At least five people were killed and 33 injured in Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past day, regional officials reported on May 6.

Russia launched 136 drones overnight, including Iranian-designed Shahed-type drones, according to Ukraine’s Air Force.

Ukrainian air defenses shot down 54 drones, while 70 vanished from radars, likely used as decoys to overwhelm defenses. The assault was countered with electronic warfare units, aviation, anti-aircraft missile systems, and mobile fire groups.

In Donetsk Oblast, three residents were killed and 16 injured due to Russian aggression, Governor Vadym Filashkin said.

In Kharkiv Oblast, 11 people were injured, including four in the city of Kharkiv, where Russia attacked four districts with suicide drones, Governor Oleh Syniehubov reported.

One person was killed and three injured in Kherson Oblast as Russian forces hit social infrastructure and residential areas, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.

In Odesa Oblast, a Russian drone attack killed one person and damaged civilian infrastructure, including houses, Governor Oleh Kiper reported.

Three women, aged 43, 65, and 70, were injured in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, where houses and infrastructure were damaged, Governor Serhii Lysak said.

The attacks come as Moscow continues rejecting a complete ceasefire and escalates strikes targeting civilian areas across Ukraine.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on July 9 that his administration is “going to have to take a look” at supplying Ukraine with another Patriot air defense system.

“They would like it. They’ve asked for it,” Trump told reporters in the White House. “I know they made the request. We’re going to have to take a look at it.”

“When you talk about a system like that… they’re doing it because they want to prevent death,” he added. “They’re getting hit hard, very hard. So we’re looking at it.”

The comments follow a July 8 reporting by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that the White House is considering sending Ukraine a Patriot battery in what would be the administration’s first major new weapons transfer since taking office in January.

A U.S. defense official told WSJ that Trump has asked the Pentagon to explore options for supplying Ukraine with more arms, including whether additional Patriots could be sourced from allied countries.

According to Axios, the White House is working on a deal under which Germany would sell a Patriot battery to Ukraine, with the U.S. and European allies sharing the cost.

The proposal comes amid a series of conflicting signals from Washington. On July 2, the Pentagon announced a pause in deliveries of key military aid to Kyiv, including Patriot interceptors and precision-guided munitions.

Trump later denied involvement in the decision and expressed frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin for failing to pursue a ceasefire.

Kyiv has repeatedly urged Western partners to expand air defense coverage as Russian forces continue to target Ukrainian cities with drones, missiles, and aerial bombs.

Patriot batteries, with their high-precision tracking and interception capabilities, are a cornerstone of Ukraine’s layered air defense system.

Washington has so far delivered three Patriot batteries to Ukraine, while Germany has sent three more. A European coalition has contributed an additional battery, though not all systems are currently operational due to maintenance rotations.

If approved, a new transfer would mark Trump’s first major military package to Ukraine not initiated by the previous Biden administration.

Russian President Vladimir Putin applauds during the ‘All For The Victory’ forum, which promotes victory over Ukraine, on July 6, 2025 in Moscow, Russia. The event is hosted by People’s United Front, a pro-Kremlin organization. (Contributor/Getty Images)

The Kremlin’s grip on the Russian elite appears to be closing ever tighter as two major figures of Russian business and security structures were detained in the past few days.

Konstantin Strukov, a billionaire running a gold mining empire, and Viktor Strigunov, a former top officer in Russia’s National Guard, are now facing corruption accusations.

While separate cases, they point to a push by Russian higher-ups to purge corrupt or potentially disloyal figures as Moscow grinds forward its full-scale war on Ukraine.

“I would certainly say that there has been an increased crackdown (on the Russian elite),” says Stephen Hall, assistant professor in Russian and post-Soviet politics at the University of Bath.

The Russian state is “trying to send the signal that loyalty is important… You can be corrupt, but don’t be too excessively corrupt without showing loyalty.”

Gold mining magnate detained

Strukov was caught attempting to leave Chelyabinsk for Turkey on a private jet despite an earlier court ban on traveling abroad, Kommersant reported on July 5. As the pro-Kremlin news outlet wrote, Russian authorities boarded the aircraft and seized the businessman’s passport.

The detention followed a court ruling on July 2 that Strukov and his family cannot leave the country as Russian prosecutors seek to seize his assets.

The same day, the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Investigative Committee raided the offices of Strukov’s Yuzhuralzoloto group as part of an investigation into alleged environmental and safety violations.

Though Strukov’s relatives and company denied his attempt to flee, Kommersant shared a picture of the billionaire sitting despondent on board the plane, surrounded by black-clad officers.

Konstantin Strukov. (WikiJournal)

A Chelyabinsk court told Reuters that Russian prosecutors suspect Strukov of acquiring property “through corruption,” while Kommersant wrote the billionaire allegedly used his official position to transfer assets to his company.

The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office now reportedly calls for the transfer of Strukov’s shares and stakes in 11 companies, including the Yuzhuralzoloto group, Russia’s third-largest gold producer, into state ownership.

The company is currently registered under Strukov’s daughter, Alexandra, who holds Swiss citizenship.

The case mirrors earlier state takeovers during the full-scale war against Ukraine, presented as an anti-corruption campaign. It comes at a time when Russia is grappling with a widening budget deficit and an overheating economy.

The case could signal that the “Russian economy is not doing as well as Putin keeps on publicly saying that it is,” Hall told the Kyiv Independent.

“We’re starting to see that the ever-shrinking pie, as it were, needs to be redistributed… it may be that his (Strukov’s) assets are being taken over in order to be redistributed to someone closer to Putin.”

The nationalization drive peaked in 2024, when the state seized at least 67 companies with a total asset valuation of 544.7 billion rubles (about $7 billion), the Moscow Times calculated. Companies whose owners were suspected of Western connections were particularly targeted.

The Kremlin walks a tightrope here

It’s sold more foreign currency reserves this week to stave off collapse. So now it shakes down oligarchs.

Gold-mining billionaire Konstantin Strukov is arrested on his private jet as he tried to leave for Turkiye. Russia wants all his assets pic.twitter.com/HIj1vteohL — Tim White (@TWMCLtd) July 5, 2025

Strukov’s family owns businesses in Serbia and Montenegro, and Russian authorities reportedly accused him of funneling money from Russia to “unfriendly countries.”

Russia likely doesn’t want key national assets like gold “in the hands of someone that it doesn’t necessarily trust, a man who has been sending money abroad to ‘unfriendly countries,'” Hall said.

A former coal miner, Strukov took over Yuzhuralzoloto — at the time on the verge of bankruptcy — in 1997, restructuring it and building up sizeable holdings in the gold and coal mining sectors.

According to Forbes, the gold mining magnate is the 78th richest man in Russia with a net worth of $1.9 billion. Strukov is also a member of the Chelyabinsk legislative assembly for Putin’s United Russia party. He is sanctioned by the U.S., the EU, and the U.K.

The Kremlin has declined to comment on the case when approached by the Russian media.

Defense officials in the crosshairs

As the Russian state tightens its grip on business, it also continues to “clean up” the security structures.

Colonel General Viktor Strigunov, first deputy director of the Russian National Guard (Rosgvardiya) until 2023, has been detained on suspicion of bribery and abuse of power, the Russian state media reported on July 7.

Strigunov, while in charge of a multi-million dollar contract for the construction of a training facility in Siberian Kemerovo Oblast in 2014, ordered the project to proceed despite existing restrictions, according to RIA Novosti.

The project was never completed, causing the state to lose over 2 billion rubles (over $25 million).

The former official is also accused of taking bribes of over 66 million rubles (over $840,000) from private companies between 2012 and 2014 in exchange for patronage during major state construction projects.

Strigunov is not the first National Guard official embroiled in a corruption case this year.

Major General Konstantin Ryabykh was fired and detained in February over suspected bribery, while Major General Mikhail Varentsov was arrested on fraud charges in April.

Hall links the cases to a broader Kremlin crackdown on Russia’s defense groups. On July 1, former Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov was sentenced to 13 years for bribery in a case dating back to a broader anti-graft campaign against defense officials in 2024.

However, Strigunov’s case is especially notable because after his dismissal as the National Guard’s deputy head in 2023, he served as an advisor to the force’s chief and Putin’s close ally, Viktor Zolotov.

“It could be that Zolotov is also trying to save his skin, having perhaps been a bit too corrupt,” Hall says, suggesting that the National Guard chief has selected Strigunov to be his “fall guy.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with the chief of the National Guard, Viktor Zolotov, at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow on May 6, 2020. ( Alexey Druzhninin/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)

Mounting crackdown on Russian elite

This week’s cases are only the latest in a string of firings and arrests in the more than three years of the full-scale war.

The atmosphere of anxiety among the Russian elite is growing even heavier amid mysterious suicide cases.

Just on July 7, the Russian media reported that Transport Minister Roman Starovoit shot himself dead in Odintsovo shortly before or after being fired by Putin.

Starovoit was reportedly implicated in a major embezzling scandal while he was governor of Kursk Oblast. His former deputy, Alexei Smirnov, has already been arrested in the case, which centers around the construction of fortifications in the border region.

Other government and business officials have met untimely deaths in the past years, often falling out of windows under unclear circumstances. Although these cases are usually labelled by Russian authorities as suicides or accidents, some observers suggest a deliberate motive.

While Hall observes mounting pressure against the Russian elite, Russian journalist and opposition activist Sergey Parkhomenko says the events could be seen instead as elite infighting.

“The law enforcement agencies are part of the Russian elite, and it appears that this elite is pressuring itself and from within,” he told the Kyiv Independent.

“Russian power structures are closed off inside Russia like a hermetic jar… Therefore, pressure within this environment is growing, and its participants are constantly devouring each other. All this is quite chaotic in nature.”

Key developments on July 9:

‘Nearly everything was aimed at Lutsk’ — Russia launches record 741 drones, missiles, targeting western Ukraine

Trump says US will ‘take a look’ at sending new Patriot system to Ukraine amid Russian attacks

In historic feat, Ukraine’s 3rd Brigade captures Russian troops using only drones and robots, military says

Ukraine detains Chinese spies tasked with stealing Neptune missile technology, SBU says

Slovakia continues to block EU’s 18th Russia sanctions package, media reports

Russia launched what appears to be its largest missile and drone attack against multiple Ukrainian cities overnight on July 9, with the far-western city of Lutsk coming under the heaviest attack of the war.

Russian forces deployed 728 Shahed-type attack drones and decoys, as well as seven Kh-101 or Iskander-K cruise missiles and six Kinzhal missiles, the Air Force said.

Late spring and early summer in Ukraine have been marked by disturbingly frequent mass attacks on civilian targets, with Russia regularly terrorizing cities with ballistic and cruise missiles alongside record-breaking numbers of kamikaze drones.

Explosions rocked Kyiv at around midnight on July 9, according to Kyiv Independent journalists on the ground. Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced that Russian drones were attacking the city center and that air defenses were shooting down targets.

Ukraine’s Air Force reported that dozens of Russian attack drones and ballistic missiles were also targeting Ukraine’s far-west regions, with alerts of overhead drones approaching the western cities of Lutsk, Lviv, Khmelnytskyi, and Ternopil.

Ukrainian air defenses shot down 296 drones and all seven cruise missiles, while 415 drones disappeared from radars, according to the statement.

“Most of the targets were shot down. Our interceptor drones were used — dozens of (Russian) targets were downed, and we are scaling up this technology,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X.

Ukraine’s Volyn Oblast (Nizar al-Rifai/The Kyiv Independent)

Explosions were heard in the city of Lutsk in western Volyn Oblast just before 4 a.m. local time, Suspilne reported, amid warning of drones and missiles overhead. The city was one of the hardest hit during the attack.

Volyn Oblast Governor Ivan Rudnytskyi said the region had approximately 50 drones and five missiles present in the airspace overnight, adding that “nearly everything was aimed at Lutsk.”

Lutsk Mayor Ihor Polishchuk said that a fire damaged an “industrial site” as well as a garage, in what he called the “most massive Russian attack” on the city since the start of full-scale war.

The aftermath of a Russian attack against Lutsk, Volyn Oblast, Ukraine, overnight on July 9, 2025. (State Emergency Service)

Elsewhere in the region, the roof of a home in Khmelnytskyi Oblast caught fire, the regional military administration said.

At least one person was injured amid the attack, with a woman sustaining a chest fracture in the city of Brovary in Kyiv Oblast, the regional military administration reported.

Ukraine’s Air Force warned late on July 8 that Russia had launched MiG-31 aircraft from the Savasleyka airfield in Nizhny Novgorod, putting the entire country under an hours-long active missile threat. Swarms of drones were also heading towards multiple cities in Ukraine, the military said.

The Polish Air Force said it scrambled fighter jets amid the attack to protect Poland’s airspace. The air raid alerts were lifted in western Ukraine around 6:15 a.m. local time, after nearly seven hours of warnings from the Air Force.

Explosions were also reported in communities closer to the front line, including Dnipro, Sumy, as well as over Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

Russian ballistic missiles and kamikaze drones have targeted Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with renewed ferocity in recent weeks, killing dozens of civilians and injuring hundreds more.

Trump says US will ‘take a look’ at sending new Patriot system to Ukraine amid Russian attacks

U.S. President Donald Trump said on July 9 that his administration is “going to have to take a look” at supplying Ukraine with another Patriot air defense system.

“They would like it. They’ve asked for it,” Trump told reporters in the White House. “I know they made the request. We’re going to have to take a look at it.”

“When you talk about a system like that… they’re doing it because they want to prevent death,” he added. “They’re getting hit hard, very hard. So we’re looking at it.”

The comments follow a July 8 reporting by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that the White House is considering sending Ukraine a Patriot battery in what would be the administration’s first major new weapons transfer since taking office in January.

A U.S. defense official told WSJ that Trump has asked the Pentagon to explore options for supplying Ukraine with more arms, including whether additional Patriots could be sourced from allied countries.

According to Axios, the White House is working on a deal under which Germany would sell a Patriot battery to Ukraine, with the U.S. and European allies sharing the cost.

The proposal comes amid a series of conflicting signals from Washington. On July 2, the Pentagon announced a pause in deliveries of key military aid to Kyiv, including Patriot interceptors and precision-guided munitions.

Trump later denied involvement in the decision and expressed frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin for failing to pursue a ceasefire.

Kyiv has repeatedly urged Western partners to expand air defense coverage as Russian forces continue to target Ukrainian cities with drones, missiles, and aerial bombs.

Patriot batteries, with their high-precision tracking and interception capabilities, are a cornerstone of Ukraine’s layered air defense system.

Washington has so far delivered three Patriot batteries to Ukraine, while Germany has sent three more. A European coalition has contributed an additional battery, though not all systems are currently operational due to maintenance rotations.

If approved, a new transfer would mark Trump’s first major military package to Ukraine not initiated by the previous Biden administration.

In historic feat, Ukraine’s 3rd Brigade captures Russian troops using only drones and robots, military says

Ukrainian forces have for the first time captured Russian troops without the use of infantry, relying solely on drones and ground-based robotic systems, Ukraine’s 3rd Separate Assault Brigade said on July 9.

“For the first time in history: Russian soldiers surrendered to the 3rd Assault Brigade’s ground drones,” the statement read.

Ukraine has increasingly employed drone and robotic technologies on the battlefield as part of its broader strategy to minimize troop losses and adapt to evolving threats along the front line during Russia’s full-scale invasion.

The operation took place in Kharkiv Oblast in northeastern Ukraine, where the brigade deployed first-person view (FPV) drones and kamikaze ground robotic platforms to attack Russian fortifications, the brigade said in a statement.

The exact date of the operation was not provided.

0:00 / 1× Footage depicting a Ukrainian operation to capture Russian soldiers with the use of drone systems. Video published on July 9, 2025. (3rd Assault Brigade / Telegram)

According to the brigade, Ukrainian forces targeted and destroyed Russian bunkers with kamikaze drones and robotic ground vehicles. As another robot approached a damaged Russian holdout, the remaining Russian soldiers reportedly chose to surrender.

The captured troops were then guided out of the combat zone by drones and taken into custody by Ukrainian forces, the brigade said.

The brigade added that the Russian positions had previously resisted capture by neighboring Ukrainian units, but the successful assault by unmanned systems allowed Ukrainian forces to take control of both Russian fortifications and a nearby forest line.

Ukraine detains Chinese spies tasked with stealing Neptune missile technology, SBU says

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has detained two Chinese nationals in Kyiv suspected of attempting to steal classified military technology related to Ukraine’s Neptune cruise missile system, the agency announced on July 9.

According to the SBU, the two individuals, a 24-year-old former student of a Kyiv technical university and his father, were gathering secret documentation with the intent to illegally transfer it to Chinese intelligence.

The younger man, who remained in Ukraine after being expelled from university in 2023 for poor academic performance, allegedly attempted to recruit a Ukrainian national with access to classified defense technologies in order to obtain technical data on the RK-360MC Neptune missile system.

China has emerged as one of Moscow’s key wartime partners, helping Russia circumvent sanctions and becoming the largest supplier of dual-use goods aiding its defense sector.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly accused China of backing Russia and signed an order on July 8 imposing sanctions on five Chinese-registered companies for allegedly supplying components found in Russian Shahed-type drones used to attack Ukraine.

The Neptune, a Ukrainian-developed coastal defense missile, gained international attention after it was used to sink the Russian Black Sea Fleet flagship Moskva in 2022.

The SBU said the former student was caught “red-handed” during the transfer of sensitive documents, and his father was detained shortly afterward. Investigators allege the elder suspect, who resides in China but made periodic visits to Ukraine, personally supervised his son’s espionage activities.

Searches of the suspects’ belongings uncovered mobile phones containing evidence of coordinated efforts to spy on Ukrainian military technology, including encrypted communications between the two men.

Both suspects have been charged with espionage. If convicted, they face up to 15 years in prison and confiscation of property.

Ukraine struck a Russian warehouse storing ammunition and reconnaissance drones with a Neptune missile near the village of Chaltyr in Russia’s Rostov Oblast in a January operation carried out by the SBU and Ukraine’s Navy.

Slovakia continues to block EU’s 18th Russia sanctions package, media reports

EU ambassadors failed to approve the bloc’s 18th package of sanctions against Russia during a July 9 Committee of Permanent Representatives meeting, as Slovakia continued to block the measures, European Pravda reported, citing three unnamed EU diplomats.

Since EU sanctions require unanimous backing, a single country’s veto prevents the package from being implemented. In late June, both Slovakia and Hungary opposed the draft sanctions, stalling their adoption.

According to European Pravda, Slovakia’s position has not changed, despite what one EU diplomat described as “good and productive” talks between Bratislava and the European Commission on July 3.

Unlike Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has consistently opposed sanctions and military aid for Ukraine, Slovakia has not previously tried to block new EU measures.

Bratislava asked for a delay in adopting the latest package until the EU clarifies the financial implications of RePowerEU — an initiative to end reliance on Russian fossil fuels by 2030.

The sanctions package will be discussed again at a meeting scheduled for July 11. Sources told the outlet that a final agreement is expected this week, with formal adoption likely to take place at the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting on July 15.

The 18th package includes new restrictions on Russia’s energy and banking sectors, as well as bans on transactions connected to the Nord Stream pipeline project.

These measures are part of the EU’s broader effort to increase economic pressure on Moscow as the Kremlin rejects calls for an unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine.

While the EU advances its sanctions framework, the United States has not introduced any new sanctions on Russia since President Donald Trump took office in January.

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If elected president, former Prime Minister Victor Ponta told Reuters he will ban the export of Ukrainian grain through the country’s Black Sea ports to protect local farmers.

Bucharest plays a crucial role in Ukrainian exports amid Russia’s threats to the Black Sea maritime trade, shipping around 29 million tones of Ukraine’s produce.

“There has been a policy of favoring Ukrainian grain in terms of access to port facilities in recent years, at the detriment of Romanian grain, and Romanian farmers were greatly affected by it,” Ponta said.

In 2024, Romanian farmers asked the government to advocate for import limits on Ukrainian agriculture products, protesting the economic impacts of a free trade agreement that have sparked worries about uneven competition and risks to domestic production.

Yet, the presidential candidate said that he would support other measures already in place to support Ukraine, including weapons transit and training for Ukrainian pilots.

He said that Romania can defend neighboring Moldova in case of a Russian attack but could not do so for Ukraine or any other country.

In light of President Donald Trump’s U-turn in foreign policy, Ponta said that he backs “radical change” taking place in the U.S.

The re-run of Romania’s presidential elections is set for May 8 after the scheduled vote in November was annulled due to allegations of Russian interference favoring far-right candidate Calin Georgescu.

He was barred from participating in the presidential election re-run.

Victor Ponta, 52, served as a Romanian prime minister between 2012-2015, representing the Social Democratic Party (PSD). He resigned after public outrage over a deadly nightclub fire.

An opinion poll conducted by polling institute Verifield showed that Ponta has a chance to enter the run-off facing far-right candidate George Simion.