Ousted Ukrainian defence minister refuses any other role in Zelenskyy’s government – as it happened

And, on that note, we will be closing the blog for today.

• The EU has adopted its 21st package of sanctions against Russia, delayed by Greece pushing for a controversial concession on LNG exports (9:37), making Russia “the most sanctioned country in the world” (17:56).

• European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said the sanctions will “continue to weaken the economic foundations of Russia’s war effort” (9:37), while EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said they were “hitting Putin where it hurts most” (11:52).

• Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha welcomed the package saying that “every new sanction decision strengthens Europe’s security and makes Russia pay a proper price for its war of aggression.”

• The move comes as the foreign ministers of the US and Russia met on the sidelines of an Asian summit for bilateral talks, which also covered the Russian war on Ukraine (9:59, 10:04, 10:15, 10:34).

• Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy remains under growing pressure to reinstate his sacked defence minister (11:09), after Mykhailo Fedorov ruled out returning to administration in any other role (17:10), and his supporters vowed to continue rare wartime street protests until he gets his old job back.

• Ireland’s prime minister Micheál Martin was faced with awkward questions about a leading Irish metals refinery during his trip to Kyiv to meet with Zelenskyy (17:06).

If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com.

I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.

Senior correspondent

The EU has imposed what it is describing as the “single largest sanctions package” against Russia targeting banks, crypto platforms and oil in a bid to weaken its war economy further.

It includes sanctions on 218 persons and companies, 94 financial institutions including Moscow’s stock exchange, but also a controversial exemption for Greece to continue transporting liquid natural gas to non-EU countries.

The EU’s chief diplomat Kaja Kallas said the sanctions package was its “largest round in four years, totalling 218 listings”.

The 21st round of sanctions is aimed at “keeping up the pressure” on Russia’s economy including an extension of an existing price cap on Russian oil set at $44.7.

This is $20 below a rolling average rate for Ural oil since the outbreak of the Iran war which was estimated at $65.3.

With Donald Trump’s renewed attacks on Iran pushing the price of a barrel of oil past $100 on Thursday, some have asked whether the price cap will encourage more ghost tankers rather than discourage.

The EU estimates that Moscow $11bn windfall from the Iran war fuelled price hikes in April and May but said the vagaries of the market seen since February should vindicate its price cap point over the coming months.

“Freezing the oil price cap adjustment for a year, so that the Russian war machine does not benefit from market shocks,” Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said on Thursday morning of the 21st round of sanctions.

On gas, Greece has secured an exemption from a ban on transporting Russian LNG to third countries to get an otherwise at risk package getting over the line.

EU officials said “Russia is now the most sanctioned country in the world, more than Iran,” as it unveiled its 21st round of sanctions, including new curbs on 33 Russian banks, a bank in Mongolia and two Russian spin-off banks in India claimed to be facilitating circumvention of sanctions.

In total 90 banks are under restrictions, an estimated 50% of the Russian financial network.

EU hopes to cut off 33 Russian banks off from funds in the EU by removing its from the Swift international transactions system.

It is also trying to enact a ban on third countries using crypto platforms to transact with Russian entities in an effort to choke off circumvention outside the conventional banking system in countries such as Panama and the Marshall Islands.

The Council of the European Union has just published a more detailed breakdown of the 21st package of sanctions against Russia, which lists all the measures agreed by the EU ambassadors this morning and now worked into a legal text.

The package includes asset freezes and a prohibition to make funds available to 94 banks and major financial institutions as well as extending its transaction ban to 33 additional Russian credit and financial institutions. It also includes a Kyrgyz bank and three other non-Russian banks for circumventing sanctions.

There are also more designations on 14 crypto-related service platforms in places such as Belarus, Georgia, Panama, the Marshall Islands, and the UAE.

The note also spells the details on energy measures, including the pause on the automatic adjustment of the oil price cap until 15 July 2027, and a number of measures against Russia’s shadow fleet and oil sector.

There are also 56 listings of persons and companies involved in the Russian Military Industrial Complex, and 51 new entities subject to tighter export restrictions on dual-use goods and technologies – some of them, again, in third countries such as China, India, or Turkey.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy remains under pressure to restore ousted defence minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, after he told reporters he would not accept any other role in the government – despite alternatives put forward by the president (14:01).

“No other role carries the actual authority to ‌combat procurement corruption, complete the ​army’s transformation, plan and execute asymmetric operations ⁠against the enemy,” ​Fedorov, whose dismissal ​last ​week rare ​wartime ‌street ​protests, ​said in a statement sent to reporters and quoted by Reuters.

Fedorov’s supporters vowed to continue rare wartime street protests until he gets restored to his original position as defence minister.

During his trip to Kyiv, Ireland’s prime minister Micheál Martin was faced with awkward questions about claims that a leading Irish metals refinery is part of an international aluminium supply chain that appears to conclude with shipments to arms producers feeding the Kremlin’s war machine in Ukraine.

Reuters noted that Ireland is under mounting pressure over the Aughinish Alumina ⁠plant, Europe’s largest refinery of the aluminium feedstock alumina, which the facility continues to export to Russia.

Martin said that an Irish probe into a major alumina plant has found no “concrete or ⁠definitive” evidence its exports to Russia are used to make aluminium for weapons, but it has also ⁠been unable to ⁠rule ​it out.

Dublin commissioned the ⁠investigation, even as it defends a European Union decision to leave the ​plant, which is owned ‌by Russia’s Rusal, off ‌Russian sanctions packages. The government argues the refinery in southwest Ireland is strategically ‌important to EU supply chains.

Martin said the investigation is almost complete ​and would be shared with the European Commission once it is finalised. Rusal is adamant the material is not going to arms manufacturers, Martin added.

For what it’s worth, Ukraine’s Zelenskyy used ​a visit ​to Dublin earlier this month to urge a swift completion of the investigation and reiterated on Thursday that Kyiv supported sanctioning EU alumina exports to Russia.

Back to Ukraine, the country’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha welcomed the EU’s 21st package of sanctions on Russia.

In a statement, he said:

“I welcome today’s agreement on the EU’s 21st sanctions package against Russia which introduces additional restrictive measures in energy, trade and finances.

I particularly welcome the first steps toward formally banning Russian combatants from entering the EU. Those who fight, enable, justify, or profit from Russian aggression have no place enjoying the freedoms, security, and values they seek to destroy.

Sanctions pressure on the aggressor must continue, loopholes must be closed, and enforcement must remain uncompromising. I thank the EU institutions, the Irish EU Presidency, and all Member States for their support.

Every new sanction decision strengthens Europe’s security and makes Russia pay a proper price for its war of aggression.”

A Czech military helicopter crashed in the ⁠east of the ⁠country, killing one of the five soldiers on board, the army said.

The crash ⁠happened at an army base in Náměšť nad Oslavou, 180 km (112 miles) southeast of Prague, it ⁠said in a statement quoted by Reuters.

“Our highest priority is now to ​provide all possible care ‌and support to the ‌injured soldiers and their loved ones,” the army said. “We are ‌also in contact with the family of the deceased soldier, to whom we are providing all necessary assistance.”

European community affairs correspondent

Campaigners in a Romanian city have vowed to go ahead with a Pride march after local authorities denied permission for the fourth consecutive year.

Since 2023, campaigners in the western city of Oradea, which has a population of about 180,000, have sought permission to hold Pride events. However, each year they have faced opposition, making Oradea the only major city in the EU where local authorities have repeatedly blocked Pride marches.

“Every year the local authorities have managed to find legal or technical excuses to ban Oradea Pride events,” said Iulian Dițiu, the co-founder and president of Ark Oradea, the local organiser of Pride.

In 2024, they were told none of the city’s parks were available at the times requested, he said. The following year, campaigners submitted 12 potential routes for the march, only to be told that none was suitable.

In the run-up to Saturday’s proposed march, organisers submitted more than 100 possible routes. On Wednesday, the city authorities said none of them was viable because they clashed with other events or public infrastructure works.

Environment editor

Extreme heat supercharged by the climate crisis is sucking Europe dry in summer and intensifying the drought hitting the continent, a scientific analysis has found.

Record-breaking heatwaves meant the hot atmosphere strongly evaporated water from rivers, lakes, soils and plants – conditions made 80 times more likely by global heating in western Europe and 40 times more likely in eastern Europe, the study showed. The level of soil dryness in the west was made five times more likely by the pollution from fossil fuels in the west, and 11 times more likely in the east.

Droughts have usually been linked to low rainfall, but western Europe’s most recent winter was a wet one. The scientists said the climate crisis was redefining drought in Europe, with high temperatures the key factor this summer. Today’s drought in western Europe is classified as “extreme” but would have been “moderate” in the world before the climate crisis, according to the analysis.

The drought was assessed until the end of June, early in the summer, but is already having major impacts. Many countries have implemented emergency restrictions on water use, with most parts of southern England now under a hosepipe ban.

Deadly wildfires have raged through Spain and France and farmers have been hit hard, facing some of the driest soils on record. About 9m tonnes of grain are expected to be lost across Europe, with the worst maize harvest in 50 years expected in France, and Romanian farmers losing over a million hectares of crops.

Rivers are running low across Europe, cutting the generation of clean hydropower and restricting cargo ships. The Rhine at Lobith in the Netherlands is now lower than the minimum level seen in the hot summer of 1976. The scientists warned that this disruption could push up the price of food and energy, hitting low-income households hardest.

Europe correspondent

More than 20,000 people, including thousands of tourists from campsites and other holiday accommodation, have been evacuated as a “particularly intense” wildfire advances on the Atlantic coast of south-west France, authorities have said.

The blaze, which began in dense pine forest near the village of Saumos about 40km (25 miles) west of Bordeaux and just north of the bay of Arcachon, a popular tourist destination, had burned 2,400 hectares (5,928 acres) in less than 24 hours, firefighters said on Thursday.

No casualties had been reported or homes destroyed so far, they said, but the Gironde prefecture said that while 700 firefighters and four waterbombing planes were battling to bring the fire under control, the situation “remains unfavourable”.

France has endured three almost back-to-back heatwaves since May as climate breakdown leads to more frequent and intense extreme weather events causing thousands of excess deaths, evaporating soils and waterways and fuelling wildfires.

Nine local municipalities have opened reception centres for evacuees and were sheltering more than 2,500 people, the prefecture said. About 8,800 people were evacuated at midday on Thursday, after 2,000 in the morning and 10,000 overnight.

Numerous roads in the area – including those leading to the Cap Ferret peninsula a few kilometres to the south, home to the villas of celebrities and millionaires and one of France’s most exclusive holiday spots – were closed to all but essential traffic.

Let’s take a quick look at other news from across Europe.

Some shipping companies are suspending stops at Ukraine’s sea ports, shipowners and officials said, after Russia stepped up strikes of the country’s Black Sea coast, AFP reported.

The escalation in a region critical to global grain exports is driving up wheat prices as shipowners are deterred by mounting risks, said Lloyd’s List Intelligence, a maritime data company.

On Wednesday, “zero vessels passed through Ukraine’s Black Sea maritime corridor – right at peak harvest,” Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said, warning this was threatening global food security.

Two major shipping companies, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, said they were suspending operations in the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk.

“Recent missile and drone attacks in the Odesa region have significantly increased the operational and security risks,” Hapag-Lloyd said in a comment to AFP.

According to AFP’s monitoring of the MarineTraffic shipping tracker, no commercial vessel entered any Ukrainian Black Sea port so far on Thursday.

In Ukraine, a major exporter of grain and vegetable oil, 90 percent of exports pass through the Black Sea ports in and around Odesa.

Together, Russia and Ukraine account for roughly 30 percent of the global wheat market supply.

Separately, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy has also warned that Russia is likely to step up attacks on vessels in the Black Sea to undermine Ukraine’s grain corridor.

In comments reported by Interfax-Ukraine, Zelenskyy said that while “there are people near Putin who want to end the war: they see economic collapse, logistical collapse, there are [also] military personnel who want an expansion of the war, an increase in mobilization.”

“They want to kill us, and they want the continuation of this war. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare for the winter plan,” he was quoted as saying at a joint press conference with Ireland’s Martin.

The Ukrainian president also suggested he could soon continue talks with US negotiators, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, after they spoke on the phone last night.

“We discussed that there could be several ideas. I understand what these ideas are, which were briefly presented to me yesterday, … we will discuss them with the Americans. I will try to make sure we do this in the near future,” he said.

Zelenskyy also confirmed that he approached the sacked defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov with an offer to take the post of the deputy prime minister for military innovations.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy said three people were killed in a Russian strike on a business in Pavlohrad, with “dozens” of people injured.

“The Russians also hit Kherson with aerial bombs. Apartment buildings, ordinary homes, the regional children’s hospital, and educational institutions were damaged. People were injured. Russia also struck critical infrastructure in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions and launched missile attacks on the Odesa region.

Every day, Russia continues to terrorize our people. It uses various kinds of weapons against Ukraine – guided aerial bombs, missiles, and drones. Ensuring our ability to defend against these attacks is critical.

Our partners know what decisions can help. And above all, there must be no shortage of missiles for the Patriot systems. It’s important that our partners hear this. We’re working around the clock, at every level.”

Meanwhile, the Kremlin said that it was not overly optimistic about the ⁠prospects of ⁠a ​quick deal to end the conflict in Ukraine ⁠following a meeting between Russian and US foreign ministers in Manila, Reuters reported.

But Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that ​he hoped US peace envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would come to Moscow when they are ⁠available, and that Russia would ​continue ​dialogue with the US.

Washington’s ​efforts on Ukraine peace ​have largely ‌stalled as it ​has ​become distracted by its war in Iran, Reuters noted.

The adoption of the 21st package of sanctions coincides with the Irish prime minister Micheál Martin’s visit to Kyiv to show Ireland’s support for Ukraine.

Martin said:

“My visit to Kyiv early in the term of Ireland’s Presidency of the EU is important to underline the EU’s and Ireland’s continuing solidarity with the Ukrainian government and the people of Ukraine.

Having endured more than four years of brutal aggression against its people and territory, Ukraine continues to demonstrate tremendous resilience and courage in the face of relentless Russian attacks, which have intensified on Kyiv and other parts of the country in recent weeks.

I strongly condemn these actions, which have led to significant loss of life and risk further humanitarian crises, and call on Russia to end its war.”

Posting a video from their meeting on his social media channels, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy said:

“We value Ireland’s unwavering respect for our people. … We thank Ireland for this solidarity with Ukraine and our people. Eternal honor to all our defenders who gave their lives fighting for our country, for the Ukrainian people, and for Europe’s security. May the memory of every one of them live on forever.”

During the midday briefing, the European Commission also gets asked about the final shape of the sanctions as agreed this morning, and the LNG exemption secured by Greece (9:37).

But the deputy chief spokesperson, Olof Gill, doesn’t really want to comment on that, even as he gets repeatedly pushed on whether the Greek veto threat does not establish a potentially tricky precedent for future sanction packages.

He only says:

“I remind you that the construction and approval of the sanctions packages follows a very precise format and workflow: the Commission proposes, the member states discuss, the member states adopt.

That’s how it has worked in the previous 20 packages which are serving the attendant purpose of hitting the Russian war economy where it hurts, and that is the same purpose that the 21st package will also serve.”

Elsewhere, there is a big breaking news story in Brussels as Google has been fined a total of €890m (£760m) by the EU for breaches of online competition laws by its search and app store services.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said Google had broken the Digital Markets Act by giving priority to its own services such as shopping and hotel deals in search results over those of its rivals.

It also infringed the DMA by preventing app developers from steering consumers towards cheaper offers on websites or alternative app stores.

Dan Milmo and Lisa O’Carroll have all the details here:

Meanwhile, EU tech spokesperson Thomas Regnier told the midday briefing just now that:

“In the EU, businesses have the right to compete fairly. Gatekeepers have the obligation to ensure a level playing field, and consumers the right to choose for cheaper alternatives offers.”

Google has 60 days to comply with the DMA, and it can appeal against the decision and ask for interim measures including a request to suspend the measure.

But politically, the decision is likely to raise tensions with the US, with the US president, Donald Trump, known to be, erm, rather impulsive in his reactions.

I will keep an eye on this for you as he will no doubt not keep us waiting for his reaction for long.