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Ukraine war briefing: Strikes devastate Russian warehouses ‘used for drones’

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian long-range strikes hit two drone supply hubs in the Moscow and Tambov regions of Russia. Russian officials and news reports described them as warehouses of the online retailer Wildberries: one in the town of Kotovsk in the Tambov region, about 360km (220 miles) from the border with Ukraine, and another in the city of Elektrostal, about 50km (30 miles) east of Moscow. Zelenskyy said: “These facilities were used by the aggressor to supply sanctioned components for the production of drones and navigation equipment.” Elektrostal is a major centre for metallurgy and machine-building Zelenskyy said: “In response to Russian strikes on our civilian infrastructure and on our cities and communities, two major logistics facilities were hit – in the Moscow and Tambov regions.” The Tambov regional governor, Yevgeny Pervyshov, said seven night shift workers were killed at the warehouse in Kotovsk and 25 others wounded. Serhii Kuzan, a Ukrainian military analyst, told the BBC that Wildberries was a vital supplier to the Russian army of dual-use and sanctioned goods and electronics. One more person was killed and another wounded in a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s Belgorod region on Saturday afternoon, according to local authorities. Ukraine’s general staff said Kyiv’s forces hit a fuel depot in Noginsk that supplies the Russian armed forces. The military also reported hitting two tankers, two floating cranes and a tugboat in the Black and Azov seas, saying the vessels were used to transport oil, fuel and military cargo. Separately, the military said it struck a Russian Project 10410 Svetlyak-class patrol ship in Kerch, describing it as the second vessel of that class hit in two days, as well as a railway bridge over the Bila River near Sabivka in the occupied Luhansk region that it said Russia used for military logistics. Russian missiles hit Kyiv ⁠and the surrounding region early on Sunday, ⁠killing at ⁠least one person and injuring nine others as fires ⁠broke out across the city, officials said. Powerful explosions ‌rocked the capital ‌as Ukraine’s air force warned ‌of a ballistic missile threat. Fires broke out at a dormitory, a residential block and a supermarket, said the Kyiv mayor, Vitali ‌Klitschko. Several non-residential buildings and warehouses were struck, while parked cars and office buildings were set on ⁠fire. Two people were injured in the Kyiv region, ‌according to the military administration, and warehouses were damaged. Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Ruslan Kravchenko, said investigators had recovered key evidence in the case of the attempted assassination of the Ukrainian businessman Vadym Iermolaiev in Monaco. Specialists from Ukraine’s security services restored a surveillance-camera recording that suspects had allegedly attempted to destroy. According to the prosecutor general, the surveillance camera had been installed near the crime scene to obtain confirmation that the alleged contract killing had been carried out. He said the recovered footage was among key pieces of evidence in the investigation. Protesters have continued in Kyiv calling for the dismissal of Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, after Zelenskyy removed the popular defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov to placate Syrskyi. The Ukraine president defended his decision, saying there had been a “challenging dialogue” between Fedorov and Syrskyi. On the ground at one of the protests, the Guardian’s Luke Harding has filed a video report. Russia ⁠launched an attack ⁠on ⁠Ukraine’s Odesa port infrastructure on Saturday, ⁠hitting a vessel under the ⁠Antigua and ‌Barbuda ‌flag and killing ‌one person, said the regional governor, Oleh Kiper. Three people ⁠were injured, he added, while buildings, storage tanks and warehouses were damaged. North Korea’s foreign minister, Choe Son Hui, flew to Moscow for talks with her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, state media reported on Sunday. North Korea has sent missiles and munitions for Russia to use in its war against Ukraine, while thousands of North Korean troops have died on the frontlines. Analysts say that in return, Moscow is sending financial aid, military technology, food and energy to the pariah state. In April, the North Korean ruler, Kim Jong-un, pledged to help Russia win its “sacred” war. Botswana says an “alarming” number of its nationals are being forced into combat in Russia’s war against Ukraine after falling for deceptive recruitment schemes. Several African countries have said the same in recent months. Botwswana’s foreign ministry said: “The ministry continues to receive heartbreaking calls from Batswana already on the frontline, describing the perilous conditions they face.” In mid-February, the All Eyes on Wagner collective published the names of more than 1,400 Africans it said Moscow had recruited between January 2023 and September 2025 to fight in Ukraine, adding that more than 300 had died. The biggest contingents were from Egypt, Cameroon and Ghana. A Russian soldier was shown on video mocking African recruits as “disposables” before their departure for the frontline, where it is estimated that in some areas Moscow’s recruits survive only 20-35 minutes on average before being killed or maimed by drones.

Two US troops killed and one missing in Jordan after Iranian attacks

The US retaliated against Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) after two American troops were killed and one was missing in Jordan when Tehran launched a wave of attacks against US allies in the Middle East. Iran’s attacks came as the renewal of US strikes on Iran entered a second week and fighting escalated over the strait of Hormuz. The US military said on Saturday that it “targeted Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces that launched attacks against US service members in Jordan on July 17”. US Central Command said also hit were “Iranian military coastal surveillance and air defence facilities, maritime capabilities and missile and drone storage sites”. On Friday the US military said it had carried out the seventh consecutive night of strikes on Iran since Donald Trump declared their temporary ceasefire agreement “over”, while the signature of Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, was “worthless and invalid”. A statement attributed to Khamenei, who has remained unseen since the war began, warned of “unforgettable lessons” if the US continues attacks. Kuwait on Saturday accused Iran of targeting civilian sites and vital infrastructure in the country, such as a power and water desalination plant. Kuwait, which is extremely arid, relies on desalinated water for about 90% of its drinking water. The country was forced to close its airspace briefly as it intercepted Iranian missiles and drones, and said several Kuwaiti firefighters and a worker were injured while battling blazes sparked by Iranian strikes. Bahrain also activated its air sirens on Saturday, warning residents to shelter after it detected possible incoming drones or missiles, while Jordan’s state-run Petra news agency said that the kingdom’s air defence systems had downed Iranian missiles. The Iranian attacks on US allies in the region came in response to US attacks on civilian infrastructure including bridges and power facilities. The secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council condemned Iran’s attacks on Kuwait, saying strikes on civilian infrastructure amounted to “war crimes”. “Iran’s actions constitute a highly dangerous escalation, a grave violation of international law and the United Nations (UN) Charter, as well as war crimes requiring international accountability and prosecution, given the deliberate targeting of infrastructure and civilian facilities,” Jasem Mohamed al-Budaiwi said in a statement. Reports also indicate Iran targeted an oil facility in Kuwait, resulting in a number of injuries and “significant material losses”, the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation told reporters. “The repeated targeting of these vital facilities reveals a systematic hostile approach targeting civilian sites and vital infrastructure that endangers the lives and safety of civilians,” the foreign ministry of Kuwait said. Late on Friday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said two oil tankers directed by “deceptive American intelligence agencies” had exploded after hitting mines in the strait of Hormuz. The US military said that claim was false. The IRGC also said on state television they had “stopped” four ships trying to transit the critical waterway, and had destroyed at least two US fighter aircraft and three other aircraft during a missile and drone attack early on Saturday on a US base in Azraq, Jordan. A US military support centre at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait was hit and a US radar facility at Ali Al Salem airbase in the country was destroyed, the IRGC said. The IRGC also targeted a site in Bahrain where US combat aircraft were gathered at Sheikh Isa airbase and an intelligence datacentre, Iranian state media reported. US Central Command said that its strikes, which began at 7pm on Friday, were designed to “continue degrading Iranian military capabilities”. The US managed to hit Iranian “surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage, and maritime capabilities” overnight, US military said on Saturday morning. Iranian media reported explosions heard or strikes carried out in the cities of Sirik, Ahvaz and Yazd. US strikes have killed 50 people and wounded more than 500 since hostilities resumed, according to Iran’s health ministry. The country acknowledged there had been successful US “attacks on power infrastructure” for the first time on Friday when the Iranian energy ministry issued a call for people to use less power in southern provinces “experiencing extreme heat”. The ministry did not specify what was hit. Maj Gen Mohsen Rezaee, a senior military adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said Tehran will resume “full-scale offensive operations” if US strikes against it continue for another two or three days. “Iran will no longer limit itself to retaliatory, like-for-like responses … and no political border will be safe,” Rezaei said, according to the Iranian news agency IRIB.

Lashes, langers, bozzers and belly bachelors: a new book decodes Cork’s local slang

If Des MacHale had to nominate a favourite from the lexicon of insulting and inexplicable terms that comprise Cork slang, it would have to be “langer”. Depending on tone and context it can mean idiot, drunkenness or penis, a versatility that baffles outsiders and further enhances the word’s value. “Langer is an absolutely beautiful word. I’m very fond of it,” says MacHale. Hence its inclusion in the title of his new book, Langers & Lashes: A Compendium of Cork Slang, which bills itself as the most comprehensive collection of the crude, playful, savage and ingenious wordplay that inflects speech in Ireland’s second city. “It’s an extraordinarily rich area that most dictionaries avoid,” MacHale says. “It’s a very real phenomenon of language that hasn’t been taken terribly seriously until now.” In a foreword, the publisher, Mercier, said it had added explanatory notes to highlight some terms’ “historical context and outdated social views” and that inclusion did not imply endorsement. “By retaining these terms as artefacts of the past, we aim to encourage contemporary Cork speakers to embrace the city’s renowned wit while rejecting harmful stereotypes.” Sex, drink and religion are common motifs. A “premature ejaculator” – a term attributed to the late Cork actor and comedian, Niall Tóibín – is a fellow who must go to the gents after drinking only three pints. “Immaculate conception” describes drinkers who dodge paying their round. “Lash” is an attractive woman. Cork – known in Ireland as the rebel county and also the people’s republic of Cork – uses local slang more than other parts of the island, says MacHale. “Cork slang is very different from Dublin slang, and from Belfast, and from Galway. It’s much more extensive.” MacHale is an unlikely chronicler. The 80-year-old academic is from County Mayo and his background is not language but mathematics. “I’ve been here for about 55 years so I’m still regarded as a blow-in.” The University College Cork emeritus professor has authored dozens of books on puzzles and humour, including a book of Kerryman jokes that continues to sell 50 years after it was first published. “A mathematician likes to collect, classify and put things together,” MacHale explained. His Cork slang credentials are bolstered by having five Cork-born children, including the actor Dominic MacHale, who plays Sergeant Healy in the BBC sitcom Young Offenders, which is about hapless delinquents. For the compendium MacHale drew on two earlier books about Cork slang, which are no longer in print, and conversations with Cork residents. “Nearly everybody you meet has got a new word,” he says. “I’m not sure why but women seem to be a lot better at remembering the words and using them than men.” Under A, there is “all-a-bah”, a warning you give when someone is about to vomit. A person who is “all Gillette” is dolled-up. Brussels sprouts are “balls of the cabbage”. To be ill is to feel “like a small hospital” or to be “barely above ground”. A “wooden suit” is a coffin. “Bazz” is female pubic hair, not to be confused with “bazzer”, a cheap, self-administered haircut, or “bozzer”, an attractive person. To “be doggy wide” is to be very careful. A “belly bachelor” is an opportunist who cultivates friendships for free meals. To tell someone to get lost, you say: “bite the back of me bollix”. To “lob the gob” is to try to kiss someone. A “martyr for the quare thing” is someone with a strong libido. To “fertilise the stars” is to urinate in a field and to “raise the froth” is to urinate copiously. A “dullamoo” – derived from ag dul amú, Irish for getting lost – is an unreliable person and a “gedgemeen” is a small, unhappy person. Not all the terms were necessarily coined in Cork but are commonly heard there, said MacHale. “Tosser” – defined as a synonym for “langer” – made a controversial appearance in parliament this week. During a clash with the taoiseach, Micheál Martin, the opposition leader, Mary Lou McDonald, said: “Jesus, he really is a tosser,” a remark that entered the official Dáil record.

São Tomé and Príncipe heads to polls in tense presidential election

Voters in São Tomé and Príncipe go to the polls for a presidential election on Sunday as one of Africa’s least populous countries seeks to burnish its democratic credentials. According to the National Election Commission, about 142,000 people are registered to vote in the tiny African state’s elections, approximately 15% of whom live in the diaspora. Since gaining independence from Portugal in 1975, the island country off Africa’s west coast has built a solid reputation for peaceful, competitive elections. But this year’s vote comes amid a tense political atmosphere and a lingering constitutional crisis. The president, Carlos Vila Nova, is running for a second term as an independent, rather than as the candidate for the ruling Acção Democrática Independente (ADI), whom he represented when he was elected in 2021. The tensions between Vila Nova and his former party began in January last year when he dismissed the prime minister, Patrice Trovoada. Trovoada’s replacement, the former justice minister Ilza Amado Vaz, resigned after just three days, before the current holder, Américo Ramos, took office. On Sunday, Vila Nova will be running against four other candidates including the ADI parliamentary leader, Nito D’Abreu. Another former prime minister, Jorge Bom Jesus, attempted to withdraw his independent candidacy, but missed the deadline and remains on the ballot. The main opposition party, the Movement for the Liberation of São Tomé and Príncipe, is now part of a broad coalition backing the incumbent president, despite being staunch ADI opponents. Meanwhile, an ADI faction led by Ramos is backing D’Abreu. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, the election will go on to a second round. The businessman Domingos Monteiro, known as “Nino”, who has been president of the São Toméan Football Federation since 2015, was disqualified after the constitutional court ruled he did not meet the eligibility requirements. Monteiro was born on the island, but his parents never became naturalised citizens after moving from Cape Verde where they were born. “The constitutional court is violating the principle of equal rights … It is time for descendants born in São Tomé and Príncipe to say no to discrimination, to the culture of xenophobia and persecution,” said Monteiro. For voters, priorities include tackling government corruption, high inflation, severe youth unemployment, chronic fuel shortages, and frequent blackouts. Rivals of Vila Nova are hoping this will keep him from a second term and propel them to the presidency. Corruption in São Tomé and Príncipe “is the greatest catastrophe the country has experienced in this half-century [of independence”, D’Abreu said at the presidential debate on Tuesday. The country is seen as a trusted western ally for security and maritime trade in the Gulf of Guinea, one of the world’s biggest maritime piracy hotspots. It also has offshore oil deposits that make a significant contribution to its economy. Observer missions from the European Union, G7+ and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries are on the ground to monitor the polls.

Hungary’s president agrees to stand down after law change ends his term

Hungary’s president, Tamás Sulyok, has agreed to step down after signing a constitutional amendment passed by the ruling Tisza party of the prime minister, Péter Magyar. The amendment will end Sulyok’s term immediately, citing society’s “serious loss of confidence” in a leader elected in early 2024 by lawmakers from the former prime minister Viktor Orbán’s nationalist Fidesz party. Sulyok said he had no choice but to rubber-stamp the legislation as he respected the letter of the law. However, the former constitutional court judge warned that the reform had harmed the rule of law in Hungary. He said on Saturday: “The seventeenth amendment to the constitution has marked a watershed in Hungary’s constitutional democracy. “By removing public office holders in a manner that openly violates the rule of law … it sets a negative precedent that inflicts a deep wound on the constitutional values of democracy, the separation of powers and the rule of law.” The legislation was part of Magyar’s drive to dismantle Orbán’s bastions of power after ousting the rightwing leader in an election landslide in April. Orbán, who critics say weakened democratic institutions during his 16 years in power, criticised the reforms on Facebook. He said: “Tyranny is no longer a threat but reality. If this could be done to the president, tomorrow, no one will be safe.” Fidesz has faced a series of high-profile resignations and a decline in public support since its election defeat in April. Parliament, where Magyar’s centre-right Tisza party has a two-thirds majority which allows it to change any laws, will elect a new president who will serve until a new constitution takes effect or for a maximum of five years. After Sulyok signed the amendment, Magyar said the parliament speaker, Ágnes Forsthoffer, would assume the role of interim president from Monday. “With these decisions, we are restoring something that the Orbán regime spent many years trying to take away from the Hungarian people,” Magyar said in a Facebook post. “The certainty that power can be constrained, that public assets can be recovered and that the state can once again serve its citizens, frees Hungarian citizens.” The amendment also imposes a 12-year term limit on lawmakers and sets a retirement age of 70 for constitutional court judges, which will force the court’s current president, Orbán’s ally Péter Polt, to retire, Reuters reported. Magyar had repeatedly called on Sulyok to step down, accusing him of failing to represent national unity on major issues and of serving the interests of Orbán and his government.

Germany’s CDU parliamentary leader resigns after using surrogacy to become parent

A senior German politician and ally of the chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has resigned as parliamentary group leader of the Christian Democrat (CDU) party after he and his husband used a surrogate mother to become parents, a practice he has criticised in the past and his party is vehemently opposed to. Surrogacy is banned in Germany, a policy Jens Spahn refused to relax when he was health minister in 2020, so he and his husband, Daniel Funke, used a surrogate mother in the US. After writing, in 2015, that “as a gay man and a Christian I find it personally very hard to warm to the idea of a rented womb”, Spahn welcomed the child on Wednesday, telling the German newspaper Bild: “Georg is our greatest joy. This feeling is almost impossible to put into words.” The announcement immediately attracted criticism from people inside and outside the Christian Democrat party, with many levelling charges of hypocrisy at Spahn. “Politicians who set standards for others must be measured by them too,” Marion Rosin, a Christian Democrat in Thuringia and part of the Women’s Union, told the BBC. “If that credibility is gone, resignation is a matter of consequence.” Under the 1990 Embryo Protection Act, surrogacy in Germany is punishable with three years’ imprisonment or a fine, so many German couples opt for surrogacy pregnancies abroad. In February, when the surrogate mother of Spahn’s child was around four months pregnant, the Christian Democrats (CDU) voted to maintain the ban at a party conference. Spahn, 46, a prominent voice on the CDU’s rightwing flank who has been pushing for a more hardline stance on immigration, initially sought to defend himself in interviews with the media. He told Bild he had “wrestled with myself for a long time, including on the issue of surrogacy” before the couple decided to go ahead. But this failed to pacify his critics, including prominent members of his own party. “Jens Spahn is no longer tenable as chair of the parliamentary group and must resign,” Daniel Peters, the leader of the CDU in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, told the Bild newspaper on Friday. He added it was “completely unacceptable” for Spahn to vote one way as a senior CDU politician and then “act quite differently as a private individual”. Janosch Dahmen, a member of the Green party, also said the issue was about double standards and Spahn’s political credibility, not about his child. “Anyone who advocates for rules politically should be able to explain clearly why those rules apparently do not apply to them personally,” Dahmen said. As the calls for Spahn’s resignation mounted, Merz declined to comment on Spahn’s future in the party, telling reporters on Friday the issue would be discussed at the party’s next executive meeting. That day, Spahn told Bild in an interview: “One thing is clear to me: For me, and this becomes clearer to me every hour, there is nothing more important than my family.” On Saturday, Spahn resigned from his position in the party. “In recent days, I have come to realise that my personal happiness in starting a family with my husband and becoming a father is incompatible with my political office,” Spahn said. In a post on X, Merz described Spahn’s decision to resign as “right and inevitable. Credibility is the most valuable asset in politics,” he wrote.

Dismissal of Ukraine’s defence minister highlights wider issues for Zelenskyy

Volodomyr Zelenskyy’s abrupt dismissal of Ukraine’s youthful and innovative defence minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, at precisely the moment Kyiv appeared to be gaining advantages in several spheres of its war with Russia has exposed, not for the first time, a troubling flaw in the president’s leadership. The move, which has startled senior European officials and caused consternation, and demonstrations, in Ukraine, is all the more shocking given Fedorov’s role in pushing a clear strategy to prosecute the war, leveraging Ukraine’s rapidly developing technological advances in drone and missile technology. Aged 35 and appointed in January, Fedorov was feted by admirers for beginning to grasp several issues that have plagued Ukraine’s armed forces, streamlining military procurement and challenging systems prone to corruption, introducing competitive tendering, and seeking solutions to the army’s persistent recruitment and training crisis. Fedorov was also seen as one of the key drivers of Ukraine’s highly effective drone programme, beginning during his time as minister of digital transformation. A former marketing executive close to Zelenskyy, who had never served in the army, he grated with senior officers thanks to his casual style, freewheeling speeches and insistence on a data-driven approach to reforming Kyiv’s war efforts. “We will take all the data and see what works,” he said after his appointment. “Everything that works well will proceed.” That included a killing-for-points scheme designed to reward the most effective army units, which some in the military dismissed. In addition, Fedorov was credited with persuading Elon Musk to turn off unauthorised Russian Starlink access on the battlefield earlier this year, described by frontline troops as a significant advantage. Born in the year of Ukraine’s independence from Moscow, Fedorov is seen as part of a generation unencumbered by the experience of Soviet bureaucracy, in sharp contrast to the country’s 60-year-old military chief of staff Oleksandr Syrski, a graduate of Moscow higher combined arms command school, who began his career as an artillery officer. With hindsight, the conflict between the two men and their ideas about how to fight the war was inevitable: between an older – and old-school – general, micromanaging a bruising war of attrition against a more numerous foe, and Fedorov, with his tech-driven, more improvisational approach that appeared in recent months to be showing dividends. While bitter competition between key wartime leaders is hardly new, the failure, not least in the opinion of Fedorov and his supporters, has been in Zelenskyy’s handling of the rivalry, which had seen Fedorov request the removal of Syrski. “When the president said he did not plan to replace Syrskyi, I said I would learn to work with him,” Fedorov said at the press conference after his removal, suggesting the general sought to block the defence minister’s initiatives at every turn. “All the initiatives we proposed began to be blocked,” he added. “And he was not prepared to discuss any of the problems we have spoken about today personally, face to face and openly. “Instead of finding a way of defeating Russia asymmetrically – which is the commander-in-chief’s job – he’s found a way of splitting our country,” Fedorov said. Zelenskyy’s own parsing of the situation, at a joint press conference on Thursday with the outgoing British prime minister, Keir Starmer, was unconvincing as he appeared to complain that he was being asked “to choose between sides [when honestly] what I want most is unity”. All of which has led to inevitable suggestions that Zelenskyy and his circle – not for the first time – had sidelined someone seen as popular and a potential future political rival. “The decision,” an editorial in the Kyiv Independent said, “bears all the hallmarks of Zelenskyy’s tendency to dismiss top officials and commanders who get too popular, ahead of hypothetical elections that will never happen if Russia overwhelms Ukraine. “Forced to choose between the man who was turning the war of attrition around with technology and intelligent strategy on one hand, and the man who was sabotaging it with micromanagement and Soviet thinking on the other, Zelenskyy thought about it and chose the latter.” As demonstrations over Fedorov’s removal continued for a second day, the question now is what lasting impact it will have as a fifth defence minister is appointed in as many years. For Zelenskyy, it underlines again the fact that, impressive as he is on a global stage and as a wartime figurehead for Ukraine, he has struggled to assemble and retain a cohesive team of senior officials around him, balancing competing interests to ensure continuity in the war effort. While Russian military bloggers have celebrated the ousting of Fedorov, Zelenskyy’s move to appoint Yevhen Khmara as interim defence minister suggests that, despite the feud between Fedorov and Syrski, the emphasis on technology and long- and medium-range drone strikes is likely to persist. Khmara is a former head of the state security service’s Alpha unit, which has been heavily involved in drone strike operations. Zelenskyy has indicated he wants Khmara to push forward with a number of Fedorov’s key reform programmes. The question many Ukrainians find themselves asking, however, is whether anyone can genuinely be empowered to be effective in the role.