Here are the key events on day 1,238 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Here is how things stand on Wednesday, July 16:
Fighting
- A Russian attack on the Kupiansk district in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region killed two people in their late 60s and injured two others, the regional prosecutor’s office said on social media.
- A Russian artillery attack on the outskirts of the Velykopysarivska community in Ukraine’s Sumy region killed a 50-year-old resident, regional authorities said.
- The Russian Ministry of Defence said its troops had occupied the villages of Voskresenka and Petrivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
- A Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s western city of Voronezh wounded 27 people, local officials said. The city’s mayor, Sergei Petrin, said a kindergarten was damaged and children were being temporarily transferred to neighbouring facilities.
- Russian air defence units destroyed 12 Ukrainian drones over the Voronezh region, Governor Alexander Gusev said on Telegram.
- A drone crashed in an industrial zone in Russia’s Yelets city in the Lipetsk region, injuring one person, regional Governor Igor Artamonov said on Telegram.
- The governor of Russia’s Bryansk region, Alexander Bogomaz, said a woman was injured in a drone attack on the village of Sluchevsk.
- The Russian Defence Ministry said on Telegram that its air defence units destroyed 55 Ukrainian drones overnight across five Russian regions and the Black Sea.
Politics and diplomacy
- United States President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that Ukraine “shouldn’t target” the Russian capital Moscow, and that he was “on nobody’s side…I want to stop the killing”.
- Senior Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev dismissed what he described as Trump’s “theatrical” 50-day “ultimatum” for the Kremlin to end its war on Ukraine after the US president announced a deal to supply more weapons to Kyiv via NATO, and threatened tariffs on Russia.
- Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Trump’s remarks on Monday were “very serious”, adding that “some of them are addressed personally to President Putin”.
- Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said that the US president’s “change of posture” towards Russia was “obviously welcome”.
- Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced his resignation a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was offering the job to Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko. Shmyhal is expected to become Ukraine’s defence minister.
- The European Union did not approve a new round of sanctions on Russia after Slovakia requested a delay in the vote.
- The European Council has imposed sanctions on an additional five individuals “responsible for serious violations or abuses of human rights and for the repression of civil society and democratic opposition in Russia”.
- US citizen Daniel Martindale, who lived in Ukraine and passed information to pro-Russian forces that helped to target Ukrainian troops, has received a Russian passport in Moscow.
Weapons
- Several countries, including Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden, said they would take part in the US scheme for NATO member states to buy US weapons for use by Ukraine.
- Prime Minister Petr Fiala has said the Czech Republic would not participate in the NATO weapons purchase plan, adding that his country is focused “on other projects and paths” to help Ukraine, including “through the ammunition initiative”.
