As the war enters its 884th day, these are the main developments.
This is where the war stands on Sunday, July 28, 2024:
Fighting
- A 14-year-old boy was killed and 12 people wounded, six of them children, in Russian shelling in the centre of Glukhiv city in the Sumy region of Ukraine.
- One person was killed in the northeast Kharkiv region of Ukraine, while five were injured in Donetsk in the east, authorities said.
- In the southern Kherson region of Ukraine, a 37-year-old woman in Antonivka was killed and a 67-year-old man was seriously wounded by Russian shelling of the town of Bilozerka a few kilometres from the Dnipro river, the military administration said.
- A civilian was killed in Ukrainian strikes in Russia’s border region of Belgorod, which is targeted almost daily by Kyiv’s forces, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram.
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Ukrainian attack drones hit a Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bomber at a military airfield in Russia’s Olenya, Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda reported quoting a military intelligence source. The airfield is 1,800 km (1,100 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
- At least five people were wounded, including an 11-year-old who was in the yard of a private house, following an aerial bombing by Russian forces targeting the Donetsk region’s town of Myrnograd.
- Russia claimed that its military captured the village of Lozuvatske in Donetsk amid heavy fighting, as its forces advanced towards the city of Pokrovsk.
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Russia’s air defence systems destroyed seven drones launched by Ukraine overnight, the Russian Ministry of Defence said. Five drones were destroyed over the Belgorod region and two over the Kursk region, the ministry added.
- The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence said its forces halted 37 Russian attacks in the Pokrovsk area, with the hardest fighting reported in the village of Novooleksandrivka, 2km (1.2 miles) from Lozuvatske.
- A source from Ukraine’s Defence Ministry also told the AFP news agency that three Russian military helicopters were targeted by “acts of sabotage”, one in Samara and two in the Moscow region.
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Three tanks at an oil storage depot in Russia’s Kursk region caught fire as a result of a Ukraine-launched drone attack, acting regional governor, Alexei Smirnov, said. No one was injured in the attack, and a fire at one of the tanks was quickly extinguished with the help of 82 firefighters and 32 units of equipment.
Politics and diplomacy
- China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his US counterpart Antony Blinken that Beijing denies charges that it is helping Russia’s war effort in Ukraine. In their meeting in the capital of Laos, Wang also said China would take “forceful measures” to defend Chinese interests.
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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Russia’s leadership was “hyperrational” and that Ukraine would never be able to fulfil its hopes of becoming a member of the European Union or NATO. He also predicted that, in the coming years, Asia “will be the dominant centre of the world”.
- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to visit Ukraine next month, according to Indian media reports, his first trip to the country since its war with Russia began, and just weeks after he met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. India has refrained from directly blaming Russia while urging the two nations to resolve their conflict through dialogue and diplomacy.
Weapons
- A Russian Su-34 bomber crashed while performing a scheduled training flight, state-run RIA news agency reported citing the Russian Defence Ministry. The crew ejected and the plane crashed in a deserted area. The flight was carried out without ammunition.
