The USA has sought to formally place itself as Europe’s greatest vendor of safety and power 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 p.c tariff on European pharmaceutical, vehicle and semiconductor exports to the US, to steadiness a European commerce surplus, von der Leyen mentioned.
Tariffs of fifty p.c, which Trump beforehand imposed on European aluminium and metal, can even stay, whereas the European Union is not going to impose any reciprocal tariffs.
The bloc additionally dedicated to spending $250bn a 12 months on US power exports over and above current ranges till 2027, and “a whole lot 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 battle, Russia’s greatest power market.
The following day, Trump shortened a 50-day deadline he had issued to Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 14 to achieve a ceasefire in Ukraine.
“I’m going to make a brand new deadline of about … 10 or 12 days from at this time,” 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 change of prisoners of battle.
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 battle. 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-about Ukraine the primary impediment to peace.
“President Zelenskyy will not be prepared for peace if America is concerned,” he wrote then on his Fact Social account, “as a result of he feels our involvement offers him an enormous benefit in negotiations.”
Zelenskyy welcomed the shorter deadline, calling it “an especially vital assertion”.
“Each evening 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 evening for the previous week. Ukraine shot down or electronically suppressed 791 out of 891 drones Russia launched between July 23 and 29, virtually 90 p.c, however fewer than half the missiles – simply 20 out of 42.
That distinction in ratio underscores Ukraine’s problem 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 programs to Ukraine are given precedence placement in buying new ones.
Lithuania mentioned it was prepared to assist provide $35m in Patriot programs 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 looking for 10 batteries.
Zelenskyy mentioned he had signed $72m in new state contracts for interceptor drones final week, that are amongst its simplest weapons towards Russia’s kamikaze and spy drones.
“A plan has been accredited to achieve the quantity of 500 to 1,000 interceptors [drones] per day,” he mentioned.
The US additionally accredited international army gross sales of Bradley Combating Automobiles and Hawk air defence programs to Ukraine on Thursday.
Russia makes good points as Zelenskyy faces protests
Russia appeared unfazed by these strikes, driving onwards to grab a collection of Ukrainian villages through the week, with the worst combating occurring round Pokrovsk, in Ukraine’s east.
The Russian Ministry of Defence mentioned its troops had captured Varachino in Sumy on July 23, and possibly 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 professional advised TASS that it now had management of a 5km part of border with Russia.
Zelenskyy confronted his first wartime protests through the previous week, after stripping the nation’s prime 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 one in all Ukraine’s simplest army providers.
The SBU has launched a collection of profitable long-range strikes inside Russia, concentrating on power 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.
Nevertheless, 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 impartial anti-corruption our bodies, that are cornerstones of Ukraine’s rule of legislation”.
On July 24, Zelenskyy mentioned he had signed new laws that will “make sure the power of the rule of legislation system, and there can be no Russian affect or interference within the actions of legislation enforcement”.
NABU and SAPO have 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 momentary 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 at the least 10 Ukrainian drones have been downed close to the town on Sunday. Pulkovo airport was closed through the assault, and the 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.