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Trump grants Kyiv Patriots licences: What’s next in the Russia-Ukraine war?

Trump grants Kyiv Patriots licences: What’s next in the Russia-Ukraine war?

Kyiv, Ukraine – Patriot missile interceptors are the most coveted Western-made weapon Ukraine needs – right now and every night when Russia attacks. Frequent Russian strikes depleted Ukraine’s stock of the pricey United States-made interceptors – and US President Donald Trump has now offered hope, giving Kyiv a licence to make them. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list “A little birdie told me this, about the fact that we’ll give them the right to make Patriots. We’ll show them how to do it, it’s very complex actually. But it’s – you’ll figure out the complexity quickly,” Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a NATO summit in Turkiye on Wednesday. “This way, you can’t complain that we’re not giving them enough.” Trump has not specified when the production might start – and said that Washington would hold on to its own stash. Ukraine said it will attempt to master domestic production as soon as possible. In the short-term perspective, Ukraine “perhaps, gets nothing,” according to Nikolay Mitrokhin, a researcher with Germany’s Bremen University. However, “access to US technologies can significantly speed up or develop Ukraine’s domestic program of ballistic and counter-ballistic missiles,” he told Al Jazeera. Ukraine may opt to produce cheaper and simpler missiles, and it may take less than a year, he said. “However, we can’t rule out that such a programme already exists and has only been made public,” he said. Ukraine seeks to produce missiles that are only part of the Patriot surface-to-air systems that also consist of missile launchers, a radar and a control van. The van lets the system move around to avoid detection and consequent strikes. [Al Jazeera] But it is other “little birdies” that make the difference on the front lines of the Russia-Ukraine war. Advertisement A Ukrainian spy drone recently froze 80 metres above a forest patch in the no-man’s land in the northeastern Kharkiv region. The drone’s operator, who was sitting in a bunker dozens of kilometres west of the patch, saw a hole in the ground where a Russian soldier clad in grey-green camouflage was hiding. The soldier sneaked there as part of Moscow’s new tactic of dispatching two or three “infiltrators” to bypass porous Ukrainian positions – because larger groups are easier to detect and destroy. The drone’s operator, whose video stream Al Jazeera observed in real time from his commander’s laptop, clicked and clacked to call for help. In less than a minute, an explosives-laden kamikaze drone flew right into the hole. The spy drone’s operator yelled a triumphant expletive – and flew his drone farther east. “I receive streams from 20, 30 drones at once,” the unit’s commander told Al Jazeera, withholding his and his unit’s name and exact location in accordance with wartime protocol. The scene is but an episode in the daily life and death of Ukrainian and Russian soldiers, but it puts an end to the millennia-old concept of a “front line,” where soldiers actually see – and kill – each other. ‘Network-centric warfare’ When the war began in 2022, it was two ex-Soviet armies fighting each other using World War II stratagems and relying on tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery that now seem hopelessly extinct. Instead, “things are moving towards further development of the conception of network-centric warfare,” Pavel Luzin, a military analyst with the Jamestown Foundation, a think tank in Washington, DC, told Al Jazeera. He referred to real-time connection between commanders, servicemen and their weaponry that helps achieve faster command speed and combat advantage. And as a conscription and desertion crisis widens, Ukraine’s military increasingly relies on fast technological solutions such as ground robots that blow up enemy bunkers, fire machineguns, deliver food and ammunition, and rescue wounded soldiers. “If we didn’t have a shortage of soldiers, the generals would still be sending soldiers to the front line,” Ihor Chaikivsky, head of the Robotic Complexes company that produces cart-like ground robots in the western city of Ternopil, told Al Jazeera. “We didn’t want to go to the front line, didn’t want to die in the trenches, so we started using ground robots.” While some solutions may seem low-tech, others use artificial intelligence with lethal precision. Hornets, inexpensive mid-range strike drones made by Swift Beat, a company of Google’s ex-CEO Eric Schmidt, use AI to identify Russian fuel tankers, supply trucks and military columns – and cannot be stopped by electronic jamming. Advertisement A Ukrainian drone operator is anticipating the detection of enemy soldiers to be “outsourced” to AI. “I could have missed someone in the foliage. AI won’t, and then there’s gonna be nowhere to hide,” Andriy told Al Jazeera, withholding his last name in accordance with wartime protocol. Ukrainian military experts: Russia needs more air defence but can still hit back Meanwhile, Ukrainian drone and missile strikes have gone beyond Russia’s European region, using one of Moscow’s biggest miscalculations. Instead of investing in air defence, the Kremlin focused on the manufacturing of costly missiles. As a result, Russia’s enormous size – with a dwindling population of less than 145 million, its area is almost as large as the United States and India combined – makes air defence increasingly difficult. “Their air defence can’t handle their tasks effectively with the tools they have,” Lieutenant-General Ihor Romanenko, former deputy head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, told Al Jazeera. “They need a lot more [equipment] in the wider spectrum of air and missile defence.” On Tuesday, Russia’s largest oil refinery in the city of Omsk in southwestern Siberia stopped operating after a Ukrainian drone strike a day earlier. On the same day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy proclaimed that the war would be won “in the skies”. “We have moved into the air domain. And in the air, we are already competitive,” Zelenskyy told The Financial Times. “The decisive struggle will take place in the skies.” But his former top general warned that Ukrainian strikes alone will not yield a decisive victory. “These attacks are expensive,

Bomb attacks rattle Damascus but for most Syrians, life goes on

Bomb attacks rattle Damascus but for most Syrians, life goes on

Damascus, Syria – At a cafe in central Damascus, lines of chairs sat dormant outside an empty cafe. Mohammad al-Dahabi, the cafe’s owner, pulled away one chair, revealing a small crater on the floor. “This is where the explosion happened,” al-Dahabi said about the July 2 bomb blast that took place at the cafe close to Damascus’s Justice Palace and killed at least 10 people. “If it had gone off a half hour later, everyone would have [already] left for the day.” Damascus was hit by three explosions over the past week, with one on July 2 followed by two more blasts on July 7 near the Four Seasons Hotel, where French President Emmanuel Macron was staying during a visit to the Syrian capital. That attack killed one person and wounded 36. The attacks have rattled many people living in Damascus and pointed to the continuing challenges the Syrian government faces in bringing security to the capital. Some residents said years of instability had adapted them to dealing with such events, but there was still a fear when visiting certain parts of central Damascus. “Many residents felt Damascus was gradually returning to a more normal rhythm of life,” Navvar Saban, a researcher in security and military affairs at the Arab Center for Contemporary Syrian Studies, told Al Jazeera about life before this week’s attacks. Late Thursday evening, Syrian officials said they had apprehended an ISIL- (ISIS)-linked cell responsible for Tuesday’s blasts. “The cell responsible for the terrorist bombings that targeted Damascus two days ago is now in our custody,” Interior Minister Anas Khattab posted on X, formerly Twitter. Advertisement No group took responsibility for the attacks. Saban said that by going after symbolic targets at sensitive moments, the attackers appeared to be trying to disrupt people’s sense of security in the capital. “These attacks appear aimed at damaging the perception of stability rather than demonstrating the existence of a large operational capability,” he said. Security challenges The fall of the al-Assad regime in December 2024 came after years of fighting and Syria’s slow decline into a devastated country with a barely functioning state. The challenge for Syria since al-Assad’s departure has been tenfold: The economy is in ruins, infrastructure is crumbling if existent at all, electricity is sparse, and there is a genuine fear among locals about security in the country. Many of those challenges still exist around Syria, though analysts said there had been progress, particularly in Damascus. Syria’s security forces have arrested dozens of operatives of ISIL and foiled numerous assassination plots in the little more than a year and a half since al-Assad’s fall. “These attacks do not erase the progress made in Damascus, but they do show how conditional that progress still is,” Nanar Hawach, senior Syria analyst at the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera. “The capital has looked stable on the surface for some time, while the harder work of penetrating clandestine networks and urban peripheries remains incomplete.” The arrest of an ISIL-linked cell is consistent with previous attacks in Damascus, including an attack on a church in June 2025 that killed at least 25 people. “The targets fit its logic of perpetrating attacks that deepen communal fear while exposing the government’s inability to protect,” Hawach said. “ISIL has a record of using deniable channels, front groups, or strategic silence when public ownership would be less useful than leaving the state and its rivals guessing.” Little choice but to continue On Thursday evening, a policeman outside the Ministry of Tourism, across from the Four Seasons hotel where Tuesday’s explosion happened, picked up a piece of metal stashed in a plant pot. He said it was once part of a rubbish dumpster where the explosive device had been stashed. He arrived at the scene shortly after the blast and found a colleague with a badly wounded leg. A charred tree trunk stood nearby that locals said was a result of the second bombing just a few steps away. The attacks did not appear to disrupt foot or car traffic. A highway facing the blast sites was packed with cars, and locals walked past it or sat in a park across the street. But Razan Rashidi, executive director of The Syria Campaign, said the attacks have inspired fear among many residents of the city. Advertisement “A lot of the anxiety is around the attacks that have happened near places like the courthouse and other government institutions where people need to process official paperwork,” she said. Unfortunately, many in Damascus are used to living with this kind of violence, she added. “At the same time, I wouldn’t say the current situation has completely disrupted people’s daily livelihoods,” she said. “Most people continue because they have no other choice.” Mirella Abou Chanab, a journalist based in Damascus, said that after all the years of war, many locals had gotten used to such incidents. “Generally speaking, it hasn’t changed our daily lives.” Life carries on Back at the cafe, Mohammad stood in front and pointed towards the sky. “This used to all be covered,” he said. The fabric awning that used to provide shade was tattered from the explosion. Mohammad has shut down his cafe, a spot near the Justice Palace popular for lawyers and working-class people, since the attack, which took place as high-profile trials of prominent al-Assad regime figures were being held. This includes Atef Najib, a notorious security chief accused of torturing children in Deraa in 2011, Wassim al-Assad, a fighter group commander, and former Grand Mufti Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun, with their cases drawing huge media attention in the country. Analysts say that Syrian security forces are stretched, handling threats from both elements of the former regime and ISIL-linked cells. But they also said the past week’s attacks do not indicate a complete collapse of security. “There is a difference between isolated security breaches and a general collapse of security,” Saban said. “This attack appears aimed at damaging the perception of stability rather than demonstrating

EU states do not need ‘consensus’ to hold Israel accountable

EU states do not need ‘consensus’ to hold Israel accountable

On July 13, European Union foreign ministers are due to meet again at the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels. The agenda includes an “exchange of views on Gaza and the West Bank” and is expected to cover settlement trade, the EU-Israel Association Agreement, possible sanctions on Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and proposals to restrict, rather than ban, goods from illegal Israeli settlements. If previous efforts are any guide, the July meeting will follow a familiar pattern: Hesitation, euphemism and no meaningful action to hold Israel accountable. The stated obstacle will likely be a “lack of consensus”. In practice, that phrase has become the bloc’s preferred way of masking collective inaction. Germany and Italy, backed by several Eastern European states, have repeatedly blocked meaningful action in response to Israel’s violations. Other member states, meanwhile, have remained largely paralysed, shifting responsibility between national governments and EU institutions instead of taking decisive steps. Yet the EU and its member states continue to invoke the language of international law while refusing to apply it when Israel is concerned. The gap between principle and practice, between rhetoric and action, is no longer a diplomatic inconsistency. It has become policy. That is becoming harder to justify and harder to hide. According to reports on a leaked 2017 legal memo, the EU had already been advised that it had legal grounds to suspend the Association Agreement, the political and trade framework governing the bloc’s relations with Israel. Another investigation has shown that Israel has damaged or destroyed more than 150 million euros ($172m) in EU-funded infrastructure in Gaza and the West Bank without accountability, while settlement goods continue to enter European markets under misleading labels. At the same time, United Nations and human rights bodies have continued to document grave violations, including a June 2026 report by a UN human rights body that described the deliberate targeting of Palestinian children in Palestine as amounting to genocide, alongside crimes against humanity and war crimes. Advertisement The recent episode involving EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas exposed how far the EU has submitted to Israeli pressure. Reports that she compared Israeli practices to apartheid in a closed meeting triggered a furious response from Israeli officials, with Israel’s foreign minister saying he was severing all contact with her until she retracted the remarks. The European Commission’s response was to send another commissioner to Israel to reassure officials that relations would remain intact. That is the real message from Brussels: Preserving ties with Israel matters more than internal solidarity, self-respect, or the EU’s stated commitment to international law and its own values. Pressure at the EU level is essential, and exposing the complicity of EU institutions and leaders must remain a priority. But accountability cannot end there. Member states, especially those that claim to uphold Palestinian rights and international law, must also be held responsible for their ongoing complicity. The International Court of Justice was clear in July 2024: Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory is unlawful. It violates the Palestinian right to self-determination and must end. Settlement activity must stop immediately, and Israel’s policies breach the international prohibition on racial segregation and apartheid. The court did not stop at Israel. It ruled that every state, not just Israel, is legally bound not to recognise the occupation as lawful, not to aid or assist in sustaining it, and to cooperate to bring it to an end. EU member states do not only have a legal obligation to act. They also have tools at their disposal that do not require EU-wide consensus. Member states can suspend bilateral cooperation, including visa facilitation and cultural or scientific exchanges; apply national export-control regimes to block arms, military equipment and dual-use transfers to Israel; and adopt national measures to ban trade with illegal settlements. They may also impose targeted sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, against individuals implicated in serious violations of international law. They can press the EU to activate the Blocking Statute against US sanctions targeting those pursuing accountability at the ICC, while ensuring continued funding for Palestinian civil society. They can pursue accountability through domestic courts, support the enforcement of ICC arrest warrants, and contribute to the implementation of ICJ rulings and advisory opinions. They can also formally intervene in South Africa’s genocide case before the International Court of Justice. Advertisement The EU and its member states have spent two and a half years finding reasons not to act. The July Council should expose that reality plainly, especially with Ireland holding the rotating presidency from July 1 to December 31, 2026 and having the institutional power to translate its words into action. The issue is no longer whether the bloc has the legal tools. It does. The question is whether member states will keep outsourcing responsibility to Brussels or finally act within their own powers. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy. Adblock test (Why?)