12 Ukrainian Soldiers Killed in Russian Strike on Army Training Unit

 Servicemen of the 43rd Separate Artillery Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces fire a 2S7 Pion self-propelled gun toward Russian positions, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, on a front line in Donetsk region, Ukraine May 30, 2025. (Reuters)
Servicemen of the 43rd Separate Artillery Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces fire a 2S7 Pion self-propelled gun toward Russian positions, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, on a front line in Donetsk region, Ukraine May 30, 2025. (Reuters)
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12 Ukrainian Soldiers Killed in Russian Strike on Army Training Unit

 Servicemen of the 43rd Separate Artillery Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces fire a 2S7 Pion self-propelled gun toward Russian positions, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, on a front line in Donetsk region, Ukraine May 30, 2025. (Reuters)
Servicemen of the 43rd Separate Artillery Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces fire a 2S7 Pion self-propelled gun toward Russian positions, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, on a front line in Donetsk region, Ukraine May 30, 2025. (Reuters)

At least 12 Ukrainian service members were killed and more than 60 were injured in a Russian missile strike on the location of a Ukrainian army training unit Sunday, according to a statement from the Ukrainian Ground Forces.

The strike occurred at 12:50 p.m. the statement said, emphasizing that no formations or mass gatherings of personnel were being held at the time. An investigative commission was created to uncover the circumstances around the attack that led to such a loss in personnel, the statement said.

The training unit is located to the rear of the 1,000-kilometer active front line, where Russian reconnaissance and strike drones are able to strike.

Ukraine’s forces suffer from manpower shortages and take extra precautions to avoid mass gatherings as the skies across the front line are saturated with Russian drones looking for targets.

“If it is established that the actions or inaction of officials led to the death or injury of servicemen, those responsible will be held strictly accountable,” the Ukrainian Ground Forces' statement said.

Northern pressure

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Sunday that it had taken control of the village of Oleksiivka in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region.

Ukrainian authorities in Sumy ordered mandatory evacuations in 11 more settlements Saturday as Russian forces make steady gains in the area.

Speaking Saturday, Ukraine’s top army chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said that Russian forces were focusing their main offensive efforts on Pokrovsk, Toretsk and Lyman in the Donetsk region, as well as the Sumy border area.

The strikes come amid continuing uncertainty as to whether Kyiv diplomats will attend a new round of peace talks proposed by Moscow for early next week in Istanbul. Ukrainian officials have called on the Kremlin to provide a promised memorandum setting out its position on ending the more than three-year war before the meeting takes place.

Moscow previously said it would share its memorandum during the talks.

In his evening address Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Moscow to stop “playing with diplomacy” by withholding the document.

“At this point, we don’t have any clear information about what the Russians are planning to do in Istanbul,” he said.

“Of course, everyone in the world wants diplomacy to work and a real ceasefire to happen. Everyone wants Russia to stop playing with diplomacy and end the war. Everyone wants serious peace, and Russia must agree to this.”



UK, France and Other Nations Call for An Immediate End to War in Gaza

Smoke rises during Israeli strikes amid the Israeli military operation in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, July 21, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled
Smoke rises during Israeli strikes amid the Israeli military operation in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, July 21, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled
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UK, France and Other Nations Call for An Immediate End to War in Gaza

Smoke rises during Israeli strikes amid the Israeli military operation in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, July 21, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled
Smoke rises during Israeli strikes amid the Israeli military operation in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, July 21, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled

Britain and more than 20 other countries called on Monday for an immediate end to the war in Gaza and criticized the Israeli government's aid delivery model after hundreds of Palestinians were killed near sites distributing food.

France, Italy, Japan, Australia, Canada, Denmark and other countries said more than 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid and condemned what it called the "drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians", Reuters reported.

The majority of those killed were in the vicinity of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) sites, which the United States and Israel backed to take over aid distribution in Gaza from a network led by the United Nations.

"The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity," the countries' foreign ministers said in a joint statement.

The call for an end to the war and the way Israel delivers aid comes from several countries which are allied with Israel and its most important backer, the United States.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation uses private US security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a UN-led system that Israel alleges has let Hamas-led militants loot aid shipments intended for civilians. Hamas denies the accusation.

The UN has called the GHF’s model unsafe and a breach of humanitarian impartiality standards, which GHF denies.