Here is the situation on Sunday, July 23, 2023.
Fighting
- Russia launched another wave of attacks on the Black Sea port of Odesa early on Sunday, killing one person and wounding 18, including four children, according to Ukrainian officials.
- A Ukrainian drone attack on the annexed Crimean Peninsula on Saturday blew up an ammunition depot and prompted evacuations along a 5km (3 miles) radius, according to Moscow-installed officials. It also halted road traffic along a bridge connecting Crimea to Russia. Footage shared by state media showed a thick cloud of grey smoke at the site.
- Russian news agencies quoted the Health Ministry as saying 12 people required medical assistance and four were taken to hospital.
- Ukraine said its army destroyed an oil depot and Russian army warehouses in the “temporarily occupied” district of Oktiabrske in central Crimea.
- Russia accused Kyiv of using cluster munitions on the Russian border village of Zhuravlevka and said that the controversial weapon had killed one of its journalists in a Ukrainian village on the front line.
- The Kremlin identified the journalist as Rostislav Zhuravlev, a war correspondent working for the state RIA Novosti news agency and said he died from his wounds after coming under fire in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhia region. It pledged to respond to the “heinous, premeditated crime”.
- In a separate incident, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle said one of its journalists, Yevgeny Shilko, had been wounded elsewhere in Ukraine in a Russian cluster munition attack that killed a Ukrainian soldier. It said his life was not in danger.
- The Ukrainian air force said it brought down 14 Russian drones, including five Iranian-made ones, over the country’s southeast overnight on Saturday.
- Authorities in Ukraine reported eight civilian deaths overnight on Saturday, including six people in the eastern Donetsk region and two in the northern city of Chernihiv.
Diplomacy
- Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko will meet on Sunday, the Kremlin said, two days after Moscow warned that any aggression against Belarus, its neighbour and staunchest ally, would be considered an attack on Russia.
- NATO and Ukraine are to discuss security in the Black Sea next week, particularly the operation of a corridor for grain exports, the alliance said. The meeting was called at the request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Military aid
- Following the latest attack on Odesa, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office repeated Kyiv’s call for more missiles and defence systems. “The enemy must be deprived of the ability to hit civilians and infrastructure. More missile defence systems, as well as ATACMS – this will help Ukraine,” Andriy Yermak said on Telegram, referring to the long-range tactical missiles that Kyiv wants Washington to supply.
- Bulgaria agreed to provide the Ukrainian army with some 100 armoured personnel carriers, marking a turnaround in its policy on sending military equipment to Kyiv. The move follows the appointment of a new pro-Western government.
- Poland said that a maintenance hub for tanks damaged in Ukraine during the war against Russian forces has begun operating in its southern city of Gliwice. “The first two Leopards have already arrived from Ukraine to the Bumar plant,” Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak wrote on Twitter.
