US Ready to Help End 'Senseless War' in Ukraine, But No Quick Deal Ahead, Rubio Says

Russian leader Vladimir Putin is losing a “staggering number” of troops – upwards of 5,000 to 6,000 in a week – in his war against Ukraine, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said.

Rubio said the conflict is one of the only wars in history where the number of troops killed in combat is exceeding the number of troops injured.

He added: “Russia is now suffering strikes deep in its territory, that’s something we didn’t see [before].”

Reiterating president Donald Trump’s central objective, Rubio said the US wants “that people stop dying, that people stop being slaughtered.”

"At the end of the year, winter is still going to hit Ukraine, they're obviously going to have to defend their airspace and there are people suffering every day,” Rubio said in Manila yesterday.

The US, he said, is ready to play a constructive role to end the “senseless war”.

Meanwhile in Kyiv, ousted defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov has refused to accept an alternative post Volodymyr Zelensky has offered him after massive protests and said he wants his role back.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio said that the Trump administration is poised to help end the “senseless war” in Ukraine but acknowledged there is no quick path to a deal, saying diplomacy will require sustained effort and new ideas.

Rubio, who held talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in the Philippine capital, alluded to how US-mediated talks have stalled.

He called them “unsuccessful or at least unfruitful” in the past but insisted that president Donald Trump was committed to the work “if conditions and factors have changed to make that possible.”

“That’s been the challenge — an end that both sides can accept," Rubio told reporters.

“We’ve tried and we’ll continue to try to see if we can, you know, find a middle ground that brings this about. And we’re prepared to play that role if the opportunity presents itself.”

A warehouse of the leading Russian online retailer Wildberries in the Leningrad region has caught fire after a Ukrainian drone attack, governor Alexander Drozdenko said on Friday.

Three ‌people were injured, ⁠he added. Wildberries said that the work of two of ‌its logistics ​sites ‌in ⁠the region ⁠had been halted.

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, prime minister Micheal Martin said on Thursday.

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.

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.

"The investigation has not found concrete or definitive evidence linking the alumina to a weapons manufacturer ‌in Russia," Martin told a joint press ‌conference with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky during a visit to Kyiv.

"That said, neither has it found definitive evidence that alumina may not be ⁠going to weapons manufacturers."

Martin said the investigation is almost complete and would be shared with the European Commission once it is finalised.

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has said sanctions were having an effect on Russia's economy and have made it harder for Moscow to raise capital abroad.

“We also see that due to the sanctions, they can't raise capital outside,” she said.

“It ​is clear that if we put this in place, it has an effect together with ‌other elements,” she said.

The European Union approved its 21st sanctions package against Russia over its war in Ukraine, imposing curbs on the country's banking sector and cryptocurrency networks, the Council of the EU said yesterday.

Kallas said sanctions were only one element of a broader European strategy to pressure ‌Russia into serious negotiations with ​Ukraine.

"We have different elements of this approach. The sanctions are ‌just one of them," she said. "We are ​looking at what more we can do to pressure Russia to actually sit around the negotiation table and negotiate with Ukraine."

A warehouse of Russia’s online retailer Wildberries in the Leningrad region has been set on fire in a Ukrainian drone strike, the regional governor said this morning.

Kyiv has broadened its campaign against a company at the heart of Russia's consumer economy.

Kyiv has now struck four warehouses owned by the company beginning on the weekend on the grounds that they are part of infrastructure that supports the Russian military.

The Kremlin has denied that Wildberries handles military supplies. Russia has targeted Ukraine's logistics hubs as well as its energy system and power grid.

Arkady Dvorkovich, the Russian president of the International Chess Federation (FIDE), announced today that he was suspending his activity with the organisation after being placed on the latest European Union sanctions list.

The EU's 21st sanctions ⁠package, issued in connection with Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, imposes punitive measures against 170 entities and 48 individuals. Measures include asset freezes, travel and transaction bans.

Dvorkovich, in a statement on the FIDE website, denounced the EU move as "unlawful and unfair" and pledged to challenge it by all possible means.

“However, given that until a formal court ⁠decision is rendered and/or such decision is cancelled or amended, ​these ⁠sanctions could hinder the ‌stable functioning of FIDE, I have decided to voluntarily suspend the exercise of my powers and duties as FIDE President ‌with immediate effect..." he said.

Military activity has hit water supplies to parts of the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station and nearby areas of southeastern Ukraine, the UN nuclear power watchdog said.

Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in a statement there was no shortage of well water needed to ensure fuel in the reactors remained cool.

But attacks in ​and ⁠around the city of ‌Enerhodar, where many of the plant's staff live, had “targeted, among other locations, local electrical infrastructure, leading to a loss ‌of water supply in the city ‌and at the ZNPP site.”

“Reliable access to basic services and supplies is important for staff well-being and for the continuity of their essential work," Grossi said, adding that IAEA monitors stationed at the plant had had "only limited access to tap water since 18 July.”

Grossi, who has visited the plant several times since it came under Russian operation, made no reference to either Ukraine or Russia in terms of the ‌military activity in the area.

He said the IAEA on-site team had not been able to visit a nearby emergency operations center since December because of security concerns.

Russia's state ⁠nuclear corporation Rosatom last week said a Ukrainian drone had killed ‌the plant's chief ​engineer.

In his latest statement, Grossi repeated that nuclear power plant staff “must be protected at all times.”

Ousted Ukrainian defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov said he would accept no other government position besides his former job, escalating a political crisis that has gripped Ukraine at a pivotal point in the war with Russia.

Fedorov's surprise dismissal this month had sparked rare wartime protests prompting president Volodymyr Zelensky to replace his unpopular top general with a respected younger commander.

Zelensky said on Thursday he had offered Fedorov several other roles, including vice prime minister for defence innovation, but has not indicated he would reappoint him to the defence ministry.

Fedorov said only the positions of president, military chief and defence minister could "actually shape the course of the war".

"No other role carries the actual authority to combat procurement corruption, complete the army's transformation, plan and execute asymmetric operations against the enemy," he said.

Discussions between Zelensky and Fedorov were still ongoing, according to a source familiar with the matter.

"I think they will talk more," the source said.

Shipowners have halted vessel arrivals at Ukraine's Black Sea ports due to intensified Russian strikes, Kyiv said, as president Volodymyr Zelensky warned Moscow might escalate attacks in order to block the country's main corridor for grain exports.

In recent weeks, Russia has pummelled logistics and port infrastructure in the southern Odesa region with missiles and drones.

On Sunday, a missile strike on a ship carrying corn killed 10 people, mostly foreigners, Ukrainian officials said. “Yesterday... not a single ship entered ​the ⁠port,” Zelensky told reporters on Thursday.

“They've been hitting all the ships. They're going to step this up.”

Russia struck 28 civilian vessels and killed 21 people from 20 June to 20 July, according to Odesa regional prosecutors cited by local media.

Shipowners wary of the attacks have temporarily suspended vessel arrivals meant to pick up agricultural products at the ports, Ukraine's agriculture minister Taras Vysotskyi said on Wednesday.

“Ukraine, as a state, has not imposed any restrictions," Vysotskyi was cited as saying by Interfax-Ukraine.

Laura Loomer, an ardent ally of president Donald Trump with a reputation for incendiary social media commentary, sat down with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday after a dramatic turnaround on the war that could have political reverberations back in Washington.

Loomer had spent years minimising Russia's invasion of Ukraine and amplifying Russian propaganda to her nearly 2 million followers. This week she had a change of heart.

“Just experienced my first air raid in Ukraine. Sirens blaring. This is everyday for every Ukrainian,” Loomer wrote on X during her visit to the country.

“I often said I don’t care. Looking back, that wasn’t very nice of me to say.”