As the war enters its 859th day, these are the key developments.
This is the situation on Wednesday, July 3, 2024.
Fighting
- Russian strikes in the central Ukrainian city of Nikopol killed two women aged 61 and 86 and injured nine others, according to regional governor Serhiy Lysak. The attacks damaged homes, educational facilities and a clinic in the city, which is across the Dnipro River from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.
- Russia said it destroyed five Ukrainian SU-27 fighter jets with Iskander-M missiles and damaged two more at Myrhorod Air Base in central Poltava, Ukraine. The attack comes as Ukraine prepares for the arrival of long-awaited F-16 fighter jets.
- Ukraine said there had been an attack on Myrhorod Air Base, but claimed Moscow was exaggerating the damage caused. Air Force Commander Mykola Oleschuk said the Ukrainian military also carried out a “destructive attack” on a Russian ammunition depot in the city of Balaklava in Moscow-occupied Crimea on Monday.
- Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defense systems destroyed 11 drones that Ukraine launched into Russian territory and the occupied Crimean peninsula in the early hours of Tuesday.
- Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said his country will not allow any clashes on its border with Ukraine after its military reinforced air defenses in the area due to increased Ukrainian drone activity there.
Politics and diplomacy
- Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban made his first trip to Kiev in more than a decade and urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to consider a ceasefire to hasten the end of the war with Russia. Ukraine, however, has said it sees its own approach as the path to peace.
- Zelenskyy said he spoke with Orban about Ukraine’s steps to bring peace together with international partners and that he invited the Hungarian prime minister to join Kiev’s efforts.
- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Ukrainian President Andriy Yermak’s chief of staff in Washington, DC and held discussions about NATO members’ intention to bring Ukraine closer to the alliance, according to an official from the USA. The talks came as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also pledged to “take steps to build a bridge to Ukraine’s NATO membership” during the alliance’s summit in the US capital next week.
- The governments of Germany and Poland presented a joint action plan in which they agreed to discuss strengthening defense cooperation, including a stronger NATO presence on the alliance’s eastern border, and coordinating aid to Ukraine.
- Lithuania’s Foreign Ministry said it had made a diplomatic protest to Russia after a Russian civilian aircraft entered its airspace without permission. The Pobeda airline aircraft entered Lithuanian airspace over the Baltic Sea for a minute on Sunday night on its way from Moscow’s Vnukovo airport to Kaliningrad airport, the ministry said.
- A Kremlin spokesman said Russia could not comment on former US President Donald Trump’s idea to end the war in Ukraine because Moscow did not know what the plan involved.
- In the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, a court sentenced a 19-year-old man to 12 years in prison for allegedly donating money to Ukrainian forces, according to Russian state media.
Military aid
- The US will soon announce more than $2.3 billion in new security assistance for Ukraine, Defense Secretary Austin said during a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart at the Pentagon. Austin said the latest weapons package would include weapons such as anti-tank weapons and air defense interceptors, and would allow for the accelerated acquisition of National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) and Patriot air defense interceptors.
- The Netherlands said it would supply Ukraine with the first of 24 promised F-16 fighters soon, but did not specify how many planes would be sent in the initial delivery and when they would arrive in Kiev for security reasons.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
