Russo-Ukrainian war, day 1612: Russia kills 10 in rare daytime ballistic strike on Kyiv defense industry event

Exclusives

Russia took the cages off its newest tanks. The new Arena-M shield bought them a few minutes.. The Russians' new Arena-M systems shoots tiny projectiles at incoming enemy drones. But it didn't save a rare Russian tank assault this week.

Washington taxes Russian goods at the same rate as Norway’s. It is a blanket forced-labor measure, not a Russia policy—and the sanctions that would hurt Moscow are still stuck in Congress.

Germany’s Zeitenwende stops at the Rosatom deal in Lingen. A licensed nuclear deal and a secret Baku channel surfaced in the same month. They are not connected. That is what should worry Berlin.

Russia just copied Ukraine’s cleverest drone hunter. A $500,000 missile is a costly way of taking down a $50,000 attack drone. So the Russians are arming old planes with cheap interceptor drones.

Ukraine’s defense minister explained how the country buys weapons—after he was sacked. A sacked minister spent 90 minutes explaining how Ukraine buys shells. He told more than the ministry had published in six months.

Russia will read shops’ cash registers to police food prices it can’t tame. Unable to bring down food prices, Russia is building a system to watch them instead.

Military

Poland offers to build Patriot air-defense missiles with the US and Ukraine, on its own soil The proposal comes as Ukraine seeks more Patriot interceptors to defend against increasingly frequent Russian ballistic missile attacks.

ATESH partisans report Ukrainian strike on Russian military fuel-tanker lot in occupied Luhansk The partisan movement ATESH says a Ukrainian strike hit five Russian military fuel trucks in occupied Luhansk before they could be sent to support a Russian brigade operating in the Donetsk direction.

From escorting to firing: Romania changes how it meets Russia's wandering drones The F-16 fighter downed the intruder near a village northeast of Bucharest. That same barrage threw Shahed and other drones plus five missiles at Ukraine, with border districts across from Romania among the targets.

Russia kills at least 10 in rare daytime ballistic strike on Kyiv defense industry event, as fears grow of larger attack to come The attack injured around 100 people, damaged 27 homes and 44 vehicles in Bucha district, and came amid a broader wave of Russian drone and missile attacks across Ukraine.

"From Simferopol to St. Petersburg": Ukraine's drone commander sums up one night of fire at Russia's online giant Same retailer, the fourth assault in a week. Ukraine has a clear new favorite target, and the Russian retailer's logistics network keeps ending up on fire.

One plant makes the seats that save Russian pilots. Ukraine's Flamingo missile torched it 1,200 km from home The Avitek factory is the country's sole serial producer of escape seats for every fighter and attack aircraft in the fleet.

Intelligence and technology

Intelligence: Russia's civil aviation deteriorates under sanctions, forcing it to dismantle even new aircraft to obtain spare parts

International

EU adopts largest sanctions package on Russia: 218 names and 100+ banks and crypto platforms among those on the list Banks, refineries, drone parts, crypto exchanges: the bloc's 21st sanctions package reaches further into Russia's economy than any round before it.

Zelenskyy meets team from Raytheon, US company that builds Patriots, and says Ukraine is now negotiating joint interceptor production President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met Raytheon executives in Kyiv.

Ireland's PM brings $146 million aid package to Kyiv. He also shares findings on Russian-owned alumina plant in Ireland Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin announced €125 million in aid on a Kyiv visit, while saying an investigation found no definitive proof a Russian-owned Limerick plant supplied Russia's war machine.

Political and legal developments

Ukraine arrests two alleged Russian agents in Kyiv accused of activating Starlink terminals to support Russian missile and drone strikes According to the SBU, the suspects registered dozens of Starlink terminals that Russian intelligence planned to use for missile and drone attacks and to detect Ukraine's electronic warfare defenses.

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