Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin ordered army to plan new ways to capture Kyiv, says Ukrainian military chief – UK Times

Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer has said his government has learnt “the lessons of Ukraine” and will ramp up spending on drone technology.

Sir Keir said: “(We are) learning the lessons of Ukraine in order to modernise our military, equipped to fight the wars both of today and tomorrow.

“We’re backing this by putting in more than £5 billion pounds into drones and autonomous weapons – that is the largest ever UK investment in this technology.”

He said the military will also invest in “low-cost, one-way attack drones” which have proved so effective in the Ukraine war.

Sir Keir added that the plan would mean “driving real reforms within the Ministry of Defence to get greater value from our investment”, including by “reducing non-military spending on civil service staff”.

Russian glide bombs killed two people and injured ⁠at least 15 in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, ​regional ⁠governor Ivan Fedorov said yesterday.

A ‌drone strike on ​a minibus on ‌Monday ⁠in Zaporizhzhia killed two ⁠men and a woman

Fedorov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said Russian forces had deployed seven bombs over a 90-minute period in the city, a frequent target of Russian attacks.

Reuters Television footage showed emergency crews carrying the injured to safety and training hoses on blazing buildings.

Moscow has been accused of employing a ‘meat-grinder’ strategy, in which it sends vast numbers of troops to the Ukrainian frontline in an attempt to slowly grind down Kyiv’s heavily-fortified defences.

But with drones now dominating the war, Russia is losing men at a fast rate, with an average of 30,000 monthly casualties in 2026. Some estimates even suggest Russia is suffering eight men killed or wounded for every one lost by Kyiv.

⁠Swedish defence equipment maker Saab signed a contract to deliver 16 Gripen E fighter aircraft to Ukraine in a deal ⁠worth about 24.6bn Swedish ​crowns.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said the agreement reached with Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson involved the purchase of 16 Gripen E aircraft and included technical support.

Saab said deliveries of the ‌aircraft were scheduled for 2029-2030.

In ‌remarks on the Ukrainian presidential website, Zelensky said deliveries of Gripen C/D aircraft would begin early ⁠in 2027.

Zelensky said he had discussed implementation of the agreement and broader defence cooperation with Swedish defence minister Pal Jonson during a meeting in Kyiv on Tuesday, including drone and missile-defence projects.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has ordered his military to find ways in which Russia can launch new offensive operations on Ukraine to capture Kyiv, said Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi.

These include Russian offensives launched from Belarusian territory to capture the Ukrainian capital and its surrounding areas, Syrskyi said.

“Considering recent events, I do not think that the leadership of Belarus will dare to provide the aggressor with its territory to use as a staging ground for conducting an offensive operation. At the same time, we are taking such an option into account,” Syrskyi said.

Another includes strike from the Russia’s bordering Bryansk region towards Ukraine’s Chernihiv region, which is the most probable scenario, he said.

We heard earlier from the American commander of Nato’s land forces in Europe, who spoke on Tuesday during the opening ceremony for an additional headquarters in the region.

“You’re ready to do more and following words with action, and the United States will be there alongside you,” US General Chris Donahue said at a ceremony in the Estonian town of Valga.

“That is how deterrence is built: Not with words from a podium, but with boots in the mud.”

Donahue, who will relinquish his post on Thursday, doubles as chief of the US Army in Europe and Africa.

NATO troops in the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, and in northern Poland, have until now come under the command of a single multinational headquarters based in the northwestern Polish city of Szczecin.

Romania has safely detonated drone fragments found in the southeastern village of Rachelu near the border with Ukraine, its defence ministry said on Tuesday.

The fragments landed on its territory during a Russian attack on Kyiv’s port infrastructure from April.

Romania, a European Union and NATO state which shares a long land border with Ukraine, has seen Russian drones breach its national airspace 15 times this year, the defence ministry said.

In May, one drone crashed into an apartment building and injured two people.

Turkish defence minister Yasar Guler has said the US is not seeking to leave the Nato alliance, which is adjusting to a shifting security landscape.

His comments came before Turkey will hosts 32 Nato leaders, as well as officials from the Gulf and Asia-Pacific region, on July 7-8.

The summit will come amid tensions within the alliance over burden-sharing, defence spending, and US complaints about allies’ lack of involvement in re-opening the Strait of Hormuz.

In written responses to questions, Guler said the summit would focus on bloc unity, evaluating allies’ increased defence spending, bolstering defence industry cooperation and increasing support for Ukraine. Ankara should be involved in European defence initiatives, he added.

“NATO continues to be an unparalleled and fundamental platform for Euro-Atlantic security and defence. We evaluate the period we are going through not as a crisis, but as a process of adjusting to the changing security environment,” Guler said.

He said the US had no intention of withdrawing from Nato, but that it wanted European allies and Canada to assume more responsibility for the security of Europe, which he said must include Ankara in its defence plans and initiatives.

North Korean troops have suffered more than 7,000 casualties while fighting alongside Russia, Ukrainian military intelligence.

The figures is significantly higher than previously reported by British and South Korean intelligence agencies, which estimated around 6,000 casualties between August 2024 and March 2025.

The updated figure, reported by Kyiv Independent, comes as Russia and North Korea deepen their military cooperation.