Ukraine updates: First F-16 jets arrive in Ukraine

US journalist Evan Gershkovich and former US marine Paul Whelan are expected to be released by Russia in a major prisoner swap, several US media outlets reported on Thursday.

It would be the first prisoner swap between Russia and the West since US basketball star Brittney Griner was exchanged for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout in December 2022, and the biggest since the Cold War.

Moscow was also expected to release dual Russian-UK dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza as part of the agreement.

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A former Russian opposition lawmaker now living in exile in Ukraine was injured in a Russian drone strike which appears to have been aimed explicitly at him and his wife.

"It looks like today is my second birthday," wrote Ilya Ponomaryov on social media, posting photos of himself with his face covered in blood.

Ukrainian police published images of a damaged three-story property in a Kyiv suburb and said an unnamed married couple had been injured.

Footage shared on local media showed Ponomaryov being treated for facial wounds in hospital and said it was the second consecutive day that his home had been targeted in drone strikes.

The Ukrainian air force said it had shot down all seven Shahed-type drones used for the attack.

Ponomaryov was a member of the Russian parliament, the Duma, from 2007 and 2016 and was the only lawmaker to vote against the Russian annexation of Crimea in March 2014. Since relocating to Ukraine in 2016, he has been active in Russian opposition circles in exile and has called for an armed uprising against President Vladimir Putin in Russia.

An employee of the Russian embassy in Chisinau, Moldova, was expelled from the country on Thursday on suspicion of espionage.

The unnamed Russian diplomat was alleged to have received "information to be used against the interests of the Republic of Moldova" from two Moldovan officials who were arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of treason.

The two detainees, one of whom is reported to be the head of the legal department in the Moldovan parliament while the other is said to belong to the country's border force, are accused of "communicating" with an employee of an unnamed embassy in Chisinau since 2023.

Moldova's Prosecutor's Office for Combating Organized Crime and Special Cases did not identify the foreign country involved but, on Thursday morning, the Russian ambassador, Oleg Vasnetsov, was summoned to the Moldovan Foreign Ministry over the decision to expel the Russian diplomat "as a result of specific activities ... incompatible with diplomatic status."

Vasnetsov told local media that "very unfriendly" actions had led to a further reduction in personnel at the Russian embassy which already has "few diplomats left."

The Russian embassy denounced "artificially fueled anti-Russian tensions." The Russian Foreign Ministry vowed to respond.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu told local media: "The most important thing now is to make sure that this example of treason is sanctioned in the harshest way."

Since the full-scale Russian invasion of neighboring Ukraine, Moldova, also a former Soviet Republic, has expelled dozens of diplomats and employees of the Russian embassy, frequently accusing Moscow of meddling in its interests and attempting to destabilize the country, which has applied for EU membership.

An eastern strip of Moldova along the Ukrainian border, the unrecognized breakaway state of Transnistria, is home to around 1,500 Russian troops.

Ukraine will temporarily default on its foreign debt after invoking a law to skip repayments while it finalizes a planned restructuring of its international bonds.

"Ukraine will invoke the moratorium law in order to suspend payments, because the process of finalizing the restructuring will be completed after August 1," the Finance Ministry said in a statement, calling the move a "necessary technical solution."

Kyiv has nearly $20 billion of debt in international bonds, including a Eurobond on which a $34 million coupon payment was due on August 1. But the government said it would not meet the deadline, "temporarily" suspending payments while it concludes its restructuring deal which will save $11.4 billion in payments over the next three years.

Although the move officially registers as a default, Ukraine's international creditors are unlikely to be concerned given the impending restructuring.

Russian forces in Ukraine are prepared to shoot down Ukrainian F-16 fighter jets, the Kremlin said on Thursday, adding that they would not significantly alter the course of the war.

"Their number will gradually decrease, they will be shot down," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, responding to the news that the first batch of US-built combat planes had arrived in Ukraine.

"Of course, these deliveries will not have any significant impact on the development of events on the front," Peskov insisted, saying the jets would not be a "panacea" for Kyiv.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said his country needs around 130 F-16s to secure aerial parity with invading Russian forces.

Russia will most likely attempt to destroy Ukrainian F-16s on the ground or damage specialist hangars, runways and maintenance facilities with long-range missiles. Some Ukrainian airfields have already been targeted.

In the air, F-16s will likely be targeted by S-300 and S-400 mobile surface-to-air missile systems (SAMS) and by Russian Su-35 fighter jets.

Any destroyed F-16s would constitute a significant propaganda coup for Moscow.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy does not want China to act as a mediator in its ongoing war with Russia, 29 months on from Moscow's full-scale invasion.

"If China wants, it could force Russia to end this war," Zelenskyy told reporters. "I don't want [China] to mediate. I want it to put pressure on Russia to end this war."

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba recently visited Beijing, which has refrained from condemning Russia's invasion and indeed has boosted economic ties with Moscow, purchasing cheap Russian oil and gas.

In May, China published its own six-point peace plan for Ukraine, along with Brazil, including an international peace conference recognized by both warring parties.

When Ukraine hosted a peace summit in Switzerland in June, to which Russia wasn't invited, China didn't attend. A second such summit could take place in November, potentially with Russian participation.

Russian troops conducted missile drills this week on the island of Matua, part of the Kuril Islands, a chain of islands which stretches between Russia and Japan, four of which are disputed.

Citing the Russian Defense Ministry, the Russian news agency Interfax said troops practiced moving and camouflaging their vehicles on Matua, an uninhabited volcanic island on which Russia has built a runway and stationed anti-ship cruise missiles in recent years.

While Matua itself is not disputed, it is only a few islands away from the four islands off the coast of Hokkaido in northeastern Japan which are claimed by Tokyo but have been occupied by Russia, and formerly the Soviet Union, since the end of the second world war.

In June, Moscow protested against Japanese military exercise conducted together with NATO members Germany and Spain off Hokkaido, saying: "We view such activity as a potential threat to the security of the Russian Federation."

The Russian Defense Ministry said Tokyo’s "irresponsible" actions were putting Japan "on a path of dangerous escalation in northeast Asia and throughout the Asia-Pacific region."

Ukraine has taken delivery of its first batch of F-16 fighter planes, according to US and Lithuanian officials.

"F-16s in Ukraine. Another impossible thing turned out to be totally possible," wrote Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis on social media on Wednesday night.

The statement was corroborated by US government sources, according to the Reuters news agency and the Associated Press.

The modern fighter jets, built by US arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin, have long been coveted by Kyiv due to their advanced offensive and defensive capabilities as well as for their availability, being a staple part of many Western militaries.

Denmark and the Netherlands, two leading countries in an international coalition to procure F-16s for Ukraine, have promised 19 and 24 jets respectively. Norway and Belgium have also promised a handful each.

The United States won't be directly supplying Kyiv with F-16s from its own inventory, but President Joe Biden did give the green light for the US-built jets to be deployed in Ukraine.

Western fighter pilots generally train for three years to learn how to fly and operate the complex jets on a course that has been condensed to roughly nine months for Ukrainian pilots in the US and Europe.

mf/ab (Reuters, AFP, dpa, AP)