News on the war in Russia-Ukraine: Kiev troops withdraw from important city in the east while Moscow conducts nuclear exercises

Hungary views its six-month presidency of the European Union as a peace mission, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday at a press conference in Moscow together with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Many steps are needed to end the war, but we have taken the first step towards restoring dialogue,” Orban said, adding that “the positions in Kyiv and Moscow remain far apart.”

The German government announced on Friday that it had reached an agreement on the 2025 budget and a stimulus package for Europe’s largest economy, ending a months-long dispute that threatened to endanger Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center-left coalition.

Social Democrat Scholz and leaders of the Free Democrats and the Greens agreed on plans that include higher defense spending and affordable housing after marathon talks that stretched into the early hours of Friday. Scholz said ministers would formally approve the plan at a cabinet meeting later this month.

By balancing security, social cohesion and economic growth, Scholz said the budget should reassure citizens unsettled by the war in Ukraine, the effects of climate change and irregular migration and offer an alternative to the “divisive” policies of far-right parties that are gaining popularity across Europe.

Ukraine announced on Friday that it had received its third German-supplied Patriot air defense system after months of asking for equipment to protect its civilian population and infrastructure from Russian airstrikes.

In the spring, Moscow renewed its air strikes on Ukraine’s power grid, causing widespread blackouts. President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier this year that his country needed at least seven additional Patriot systems to protect itself.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry announced on X that the system had already been delivered and thanked Germany for its “unwavering support.”

“It will help to improve the protection of the civilian population and infrastructure. The Ukrainian crew has successfully completed appropriate training in Germany,” said the German Ambassador to Ukraine, Martin Jäger, at X.

Kyiv hopes to see progress on the issue of air defense equipment at a NATO summit in Washington next week. A senior U.S. State Department official said Kyiv expects “good news” at the summit.

Russia launched its large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and regularly uses its arsenal of missiles and drones for long-range attacks.

Robert Woodland, a Russian-born U.S. citizen, was sentenced to 12 1/2 years in prison by a Moscow court on Thursday for drug offenses, court officials and his lawyers said.

He was found guilty of attempting to traffic large quantities of illegal drugs as part of an organized group, court officials said in an online statement. His lawyers told reporters after the verdict on Thursday that they will appeal the ruling because Woodland’s guilt has not been proven.

Attorney Stanislav Kshevitsky also said that Woodland suffers from unspecified mental health problems. He did not provide details but said the court did not take those problems into account.

Imprisoned British-Russian opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza has been transferred to a Siberian prison hospital, his wife said.

The 42-year-old – a leading Kremlin critic who survived two poisoning attempts – is serving a 25-year prison sentence after repeatedly condemning Russia’s war in Ukraine and calling for Western sanctions against Moscow.

According to his wife Evgenia, Mr Kara-Murza was admitted to the hospital at the Omsk prison where he is being held on Thursday evening. She said his lawyers had waited for five hours to see him but were denied visitation rights.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he discussed the situation in Ukraine with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Friday, but reiterated his belief that Russia’s proposals should be key to resolving the conflict.

Putin said he was grateful to Orban for trying to restore dialogue between Russia and Europe, but Kyiv remained unwilling to end the conflict.

The Kremlin sees no interest on the part of the British Labour Party in improving relations with Russia and continues to view Britain as a hostile state, Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for President Vladimir Putin, said on Friday.

Peskov made the comments after the Labour Party won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections after 14 years of conservative rule.

The party has announced that it will continue to support Ukraine with weapons and money against Russia.

Two Russian Navy ships docked in the Venezuelan port of La Guaira on Tuesday. The ships had previously completed exercises in the Atlantic, which Moscow said were intended to “show the flag” in remote, important regions. They also made an initial stopover in Cuba.

The frigate Admiral Gorshkov and the oil tanker Akademik Pashin are part of the Russian Northern Fleet, which since May 17 has been carrying out tasks such as “ensuring the Russian naval presence” in “remote areas of the oceans”, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

The stopover was scheduled to last several days and underscore the close relations between Moscow and the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

On his way to the Kiev railway station to greet his wife and daughter returning to Ukraine from Poland, Oleksander Tryfonov made a stop.

He bought two red roses from one of half a dozen flower shops along a dimly lit underpass – something beautiful for the two most precious people in his life.

“I haven’t seen them for two years,” Tryfonov, a stocky 45-year-old driver, said of his family. “Flowers are important for women.”

A survey of people in 13 NATO countries found that, on average, about six in ten people have a positive opinion of the Western military alliance, the Pew Research Center said on Tuesday.

The poll was released ahead of the NATO summit in Washington from July 9 to 11, which comes at a difficult time for the 75-year-old Western military alliance.

NATO’s 32 member states are adjusting their long-term plans and strategies to counter a more aggressive Russian President Vladimir Putin and respond to Ukraine’s need for sustained support against invading Russian forces.