Right here is the state of affairs on Monday, July 31, 2023.
Preventing
- The Russian defence ministry stated it introduced down three Ukrainian drones over the capital, Moscow, damaging a high-rise constructing reported to accommodate authorities places of work. No one was harm and the assault briefly compelled the closure of the town’s 4 airports.
- Ukraine didn’t straight declare duty for the drone assaults however President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated the battle was “steadily returning to Russia’s territory – to its symbolic centres”.
- Individually, the Russian defence ministry stated it had efficiently thwarted an in a single day assault on the annexed Black Sea peninsula of Crimea by 25 Ukrainian drones. No one was harm and no injury was triggered, it stated.
- Ukrainian officers stated there was heavy preventing within the northeastern components of the nation, with Ukrainian forces holding their traces and making good points in some areas.
- Zelenskyy described Sunday as a “good day, a robust day” on the entrance, notably close to Bakhmut, the place Ukrainian forces say they’re retaking floor misplaced when Russian forces took the town in Might.
- Within the northeastern Kharkiv area, a Russian assault set off a fireplace at a “non-residential” constructing however triggered no casualties, officers stated. And within the northern metropolis of Sumy, the loss of life toll from a Russian assault on a faculty on Saturday rose to 2 after rescue groups cleared rubble from the world.
- Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar stated Russian forces had been “attempting to drive us out” of elevated positions within the northeast, occupied by Moscow after its full-scale invasion, however retaken later by Ukrainian troops. The Russians’ key job, she advised nationwide tv, was to “divert our forces from the Bakhmut space, the place now we have a profitable offensive. They’ve attacked endlessly this week. However our troops resist the assaults and typically push them again with heavy losses.”
- Maliar stated Russian forces had been additionally “tenaciously attempting to grab again” areas on the southern entrance retaken taken by Ukraine. Ukraine, she stated, had recaptured 200 sq. kilometres (77 sq. miles) within the south however advances had been restricted by entrenched Russian positions and mines.
- Zelenskyy, in the meantime, warned of extra Russian assaults on Ukraine’s power system as soon as chilly climate returns later this 12 months and pledged to do all the pieces doable to guard the ability grid.
- Russia’s defence ministry, in its every day account of navy exercise, stated its forces had noticed and deployed rockets to destroy an аrmoured brigade of Ukrainian troops close to Svatove, a key Russian-held city in Ukraine’s northeast.
- Russian forces, it added, had additionally repelled 4 Ukrainian assaults close to the city of Lyman, additional south.
- The UK’s defence ministry stated 1000’s of troops from Russia’s Wagner Group had been now stationed in central Belarus and that almost all autos accompanying the troopers weren’t armoured fight autos however minibuses and vehicles.
Diplomacy
- Andriy Yermak, the chief of workers to Ukraine’s president, stated Kyiv is to begin consultations with the USA this week on offering safety ensures for the nation pending the completion of the method of becoming a member of NATO. The talks are a follow-up to pledges issued by the G7 on the NATO summit in Lithuania earlier this month.
- Yermak, writing on Telegram, additionally stated officers from a number of international locations had been getting ready to satisfy in Saudi Arabia to debate Zelenskyy’s peace plan for Ukraine, based mostly on the departure of all Russian troops.
- “The Ukrainian Peace Components incorporates 10 basic factors, the implementation of which won’t solely guarantee peace for Ukraine, but additionally create mechanisms to counter future conflicts on the planet,” Yermak stated in a press release. “We’re deeply satisfied that the Ukrainian peace plan ought to be taken as a foundation, as a result of the battle is happening on our land.” The Wall Avenue Journal first reported on the assembly in Saudi Arabia on Saturday, saying it might be held in Jeddah on August 5-6.
- Pope Francis known as on Russia to reverse its choice to desert the Black Sea grain deal and urged the trustworthy to proceed praying “for martyred Ukraine, the place battle is destroying all the pieces, even grain”.
Politics
- Russian President Vladimir Putin reviewed a parade of warships and nuclear submarines in his native St Petersburg and introduced that the Russian Navy would obtain 30 new ships this 12 months.
- Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev once more raised the spectre of a nuclear battle over Ukraine, saying Moscow might have to make use of an atomic weapon if Kyiv’s ongoing counteroffensive was successful. “Think about if the… offensive, which is backed by NATO, was successful they usually tore off part of our land then we’d be compelled to make use of a nuclear weapon,” he stated on Telegram.