As the war enters its 873rd day, here are the top developments.
This is the state of the war on Wednesday, July 17, 2024:
Struggle:
- Ukrainian drone strikes in Russia's Kursk region caused a fire at a factory producing electrical appliances and injured at least six people, according to local governors. The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces destroyed 13 Ukrainian drones overnight, including one flying over the Kursk region, which borders Ukraine.
- Russian authorities have announced plans to restrict civilian access to 14 villages in the southern Belgorod region bordering Ukraine due to incessant Ukrainian shelling.
- Russia's Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov thanked Russian forces for capturing the village of Urozhaine in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region and “set new tasks for future activities,” according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
- Russian investigators said they were looking into the shooting of a wounded Russian soldier by Ukrainian forces in a video posted online by Ukraine's Azov Brigade.
- Ukraine's Defence Ministry has said it is providing its under-resourced armed forces with ammunition that had been sent for scrap before the Russian invasion. The ammunition will undergo thorough quality checks before being distributed to Ukrainian forces on the front, it said.
Politics and diplomacy
- The Kremlin responded cautiously to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s apparent invitation to a future peace summit, saying Moscow needs to understand what Kiev means before attending the talks. The Ukrainian president had said Russia “should be” represented at a second summit on the war, after last month’s high-level talks in Switzerland that Moscow did not attend.
- Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a member of the country's Security Council, said Ukraine's accession to NATO would be a declaration of war against Moscow and that only “prudence” on the part of the alliance could prevent the planet from breaking apart.
- Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has sent a letter to European Union leaders, saying that US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is ready to “immediately” act as a peace mediator in the war between Russia and Ukraine if he is elected in November.
- European Council President Charles Michel responded to Orban's letter by telling the Hungarian leader that he had no mandate from the EU to negotiate on the war. Michel also rejected Orban's claim that the EU had pursued a “pro-war” policy in Ukraine.
- Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have formally notified Russia and Belarus that they would abandon a 2001 agreement that kept the three Baltic countries connected to a Moscow-controlled electricity transmission system. The move is part of an effort to cut ties with Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.
- At the United Nations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the United States of demanding “unconditional obedience” from allies and threatening multilateralism.
- The Russian Orthodox Church in Kazakhstan has dismissed a priest who opposed Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Hieromonk Lakov had advocated the creation of an independent Orthodox Church, free from Moscow's influence.
- Meanwhile, Japan is making final arrangements to lend $3.3 billion to Ukraine using the interest on frozen Russian assets, about 6 percent of the G7's total $50 billion package, Kyodo news agency reported, citing diplomatic sources.
Economy
- Ukraine's parliament has voted to scrap taxes and tariffs on imports of energy equipment, including wind and solar power, as the country faces a severe energy crisis due to Russian bombing.
- Ukrainian state-owned company Ukroboronservice and Czech ammunition manufacturer Sellier and Bellot have signed an agreement to build an ammunition factory in Ukraine, the two countries announced.
- Russia-based global cybersecurity firm Kaspersky has announced it will shut down its U.S. operations after Washington sanctioned its top officials and banned the sale of its popular antivirus software.
- Meanwhile, Russia's communications regulator has demanded that Google reinstate more than 200 Russian YouTube channels that the US company blocked for spreading pro-Kremlin content, including about the conflict in Ukraine.
