This is where the war stands on Tuesday, July 16, 2024:
Fighting
- A Ukrainian drone attack sparked a fire at a factory producing electrical devices and components in the town of Korenevo in Russia’s Kursk region bordering Ukraine, the interim regional governor said.
- Russia’s Ministry of Defence said air defence systems destroyed 13 Ukrainian drones overnight, including one drone over Kursk.
- Ukraine’s navy said Russia’s last naval patrol ship had left Russian-occupied Crimea, “most likely” to rebase elsewhere after Kyiv’s military campaign to attack the Black Sea peninsula.
- Ukraine said a serviceman allegedly attempting to flee the country illegally had been shot dead by a border guard after being captured.
- An unidentified person threw a grenade at a military draft office in the western Ukrainian town of Busk overnight, causing an explosion but not hurting anyone, police said.
Diplomacy
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia should be represented at a second peace summit. Many countries did not sign the communique at the end of the first summit last month in Switzerland, which Russia was not invited to.
- Top European Union officials will boycott informal meetings hosted by Hungary while the country holds the bloc’s rotating presidency after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban held a series of meetings with foreign leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, about Ukraine that angered European allies.
- Zelenskyy said 23 security agreements Ukraine concluded with its partners already account for $38bn in support.
- Lithuanian state-controlled energy company Ignitis Group IGN1L.VL will dismantle and donate all the disused thermal power plant equipment to Ukraine.
- Zelenskyy said he was not concerned about the prospect of another Donald Trump presidency in the United States, despite indications that a new administration could be more sympathetic to Russia.
Courts
- A Russian court convicted Masha Gessen, a Russian-American journalist and author, in absentia and sentenced her to eight years for “spreading false information” about the army.
- A Russian military court granted house arrest to Major-General Ivan Popov, once the commander-in-chief of Russia’s 58th Combined Arms Army stationed in southern Ukraine, who has been charged with fraud.
