack

06:21 , Arpan Rai

Emergency workers are continuing to search for survivors in the rubble of residential high-rises in two locations that suffered direct hits.

But those who survived the deadly barrage from Russia said they saw a scene of complete destruction.

In Kyiv's suburb of Vyshneve, about 600 residents were evacuated due to the risk of unexploded munitions, Ukraine's emergency service said.

Khrystyna Piatetska, 20, a resident of Kyiv’s Darnytskyi district, said she began screaming after the first strike, which was followed by a second blast that blew out the windows in her apartment building.

The lights went out, a burning smell filled the air and the stairwell was thick with smoke.

“When we were leaving the building, bodies were lying there,” Piatetska said.

“When we got downstairs, cars started exploding, and we came out from under the rubble straight into the fire.”

Halina Ivanivna, 61, said she was awakened by the first strike at about 2am.

Moments later, her apartment building began collapsing around her.

“Everything was falling down,” she said. Water poured through the building as smoke filled the air while emergency crews rushed to evacuate residents.

About five minutes after the initial impact, a second strike hit, she said.

People watch as emergency workers and machinery clear debris from the scene of an attack as Russian missiles and drones struck Kyiv overnight (Getty)

Missile test shows Nato 'can't be naive' about China, Rutte says

05:53 , Arpan Rai

The test-firing by China of a missile from a nuclear-powered submarine into the Pacific on Monday sends a message to Nato, the alliance's secretary general Mark Rutte said.

“This, again, ​is ⁠evidence that ‌we cannot be naive," Rutte told reporters ‌when asked about ‌the Chinese action on the ⁠eve of a Nato leaders' summit in Ankara. "And we are not."

Rutte also referred to China's support ‌for Russia ​as a "key enabler" ‌in its ⁠war against Ukraine.

Kremlin says Putin and Trump agreed during weekend call to talk again in 'near future'

05:48 , Arpan Rai

The Kremlin said Russian president Vladimir Putin and US president Donald Trump had agreed in a weekend call ⁠that they would talk again "in the near future," suggesting they are likely to talk this week during or after the Nato summit.

Trump is planning to meet Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday in Turkey where he will be attending the Nato summit, a senior US official said on Sunday.

The idea, the official said, was to make a renewed push to end the war in Ukraine. The same official said Trump would likely follow up with Putin ‌after talking to Zelensky.

Asked ‌on Monday if Trump would phone Putin after meeting Zelensky, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “Yes, indeed, both president Putin and president Trump have agreed that their contacts will continue in the near future.”

Peskov said Trump had held a pretty consistent position on the conflict in Ukraine.

“You know, president Trump, the US president, has a fairly consistent stance, and all these fabrications about him supposedly changing his views like a weather vane are, of course, untrue," said Peskov.

“He ⁠is consistent and confident in his ⁠understanding of what is happening, but, most importantly, he (Trump) is ‌open to listening to ​the information that is ‌conveyed to him by ​Putin.”

Watch: Rescue operations continue in Kyiv after Putin's deadly attack

05:35 , Arpan Rai

Death toll in Kyiv rises to 28 as Ukraine battles air-defence shortages

05:21 , Arpan Rai

Russia hammered Kyiv and the surrounding region with missiles and drones early on Monday, killing at least 28 people and exposing Ukraine's ⁠critical shortage of US-made air-defence interceptors, officials said.

Rescuers were digging bodies from the rubble of a Kyiv high-rise ripped open in the overnight bombardment.

At least 18 people were killed in Kyiv, the Emergency Services said on Telegram as search and rescue operations recovered more bodies as crews worked through the night.

Prosecutors said 10 were killed in the wider Kyiv region.

Emergency Services reported repeated explosions and many damaged residential buildings in Vyshneve, outside the capital.

The governor of southeastern Zaporizhzhia region said a drone strike on a filling station killed two people later on Monday.

And in Sumy region on the Russian border, where Moscow wants to broaden a buffer zone, the regional governor said two residents died in separate Russian drone strikes.

In Kyiv, nearly 30 buildings were significantly damaged, interior minister Ihor Klymenko said.

A search operation dragged into Monday afternoon as crews combed mountains of rubble and twisted metal in the multi-storey building whose top floors had been torn open.

Ukraine's military was unable to down any of the 23 ballistic missiles fired by Russia, according to air force data, reflecting its increasing vulnerability to Moscow's strikes as stocks of its prized Patriot missiles run out.

Emergency workers and machinery clear debris from the scene of an attack as Russian missiles and drones struck Kyiv overnight (Getty)

US tells Nato that spending must increase ‘immediately’ or alliance will face consequences

04:58 , Arpan Rai

The Trump administration has warned that Nato allies must step up defence spending “immediately” or face the consequences ahead of a summit with the military alliance this week.

Matt Whitaker, the US ambassador to Nato, said on Sunday that some partners were “doing more than others”, and that president Donald Trump expects all to “step up” and honour their commitments.

“Some allies are doing more than others. Poland, the Nordic countries, the Baltic countries lead the way,” he said.

Image from: Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky to press for Patriot missiles at Nato summit after Moscow’s latest deadly strikes

US tells Nato to increase spending ‘immediately’ or face consequences

Kyiv says it is facing interceptor missiles shortage as Russia increases attacks

04:36 , Arpan Rai

Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired 351 drones and 68 missiles overnight into Monday, targeting mainly Kyiv, and all 29 ballistic missiles struck their targets.

“To intercept ballistics, we need the means for interception,” air force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said on national television.

“Russians are certainly using the fact that there is a serious deficit of interceptor missiles now, in Ukraine and the world.”

Ukraine’s defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov said Russia is deliberately ramping up ballistic missile attacks on a scale unseen before, exploiting the acute shortage of Patriot interceptors.

“Fewer such missiles are produced worldwide each month than the enemy fires at Ukraine in that same period,” he said.

Ahead of the Nato summit in Turkey, Zelensky said Ukrainian forces had performed well against drones and cruise missiles but not against ballistic missiles — a shortfall he blamed on insufficient supplies of interceptors.

He urged US and European partners at the summit to bolster Ukraine’s air defense and protect civilians.

“As long as Patriot missiles remain in our allies’ stockpiles, Russia is only encouraged to keep ‘vanquishing’ residential buildings. The United States and Europe have enough strength to stop this terror,” he said on X following the attack.

Russia's defence ministry threatened that any increase in the supply of drones, missiles and ammunition produced in the West "will not go unnoticed and will be countered by a corresponding increase in the number and power of retaliatory strikes by the Russian armed forces on Ukrainian territory.”

 (Getty)

Trump says Ukraine war is 'getting closer' to settle after talks with Putin and Zelensky

04:19 , Arpan Rai

US president Donald Trump said on Monday that a resolution to the more than four-year-old war in Ukraine is "getting closer than people realise" and that he will ⁠talk about Ukraine during talks in Turkey this week at a Nato summit.

“This is one that I think we're getting much closer than people realise. And president Putin wants it to end. I will tell you that very strongly," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

Trump made his remarks after speaking at the weekend with both Russian president Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky.

He gave no specific reason for his assertion that a solution to the conflict was in sight, and overnight Russia hammered Kyiv and the surrounding region with missiles and drones, killing at least 28 people.

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said he believed the US position on how to resolve the conflict remained unchanged.

But Zelensky, interviewed by the Financial Times, ​said ⁠he believed the US president was viewing the conflict in a new light in view of recent Ukrainian successes.

Trump said he had held a "good call" with Putin on the Fourth of ​July holiday, ⁠a conversation a Kremlin aide said lasted 85 minutes ‌and was marked by the US president offering to help find a way to move towards peace.

“And president Zelensky actually wants it to end now. And we're going to be going to Nato, and we're going to be talking about it, and I think we're going to get it," he said.

“I think we're going to get it ended. It's been a terrible situation." Trump is scheduled to meet Zelensky on Wednesday on the sidelines of the Nato summit in Ankara and a US official said the idea of the talks was to make a renewed push to end the war.

The same official said Trump would likely follow up with Putin after talking to Zelensky.

Norway seeks China's intervention to help bring Russia to Ukraine peace talks

04:08 , Arpan Rai

Norway wants ​China to use its ties to the Russian leadership to help bring about a negotiated settlement to the war in Ukraineand improve Beijing's relations with Europe, Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Stoere ⁠said on Monday.

"China is probably the country with the best and most direct access to the Russian leadership. We expect, hope and strongly urge China to use that channel," he told reporters after meeting Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi in Oslo.

The biggest chunk of their discussion was devoted to Ukraine, Stoere said.

“There is a potential for deeper cooperation between Europe and China, but as long as this ⁠war goes on and China is a close partner of Russia, that ​is ⁠a limitation on that ‌opportunity," he added.

Norwegian foreign minister Espen Barth Eide, speaking earlier on Monday, said dialogue with China on ending the war had been "constructive and promising".

“I'm not ‌a spokesperson for China. I'm not going ‌to quote them, but there are some hints in what they say,” he said when asked whether China had indicated it would help to bring Russia to the negotiating table.

Norwegian officials said negotiations should begin without conditions, starting with a ceasefire based on the current front line in Ukraine.

“That is, in itself, a major concession from Ukraine's side. It is inside their territory,” Stoere said.

Nato to unveil big arms deals in Ankara before summit with Trump

03:53 , Arpan Rai

Nato leaders plan to unveil arms deals worth tens of billions of dollars in Ankara today to show they are heeding US calls to spend more to defend Europe before joining ⁠president Donald Trump for a summit.

European governments will announce the deals at a Nato defence industry forum before Trump flies in to meet Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and join fellow leaders of the military alliance for the summit, which begins with a dinner on Tuesday evening.

Nato secretary general Mark Rutte said on Monday Europeans had made “staggering” increases in defence spending in part due to fears of Russia, which have surged since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but also because Trump had been “extremely forceful” in encouraging them to do so.

Trump has long accused European governments of over-relying on the US to defend them through the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, which has protected the continent since the early years of ⁠the Cold War.

“We are now creating an alliance which is sustainable, where the US knows it is a fair deal,” Rutte told reporters in Ankara on the eve of the summit.

Rutte said last month that Nato's European members and Canada spent $90bn more on defence in real terms in 2025 than in 2024, to reach a total of more than $570bn – an increase of around 20 per cent in a ‌single year.

Nato backs Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes to force Putin to negotiate, says Finnish PM

03:00 , Bryony Gooch

Image from: Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky to press for Patriot missiles at Nato summit after Moscow’s latest deadly strikes

Nato backs Ukraine’s long-range strikes to force Putin to negotiate, says Finnish PM

Recap: Russia advertises on job website for drone operator to ‘defend Moscow’

02:00 , Bryony Gooch

Image from: Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky to press for Patriot missiles at Nato summit after Moscow’s latest deadly strikes

Russia forced to advertise on job website for drone operators to ‘defend Moscow’

Watch: Rescue operations continue in Kyiv after Putin's deadly attack

01:00 , Bryony Gooch

Recap: Zelensky demands ‘strong decisions’ at Nato summit after ballistic missiles strike Kyiv

Tuesday 7 July 2026 00:00 , James Reynolds

Volodymyr Zelensky urged Nato allies to make “strong decisions” to stop Russia’s blitz of Ukraine after at least 12 people were killed in heavy strikes in Kyiv on Monday.

Ahead of Tuesday’s summit in Ankara, the Ukrainian president said it was “critically important” that the US and Europe come out of the summit with “strong decisions in support of our air defence, and thus the protection of ordinary people’s lives”.

“As long as Patriot missiles remain in our allies' stockpiles, Russia is only encouraged to keep ‘vanquishing’ residential buildings. The United States and Europe have enough strength to stop this terror,” he said, as shortages of the US-made interceptors left the Ukrainian capital struggling to defend itself, just days after the deadliest attack this year.

Ukraine's air force data showed it was unable to down any of the 23 ballistic missiles fired by Russia overnight. Russia launched 68 missiles and 351 drones in total, the air force said.

The heavy overnight bombardment came ahead of a NATO summit in Turkey this week, where U.S. President Donald Trump is due to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to make a renewed push to end the war, now in its fifth year.

In pictures: Residents reel from Russian strikes near Kyiv on Monday

Monday 6 July 2026 23:00 , James Reynolds A resident stands at a site of a Russian missile and drone strikes on the outskirts of Kyiv on Monday (Reuters)A resident walks on a street at a site of a Russian attack near Kyiv (Reuters)Firefighters work at a site of strikes near Kyiv (Reuters)

US tells Nato that spending must increase ‘immediately’ or alliance will face consequences

Monday 6 July 2026 22:00 , James Reynolds

The Trump administration has warned that Nato allies must step up defence spending “immediately” or face the consequences ahead of a summit with the military alliance this week.

Matt Whitaker, the US ambassador to Nato, said on Sunday that some partners were “doing more than others”, and that president Donald Trump expects all to “step up” and honour their commitments.

“Some allies are doing more than others. Poland, the Nordic countries, the Baltic countries lead the way,” he said.

Read the full story:

Image from: Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky to press for Patriot missiles at Nato summit after Moscow’s latest deadly strikes

US tells Nato to increase spending ‘immediately’ or face consequences

Death toll in Kyiv region rises to 26

Monday 6 July 2026 21:48 , Bryony Gooch

At least 26 people have been killed in the Kyiv region as part of Russia’s latest bombardment.

Russian strikes killed at least 16 in the capital, with 10 dead ​in wider Kyiv region, officials said on Telegram as search and rescue operations proceeded.

Emergency Services reported repeated explosions and many damaged residential buildings in Vyshneve, outside the capital.

The governor of Zaporizhzhia region in ⁠southeast Ukraine said a drone strike on a filling station killed two people later on Monday. In Kyiv, nearly 30 buildings were significantly damaged, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.

A search operation dragged into Monday afternoon as crews combed mountains of rubble and twisted metal in the multi-storey building whose top floors had been torn open.

Newswav Malaysia Best News App

Newswav is an online content aggregator and obtains its content from different online sources. The content in the app do not belong to Newswav nor do they reflect the opinions of Newswav and its staff. Your use of this app indicates your understanding and acceptance of this information.

Newswav Sdn. Bhd. (201701008480 (1222645-M)) 2026 All Rights Reserved