Protests take aim at Zelenskyy over targeting of anti-corruption agency; envoys read to meet Russian counterparts in Istanbul. What we know on day 1,246

A Mirage 2000 fighter jet supplied to Ukraine from France crashed on Tuesday after an equipment failure, with the pilot ejecting safely , Ukraine’s military said. It was the first loss of a Mirage since Ukraine started receiving them this year. “Equipment failure occurred, which the pilot reported to the flight controller,” said a military statement. “The pilot then acted competently, as is expected in crisis situations, and successfully ejected. A rescue crew found the pilot in a stable condition. There were no casualties on the ground.” Ukrainian news reports said the crash was in the Volyn oblast of north-western Ukraine.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has approved a contentious bill weakening Ukraine’s anti-corruption bodies , according to reports, hours after the first serious protests against his government took place in Kyiv. Luke Harding reports from the Ukrainian capital that the Verkhovna Rada passed the controversial bill, which critics say allows political interference and is a major step backwards in the fight against corruption. About 1,500 protesters gathered next to Zelenskyy’s presidential administration complex shouting “Shame” and “Veto the law” while waving banners. There were protests in other large cities including Dnipro, Lviv and Odesa.

Russian authorities have systematically involved children in the design and testing of drones for the war through nationwide competitions that begin with innocent-seeming video games and end up with the most talented students headhunted by defence companies , an investigation by the exiled Russian news outlet the Insider has found. The Insider spoke with three teenage finalists from the competition working on drone technology, who explained how it worked and detailed how they were fully aware of the military application of certain projects but were encouraged to hide it.

Sanctioning Russian oil to end the Ukraine war is a “very real possibility”, the US energy secretary, Chris Wright, said on Fox News on Tuesday. Donald Trump has spoken of 100% tariffs on buyers of Russian oil and other sanctions if Moscow does not agree to a major peace agreement with Ukraine, giving a 50-day deadline that ends in early September. Trump, though, has also continually extended, reset or failed to honour deadlines – starting with his unmet promise to end the war in 24 hours – and placed low expectations on Russia’s behaviour.

Ukraine’s former defence minister and current secretary of the security council, Rustem Umerov, will head Kyiv’s delegation in talks that Ukraine has offered to hold with Russia on Wednesday in Istanbul . The Kremlin has said only that it hoped talks can be held “this week”. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has said Kyiv is ready to “secure the release of our people from captivity and return abducted children, to stop the killings, and to prepare a leaders’ meeting”.

A Russian drone and missile salvo on Ukraine killed a 10-year-old boy in the eastern frontline city of Kramatorsk, and wounded more than a dozen people across the country on Tuesday, Kyiv’s authorities said.

A Ukrainian drone strike on a bus in the Russian-occupied part of the Kherson region killed three people and wounded another three, a Moscow-installed official said. One man died in Russia’s western border Belgorod region after a Ukrainian attack, according to the local governor.

Howard Phillips, 65, has been found guilty of assisting a foreign intelligence service after handing over personal details of the then British defence secretary, Grant Shapps, to two undercover officers who posed as Russian agents. Phillips, from Harlow in Essex, handed a USB stick containing details relating to Shapps, including his home address and the location of his private plane, to one of the officers, the trial heard. Phillips was arrested in May 2024 and charged under the National Security Act. He had written to the Russian embassy offering his services . He is due to be sentenced in the autumn.