Ukraine and the United States have reached a political agreement on licences for the production of PAC-3 Patriot interceptors, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Thursday. He added that key supplies of the missiles are expected to arrive in the next few days.
Patriot system details and drone deal
The Patriot is a US-made air defence system. Its PAC-3 interceptor is one of the few Western weapons capable of shooting down the ballistic missiles that Russia has increasingly fired at Ukrainian cities. Speaking to reporters after returning from a Nato summit and talks with US President Donald Trump in Turkey, Zelenskyy also said that discussions are proceeding with the US on a “drone deal” or joint drone production.
Zelenskyy further noted that talks will continue with Ukraine’s European allies on developing a separate anti-missile system. A meeting is planned for France in the near future. “It’s for ballistic targets, similar to Patriot, but more, I would say, mass-produced and a cheaper system,” he said. However, a top Ukrainian official cautioned that it could take a year or more for the country to produce Patriot interceptor missiles domestically.
Kremlin reaction and Russian strikes
The Kremlin said the licence deal reflected what it called Washington’s “ambivalence” but noted it appreciated Trump’s efforts to help broker a peace deal to end the war, which Russia launched over four years ago. Zelenskyy said on Thursday that Russia struck an ammunition warehouse during its attack on the Kyiv region earlier this week, adding that a criminal probe has been launched. In the small town of Vyshneve on Kyiv’s western outskirts, the Russian strike hit the warehouse and set off massive secondary explosions on 6 July. Ukrainian officials said 10 people were killed in Vyshneve and hundreds of houses were damaged. Ukrainian officials rarely disclose damage to military targets after Russian attacks.
Civilian casualties rise
Russian strikes killed at least 265 civilians in Ukraine and injured 1,816 in June, the highest combined casualty count since the first months after Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, a top UN official told the Security Council on Thursday. UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo said the number of civilians killed and injured in Ukraine in May had been the highest since April 2022, but data from the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) pointed to an even higher toll in June, and possibly July. In total, OHCHR has verified that at least 16,402 civilians, including 802 children, have been killed in Ukraine since the start of the war, and 48,428 have been injured, including 2,948 children. Russian authorities have reported that 250 civilians were killed and 1,596 were injured inside Russia in the first six months of 2026, but the UN was not in a position to verify the reports, DiCarlo said.
Conscription unrest in Lviv
Ukraine opened a criminal investigation Thursday, a day after crowds in the western city of Lviv surrounded and overturned an army conscription vehicle. The incident drew a swift backlash from top Ukrainian officials, including Zelenskyy, who called it “a very bad story.” Ukraine has seen a steady increase in clashes between citizens and army conscription police since Russia’s invasion in 2022, with authorities reporting over a hundred such incidents this year alone. The unrest erupted after officers detained a man suspected of evading military service and took him to a draft centre, authorities said. Videos published on social media showed crowds surrounding and attacking a vehicle in Lviv late Wednesday, shouting “shame” and filming with their phones. A police officer who arrived to calm the crowd was later attacked, according to prosecutors.
