As the war enters its 803rd day, these are the main developments.
Here is the situation on Tuesday, May 7, 2024.
Fighting
- Russia claimed to have taken control of two more Ukrainian settlements – Soloviove in the eastern Donetsk region and Kotliarivka further north in the Kharkiv region. Ukraine’s military made no mention of either area in its evening report.
- About 400,000 households in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region were left without power after Russian drones struck high-voltage distribution lines. Officials said power was later restored to most homes but warned of “urgent challenges” in maintaining the grid.
- Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, said six people were killed and 35 injured after Ukrainian drones struck two buses taking people to work at a meat factory.
- The Ukrainian Weightlifting Federation (UWF) announced Olympian and two-time European champion Oleksandr Pielieshenko had been killed on the front lines of the war in Ukraine at the age of 30. The Ukrainian Olympic Committee said Pielieshenko had signed up in the early days of the war.
Politics and diplomacy
- Russia said it would hold tactical nuclear weapons drills after some Western European countries voiced stronger military support for Ukraine. Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago.
- Russia warned the United Kingdom that if UK weapons were used by Ukraine to attack Russian territory, then Moscow could hit back at UK military installations and equipment inside Ukraine and elsewhere. UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron said last week that Ukraine had the right to strike Russia with UK weapons.
- Chinese President Xi Jinping began his tour of Europe meeting French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Paris. Von der Leyen said the EU hoped Xi would help persuade Russia to end its “war of aggression against Ukraine”.
- Following the talks, Xi said he backed Macron’s proposal for a truce during the Olympics, which are scheduled to start in Paris on July 26. He said China had been working “vigorously” to facilitate peace talks for Ukraine.
- Germany recalled its ambassador to Russia over alleged cyberattacks linked to Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency on its defence and aerospace firms. The ambassador, (Otto) Graf Lambsdorff will remain in Berlin for a week before returning to Moscow.
- Russia’s FSB security services said it had charged a Russian man in his mid-40s with terrorism. The man was detained near a railway station in the central city of Tambov and accused of attempting to blow up two court buildings on behalf of Ukraine.
- Poland said it was financing the operation of 20,000 Starlink internet devices in Ukraine, an essential network for the country’s military communications.
Weapons
- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz backed a proposal for about 90 percent of the revenues generated from frozen Russian assets to be channelled into arms purchases for Ukraine.
