LONG READ: Zelenskiy sounding increasingly desperate as the hunt for air defence ammo fails

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is starting to sound desperate. A terrifying winter bombardment by Russian missiles is clearly on the way as soon as the mercury begins to fall. Kyiv is down to its last Patriot interceptor missile.

Trump flip-flops on Patriot license for Ukraine promise

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has asked Washington for an emergency package of 300 Patriot missiles, warning that Ukraine’s reserves are running dangerously low ahead of an anticipated Russian winter campagin.

The Russia, Ukraine drone war shifts to crippling ports

Ukraine's long-range drone campaign has entered a new phase, shifting from attacks on Russia's military infrastructure to systematic strikes on the commercial ports, grain terminals and oil export facilities that underpin both countries' economies.

Emerging-market ratings have absorbed the Iran war so far, but the buffers are thinning - Fitch

Emerging-market sovereign ratings have proved largely resilient to the US-Iran war in the first half of 2026, Fitch Ratings finds in its Global Emerging Markets Credit Brief for 3Q26 even though the outlook for a third is deteriorating.

Russia begins mass production of cheap, upgraded Banderol cruise missile

America's missile shield is running low just as Ukraine asks for more

A renewed Iran war would test already-diminished US interceptor inventories, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) warned in a July 27 analysis by Mark F. Cancian and Chris H. Park, as combat operations since a ceasefire collapse

Russia leans on glide bombs to grind out gains at Kostyantynivka

Russia has increased its use of its powerful FAB glide bombs to enable infantry advances in and around the key Donbas “fortress city” of Kostiantynivka, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in its July 29 campaign assessment.

Ukraine's refinery strikes settle into a routine of damage, repair and restart

Ukraine's long-range drone campaign against Russian oil refineries has become routine enough that analysts are now describing it as a predictable cycle rather than a series of shocks: strike, assess damage, repair, and restart.

Drought grips Central Europe, disrupting nuclear power, shipping and agriculture

Europe's worst drought in decades has brought shipping on parts of the Danube to a standstill, threatened nuclear power generation and exposed growing vulnerabilities as climate change pushes temperatures to unprecedented levels.

Kyrgyzstan gained UN Security Council seat; now comes hard part

Bishkek’s priorities to include climate, Afghan reintegration into world order.

One war, three continents and total slippage

A drone hit on a US gas carrier at Damietta puts the Iran war on the Mediterranean shore. From the Caspian to the Gulf of Aden, one conflict now spans three continents. It is wide but not yet deep, and widening is its own escalation.

Ukraine closing the missile gap on Russia from a standing start

Soviet Ukraine once built some of Moscow's deadliest missiles: the Yuzhmash plant in Dnipro produced the SS-18 intercontinental ballistic missile, technology reportedly still echoing decades later in North Korea's own missile engines.

Operation Wildberries: both sides are now targeting each other's civilian economy

A Ukrainian drone strike hit a Wildberries logistics warehouse in Ryazan overnight on July 28-29, forcing the company to evacuate the site and halt deliveries.

Ukraine's scam call centres earn $1bn a month, study finds

Ukraine's scam call-centre industry generates as much as $1bn a month, according to a new report by the Geneva-based Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), which estimates that around 60,000 Ukrainians work in the trade.

Ukraine's credit boom broadens as war reshapes lending

Ukrainian banks are in the middle of their longest lending expansion in 15 years, according to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), with state-owned PrivatBank leading a corporate-credit surge, businesses of every size turning to bank financing.

Ivan Aivazovsky and the cultural front of the Russia-Ukraine War

Aivazovsky was not ethnically Russian. His birth name was Hovhannes Aivazian and his parents were displaced Armenians. He was baptised in the local Armenian Apostolic church and later in his life signed paintings in Armenian.

Geopolitical shocks, climate risks leave millions unable to afford healthy diets in Europe, Central Asia

Climate change, water scarcity, geopolitical tensions and volatile markets are creating new vulnerabilities that threaten both agricultural production and consumer access to nutritious food, says new FAO report.

Has Ukraine declared war on Iran?

Ukraine's Caspian strike killed an Iranian sailor and drew a retaliation threat from Tehran. Kyiv calls it interdicting the Iran-Russia arms route, but firing on a third state's vessel outside any declared war raises a harder question.

China to open Afghanistan border after nearly a century? Iran to bomb “Trump” route? “Cargo corridor” journalism is where it’s at nowadays

Wars are reshaping countries’ thinking on how to get goods in and out.

COMMENT: The four-power alliance that needs no treaty

An Ankara conference has urged a Turkey, Russia, China and Iran alliance to deter the US. The treaty may never be signed, but the trade flows, pipelines and payment systems suggest the bloc already exists in all but name.