Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,241

Al Jazeera

3 days ago

How things stand on Saturday, July 19:
Fighting
Russian drones and glide bombs killed several people in Ukraine on Friday, officials said, including a 52-year-old train driver in the Dnipropetrovsk region, a 66-year-old woman killed in her home in Kostiantynivka, and a 64-year-old man killed in a glide bomb attack on a building site in the Zaporizhia region.
Russian forces have staged a mass drone attack on the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odesa, setting fire to at least one multistorey apartment building, the city's mayor, Gennadiy Trukhanov, said early on Saturday. At least 20 drones converged on the city in the early hours of this morning.
Russian air defences intercepted or destroyed 10 Ukrainian drones headed for Moscow overnight on Friday, the city's mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said.
Ukraine's top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskii, said his forces are standing firm in defending the city of Pokrovsk, a logistics hub in the eastern Donetsk region that has weathered months of Russian attacks, and the Novopavlivka settlement in the Zaporizhia region.
Praising the troops defending Pokrovsk, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces 'trying to advance and enter Ukrainian cities and villages' will not have 'a chance of survival'.
Authorities in Russian-controlled Crimea have introduced an information blackout designed to counter Ukrainian drone, missile and sabotage attacks. Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-installed head of Crimea, said he signed a decree banning media outlets and social media users from publishing photos, video or other content that revealed the location of Russian forces or details of Ukrainian attacks on the Black Sea peninsula.
Military aid
Australia's government said it delivered M1A1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine as part of a 245 million Australian dollar ($160m) package to help the country defend itself against Russia in their ongoing war.
The United States has moved Germany ahead of Switzerland to receive the next Patriot air defence systems to come off production lines in the US. The expedited delivery to Germany will allow Berlin to send two Patriot batteries it already has to Ukraine, according to a US media report.
Leaders in Ukraine and Washington are in detailed talks on a deal involving US investment in Kyiv's domestic drone production, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said. She added the deal would also lead to the US purchasing 'a large batch of Ukrainian drones'.
President Zelenskyy said he discussed missile supplies and funding for interceptor drones to counteract Russian attacks in a call with French President Emmanuel Macron. 'I would especially like to highlight our agreement on pilot training for Mirage jets – France is ready to train additional pilots using additional aircraft,' Zelenskyy said on X.
Sanctions
The European Union approved its 18th package of sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine, aimed at dealing further blows to Russia's oil and energy industry.
Eighteen officers working for Russian military intelligence, known as the GRU, along with three units, have been hit with sanctions by the United Kingdom over their role in a 2022 bomb attack on a theatre in southern Ukraine that killed hundreds of civilians. The officers were also accused of targeting the family of a former Russian spy who was later poisoned in the UK with a nerve agent.
President Zelenskyy thanked the European Union for the latest sanctions targeting Russia and called for further punitive measures against Moscow. 'This decision is essential and timely, especially now, as a response to the fact that Russia has intensified the brutality of the strikes on our cities and villages,' he said.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the Russian economy would withstand the EU sanctions package and said Moscow would intensify its strikes against Ukraine. India has said it does not support 'unilateral sanctions' by the EU, after Brussels imposed penalties on Russia that included a Rosneft oil refinery in the western Indian state of Gujarat.
Greek tanker operators involved in shipping approved Russian oil exports are expected to continue doing so despite the new wave of tougher sanctions by the EU that will further tighten restrictions, shipping sources told the Reuters news agency.
WhatsApp should prepare to leave the Russian market, a lawmaker in Moscow who regulates the IT sector said on Friday, warning that the messaging app owned by Meta Platforms is very likely to be put on a list of restricted software in Russia.
Politics and diplomacy
The Kremlin said that it did not believe the tougher stance that Donald Trump has adopted towards Russia over its war in Ukraine means the end of US-Russia talks aimed at reviving their battered ties.
The Kremlin also said that it agreed with a statement by Zelenskyy that there needed to be more momentum around peace talks between the warring sides.
Zelenskyy appointed former Defence Minister Rustem Umerov as the secretary of the country's National Security and Defence Council, according to a decree published on Friday on the president's website. Umerov's appointment follows a reshuffle of the Ukrainian government and the appointment of a new prime minister.
Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed Ukraine during a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday, the Kremlin press service said. Putin said Russia was 'committed to a political and diplomatic settlement of the conflict in Ukraine' and thanked Erdogan for facilitating Russia-Ukraine bilateral talks.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has cast doubt on the possibility of Ukraine joining the EU by 2034, saying accession was unlikely to come at a point affecting the bloc's medium-term finance plans, which run to 2034. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had said Kyiv could join the EU before 2030 if the country continues its reforms.
Russian courts sentenced 135 people to lengthy prison sentences in connection with a mass anti-Israel protest in October 2023 at an airport in the predominantly Muslim Dagestan region, the country's Investigative Committee said on Friday. Hundreds of anti-Israel protesters stormed an airport in the city of Makhachkala, where a plane from Tel Aviv had just arrived, over Israel's war on Gaza.
Regional security
Russia views recent comments by a top US general about NATO's ability to swiftly capture the Russian Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad as hostile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. General Christopher Donahue, the US Army Europe and Africa commander, said NATO could seize Kaliningrad 'from the ground in a timeframe that is unheard of and faster than we've ever been able to do', according to a report.
Almost a third of Italians believe the country will be directly involved in a war within five years, but only 16 percent of those of fighting age would be willing to take up arms, a new survey shows.
The survey by the Centre for Social Investment Studies showed 39 percent of Italians aged between 18 and 45 would declare themselves as pacifist conscientious objectors, 19 percent would try to evade conscription another way, and 26 percent would prefer Italy to hire foreign mercenaries.