Russo-Ukrainian war, day 1622: Russia fires missiles faster than Ukraine can shoot them down

Exclusives

Can Ukrainian forces save Sloviansk and Kramatorsk?. Sloviansk and Kramatorsk are the last big free cities in Donetsk Oblast. Can Ukrainian forces save them from a creeping Russian advance?

Repeated Russian missile-targeting failures may themselves violate the laws of war. The authors of a new Ukrainian war-crimes framework say the error-or-method question may be the wrong one—and name the evidence that would settle it.

Russia is firing more missiles and drones than Ukraine can stop, and the gap is widening. Ukraine downed just one in twenty ballistic missiles in the last two big attacks. Patriots are rare, and the one workaround—striking the launchers—stays blocked.

Military

DeepState: At current pace, Russia won't capture all of Donetsk Oblast even by 2027. Russia recorded few territorial gains during its bloodiest month in 2026, making Moscow's goal of seizing the rest of Donetsk Oblast less likely.

Russia tows its own ships between bays to keep them from being finished off, Ukraine's navy says. Russia is shifting to jet-powered drones in its air attacks.

Belarus is forming its fourth airborne brigade 40 km from Ukraine, with a permanent base set for 2027. Minsk's Special Operations commander says the new 37th brigade is taking shape near Homel, with its permanent base by the Ukrainian frontier not ready until 2027.

Ukraine destroyed 12 fuel tanks at Russian export terminal. That's enough fuel to fill 1,000 rail cars. Ukraine's 413th "Raid" Regiment struck the Taman oil terminal in Krasnodar Krai on 30 July, setting a fire NASA satellites detected.

Ukraine's sea drone that never touched the shore struck two Russian radars in occupied Crimea. The uncrewed boat stayed offshore and released an FPV drone that finished the job, part of an operation Ukraine's spies ran in late July.

The most in any month this year: Russia fired 126 ballistic missiles at Ukraine in July. The count of Iskander-M, North Korean, and repurposed air-defense missiles topped every month since January, a monitoring channel tracking the launches found.

ISW: Russia's long push toward Sloviansk gains no ground as Ukraine counterattacks. Its assaults across northern Donetsk Oblast produced no confirmed advances in the newest DC-based think tank's war assessment, an offensive now grinding into its fifth month.

Intelligence and technology

French firm that beat NATO's tender on glide bombs is now teaching Ukraine's interceptor to see its target without GPS. Ukraine's "General Cherry" unit signed with French firm Alta Ares to integrate AI guidance into its BULLET anti-Shahed interceptor.

To catch Ukraine's cruise missiles, Russia is risking the scarce A-50 radar planes it has no way to rebuild. After losing some of its most valuable airborne radar aircraft and with sanctions hampering replacements, Russia is increasingly relying on the few A-50Us it still has.

International

Ukraine wants its office inside EU Parliament, mirroring bloc's representation already open in Kyiv. Parliamentary diplomacy amounts to one aim: keeping legislatures across Europe and the G7 mobilized behind Ukraine as the war and the accession process both grind on.

"We have no Churchill in Europe so far": Europe's top pro-Ukraine coalition may lose its two founders within year while Russia's attacks continue. With Starmer gone and Macron leaving next year, there is a rising fears of a leadership vacuum in Europe's pro-Ukraine coalition.

Humanitarian and social impact

He was missing child on Ukraine's own registry. Monitors say they've now found him wearing Russian "Z" and posing with its flag. Oleksandr Mustiatse, a Ukrainian boy taken under occupation in Kherson Oblast and listed as missing, has been identified as a soldier in the Russian army, Save Ukraine says.

Political and legal developments

The Guardian: French theme-park company kept working with sanctioned Russian oligarch year after EU blacklisted him, documents show. New records show Puy du Fou continued working with its Russian oligarch partner after he was sanctioned in 2014, as it now pursues a £600 million UK expansion.

New developments

A Russian warehouse built to hold 120 million items is burning east of Moscow region. Russia's largest online retailer confirmed the fire, evacuated staff, and reported no casualties, while the regional governor said emergency crews were working at the scene.

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