Here is how things stand on Monday, July 28:
Fighting
- Russian forces attacked Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, early on Monday, wounding five people and damaging a residential building, according to the head of the city’s military administration, Tymur Tkachenko.
- A Russian drone hit a Ukrainian bus carrying 39 evacuees in the eastern Sumy region, near Ukraine’s border with Russia, on Sunday, killing three people and wounding 19 others, according to the regional governor.
- Two others were killed in a landmine explosion in Sumy’s Esman community on Saturday, while two more were killed in Russian attacks on the front-line Donetsk region, according to officials, taking the death toll from attacks across Ukraine on that day to at least six.
- Ukraine’s forces also launched drone attacks at Russia on Sunday, with the governor of the Leningrad region reporting that at least 10 Ukrainian unmanned aircraft were downed over the areas surrounding the city of St Petersburg. Falling debris injured a woman, Governor Alexander Drozdenko said.
- St Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport was closed during the attack, with 57 flights delayed and 22 diverted to other airports, according to a statement.
- The Kremlin, meanwhile, confirmed that the large-scale televised Navy Day parade in St Petersburg had been cancelled for security reasons. Russian President Vladimir Putin still watched naval drills featuring 150 vessels and 15,000 military personnel in the Pacific and Arctic Oceans, and the Baltic and Caspian Seas, from St Petersburg’s naval headquarters.
- The Russian Ministry of Defence said that air defence units downed a total of 291 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones on Sunday, below the record 524 drones downed in attacks on May 7, ahead of Russia’s Victory Day parade on May 9.
Politics and diplomacy
- European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called on Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to uphold independent anticorruption bodies, amid a firestorm of criticism after the country’s parliament voted to revoke the autonomy of two anticorruption agencies.
- “Ukraine has already achieved a lot on its European path,” von der Leyen said in a post on X after a call with Zelenskyy. “It must build on these solid foundations and preserve independent anti-corruption bodies, which are cornerstones of Ukraine’s rule of law.”
- Zelenskyy, who has submitted draft legislation to restore the independence of the two agencies, thanked the EU and said it was important that the bill be “adopted without delay”.
- Russia opened a regular air link between Moscow and the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, with the first flight between the cities in decades taking off at 16:25 GMT on Sunday, according to the Sheremetyevo airport’s website. The route will be serviced once a month, Russia’s Ministry of Transport said.
- Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs Beate Meinl-Reisinger told the German media outlet Welt that the country was willing to engage in a “national debate” about joining NATO, after decades remaining neutral.
