Ukraine-Russia war latest: Trump aide says Putin is suffering ‘staggering’ losses of 5,000 troops a week

Ousted Ukrainian defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov said he would accept no other government position besides his former job, escalating a political crisis that has gripped Ukraine at a pivotal point in the war with Russia.

Fedorov’s surprise dismissal this month had sparked rare wartime protests prompting president Volodymyr Zelensky to replace his unpopular top general with a respected younger commander.

Zelensky said on Thursday he had offered Fedorov several other roles, including vice prime minister for defence innovation, but has not indicated he would reappoint him to the defence ministry.

Fedorov said only the positions of president, military chief and defence minister could “actually shape the course of the war”.

“No other role carries the actual authority to combat procurement corruption, complete the army’s transformation, plan and execute asymmetric operations against the enemy,” he said.

Discussions between Zelensky and Fedorov were still ongoing, according to a source familiar with the matter.

“I think they will talk more,” the source said.

Shipowners have halted vessel arrivals at Ukraine’s Black Sea ports due to intensified Russian strikes, Kyiv said, as president Volodymyr Zelensky warned Moscow might escalate attacks in order to block the country’s main corridor for grain exports.

In recent weeks, Russia has pummelled logistics and port infrastructure in the southern Odesa region with missiles and drones.

On Sunday, a missile strike on a ship carrying corn killed 10 people, mostly foreigners, Ukrainian officials said. “Yesterday… not a single ship entered ​the ⁠port,” Zelensky told reporters on Thursday.

“They’ve been hitting all the ships. They’re going to step this up.”

Russia struck 28 civilian vessels and killed 21 people from 20 June to 20 July, according to Odesa regional prosecutors cited by local media.

Shipowners wary of the attacks have temporarily suspended vessel arrivals meant to pick up agricultural products at the ports, Ukraine’s agriculture minister Taras Vysotskyi said on Wednesday.

“Ukraine, as a state, has not imposed any restrictions,” Vysotskyi was cited as saying by Interfax-Ukraine.

Laura Loomer, an ardent ally of president Donald Trump with a reputation for incendiary social media commentary, sat down with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday after a dramatic turnaround on the war that could have political reverberations back in Washington.

Loomer had spent years minimising Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and amplifying Russian propaganda to her nearly 2 million followers. This week she had a change of heart.

“Just experienced my first air raid in Ukraine. Sirens blaring. This is everyday for every Ukrainian,” Loomer wrote on X during her visit to the country.

“I often said I don’t care. Looking back, that wasn’t very nice of me to say.”

“We need to have moral clarity,” she said.

Russia is losing upwards of 5,000 to 6,000 troops each week in its war on Ukraine, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said, called in a “staggering number”.

Rubio said the Russian war in Ukraine is one of the only wars in history where the number of troops killed in combat is exceeding the number of troops injured.

Reiterating president Donald Trump’s central objective, Rubio said the US wants “that people stop dying, that people stop being slaughtered.”

Trump, Rubio said, wants Ukraine to be able to “go on and live in peace,” allowing Ukrainians to return home and rebuild, while ensuring that “young Russians aren’t being killed at the tune of 5,000 a week in the battlefield.”

“We are prepared to play a constructive role in bringing about an end to a senseless war, we’re ready to do that, and we of course expressed that,” Rubio said, referring to a meeting he held yesterday with his Russian counterpart.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio said that the Trump administration is poised to help end the “senseless war” in Ukraine but acknowledged there is no quick path to a deal, saying diplomacy will require sustained effort and new ideas.

Rubio, who held talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in the Philippine capital, alluded to how US-mediated talks have stalled.

He called them “unsuccessful or at least unfruitful” in the past but insisted that president Donald Trump was committed to the work “if conditions and factors have changed to make that possible.”

“That’s been the challenge — an end that both sides can accept,” Rubio told reporters.

“We’ve tried and we’ll continue to try to see if we can, you know, find a middle ground that brings this about. And we’re prepared to play that role if the opportunity presents itself.”

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for talks where he was expected to renew the prospect of the US trying to broker an end to the war in Ukraine.

The US State Department offered few details about the meeting on Thursday in the Philippines.

“They discussed the US-Russia relationship and the need to end the Russia-Ukraine war,” a State Department spokesperson said in a statement.

Russia did not immediately offer a readout and Lavrov largely ignored shouted questions by reporters after he left the room.

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Volodymyr Zelensky has thanked the European Union for implementing the 21st sanctions package against Russia.

According to Ursula von der Leyen, the EU added 32 more Russian banks, crypto firms, and oil trading platforms to its transaction ban list.

The Ukrainian president said: “It is very important that pressure on Russia over the war it started – and refuses to end – continues.

“This package includes strong measures to curb Russia’s revenues, including Ukrainian proposals that have been taken into account. It is crucial to preserve our unity and keep up this pressure.”

The Venice Biennale would undermine its autonomy ​and freedom of expression if it bowed to European Union pressure to shut Russia out of its events, the foundation’s chairman said on Thursday, criticising the EU’s recent ⁠decision to cut funding.

Earlier this week, the EU said it had decided to withdraw a €2 million ($2.3 million) grant in response to the return of Russia to the Biennale’s arts exhibition this year ⁠for the first time since the ​2022 ⁠invasion of Ukraine.

“(The EU) was a fellow traveler with whom we shared part of a journey, and ⁠who is now leaving us for reasons that are entirely ​political, ⁠certainly not legal, and ‌still less cultural,” chairman Pietrangelo Buttafuoco said at the presentation of the 2026 Venice Film Festival.

The European Commission said the grant ‌was withdrawn because EU taxpayers’ money should ‌support initiatives that uphold the values of democracy and freedom, which it said Russia does not currently embody.

The Biennale, an international cultural exhibition hosted ⁠by Venice every two years, rejected that argument, saying art should remain a neutral space for dialogue. It also said the EU funding co-financed projects run by its cinema division that were unrelated to Russia’s participation in the art exhibition.

Boris Johnson has hit out at Andy Burnham’s decision to appoint Ed Miliband as foreign secretary, boldly claiming that the former Labour leader is to blame for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The former Conservative prime minister claimed Mr Miliband’s “failure to stand up to Assad” led “directly” to Putin’s first invasion of Ukraine, and said the Kremlin will be “delighted” with Mr Burnham’s appointment.

Sharing a Telegraph article criticising Mr Miliband’s new appointment, Mr Johnson wrote on X: “This is spot on. The failure to stand up to Bashar al-Assad – for which Miliband bears much guilt – led directly to Putin’s first invasion of Ukraine. An appalling choice for foreign secretary. The Kremlin will be delighted.”

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An Irish probe into a major alumina ​plant has found no “concrete or definitive” evidence its exports to Russia are used to make aluminium for weapons, but it has also been unable to ⁠rule it out, prime minister Micheal Martin said on Thursday.

Ireland is under mounting pressure over the Aughinish Alumina plant, Europe’s largest refinery of the aluminium feedstock alumina, which the facility continues to ⁠export to Russia.

Dublin commissioned the ​investigation, even ⁠as it defends a European Union decision to leave the plant, which is owned by Russia’s Rusal , ⁠off Russian sanctions packages. The government argues the refinery ​in ⁠southwest Ireland is strategically important ‌to EU supply chains.

“The investigation has not found concrete or definitive evidence linking the alumina to a weapons manufacturer ‌in Russia,” Martin told a joint press ‌conference with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky during a visit to Kyiv.

“That said, neither has it found definitive evidence that alumina may not be ⁠going to weapons manufacturers.”

Martin said the investigation is almost complete and would be shared with the European Commission once it is finalised.