KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he has met in Kyiv with senior representatives of Raytheon, the U.S. company that makes the Patriot air defense systems Ukraine desperately needs to counter the ballistic missiles Russia uses to advance its invasion.
The meeting came less than three weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to give Ukraine a license to produce Patriots. The pledge marked an important shift as Trump recently has adopted a more positive tone towards Zelenskyy.
In another sign that Ukraine is changing minds in Washington, ardent Trump ally Laura Loomer met with Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Thursday. After years of minimizing the invasion, she rebuked Russian President Vladimir Putin for missile attacks on Ukraine.
The Ukrainian leader said late Thursday he met with a Raytheon delegation, adding that the company was ready to jointly produce Patriot interceptors with Ukraine. The system is made up of radars, command-and-control systems and different types of interceptor missiles.
The company made no immediate comment about the meeting on its website or social media accounts.
“Our teams — both at the government level and from the private sector — will stay in close touch to work (it) out,” Zelenskyy said on social media.
Zelenskyy is keen to move quickly on a coproduction agreement as Russia relentlessly fires ballistic missiles that are hard to stop and cause civilian casualties as well as inflicting huge damage on civilian areas.
Zelenskyy has for several years been pleading for more and quicker Patriot deliveries from Western partners. Ukraine has developed its own innovative air defenses but large-scale production is vital.
Even so, experts and Kyiv officials have cautioned that setting up production in Ukraine would likely take years.
Putin has sought to portray Russia as negotiating from a position of strength in the war as the U.S. engaged under Trump in a diplomatic push to end the war that has produced no results so far.
But since it first attack its neighbor in 2014, Russia has captured only around 20% of the country.
Now, the Russian army’s advance is stalling due to Ukraine’s successful front-line and mid- and long-range attacks using cutting-edge drone technology it has developed at home and that is now coveted by other countries, Western officials and analysts say.
Ukraine has expanded its campaign of disruption with bigger and increasingly frequent drone attacks inside Russia that are hitting high-profile targets, causing fuel shortages and piling pressure on Putin.
Ukrainian forces again targeted the logistical hubs of Wildberries, Russia’s biggest online retailer that is often compared to Amazon, the company’s founder said Friday.
Wildberries logistical facilities in St. Petersburg, the adjacent Leningrad region and in Simferopol in illegally annexed Crimea came under attack, founder Tatyana Kim said.
Photos and videos published by Russian media showed massive plumes of gray smoke rising over St. Petersburg.
Ukraine in recent days struck four other Wildberries warehouses across Russia, sparking massive fires.
Kyiv officials want ordinary Russians to feel the consequences of the war and question whether Putin can keep them safe. The almost daily attacks have caused consternation in Russia.
Ukrainian long-range weapons hit an oil facility nearly 1,350 kilometers (840 miles) from the Ukrainian border as well as a military plant, Zelenskyy said Friday.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported Friday morning that its air defenses shot down 571 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy looks on before his meeting with Ireland's Prime Minister Micheal Martin in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Spain’s government declared a national emergency Friday after wildfires forced the evacuation of some 10,000 people in the central region of Madrid, while in southern France tens of thousands fled their homes to escape two major blazes.
“We are experiencing a dramatic situation, not just in several Spanish regions but also in neighboring countries,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wrote on X.
“My solidarity with all the people who have been affected and been forced to leave their homes.”
The national emergency in Spain means that the nation’s interior ministry, which controls police and security forces, has taken charge of overseeing the firefighting efforts by Spain’s regions as they struggle to battle multiple blazes that are being fanned by a heatwave. Another large fire in the central province of Ávila prompted national authorities to step in.
The regional government of Madrid, which spans a wide area around the capital city, said 10,000 people had been evacuated from different villages as multiple fires raged out of control late on Thursday.
“In my 60 years I have never seen something like this in my village, I have never seen fire of these dimensions,” Francisco Martínez, the mayor of Burgohondo, whose 1,500 residents were preventively evacuated, told Spain’s national broadcaster TVE.
Spain's military emergency brigades and national firefighting brigades have mobilized to support regional firefighting units and water-dumping aircraft.
Spain has seen an estimated 1,300 square kilometers (500 square miles) already burned this year, over four times the amount of terrain that was burned through the first half of 2025.
This year's fires include Spain's second-largest ever fire that consumed some 320 square kilometers (120 square miles) in recent days in the province of Guadalajara north of Madrid. Thirteen people were also killed in a fire in southern Spain earlier this month, the deadliest fire in recent memory for Spain.
Sánchez called on Wednesday for a pact between political parties to fight climate change that he said is key to adapting to a more fire-prone climate.
Temperatures are expected to top 39 degrees Celsius (102 Fahrenheit) in parts of Spain, with a high of 44 C (111 F) in Almeria in the southeast.
Authorities in southwestern France on Friday ordered more mass evacuations on the Atlantic coast because of large wildfires. An estimated 40,000 people have been driven from their homes over the past two days in the region.
More than 87 square kilometers (34 square miles) have been burned by the blaze that has been raging since Wednesday near the touristic Cap Ferret peninsula. Some people were forced to flee by boat.
France requested the activation of the European Union’s Civil Protection Mechanism.
“We will soon be able to rely on reinforcements including two Croatian Canadair firefighting aircraft, two Portuguese Air Tractor aircraft, and two heavy-lift Black Hawk helicopters from the Czech Republic and Slovakia,” French President Emmanuel Macron said.
Southern Europe has seen multiple large fires this summer. Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing twice as quickly as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Globally, 2025 was the third-hottest year on record, bringing severe heat waves across Europe. Scientists warn that climate change is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of heat and dryness especially in southeastern Europe, making the region more vulnerable to health impacts and wildfires.
Petrequin reported from Paris.
Smoke and flames rise as a wildfire advances near Burgohondo, Ávila province, Spain, Friday, July 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
A firefighting helicopter drops water on the flames as a wildfire advances near Burgohondo, Ávila province, Spain, Friday, July 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
A burning barn is seen next to a farm house during wildfires near Le Porge, western France, Thursday, July 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Caroline Blumberg)
Wildfires advance near Le Proge region, western France, Thursday, July 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Caroline Blumberg)
A wall of flames advances as a wildfire burns near Burgohondo, in Ávila province, Spain, Thursday, July 23, 2026. (Mateo Lanzuela/Europa Press via AP)
Residents spend the night at a sports center after being evacuated from their homes because of the threat of a wildfire in Cebreros, Ávila province, Spain, Friday, July 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Residents spend the night at a sports center after being evacuated from their homes because of the threat of a wildfire in Cebreros, Ávila province, Spain, Friday, July 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Residents spend the night at a sports center after being evacuated from their homes because of the threat of a wildfire in Cebreros, Ávila province, Spain, Friday, July 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
