Russia Ukraine war latest: Last Russian naval patrol ship leaves Crimea in big win for Ukraine

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has pleaded for Western nations to send more Patriot air defence systems and F-16 fighter jets to protect the country from Russian missile attacks.

After months of calls from Kyiv, the first F-16 fighter jets are on their way to Ukraine and will be flying sorties this summer, the White House confirmed at a Nato summit in Washington earlier this month.

Mr Zelensky welcomed the package, without saying exactly how many jets it will be made up of.

About 85 of the combat aircraft have been committed to Kyiv, but many will take a significant amount of time to reach the battlefield. Ukraine has suggested it needs as many as 128 F-16s to properly battle the aerial superiority of Moscow.

Ukraine needs 25 Patriot air defense systems to fully defend its airspace and protect the entire country from Russian missile attacks, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday, adding that he also wants Western partners to send more F-16 warplanes than those already pledged.

In his first news conference since returning from a trip to the United States, Zelenskyy said he is ready to work with Donald Trump if he wins November’s election. “I am not afraid” of that prospect, Zelenskyy said, adding he is convinced that most Republicans support Ukraine in its war with Russia.

Zelenskyy said on Sunday he was “appalled” by the attempt to assassinate Trump and wished him a speedy recovery.

Russia’s last naval patrol ship has left occupied Crimea, “most likely” to be based elsewhere, the Ukrainian navy says after a concerted military campaign against Putin’s bases on the Black Sea peninsula.

Vice-Admiral Oleksiy Neizhpapa, Ukraine’s navy chief, told Reuters earlier this month that Russia had been forced to rebase nearly all its combat-ready warships from occupied Crimea.

“The last patrol ship of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation is bolting from our Crimea just now. Remember this day,” Navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk said on Facebook.

Asked to clarify whether this was a permanent move, Pletenchuk told Reuters: “Most likely, this is a transition between bases”, adding that Moscow did not usually send ships to the open sea for no reason. He said the vessel’s designation was Project 1135.

Though it has no major warships at its disposal, Ukraine has used missiles and naval drones to inflict significant damage to the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which has long been headquartered in Sevastopol on the peninsula seized by Moscow in 2014.

Russian authorities have not responded to requests for comment in the past about Ukrainian claims of advances in the Black Sea.

Kyiv has destroyed or damaged 27 Russian naval vessels, Neizhpapa said. In May, Ukrainian authorities said they had destroyed the last Russian warship armed with cruise missiles that was stationed on the peninsula.

The US is still concerned about the potential escalation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and will continue its ban on ATACMS long-range missile strikes on Russian territory, Pentagon spokesperson Major General Pat Ryder said.

The Biden administration permits Ukraine to fire weapons into Russian territory only for the purpose of hitting back against Russian forces that are attacking or preparing to attack them, concerned that the broader use of American-made weaponry could provoke Russia to widen the war.

“Our long distance policy has not changed. I think it is important to understand here that we do not want to see unintended consequences, an escalation that can turn this conflict into a wider one that will go beyond the borders of Ukraine. I think this is something that we all need to consider and take very seriously,” he told Voice of America.

He went on: “However, we never in any way underestimate the threat that Russia poses to Ukraine. Therefore, we will continue to work with Ukraine so that it has everything necessary to protect its sovereign territory and its people.”

His remarks come just days after Volodymyr Zelensky emphatically pushed for the help to arrive faster and for restrictions to be lifted on the use of US weapons to attack military targets inside Russia. “If we want to win, if we want to prevail, if we want to save our country and to defend it, we need to lift all the limitations,” Mr Zelensky said.

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas submitted her resignation on Monday in order to take up a new job as the European Union’s foreign policy chief, the president’s office said.

Kallas, 47, has emerged as a strong critic of neighbouring Russia and what she says are its expansionist aims since she became prime minister in early 2021. She has pressed Estonia’s allies in NATO and the EU to provide unconditional support for Ukraine in its struggle to push back Moscow’s invading forces.

Under her leadership, Estonia, a small Baltic republic of 1.4 million people, has become one of the biggest donors of military aid to Ukraine on a per capita basis.

Kallas led her liberal Reform party to victory in parliamentary elections in 2019 and 2023 and has fronted the government since 2021.

The Reform party has tapped Climate Minister Kristen Michal to become Estonia’s next prime minister, pending negotiations to reconfigure the cabinet with its coalition partners, the liberal Estonia 200 and the Social Democrats.

Kallas will remain as Estonia’s caretaker prime minister until the next government is confirmed by early August, Estonia’s public broadcaster ERR said.

Her party will elect its new leader on September 8.

Volodymyr Zelensky has said he is not afraid to work with Donald Trump if the Republican candidate comes to power and wins the US presidential elections.

“If Mr Donald Trump becomes president, then we will work with him. I am not afraid of it,” Mr Zelensky said at a press conference in Kyiv.

The Ukrainian leader said he believes “the majority in the Republican Party also supports Ukraine and the people of Ukraine,” as he acknowledged that wide gap of supporters between the largely supportive Democratic party and the Republicans, in which some are “more right-wing and radical”.

However, Mr Zelensky remains concerned over the political storm in Washington that could negatively impact flow of military aid to Ukraine. “We are getting back our confidence as weapons started arriving. But delivery has to speed up. Our soldiers have to learn how to use weapons. And they train abroad. And that all takes time,” he said.

Earlier this month, he told allies decisive action must be taken before the US presidential election in November to repel Russia’s offensive against his country, using an address on the sidelines of the Nato summit to press for greater support.

Volodymyr Zelensky said he aimed to have a plan ready in November to enable Kyiv to hold a second international summit on his vision of peace in Ukraine, and he said representatives of Russia should attend.

“I set a goal that in November we would have a fully ready plan,” Mr Zelensky said at a press conference in Kyiv. “I think that representatives of Russia should be at the second summit.”

His remarks came shortly after he returned from a visit to Washington for a Nato summit. Ukrainian officials have said previously that Russian representatives could be invited to a follow-up summit.

At the end of June, Ukraine hosted delegations from 92 countries at a first summit in Switzerland to advance its blueprint for peace. Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022, was not invited to the event and dismissed it as a non-starter.

A Ukraine drone attack sparked a large-scale fire at a factory producing electrical devices and components in Russia’s Kursk region, the interim governor of the region bordering Ukraine said this morning.

“None of the workers were injured,” Alexei Smirnov, the governor, said on his Telegram channel.

He claimed an aircraft dropped an explosive device on the low-voltage equipment plant in Korenevo, leading to a major fire in one of the workshops.

Kursk, a few hundred kilometres from the frontline, has been attacked repeatedly throughout the war. Over the weekend, Russian air defence systems said they destroyed two drones over the western Kursk and Belgorod regions.

India is exploring ways to boost its exports to Russia, including by encouraging rupee-rouble trade and pushing Moscow to lift non-tariff barriers, New Delhi said on Monday, in the wake of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Moscow.

Old partners India and Russia have stepped up trade since Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, but the increase has been overwhelmingly one-way, dominated by India buying Russian oil shunned by traditional customers in Europe.

In a news conference, Indian trade secretary Sunil Barthwal said the government had asked Russia to consider changes to some non-tariff barriers on Indian exports of marine food products.

New Delhi is also encouraging rupee-rouble trade that has failed to take off, and would send a trade delegation, he said, without giving further details.

“When we are looking at Russia, we are looking at how both the countries can gain by better trade relationships,” he told the press conference. “We are looking at various sets of commodities for example electronics, engineering goods and other items where there can be exports.”

Russia launched over 1,000 drones across the frontline in 24 hours, according to Ukraine officials.

The General Staff of Ukraine’s army said Vladimir Putin’s forces attacked their troops with three missile strikes.

A post on their Facebook page said: “According to information, over the past 24 hours, the enemy launched three missile strikes at the positions of our troops and settlements, with the use of four missiles, 64 air strikes (total 97 KAB), launched 1168 kamikaze drones to impress, launched 4758 shells, 79 of them – from salp-fire jet systems.”