Ukraine war latest: Ukraine building secret 'robot army'; Kremlin responds to Trump assassination attempt (2024)

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he will work with Donald Trump if the presidential nominee returns to the White House.

Mr Trump - who survived an assassination attempt at the weekend in Butler, Pennsylvania - is up against incumbent US President Joe Biden in the upcoming election.

Mr Biden has shown himself to be a firm ally of Kyiv since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, pledging more financial aid to Ukraine than any other country.

There is concern that Mr Trump, who is leading in the polls, would not replicate that support if he were to return to the White House.

The Republican nominee has previously said he would "have that war settled" before he potentially took office on 20 January, though he has not supported that claim with any details of a potential peace plan.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he aims to have all elements of a peace plan ready for a second summit in November.

Ukraine's president hosted a peace summit in Switzerland on 15-16 June, the aim of which was to bring together heads of state and government to try to chart a course for a lasting peace in Ukraine.

Representatives of 92 countries attended, but Russia was not invited, leading to questions about what the summit could realistically achieve.

In response, Vladimir Putin offered his own terms for a ceasefire, which included Ukraine giving up four regions partially occupied by Russia - Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia.

Now, Ukraine's leader says he is aiming to have a peace plan ready for a second summit.

Speaking at a news conference in Kyiv, Mr Zelenskyy said Kyiv could invite representatives from Russia, although Moscow has already said it will not attend.

Video footage released by the Russian defence ministry press service today shows Russian and Chinese military sailors attending a welcome ceremony for their joint naval force exercises.

The two naval forces will take part in exercises in the southern city of Zhanjiang that are expected to last until mid-July.

According to state broadcaster CCTV, the exercises will include anti-missile drills, sea strikes and air defence.

This comes after NATO leaders labelled China a "decisive enabler" of Russia's war in Ukraine last week.

Beijing’s mission to the EU said the latest NATO summit was "filled with Cold War mentality and belligerent rhetoric".

More than 45 European leaders will converge on Oxfordshire this week to discuss pressing issues, including the Ukraine-Russia war.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will welcome leaders from across the continent to Blenheim Palace on Thursday.

The PM is expected to use the meeting as a platform to push for continued international military and financial support for Ukraine, ahead of what is expected to be a difficult winter.

"Europe is at the forefront of some of the greatest challenges of our time," said Mr Starmer.

"Russia's barbaric war continues to reverberate across our continent, while vile smuggling gangs traffic innocent people on perilous journeys that too often end in tragedy.

"We cannot be spectators in this chapter of history. We must do more and go further, not just for the courageous Ukrainians on the frontlines, or those being trafficked from country-to-country, but so our future generations look back with pride at what our continent achieved together."

Almost 44% of Ukrainians think that it is time for official peace negotiations with Russia to begin, according to a survey published by a major Ukrainian newspaper.

ZN.UA used the Razumkov Centre to conduct the survey, which also found that 35% were opposed to peace negotiations, and 21% said they were undecided.

At the same time, an overwhelming majority of respondents (83%) said they were opposed to the current ceasefire conditions offered by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Mr Putin said he would order a ceasefire "literally at the same minute" if Ukraine agreed to give up four regions partially occupied by Russia - Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia.

He also said Ukraine would need to give up its effort to join NATO.

There was some regional disparity in response to whether Ukraine should begin peace negotiations with Russia.

In western Ukraine, 35% said they supported peace talks, a similar figure to those from eastern Ukraine (33%), where the majority of heavy fighting is ongoing.

In the south of Ukraine, 60% of respondents said they were in favour of negotiations. Roughly half (49%) of residents in the centre of Ukraine were in favour.

A slim majority (61%) were not ready to give any concessions to Russia in order to obtain a peace deal, and 66% of respondents said they still believed in military victory over Russia.

The survey was conducted from 20-28 June 2024, with 2,007 respondents aged 18 and over interviewed.

Ministers from the European Union could snub Hungary by organising their own foreign affairs summit in August instead of travelling to Budapest for Prime Minister Viktor Orban's event.

That's according to Politico, who say foreign affairs ministers have been hunting for a way to avoid becoming props in Mr Orban's "propaganda show".

The Hungarian leader has received criticism for his self-styled peace missions to Moscow and Beijing, with EU leaders feeling he is undermining their interests of unity with Ukraine.

Hungary holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU and plans to host a foreign affairs summit on August 28-29.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell will, according to three EU diplomats speaking to Politico, summon ministers to a formal foreign affairs council at the same time as Orban's summit.

One of the diplomats said that by boycotting the Budapest meeting, foreign minsters wanted to "send a clear signal that Hungary does not speak for the EU".

Pictures show the aftermath of Russia's "double tap" missile attack on a small town near Ukraine's second largest city of Kharkiv.

Two people died and 23 more were injured in the mid-afternoon attack that targeted the railway station in Budy, officials said. After rescue teams arrived, a second missile hit the area.

Ukraine's interior minister Ihor Klymenko said the head of the Kharkivdistrict emergency services Artem Kostyria was killed, along with a policeofficer from a rapid reaction unit.

Ukrainian drones have targeted a coastal area of Sevastopol in occupied Crimea and struck an electrical substation in Russia's Lipetsk region, according to reports.

Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian-installed head of Sevastopol, claimed that Russian defences shot down at least one drone over Cape Fiolent on Crimea's southern coast.

The Russian defence ministry claimed its forces downed as many as six drones, while the Crimean Wind Telegram channel wrote that local residents heard at least eight explosions.

The targeted area was, according to the channel, a Russian military unit base equipped with air defence systems.

Elsewhere, Russia's governor for the Lipetsk region says a drone struck an electric substation overnight.

The drone hit "the territory of an electrical substation in the Stanovlyansky municipal district", Mr Artamonov said.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has released a statement rallying Ukraine's citizens on Statehood Day.

The national holiday was established by decree of Mr Zelenskyy in 2021 during the celebration of the 30th anniversary of Ukrainian independence.

The day commemorates the baptism of Kyiv, which occurred under the rule of Volodymyr the Great in 988.

Mr Zelenskyy posted a message on Telegram this morning telling citizens "there will always be Ukraine here: our history, our people, our state".

"We are fighting against a terrible enemy, one that cannot be called human and is infinitely far from true Christianity," he said.

"Its essence is ruins, and the death it brings is something we must overcome. Ukraine cannot agree to anything less than to live, to preserve itself, and to remain human.

"Ukraine will not succumb to the evil that sheds blood for its own sick self-assertion, that despises truth - both human and divine - and devalues everyone except itself. Russia builds its statehood precisely on this. But we are different."

Ukraine is hoping to assemble swathes of cheap, unmanned drones that it hopes will kill Russian troops and save its own wounded soldiers and civilians.

An ecosystem of laboratories in hundreds of secret workshops across Ukraine are building this robot army at a fraction of the cost it takes to import similar models.

Estimates believe around 250 defence startups across the country are creating the killing machines at secret locations that typically look like rural car repair shops.

Costing around $35,000 (£27,000) to build, employees at startups like those run by entrepreneur Andrii Denysenko can put together an unmanned ground vehicle called the Odyssey in four days from a shed.

"We are fighting a huge country, and they don't have any resource limits. We understand that we cannot spend a lot of human lives," said Mr Denysenko, who heads the defence startup UkrPrototyp. "War is mathematics."

The 800kg Odyssey prototype can travel up to 18.5 miles (30km) on one charge of a battery the size of a small beer cooler.

It acts as a rescue and supply drone but can be modified to carry a remotely operated heavy machine gun or sling mine-clearing charges.

A fourth branch of Ukraine's military - the unmanned systems forces - joined the army, navy and air force in May.

"Squads of robots will become logistics devices, tow trucks, minelayers and deminers, as well as self-destructive robots," a government fundraising page said after the launch of the unmanned systems forces.

"The first robots are already proving their effectiveness on the battlefield."

Mykhailo Fedorov, the deputy prime minister for digital transformation, is encouraging citizens to take free online courses and assemble aerial drones at home. He wants Ukrainians to make a million of flying machines a year.

Human Rights Watch and other international rights groups are calling for a ban on weapons that exclude human decision-making.