Russia Launches New Mass Airstrikes on Ukraine Ahead of NATO Summit in Ankara

According to Lianhe Zaobao citing AFP, Russia launched a new wave of large-scale airstrikes on Ukraine ahead of the annual NATO leaders’ summit, which is set to open Tuesday, July 7, in Ankara. A senior US official said President Donald Trump will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, July 8, to discuss how to end the war, and also plans to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin afterward. The report said Kyiv was hit early Monday, July 6, by Russian missiles and drones, killing at least 11 people and injuring 40 in Kyiv and the Bucha area. Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired 68 missiles and 351 drones overnight, and Ukrainian air defenses shot down or suppressed 37 missiles and 326 drones. Ukraine has also expanded long-range drone strikes on targets inside Russia and in Russian-occupied Crimea, including energy infrastructure, ports, and military facilities. After an attack on energy facilities in Sevastopol on Monday, the area experienced a temporary power outage. Russian officials said Ukrainian drone strikes the same day damaged the Baltic port of Vysotsk and Ust-Luga, one of Russia’s largest oil export ports. A Financial Times analysis cited in the report said Russian refineries have been attacked at least 194 times so far this year, about 10 times the level a year earlier, contributing to what it described as Russia’s most severe fuel crisis in decades. The report also cited a source saying Russia is unlikely to enter substantive negotiations before February next year, and that Putin has ordered forces to seize the remaining parts of Ukraine’s Donetsk region by year-end.