Morning opening: US agrees to ship ‘defensive’ army help to Ukraine
Jakub Krupa
The massive information in a single day is that US president Donald Trump stated the US will ship further weapons to Ukraine to assist it defend itself towards ongoing assaults by Russia.
Speaking to journalists on the White Home, Trump stated “they are getting hit very, very hard,” including he was “not happy” with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
They’ve to have the ability to defend themselves.
A Pentagon assertion shortly afterwards confirmed that
“at president Trump’s direction, the Department of Defense is sending additional defensive weapons to Ukraine to ensure the Ukrainians can defend themselves while we work to secure a lasting peace and ensure the killing stops.”
The transfer comes every week after a complicated halt in army deliveries for Ukraine regardless of persevering with assaults by Russia, which prompted Kyiv and a number of other European capitals to induce the US to rethink its place.
The problem was additionally mentioned throughout final week’s direct name between Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Regardless of the announcement in a single day, Russia continued assaults on Ukraine, with explosions reported within the southern Ukrainian metropolis of Mykolaiv, amongst others.
Elsewhere, we will likely be taking a look at the newest within the EU-US commerce talks, the start of French president Emmanuel Macron’s state go to to Britain, key votes within the European parliament, and the start of the trial of a person who shot and wounded Slovak prime minister Robert Fico final yr.
It’s Tuesday, 8 July 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa right here, and that is Europe Stay.
Good morning.
Key occasions
EU’s von der Leyen derides right-wing conspiracies as she fights towards movement of censure towards her fee
Jennifer Rankin
As we look ahead to extra reactions from Ukraine, let’s begin with a quick make amends for final evening’s European parliament debate on Ursula von der Leyen and her management of the European Fee.
Almost one yr in the past von der Leyen was returned as European Fee president by the European parliament with a much bigger majority than the primary time round in 2019. The identical forces that propelled her again to workplace with a cushty degree of assist in 2024 at the moment are retaining her safely in put up.
Chatting with MEPs on Monday, von der Leyen dismissed as “debunked conspiracy theories” the central claims of a movement of censure designed to unseat her, framing the political transfer from a right-wing nationalist MEP as a part of “an age of struggle between democracy and illiberalism”.
The European parliament will vote on Thursday on a movement tabled by Romanian nationalist anti-vaxxer MEP Gheorghe Piperea, ostensibly over von der Leyen’s refusal to launch textual content messages linked to the negotiation of vaccine contracts throughout the pandemic. In idea, the vote might set off the downfall of von der Leyen and her commissioners.
However even its writer doesn’t count on it to get the required majority.
Addressing MEPS in Strasbourg on Monday, von der Leyen derided Piperea’s world of conspiracies and alleged sinister plots by “what he calls Brussels”, occurring to level to wider threats to democracy from extremist events,
“There is no proof that they have any answers, but there is ample proof that many are supported by our enemies and by their puppet masters in Russia or elsewhere.”
Unsurprisingly she was strongly supported by her personal European Folks’s Occasion group. Equally anticipated, had been the unenthusiastic declarations of assist from the socialists, centrists and greens, who voted for her in 2019, and can vote towards the upcoming movement of censure. They’ve grievances, however none wish to hand a present to the anti-EU far-right, by bringing down the fee at such a turbulent second for worldwide politics.
Iratxe García Pérez, chief of the Socialist group, criticised the EPP over the events it had voted with the far proper, in addition to the centre-right group’s stance on the EU’s 2040 local weather targets and opposition to an EU ethics physique. She accused von der Leyen of trying the opposite means on these points.
Valérie Heyer, a French member of the centrist Renew group, chided von der Leyen for a similar causes, concluding: “Don’t take anything for granted. Please put your own political house in order.”
Whereas the far-right – Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán’s Patriots for Europe and the extra excessive Europe of Sovereign Nations – will vote for the movement, the opposite right-wing group, the European Conservatives and Reformists, is cut up.
Piperea, an ECR member, was liable for the movement, however the group is dominated by the social gathering of the Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, who has no want to deliver down the extra right-leaning fee – which features a vice presidency put up for her ally, Raffaele Fitto. They may have a free vote, the place two-thirds of their 79 MEPs are anticipated to vote towards the movement.
For her half, von der Leyen supplied a modest olive department to her supporters, saying she was all the time able to work for compromise. Itemizing EU-US commerce talks, Ukraine, China, she dropped a not very delicate trace on the stakes: “Europe must show strength… This strength only comes through unity.”
We’re but to listen to Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s response to Trump’s announcement in a single day, however his most senior aide Andriy Yermak responded to the Pentagon assertion with a not-so-cryptic put up on social media exhibiting the flags of Ukraine and the US with a handshake emoji.
UK imposes sanctions on head, deputy of Russia’s principal chemical weapons unit
Dan Sabbagh
Defence and safety editor
The UK has sanctioned the pinnacle and a deputy of Russia’s principal chemical weapons unit over the unlawful use of CS teargas in Ukraine ahed of a gathering of the chief council of the Organisation of Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
Aleksey Rtishchev, the chief of Russia’s Radiological, Chemical and Organic Defence unit (often called RKhBZ) and Andrei Marchenko, a deputy will now each be topic to sanctions following OPCW experiences that gasoline was used on the battlefield.
Although CS gasoline is used as a crowd management agent in a number of international locations, its use in struggle is prohibited by the chemical weapons conference. Final November the OPCW confirmed there was proof of the usage of teargas on the frontline, at Ilinka, close to the city of Nikopol.
The UK has already sanctioned the RKHBZ unit in addition to its former chief Igor Kirillov, although he was assassinated by Ukraine final December by a bomb hidden in a scooter, after Kyiv accused Russia of deploying chemical weapons lots of of occasions.
Britain additionally sanctioned The Joint Inventory Firm Federal Manufacturing Centre Scientific Analysis Institute of Utilized Chemistry for transferring gasoline grenades to the Russian army.
Stephen Doughty, the sanctions minister, stated “Barbaric chemical weapons are supposed to be consigned to history, and yet Russia continues to deploy them on the battlefield in Ukraine.”
Morning opening: US agrees to ship ‘defensive’ army help to Ukraine
Jakub Krupa
The massive information in a single day is that US president Donald Trump stated the US will ship further weapons to Ukraine to assist it defend itself towards ongoing assaults by Russia.
Speaking to journalists on the White Home, Trump stated “they are getting hit very, very hard,” including he was “not happy” with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
They’ve to have the ability to defend themselves.
A Pentagon assertion shortly afterwards confirmed that
“at president Trump’s direction, the Department of Defense is sending additional defensive weapons to Ukraine to ensure the Ukrainians can defend themselves while we work to secure a lasting peace and ensure the killing stops.”
The transfer comes every week after a complicated halt in army deliveries for Ukraine regardless of persevering with assaults by Russia, which prompted Kyiv and a number of other European capitals to induce the US to rethink its place.
The problem was additionally mentioned throughout final week’s direct name between Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Regardless of the announcement in a single day, Russia continued assaults on Ukraine, with explosions reported within the southern Ukrainian metropolis of Mykolaiv, amongst others.
Elsewhere, we will likely be taking a look at the newest within the EU-US commerce talks, the start of French president Emmanuel Macron’s state go to to Britain, key votes within the European parliament, and the start of the trial of a person who shot and wounded Slovak prime minister Robert Fico final yr.
It’s Tuesday, 8 July 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa right here, and that is Europe Stay.
Good morning.
