Russia’s transport ministry has acknowledged it may need to reroute cargo shipments away from the Sea of Azov as Ukraine steps up attacks on Russian shipping in the area.

Ukraine’s drone forces commander said on Tuesday that Ukrainian strikes had hit 116 vessels over the past nine days, including several tankers and cargo ships operating in the Sea of Azov.

He said the campaign was aimed at disrupting Russia’s “shadow fleet” and restricting fuel supplies to Russian-occupied Crimea.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov accused Ukraine on Tuesday of ⁠attacking commercial vessels in the Sea of Azov and the ⁠Black Sea ​in ⁠what he called acts of terrorism.

“What ⁠the Ukrainian regime ​is ⁠doing goes ‌beyond even piracy. Pirates, at least, plunder and ‌keep the ‌spoils for themselves. But here, it benefits neither ⁠them nor anyone else – the goal is simply to cause damage and intimidate. It is terrorism, pure ‌and simple,” Lavrov ​said.

He said Russia ‌would continue ⁠to fulfil its ⁠obligations regarding food exports ‌and ​the provision ‌of hu

Ukraine will use a European ​loan facility to buy next-generation Franco-Italian air defence systems and French Rafale fighter jets for the first time, while also securing approval to produce ⁠key Western missiles domestically under agreements formalised by Kyiv and Paris on Tuesday.

The two countries said Ukraine would order an initial 16 Rafale aircraft, the first tranche of a planned ⁠fleet of 100 announced in ​November ⁠2025, financed through the European Union’s Ukraine Support Loan programme.

Training for Ukrainian pilots and mechanics ⁠could begin in France as early as 2026, ​with ⁠the first four aircraft ‌delivered after training is completed, the French and Ukrainian presidencies said in a joint statement, providing the first details ‌of purchases outlined on Monday.

Ukraine also ‌plans to acquire four next-generation SAMP/T-NG air and missile defence systems, becoming the first country to deploy the Franco-Italian system in ⁠combat.

Two older versions will be dispatched to Ukraine until the new systems are delivered. The move builds on a broader air-defence initiative unveiled on Monday by Ukraine and several European allies aimed at developing a lower-cost anti-ballistic missile capability as Russia steps up attacks on ‌Ukrainian cities.

France and Italy also authorised licensed ​production in Ukraine of Aster 30 interceptor missiles, ‌while France approved local production ⁠of AASM guided bombs and SCALP cruise ⁠missiles, deepening defence-industrial cooperation with Kyiv.

France has agreed to let Ukraine manufacture its Scalp-EG cruise missiles under a landmark defence agreement that also includes Rafale fighter jets and advanced air defence systems.

The deal, signed by president Volodymyr Zelensky and French president Emmanuel Macron in Paris, grants Kyiv access to the blueprints for the Scalp-EG – the French variant of the Anglo-French Storm Shadow cruise missile– allowing it to produce the long-range weapon inside Ukraine.

The agreement also authorises licensed production of Aster air-defence missiles and AASM precision-guided bombs, while Ukraine will receive 16 Rafale fighter jets and four SAMP/T air-defence batteries.

Zelensky said the pact demonstrated “France’s true leadership in defence cooperation with Ukraine, in the interest of all of Europe.”

The agreement comes just days after president Donald Trump said the United States would allow Ukraine to manufacture PAC-3 interceptor missiles for the Patriot air defence system, underscoring Western efforts to strengthen Kyiv’s domestic arms industry.

Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin ​said 340 Ukrainian drones had been dispatched to the area surrounding the capital over a 24-hour period on Tuesday and most had ⁠been downed by anti-aircraft units far from the city.

“Most of them were neutralised by air defence forces on the outer approaches,” Sobyanin wrote ⁠on Telegram. “More than ​50 enemy ⁠drones were destroyed on their way to Moscow.”

Ukrainian drones approach the ⁠Russian capital routinely and Sobyanin provides a ​running ⁠account of the numbers ‌taken out by anti-aircraft units.

Ukraine has intensified its attacks on Russian infrastructure sites, mainly linked ‌to the oil industry.

Ukraine’s ‌military said on Tuesday it had carried out drone strikes on the Salavat petrochemical complex in ⁠the Urals and the Afipsky refinery in southern Russia. Attacks on oil infrastructure have contributed to gasoline shortages throughout Russia.

Russian forces have stepped up drone and missile attacks on Kyiv in recent weeks.

Russia launched a barrage of ‌drones and ballistic missiles at Kyiv early ​on Tuesday, the fifth such ‌attack on the ⁠Ukrainian capital this month.

A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a revised Russia sanctions bill that reduces the proposed tariffs on major buyers of Russian oil, including India and China.

The updated legislation caps tariffs at 100 per cent down from the previously proposed 500 per cent and limits them to the five largest purchasers of Russian energy.

It also exempts countries importing less than 15 per cent of Russia’s natural gas exports if they are taking significant steps to cut those imports.

The bill also targets Russia’s shadow fleet, financial institutions and major state-owned energy projects.

It includes a provision allowing president Donald Trump to waive sanctions if he determines it is in the US national interest.

Senate aides said the bipartisan measure had 26 co-sponsors on Tuesday, with more expected to sign on.

Ukrainian fighter pilots and troops took pride of place in France’s national Bastille Day celebrations Tuesday as a massive parade showcased support for Ukraine and symbolically flexed European military muscle.

On president Emmanuel Macron’s last Bastille Day as president, he hosted around 30 other leaders for an event that appeared aimed at showing both Russian president Vladimir Putin and US president Donald Trump that Europe is united and stepping up to defend itself.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky was given an ovation from the assembled European leaders and his country’s troops got the biggest cheers of the day from crowds on the tree-lined Champs-Elysees avenue.

Zelensky and Macron shared repeated hugs at the end of the parade.

France’s biggest national holiday coincided with raging forest fires and a red-alert heat wave that forced the cancellation of traditional fireworks and firefighters’ balls – and with defeat to Spain in a highly anticipated World Cup semi-final.

Senator Lindsey Graham’s sudden death has removed a “vital diplomatic buffer between Washington and Kyiv”, experts have said, complicating support for Ukraine at a vital juncture of the war with Russia.

Jaroslava Barbieri, a Research Fellow at the Ukraine Forum at Chatham House, told the Independent that Graham has been a critical voice in US foreign policy when it comes to support for Ukraine.

The Republican senator for South Carolina was one of few vocally pro-Ukraine voices in the Republican Party. He used his leverage in the Senate to lobby for military aid to Ukraine dating back to Russia’s initial illegal invasion of Crimea in 2014, per CNN.

Since the invasion of Crimea, Graham, a prominent foreign policy hawk, has pushed for legislation that would prevent the U.S. from ever recognising seized Ukrainian land as Russian, maintaining NATO funding, and increasing sanctions on the Russian economy.

He even once called for someone in Vladimir Putin’s inner circle to assassinate the Russian president, saying they would be “doing your country – and the world – a great service,” per the Associated Press.

Ms Barbieri told the Independent: “Senator Lindsey Graham served as a crucial bridge between traditional Republican foreign policy hawks and Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ administration, using his direct personal access to champion robust support for Ukraine and secure recent White House backing for major secondary sanctions against Russia.

“His sudden passing removes a vital diplomatic buffer between Washington and Kyiv.”

Graham, 71, passed away suddenly from what a preliminary medical report has called an aortic dissection on Saturday.

Some 500 soldiers from the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ backing Ukraine marched down Paris’ Champs-Elysees on Tuesday in the annual Bastille Day parade, in what France said would be a symbol of Europe’s strategic awakening.

France’s traditional national day military parade fell one day after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky joined around 25 leaders in Paris for a summit of the coalition of Western allies supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia.

The allies announced an air-defence coalition asUkraine grapples with critical ammunition shortages and intensifying Russian strikes on its capital Kyiv and surrounding regions.

Zelensky, British prime minister Sir Keir Starmer and German chancellor Friedrich Merz were among about 30 leaders invited by Emmanuel Macron to watch Tuesday’s parade, the French president’s last before he leaves office in 2027.

It featured around 25 Ukrainian soldiers marching along the capital’s most famous avenue.

Vladimir Putin’s growing unpopularity in Russia means he cannot afford to end the war with Ukraine, as he will be lynched by his own people, one of the president’s greatest personal enemy in the West has warned.

Sir Bill Browder told The Independent’s World of Trouble podcast: “If he does a peace deal, he’ll lose power. If he loses power, then he’ll get strung up from a lamp post.”

The anti-corruption campaigner, who once ran the biggest investment fund in Russia, has fought against Putin for nearly two decades.

His latest intervention comes days after Nato leaders met in Turkey and agreed to allow Kyiv to produce its own Patriot air defence missiles, vital in withstanding the onslaught from Moscow.

The Independent’s world affairs editor Sam Kiley writes:

The Russia-installed head of parts of Ukraine’s Donetsk Region under Moscow’s control said Ukrainian drone attacks had killed eight people, including a family of four.

Denis ​Pushilin, ⁠writing on the Telegram messaging app, ⁠said the four people died ​in ⁠a strike ‌on a village southwest of the region’s main city, ‌also called Donetsk.

Russian forces control well over 70 per cent of Donetsk Region and Moscow has called on ‌Kyiv to abandon ​the rest of ‌that region ⁠and the three others ⁠it has annexed as part ‌of ​any peace ‌deal.

Ukraine has received ​all such demands.

Four others died in vehicles struck by drones, he said.