Zelenskyy held press conference, Trump officially became US presidential candidate - Monday brief

War, mobilization and US elections: Key takeaways from Zelenskyy's press conference

The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has held a press conference for journalists yesterday. During the conference, he spoke about his views on potential policy changes in the United States following the elections and possible personnel changes in the government, assessed the mobilization process in Ukraine, and answered many other questions.

Official: Trump chosen as Republican candidate

Donald Trump has officially become the Republican presidential candidate for the United States. He has decided that if he wins the elections, Senator J.D. Vance will become his vice president, according to CNN.

As the agency reports, Trump has received enough Republican votes to officially become the party's candidate for the presidential elections.

HIMARS, tanks, and ammunition: Germany secretly sent massive aid to Ukraine

In late June and early July, Germany almost secretly and unnoticed sent Kyiv another huge military package for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It included 39 tanks supplied by the German defense industry and the Bundeswehr.

Last week, Ukraine received 10 more Leopard 1A5 battle tanks and 20 Marder infantry fighting vehicles from Germany. This brings the total number of Marder tanks supplied by Germany for the war in Ukraine to 120 and the number of repaired Leopard 1s to 50.

In addition to ammunition for Leopard 1 and Marder, the Ukrainian army's arsenal has been supplemented with two Biber bridge-building tanks, two Dachs engineering tanks, two evacuation tanks, and four Wisent 1 demining tanks.

Gazprom loses EU market and raises prices for Russian residents - UK intelligence

Starting July 1, 2024, Russia raised domestic gas prices by 11.2%. This hike is aimed at increasing revenues in the Russian domestic market in response to the loss of gas exports to Europe, citing the UK Ministry of Defense on X.

According to the briefing, the loss of the EU market resulted from sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, as well as Russia’s deliberate reduction of gas supplies to Europe in response. In 2023, Gazprom's net annual loss amounted to approximately $6.9 billion, marking its largest annual loss in 25 years.

Gazprom, one of Russia's state-owned energy companies, is considered a monopoly in the domestic gas supply market. Thus, the price increase is regulated by the Russian government, the report says.

German government rejects opposition's call to send jets to Ukraine

Germany does not currently plan to provide Ukraine with fighter jets as part of military aid, states Federal government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit.

He says that the German government does not support the call from the leader of the opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Friedrich Merz, to start supplying fighter jets to Ukraine.

It should be noted that Germany does not have F-16s in its arsenal. The German forces use Eurofighter Typhoon multirole fighters.