Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,253

On Thursday, July 31, 2018, this is how things are going.

Fighting

• At least four people have been killed in a Russian drone attack in Kiev, according to the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine’s Telegram. A garage cooperative was hit by the debris from fallen Russian drones, which caused a gas pipe to ignite in a three-story residential complex.
• Three service members were killed and 18 others were hurt in a Tuesday Russian missile attack on a Ukrainian military training facility, according to Ukraine’s ground forces’ announcement on Telegram.
• According to a Facebook post from the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, Russian forces attacked Ukrainian emergency service workers who had just started a fire in the city of Orikhiv in the Zaporizhia region of southern Ukraine. No injuries were reported.
• An air force officer with the rank of major has been detained by Ukraine’s domestic security agency on suspicion of spying for Russia by leaked information and suggesting strike strategies for the famed, Western-donated F-16 and Mirage 2000 fighter jets.

International Cooperation

• Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, stated that he approved fundamental principles for a significant-scale American nuclear agreement. In his evening video address to the nation, Zelenskyy said, “These are large-scale agreements, which I discussed with President [Donald] Trump, and I hope very much that we will be able to implement them all,” without giving further details.
• The Italian government announced that it had called the Russian ambassador to protest the presence of Italian President Sergio Mattarella on a list of Western leaders who had been accused of spreading anti-Russian sentiment.

Moscow claimed that Russia had long-standing economic immunity and that it is continuing to monitor President Trump’s most recent threat to impose sanctions on the nation if Ukraine does not end its war with Ukraine within days.

Economy

• According to officials and growers, a significant locust invasion is threatening sunflower and other crops in the southern regions of Ukraine, largely as a result of the conflict against Russia’s invasion, which makes it impossible to apply conventional pest control techniques near the front lines.