Russia-Ukraine War: List of main events, day 880 | Russia-Ukraine war news

As the war enters its 880th day, these are the key developments.

This is where the war is on Wednesday, July 24, 2024:

Fighting

• One person died and four others were injured in the Russian region of Krasnodar, when Ukraine launched a drone attack on a cargo ship docked in the port of Kavkaz, opposite the Crimean Peninsula annexed to Moscow, according to local authorities.
• The Russian military said it had captured another small village in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, where its forces are advancing. The settlement of Ivano-Dariivka is about 30 kilometers northeast of Bakhmut, the Ukrainian town that Russian troops captured in 2023 after destroying it with months of artillery fire.
• In Ukraine, a Russian airstrike overnight damaged a power facility in the northern region of Sumy, cutting power to 50,400 consumers, officials said. There were no victims.

Diplomacy

• Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba arrived in China for talks and said it was “very important for Kiev and Beijing to engage in direct dialogue” about ending the Russian invasion and achieving a just peace. Kuleba’s visit is the first by a high-ranking Ukrainian official since the full-scale invasion of Russia in February 2022.
• Hungary has threatened to block European Union reimbursements to member states that supplied ammunition to Ukraine until Kiev allows oil from the Russian company Lukoil to transit through a pipeline through its territory. Hungary and Slovakia said earlier this month they had stopped receiving oil from Lukoil through the Druzhba pipeline, after Ukraine imposed a ban last month on the transit of the Russian company’s resources.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held talks with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin in Kiev and praised the Holy See’s efforts in seeking peace and releasing prisoners of war.
• US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reaffirmed Washington’s unwavering support for Kiev in a telephone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart Rustem Umerov. It was the first call between the defense chiefs since US President Joe Biden’s decision to end his re-election bid and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee for the November election.
• Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, spoke by phone with Harris’ national security adviser, Phil Gordon, and discussed the situation at the front and the Russian campaign of airstrikes on Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure, according to Kiev.
• Russia called the EU’s plan to use interest earned on frozen Russian assets to finance military aid to Ukraine “theft” and said it would take legal action against anyone involved in the decision. Moscow also expanded its list of UK citizens banned from entering the country due to what it called anti-Russian public statements about Ukraine or their role in training or arming the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
• Estonia’s new government will support Ukraine until “victory” in its war with Russia, Prime Minister Kristen Michal told Reuters news agency, promising continuity on the issue with the former administration.

Policy

• Almost a third of Ukrainians would accept some territorial concessions to Russia for a quick end to the war, according to a poll by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology. The number represents a more than three-fold increase from last year, although the majority of Ukrainians continue to oppose giving up any land.
• A court in Moscow found Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar guilty in absentia of knowingly distributing false information about the Russian army and sentenced him to eight and a half years in prison. The charges against Zygar stem from an Instagram post he wrote in April 2022 about what he said were war crimes committed by Russian forces in the Ukrainian city of Bucha.

Military

• Zelenskyy, speaking in his evening video address, said Ukraine’s missile program is showing good momentum. “We are gradually approaching the possibility of using our own missiles and not just relying on missiles provided by our partners,” he said.

Economy

• The US Treasury Department has ordered the country’s banks to begin disclosing their holdings in Russian assets, with the aim of eventually confiscating those billions of dollars in assets and selling them to help the devastated Ukrainian economy.