𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Russia and Ukraine have exchanged more bodies of their war dead, a Kremlin aide has said.

The swap was part of an agreement struck at the second round of peace talks in Istanbul in June.

Vladimir Medinsky, the head of Russia’s delegation at those peace talks, said in a statement on Telegram that Moscow had handed over the bodies of 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers and had received 19 bodies of its fallen soldiers in return.

The RIA state news agency reported, citing a source, that Russia plans to return the bodies of 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers and that the exchange on Thursday was the beginning of that process.

The warring sides have carried out a series of swaps of captured troops and the remains of dead soldiers since renewing peace talks in Istanbul in May following a gap of more than three years.

• Donald Trump has threatened to impose 100 per cent “secondary tariffs” on countries that continue to trade with Russia if a Ukraine peace deal is not agreed within 50 days.
• Industry experts warn that these proposed sanctions would be “extremely painful” for the United States and would cause a significant global spike in oilprices, leading to increased inflation.
• The tariffs would target major buyers of Russian oil, such as India, China, and Turkey, aiming to remove Russian oil, a crucial source of income for Moscow, from global markets.
• Despite the threat, experts express doubt that Trump will implement the tariffs in their proposed form, citing the severe economic damage they would inflict on the US and the global economy.
• An analyst suggests that closing existing loopholes in US sanctions, such as banning the import of oil products from refineries using Russian crude, would be a more effective way to diminish Russia’s war chest.

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Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said that the West was practically waging a full-scale war against Russia, so Moscow should respond in full, and if necessary, launch preventative strikes, according to reports.

“We need to act accordingly. Respond in full. And if necessary, launch preventative strikes,” Medvedev was quoted as saying by state news agency TASS.

Medvedev dismissed statements by Western officials that Russia could attack Europe as complete rubbish.

“Let me remind you that our president has unequivocally stated that Russia has no intention of fighting Nato or ‘attacking Europe’,” Medvedev said.

Medvedev, who now serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, is known for frequently issuing aggressive statements and empty threats towards the West.

Preparations are underway to quickly transfer additional Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine, Nato’s top military commander has said, as the country suffers some of the heaviest Russian attacks of the war so far.

“Preparations are underway, we are working very closely with the Germans on the Patriot transfer”, Alexus Grynkewich told a conference in the German city of Wiesbaden.

“The guidance that I have been given has been to move out as quickly as possible.”

Ukrainian forces have been engaged in 160 combat clashes on the frontline in the past day, the army has said.

Russian forces launched one missile strike and 78 airstrikes at Ukrainian territory, using two missiles and dropping 125 guided aerial bombs over the past 24 hours, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said.

The transformed nature of modern warfare is starkly evident to a weary Ukrainian platoon commander, medically evacuated from the front lines.

The skies above Ukraine now swarm with kamikaze, surveillance, bomber, and anti-drone UAVs.

These numerous, cheap, and deadly machines are considered by Kyiv to be a primary reason Ukraine can withstand advancing Russian forces this year and beyond, a view shared by a dozen Ukrainian commanders, officials, and arms manufacturers.

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Donald Trump’s threatened 100 per cent secondary tariffs on Russia, if imposed, would drive up oil prices worldwide, an expert on the Russian economy has warned.

“The main task for Western countries is how to reduce Russia’s revenue from oil sales without losing 5 million barrels [of oil] a day coming into the global markets,” said Alexander Kloyandr, a senior fellow at the Centre for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) and expert on Russian policy and economy.

“If you remove those 5 million barrels, then oil prices will spike,” he said, adding that if “oil prices are up globally, they will push inflation up”.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has named Yulia Svyrydenko as Ukraine’s new prime minister in the latest reshuffle of his cabinet.

Ms Svyrydenko, 39, has been serving as first deputy prime minister and economic development and trade minister since November 2021. She had been appointed to lead the revival of Ukraine’s struggling economy only months before Russia invaded in February 2022 and made her task more difficult.

Volodymyr Zelensky has said US president Donald Trump can end the war in Ukraine, something that his predecessor Joe Biden was not able to do.

“President Trump is giving Putin a chance to end this war. I really want to believe that he has given him this window of opportunity. And I really want to believe that if Putin doesn’t draw conclusions, president Trump will truly apply powerful sanctions that cannot be circumvented,” Mr Zelensky said in an interview to Newsmax.

He went on: “I do not want to criticise anyone. I am grateful to America for all the help in this war. America has supported us and I have always said we are grateful to the White House, grateful for the bipartisan support. It was there and I am grateful that it continues. But president Biden was not able to end this war. I am confident that president Trump can do it.”