The latest onslaught of Russian military attacks on Ukraine carried on for a staggering 10 hours through the night Sunday and into Monday. Moscow unleashed some 426 Shahed-type explosive drones and 24 missiles against civilian and urban areas, causing widespread destruction across multiple regions. In Kyiv, Russian drones hit a metro station, a residential building and a kindergarten.

The attacks are part of a broader and intensifying Russian bombing campaign that has grown in scope and lethality over recent weeks. Threat Status Special Correspondent Guillaume Ptak writes in a dispatch from Kyiv that Ukrainian air defense systems, already strained by ammunition shortages and the sheer volume of incoming threats, are struggling to contain the onslaught.

The stakes are rising as the U.S. and European partners vow to ramp up weapons supplies for Ukraine, all while the next round of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia is slated to be held Wednesday in Istanbul. The Kremlin says the two countries are “diametrically opposed” on how to end the war. Two previous rounds of negotiations resulted in only a prisoner swap.

The U.S. and Germany were notably absent Monday from a joint statement signed by the foreign ministers of 25 countries demanding that the war in Gaza “must end now.” The Associated Press reports that the statement was backed by Britain, Japan, Australia, Canada and a host of European nations.

The statement described as “horrifying” the recent deaths of more than 800 Palestinians who were seeking aid. That figure is according to the U.N. human rights office and Gaza’s Health Ministry, the latter of which is controlled by Hamas. The majority of food aid being allowed by Israel into Gaza goes through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S. group backed by Israel. Since GHF operations began in May, there have been reports of hundreds of Palestinians heading to aid distribution sites being killed in shootings by Israeli soldiers.

Retired British Army Col. Richard Kemp, who is familiar with the GHF’s work and has witnessed it on the ground in Gaza, pushed back against that narrative during an exclusive interview on a recent episode of the Threat Status weekly podcast.

National security experts are raising concerns about the proposed merger between European satellite service provider SES — a major Pentagon space contractor — and Virginia-based Intelsat because of SES’s strategic partnership with a Chinese-state-linked satellite company.

The $3.1 billion merger was announced in April. A month later, SES reached a strategic partnership with China’s AeroSat Link for an international airline inflight internet service program. AeroSat Link is a subsidiary of the state-run China Satellite Communications Co. Ltd., known as ChinaSat, which is part of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp.

Mr. Gertz offers a deep dive on the situation, noting that ChinaSat and CASC are identified as Chinese military companies. The Treasury Department has sanctioned both in the past based on national security concerns.

Threat Status opinion contributor Miles Yu examines the Chinese Communist Party’s upcoming grand military parade to commemorate victory over Japan in World War II. He writes that while the Sept. 3 event is ostensibly a tribute to wartime heroism, it is “in truth, a monumental distortion of history, a calculated fiction meant to glorify the party, vilify its contemporary adversaries and mislead its people.

“At the heart of this charade lies the falsehood that the CCP was the principal fighting force against Japanese aggression during the war. This claim is a brazen lie,” writes Mr. Yu, who is the director of the China Center at the Hudson Institute.

“The entire upcoming parade is a political theater, a state-forged spectacle masquerading as remembrance,” he writes. “The irony of holding it in Tiananmen Square, where countless lives were crushed in 1989, is not lost on those who know China’s real history.”

Geeta Bakshi is a former CIA counterterrorism officer who in 2021 founded FAMIL, an organization to help vetted Afghan partners who supported the U.S. government during the war as they began new lives in the United States.

“Now, nearly four years later, FAMIL remains the primary lifeline and most vocal advocate for more than 3,000 Afghan National Strike Unit veterans stuck in legal limbo in the United States, waiting to complete visa processing and obtain permanent legal status,” writes Ms. Bakshi. “As they wait for U.S. green cards, many are losing their employment authorizations, causing them to lose their jobs, homes and ability to support their families. In some ways, these warriors face a tougher battle today than they ever did in combat.

“We must stand by our closest counterterrorism partners by expediting their special immigrant visa cases and ensuring their employment authorizations remain valid until they receive permanent legal status,” she writes. “Welcoming these deeply patriotic veterans fully into American society fulfills our moral obligation and makes America stronger.”

• July 22 — Lessons Learned: An Examination of Historic Security Incidents at Mass Gatherings, House Homeland Security Task Force on Enhancing Security for Special Events in the United States

• July 23 — An Inside Look at Russian Abuses Against Ukraine’s Frontline Communities, Atlantic Council

• July 24 — Coffee Series: Maj. Gen. Mark Bennett, Director of the Army Budget Office, Association of the United States Army 

• July 29 — ICE Pact: The Icebreaker Collaboration Effort and Arctic Security Conversation, The Heritage Foundation

• July 31 — Breaking Out of Quarantine: Wargaming a Chinese Blockade of Taiwan, Center for Strategic & International Studies