Live, war in Ukraine: Talks about a meeting with Vladimir Putin "have begun," says Volodymyr Zelensky, while the Kremlin considers it "unlikely"

A municipal employee was killed and two others were seriously injured by a Russian military drone bomber in Kherson, reports Oleksandr Prokudin , head of the oblast's military administration.

The Kremlin said on Friday it was "unlikely" that a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, could be organized by the end of August, as the latter had hoped.

"A meeting at the highest level can and must put an end (...) " to the conflict, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "Is it possible to complete such a complex process in 30 days? It is clear that this seems unlikely," he added.

The bill proposed by Volodymyr Zelensky to ensure the independence of anti-corruption bodies will be considered in parliament on July 31, its chairman, Ruslan Stefanchuk, announced. "When considering this bill, I will propose its immediate adoption in its entirety and support its urgent enactment," he wrote on Facebook .

One hundred and five Ukrainian drones were intercepted overnight in Russia, including 26 in the Belgorod region, 25 in the Bryansk region and 23 in the Rostov region, the Russian Defense Ministry announced, without reporting any casualties or damage.

According to the Telegram channel Astra , citing witnesses, a chemical plant was targeted in Nevinnomyssk, Stavropol Krai. Mikhail Minenkov, the city's mayor, confirmed that a drone strike had taken place but said it had no consequences. The Timashiovsk railway station in Krasnodar Krai and a gunpowder plant in Kotovsk, Tambov Oblast, were also targeted, according to Astra.

The naval maneuvers involving Russia's Northern, Pacific, Baltic, and Caspian fleets take place from July 23 to 27. More than 150 ships, 120 aircraft, and 15,000 military personnel are participating, according to the Russian Defense Ministry .

These large-scale exercises are aimed at testing their ability to "solve non-standard operational tasks, the integrated use of long-range high-precision weapons, unmanned systems, promising and modern samples of weapons and military equipment," he said.

Volodymyr Zelensky said he had listened to the protesters opposing the law revoking the independence of anti-corruption bodies and had responded with a new text.

"It's perfectly normal for people to react when they don't want something or when they don't like it," the Ukrainian president said Thursday during a meeting with journalists attended by Agence France-Presse. "It's very important that we listen and respond in the right way. People asked for changes. We responded," he continued, while acknowledging that "there probably should have been a dialogue [before adopting the criticized law]. "

This first text, adopted Tuesday by Parliament and promulgated the same day by the head of state, provided for placing the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Prosecutor's Office (SAP) under the supervision of the Attorney General, himself subordinate to the president.

The law sparked an outcry from civil society and the first major street protests in Kyiv since the start of the Russian offensive in 2022. It also drew strong criticism from the European Union. After attempting to defend the bill by accusing the relevant bodies of inefficiency and being under "Russian influence," Volodymyr Zelensky finally proposed a new bill on Thursday that, according to him, guarantees the independence of the two bodies.

Ivan Fedorov, head of the regional military administration, announced the death of a 63-year-old man in Poltavka, Zaporozhye Oblast.

Ukrainian and Russian negotiators "have begun discussing" a possible meeting between the presidents of the two countries, Zelensky announced. "We need to end this war, which probably starts with a meeting of the leaders," he added Thursday during a meeting with journalists.

Seven of the 61 attack drones and two Russian ballistic missiles launched overnight evaded air defenses, the Ukrainian army's general staff reported . Four sites were hit, it added, without specifying which ones or the consequences of these bombings.

Drone debris caused a fire in Kremenchuk , in the center of the country, and an administrative building was damaged in Sumy , in the north, according to local authorities.

Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Ukraine is working to finance ten Patriot air defense batteries, following an agreement with Washington allowing European countries to purchase American weapons to supply them to Kyiv.

"The President of the United States will transfer these systems to us, sell them to us. Our task is to find funding for these ten systems," the Ukrainian president said during a meeting with journalists attended by Agence France-Presse on Thursday, adding that funding for three of these defense systems had already been secured.

Following Russian airstrikes in Kharkiv on July 24, 2025.

Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp announced in a post on X that the Netherlands and 40 other member states of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) were calling for the establishment of a special mechanism to request "an independent investigation into Russia's torture and ill-treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war."

"By invoking the so-called 'Moscow Mechanism' [name of the mechanism], the Netherlands and partner countries are contributing to the search for truth and accountability for Russian war crimes in Ukraine," he added. The mechanism can be triggered at the initiative of at least ten member states.

"A man died following a nighttime Russian drone attack in Odessa. His body was recently recovered by rescuers from the rubble of a multi-story residential building. The victim was 32 years old," the head of Odessa's military administration, Oleh Kiper, said on Telegram this evening .

In the early hours of the morning, four injuries were reported following the attack by Russian drones on Odessa during the night in the historic center of the city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, while a fire broke out in a market.

Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Thursday that he was proposing a new bill to ensure the "independence" of Ukraine's anti-corruption bodies , the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP), following an outcry over the vote on a measure reducing their autonomy.

The NABU responded by saying that the new bill "restores all procedural powers and guarantees of independence of the NABU and the SAP . " "This will help eliminate threats to criminal proceedings" for which these two bodies are responsible, it added.

The new text was discussed with the heads of the British and German governments, Keir Starmer and Friedrich Merz, close allies of kyiv, who pledged their expertise to review the bill, according to Volodymyr Zelensky.

Caught off guard by the avalanche of criticism and the backlash from the public, Mr. Zelensky, who initially defended the importance of his first bill and accused the anti-corruption agencies of ineffectiveness, appears to have backtracked. The new bill, which "guarantees the independence of the NABU and SAP," was submitted to parliament on Thursday.

The Merz government plans to subject all 18-year-old Germans to a military service test starting in 2028 – even if they ultimately decide not to serve – as part of the country's efforts to strengthen its defense capabilities, Defense Ministry sources told Agence France-Presse on Thursday.

Faced with the increased Russian threat since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Germany has undertaken to modernize and expand its army, notably by introducing a new, more attractive military service, currently based on volunteering, through a bill to be presented at the end of August.

While the German army currently numbers around 180,000 personnel (plus 49,000 reservists), the government estimates the need at around 460,000, or at least 260,000 active soldiers and around 200,000 reservists.

At this stage, the government hopes to increase its workforce by relying on volunteers. If that weren't enough, the bill envisages mandatory conscription, which could only be activated if "the security situation" required it and the Bundestag gave its approval. Germany says it is drawing inspiration from the Swedish model, which reintroduced conscription in 2017.

"We are beginning the forced evacuation of families with children from the town of Dobropillia" and nine villages in the Donetsk region, in the east, very close to the front line, announced on Telegram its governor, Vadym Filachkin, who specified that "approximately 928 children are currently in these localities" .

Nearly 1,380 civilians are still in the town of Pokrovsk, an important logistics center for the Ukrainian army located in the same oblast, Mr. Filachkin stressed on Ukrainian national television on Wednesday, reports the Kyiv Independent on Thursday.

"This is a significant number of people," he said, while as of Tuesday, 487 people had already been evacuated from surrounding towns close to the front line. Mr. Filashkin continued by saying that the situation in the region is increasingly difficult, as Russian forces intensify their offensive, adding that "it is almost impossible to deliver humanitarian aid or drinking water in the current conditions."

The oblast governor added that almost all of Pokrovsk's shops have closed because the Russian military is bombing the city's access roads and controlling the territory with drones. "It is only thanks to the military's support that humanitarian aid can reach the population. The volunteer movement is no longer going to Pokrovsk," he said.

He also confirmed that a Russian sabotage and reconnaissance group had recently infiltrated Pokrovsk, adding that Ukrainian forces are "doing everything possible to locate and completely neutralize it." According to Ukrainian open-source data analysts DeepState, Russian soldiers managed to enter the city a few days ago . The Russian Defense Ministry, meanwhile, announced on Tuesday the capture of Novotoretske , about fifteen kilometers northeast of Pokrovsk.

Russia has intensified its attacks in the Pokrovsk area in recent weeks as it attempts to push into neighboring Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. At the end of June, Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky reported that Russia had amassed 111,000 troops near the city .

"How China continues to interact with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin will be a determining factor in our future relations," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned Thursday at the ^25th China-EU summit in Beijing.

"The more serious and complex the international situation, the more China and the European Union should intensify communication, strengthen mutual trust and deepen cooperation," said Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Faced with "instabilities," "Chinese and European leaders must once again demonstrate foresight and commitment, and make the right strategic choice (...) The current challenges facing Europe do not come from China. There is no fundamental conflict of interest or geopolitical disagreement between China and the EU," he added, according to the Xinhua news agency.

The bill approved Tuesday by Ukrainian MPs was adopted the day after the arrest of a head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), suspected of spying for Russia. It ends the independence of NABU and the specialized prosecutor's office, the SAP, "to rid [them] of Russian influence," President Volodymyr Zelensky had assured, before proposing a new text on Thursday. You will find further explanations in this article by our special correspondent Ariane Chemin:

Russian bombings have killed two people and injured 14 others in Kostiantynivka, a town in Donetsk Oblast close to the front, Serhiy Horbunov, head of the town's military administration, announced on Facebook .