Because the struggle enters its 859th day, these are the primary developments.
Right here is the scenario on Wednesday, July 3, 2024.
Preventing
- Russian assaults on the central Ukrainian metropolis of Nikopol killed two ladies aged 61 and 86, and wounded 9 different individuals, in response to regional Governor Serhiy Lysak. The assaults broken residential housing, instructional services and a clinic within the metropolis, which lies throughout the Dnipro River from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.
- Russia stated it destroyed 5 Ukrainian SU-27 fighter jets with Iskander-M missiles and broken two extra on the Myrhorod Air Base in Ukraine’s central Poltava area. The assault comes as Ukraine prepares for the arrival of long-awaited F-16 fighters.
- Ukraine stated there had been a strike on the Myrhorod Air Base however claimed Moscow was exaggerating the injury induced. Its Air Pressure commander, Mykola Oleschuk, stated Ukraine’s army had additionally carried out a “damaging strike” on a Russian ammunition depot within the city of Balaklava in Moscow-occupied Crimea on Monday.
- Russia’s Ministry of Defence stated its air defence techniques destroyed 11 drones that Ukraine launched at Russian territory and the occupied Crimean Peninsula within the early hours of Tuesday.
- Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko stated his nation is not going to permit any clashes on its border with Ukraine after its army beefed up air defences within the space because of elevated Ukrainian drone exercise there.
Politics and diplomacy
- Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban made his first journey to Kyiv in additional than a decade and urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to consider a ceasefire to speed up an finish to the struggle with Russia. Ukraine, nonetheless, stated it noticed its personal strategy as the trail to peace.
- Zelenskyy stated he spoke to Orban about Ukraine’s steps to deliver peace along side worldwide companions, and that he invited the Hungarian prime minister to hitch Kyiv’s efforts.
- America’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with the Ukraine president’s chief of workers, Andriy Yermak, in Washington, DC and held discussions on NATO members’ intention to deliver Ukraine nearer to the alliance, in response to a US official. The talks got here as Secretary of Protection Lloyd Austin additionally pledged to “take steps to construct a bridge to NATO membership for Ukraine” in the course of the alliance’s summit within the US capital subsequent week.
- The governments of Germany and Poland introduced a joint motion plan during which they agreed to debate boosting defence cooperation, together with a stronger NATO presence on the alliance’s japanese border, and the coordination of Ukraine support.
- Lithuania’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs stated it had made a diplomatic protest to Russia after a Russian civilian plane entered its airspace with out permission. The Pobeda airline plane entered Lithuanian airspace over the Baltic Sea for a minute on Sunday night, on its manner from Moscow’s Vnukovo airport to Kaliningrad airport, the ministry stated.
- A spokesman for the Kremlin stated Russia couldn’t touch upon former US President Donald Trump’s concept for ending the struggle in Ukraine as a result of Moscow didn’t know what the plan concerned.
- Within the Russian metropolis of Rostov-on-Don, a courtroom sentenced a 19-year-old man to 12 years in jail for allegedly donating cash to Ukraine’s forces, in response to Russian state media.
Army support
- The US will quickly announce greater than $2.3bn in new safety help for Ukraine, Protection Secretary Austin stated throughout a gathering along with his Ukrainian counterpart on the Pentagon. Austin stated the most recent weapons package deal would come with arms corresponding to antitank weapons and air defence interceptors, and would permit accelerated procurement of nationwide superior surface-to-air missile techniques (NASAMS) and Patriot air defence interceptors.
- The Netherlands stated it is going to provide Ukraine with the primary of 24 promised F-16 fighter jets quickly, however didn’t specify what number of planes could be despatched within the preliminary supply and once they would arrive in Kyiv for safety causes.