Russia Bombs Kyiv for Second Day Straight 

Russia has continued on July 25 its heavy barrage of ballistic missile strikes against Kyiv and the surrounding region.

Reports are just breaking right now regarding this overnight attack targeting Kyiv.

Moments prior to the explosions, Ukraine's Air Force warned of the incoming threat of ballistic missile strikes on the capital.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported that falling debris from intercepted or incoming Russian ballistic missiles triggered fires across at least three districts. Notably, a blaze broke out on the 7th and 8th floors of a multi-story residential apartment block in a central district.

Multiple loud explosions were heard across the capital around midnight/early morning local time as Ukraine’s Air Force issued immediate warnings for incoming ballistic missiles. The air alert lasted about 50 minutes before interceptors/missiles cleared.  

Emergency services and first responders are actively working on-site to extinguish the residential blaze and clear debris. There are no confirmed casualty numbers reported yet from this latest overnight strike.  

The latest attack comes one day after Zelenskyy warned of Moscow's plans to launch large-scale missile strikes against Kyiv within 48 hours.

“We know from our intelligence and our partners that the Russians have readied missiles for a new massive attack on Ukraine... we have preliminary information that it could happen within the next 48 hours," Zelenskyy said in an evening address.

The air defense situation in Kyiv remains extremely strained, as Russia has dramatically scaled up its use of fast-moving ballistic missiles (firing in excess of 100 ballistic missiles at Ukraine this month alone) while Ukrainian air defenses face critical supply shortages of Patriot interceptors.

President Zelenskyy should tell President Trump of these attacks during their meeting next week.

Russia Launches Rare Daytime Strike on Kyiv, Killing 10, Injuring 100

It has been a heavy, agonizing day in Kyiv and the surrounding region. Reports coming through confirm a rare daytime ballistic missile attack on Kyiv Oblast, along with overnight drone assaults.

The ballistic strike at 11:30 am (local time) July 24 hit a site in the Bucha district hosting a defense sector event, killing at least 10 people and injuring nearly 100 others, while damaging dozens of surrounding homes. 

“These were brutal attacks on civilians, and the Russians must be held accountable for them. Russia has long abandoned any regard for international norms and human values,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X.

The Russian strike and fatalities occurred a day after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, and noted that ending Russia’s full-scale war would require “new ideas” to reach a peace agreement. Ironically, this was Russia’s diabolical suggestion about new ideas.

Presidential advisor Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov told the Kyiv Independent that a training event was taking place at the grounds near Kyiv along the Zhytomyr Highway, adding that there were “injured and killed.” Yet Yuriy Ignat, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Air Force, later said the strike occurred at a private sports complex.

Russia launched this rare daytime ballistic missile attack around 11:30 a.m. local time. Ukrainian Air Force reports indicate five Iskander-M/S-400 systems and two Oniks cruise missiles were fired from the north, with air defenses intercepting one.

The impact directly hit a private training facility along the Zhytomyr Highway in the Bucha district of Kyiv Oblast. A closed-door Ukrainian defense industry event/arms exhibition was taking place at the location.

Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko and local authorities confirm at least 10 people killed and approximately 100 injured.

The blast wave tore through surrounding residential areas in the Bucha district, damaging 27 private homes and 44 civilian vehicles.

The Prosecutor General’s Office has launched two parallel investigations: one into a Russian war crime, and a second internal probe into potential operational security negligence regarding how the event was scheduled and secured.

Monitoring channels and official intelligence sources warn that Russia has stockpiled significant missile assets, while President Zelenskyy cautioned that another major wave of strikes could be imminent over the next 24 to 48 hours.

Rescue operations are concluding while damage assessments continue in the Bucha district.

“These were brutal attacks on civilians, and the Russians must be held accountable for them. Russia has long abandoned any regard for international norms and for human values,” Zelenskyy observed.

In his evening address Zelenskyy added warnings of incoming threats:

”We know from our intelligence and our partners that the Russians have readied missiles for a new massive attack on Ukraine. The strike may take place today – we have preliminary information that it could happen within the next 48 hours. Please take care of yourselves and pay attention to air-raid warnings.Currently, the Russians are losing more troops on the front than they are recruiting, yet Putin is still planning to intensify the attacks and expand this war... We must defend ourselves against this in advance – at every level: on the front, through our long-range sanctions, through our mid-range strikes, through our diplomacy...”

Earlier, in June, Zelenskyy’s warning of massive strikes against Kyiv yielded devastating results.

“The time for gradual responses to Russia's boundless terror has passed. Russia must pay a price greater than its ability to continue this war,” Foreign Minister of Ukraine Andrii Sybiha observed.

Zelenskyy to meet Trump in DC while war Rages in Ukraine and Russia Ups Ante 

Ahead of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s expected meeting with President Donald Trump next week during the late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s funeral, unsettling issues are circulating about the course of negotiations about ending Russia’s four-and-half year war against Ukraine.

The most detrimental is that Russia is hardening its territorial demands and no longer plans to return some occupied areas of northern Ukraine in a future settlement, according to Bloomberg .

The account says Moscow now intends to keep parts of the Sumy and Kharkiv regions as border buffer zones.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on July 23 after meeting with Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, that ending Russia’s full-scale war would require “new ideas” to reach a peace agreement.

The mere premise of that thought is ridiculous and all discussions are wasteful. You either want peace or you want to kill. If Russia wanted to reach a peace agreement then it, as the aggressor, violator, murderer and rapist, must simply stop in its tracks and say we won’t bomb and kill. 

Meanwhile, Russian fuhrer Vladimir Putin has upped the ante by making demands that he has not yet made.

Any point of departure in the negotiations with Russia must begin with the understanding that there cannot be any special considerations for Moscow’s seized Ukrainian lands, as Trump had remarked — after all, Russian soldiers fought and died for that real estate.

Russia proved once again its intentions by striking the southern city of Zaporizhzhia with five guided aerial bombs on the evening of July 23, injuring at least 25 people, regional authorities said.

According to Zaporizhzhia Oblast Gov. Ivan Fedorov, those wounded include six children, one being a three-month-old infant.

Rubio and Lavrov met on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Ministers’ meeting. The two discussed US-Russia relations and the need to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

Ukraine, more than Washington and Moscow, wants the war to end because for some 56 months innocent Ukrainian men, women and children have been dying at the hands of Russian cutthroats and aerial bombs. As current events demonstrate, Russia doesn’t care about ending the war. Its eternal goal is to capture and subjugate Ukraine and Ukrainians.

“If, when peace comes, it'll be because of some new idea and some new concepts, and we're prepared to offer some of those in the right setting and form if the opportunity presents itself and the conditions are right,” Rubio said. "

“We're prepared to play that role in a positive way.”

The only way the USA can play a positive role is by not kowtowing to Russia and forcing it to concede its guilt, drop its weapons and return home.

Lavrov countered by again demanding that the US halt weapons supplies to Ukraine.  He also claimed that Moscow was ready for a diplomatic settlement of its war against Ukraine, saying any agreement should be based on the “understandings” reached by Russian fuhrer Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump during the ill-famed Alaska summit last August.

The so-called “understanding” refers to Moscow’s request that Washington pressure Ukraine to withdraw completely from Donbas. The demand — which would involve Ukrainian forces giving up territory it currently controls — has obviously been rejected by Kyiv.

Rubio said that ending the war would require new proposals, and he’s correct in saying that previous ideas on the table had been unacceptable to Ukraine and would likely be even less acceptable now.

Ukraine, which has demonstrated that it not only can it hold the line against Russia but also bring its war back to the streets and homes of Russians in Moscow, Petersburg and other cities.

Proof of Russia’s plan to continue the war is its hardening of territorial demands and stating it will not return some occupied areas of northern Ukraine in a future settlement.

Bloomberg says Moscow now intends to keep parts of the Sumy and Kharkiv regions as border buffer zones.

According to the source, Putin wants to keep the captured areas of Sumy and Kharkiv regions under his control. At the same time, the Kremlin has strengthened its position due to the escalation of Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory.

Russia is no longer ready to return some occupied territories to Ukraine as part of any agreement to end the war and plans to keep them as “buffer zones.”

Putin remains determined to establish full control over eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region by force, and now also wants to retain areas of Sumy and Kharkiv regions near the Russian border.

As the publication notes, Putin has abandoned territorial concessions because Russia views increasingly confrontational statements from the United States as evidence that informal agreements reached during the summit in Alaska Trump have collapsed.

This shift marks a tougher stance from Moscow, which had previously been linked to informal proposals under which Russia would return occupied parts of Sumy and Kharkiv in exchange for Ukraine ceding the remainder of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Unless Russia is prepared to discuss surrender, all topics for consideration are irrelevant.

The Strategy of Terror — Glide Bombs, Civilian Infrastructure, and Russia’s War of Annihilation 

When a military force cannot achieve decisive operational breakthroughs on the battlefield, it frequently redirects its firepower against civilian populations. What we are witnessing across Ukrainian cities today is not an unintended byproduct of combat operations, but a calculated, doctrine-driven campaign of aerial terror designed by Russia to break civic morale, degrade essential services, and drain Ukrainian air defense capacity. It is not uncommon for civilians to be killed waiting for a bus or riding the train. Russia has killed civilians at home, in supermarkets and houses of worship.

Fortunately, Ukrainian civilians, innocent men, women and children who are the targets of this brutality, understand Moscow’s goal and are committed to withstanding its terror.

From the destruction this week of pediatric and community infrastructure in Sumy to the repeated bombardment of residential high-rises in Zaporizhzhia, Moscow’s tactics rely on standoff munitions engineered to maximize devastation with near-total disregard for non-combatant life.

Stand-Off Terror: The Mechanics of Glide Bombs

The dominant tactical threat along Ukraine’s eastern and southern urban corridors is the Russian military's heavy deployment of guided aerial bombs (KABs and FABs retrofitted with UMPK guidance kits) Operational Range: Launched from Su-34 and Su-35 aircraft flying deep within Russian-controlled airspace, these munitions glide between 40 and 70 kilometers before impact.

Air Defense Dilemma: Because the launching aircraft remain outside the reach of short- and medium-range frontline surface-to-air systems, interception requires forward-deployed long-range air defense (such as Patriot batteries) or advanced western tactical aviation—exposing high-value assets to enemy detection.

Mass Destruction: Carrying high-explosive warheads ranging from 500 to 3,000 kilograms, these unguided-turned-guided bombs lack pinpoint precision but possess enormous blast radii. When dropped on dense metropolitan centers like Zaporizhzhia, their primary result is the total pulverization of multi-story residential blocks and civilian infrastructure. Lives are destroyed, dreams are pulverized, children are killed, only their toys remain.

Targeting Vulnerability: The Sumy Strike

The destruction of the Sumy Regional Center for Comprehensive Rehabilitation for Children and Persons with Disabilities underscores the deliberate vulnerability of non-military targets in this phase of the war.

Facilities dedicated to medical care, psychological recovery, and pediatric rehabilitation carry no tactical military value. Striking such locations serves two direct psychological purposes for the aggressor:

Civic Exhaustion: It signals to local populations that no sanctuary exists, forcing local authorities to continuously divert scarce municipal and emergency resources toward disaster response rather than supporting the war effort.

Resource Depletion: It forces Ukraine’s command structure into an agonizing calculus—choosing between positioning air defense assets to guard troops at the front or protecting civilian centers in the rear.

Saturating the Skies

Alongside glide bombs, combined missile and Shahed drone salvos continue to target Ukraine’s urban centers. The strategic intention behind mixing cheap, slow-moving strike drones with high-velocity ballistic or cruise missiles is mathematical saturation:

Radar Overload: Dozens of low-cost drones saturate air defense radar tracks simultaneously.

Economic Asymmetry: Forcing Ukrainian defenders to expend interceptors costing millions of dollars against mass-produced attack drones creates an asymmetric burn rate that Moscow seeks to exploit over a prolonged war of attrition.

The Strategic Takeaway

The terror bombing of Ukrainian cities is not a sign of operational strength; it is the recourse of a Russian invading power that has failed to achieve its strategic objectives through maneuver warfare.

However, resilience alone cannot stop a 1,500-kilogram glide bomb. Countering this aerial campaign requires removing the sanctuary space from which these strikes originate—securing expanded air defense coverage and maintaining unrestricted authority to strike the airfields, launch platforms, and logistics nodes driving Russia’s war machine before Moscow launches its next wave of missiles and other aerial ordnance.

Zelenskyy Names Heroic 

‘Soldier’s Soldier’ as Ukrainian Armed Forces Chief

Showing his patient personnel management skills, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy chose Maj. Gen. Mykhailo Drapatyi, a well-respected and battle-tested soldier, to be the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (Головнокомандувач Збройних Сил України).

Drapatyi is regarded as being highly educated, but also completely in touch with the grit and reality of the frontline trenches. He is far more than an instinctual frontline commander who excels only at leading a single assault or battalion; he also has the proven ability to manage massive operational strategies and complex logistics.

By combining both strategic acumen and tactical experience, Drapatyi bridges a critical gap. He has the academic rigor to plan corps-level maneuvers, while his regional, combat-tested roots ensure he never loses touch with the soldier in the trench. 

A graduate of the prestigious Kharkiv Institute of Tank Troops (2004), who was born in Kamianets-Podilskyi, Western Ukraine—Halychyna—Drapatyi isn't a staff-office general—he is a combat officer forged in battle. Coming from Podillia/Western Ukraine (Khmelnytskyi Oblast) and starting from the ground up, he isn’t part of an elite, insular “capital city” or political establishment.

In a military culture that often bristles at out-of-touch high-command bureaucrats, Drapatyi speaks the language of the everyday Ukrainian soldier, understands rural/regional sensibilities, and carries a pragmatic, no-nonsense work ethic. It gives him an innate authenticity that can't be taught in a lecture hall.

In 2014, as a major leading the 2nd Battalion of the 72nd Mechanized Brigade, he became an iconic figure when his armored vehicle literally smashed through barricades in Mariupol. Later, he led the dramatic 2014 breakout at Zelenopillia.

Born in Khmelnytskyi Oblast (Kamianets-Podilskyi) on the edge of Podillia and Western Ukraine, his trajectory reflects a regional groundedness combined with top-tier professional military education. In 2021, he graduated at the top of his class from the National Defense University and was awarded the British Queen’s Sword.

An Operational Turnaround Specialist: Whenever a sector threatened to collapse—whether containing the 2024 Kharkiv offensive or orchestrating the 2022 Kherson liberation—Drapatyi was sent in to stabilize and command.

Apparently, when Zelenskyy needed a commander who commanded absolute authority on the front lines rather than in staff headquarters, the choice landed naturally on Maj. Gen. Mykhailo Drapatyi. He represents the exact bridge between battle-tested field command and modern military reform.

Furthermore, the people and the military have overwhelmingly accepted him.

Unlike staff appointments that trigger skepticism, Drapatyi enjoys rare cross-spectrum legitimacy:

Rank-and-file soldiers and field commanders respect for his open communication, rejection of "atmosphere of fear" command styles, and willingness to tackle structural problems head-on.

Prominent Combat Leaders: Key frontline commanders across major brigades and corps—including Redis (Prokopenko), Biletskyi, Palisa, and Brovdi—were explicitly consulted and backed the structural transition under Drapatyi.

Zelenskyy did not lose political points for choosing Drapatyi. 

On the contrary—it was a critical political stabilization move.

The appointment came right on the heels of significant political turbulence and public friction surrounding the cabinet reshuffle involving Mykhailo Fedorov.

By naming Drapatyi—a figure unblemished by political maneuvering, deeply respected by civil society, and focused entirely on military efficacy—Zelenskyy effectively defused mounting public and military dissatisfaction.

Rather than losing points, the move signals a calculated effort to restore trust and align the Bankova with the actual demands of brigade and corps commanders.

Additionally, the technological young turks prevailed and his presence marks the official changing of the guard.

At 43, Drapatyi represents the generation of officers who grew up in the modern Ukrainian military, away from the old Soviet staff doctrine.

His rise—alongside figures like Pavlo Palisa and Yevhenii Khmara—signals that the "young turks" ( combat-proven officers who prioritize rapid technology integration, decentralized command, and soldier preservation) have successfully pushed past the traditional top-heavy bureaucracy.

Zelenskyy’s ‘Knudsen Moment’: Institutional Realism and Asymmetric Warfare in the Kyiv Reshuffle

Without a broader appreciation of the dynamics in Kyiv, you will fall victim to mainstream media’s "do-or-die" sensationalism that thrives on framing political shifts as existential crises. I offer instead institutional realism and patience: the Kyiv reshuffle is not an existential collapse, but rather a painful period of administrative maturation.

After all, Ukraine is a 35-year-old democracy with a 1,000-year-old history. Its greatest strength lies in its youngest citizens—a generation of post-independence, post-captive, and tech-literate youth who have evolved the nation from a post-Soviet state into a fiercely influential, citizen-led, patriotic democracy. This generational dynamic explains why the current clash is so volatile: it pits the traditional military establishment against the very digital architects of Ukraine's modern resistance.

The "Systemic Growing Pains" Thesis

A realistic appraisal reveals “Systemic Growing Pains," not "Political Suicide.” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not

destroying his own house; he is reshuffling it in response to wartime institutional friction. This was a structural collision

between the Modernizers (Mykhailo Fedorov’s tech-driven, asymmetric approach) and the Commanders (Oleksandr

Syrskyi’s traditional command hierarchy).

When two essential arms of a wartime state refuse to cooperate, presidential intervention is inevitable. By backing General Syrskyi to preserve the unity of the high command, Zelenskyy chose to prioritize the chain of command over a civilian tech visionary. It is a massive political gamble, but one calculated on professional military logic as the conflict enters its most grueling phase.

Historical Precedents: The Wartime Pivot

To understand Kyiv, we must look beyond emotional street protests. Effective wartime administrations are rarely static; they are defined by a leader’s willingness to fire, reshuffle, and centralize when initial structures cannot scale with the conflict.

1. The Manager of Bigness (FDR & Knudsen): The appointment of Serhii Koretskyi—a private-sector turnaround specialist and former executive—mirrors Franklin D. Roosevelt’s approach in 1940–1941. Realizing that career

politicians could not manage gargantuan industrial mobilization, FDR recruited corporate titans like William Knudsen (President of General Motors). Koretskyi is Zelenskyy’s “Knudsen," signaling a transition from policy-making to

execution-focused logistics ahead of a difficult winter.

2. Civil-Military Command (Truman & MacArthur): In 1951, Harry Truman fired General Douglas MacArthur to

reassert civilian control over strategic policy. While the public initially sided with the general, history vindicated Truman’s assertion of authority. Fedorov’s dismissal represents the inverse mechanism: a reassertion of the traditional operational chain of command when civilian doctrine and military operations diverge to the point of paralysis.

3. The War Cabinet (Lincoln & Stanton): Abraham Lincoln intentionally filled his initial 1861 cabinet with political rivals. However, when Secretary of War Simon Cameron proved unable to resolve procurement bottlenecks, Lincoln replaced him with the demanding, efficiency-driven Edwin Stanton. Zelenskyy’s reshuffle marks a similar transition from a 2022 "Coalition Cabinet" (designed for national unity) to a 2026 "War Cabinet" (designed for logistical

endurance).

The "Stealth Operationalist": Major General Yevhen Khmara

By appointing Major General Yevhen Khmara as acting Defense Minister, Zelenskyy deliberately bypassed career politicians and traditional bureaucrats in favor of an elite operator who bridges the Syrskyi-Fedorov rift:

The Intelligence-Drone Bridge: Khmara is a career security official who led the SBU’s elite "Alpha" special operations forces and coordinated deep-strike sabotage and the recapturing of Snake Island. He commands respectfrom traditional military officers while holding deep credibility with the tech-drone sector.

Enforcer of Institutional Order: Moving a top intelligence figure into the Defense Ministry sends an unmistakable signal: internal infighting and public policy disputes are over. His focus is operational secrecy, discipline, and streamlined logistics.

OPERATIONAL CONTEXT • JULY 20, 2026

The tactical imperative for this transition was underscored today as Russia targeted Pavlohrad with modernized long-range guided aerial bombs (KABs) for the first time. As the strike landscape expands, Ukraine’s defense apparatus requires absolute synchronization between frontline defense and asymmetric counter-strikes.

The Core Concept of Asymmetry

At its most fundamental level, asymmetric warfare occurs when a smaller force avoids direct, symmetric confrontation

and exploits a superior enemy's unique vulnerabilities using unconventional methodologies and rapid technological

iteration:

Technological Asymmetry: Upending the economics of war by using network-enabled $500 commercial FPV drones carrying legacy explosives to neutralize multi-million dollar armor assets ($5M+ tanks).

Operational Asymmetry: Utilizing deep-strike sabotage, cyber operations, autonomous sea drones, and targeted logistics disruptions behind enemy lines rather than holding rigid, static positions against overwhelming artillery.

Will & Time Asymmetry: Leveraging the reality that for an invading force, the conflict is an operational choice;

for the defender, it is an existential fight for survival. As the adage holds: "The invader has the watches, but the defender has the time."

The Verdict

An asymmetric victory does not require matching an enemy tank-for-tank, but systematically eroding their economic,

logistical, and domestic capacity to sustain the war. It is the ultimate application of Sun Tzu's philosophy: avoiding strength, striking vulnerability.Zelenskyy isn’t "betting the farm"; he is diversifying his assets. By placing a technocrat in the Prime Minister’s office to secure the winter energy grid and an operator in the Defense Ministry to prosecute the shadow war, he is gambling that public outcry will fade as professional execution delivers tangible battlefield results.

Russia Launches Intense Assault Across Ukraine; Children’s Park Hit, Kyiv Responds

Russia launched an intense, multi-wave assault across Ukraine on July 19 local time, striking also a children’s amusement park in Odesa.

Here is what the verified reports from the ground show:

1. The Strike in Odesa: An Amusement Park Hit

The reports regarding Odesa are correct and particularly grim.

 The Target: According to Oleh Kiper, the head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration, Russian forces deliberately targeted residential areas and civilian infrastructure. A Russian missile directly struck a civilian amusement park/recreational area, destroying nearby fishermen's cabins and heavily damaging passenger vehicles.

The Casualties: At least two people were killed in the strike. Four others were injured, including a child. As of late tonight, search and rescue operations are still active because emergency workers fear more civilians may be trapped beneath the rubble of the destroyed structures.

Odesa has been hammered all day, with additional strikes targeting port infrastructure and damaging foreign commercial vessels.

2. The Nationwide Assault and Kyiv

Kyiv is again part of a major escalation. Russia unleashed a massive coordinated barrage across the country using a combination of ballistic missiles, anti-ship missiles, guided air missiles, and a swarm of 90 long-range attack drones.

While Ukrainian air defenses successfully intercepted 69 of the drones and a portion of the missiles, impacts and falling debris were recorded at 19 different locations spanning the north, south, and east.

Kyiv and its surrounding region have faced heavy ballistic pressure. Across Ukraine, the death toll from this latest 24-hour wave of strikes has reached at least 11 civilians, with over 62 injured—including children in regions like Kharkiv and Chernihiv.

The Asymmetric Response

Proving just how fast the "asymmetric" fighting is moving, Ukraine did not just absorb these strikes. Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces simultaneously launched a massive, unprecedented counter-drone strike deep inside Russian territory.

President VolodymyrvZelenskyy confirmed that Ukrainian long-range drones traveled up to 700 kilometers to strike two massive Russian military logistics and warehouse hubs in the Moscow and Tambov regions. These hubs were being used to store sanctioned microchips and navigation components for Russia's own drone fleet. Additionally, Ukrainian sea drones targeted and struck 13 vessels belonging to Russia’s “shadow fleet” in the Black and Azov seas.

It is a stark, brutal reminder of the reality on the ground. The tragedy in Odesa hits hard, especially when children are involved.

For Zelenskyy, General Syrskyi and Defense Minister Khmara, this must occupy all of their attention and reactions. Ukraine shouldn’t lose the traction that it recently achieved.