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Morning opening: Ukraine sends drones to Moscow after one of largest attacks on Kyiv of the war
Ukraine targeted Moscow with 400 drones overnight, wounding two people and setting buildings ablaze, Russian officials said and Reuters reported, a day after Russia carried out one of the largest ballistic missile attacks on Kyiv of the full-scale war.
Kyiv has in recent months intensified its strikes on Russian territory, describing them as retribution for more than four years of bombardments against its territory, AFP noted.
Elsewhere, I will be looking at updates from Hungary, after the country’s outgoing president and Viktor Orbán loyalist Tamás Sulyok has agreed to stand down amid pressure from the new government of Péter Magyar, and from Germany, where a resignation of a senior ruling centre-right party politician gives Friedrich Merz a chance to reshuffle his struggling government.
I will bring you all the latest from across the continent here.
Furthermore, we will obviously keep an eye the events from the UK where Andy Burnham is set to take over as the British prime minister from Keir Starmer. I will point you to our UK politics blog before the key moment of the day, so you won’t miss a thing.
It’s Monday, 20th July 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
Key events
Ukraine’s top military leadership denies reports suggesting army chief’s sacking
Luke Harding
in Kyiv
Ukraine’s top military leadership has denied reports that the country’s commander in chief Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi is to be sacked.
In a Facebook post published in the last few minutes it said claims “circulating in the media, particularly on social media and in certain news outlets are untrue”.
It added:
“Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi continues to carry out his duties as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.The Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Lt Gen Andriy Hnatov, also continues to carry out his duties.
Dismissal from these posts takes place on the basis of a decree by the President of Ukraine.”
Zelenskyy’s presidential adviser Dmytro Lytvyn appeared to confirm the denial.
“Don’t expect any personnel appointments today,” he said, urging people to treat information circulated by the media with caution.
Zelenskyy congratulates UK’s new prime minister Burnham on his appointment
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy is the latest leader to congratulate Andy Burnham on his appointment as the new British prime minister.
In a post on X, he said:
“Congratulations to Andy Burnham @andyburnham on taking office as prime minister of the United Kingdom. We wish the prime minister and the British people every success in addressing the challenges of today.
Britain has always been one of the global leaders. We are ready to work together in all possible formats. We highly appreciate the UK’s political, defense, and values-based support. The foundation of our bilateral relationship is stronger than ever, and we will continue to make each other stronger. I’m looking forward to our conversation later today. Thank you!”
Pressure on Ukraine’s army chief Syrskyi grows after days of street protests
Luke Harding
in Kyiv
Meanwhile, Ukrainian media are reporting that Ukraine’s Commander in Chief, Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi is to be sacked, following five days of noisy street protests calling for his dismissal.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has reportedly agreed to fire Syrskyi after controversially sacking defence minister Mykhailo Federov last week.
Thousands of demonstrators gathered outside Zelenskyy’s office, calling for Federov’s reinstatement and for the commander in chief’s removal.
The news has not been confirmed, but sources indicate an announcement is expected this afternoon. There is speculation Federov will be brought back into government as deputy prime minister for military industry.
Federov is widely credited with improving Ukraine’s position on the battlefield during his six months in the job. He accused Syrskyi of using Soviet era tactics and allocating resources to brigades based on their “loyalty” rather than data.
“This sort of culture needs to be eradicated, because otherwise we won’t be able to defeat an enemy whose system is plagued by the very same issues,” he said. “We have no other choice if we want to defeat Russia asymmetrically, with minimal losses.”
‘No change’ in Britain’s support for Ukraine, new PM Burnham says as he takes office
Just picking up one more thing from the UK, the country’s new prime minister Andy Burnham has pledged to make his first calls to US president Donald Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
In a clip recorded before he was officially appointed as British leader but released after his speech in Downing Street, Burnham was asked who he would contact first and whether that would be Trump, Zelenskyy or another world leader, Reuters reported.
He replied by saying said those two would be among his first calls.
He said he would make clear to Zelenskyy that there would be “no change” in Britain’s backing for Ukraine and that he would support the Ukrainian leader “100%” as his predecessor Keir Starmer had done.
“President Zelenskyy will be left in no doubt whatsoever that Britain’s support is steadfast, it is resolute. It will be there for him, and I will be there for him personally too,” Burnham told reporters.
AliExpress fined record €550m by EU for failing to stop sale of illegal and fake goods
Lisa O’Carroll
In other news, the Chinese online retail platform AliExpress has been fined a record €550m (£470m) by the EU over its failure to stop illegal goods including harmful clothing, cosmetics and kitchen gadgets being sold through its site.
The European Commission fine is the biggest imposed by the bloc under the Digital Services Act (DSA), legislation that came into force in 2024 to protect consumers from illegal goods, deceptive or addictive marketing techniques.
Henna Virkkunen, the commission’s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, said:
“The spread of counterfeit clothing, unsafe toys, dangerous cosmetics and other illegal and harmful products is not an unavoidable cost of shopping online – it is a failure by AliExpress to comply with its obligations under the Digital Services Act.
Scale is not an excuse; risks must be identified and addressed systematically to ensure consumers can safely shop online. Today, we are holding AliExpress to this standard and request it to take action.”
Russian anti-war politician ends run for parliament, citing legal setbacks
Back to Russia and Ukraine, Boris Nadezhdin, a Russian anti-war politician who had hoped to stand in parliamentary elections later this year, has announced he is ending his role in opposition politics for now, blaming what he said were politically-motivated legal setbacks, Reuters reported.
Nadezhdin, 63, a former liberal lawmaker, has been an outspoken critic of Moscow’s war in Ukraine but – like some other opposition politicians – had tried to work within the rules of Russia’s tightly controlled political system to be able to continue to voice his views publicly.
In a statement, Nadezhdin said he had ran out of political road however, after a series of setbacks. He received a small fine on Friday for displaying “extremist symbols” and was this month designated a “foreign agent” by the justice ministry.
Both rulings disqualified him from running for the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, in September elections, his statement said. He said he had also been banned from leaving Russia.
Starmer formally resigns as British prime minister, with Burnham set to be confirmed as his successor
Andrew Sparrow
Over in the UK, Keir Starmer has now left 10 Downing Street for the last time and resigned as the UK’s prime minister, and we are waiting for Andy Burnham to be formally named as his successor.
You can follow all of that on our UK live blog with Andrew Sparrow:
The European Commission has been asked to respond to mass protests against Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s decision to fire a popular defence minister last week (10:41).
Commission chief spokesperson Paula Pinho said the issue “came up briefly” in commission president von der Leyen’s recent discussions with Zelenskyy, but declined to comment in any further detail.
“But what we can say is that we have enjoyed good cooperation with minister Fedorov at a crucial moment of the defence and defence policy, both for the EU and for Ukraine, which we fully appreciated.”
The commission also responded to public demonstrations against Fedorov’s resignation, saying that “peaceful demonstrations are a fundamental right in all democratic countries.”
EU pledges to continue close work with Ukraine on reforms, drones, energy under new PM
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen held a courtesy phone call with the new Ukrainian prime minister, Sergii Koretksyi, this morning.
In a post on X, she said:
“Very good phone call with @KoretskyiUA. We will continue cooperating closely on reforms that move Ukraine’s EU accession process forward. Our Drone Deal will harness the EU’s industrial strength to produce Ukraine’s most innovative defence equipment at speed and scale. We also discussed preparations ahead of winter and critical energy infrastructure. You can count on our full support, including in your work to improve energy sector’s governance.”
The European Commission just told reporters that they are further working on more disbursement of the EU’s €90bn loan for Ukraine.
Norway sees ‘largest fire in modern times’ destroy over 100 homes
Miranda Bryant
Nordic correspondent
In other news, a fire that burnt down an entire neighbourhood in a town near the Norwegian city of Drammen was still smouldering on Monday and authorities said they expect to be fighting the fire for days to come.
Around 100 houses in Krokstadelva were destroyed over the weekend and around 400 people evacuated.
On Sunday, police told local newspaper Drammens Tidende that they believe the fire was caused either be accident or spontaneous combustion.
Ståle Fuglaas, operations manager for Norway’s south-east police district, said they plan to continue extinguishing the fire for 10 more days.
“This is a long-term operation in the area. That says something about the heat in the area,” Fuglaas told VG.
“There we will assist evacuees with retrieving any items that have not yet been retrieved from the fire area. A plan is being worked on between the municipality and the emergency services when it comes to returning to safe places.”
Fire services said they have preventively placed water sprinklers in the area and are patrolling with fire crews, drones and helicopters.
“But I wouldn’t say we have control, I wouldn’t use that word yet. It looks better now than before,” firefighter Erik Smidsrød told VG.
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