BRAZIL PERSPECTIVE

Brasília, July 12, 2026. The Brazilian press, through O Estado de S. Paulo, reported on Saturday a new wave of Russian strikes on Kiev, another episode in a continuous escalation since the beginning of June. At least five explosions were heard in the Ukrainian capital in the early hours of the night, triggering air raid sirens a few minutes after the first detonation, according to the Agence France-Presse cited by the paulista daily. Six people were injured by the bombings, the Kiev municipal administration specified. Tymur Tkatchenko, head of the military administration of the capital, confirmed on Telegram that "Russia is attacking the capital with missiles."

The newspaper emphasizes that the attack comes on the heels of a Ukrainian raid against Russian oil infrastructure and the port of Taganrog, in southern Russia — a sign, for Brasília, of a war of reciprocal strikes that shows no respite. Kiev, Estadão recalls, has been the target of large-scale attacks using an increasing number of missiles, including ballistic ones, which are faster and more difficult to intercept, since early June. On the night of July 1-2, thirty people died in a bombing deemed unprecedented in intensity. A study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), cited by the newspaper, estimates that more than two million Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or injured in four years of conflict since 2022.

The Jornal de Brasília adds a diplomatic angle to this picture: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for unity with Poland in the face of the Russian threat, invoking the memory of Polish civilian victims of the "Bloody Sunday" of 1943 in Volhynia. Kiev wants to accelerate the localization and identification of the victims of this massacre, with a new phase of excavations scheduled for Monday, July 13, in the former villages of Ostrivky and Volia Ostrovetska. "What we need is the complete truth and a Christian tribute to the victims," Zelensky said, seeing this as a way to consolidate the alliance in the face of a "common and deadly threat" from Moscow. For the Brazilian press, this two-front approach — military and memorial — illustrates a war that is prolonging without a negotiated outcome in sight, despite the geographical distance separating Brazil from the European theater.