America has sought to formally place itself as Europe’s largest vendor of safety and vitality safety following a $750bn commerce deal on Sunday.
The deal, clinched by US President Donald Trump and European Fee chief Ursula von der Leyen at Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland, imposes a 15 % tariff on European pharmaceutical, vehicle and semiconductor exports to the US, to steadiness a European commerce surplus, von der Leyen mentioned.
Tariffs of fifty %, which Trump beforehand imposed on European aluminium and metal, will even stay, whereas the European Union is not going to impose any reciprocal tariffs.
The bloc additionally dedicated to spending $250bn a yr on US vitality exports over and above current ranges till 2027, and “a whole bunch of billions of {dollars}” on US weapons.
The deputy chairman of Russia’s Nationwide Safety Council, Dmitry Medvedev, known as the deal “anti-Russian” because it appeared to grab what was, earlier than the Ukraine conflict, Russia’s largest vitality market.
The subsequent day, Trump shortened a 50-day deadline he had issued to Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 14 to succeed in a ceasefire in Ukraine.
“I’m going to make a brand new deadline of about … 10 or 12 days from at present,” Trump advised reporters, pulling the deadline again from September 2 to about August 9.
A 3rd spherical of talks between Russia and Ukraine final week produced no ceasefire, solely one other trade of prisoners of conflict.
For the primary time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy instructed his negotiators to hunt the return of Ukrainian kids Russia has kidnapped from occupied territories because the begin of the conflict. Kremlin newswire TASS reported that civilians would even be exchanged, with out elaborating.
Weapons for Ukraine
Though Trump has not mentioned what he’ll do when his deadline for a ceasefire settlement expires, it represents an about-turn on his place in February, when he thought of Ukraine the primary impediment to peace.
“President Zelenskyy isn’t prepared for peace if America is concerned,” he wrote then on his Reality Social account, “as a result of he feels our involvement provides him a giant benefit in negotiations.”
Zelenskyy welcomed the shorter deadline, calling it “a particularly important assertion”.
“Each night time there are strikes, fixed Russian makes an attempt to harm Ukraine,” Zelenskyy mentioned.
Russia has pounded Ukraine’s cities with mixed drone and missile strikes each night time for the previous week. Ukraine shot down or electronically suppressed 791 out of 891 drones Russia launched between July 23 and 29, virtually 90 %, however fewer than half the missiles – simply 20 out of 42.
That distinction in ratio underscores Ukraine’s issue in intercepting ballistic missiles, towards which solely US-made Patriot interceptor missiles are efficient.
Ukraine’s European allies have been signing onto a framework settlement reached this month between the US and Germany, whereby allies donating Patriot techniques to Ukraine are given precedence placement in buying new ones.
Lithuania mentioned it was prepared to assist provide $35m in Patriot techniques to Ukraine, following Germany, Norway, Denmark and Sweden. Germany’s defence minister, Boris Pistorius, mentioned three Patriot batteries had been despatched to Ukraine. In April, Zelenskyy mentioned he was searching for 10 batteries.
Zelenskyy mentioned he had signed $72m in new state contracts for interceptor drones final week, that are amongst its handiest weapons towards Russia’s kamikaze and spy drones.
“A plan has been accepted to succeed in the quantity of 500 to 1,000 interceptors [drones] per day,” he mentioned.
The US additionally accepted international army gross sales of Bradley Combating Automobiles and Hawk air defence techniques to Ukraine on Thursday.
Russia makes features as Zelenskyy faces protests
Russia appeared unfazed by these strikes, driving onwards to grab a collection of Ukrainian villages in the course of the week, with the worst preventing occurring round Pokrovsk, in Ukraine’s east.
The Russian Ministry of Defence mentioned its troops had captured Varachino in Sumy on July 23, and doubtless seized Novoekonomichne in Donetsk, northeast of Pokrovsk, on Friday.
Zeleni Gai fell on Saturday, and Boykovka and Belgiyka on Monday, all in Donetsk. On Tuesday, Russia seized Novoukrainka and Temirovka in Zaporizhia. A Russian army skilled advised TASS that it now had management of a 5km part of border with Russia.
Zelenskyy confronted his first wartime protests in the course of the previous week, after stripping the nation’s high anti-corruption authorities of their independence.
The transfer adopted an try by the Nationwide Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Workplace (SAPO) to indict members of the State Safety Service (SBU) for corruption.
Zelenskyy noticed this as a Russian try to undermine certainly one of Ukraine’s handiest army providers.
The SBU has launched a collection of profitable long-range strikes inside Russia, focusing on vitality infrastructure and weapons factories.
Maybe its most well-known operation was Operation Spiderweb, which destroyed dozens of Russian long-range bombers on the bottom in June.
Nonetheless, Zelenskyy’s transfer offended not solely Ukrainians, who protested. The EU briefly froze 1.7 billion euros in help to Ukraine, and von der Leyen suggested Zelenskyy to “protect unbiased anti-corruption our bodies, that are cornerstones of Ukraine’s rule of regulation”.
On July 24, Zelenskyy mentioned he had signed new laws that might “make sure the energy of the rule of regulation system, and there might be no Russian affect or interference within the actions of regulation enforcement”.
NABU and SAPO had been concerned in drafting the brand new invoice, and the EU backed it. “We welcome the Ukrainian authorities’s choice to behave,” mentioned a spokesperson for Brussels.
On Sunday, Zelenskyy mentioned he had elevated the SBU’s funding. Its personnel restrict was raised from 31,000 to 41,000, with as much as 1 / 4 of that quantity in its Particular Operations Centre.
SBU operations appeared to have continued unabated.
Ukraine’s drones intercepted
Russia mentioned it shot down 105 Ukrainian drones in a single day on Friday. The drones appeared to have focused railway energy strains and regional airports, and succeeded in inflicting rail service delays and short-term airport shutdowns in southwest Russia and the Caucasus – Vladikavkaz, Grozny, Magas, Mineralnye Vody, Nalchik, Stavropol, Sochi and Tambov.
The governor of the Leningrad area mentioned no less than 10 Ukrainian drones had been downed close to town on Sunday. Pulkovo airport was closed in the course of the assault, and town’s annual Navy Day parade was cancelled, however a navy drill went forward, watched by Putin on tv.
On Monday, pro-Ukrainian hackers disabled the computer systems of Aeroflot, the state airline, grounding greater than 50 round-trip flights and bringing Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport to a standstill.