Kyiv:

Several cities across Ukraine were recording historic scorching temperatures, officials said Wednesday, at a time when major urban hubs are suffering long periods without electricity after Russian attacks on power plants.

In the capital Kyiv, Ukrainians have been seeking respite from oppressive heat by swimming in the Dnipro river that cuts through the city, where some districts have been without power for hours at a time due to electricity rationing.

“This is the hottest summer of my life,” said 22-year-old Dmytro, who complained he had no electricity for about 20 hours a day.

Another resident, 18-year-old Diana, told AFP the temperature in her workplace was unbearable.

“Air conditioners don’t run at work when there is no power. This is how we are living,” she said.

A state meteorological station covering the Kyiv region said Wednesday that air temperatures one day earlier reached 36 degrees Celsius, beating by 0.2C a previous record for the same date set in 1931.

The Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center said historic records were set in Vinnytsia, Chernivtsi and Mykolaiv — cities in the centre and south of Ukraine.

The records come as the energy ministry has stepped up imports of electricity from European countries and imposed strict rationing due to Russian attacks that have halved Ukraine’s electricity generation capacity, compared to one year ago.

The ministry said Wednesday that with temperatures at their “maximum”, there would be rolling power outages across the country.

Electricity consumption is “also expected to reach a record level which significantly exceeds the capacity of Ukrainian power plants”, the ministry explained in a statement.

Last month, Kyiv urged officials to turn off air conditioners in government buildings and called on regional authorities to limit street lighting to ease pressure on the grid.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Kyiv:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that Russia should be represented at a second summit aiming to secure lasting peace with the Kremlin, after more than two years of war.

Dozens of world leaders voiced support for a just peace in Ukraine after a high-level summit convened by Zelensky last month in Switzerland, to which Russia was not invited.

“I believe that Russian representatives should be at the second summit,” Zelensky told a press conference in Kyiv, where he laid out preparatory work for a follow-up summit.

Zelensky announced separate meetings on key issues, including energy security, to be held in Qatar and on food security in Turkey ahead of a second summit.

Leaders and top officials from more than 90 states gathered at a Swiss mountainside resort on June 15 for the two-day summit dedicated to resolving the largest European conflict since World War II.

The Kremlin said that any discussions around ending the conflict that did not include Russia were “absurd.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced a historic donation of air-defence equipment for Ukraine and said Russia is failing in this war.

Welcoming leaders of NATO member countries for the historic summit on the occasion of its 75th anniversary, Biden said the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Romania and Italy will provide Ukraine with the equipment for five additional strategic air-defence systems.

In the coming months, the US and its partners intend to provide Ukraine with dozens of additional tactical air-defence systems, he said, adding that the US will make sure that when “we export critical air-defence interceptors, Ukraine goes to the front of the line”.

“They will get this assistance before anyone else gets it. All told, Ukraine will receive hundreds of additional interceptors over the next year, helping protect Ukrainian cities against Russian missile and Ukrainian troops facing air attacks on their front lines,” Biden said.

“Make no mistake, Russia is failing in this war.  More than two years into (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s war of choice, his losses are staggering. More than 350,000 Russian troops dead or wounded, nearly one million (10 lakh) Russians, many of them young people, have left Russia because they no longer see a future in Russia,” he said.

“Kiev, remember fellas and ladies, was supposed to fall in five days? Remember? Well, it is still standing two and a half years later and will continue to stand. All of the allies knew that before this war, Putin thought NATO would break. Today, NATO is stronger than it has ever been in its history. When this senseless war began, Ukraine was a free country. Today, it is still a free country,” the US president said.

Reiterating that Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine continues, he said the Russian president wants nothing less than Ukraine’s total subjugation to end that country’s democracy, to destroy its culture and to wipe it off the map.

“We know Putin will not stop at Ukraine, but make no mistake, Ukraine can and will stop Putin,” Biden said.

He said the war will end with Ukraine remaining a free and independent country. “Russia will not prevail. Ukraine will prevail. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a pivotal moment for Europe, for the transatlantic community and I might add, for the world. Let us remember, the fact that NATO remains the bulwark of global security did not happen by accident,” he said.

“NATO is stronger, smarter and more energised than when you began. And a billion people across Europe or North America, indeed the whole world, will reap the rewards of your labour for years to come in the form of security, opportunity and greater freedom,” the president said.

In his remarks, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said there are no cost-free options with an aggressive Russia as a neighbour.

“There are no risk-free options in a war. And remember — the biggest cost and the greatest risk will be if Russia wins in Ukraine. We cannot let that happen. Not only would it embolden President Putin, it would also embolden other authoritarian leaders in Iran, North Korea and China,” he said.

He acknowledged that NATO’s enduring success has never been a given, but is rather “the result of deliberate choices and difficult decisions” — from the alliance’s creation to arms control negotiations, and from NATO’s enlargement at the end of the Cold War to its support to Ukraine today.

“The time to stand for freedom and democracy is now, the place is Ukraine,” he said.

Stoltenberg concluded by saying that the alliance will continue to face difficult questions in the future, but that “we are stronger and safer together in NATO”.

Biden presented Stoltenberg with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’ highest civilian honour, in recognition of his decade of service at the helm of the alliance.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

People gather at Republique plaza in a protest against the far-right on July 3, 2024 in Paris
| Photo Credit: AP

French voters face a decisive choice on July 7 in the run-off of snap parliamentary elections that could see the country’s first far-right government since the World War II Nazi occupation — or no party emerging with a majority at all. In Sunday’s first round, the National Rally came first with an estimated one-third of the votes. The New Popular Front coalition that included the center-left, green and left forces polled close to 29% of the vote and came in second place, ahead of President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance.

If the National Rally or the Left alliance gets a majority, Mr. Macron will be forced to appoint a Prime Minister belonging to a new majority. In such a situation — called “cohabitation” in France — the government would implement policies that diverge from the President’s plan. The rise of a far-right party in France has not been sudden. When Mr. Macron was re-elected in 2022, his vote share did not increase in any department. In contrast, his challenger from the far-right National Rally Marine Le Pen’s vote share rose across the country, resulting in the far-right’s best-ever performance. More importantly, the rise of the Right in European politics is not limited to France.

Also Read | The far-right swing in European Parliament elections | Explained

In last month’s European Parliamentary Elections, right-wing and far-right parties achieved their best performance in the legislative body’s history. The far-right European Conservatives and Reformists Group and the Identity and Democracy Group together increased their tally from 118 to 131 seats in the Parliament, while the left-Greens’ seat share was reduced to 53 from 71.

Chart 1 | The chart shows the vote share secured by right-leaning parties in the national-level polls of the U.K. and select countries in the European Union. 

Chart appears incomplete? Click to remove AMP mode

The vote share of right-leaning parties is increasing at varying degrees of pace in each country. For instance, the vote share of the National Rally increased from just 4% in 2007 to 19% in 2022. The German party, Alternative for Germany, recorded over 10% vote share in the last two elections, with the Sweden Democrats vote share increasing from 2% in 2006 to 20% in 2022 in Swedish polls.

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Given that most such parties have an anti-immigrant stance, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Wednesday called for vigilance, citing narratives that dehumanise migrants and asylum seekers. One other impact may be on the nations’ views about NATO, and the ongoing-war between Russia and Ukraine.

Also Read | Comment: The spectre of neo-fascism that is haunting Europe

Polls by Pew Survey indicate that in some European countries, positive views about NATO and confidence in Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy have started to decline. In contrast, slight increases in favourable views towards Russia and confidence in Russian President Vladimir Putin were recorded across many European countries in 2024 compared to a year before.

Table 2 | The table lists responses to four questions — Q1: % who have a favourable opinion of NATO; Q2: % who have a favourable view of Russia; Q3: % who have confidence in Mr. Putin to do the right thing; Q4: % who have confidence in Mr. Zelenskyy to do the right thing. The percentage point change in 2024 from 2023 is also listed.

According to Pew Survey, in several European countries, people who have a favourable view of a right-wing populist party in their country see Russia and Mr. Putin more positively than people with unfavourable views of those parties.

Also Read | Turning inward: The Hindu’s Editorial on the rise of far-right parties in Europe

While their support dropped in 2022 and 2023, confidence in Russia and Mr. Putin has climbed back up in 2024 as shown in Chart 3.

Chart 3 | The chart shows the share who have confidence in Russian President, Vladimir Putin, among supporters of right-wing parties.

Note: This article appeared on the print version on July 4, 2024

Source: Pew Research Centre and ParlGov

Night attack on Russian positions. Ukrainian infantry on the zero line of the front in prepared trenches 100 meters from the Russian trenches on July 5, 2025 in the direction of Toretsk region, Ukraine.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

Russia on July 6 said its forces had captured a village in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, as Moscow continues to advance slowly across the battlefield.

The Defence Ministry said its troops “liberated the village of Sokil”, around 30 kilometres (18 miles) northwest of Donetsk city, the capital of the region by the same name that Moscow claimed to have annexed in 2022.

Also read | Russia says captured district of key Ukraine town of Chasiv Yar

Kyiv says the fiercest fighting across the entire front line is taking place in the Donetsk region, where Russian troops are trying to eject Ukraine’s forces.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday repeated his demand for Ukraine to totally withdraw from the region, along with three others in the south and east of the country, if it wants peace.

Moscow’s forces have made modest advances on the battlefield this year, pushing against Kyiv’s exhausted, outmanned and outgunned troops.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attend a joint news briefing, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine on July 2, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday to consider a ceasefire to accelerate an end to the war with Russia and also said he wanted a big cooperation agreement with Kyiv.

Mr. Orban, who is an outspoken critic of Western military aid to Ukraine and has the warmest relations of any EU leader with Russian President Vladimir Putin, held talks with Zelenskiy during his first trip to Kyiv in more than a decade.

In brief joint statements to reporters after the talks, Mr. Orban said he valued Kyiv’s push to promote Mr. Zelenskiy’s vision of peace at an international summit in June in Switzerland and its aim to hold a second, follow-up summit later this year.

“I asked the president to think about whether we could reverse the order, and speed up peace talks with making a ceasefire first,” Mr. Orban said.

“A ceasefire connected to a deadline would give a chance to speed up peace talks. I explored this possibility with the president and I am grateful for his honest answers and negotiation.”

Mr. Zelenskiy, who spoke before Mr. Orban, did not respond to those comments.

The Ukrainian leader’s foreign policy adviser, Ihor Zhovkva, later said in televised remarks that it was not the first time a ceasefire had been proposed and that Mr. Zelenskiy had responded to Mr. Orban with his publicly known stance.

He did not elaborate, but officials in Kyiv have often said Russia would use any let-up in fighting to regroup and strengthen itself for another, even larger attack on Ukraine.

In his statement to reporters, Mr. Zelenskiy touted the possibility of a broad bilateral cooperation agreement between Ukraine and Hungary.

“…the content of our dialogue today on all issues can become the basis for a bilateral document between our states, a document that will regulate all our mutual relations,” he said.

Welcoming Mr. Zelenskiy’s comments, Mr. Orban said Hungary would like to help in modernising Ukraine’s economy.

Ties between the neighbours came under heavy strain after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, with Budapest often opposing European Union efforts to support Kyiv.

Under Mr. Orban, who upset Western partners by holding talks with Putin last October, Hungary has repeatedly accused Ukraine of curbing the rights of roughly 150,000 ethnic Hungarians living in the far west of Ukraine.

Ukraine, meanwhile, is keen to secure Hungary’s backing as it relies heavily on financial and military support from the 27-member EU, where unanimity is needed for many decisions.

CHALLENGES

Mr. Orban linked Tuesday’s surprise Ukraine visit to Hungary having assumed the six-month rotating presidency of the European Council on Monday.

“The aim of the Hungarian presidency is to contribute to solving the challenges ahead of the European Union. That’s why my first trip was to Kyiv,” Mr. Orban wrote on Facebook after he arrived in Kyiv.

Last week, the EU opened formal membership talks with Kyiv at its summit in Brussels, giving Ukraine a morale-lifting boost, although a long and tough road still lies ahead before it can join the bloc.

Mr. Zelenskiy and Mr. Orban were filmed on the sidelines of that summit in what looked like an emotional exchange.

Last year, Mr. Orban told Mr. Putin that Hungary had never wanted to oppose Russia. In early 2024, it took the EU leaders weeks to break the Hungarian prime minister’s veto to extend 50 billion euros ($53.67 billion) in new aid to Ukraine.

Ukraine has denied Budapest’s assertion that it is restricting the rights of Hungarian speakers in western Ukraine but says it is open to addressing any concerns.

Kyiv passed a law in 2017 that required all schools to teach students over the age of 10 in the Ukrainian language. Hungary saw this as a breach of the ethnic Hungarian minority’s rights.

Some changes were made in December 2023 when the issue became critical for Kyiv’s EU accession talks. Budapest said the changes were an improvement but didn’t go far enough.

Rescuers work at a site of an apartment building hit by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Dnipro, Ukraine, in this handout picture released on June 29, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Russian shelling of front-line villages in eastern Ukraine killed four people while rescuers in the city of Dnipro dug through rubble after a Russian attack ripped through a nine-story residential building, leaving one dead, officials said on June 29.

The attacks came as Russia continues to stretch out Ukrainian forces in several areas along the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front. Moscow has stepped up airstrikes in a bid to drain Ukraine’s resources, often targeting energy facilities and other vital infrastructure.

The shelling of the front-line village of Niu-York in the Donetsk region also left five injured, said Gov. Vadym Filashkin. He said that Russian forces had shelled populated areas 13 times over the past 24 hours.

In Dnipro, at least one person died and 12 were injured, including a 7-month-old girl, after a Russian strike destroyed the top four floors of the apartment bloc Friday evening, regional head Serhii Lysak said.

Kyiv has also struck back at Russia with its own aerial attacks.

A Ukrainian drone strike killed at least five people in Russia’s Kursk region, local officials said Saturday. Two children were among the victims of the attack in the village of Gorodishche on the Russian-Ukrainian border, Gov. Alexey Smirnov said on social media.

In its morning statement, the Russian Defense Ministry said that six Ukrainian drones had been shot down overnight over the country’s Tver, Bryansk and Belgorod regions, as well as over the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. It did not give information on the reported strike in the Kursk region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the country had lost about 80% of its thermal power and one-third of its hydroelectric power in recent Russian strikes.

Discussing the attack in Dnipro, Zelenskyy said it was a reminder to Ukraine’s allies that the country needed more air defense systems. The Ukrainian air force said Saturday that it had downed 10 Russian drones overnight.

“This is why we constantly remind all of our partners: only a sufficient amount of high-quality of air defense systems, only a sufficient amount of determination from the world at large can stop Russian terror,” he said.

Ukraine on Saturday said Russia had launched a “massive” overnight attack on energy infrastructure in the west and south, adding that at least seven persons died in strikes elsewhere.

Russia launched 16 cruise missiles from land, sea and air as well as 13 attack drones, aiming at energy infrastructure in several regions, Ukraine’s military said.

Air defences downed all but four of them, it added.

The Energy Ministry said this was “the eighth massive, combined attack on energy infrastructure facilities” in the past three months, targeting the southern Zaporizhzhia region and Lviv in the west.

“Equipment at (operator) Ukrenergo facilities in the Zaporizhzhia and Lviv regions was damaged,” the Ministry said.

Ukrenergo said that two employees were wounded and hospitalised in Zaporizhzhia, where Europe’s biggest nuclear plant is located.

More than two years into the Russian invasion, targeted missile and drone attacks have crippled Ukraine’s electricity generation capacity and forced Kyiv to impose blackouts and import supplies from the European Union.

Ukrenergo said outages across the country would start earlier than usual on Saturday, running from 1100 GMT to 2100 GMT due to damage from the attacks.

In Zaporizhzhia, shelling over the last day also killed one civilian and destroyed residential buildings and infrastructure, according to the regional military administration.

Russia controls a part of the region and the nuclear plant. The Russian-appointed administration said Ukrainian attacks had damaged a substation linked to the city’s nuclear power plant but did not affect nuclear safety.

Maksym Kozytskyi, the governor of the western Lviv region, said Russia “launched a missile attack on a critical energy infrastructure facility”, sparking a fire that was later extinguished.

Ukrainian troops based in the west shot down seven out of 10 cruise missiles fired by Moscow, the Lviv regional governor said.

Five civilians were killed by Russian shelling in frontline areas of the eastern Donetsk region over the last day, the head of the region, Vadym Filashkin said.

Moscow is trying to advance in the area near the town of Pokrovsk, where intense clashes took place on Saturday, Ukraine’s military said, adding the situation was “under control”.

‘Crisis’ warning

In the southern Kherson region, a policeman manning a checkpoint was killed by a drone, the national police force said.

Russia’s defence ministry said it had hit 340 Ukrainian targets over the past day.

Russian attacks have destroyed half of Ukraine’s energy capacity, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Zelensky said this week that all hospitals and schools in Ukraine must be equipped with solar panels “as soon as possible”.

“We are doing everything to ensure that Russian attempts to blackmail us on heat and electricity fail,” he said Thursday.

DTEK, the largest private energy company in Ukraine, said Thursday that strikes caused “serious damage” at one of its plants.

DTEK chief executive Maxim Timchenko warned that Ukraine “faces a serious crisis this winter” if the country’s Western allies do not provide military aid to defend the energy network.

Zelensky has repeatedly urged Ukraine’s allies to send more air-defence systems to protect the country’s vital infrastructure.

Moscow:

Almost a year since Yevgeny Prigozhin sent his Wagner mercenaries marching towards Moscow in a rebellion against Russia’s military leadership, residents in the capital spoke of respect and admiration for the late renegade.

The mercenary chief died in a mysterious aeroplane crash two months after ordering the short-lived mutiny on June 23-24, 2023.

But despite mounting the biggest-ever challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s near quarter of a century in power, Prigozhin and his Wagner Group continue to command respect.

“He did a lot for Russia at a difficult moment,” said 60-year-old caretaker Alexander Ulyanov, calling the late mercenary boss a “great man”.

Wagner spearheaded some of the Kremlin’s longest and bloodiest military campaigns in Ukraine, including the fight for the mostly destroyed city of Bakhmut in the east.

“The organisation he created has an iron discipline,” Ulyanov said.

Prigozhin is alive “in our hearts,” he added, comparing him to historical generals like Mikhail Kutuzov, who led Russian soldiers during the Napoleonic Wars.

“If people remember him, he’s alive,” Ulyanov said of Prigozhin.

A former hotdog seller and convicted criminal, Prigozhin became acquainted with Putin in the 1990s, later running catering businesses that served the Kremlin.

Nicknamed “Putin’s chef”, his influence quickly grew as he won government contracts, eventually founding the Wagner Group in 2014 to support Russian paramilitaries in east Ukraine.

After his death, for which the Kremlin categorically denied responsibility, Putin praised Prigozhin as a “talented businessman” who made “serious mistakes”.

 ‘It was so scary’ 

In their quest to unseat Moscow’s military top brass, Prigozhin’s fighters seized Russia’s army headquarters in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don and shot down military aircraft.

They managed to march roughly halfway to the capital Moscow before Belarus mediated a deal to end the near 24-hour uprising.

“It was so scary,” said Svetlana, a 42-year-old English teacher who was in Rostov at the time. “I didn’t know where it would lead to.”

“He was probably right about something. But… the fact that during the special military operation, when hostilities were going on, he deployed and moved some troops to Rostov in particular — that was wrong,” she said.

But “Teddy Boy”, a 41-year-old American citizen from Los Angeles and member of the “Espanola” battalion fighting for Russia in Ukraine, praised the mercenary boss.

“I’m not 100 percent with him, but if I had met him, I would have shook his hand,” said Teddy Boy, who wore a military uniform and sported tattoos of pro-Russian army symbols.

“He spoke (about) a lot of things that people are thinking, that they’re too scared to say. That’s the problem. And I think that’s why a lot of people supported him.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Image for representational purposes only.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Russia resumed its aerial pounding of Ukraine’s power grid and Kyiv’s forces again targeted Russian oil facilities with cross-border drone strikes, seeking to curb each other’s ability to fight in a war that is now in its third year, officials said on June 20.

With no major changes reported along the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line, where a recent push by the Kremlin’s forces in eastern and northeastern Ukraine has made only incremental gains, both sides in the war have taken aim at distant infrastructure targets.

In its seventh major attack on Ukrainian power plants since Moscow intensified energy infrastructure attacks three months ago, Russia fired nine missiles and 27 Shahed drones at energy facilities and critical infrastructure in central and eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian Air Force said. Air defenses intercepted all the drones and five cruise missiles, it said.

The attack hit power structures in the Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv and Vinnytsia regions of Ukraine, causing “extensive damage,” according to national power company Ukrenergo. Seven workers were injured, it said.

Ukrenergo announced extended blackouts across the country despite electricity imports and help with emergency supplies from European countries.

Private energy company DTEK said one of its power plants was hit in the overnight attack but did not specify its location. Three company employees were injured and the plant’s equipment was severely damaged, DTEK said on social media.

Among the most damaging recent strikes on Ukraine’s energy supply were an April barrage that damaged Kyiv’s largest thermal power plant and a massive attack on May 8 that targeted power generation and transmission facilities in several regions.

Rolling blackouts have affected Ukrainian households and industry.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that the strikes aimed at Ukrainian energy facilities that are needed to produce weapons and military equipment. Ukraine, which is heavily dependent on Western military aid, is developing a small but fast-growing defense industry.

In Russia, meanwhile, authorities in two regions reported fires at oil storage depots after drone attacks, two days after a Ukrainian strike started a huge blaze at another refinery.

Ukraine has in recent months stepped up aerial assaults on Russian soil, targeting refineries and oil terminals in an effort to disrupt the Kremlin’s war machine.

The overnight drone attacks were carried out by Ukraine’s Security Service, known by its acronym SBU, a Kyiv security official told The Associated Press.

The attacks triggered fires at the facilities, which processed and stored crude oil and its derivatives used to supply the Russian army, the official said.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

The head of Russia’s Adygea region, Murat Kumpilov, said a Ukrainian drone attack sparked a fire at an oil depot in the town of Enem that was later extinguished.

The governor of the Tambov region, Maxim Yegorov, said an oil reservoir went ablaze at an oil depot there.

Krasnodar region Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev said a drone hit a private house in the town of Slavyansk, killing a woman.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defenses downed 15 Ukrainian drones over three regions but didn’t mention any damage. The ministry said it has shot down more than 26,000 Ukrainian drones since the start of the war.