The situation at a glance: Russia attacks Ukraine in front of meetings for ceasefire

Shortly before the planned negotiations on a limited ceasefire in the Ukraine War, Russia once again covered the neighboring country with violent attacks at night. The South Ukrainian port city of Odessa was the goal of a massive Russian drone attack. “Odessa burns, Russian drones meet civil objects in the city,” wrote the head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Andrij Jermak, at Telegram. There are injuries.

The Ukrainian public service broadcasting had previously reported more than 15 explosions in the city. Videos in social networks showed alleged impacts and fires. The electricity failed in parts of the city.

The Southeastsucrainian industrial city of Saporischschja was also attacked by drones. According to the state emergency services, at least five people were injured, including a child. Several residential buildings and cars caught fire.

Military -related blog: advances near Saporischschja and in Kursk

The Ukrainian military blog “Deepstate” reported on the night of Russian advances near Saporischschja and in the Russian area of ​​Kursk. Russia had repeatedly announced that they completely free the Kursk region.

The Ukrainian troops marched in at the beginning of August in order to put Russia under further pressure in its war of attack. Kiev troops brought dozens of towns under their control in the area close to the border, including the city of Sudscha. Most recently, the Russian troops had freed individual places again.

Ukraine has been defending itself against a Russian invasion for over three years. Both warring parties recently declared their fundamental willingness to do without attacks against the opposing energy infrastructure. Details of the possible agreement should only be worked out in Saudi Arabia when discussions with the USA on Monday.

Planned conversations about ceasefire

The Ukrainian President Wolodymyr Selenskyj had confirmed the planned talks during a visit to Norway. According to this, a “technical team” from Ukraine should travel to Saudi Arabia.

“I understand the structure as follows: there will be a meeting of Ukraine with America and – as the American partners said – counterpart diplomacy: then America with Russia,” said the Ukrainian in Oslo. The US special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, told the US broadcaster ABC that the talks could also take place in parallel.

The subject should initially be a ceasefire limited to energy systems. Such a ceasefire could therefore be the first step into a complete ceasefire and an end of the war. Both Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Selenskyj had already promised a temporary stop of attacks on energy infrastructure in the enemy country on calls to US President Donald Trump.

Macron invites “coalition of the willing” to a new Ukraine summit

France’s President Emmanuel Macron meanwhile invited to Paris for the coming Thursday for another summit of supporters from Ukraine. The aim is to complete work for the support of the Ukrainian armed forces in the presence of Selenskyj and to define the contribution of European armed forces to security guarantees for the country, Macron said at an EU summit in Brussels. It is about preventing another Russian invasion.

Macron continued to say that Ukraine needed credible support so that an armistice of the ceasefire, however, also holds in the future. That also strengthens your position in possible negotiations.

Floor troops from Great Britain and France?

The meeting in Paris is intended to build on progress that were achieved on Thursday at consultations at the military level in London. A good two dozen European and other countries had participated in them. In addition to state and government heads of European NATO countries, representatives of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Turkey have so far participated in the political level of the “coalition of the willing”.

The consultations deal with the question of whether and under what conditions European armed forces could contribute to their protection in the event of an armistice. Great Britain and France have generally been open to sending ground troops to Ukraine. However, they insist on protection by the USA in the event of an escalation.

EU wants to upgrade massively by 2030

Among other things, because of the ongoing Ukraine war, the EU wants to massively upgrade until the end of the decade. At their spring summit in Brussels, the heads of state and government of the Member States decided to provide everything to strengthen Europe’s willingness to defend in the next five years, as can be seen from a statement published in the evening. The background to the planning is that, according to the European Commission, the EU must prepare for the possibility of a large -scale war with Russia immediately. There were initially no new greater aid commitments for Ukraine at the summit.

Budget committee votes over billions for Ukraine

In Berlin, however, the Bundestag budget committee is to decide on a billion-dollar package for additional military aid to Ukraine today. The basis for this is a template from the Federal Ministry of Finance. The package is about an additional three billion euros for this year and up to 8.3 billion euros for 2026 to 2029.

Trump: are just about raw material deal with Ukraine

Meanwhile, the US President once again promised an early signing of an agreement on a strategic raw material partnership with Ukraine. “We will shortly sign an agreement on rare earths with Ukraine,” said Trump in the White House.

Shortly after taking office in January, Trump had made help for the Ukraine attacked by Russia to access to their stock of rare earths. The exploitation of raw materials in Ukraine is considered strategically significant and economically lucrative. A large part of the resources is also located in the Ukrainian areas occupied by Russia.