Russo-Ukrainian war, day 1617: Senate hands Trump power for 500% tariffs on Russian oil

Exclusives

Precision missiles hit the coordinates. Investigators ask who was still standing there. A new framework names the pattern in four Russian strikes—and aims at Russia's standard legal defense.

Europe wants Ukraine's railway split. The war wants it whole. Ukraine has two years to split its railway on the EU model—and no intention of giving up the wartime control that model is built to remove.

Russia and Ukraine justify their strikes the same way. Only one justification holds up. Ukraine is now hitting Russia's power grid, ports, shipping and warehouses — the same categories Russia hits in Ukraine. Both call the targets military. The facts decide who is right.

Ukraine's newest mine-clearing vehicle is a 1960s-design APC with nobody inside. Allies have shipped Ukraine more than 1,700 M113s. Khartia's engineers just showed what one looks like with nobody inside.

A couple beaten for being Ukrainian—the latest case in Poland's rising anti-Ukrainian violence. The video, filmed by a Ukrainian living nearby, spread online, and police detained two suspects the next day.

How tight is Russia's fuel crisis? Altai now caps each car at one fill a day. Drivers had gamed the midnight reset to take two rations. This week, the Siberian republic shut the window.

Russia's strikes stopped Ukraine's grain ships. Its farmers are the ones paying. World wheat price is climbing on the supply scare—yet the grain stuck in Ukraine's ports fetches less by the week.

Military

Ukrainian drones destroyed nearly 15.4% of Russian retail giant's storage space in July. Ukrainian drones destroyed eight Wildberries warehouses in July, which is about 860,000 square meters.

Ukraine loses another F-16 to onboard emergency. Ukraine lost an F-16 on 29 July during a mission to intercept Russian air targets.

Ukraine's army has some brigades starved of soldiers and others overstaffed. New commander is now auditing why. Ukraine's General Staff has launched a check on how its brigades, regiments, and corps are manned.

Russia is bombing Kostiantynivka to rubble while pushing its infantry into it on foot. Artillery and guided glide bombs hit the city as small Russian groups try to dig into whatever buildings they can reach.

Ukraine's Defense Forces sent FP-1 drones to Ryazan—a refinery and a warehouse burned. Open-source analysts worked through eyewitness frames to place the blaze at the complex the marketplace calls Ryazan: Tyushevskaya. Later in the morning, the drones reached a Perm refinery 1,500 km from Ukraine.

Ukraine's interceptors shot down Russian spy drone at 6,400 meters. It's thousand meters above Everest's base camp. Ukrainian National Guard pilots intercepted a Russian ZALA Z-20 reconnaissance drone at one of the highest altitudes at which Ukraine has downed an enemy drone.

Ukraine hits 201 Russian shadow fleet ships in three weeks. Commander says Crimea's supply route is now blocked indefinitely. The campaign has run alongside strikes on Crimea's power grid and air defenses, part of a broader effort to make holding the peninsula costlier by the week.

Intelligence and technology

This Ukrainian 344-kg armored capsule keeps wounded soldier in constant contact with operator, with emergency exit he controls himself. Ukraine's Robotized Complexes unveiled the Murakha CaseEvak, a ground robot with an armored medical capsule that remotely evacuates wounded soldiers from zones where enemy drones hunt rescuers.

This Ukrainian border town has served as Russia's testing ground for new weapons of terror since 2023. Then, it turns them on rest of Ukraine.

Humanitarian and social impact

Russian soldiers raped Ukrainian woman and shot her in back when she tried to escape in Bucha. Ukraine has now put their names on record. Ukrainian police charged two Russian soldiers from the 76th Air Assault Division.

Political and legal developments

Greece blocked a gas ban, France and Italy softened an entry ban—now Brussels tries 1,600 companies helping Russia's war. Bloomberg sources says the proposed list covers firms feeding Russia's military industry, and the work stayed out of public view.

US Senate took first step toward Graham sanctions bill on Russia. It gives Trump power to impose 500% tariffs on Russian oil. The US Senate voted 86-12 to advance the Russia sanctions bill renamed for the late Senator Lindsey Graham, hours after his funeral.

New developments

The Belarusian tunnel to the EU was almost done. Then Lithuania drilled a hole in exactly the wrong place—for the diggers. Polish tunnel-detection equipment narrowed down the location, and a single bore confirmed a passage running from Belarusian soil.

Read our earlier daily review here.