Here is how things stand on Saturday, July 12:
Fighting
- Nine people were injured in Kharkiv, and an apartment building was also damaged in Russian attacks over the past day, while one person was killed and five others injured as a result of various Russian attacks in the surrounding region, governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
- Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had taken the village of Zelena Dolyna in Donetsk, northeast of the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, as their troops move westward.
Politics and diplomacy
- After North Korea, Lavrov is expected to travel to China to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting, which is set to take place on Monday and Tuesday.
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has described as “unacceptable” French President Emmanuel Macron’s proposal to send a peacekeeping force to Ukraine should Moscow and Kyiv agree to an elusive ceasefire. He also accused European leaders of a “pattern of militaristic anti-Russian sentiment”.
- The United Nations trade and development agency, UNCTAD, has announced that its agreement with Moscow to facilitate exports of Russian foodstuffs and fertiliser to international markets in a bid to rein in global food prices “will not be renewed” when it expires on July 22, citing disagreements.
Weapons
- Germany has no plans to procure additional F-35 fighter jets, a Federal Ministry of Defence spokesperson said on Friday, denying a Politico report that the country planned to grow its planned fleet to 50 amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
- NATO will need more long-range missiles in its arsenal to deter Russia from attacking Europe because Moscow is expected to increase production of long-range weapons, US Army Major-General John Rafferty told the Reuters news agency.
- Kyiv will allocate 260 million hryvnias ($6.2m) for a drone interceptor programme to defend the capital’s skies from Russian drones, city authorities said.
Source: Aljazeera
Leave a Reply