Russia-Ukraine War: List of the most important events, day 859 | News about the Russia-Ukraine War

Here is the situation on Wednesday, July 3, 2024.

Battle

• Russian attacks on the central Ukrainian city of Nikopol left two women, aged 61 and 86, dead and nine others injured, according to the region’s governor, Serhiy Lysak. The attacks damaged residential buildings, educational institutions and a clinic in the city, which lies across the Dnipro River from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
• Russia said it destroyed five Ukrainian SU-27 fighter jets with Iskander-M missiles and damaged two others at the Myrhorod air base in central Ukraine’s Poltava region. The attack came as Ukraine prepares for the arrival of long-awaited F-16 fighter jets.
• Ukraine said there was an attack on the Myrhorod air base, but claimed Moscow was exaggerating the damage caused. Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshuk said the Ukrainian military also carried out a “destructive attack” on a Russian ammunition depot in the town of Balaklava in Moscow-occupied Crimea on Monday.
• The Russian Defense Ministry said its air defense systems destroyed 11 drones fired by Ukraine at Russian territory and the occupied Crimean peninsula in the early hours of Tuesday.
• Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said his country would not tolerate clashes on the border with Ukraine after the military strengthened its air defenses due to increased Ukrainian drone activity in the region.

Politics and Diplomacy

• Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban visited Kyiv for the first time in over a decade and urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to consider a ceasefire to speed up the end of the war with Russia, but Ukraine said it saw its own approach as the path to peace.
• Zelensky said he had discussed with Orban Ukraine’s steps to create peace together with international partners and invited the Hungarian prime minister to join Kyiv’s efforts.
• According to a US official, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Ukrainian President’s Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak in Washington DC and discussed the intention of NATO members to bring Ukraine closer to the alliance. The talks took place while Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also pledged to “take steps to build a bridge for Ukraine to NATO membership” during the alliance’s summit in the US capital next week.
• The governments of Germany and Poland presented a joint action plan in which they agreed to discuss intensifying defense cooperation, including a stronger NATO presence on the Alliance’s eastern border and coordination of assistance to Ukraine.
• The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry said it had lodged a diplomatic protest with Russia after a Russian civilian aircraft entered Lithuanian airspace without permission. The plane, operated by Pobeda Airlines, entered Lithuanian airspace over the Baltic Sea for one minute on Sunday evening on its way from Moscow’s Vnukovo airport to Kaliningrad airport, the ministry said.
• A Kremlin spokesman said Russia could not comment on former US President Donald Trump’s idea to end the war in Ukraine because Moscow did not know what the plan was.
• In the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, a court sentenced a 19-year-old man to 12 years in prison for allegedly donating money to the Ukrainian armed forces, Russian state media reported.

Military aid

• The US will soon announce more than $2.3 billion in new security assistance to Ukraine, Defense Secretary Austin said during a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart at the Pentagon. Austin said the latest weapons package will include weapons such as anti-tank weapons and anti-aircraft missiles and will allow for expedited procurement of National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) and Patriot anti-aircraft missiles.
• The Netherlands announced that it would soon deliver the first of 24 promised F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. However, for security reasons, it did not provide information on how many aircraft would be included in the first delivery or when they would arrive in Kyiv.