Asked if he wanted to see further sanctions against Russia, Trump replied: “I’m looking at it.” On Monday he said he was “disappointed” with Russia’s president and would send “more weapons” to Ukraine, reversing the Pentagon’s pause.
Russian authorities claimed a Ukrainian drone attack on a beach in Kursk city killed three people, including a Russian serviceman and injured seven. Alexander Khinshtein, the acting regional governor, claimed the Russian national guard member had been trying to evacuate people from the scene because of a drone attack. Khinshtein also claimed a Ukrainian drone hit a hospital in the Kursk oblast town of Rylsk, injuring two people, blowing out windows and setting a roof on fire. There was no independent confirmation and throughout the war Ukraine has denied targeting civilians, with its strikes inside Russia focused on military facilities and personnel, individual senior commanders, and strategic national infrastructure such as fuel depots and refineries.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) will be allowed to set up its own pre-trial detention centres under a bill passed by the lower house of parliament. The power was previously abolished with the demise of the Soviet-era KGB. Lawmakers say its revival is a response to a spike in the intelligence and subversive activities of foreign powers since Russia started the war.
A group of men have been convicted over an arson attack ordered by the banned Russian terrorist group Wagner on an east London warehouse used to supply humanitarian aid and StarLink satellite equipment to Ukraine. They went on to plot more arson attacks in London’s Mayfair district and the kidnap of a Russian dissident but were ultimately unsuccessful. Old Bailey judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said the convicted men would be sentenced on a date to be fixed in the autumn.