Here is the situation on Tuesday, July 25, 2023.
Battle
- According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Russian air defense “suppressed” an attack by two Ukrainian drones on Moscow and accused Kiev of having committed a “terrorist act” against the country’s capital. According to Russian officials, one of the drones crashed near the Defense Ministry in central Moscow, while the other hit an office building in the southern part of the city.
- Ukraine claimed responsibility for the “special operation” on Moscow, which claimed no casualties. Moscow said it reserved the right to take “harsh retaliatory measures” in response.
- A child was killed and six people injured in a Russian attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostyantynivka, the governor of the Donetsk region said. Russian forces fired Smerch missiles at “a local pond where people were resting,” Pavlo Kyrylenko said in the Telegram.
- Russia’s Defense Ministry said Ukraine tried to attack Crimea with 17 drones on Sunday night. It said eleven of the drones crashed into the Black Sea after being suppressed by anti-drone equipment, three crashed on Crimea territory and three were destroyed by anti-aircraft defenses. The attack on Dzhankoi hit an ammunition depot and damaged a residential building, said Sergei Aksyonov, Moscow’s appointed governor of the Crimea peninsula.
- A Russian drone strike on port infrastructure in Ukraine’s Odessa region destroyed a grain hangar, Kiev’s military said.
diplomacy
- The White House in the United States said it “as a matter of principle” does not support attacks within Russia after being asked about the drone attack on Moscow.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called any move by the European Union to extend restrictions on Ukrainian grain to protect local farmers from competition as “unacceptable” and “anti-European”. Zelenskyy said he hopes Europe “will meet its obligations” after current restrictions on Ukrainian grain are lifted on September 15.
- Lithuania urged the EU to use Baltic ports to export Ukrainian grain. A letter from three Lithuanian ministers to EU commissioners said the Baltic ports “could serve as a reliable alternative for the transit of Ukrainian products, including grain”.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged Russia to return to the Black Sea Grain Export Agreement[File: Khalil Senosi/AP)
- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Russia to return to the Black Sea grain export deal. “For my part, I remain committed to facilitating the unimpeded access to global markets for food products and fertilisers from both Ukraine and the Russian Federation and to deliver the food security that every person deserves,” Guterres said at a UN summit.
- Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabriel Landsbergis said that Russian President Vladimir Putin “feels emboldened to escalate” after the Vilnius NATO summit.
- Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has condemned Russia’s attacks against Ukrainian civilian infrastructure along the Danube River, near Romania. “This recent escalation pose[s] serious security risks in the Black Sea. It continues to have an effect [Ukrainian] “Grain transit and with it global food security,” he said in a tweet.
According to Russian state media, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev accused the United States of planning cyber attacks on Russia’s “critical information infrastructure”.
military maneuvers
- The Kremlin said it will continue its “special military operation” in Ukraine and achieve all its goals despite Ukrainian drone strikes on Russia.
- The Kremlin denied that Russian forces had attacked a cathedral in the Ukrainian city of Odessa and blamed Ukraine for hitting it. On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a Russian missile had hit Odessa’s Transfiguration Cathedral.
- Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Moscow should broaden its range of targets in Ukraine. “We must choose unconventional targets for our attacks. Not just storage facilities, energy centers and oil bases,” Medvedev said on the news app Telegram.
- Ukraine claimed its forces recaptured more than 16 square kilometers (6.2 sq mi) from Russian forces in the south and east of the country over the past week.
- A media investigation revealed that China sent military equipment to equip the Russian army. Chinese companies like Shanghai H Win have supplied hundreds of thousands of bulletproof vests and helmets, according to Politico’s investigation. Beijing has not condemned Moscow’s actions in Ukraine, but has proposed a 12-point peace plan to end the war.
- Ukraine’s State Investigative Bureau said it has arrested a former senior Ukrainian military official on suspicion of corruption after his family reportedly bought multimillion-dollar properties following the Russian invasion of Spain. Yevgen Borisov was responsible for mobilization and conscription in the southern Odessa region until his release at the end of June.
- According to the Belarusian Hayun military surveillance group, thousands of Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group arrived in Belarus after the group’s short-lived uprising against Moscow. According to the group, between 3,450 and 3,650 soldiers have traveled to a camp near Asipovichy, a town 230 kilometers (140 miles) north of the Ukrainian border.
- According to a report by Russia’s state-run RIA Novosti news agency, Russia’s Industry Minister Denis Manturov said the defense industry is now producing more ammunition per month than all of last year.
- Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told CNN that Kyiv will submit a report to the Pentagon on the use of cluster munitions in the country in the coming days. Reznikov said he expected the munitions to be particularly effective against Russian infantry.