Ukraine
Romanian F-16 Downs Drone Over Buzău
A Romanian Air Force F-16 shot down an unidentified drone over Buzău County on Friday, the first confirmed shoot-down of a drone over Romanian territory since Russia's full-scale invasion began.The Defence Ministry said radar detected the aircraft at 9:39 a.m., 20 kilometres east of Sulina, on a course along the Sulina - Brăila - Fetești - Buzău corridor. Two Italian Eurofighters took off at 9:48 to monitor it, and two Romanian F-16s followed at 10:56. At 11:02 a.m., one F-16 destroyed the drone with a missile over an uninhabited area near Padina. Romanian President Nicușor Dan said the location let the pilot fire without risk to people on the ground. Investigators have not identified the drone's origin.It was the second drone downed by a Romanian F-16 this year, but the first over Romania itself. On May 19, a Romanian jet on NATO's Baltic Air Policing mission shot down a drone…
Ukraine Hits Wildberries Hub, Targets Defense Plant
Ukraine struck a Wildberries logistics hub in Russia's Leningrad region on Friday, according to Reuters, which reported that Governor Alexander Drozdenko confirmed the warehouse caught fire and that three people were wounded. Wildberries said operations at two logistics sites in the region were suspended.The strike is the fifth reported attack on Wildberries facilities since July 18. Ukrainian officials have previously described the company's logistics network as a dual-use target, alleging that it has transported goods supporting Russia's war effort alongside civilian commerce. Wildberries and the Kremlin deny the company supplies the military. Russian media reported this week that the attacks have damaged or destroyed roughly 10 percent of the company's logistics capacity nationwide, although that estimate has not been independently verified.Separately, Ukrainian monitoring groups and Russian Telegram channels reported a strike on the Avitek plant in Kirov, part of the state-owned Almaz-Antey defense group, which manufactures air-defense systems and other…
Russia’s Su-57 Stealth Fighter Reportedly Crashes Near Moscow
A Russian military aircraft crashed near Zvenigorod, west of Moscow, on Thursday during what local reports described as a training flight. The independent Russian outlet Astra said the jet was likely a Sukhoi Su-57, Russia's only operational fifth-generation fighter, a report later cited by UNITED24 Media. Russia's Ministry of Defense had not confirmed the aircraft type, the crew's condition or the cause of the crash at the time of publication, according to Defence Blog.Video circulating on Russian Telegram channels showed wreckage engulfed in flames as emergency crews responded to the scene. Astra reported that the pilot likely ejected before impact, though Russian officials had made no public statement on the crew's condition, according to reporting compiled by UNITED24 Media.If the aircraft is confirmed to have been a Su-57, the incident would affect one of Russia's smallest and most strategically important combat aircraft fleets. The Su-57 program has missed nearly every…
Trump Envoys Reopen Kyiv Channel While Rubio Meets Lavrov
Washington is pursuing two parallel Ukraine tracks. On July 22, U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner spoke directly with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, bypassing formal diplomatic channels that have produced little progress since the Iran war shifted Washington's attention away from Ukraine. A day later, Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the 33rd ASEAN Regional Forum, seeking to clarify Moscow's current position as the United States explores whether diplomatic momentum can be restored.Zelenskyy said the conversation with Witkoff and Kushner focused on "reinvigorating diplomacy" and moving toward what he described as "peace with dignity," adding that Ukrainian and American teams would remain in contact on follow-up steps, according to Reuters. The White House confirmed the call. It marked the clearest indication in weeks that the envoy-led channel remains active, although neither side described a new peace proposal or negotiating framework.In Manila,…
Ukraine Calls Emergency UN Meeting on Black Sea
Ukraine has requested an urgent United Nations Security Council meeting for July 27 after Russian attacks brought all shipping through its Black Sea maritime corridor to a halt, according to Kyiv Post. Acting Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said no vessels passed through the corridor Wednesday, at the height of the harvest season.Sybiha said Russia has struck at least three civilian cargo vessels in recent days, leaving dozens of crew members killed or injured, Kyiv Post reported. He called the halt in shipping "deliberate economic and humanitarian terror". He compared Russia's targeting of Black Sea food routes to Iran's attacks on energy shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.The disruption follows a string of deadly strikes on commercial shipping. Three Russian cruise missiles struck the cargo ship Golden Leo as it left the corridor with a load of grain on July 19, killing ten people, according to the Ukrainian Navy. Four Indian…
Ukraine Strikes Russia’s Largest Online Retailer Again
Ukrainian drones struck Wildberries logistics centers in Krasnodar and Nevinnomyssk overnight into July 22, sparking large fires and injuring at least eight people, according to Ukrainska Pravda. Drones also hit an oil depot in Armavir, Krasnodar Krai, where a fire spread across roughly 800 square meters.President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the strikes on his official Telegram channel, saying the logistics centers were used to supply the Russian army with drone components, navigation equipment, and gear. Ukrainian forces also struck a tanker and four dry cargo ships from Russia's shadow fleet in the Black and Azov seas, he said.The strikes fall under Operation "MoLoCHKa" — a Ukrainian acronym translating roughly to "Moscow will fall because of Crimea" — which Unmanned Systems Forces Commander Robert Brovdi has described as a unified campaign combining maritime strikes on shadow fleet oil tankers with deep strikes on logistics hubs supplying the Russian military, according to Kyiv…
