🇺🇸🇷🇺🇺🇦 According to BILD, Ukrainian officials say Putin’s ambitions extend beyond the Donbas to include full control of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.

His proposal called only for a partial ceasefire –halting strikes on energy infrastructure and major cities– rather than ending the war entirely. The US countered by suggesting the conflict be frozen along the current front line in exchange for significant sanctions relief and new economic agreements with Moscow.

However, Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff reportedly misunderstood Putin’s terms. When Russia demanded a “peaceful withdrawal” of Ukrainian forces from Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, Witkoff mistakenly believed this was a concession, interpreting it as a Russian willingness to pull out of those very regions.

🇺🇦🇷🇺 Ukrainian AN-196 “Liutyi” kamikaze drone struck The Deng Xiaoping Logistics Terminal in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone (SEZ) of Tatarstan (1,230 km from the border).

It functions as a logistics hub facilitating container cargo shipments between Russia && China. The terminal may also have been used to transport components for the Shahed drones.

🇺🇸🇮🇷🇦🇲 Ali Akbar Velayati, the Supreme Leader’s international affairs advisor, said that Iran has stressed that with or without Russia, it will act to secure the South Caucasus, and that they believe Russia is strategically opposed to this corridor.

Velayati refers to yesterday’s agreement between Armenia and the US that will create a major transit corridor linking Azerbaijan to its exclave of Nakhchivan, with the US owning development rights to the corridor, which was named the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity.”

Velayati said that the corridor is designed to divide Armenia, and that US President Trump “thinks he is running a real estate agency and wants to rent land or a region.” Adding that the corridor will be a graveyard for “Trump’s mercenaries.”

🇪🇺🇺🇦🇷🇺 According to the Wall Street Journal, Europeans and Ukraine responded to Vladimir Putin’s cease-fire plan with a counterproposal that they say must serve as a framework so that coming talks between President Trump and the Russian leader can gain traction.

The European gambit rejected a Russian proposal to trade Ukrainian-held parts of the Donetsk region for a cease-fire. It was put forward in a meeting with top US officials in England on Saturday.

Europeans also plan to meet this week in the UK ahead of the Putin-Trump summit in Alaska.

🇮🇶🇮🇷🇺🇸 Velayati also said that Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq’s former Prime Minister and one of the country’s most influential politicians today, told him in a phone call that the US and Israel will move to dismantle the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) after they do the same to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

🇺🇸🇺🇦 The White House is discussing the possibility of inviting Ukraine’s President Vlodymir Zelensky to Alaska’s summit between the US and Russia next Friday, but a decision on the visit has not yet been made, NBC reports, citing informed officials.

🇺🇸🇷🇺🇺🇦 According to Wall Street Journal, US President Donald Trump told Ukraine’s Zelensky and European leaders following the visit of US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to Russia that Moscow was ready to withdraw from the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions in exchange for gaining full control of the Donetsk region.

However, a day later, Witkoff retracted this statement during a meeting with senior European officials, and on Friday, in another clarification call, Witkoff stated that Russia merely agreed to a ceasefire in exchange for Ukraine’s withdrawal from the Donetsk region.

🇺🇸🇷🇺 US Vice President JD Vance on the Ukraine War:

“We're done with the funding of the Ukraine war business. We want to bring about a peaceful settlement to this thing.”

🇺🇸🇷🇺 VP, JD Vance:

“Vladimir Putin said that he would never sit down with Zelensky, the head of Ukraine, and the President [Trump] has got that to change.

We are at a point now we are scheduling when these three leaders could sit down and discuss an end to this conflict.”

🇹🇷 An earthquake of magnitude 6.19 struck Turkey’s Balikesir province, near Istanbul, at a depth of 10 km (6.21 miles), at around 07:53PM local time (UTC+3).

🇷🇺🇺🇦 A Russian “Shahed-136/Geran-2” drone conducting remote mining by dropping Soviet-designed anti-vehicle (AV) PTM-3 mines on the logistics routes of Ukrainian forces in the east.

Russians also equipped these mines on the ZALA “Lancet” drones. These mines can detonate without a physical contact as they use magnetic fields to sense nearby objects.

Not only al-Sharif, but also the entire al-Jazeera journal team was eliminated by the airstrike, including a driver and two cameramen.

🇮🇱🇮🇷 Israel is likely to launch another war with Iran before December, perhaps even as early as late August. - Foreign Policy