Ukraine is to receive a new rapidly developed bespoke air defense system, Gravehawk, as part of support announced by Keir Starmer during a visit to Kiev on Thursday. The system, about the size of a shipping container, was developed by Britain and Denmark to allow Ukrainians to shoot down air threats using improved ground-launched air-to-air missiles. So, according to the UK government, you can “We will use Ukrainian missiles that are already in the possession of the national army.” Shoot down Russian missiles and drones. The British government has confirmed that two prototypes of Grave Hawk are It will be inspected in Ukraine in September, and 15 units will be sent this year..
The Ukrainian military announced Thursday that it had attacked a large Russian military fuel depot in Ryskinska, Russia's Voronezh region. Using a drone to start a “large-scale fire.'' Voronezh region governor Alexander Gusev admitted that several drones “caused a fire in an oil depot.” A video posted by a witness showed a significant amount of fire.
A major Russian gunpowder factory in the Tambov region was attacked. Ukrainian officials spoke Thursday without directly claiming Ukraine's responsibility or specifying the consequences of the attack. “The company is one of the main suppliers of explosive materials to the armed forces of the Russian Federation,” said Andriy Kovalenko, director of Ukraine's counter-disinformation center.
France and Norway fulfill promise to deliver fighter jets to Ukraine on schedulethe two countries' defense ministers said in Oslo on Thursday. Norway has committed to delivering six US-made F-16s to Ukraine between 2024 and 2025, and France has announced it will deliver an unspecified number of Mirage 2000-5s in the first quarter of 2025. .
The Ukrainian Brigades use ground drones equipped with machine guns and mines in what they claim is the first documented all-mechanical ground attack in the war with Russia. The Haltya Brigade said last month's attack in northeastern Kharkiv involved the use of assault vehicles, mine-laying vehicles and mine-clearing vehicles guided by drones. The operation paved the way for a successful infantry advance, the brigade said. “They get as close to theirs as possible.” [Russian] We destroyed the dugout as much as we could and then detonated it,” a Ukrainian crew member told Reuters.
Ukraine announced on Thursday that it had sentenced a former local official to 15 years in prison for treason for supporting Russian forces. Local media identified the suspect as Oleksandr Krupil, a lawmaker from Trostianets town in Sumy region, and announced that he was arrested in May 2022.
Russia's rights ombudswoman said on Thursday that she had discussed the search for missing residents in Russia's Kursk border region with the Ukrainian side. After Ukrainian forces occupied the territory there in August last year. Ukraine says about 2,000 civilians remain in areas under its control, while Russia says fewer than 1,000 are reported missing. Russia's ombudswoman Tatyana Moskalkova called the meeting “a major step towards strengthening trust and achieving concrete joint action.” Ukraine's Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Rubinets confirmed that the two countries had “agreed to continue mutual information exchange regarding the search for missing prisoners of war.”
Deputy Economy Minister Andriy Telyupa said on Thursday that Ukraine's gross domestic product (GDP) growth is expected to slow to 2.7% this year from probably around 3.6% in 2024. This forecast is lower than the 3-4% expected by most Ukrainian analysts and economists. With tens of thousands of Ukrainian men being mobilized into the army and millions of refugees remaining abroad, Ukrainian businesses are suffering from staff shortages. Ukraine is also battling an energy crisis due to Russia's bombardment of its energy sector.
A compensation scheme for Ukrainians who lost close relatives to the Russian invasion was launched on Thursday. Thousands of claims for compensation have already been received. The Ukraine Damages Registry is based in The Hague and is designed to serve as a record of all eligible claims seeking compensation for damage, loss and injury resulting from Russia's full-scale invasion. The register, created by the Council of Europe and with the participation of the EU, will ultimately calculate the financial sum with the aim of extracting compensation from Moscow.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian are scheduled to meet in Russia on Friday and sign a strategic cooperation agreement. Russia's state-run TASS news agency quoted Iran's ambassador to Moscow, Kazem Jalali, as saying the cooperation agreement would not include mutual defense clauses like Moscow's agreements with North Korea and Belarus. In 2024, Ukraine announced that Russia had launched more than 8,000 Iranian-developed Shahed drones since the invasion of Iran. Kiev first accused Iran of supplying drones to Russia in the fall of 2022.
