Ukraine updates: Trump tells DW Ukrainians may remain in US

Switzerland has come under fire for welcoming a high-level delegation of Russian parliamentary leaders — all of whom are under EU and other international sanctions — to a three-day international conference in Geneva hosted by the United Nations Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the global organization of national parliaments. 

Leading the Kremlin delegation is Valentina Matvienko, regarded as the most powerful woman in Russian politics and a close ally of President Vladimir Putin. Accompanying her are influential Russian Duma deputies Leonid Slutsky and Pyotr Tolstoy.

Matvienko, the chair of the Federation Council of the upper house of Russian parliament and a vocal supporter of the war in Ukraine, warned parliamentary speakers gathered in Geneva of the dangers of global conflict — arguing for what she called "the security of all nations."

Matvienko and her delegation appear to be the highest-profile Russian parliamentary visitors to Europe since the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Kremlin critics such as Mikhail Khodorkovsky warned of legitimizing Russia's war in Ukraine by hosting the delegation.

Others, including former political prisoners Vladimir Kara-Murza, Oleg Orlov and Ilya Yashin, accused Switzerland of hosting "war criminals" in an open letter. 

Some 200 signatories called out Swiss organizers for hosting "key figures of the Putin regime, directly responsible for unleashing the aggressive war against Ukraine, destroying democratic institutions, and large-scale repressions within Russia." 

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday slammed a list of Western politicians the Kremlin accuses of anti-Russian rhetoric as cheap propaganda.

Russia's Foreign Ministry recently published a list of what it calls examples of "hate speech" and "Russophobic statements" by Western politicians since 2014, after Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea. 

Rome summoned Russia's ambassador to Italy on Wednesday to formally protest the inclusion of President Sergio Mattarella and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani on the list.

The list cited a speech Mattarella delivered in France this February in which he drew parallels between Nazi Germany's wars of expansion and Russia's full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine in 2022.

Meloni, whose name did not appear on the list, scoffed at it, calling the list "nothing more than another propaganda campaign" designed to deflect attention from the brazen illegality of Russia's war in Ukraine.  

Although Russia and Italy long enjoyed close ties, Meloni condemned Russia's 2022 invasion as a clear breach of international law, firmly allied with Ukraine and joined in EU sanctions on Russia.

Other Western leaders included on the list include: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas.

Ukrainian special forces launched a "successful" raid on a thin spit of Russian-occupied land in the Black Sea on Monday night, Ukraine's military intelligence directorate (DIU) claimed on Tuesday evening.

"Reconnaissance troops landed on the Tendra Spit and eliminated the position of the occupation troops along with personnel," the DIU said in a statement on Telegram, adding that the soldiers destroyed a Russian electronic warfare complex and a radar station.

"The Ukrainian flag flew over the island," the statement claimed, adding: "The operation was carried out without any losses on our part."

Video footage published along with the statement appears to show around a dozen amphibious troops landing on a beach.

"Now we are here, on our Ukrainian land," an operative is heard saying, according to a translation by the Kyiv Independent. "Ukrainians are returning and taking back what is theirs."

The Tendra Spit is a 65-kilometer sandbank in the Black Sea, off the coast of the Russian-occupied part of the Ukraine's southern Kherson region.

Since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ukrainian forces have conducted several raids on the spit, not all of which have been as successful.

In February 2024, Ukraine's Ministry of Defense confirmed that four commandos were killed in action on the spit, "providing cover for the withdrawal of the main forces of the group after completing a special task." Moscow claimed "up to 25" Ukrainians had been killed.

Another raid in August 2024 was reportedly more successful.

US President Donald Trump has signaled that Ukrainian refugees will likely be allowed to remain in the United States until the Russian invasion comes to an end.

"I think we will, yes, I will," Trump told DW's Misha Komadovsky when asked whether he would allow Ukrainians who fled the war to remain stateside.

"We have a lot of people that came in from Ukraine, and we're working with them," he added.

Approximately 240,000 Ukrainian nationals have fled to the United States since the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, but their residency status has been cast into doubt as the Trump administration has cracked down on irregular migration and asylum seekers.

In an executive order issued on January 20, Trump instructed the US Department of Homeland Security to "terminate all categorical parole programs" — which would include the "Uniting for Ukraine" (U4U) initiative introduced by former US President Joe Biden.

Reuters news agency reported in March that a decision on the status of Ukrainians was imminent, with Trump telling reporters in the Oval Office at the time: "We're not looking to hurt anybody, we're certainly not looking to hurt them, and I'm looking at that. There were some people that think it's appropriate, and some people don't, and I'll be making the decision pretty soon."

In May, the Washington Post reported that the Trump administration was considering using $250 million (€217 million) of foreign aid funds to repatriate people from active conflict zones, including about 200,000 Ukrainians.

However, following Trump's remarks to DW in Washington, it appears likely that Ukrainian refugees will be permitted to stay in the United States, at least for now.

Hello and welcome to DW's coverage of developments in Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine on Wednesday, July 30.

After months of uncertainty surrounding the status of Ukrainian refugees in the United States, US President Donald Trump signaled to DW that they may be able to remain until the war ends.

And in Kyiv, urther protests are planned after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy launched a controversial restructuring of the country's anti-corruption agency.