Ukraine Still Faces Years Waiting for Patriot Missiles
President Donald Trump said Friday that the United States has not agreed to allow Ukraine to manufacture Patriot missile interceptors, reopening questions over a production license he publicly promised just three weeks earlier. Even if Washington ultimately approves the plan, however, industrial bottlenecks mean Ukrainian-built interceptors would remain years away from reaching the battlefield.Speaking during a Cabinet meeting at Camp David, Trump was asked about reports that Ukraine would be permitted to produce Patriot missiles under license. "We haven't agreed to that," he replied, adding that discussions were continuing but that Washington needed to be cautious about transferring advanced military technology.The remarks contrast with Trump's announcement at the NATO summit in Ankara on July 8, when he told President Volodymyr Zelensky that the United States would license Ukraine to manufacture Patriot interceptors. "We are gonna give a license to you to make Patriots... Make them yourself," Trump said at the…
Russia’s Ballistic Strike on Kyiv Kills Nine
Russia struck Kyiv with ballistic missiles and attack drones overnight into Saturday, killing at least nine people in the second major assault on the Ukrainian capital in less than 48 hours. Ukraine's State Emergency Service said between 23 and 28 people were injured, including four children, as rescue operations continued through the morning, according to LIGA.net and wire reporting carried by ABC News.The heaviest casualties were reported in Kyiv's Darnytskyi district, where seven people were killed and 14 injured after strikes damaged an administrative building and ignited fires in vehicles and nearby non-residential structures, according to Kyiv Post and APA.In the Solomianskyi district, a five-story residential building partially collapsed and caught fire, apparently after being struck by falling missile debris. Rescue teams evacuated 35 people from the upper floors. Two residents were killed and eight injured, including two children, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko and Ukraine's State Emergency Service,…
Two-Thirds of Bombed Russian Refineries Still Not Fixed
Of 26 Russian refineries knocked offline by Ukrainian drone strikes, only eight had returned to full capacity as of July 27, according to satellite-imagery analysis by S&P Global reported by the Financial Times. Seven remained shut, and affected plants lost an average of 45% of processing capacity — the country's worst fuel crisis since the Soviet collapse.The damage reflects a shift in targeting: Ukraine has increasingly hit primary distillation and desalting units, plus secondary units like hydrocrackers that turn crude into diesel and gasoline, RFE/RL reported, citing Kpler analyst Nikhil Dubey. Such specialized equipment takes months to replace, and Western sanctions on components have made repairs slower, he said. Isaac Levi of the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air said Ukraine has also begun striking the same refineries repeatedly, preventing full repair between attacks.Moscow has leaned on administrative measures to mask the shortfall: gasoline exports have been banned…
Russia Replaced Wagner. The Violence Didn’t Stop
Russia changed the name of its military presence in Mali. It changed the command structure. What it has not clearly changed is the pattern of violence that followed Wagner into the Sahel.The latest allegation concerns Kyrnia, a village in Mali's central Mopti region. Eight civilians, including three children, were reported killed in Russian-linked air strikes there on June 15. Investigators cited by Reuters said the strikes hit the village chief's home and a cattle market and that no militants were identified among those killed. The Associated Press reported the same findings and said Russia's Defence Ministry did not comment. The attribution remains an allegation rather than an independently verified finding.But the incident matters because of what Russia has changed around it.Wagner Left. Moscow Took More ControlWagner formally withdrew from Mali in June 2025 and was replaced by Africa Corps, a force operating under much closer Russian state control. ACLED's Africa…
Saudi Arabia Prepares Yemen Offensive to Break Blockade
Saudi Arabia is preparing a major offensive against the Houthis by sea and possibly by land in central Yemen, aiming to break a blockade squeezing its oil exports through the southern Red Sea, according to the Guardian, which reports Saudi forces withdrawing from eastern Yemen and massing near al-Bayda, a governorate the Houthis captured in 2020 and 2021, while assembling a 14-nation maritime coalition, including Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, Sudan, and Djibouti, to protect Red Sea shipping. Any ground push would likely rely on Saudi-backed Yemeni forces supported by Saudi air power and intelligence, consistent with Riyadh's approach throughout the war, rather than a direct invasion by regular Saudi army divisions.That coalition-building reflects a deliberate strategy: by recruiting Arab and Muslim-majority partners rather than leaning solely on Western naval missions such as the US-led Operation Prosperity Guardian, Riyadh can present anti-Houthi containment as a regionally led response.The current standoff is distinct…
Israel Destroys Hezbollah Tunnel Network in Lebanon
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said late Thursday that the IDF destroyed a Hezbollah tunnel system beneath Beaufort Ridge in southern Lebanon using 700 tons of explosives, according to Times of Israel. The two officials said the strike answered Hezbollah's "blatant" ceasefire violation a day earlier, when the group hit an unmanned IDF bulldozer with an explosive drone. Israel had held the demolition in reserve since before the June truce, postponing it under the ceasefire framework, and carried it out once the drone strike gave grounds to proceed.Netanyahu and Katz said the tunnel functioned as "a central part of the Hezbollah terror organization's invasion plan against the Galilee communities." The IDF said troops spent recent weeks securing the ridge and clearing the underground passages before detonation, and that most of the network there is now destroyed, following a partial demolition on July 13.Beaufort Ridge is…
