Kremlin brands Trump threat 'illegal'; Germany deploys jets to Poland

Trump says drop in energy prices will prompt Putin to 'stop killing people'

Donald Trump says declining energy prices could pressure Vladimir Putin to halt the war in Ukraine.

"If energy goes down enough, Putin is going to stop killing people," he said in an interview on CNBC.

"Putin will stop killing people if we get energy down another $10 a barrel. He'll have no choice because his economy stinks."

Trump added that he will soon raise tariffs on India "very substantially" over its continued purchase of Russian oil, a decision criticised by New Delhi and Moscow.

He said: "They're buying Russian oil, they're fuelling the war machine. If they're going to do that, then I'm not going to be happy".

Ukraine claims 300 Russian troops killed in Sumy

Ukraine's military intelligence special forces says its troops have killed 334 Russian soldiers in the northeast Sumy region.

In a post on Telegram, the intelligence agency said soldiers of the Tymur Special Unit moved behind Russian lines and "cleared the positions", stopping Kremlin troops from progressing in the direction of the city of Sumy.

In addition to the 334 killed, it said another 550 were wounded.

The intelligence agency did not specify the exact date or location of the fight.

The Kremlin's one word for Trump's submarine move? Emotional, analysts say

Kremlin officials are slowly organising a "coordinated response" to Donald Trump's plan to redeploy two nuclear submarines closer to Russia, according to the Institute for the Study of War.

Trump ordered the repositioning of two US submarines to "appropriate regions" relative to Russia last Friday.

It comes as the US president grows increasingly frustrated over stalling peace talks with Russia.

While the Kremlin did not immediately respond, Russian officials have now "begun to coalesce around similar rhetorical lines", the ISW notes, and are posing Trump's decision as "emotional".

The US-based thinktank points to comments yesterday by Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, who said that discussions of nuclear escalation are premature and a "very emotional" perception of the situation.

Meanwhile, Grigory Karasin, chair of Russia's foreign affairs council committee, said it was always better to be less emotional and more rational in foreign policy.

And Russian state duma deputy Mikhail Matveev also called Trump's response "emotional".

"These official Russian responses ignore the Kremlin's history of frequently leveraging nuclear sabre-rattling to push the West to make decisions that benefit Russia," the ISW says.

The thinktank also notes that Russia regularly uses Russian Security Council Deputy chairman Dmitry Medvedev to introduce nuclear threats into the Russian and international information spaces.

Netherlands to buy US arms for Ukraine as part of NATO's new weapons scheme

The Netherlands will be the first contributor to NATO's new  financing mechanism for Ukrainian weapons, with a £500m payment, the Dutch defence ministry has announced.

Donald Trump said last month the US would supply weapons to Ukraine, paid for by European allies, but did not provide details on how this would work. 

But yesterday, the Dutch defence minister, Ruben Brekelmans, said the Netherlands would contribute money to buy US military equipment for Ukraine as part of the Priority Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) scheme.

He said that the package would include Patriot parts and missiles. 

Welcoming the move, NATO's chief, Mark Rutte, said he had encouraged other members to participate in the new mechanism.

The equipment that will be provided is based on Ukraine's priority needs on the battlefield. 

And NATO allies then locate the weapons and ammunition and send them on.

Russia claims it has captured Ukrainian village

Russia has claimed its troops have captured the village of Sichneve in Ukraine's east-central Dnipro region.

Sky News cannot independently verify this claim.

There have been reports over the last few days of new Russian military action in Ukraine's east and southeast.

Ukraine's top commander said Moscow's forces were changing their tactics, using smaller sabotage units in a bid to push forward with their drive through the eastern Donetsk region.

Kremlin slams Trump's 'illegal' tariff pressure on India

The Kremlin has hit back against Donald Trump's threats to raise tariffs on India over its purchases of Russian oil, saying it's "illegal" to try to force countries to stop trading with Moscow.

Moscow said it interpreted pressures against its trading partners as "threats", and said all sovereign countries have the right to choose with whom they forge economic partnerships.

We reported earlier that Trump had threatened to hit India with higher tariffs if it continues to buy oil from Russia (see post at 9.45am).

But India's foreign ministry said the country "has been targeted" by the US and the European Union for importing Russian oil and will "take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and economic security".

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also said in his daily briefing that Russia no longer has any restrictions on where it places its intermediate-range missiles. 

It comes a day after Moscow said it would withdraw from a treaty which bans the use of such weapons. The US withdrew from the treaty in 2019 citing Russian non-compliance.

Peskov also hit out at Moldova over its recent sentencing of pro-Kremlin regional leader Evgenia Gutul to seven years in prison on fraud charges. 

Germany deploys jets to Poland ahead of Belarus-Russian military drills

Germany has deployed five jets to Poland ahead of planned military exercises in Belarus, German media reports.

German Eurofighter Typhoon jets landed at the Minsk Mazowiecki Air Base near Warsaw yesterday and will now help monitor NATO airspace and potential Russian activity for the next few weeks, according to German officials.

"This deployment is a clear sign of alliance solidarity within NATO and serves as a credible deterrent and the protection of shared airspace," a German Air Force spokesperson told the newspaper Bild.

The Russian-Belarusian Zapad-2025 drills are expected to take place in mid-September and involve around 13,000 troops. 

In February, Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Russia planned to deploy up to 150,000 troops to Belarus in preparation for a potential military escalation that could target NATO countries.

"I am not sure if they will attack Ukraine, but they will attack. Maybe Ukraine, maybe Poland, maybe the Baltic countries," he said.

Are drones the future of this war?

After Ukraine's general staff confirmed it had carried out a drone attack on a fuel depot of Sochi airport in southern Russia on Sunday, it is clear the cheap but deadly weapons are dominating the war at the moment.

So are drones the future of warfare?

Drone specialist at the University of Portsmouth, Professor Peter Lee, says: "It's certainly the future of this war".

Speaking to presenter Kamali Melbourne, he says we are "seeing a whole new level of engagement".

"The big change in Ukraine is trying to use drones in a more strategic manner, so larger drones and massive numbers," he says.

And when it came to Russia, the expert notes that the Kremlin is also attacking major Ukrainian cities with drones.

He says: "They're almost avoiding that battlefield lack of progress and trying to take the fight directly to the heart of the Ukrainian people."

"I'm quite confident the Russians will clearly have in mind a night - somewhere in the not too distant future - where they wil

India responds to Trump threats on buying Russian oil

India has responded after Donald Trump again threatened to hit the country with higher tariffs if it continues to buy oil from Russia.

India, China and Turkey are the biggest recipients of Russian oil that used to go to the European Union. 

The EU's decision to boycott most Russian seaborne oil from January 2023 led to a massive shift in crude flows from Europe to Asia. Since then, China (£164bn) has been the biggest overall purchaser of Russian energy, followed by India (£105bn) and Turkey with (£68bn).

And now Trump has again raised the issue as he seeks to press Vladimir Putin to agree to a ceasefire. In a post on Truth Social he said...

Responding to the latest Trump threat, a spokesperson for India's foreign ministry said India has been "targeted" by the US and the EU for importing oil from Russia after the beginning of the war.

"In fact, India began importing from Russia because traditional supplies were diverted to Europe after the outbreak of the conflict," the ministry said.

"The US at that time actively encouraged such imports by India for strengthening global energy markets stability."

The ministry said India's imports are "meant to ensure predictable and affordable energy costs to the Indian consumer" and are a "necessity compelled by the global market situation". 

"Like any major economy, India will take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and economic security," it added.

-SKY NEWS