Ukraine hits Russian railway bridges as brutal campaign continues | Russia-Ukraine latest war news

I'm Francis Sternly, and this is Ukraine, The Latest.Today, as Putin continues to make grossly exaggerated claims about Russia's gains on the battlefield, we assess the latest military progress of both sides before looking at the long -delayed and controversial defence investment plan finally announced by the British.More money for drones, autonomous systems, and AI.But does it go far enough?And how close is London to hitting the 5 % NATO target demanded by Donald Trump?Then we hear what the citizens of Kiev think about Ukraine being on the pathway to membership of the European Union.

It's Tuesday, the 30th of June, four years and 126 days since the full -scale invasion began.And today, I'm joined here in the studio by The Telegraph's Europe editor, James Crisp, and dialling in from Kiev, Antonia Langford.Later, you'll hear Dom's immediate reaction to the UK's new defence investment plan.But first, the updates.It was a mercifully quiet night for Ukraine, relatively speaking, with no missiles fired and only 154 long -range attack drones, with 138 intercepted by the Air Force.Once again, it's Kiev claiming more success in the past 24 hours, with President Zelensky posting on social media footage of drones hitting the Dubna Space Communications Center in the Moscow region, more than 500 kilometers away, which he claimed is used for reconnaissance and coordinating the activity of Russia's occupation contingent in Ukraine.

More details are also filtering through of other recent attacks in the past day or so, with Kiev confirming it struck three bridges, a military logistics warehouse, multiple drone command posts, and a military communications facility in a series of strikes that we've been reporting on.According to the General Staff, Ukrainian forces hit that significant road bridge near occupied Novorossiysk in Donetsk and two railway bridges in occupied Luhansk.As discussed yesterday, Putin has been compelled to acknowledge Russia'srelating to the war for the first time.But he continues to make greatly exaggerated claims that Russian forces are rapidly advancing in virtually all sectors of the front line.Credit to the Institute for the Study of War for comparing sector by sector Putin's claims versus the reality.

In an interview, Putin's been boasting about the battlefield successes in the fortress belt in Donetsk, including Le Mans, Slovyansk, Kramatorsk.Tursk, Konstantinovka, and Dobropillia.Specifically, the Russian forces have cleared a majority of Laman, advanced into Mikhailivka, east of Slovyansk, are about eight to nine kilometers from Slovyansk, and are four kilometers from Krematorsk.The ISW assesses that Russian forces maintain a presence either through advances or infiltrations in 4 .3 % of Le Mans, and that their forces have advanced roughly 12km from Mikhailovka, 19km from Slovyansk, and 14km from Krematorsk.So nowhere near Putin seems to believe.Russian forces are increasing pressure on Konstantinivka, as we've been reporting now for several weeks, with infiltrated troops still present there, but its fall is not expected to be imminent.

How's this for a statistic?Russian forces advanced an average of 3 .79 square kilometres per day in June this year, compared to an average of 16 .65 square kilometres per day in August 2025.Now, 16 .65 was hardly a favourable statistic to begin with, but Ukraine has managed to slow any Russian progress down almost to a standstill.Zelensky underscored that Russia has now postponed its target date for fully capturing Donetsk 15 times since the invasion.If Putin wants to sacrifice another million of his soldiers to keep smashing against this wall, Zelensky said, then the million Russians who have not yet been mobilised into the Russian army and are arguing in gas lines should think about what awaits them next.Now another interesting snippet out of Kiev

this time from military intelligence, is that the army has revised its estimates of the number of North Korean casualties in the Kursk incursion in 2024 -2025.Still one of the most remarkable operations of the war, not least because of how the Russians used Pyongyang's forces as cannon fodder to stall the Ukrainian advance, bringing an ally's army onto European soil.South Korea and British intelligence had estimated 6 ,000 casualties, but the new figure from Keeve puts it as high as 7 ,000.Now, speaking of British intelligence, or lack thereof, this morning saw the long -delayed defence investment plan setting out the government's defence priorities for the next decade, unveiled by the outgoing Prime Minister, Sakir Starmer.Suffice to say, this matters far beyond these shores, with implications for European defence more broadly.Dom's been working through the detailed plan this morning, and we'll hear a clip from him shortly, offering a few reactions on our sister podcast, Iran The Latest.

But before that, let's hear how Armour framed it.

understand that the ability to innovate and produce at speed and at scale is more vital than ever to military power, and that AI will accelerate this transformation even further.

Indeed, it seems that drones are at the heart of an additional £15bn for defence.over the coming years, with a major shift in military strategy towards that technology plus autonomous systems and artificial intelligence.The package includes £5 billion for drone capabilities specifically, plans for Europe's largest drone testing centre and new domestic production initiatives.The government will also invest in long -range missiles, armoured vehicles and counter -drone defence systems, alongside £500 million for new technologies for commandos and special forces and £150 million to strengthen Britain's defences against AI -enabled threats.The Telegraph's Deputy Political Editor Daniel Martin got to ask Keir Starmer a question.

I've got Dan Martin from the Daily Telegraph.Dan.

Thank you, Prime Minister.How can you present this defence investment plan at the NATO summit when you're Prime Minister in name only?And also, Donald Trump wants you to meet this 5 % target of GDP by 2035.Do you think that's possible for the UK, and what will you tell him at the summit?

Well, I spoke to President Trump just two weeks ago when we were at the G7 together at great length about a number of issues, particularly the conflicts in Ukraine and the conflicts in Iran.And actually, a very strong statement on Ukraine was put out from the G7, as you will have seen, showing the unity of that group of countries.This is additional investment today on top of the highest sustained increase since the Cold War, since the 1980s.I talked through Mark Rutter, the Secretary General of NATO, talked him through this yesterday, talked to him very frequently on the phone as well as in person, have a very good relationship with him.He is very welcoming of what we are doing here today, because he knows what a contribution it makes to NATO.He also appreciates, and we must never lose sight of this, of the huge contribution that the UK makes to NATO, not just as a leading advocate, a member of NATO,

that And I'm very proud that we do that.So I'm proud of that work.I'm glad.On the 5 percent commitment by 2035, today takes us to 4 .2 percent towards that target.I will be very pleased to report that back to colleagues at NATO next week.

They will be very pleased to discuss this with us.Our senior producer on Ukraine the Latest, Lillian Fawcett, was in the room as well to hear the PM's speech and afterwards she managed to grab Lieutenant Colonel Dan Wake, the UK Commando Force's Uncrewed Systems and Autonomy Lead, to give his thoughts on how the British Army is learning from the Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Forces.

ago, moving away from traditional amphibious capability to operating in smaller dispersed teams, adopting technology at an increased pace.And so lessons we're seeing has validated some of those decisions made ahead of 2022.But the key thing about specifically about drones is we can now bring platforms into service, bring them to use, whether that's for surveillance reconnaissance, logistics support, or delivery of lethal effect.And we can do that in places that otherwise we wouldn't be willing to take the risk.So you don't need to take the risk if you're not putting a person there.And that not only does that sort of just reduce that risk, you can do that at a more dispersed, you can do that in a more dispersed way.

You can increase the frequency of doing so.And providing that youconnected these platforms with human decision makers and that's where a lot of our investment has been you can increase that decision -making cycle and therefore achieve operational advantage against your adversary and that's exactly what the Ukrainians are doing and that's what we've been doing for the last few years.

Now, Starmer claims the investment would make the British Army 10 times more lethal.However, the plan has already drawn criticism.Defence experts and military chiefs had reportedly argued that between £18 billion and £28 billion was needed, meaning the £15 billion package falls way short of those recommendations.Most critically, though, it leaves the government far short of its wider NATO commitments.Starmer acknowledged that the UK would not reach the alliance's target of spending 5 % of GDP on national security by 2035.He claims that the investment plan published today takes us to 4 .2 % of our GDP on defence spending.

But here's Dom's reaction to that claim.

4 .2%.That sounds quite impressive.It does.

I mean, it's great, isn't it?

Yeah.

Until you dig into it.

Right.

So the 1 .5 % NATO commitment on defence -related infrastructure, one of the first things that happened when NATO announced that was that Italy said, we're going to build a bridge to Sicily.And they had their knuckles wrapped and sent to the naughty step for a little while, because that's not defence -related infrastructure.However, this spectre of, if ever there's a rug to sweep all this mess under, it's the 1 .5%.And that, I think, is what's happened here.So let me just remind you, you've seen the prime minister's statement.But he said just this bit here.

At last year's NATO summit, I committed to spend 5 % of GDP on our wider security, covering things like energy security, and critical infrastructure, as well as defence.The defence investment plan published today takes us to 4 .2 % under that commitment.So the words there, under that commitment.So I'm looking, I immediately saw alarm bells going.I'm looking at energy security and critical infrastructure.Hold those thoughts.

So the defence, let's say defence at the moment, we spend about £62 billion on it, which is circa 2 .4%.Total government spend of about £2 .6 trillion.So just rough maths, 4 .2 % that Keir Starmer says we're going to be spending on defence amounts to about £110 billion in today's money.So we have to find 48 billion from somewhere for this statement to be accurate.The only drones really that we talked about, you mentioned the Apaches earlier on.Apache is going to get loyal wingmen of 24 drones.

When I first saw that, I thought that was a typo.Genuinely thought it was a typo.24 drones to operate alongside Apache.24?I mean, Ukraine are building 24 ,000 drones a day, right?That's the numbers.

Because most of them are 3D printed, quick software upgrade, off it goes.hits Russian EW jamming, electronic warfare jamming, flies into a tree.That happens a hundred times.Ah, but five get through and go and smash into an oil refinery.It's, you know, mass is back.The 20th century hasn't gone away.

Mass is back.And we're talking about buying 24 drones for the Apache fleet and 24 drones to replace Watch Keeper.Watch Keeper was a failed army program.They were going to buy 56 quite large drones.And they were going to be fantastic.Electronic surveillance and signals intelligence and all this kind of stuff.

Trouble is they were too clever.They just didn't work.Something was always breaking.So the program was canceled.And we haven't really learned the lesson.In fact, we've gone even worse.

We're replacing 56 Watchkeeper with 24 something new.

And you can hear more from Dom on the rest of that episode of Around the Latest.We'll add a link in the show notes.Asked about criticism that the package doesn't go far enough, including from President Trump, Sakhir defended his decisions.

Of course, I huge respect those with great experience and great service.There will always be people whothose that say, whatever the sum is, frankly, it's not enough.Whatever sum I'd announced this morning, there would always be somebody who says that's not enough.I have a job as Prime Minister to get this judgment right in terms of the amount of money that is spent, the capability that we need as a country, and that is why I'm 100 % confident in the plan that we've put forward.

It's worth bearing in mind that it was Defence Secretary John Healey's resignation over all of this which almost certainly expedited the Prime Minister's downfall.The question is, will the incoming Prime Minister, almost certain to be Andy Burnham, make any changes to it?Speaking of European defence plans, Ukraine is making progress in negotiations with France on licensing to produce long -range weapons, including Scalp missiles.That comes from Kyiv's Defence Minister Mikhail Fedorov in a press conference yesterday alongside his Danish counterpart.France's Scalp cruise missiles, you'll recall, are the equivalent of the British Storm Shadows, with a range of up to 250 kilometres.Ukraine and Denmark focused, we understand, on drone cooperation agreement and expanded efforts to strengthen anti -ballistic capabilities.

This is all connected to the gradual weaning off dependence on US weapons, as you all know.And one final update, in case you've seen this headline, one of Ukraine's richest men has been injured after a bomb detonated in the lobby of a residential building in Monaco.Vadim Emolov, who is sanctioned by Kiev, sustained life -threatening injuries from the explosion at around 9pm last night.His partner is believed to have lost both feet in the blast.The attacker was seen fleeing on foot to France after detonating a suspected parcel bomb inside the lobby of the property, according to Monaco's prosecutor general.A manhunt to locate the suspect is ongoing.

Monaco is calling it a terrorist attack, and there's no evidence that it's connected to the war.But nonetheless, given the string of assassinations over the years of powerful Ukrainians and Russians, we'll have to continue to monitor it.But let's return now to one of the big issues of the moment as we leave firmly behind.to monitor it.very much the issue of the moment, which is Ukraine trying to become a member of the European Union.We heard on Friday, the EU's ambassador to Kiev in an interview with Adelaide, give the EU's perspective.

But let's start with the voices from Kiev itself.And Antonio, you've been chatting to Ukrainian citizens on the ground over there.Is there anything you want to say to introduce this?I mean, how comfortable are people talking to journalists about this topic?

Well, I think Ukrainians are often very candid with international press.And in this instance, I think what I felt was a kind of palpable fatigue around this question of membership negotiations.And people are more comfortable, I think, very naturally speaking to the emotional arguments behind this than to the political.But of course, we have Independence Square, Maidan Nezalezhnosti.It's a really evocative venue for exploring that question.It's got both exhibitions dedicated to the Euromaidan on the one side and a memorial to fallen soldiers in the current war on the other.

And that was referenced by a lot of the Ukrainians I spoke to, who sort of said that Ukraine has earned its membership with, you know, blood and tears and that joining the EU should be seen as a right for Ukrainians, not a favour bestowed on them.

Well, let's hear some of those voices now.

One part which makes European Union important is the diversity.I mean there is no single country called European Union.There are a lot of countries which are united by common values and rule and Ukraine should fight, I don't know, it's fighting already but it shouldpush their own agenda, their own position the same way as any other European country.

It's important for Ukrainians, first of all, because we are still fighting and we never stop to feel like we come back home and it's our trip to Ukraine.our return to our home I think because if we talk about returning home it's like very hard process because you must change your mind, change your mindset, change your rules, laws, legislation and but if we had like this histories, war, lot of revolutions always want that it's like a long trip to where another brain is kind of a shield for Europeans.

And thanks for recording those, Antonia.James, bringing you in here.So, I mean, this has been an ongoing issue.I know we've had you on the podcast previously talking about this.Perhaps you can just remind us, first of all, about some of the controversies around this from the EU's perspective.own members.

Ukrainians are dying, Soviet Europeans don't have to.There is a sense of gratitude towards that.But that doesn't mean that EU capitals are willing to rip up their membership rulebook.Far from it, in fact.And we've seen that demonstrated quite clearly at a recent European Council summit, where the conclusions were actually watered down.They originally were saying, you know, we want progress to be made as soon as possible.

That was taken out.Now, that might seem like a very small tweak in language, but when you're involved in the Kremlinology of this kind of 27 -member bloc, you know, those do sort of Those are sort of quite important signals, especially because just a couple of days before, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz had written an open letter saying we should investigate associate membership for the EU, where they would have observers and try out new and different things.He basically got quite a sort of a stern slapping down from the other capitals.Joining the EU is really hard.It's even harder, believe it or not, Francis, believing it.Don't remind us the trauma of those days.

Exactly.So look, it can take comfortably 10 years to join the EU in normal circumstances.Now, Ukraine is not in a normal circumstance.But in some ways that could play to its advantage and enable it to join quicker.But in other ways, it throws up a whole new suite of problems.No one knows where Ukraine's borders are going to be.

How are you going to be part of a single market where you don't know where that ends?Especially when you're talking about all of the rules that are part of a single market.That means you've got to have checks.It's potentially a nightmare.Then there's the cost of reconstruction, which I think is something like £445 billion.you're asking the other 27 members to contribute to that in quite a big, well, in a significant way.

Beyond that, there are things called cohesion funds.This is basically money, which is designed, EU funding designed to bring poorer regions of the EU up to a similar standard of living.Now, back when we were members, you might have things like that in certain areas of, for the sake of argument, Birmingham, certain areas of London, where, you know, they would get specific funding in order in deprived areas.Well, you know, And frankly, there's huge areas of Ukraine which would qualify for that.Where's the money going to come, come from, you know, that is a particularly huge problem when so many European governments are struggling to find room in tight budgets with soaring cost of living.It's also the agricultural subsidies, one of the big, sort of, almost totemic aspects of EU membership.

And one of the main Hungarian objections.

Well, indeed.I think the problem would be that, you know, agricultural subsidies are judged by acreage.Ukraine is huge and has huge acres of fields.Now, that is, by the way, A headache, right?It would probably mean the rules have to be reformed slightly.But it is also an asset to the EU, right?

And there's recognition.People I've spoken to while researching this story did say, yeah, look, a lot of this is difficult.But we're in a new world of power politics, size matters.Yes, the huge agricultural sector is an issue, is a challenge.But it's also a major asset.You know, this is sort of once the breadbasket of the world.

And then you've got Ukraine's defense industry, which is, you know, a very attractive prospect for the EU.You have, it's, but I think it's the largest military or certainly the most battle hardened military in Europe.You have European governments who are desperate to rearm and who are desperate to want the kind of the expertise in areas like drones, as we were hearing earlier.So, you know, there are, there are a lot of temptations, I suppose if temptations is a bit of a correct term, there are a lot of advantages that you can can offer but there are also a huge amount of challenges.I think one of the biggest problems is that the entire country will have to take on huge amounts of European law.You have to get that onto your law books.

You have to align with the European single market laws.You need to bring in a lot.There will be a desire to have a lot on anti -corruption and there will be a desire for safeguards on rule of law issues.You know, people, one guy said to me, look, we all love Zelensky.But what happens after Zelensky goes?What's the next guy going to be like?

You know, they don't want another Viktor Orban.They don't want someone who could slide into authoritarianism.They want as many guarantees as possible that they know what kind of country will be part of their bloc.I think that freedom of movement issue will also be an issue for many capitals.We're not in a situation where Migration even sort of European migration is a vote winner in You know almost the whole of the EU and there will be fears But you know there would be a sort of mass exodus of people looking to work in the EU And that must be a concern for the Ukrainians as well absolutely as a sort of a brain drain Really and would that then hamper the kind of a reconstruction of the country?I mean, look, a lot of these issues can be finessed by transition periods.

I don't think that, you know, they are insurmountable, but they don't lend themselvesto quick decision making.Now, if we think back earlier this year, there was some expectation that a peace deal might be close.And, you know, part of that peace deal was meant to involve the EU, Ukraine joining the EU in 2027.Now, that would be totally, totally unprecedented, you know.So, you know, they were brainstorming different ideas.

Different ideas were being floated about what could be done.One was sort of termed reverse enlargement, which basically is membership in name only.You get the membership in a name, and then you have the rights and obligations filled in afterwards.As soon as it became clear that that was not going to happen, that there was not going to be a peace deal, there was quite a strong backlash against that.The European capitals, most of them do not want to tear up their rulebook.If they do do anything special for Ukraine, the same treatment will be demanded by the six Western Balkan countries that are waiting to join by Moldova, which wants to join.

Iceland has a referendum on EU membership coming up in August.You know, some sort of waggish friends of mine back in Brussels would say, well, you know, even even you might ask for some of this sort of special cherry picking.So there are lots of different sort of political factors at play.I would say that if, you know, how they work it out, the EU's quite good when it comes to a crisis, when the pressure's really on, of finding a last minute fudge, finding some way of, you know, keeping the show on the road.I would predict if there was to be a peace deal, which I don't see happening anytime soon, but if there was, the pressure would then be on Brussels to solve this problem.Until that problem, until that pressure is applied,

I think we'll see things going in a very traditional way.The Ukrainians have been very clever, by the way, and have actually started front -loading a lot of the reforms.Before these clusters were opened, they had already made the changes, because they want to do this as quickly as possible.And that's something that Zelensky made quite clear at the European Council Summit as well.So look, it's not going to be easy.In some ways, it's also highly technical.

It involves opening up your finances to effectively a foreign power and having men pour over it and they will pour over it because you know this is their last chance right when you're a member you can start to call the shots effectively you know you are one of the you know you're a member of the club and the commission men work and the size of Ukraine means they're gonna have a lot of power well yeah I mean the population will It could sort of shift the power balance in the EU considerably, you know, in certain cities, because basically voting rights in the EU are based on population, qualify majority for population.So that is a factor which some capitals won't be happy about.But then you've also got the wild card element.So, you know, The reason these formal membership negotiations hadn't begun sooner was because Viktor Orban had vetoed the clusters being opened because he wanted his mad sort of election lies that Zelensky and the ultimate victor, Peter Magyar, were in cahoots trying to drag Hungary into the war in Ukraine.OK, now that the reason the clusters are now open is because Peter Magyar is in place and he wants Brussels to unfreeze money, EU money that was frozen during Orbán's rule on rule of law issues.So he has done that.

That doesn't mean that every single Hungarian suddenly loves all the Ukrainians.You know, Magyar is still a conservative.He is an ex -Fidesz member.You know, he is definitely far warmer.Magyar There was talk around the summit, but one of the reasons why this was watered down, some of the conclusions was watered down, was one, kind of a reality check to the Ukrainians, you know, this isn't going to be easy.Another thing was, well, you know, the Hungarians could do the clusters, but they felt going too much further might blow back in their face.

The other problem is that when people are telling you stuff like that, The Hungarians have been the bad guys for a long time.So it's quite easy to use them as cover, when in fact, you just want to make sure that you're getting, you know, when you're signing up to basically reconstruct a country for decades and decades, that you're getting what you signed up for, that due process is being done.So, you know, outwardly, They love the Ukrainians.They want the Ukrainians to be part of Europe.If you see an Ursula von der Leyen speech, she'll wear the colours of the flag.She'll say all of this.

But they always stress it has to be a merit -based approach.And, you know, I still think it's going to be quite a long road.

Well, thank you very much, James, for talking us through that.I'm into that.point about the fact that we're having this conversation speaks to these tensions, but also it does speak to the fact that there has been progress over the last few years.Huge progress.Huge progress.I mean, Marta Kos, I'm just looking at some quotations here, the EU's enlargement commissioner said last week, no country has ever achieved such progress on the path to accession while fighting Russia's most brutal atrocities on its territory.

It's worth remembering that.I have one other question before I go to some other stories from Antonia, because there's been some other interesting developments in the last 24 hours or so.But there's also been a lot of talk, James, and I've been talking about it on the podcast about this sort of affiliate membership of theEU, or this idea that one might be able to be a member of certain aspects of the EU, not the entire thing.And this might be the way of getting Ukraine a symbolic EU membership, but not full membership, and this being relevant to other countries.I mean, where do you stand on the likelihood of that and the opportunities of that?

Or do you think that that's really a non -starter too?

I think until there's a peace deal, it's a non -starter.I think until there's a peace deal, it's a non -starter.been talk for many, many, many years about the idea of multi -speed Europe.We've had talk of the inner rings and outer rings of Europe.But I think one of the problems is that if you go down that route is that you're creating a second class tier of membership.and I think that will make some countries unhappy.

Some of those countries who may have come in in the Big Bang will have a kind of instinctive, sorry, by the Big Bang, I mean the 2004 large enlargement of the EU.Many new members.Many new members, especially in Central and Eastern Europe.They will always have a bit of a chip on their shoulder, but they're seen as kind of Arab -Eastern and a bit of a, I think the idea of creating tiers of EU membership is politically difficult.It works on the basis of, you know, a country has a commissioner, a country has a say.If you start taking those rights away, some people will think, well, they might start trying to take them away from us.

So I think just by the way the bloc operates, it would be complicated.That doesn't mean it can't happen.It just means I think it's less, it's less likely.I mean, I think the fact that Mertz came up with his whole idea of this special letter, you know, it's another example of the German Chancellor trying to grasp the bull by the horns and show European leadership and, frankly, his reverse Midas touch kicking in and it kind ofblowing up in his face you know he's increasingly he reminds me more and more of Keir Starmer every day.

Interesting, well we'll come back to Sakir in a moment but while we've got you Antonio there are some other stories that you've been looking into for us and I've just got a question for you first start by asking though, just your general sense of reaction there in Ukraine for the last week or so's extraordinary attacks that the Ukrainians have delivered against Moscow in particular.Have you felt a sense of a morale shift over there, Antonia?

Yeah, I mean, in short, I think there's absolute jubilation here.Of course, everyone is very glad about it.And I think that's been kind of emphasized by the fact that we haven't really had any attacks here recently, over the past two weeks, it's been very quiet for us.Obviously, we're hoping that Russia isn't using that time to stockpile missiles, although that is the most obvious explanation.But For now, I think everyone is certainly very happy about it.It's been a huge morale boost.

Now, you've been looking into the story, which, of course, is a perennial thing, but this is particularly interesting in the present context, the size of the official security force.Can you tell us about what this is?

Yes.So there is news from Russian independent media that Putin plans to expand the central office of the Federal Protective Service, the FSO, which is the body tasked with protecting top Russian officials, including Putin himself.This will mark the fourth expansion of the service since the start of the full -scale war, after 13 years prior to the full -scale invasion, where its numbers were unchanged.And obviously, it comes after months of reports of tightened security surrounding the Russian president.You most likely remember reports of new outlandish protocols for his kitchen staff, bodyguards, and his inner circle of officials, including a ban on wearing wristwatches, which a European security dossier attributed to increased fears of a coup or possiblean assassination attempt.

Now, it's an ongoing conversation in relation to Ukraine and how it's bringing its veterans into government and into society.But this is also a question for the Russians, too.And there's another story that you've been looking at in relation to that, Antonia.

Yeah, this is a campaign that Putin has been personally very committed to.And we have a new, really interesting investigation by Meduza, which is a Russian opposition outlet.And it tracked the appointment of more than 1 ,300 veterans from the war in Ukraine, Russian soldiers from the war in Ukraine to positions in government and state organizations.Obviously, this speaks to efforts to entrench the militarization of state structures and mute opposition to the war.But it's also linked to Putin's flagship Time of Heroes program to create a so called veteran elite within politics, but the program has widely been viewed as a failure.And I thought it was interesting that Medusa's investigation cited senior Russian officials, saying that there are efforts to assign servicemen to insignificant roles.

That means roles that aren't linked to serious administrative work or significant budget flows.

Interesting.We'll add that piece in the show notes as well as the piece, of course, that you and James and Joe Barnes wrote that we were talking about earlier on.There's one other story that I'd like to discuss with both of you before we go to final thoughts.I'm sure you've got some thoughts on Mr. Starmer's departure, James, and this is another row relating to Poland.Perhaps you can give us the outline on this, Antonia, and then hear your thoughts on it, James.

So this is a new frontier in this escalating diplomatic spat between Warsaw and Kiev, which is rousing a lot of very strong emotions among Ukrainians here.A Polish minister claimed today that Poland has not transferred MiG -29 fighter jets to Ukraine, because Kiev has not followed through on giving it promised drone technology in exchange.So Ukraine has yet to comment on this specifically, but Kiev has obviously made its stance on the broader dispute pretty clear, as Zelensky has accused hisKarol Nawrocki, of trying to use this kind of latent hostility towards Ukrainians to score sort of political capital ahead of parliamentary elections in October 2027.

Thank you.So this is a really confusing picture for many people, James, because for a long time, Poland strong, strong Ukrainian ally.And that is still the case in the case of the Prime Minister Donald Tusk.But this is the Polish president who seems to be taking a different view.Why?Karol Narocki.

So look, the interesting thing about him is he's very much a Trump ally.He's backed by law and justice.Law and justice is, I suppose you call them a hard right nationalists who were in power up until Donald Tusk won election.Oh, God, like three, four years ago.Now, they were very strong supporters of Ukraine.No question about that.

But as the war has gone on, there's been a little bit of, you know, you'll remember there was a bit of a tussling over farmers and protecting farmers.There was a little bit of tussling over that.And now we have this issue of the military unit.Now, one of the problems that Tusk has is, you know, he is a center -right conservative.He has a coalition.In order to win the election, he needs people who vote law and justice to also vote for him.

So he's got a bit of a bit of a problem there.He managed to get law and justice voters to turn to him to a degree at the last election.But law and justice actually won the popular vote, they fell short of a majority.Tusk had a much larger coalition he was able to call on.And that's why he is Prime Minister now.Since then, Carol Narocchi has won the presidential election by a very small margin, but that has meant that he has been able to frustrate

a lot of tusks reforms.One of those reforms were meant to sort of route out law and justice influence in the judiciary and various institutions, they were started, you know, bed one.I think the previous two elections, this would have been the third, and they tended to take over the media.And they were kind of very Orbán -like.I was about to say, this is ringing some echoes.And in fact, you know, interestingly, Peter Magyar and Donald Tusk talk to each other, and there's a lot of what Tusk has done and tried to do in Poland that he's doing in Hungary.

The difference is that Tusk has a antagonistic president with the power to block things.Magyar doesn't have that problem to the same extent.So, Naroki has been able to slow his pace of reform to make him look bad and to make him look ineffectual, which is bad news when you have elections in October.

So, I think, yeah, it's...

I mean, I don't think we're going to see a sudden change in huge change because Poland at the end of the day is worried about Russia one day attacking it.I mean, that's clear from its defence spending.That's clear from its Ukraine policy.But, you know, there's maybe a few more lovers tiffs.

So once again, we're seeing Ukraine used as a tool in an election campaign.Yeah, yeah.Well, thank you both very much for talking us through that.Let's go to our final thoughts then.Just a very brief one from me, which is those of you who are subscribed to our newsletter will recall that in that, Dom and I used to reply every week to your questions from, of course, everybody around the world who was sending questions on military affairs, diplomatic ones, you name it.And we're resurrecting that, but on the podcast.

And we're hoping to do our first episode of that very soon.So if you want to send us a question, then you can find the email address in the show notes to this episode.It's ukrainepod .telegraph .com.But Antonio, where do you want to leave it?

today? Well, you'veWell, you've mentioned Ukrainian optimism about their successful long -range attacks.And I just wanted to note that we also have the Kremlin today confirming that Moscow is now in talks to import gasoline amid this escalating fuel crisis.And that comes after an unusually frank admission over the weekend by Vladimir Putin that Ukraine's attacks are creating problems.There are now reports that 56 Russian regions and some fairly far -flung are now imposing restrictions.So I would say that would be a huge cause for optimism here.

Thank you.Thank you very much.James, Stalmer's gone, another scalp.What does this mean for Zelensky?

Well, I think, you know, after Stalmer resigned, he welcomed Zelensky and Tusk and Macron and Mertz to Downing Street.They had a chat and, you know, they were all very nice about him.But, you know, if I was Zelensky in that situation, I'd be looking at Keir Starmer with a bit of, you know, trepidation because next year, Emmanuel Macron, he's in the final year, the end game of his presidency, can't fight another election two terms.And you know, if the national rally who have a history of being Putin fans, a history of being Putin fans, not a present apparently, were to win that election, I think that changes the dynamics.We've already discussed what Tusk again, who has been quite a strong ally of Zelensky as well, and one of these pillars of a future European security architecture, really, he may go and be replaced by a populist leader more in the vein of this President Nairoki.And then we have Mertz who I think Mertz has well, let's see what's happened overnight Germany lost on penalties against Paraguay That is obviously huge news in Germany, but almost as big news in Germany has been the fact that Mertz

put out a tweet congratulating them on their fight and how well they had played.It has been pointed out by many significant commentators in the German press, but they did not play well.

I watched the game and I can attest to that.

And the fact that Mertz is celebrating their poor performance is yet more evidence that Germany isn't what it once was when it comes to manufacturing or taking penalties.And that essentially he is looking more and more like a sort of a hapless failure, a starmer, zwei punkt zero, if you like, or null.And I wonder if he may not survive that much longer.There's already been talk of a palace coup against him, which fizzled out, but if you seem to have this kind of reverse Midas touch, it seems so.Look, basically, you know, Zelensky was with friends.At that point, but that's what cast the characters could be changing and could be changing very quickly Absolutely.

Well, sometimes the metaphors write themselves as we often say on Ukraine the latest and yeah I would heartily recommend if you didn't watch it to check out that penalty shootout.It was one of the most extraordinary I think I've ever seen after in a World Cup game, but let's leave it there everybody for today We'll be back same time same place tomorrow.Goodbye for now