Here’s what you want to know as the weekend approaches, and you can check out Sky News, the app and the latest war news before returning with live updates on MondayArray.
Medical staff gathered in the ruins of the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital to pay attention to the functioning of the Kyiv Classical Orchestra.
The hospital, described as the Ukrainian edition of Great Ormand Street, was hit by a Russian missile on Monday.
Two other people were killed, including a 30-year-old doctor, and about 50 others were injured in the attack, which drew widespread condemnation from Ukraine and its allies.
Russia has denied targeting the hospital, Sky News showed that the missile that hit the hospital came from Russia.
Tonight, the Kiev Classical Orchestra performed the Requiem for the dead in the ruins of the hospital, in the presence of the doctors gathered to care for him.
Poland is reading a proposal from kyiv to shoot down Russian missiles headed toward Polish territory while they are still in Ukrainian airspace.
The proposal is included in a security cooperation agreement signed this week by Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Warsaw.
The Ukrainian president said he was “confident” that the agreement could be implemented quickly and that Poland will consult with its NATO allies before attempting to shoot down Russian missiles.
“Right now, it’s an idea. What our agreement says is that we are going to explore this idea,” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said today at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.
Sikorski showed that Russian missiles fired from the St. Petersburg region at Ukrainian targets had in the past entered Polish airspace for about 40 seconds before heading towards their targets.
The proposal would see any missile cross western Ukraine into Poland.
“This is our thing. If we only shoot them down when they enter our airspace, the debris poses a risk to our citizens and our property,” Sikorski added.
“And the Ukrainians say, ‘Please, we may not mind, do it over our airspace when you are in imminent danger of crossing into Polish territory. ‘
“In my opinion, it’s self-defense, we’re exploring that idea. “
Ukraine will get fewer F-16 fighter jets this summer than it expected, according to a Bloomberg report.
The first of the planes promised to Ukraine will arrive from the Netherlands and Denmark and is expected to take off this summer.
But according to sources familiar with the matter, the acquisition of the planes was marred by delays, questions about spare parts and a language barrier between Ukrainian pilots and their foreign trainers.
The Bloomberg report says Ukraine would likely only deploy one squadron of F-16s, consisting of between 15 and 24 aircraft, this summer.
Another source reported that Kyiv expected to receive six F-16s this summer and up to 20 by the end of the year.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has insisted that his country needs more than a hundred F-16s if it wants to have an impact on the battlefield.
“In the case of the F-16s,” Zelensky said, “it’s the number and the dates. “
“Even if we have 50, it’s nothing. They have 300. Since we are defending, we want 128,” he said.
Planners are also concerned about whether Ukraine has enough runways to accommodate planes. Those it does have are also vulnerable to Russian attacks.
“People shouldn’t expect miracles,” said Jim Townsend, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.
“These airfields are going to be juicy targets, and the Russians have already attacked some of them, as a welcome to the global real for those F-16s. “
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the “peace missions” undertaken by Hungarian leader Viktor Orban lacked strategy.
Orban angered his NATO and EU allies by holding unauthorized meetings with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jingping.
Obran met US presidential candidate Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago yesterday, avoiding Joe Biden at this week’s NATO summit in Washington.
The Hungarian also met this month with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said he did not know Orban was heading to Moscow and Beijing after his stopover in kyiv.
Orban has been accused of conferring legitimacy on Putin at a time when the West is trying to isolate him over his invasion of Ukraine.
“I don’t see any specific strategy or consequences,” Meloni said.
“Political leaders have the right to meet with other political leaders. I don’t see anything special or unexpected in this.
“I don’t think it’s a secret that Orban is closer to Trump than Biden. I mean, those are political leaders who talk to others. “
During Orban’s visit to the Kremlin, Meloni said the Hungarian leader had no mandate to hold negotiations with Russia.
He added that the deadly missile strikes on Ukraine this week, one of which hit a children’s hospital in Kyiv, demonstrated an unwillingness to discuss Putin’s situation.
“The challenge is that when you pass by, you give that signal and the next day you blow up a hospital. That, unfortunately, shows that there is no preference for the debate on the component of Putin’s Russia,” he said. Formation
“That’s the problem, because if there had been a willingness to dialogue, we would have talked, but I think the answer is quite clear. “
The United States Secretary of Defense and Russia’s Defense Minister spoke for the second time in more than two weeks, the Pentagon confirmed.
The call was made through Moscow, and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reportedly stressed the importance of keeping the lines of communication between the Kremlin and Washington open with his Russian counterpart.
Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh declined to offer further details about the call.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that “the factor of preventing security threats and reducing the threat of imaginable escalation was discussed. “
The last call between Austin and Andrei Belousov took place on June 25, being the first such call since March 2023.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Belousov warned Austin about the risks of continuing US arms deliveries to Ukraine as he did last month.
Vladimir Putin has signed a new Russian bill that represents a radical change in the country’s tax formula in a quarter of a century.
As the war in Ukraine drains the Kremlin’s coffers, the government is looking for new tactics to finance it.
The answer is a new progressive source of income tax rate, as well as an increase in the corporate tax.
“It turns out that tax reform is a tool to move the economy from butter to guns,” Alexander Kolyandr, a nonresident senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, said last month.
“The government doesn’t care about smart food anymore, but it does care about weapons production. “
The new bill, passed by both houses of parliament this week, marks a radical departure from Putin’s previous tax policies.
Shortly after taking office in 2001, the Russian president imposed a flat rate of thirteen percent, which is universally applied. Since then, the maximum number of Russians pay the same rate.
The new law maintains a 13% rate for sources of income of up to 2. 4 million rubles (about £20,800) per year.
To earn more than this amount, a higher tax rate would apply.
Income between five and 20 million rubles (around £43,500 to £174,000) will be taxed at 18%, between 20 and 50 million rubles (around £174,000 to £434,000) at 20% and those exceeding 50 million rubles at 22%. . .
Putin said the increases would not affect more than 3. 2% of Russian taxpayers.
Corporate tax will also increase from 20% to 25%.
The adjustments will come into effect next year and are expected to generate 2. 6 trillion rubles (£22. 5 billion) in additional federal profits in 2025.
In addition to funding the ongoing war in Ukraine, the Kremlin hopes that tax reforms will make the country less dependent on revenues generated by oil exports amid persistent Western sanctions.
Ukraine’s security said they were preparing evidence to present to the International Criminal Court, demonstrating Russia’s continued use of landmines against civilians.
The SBU said in a statement that more than 1,000 Ukrainians were injured and 297 killed by mines of various types, mainly in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Kharkiv.
It accuses Russian troops of having hidden mines in “several unusual objects, as well as children’s toys and boxes of sweets”.
They also accused Russian sabotage teams of installing minefields to cover their retreats from the front line and border areas.
Russia has continuously denied that its invasion targeted civilians, yet thousands of people have been killed and injured since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Russian forces carried out “massive shelling” in Kherson, the head of the city’s military directorate said.
Speaking to Telegram, Roman Mrochko said the attack lasted about half an hour and destroyed houses and administrative buildings, destroyed a store and destroyed cars.
“People are very scared, they are alive,” he said. Miraculously, no one was injured. “
He also shared a video of heavy buildings.
In a later message, Mr. Mrochko said recovery work was underway to repair a broken water fountain facility.
Berlin said it took reports of a Russian plot to assassinate the chief executive of a German arms manufacturer very seriously, adding that it would be intimidated by Moscow’s threats.
CNN and the New York Times reported that U. S. intelligence had uncovered and warned Germany of a Russian plot to kill Armin Papperger, the chief executive of Rheinmetall.
The German company makes artillery and tank shells that Ukraine used in its war against Russia.
The plot component of a series of Russian plans to assassinate defense industry executives across Europe who support Ukraine, CNN reported.
After Washington’s warning, German security facilities were able to protect Papperger, the report states.
“We will allow ourselves to be intimidated through Russia,” German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said.
He added that Germany would continue to do “everything in its power to prevent Russian threats” inside the country.
Rheinmetall has not shown those reports, while the Kremlin has denied them, calling them false and based on anonymous sources.