Russo-Ukrainian war, day 1625: Ukraine’s 81st Brigade holds gate to Sloviansk almost alone

Exclusives

Russia is assaulting the gateway to Sloviansk. Ukraine's 81st Brigade is holding it nearly alone. Mykolaivka is the biggest obstacle between Russian troops and Sloviansk, one of two big free cities in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast.

How Russia built a jam-proof drone force—and the Chinese supply chain that could still break it. First fiber optics, then mesh modems. Both came from China, and the modems are a catalogue item.

Ukraine's new drone is a cousin to America's stealth bombers. It reaches Ufa in three hours.. Ukraine's newest strike drone has a unique shape. And that helps it range deep inside Russia, faster, and with a heavier payload.

Ukraine's strikes gave Kazakhstan leverage over Russian retail giant Wildberries. Ukraine's strikes have given Astana leverage over a Russian retailer in retreat.

Ukraine's drones force oil-giant Russia to import gasoline—now from Morocco. Ukrainian strikes have cut Russian refining to a two-decade low, forcing one of the world's largest oil producers to buy finished fuel abroad—first from India, now from Morocco, shipped to the Arctic.

Military

Six explosions, four fires: Ukraine hit one of Russia's five largest refineries, 700 km from border. Ukraine's SBU and Defense Forces struck the Yaroslavl refinery, one of Russia's five largest, over 700 km from the border, and two FSB coast guard ships in occupied Kerch.

Seventh time this year: Ukrainian drones torch a top-five Russian refinery in Yaroslavl. The pre-dawn raid sent several columns of black smoke over the Slavneft-YANOS plant, which turns crude into gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel for central Russia.

Intelligence and technology

US rebuilt full intelligence sharing with Ukraine—and Kyiv strikes deep inside Russia hit harder. Both parties in Washington now credit the restored flow of satellite data and warnings, reversing a short 2025 cutoff that a Ukrainian officer said cost hundreds of lives.

Reuters: The Patriot deal Trump denied is quietly still alive. Washington kept working to let Ukraine build the interceptors even after the US President's doubts, four sources told Reuters.

A slice of Estonia's new EU billions will buy drones—for Ukraine, not itself. The money is a 45-year loan drawn from Brussels' new joint defense fund, which lets member states borrow cheaply.

International

Colombian veterans, a British bomb-disposal expert, a Finnish teenager: who are the 16,000 foreigners fighting for Ukraine?. Foreign troops serve Ukraine in frontline and specialist roles. The Military Ombudsman's Office has received more than 300 requests concerning their pay, contracts, supplies, status, and medical care.

Russia's planes probed NATO's eastern flank so often this July that scrambles jumped more than 250%. Russian planes kept approaching NATO's borders with their transponders off.

Azerbaijan's FM visited Irpin, town that stopped Russia's drive on Kyiv, and offered gas supplies. Baku is ready to expand energy cooperation, as Azerbaijan's relations with Russia deteriorate.

Voice of America's Ukrainian service goes back on air next week, more than year after Trump shut it down. For Ukraine, it means the return of a US-government broadcaster delivering news in Ukrainian into an information space that Russia floods with disinformation.

Humanitarian and social impact

Double-tap strike kills 20-year-old Hospitaller volunteer in Kyiv. "At the age of 20, while being a student, she could have enjoyed life, lived through the best years of her life, but she chose a different path, a very difficult and dangerous one," Nataliia Chykhachova said.

Fighters from 51 countries now held in Ukraine after fighting for Russia, ombudsman says. The figure raises Ukraine's publicly stated minimum from more than 48 countries in May, as Moscow's foreign recruitment widens.

47 sites destroyed, 1,943 damaged: Russia's toll on Ukrainian heritage keeps climbing. Ukraine's culture ministry counts close to 2,000 heritage sites hit since 2022, with 90 more added in just the last month.

Shortage of Patriot missiles from allies and intensified Russia's attacks made July deadliest month for Ukrainian civilians since April 2022. July killed more Ukrainian civilians than any month since April 2022, the UN says.

Political and legal developments

Finnish archbishop is shocked by Moscow's latest church rhetoric: blessing nuclear weapons as "God's grace". The Russian church has traveled far from the faith it claims to represent.

Ex-top general Zaluzhnyi explains his "Ukraine will never join NATO" remark: I back the Alliance, but it must transform first. He says the bloc is stuck in Cold War thinking and needs a new doctrine before Kyiv could ever fit in.

The throwaway agents Moscow sent after a Bavarian drone boss arming Ukraine—and how Germany stopped them. A former Ukrainian bricklayer and an untrained Romanian woman took turns watching him before both were arrested.

Drug lab in EU member state, dealers in Ukraine, passenger buses in between: Dual operation seizes $960,000 in drugs across 32 searches. Ukrainian and Bulgarian police dismantled an international drug syndicate running a lab in Bulgaria.

Read our earlier daily review here.