close Video Russian soldier sent flying as Soviet-era helicopter gun spins out of control Video obtained by
East2West shows troops testing a
YakB-12.7 machine gun on an improvised ground mount as
Russia reportedly repurposes the Cold War-era weapon to target Ukrainian drones. (Credit:
East2West) President
Donald Trump said he believes Russian President
Vladimir Putin is ready to reach an agreement ending the war in
Ukraine, even as Moscow warned Wednesday that Western troops deployed to enforce any eventual peace deal would become Russian military targets. "I say, ‘Vladimir, it’s time for you to stop. It’s time for this war to end,’" Trump told
Fox News chief foreign correspondent
Trey Yingst in an interview released Tuesday. Trump said he believed Putin was "ready to make a deal" to end the fighting. ANOTHER
NATO ALLY SIGNS ONTO EUROPEAN NUCLEAR UMBRELLA AS CONTINENT BOOSTS SELF-DEFENSE Meanwhile, fighting continued across
Ukraine and Russian-occupied territory. The intensifying drone war has forced both militaries to search for additional ways to intercept unmanned aircraft — sometimes using weapons designed decades before modern drones emerged, as seen in the video supplied by
East2West that shows a Russian soldier apparently losing control of a Soviet-era YakB-12.7 rotary machine gun mounted on an improvised ground platform. Russian President
Vladimir Putin and President
Donald Trump meet in 2019, before their relationship began to sour. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images) The weapon begins spinning violently, dragging the service member around before throwing him several yards from the mounting. Another soldier is seen ducking as the gun swings in his direction.
East2West reported that no one was injured, though
Fox News Digital has not independently verified the location, date or circumstances of the footage. The four-barrel machine gun originally was developed for use aboard the Soviet-designed
Mi-24 Hind attack helicopter. Russian forces have reportedly attempted to repurpose such weapons as ground-based defenses against Ukrainian drones,
East2West news reported. TRUMP SAYS US WILL LET
Ukraine MAKE PATRIOT MISSILES IN MAJOR POLICY SHIFT An explosion lights up the sky over the city during a Russian missile and drone strike, amid
Russia's attack on
Ukraine, in Kyiv,
Ukraine July 2, 2026. (Gleb Garanich/Reuters) On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman
Maria Zakharova said any multinational force deployed by
Ukraine’s allies following a ceasefire would be unacceptable to Moscow. "We would regard such units as legitimate military targets," Zakharova said, according to a Reuters report published Wednesday. Members of the Western "coalition of the willing" reaffirmed at a meeting in Paris this week that they intend to deploy a multinational force after hostilities end. The proposed force would seek to reassure
Ukraine and help Kyiv rebuild its military.
Ukraine’s military said Wednesday that its forces struck the Balaklava thermal power station in Russian-occupied Crimea, a facility that accounts for nearly half of the peninsula’s electricity generation, according to Reuters.
Russia, meanwhile, launched another major drone and missile attack against
Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, killing three people, regional governor Oleh Kiper said. He said civilian, industrial and port infrastructure had been targeted during five consecutive days of Russian attacks. Emergency services personnel work to extinguish a vehicle fire following a Russian drone attack in the Kyiv region,
Ukraine, on May 5, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service/AP) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also said Wednesday that
Ukraine expects to develop the technical capability to manufacture missiles for U.S.-made Patriot air-defense systems by the end of 2026. Efrat (Effie) Lachter is an investigative journalist, filmmaker and war correspondent. She has directed and produced over 200 documentary segments across more than 40 countries. Recipient of the 2022 Peres Center for Peace Award, Lachter is also a 2023-24 Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan. She holds a bachelor's degree in communication and a master's degree in political science.