EU Moves to Finalize New Russia Sanctions as Ukraine Strikes Deeper and Zelenskyy Reshuffles Military

Brussels pushes a 21st sanctions package while Kyiv hits Russian supply lines and replaces its army chief amid domestic unrest

European Union ambassadors convened in Brussels this week to finalize a 21st package of sanctions against Russia, even as discontent from some member states threatened to complicate approval, according to the Guardian.

The sanctions push came as Ukraine intensified its own campaign against Russian military supply lines and as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy moved to steady his government following nearly a week of domestic unrest — developments that together mark one of the most consequential stretches of the war in months.

Zelenskyy praised an overnight strike on what he described as logistics hubs supplying the Russian army with drone components, navigation equipment and other gear. "We are, quite justly, bringing the war back home – to Russia," he said, according to the Guardian. "Peace is needed, and Ukraine has presented the Russian side with every proposal. They must be forced to turn to diplomacy."

Ukrainian forces also struck additional warehouses belonging to the Russian online retailer Wildberries, hitting logistics hubs in the Krasnodar and Stavropol regions overnight Tuesday, the BBC reported.

Separately, Zelenskyy ousted Ukraine's army chief in a reshuffle that CNBC described as one of the biggest political crises Kyiv has faced since Russia's full-scale invasion began in 2022. The shake-up followed nearly a week of nationwide protests that exposed strains within Ukraine's wartime leadership.

Together, the sanctions effort, the deeper strikes into Russian territory and the political turmoil in Kyiv illustrate how the war is being fought on parallel fronts — military, economic and political — more than four years after Russia's invasion began.

— Compiled from reporting by the Guardian, the BBC and CNBC.