Is the war entering a new phase? Civilian casualties in the war between Russia and Ukraine are increasing sharply, mainly because of long-range ballistic missiles and drones "affecting densely populated urban areas that are far away from the front line", the United Nations says. Danielle Bell, head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday that the unit documented 1,396 civilians killed and 7,978 wounded in Ukraine in the first six months of 2026. Pointing to credible Russian open-source reporting, Bell said 250 civilians had been killed and 1,596 injured in attacks inside Russia during the first six months of this year. "This represents a 121 percent increase in civilian casualties in the Russian Federation compared with last year," she said.

Is the war entering a new phase? A Russian strike on a ship near the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa has killed at least 10 people, while Ukraine has launched hundreds of drones to attack Moscow, a day after Kyiv was hit by one of the heaviest barrages of ballistic missiles of the war. Russia struck a Guinea-Bissau-flagged ship carrying corn with a crew from India and Syria, Ukraine's seaports authority said on Monday. Officials said eight crew members had been rescued. "Since the beginning of July, the Odesa region was under constant daily shelling. There were days when 13 to 15 air raid alerts had been announced in the region," Kiper told Ukrainian television.

Is the war entering a new phase? Ukrainian drone attacks in western Russia have killed at least eight people and wounded dozens, according to local officials, as Ukraine and Russia continue to exchange strikes. Tambov Governor Evgeniy Pervyshov said on Saturday that an attack on Kotovsk struck a warehouse owned by Wildberries, Russia's largest online retailer. Another 25 people were wounded, including one person in critical condition and six seriously, with most of the injuries caused by shrapnel, he said. According to the governor, 28 drones had been intercepted.

But he was acclaimed for his reforms while serving as Ukraine's minister of digital transformation, and his new duties included logistics, budgets, reforms, anticorruption measures and deals to secure multibillion-dollar Western aid or loans. After his appointment in January, Fedorov provided Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with a list of urgent problems and ways to solve them. He mentioned a "chaotic" management system, constant rotations of commanding officers, non-transparent distribution of arms and military equipment, bureaucracy, resistance to reforms from Commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskii's General Staff of Armed Forces, decision-making based on loyalty and not data analysis, and "isolation" of effective commanders and proponents of reforms. Then on Wednesday, just seven months into his role, Fedorov was removed from his position by Zelenskyy. The changes that Fedorov was trying to bring about in Ukraine's military had angered Syrskii. But Fedorov's ouster appears to have angered Ukrainians even more -- potentially presenting Zelenskyy with a political challenge. Rallies, relatively large by wartime Ukraine's standards, have since erupted in Kyiv and key Ukrainian cities. "He's a young, smart, educated person who proved with his previous job that he really is a reformer and can make Ukraine a nation of the future," Taisiya, who rallied on Thursday in central Kyiv, told Al Jazeera.

Is the war entering a new phase? Several people have been killed in Russian attacks on port infrastructure in Odesa and Mykolaiv, and Ukraine said it launched drone strikes on 20 Russian vessels as the warring sides escalated their battle over the Black Sea and key trade routes. Odesa region Governor Oleh Kiper said on Wednesday that a "massive" Russian drone and missile attack on the southern region continued for a fifth day, with civilian, industrial and port infrastructure coming under attack. Russia's Ministry of Defence confirmed the strikes on the Odesa and Chernomorsk ports, saying Russian forces targeted infrastructure facilities that it claims are used to store fuel and assemble drones. Russia in recent days has stepped up attacks on Ukraine's Black Sea ports in the Greater Odesa area, which handle much of the country's grain and other cargo and are vital to its wartime economy.

Is the war entering a new phase? 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. 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.

Is the war entering a new phase? Russian missile and drone strikes on Ukraine have killed at least eight people and wounded 34 others, Ukrainian authorities say, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the "horrific attacks". Zelenskyy said on Monday that at least five people were killed and 28 wounded in a Russian missile attack on Dnipro city, an industrial hub around 100 km (62 miles) from the front line, that is regularly targeted by Russian forces. He posted images of a building with shattered windows and a blurred photo of a body lying near a stairwell. "People have traumatic brain injuries, shrapnel wounds, fractures and blast trauma," he said.

Is the war entering a new phase? At least five people have been killed in a Ukrainian attack on Russia and the Crimean peninsula as Kyiv steps up strikes, according to the Russian-appointed governor in the annexed region. Crimea Governor Sergey Aksyonov said two people, including a child, were killed and two others wounded following "overnight enemy attacks" into Thursday. Russia's defence ministry said 269 Ukrainian drones were downed over Russia and Crimea overnight. The head of the Krasnoarmeysk district in Krasnodar Krai said debris from a drone strike triggered an oil depot fire.

A pregnant woman and two others were killed in Russian strikes on Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region, while two people were killed in Donetsk, Ukrainian officials have said. The overnight missile attacks on the town of Chuhuiv also injured six people and caused damage to residential buildings and shops, the regional prosecutor's office said on Tuesday. Photos shared online by officials show a burning building and burnt-out cars. Two people were killed in Bilozerske and Druzhkivka on Monday, Vadym Filashkin, head of the Donetsk state administration, said on Facebook, with 11 others injured in Sloviansk and Shabelkivka. The strikes come after Ukraine intensified its long-range drone strikes on Russian oil facilities, prompting fuel shortages, while Russia conducted large air attacks on the country.

What are Russia's gains from the Iran war? 'We are not losers; we are winners' More than 15,800 people killed in Russia's all-out war on Ukraine: UN The United Nations has said 15,850 people, including 791 children, have been killed in Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion of the neighbouring country in February 2022. The "actual figures are likely significantly higher", Kayoko Gotoh, Europe and Central Asia director of the UN's Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA), told the UN Security Council on Tuesday. US President Donald Trump has attempted to mediate and announced the most recent three-day ceasefire earlier this month, but fighting has resumed. Tuesday's Russian attacks on Ukraine killed at least six people. A 15-year-old boy was among three people killed in a Russian ballistic missile attack on the city of Pryluky in north-central Ukraine's Chernihiv region on Tuesday morning, according to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine.