Russia-Ukraine War: List of the most important events, day 873 | News about the Russia-Ukraine War

These are the most important developments on the 873rd day of the war.

This is the state of affairs on Wednesday, July 17, 2024:

Battle:

• Ukrainian drone strikes in Russia’s Kursk region have sparked a fire at a factory producing electrical equipment and injured at least six people, local governors said. Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces destroyed 13 Ukrainian drones overnight, including one over the Kursk region bordering Ukraine.
• Russian authorities announced plans to restrict civilian access to 14 villages in the southern Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine due to relentless Ukrainian shelling.
• The Chief of the Russian General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, thanked the Russian armed forces for capturing the village of Urozhaine in the eastern Ukrainian Donetsk region and “identified new tasks for further activity,” according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
• Russian investigators said they were investigating the shooting of a wounded Russian soldier by Ukrainian forces in a video posted online by the Ukrainian Azov Brigade.
• Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said it is supplying its undermanned military with ammunition that was sent for scrap before the Russian invasion. The ammunition will undergo thorough quality checks before being distributed to Ukrainian forces on the front lines, it said.

Politics and Diplomacy

• The Kremlin reacted cautiously to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s invitation to a future peace summit, saying Moscow needed to understand what Kyiv meant before joining the talks. The Ukrainian president had said Russia “should be represented” at a second summit on the war, following high-level talks in Switzerland last month that Moscow did not attend.
• Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a member of Russia’s Security Council, said Ukraine’s accession to NATO would be tantamount to a declaration of war on Moscow and that only “prudence” on the part of the alliance could prevent the planet from shattering into pieces.
• Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has sent a letter to the heads of state and government of the European Union in which he says that Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump is ready to act as a peace mediator in the war between Russia and Ukraine “immediately” if elected in November.
• European Council President Charles Michel responded to Orban’s letter, telling the Hungarian president that he did not have an EU mandate to talk about the war. Michel also rejected Orban’s claim that the EU had pursued a “pro-war” policy in Ukraine.
• Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have officially notified Russia and Belarus that they will withdraw from a 2001 agreement that connected the three Baltic countries to a Moscow-controlled electricity transmission system. The move is part of efforts to sever ties with Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.
• At the United Nations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the United States of demanding “unconditional obedience” from its allies and threatening multilateralism.
• The Russian Orthodox Church in Kazakhstan has dismissed a priest who had spoken out against Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Priest Lakov had advocated the establishment of a breakaway Orthodox church that would be free from Moscow’s influence.
• Japan, meanwhile, is making final arrangements for a $3.3 billion loan to Ukraine using interest from frozen Russian assets. That’s about six percent of the G7’s total $50 billion loan package, Kyodo news agency reported, citing diplomatic sources.

Business

• The Ukrainian parliament has voted to abolish taxes and duties on imports of energy equipment, including those generating electricity from wind and solar power, as the country struggles with a severe energy crisis due to Russian bombings.
• Ukrainian state-owned company Ukroboronservice and Czech ammunition manufacturer Sellier & Bellot have signed an agreement to build an ammunition factory in Ukraine, the two countries announced.
• Russia-based global cybersecurity company Kaspersky announced it would cease operations in the United States after Washington imposed sanctions on senior company officials and banned the sale of its popular antivirus software.
• Meanwhile, the Russian communications regulator demanded that Google restore more than 200 Russian YouTube channels that the US company had blocked for spreading pro-Kremlin content, including on the Ukraine conflict.