Russia-Ukraine War: List of main events, day 883 | Russia-Ukraine war news

As the war enters its 883rd day, these are the key developments.

This is where the war is on Saturday, July 27, 2024:

Fighting

• Russian air defense units intercepted 12 Ukrainian drones in the space of an hour over the Bryansk border region in southern Russia, according to Alexander Bogomaz, the regional governor. No casualties or serious damage were reported.

• Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region, also on the border with Ukraine further southeast, said three drone strikes and a series of bombing incidents had broken windows and caused some other damage to buildings.

• Ukrainian missiles hit the Russian military airfield of Saky in western Crimea, which has been used for long-range strikes against Ukraine, the military General Staff said in a statement, the latest in a series of attacks on the Russian army on the occupied peninsula.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged the attack in his evening address to the nation, praising “our soldiers who are attacking Russian bases and logistics in occupied territory.” He added: “To our guys, our soldiers, I thank you for your precision.”

• Russia has begun including new, cheap drones in its long-range strikes on Ukraine to try to identify air defenses, film any damage and serve as decoys, a Ukrainian military official told Reuters news agency. The two new types of drones are made from materials such as plastic foam and plywood.

Politics and diplomacy

• Finland suspects that a Russian ship violated the Nordic country’s territorial waters, the government said, adding that its border guard was investigating the incident.
• A Ukrainian court has placed an 18-year-old in custody for at least 60 days in the shooting death of former lawmaker Iryna Farion, state media reported. Farion, a hardline activist against the use of the Russian language in Ukraine, was shot near her apartment in the western city of Lviv. The suspect, Vyacheslav Zinchenko, was arrested in Dnipro, 800 km (497 miles) east of Lviv.
• A Russian military court has arrested two men for allegedly conspiring to blow up fuel tanks at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on the orders of Ukraine’s secret services. Mikhail Dariy and Ilya Kovylkov were sentenced to 22 and 15 years, respectively, for “terrorism” and other charges.

Economy

• Ukraine’s decision to suspend oil transit from Russian Lukoil to Hungary and Slovakia was in line with sanctions against the company and had nothing to do with blackmail, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said.

• An aide to Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban accused Ukraine of blackmailing Hungary and Slovakia by suspending oil deliveries. Ukraine last month adopted sanctions blocking the transit of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline, sparking fears of fuel shortages.

• Russia’s central bank raised its interest rate to 18 percent, the sixth increase in just over a year, in a bid to control soaring price rises. The bank’s governor, Elvira Nabiullina, said companies face higher costs and payment problems as the West puts pressure on Russia’s trading partners to stop helping the country skirt sanctions.