Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 07-24-2024

Ukraine’s Commander Oleksandr Syrksy vowed to restore the country’s 1991 border. He discussed current battlefield developments and said he's optimistic, despite the situation being “difficult.”

Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrksy vowed to restore the country’s 1991 border. He discussed current battlefield developments and is optimistic about the situation despite it being “difficult.”

Slovakia and Hungary halted oil imports from Lukoil via the Druzhba pipeline after Ukraine banned Lukoil resource transit last month.

Hungary will block European Union refunds for member states that gave munitions to Ukraine until Kyiv allows the transit of oil from Russia’s Lukoil through a pipeline over its territory, the Hungarian foreign minister said on Tuesday (23 July).

Slovakia and Hungary said earlier this month that they had stopped receiving oil from Lukoil through the Druzhba pipeline after Ukraine imposed a ban last month on the transit of resources from Lukoil on its territory.

In an interview with Jason Jay Smart, Kyiv Post's own Christopher Stewart explains the uses of the F-16 and the impact it can have on the Russo-Ukrainian War.

An explosive device functioned under a Toyota Land Cruiser in a northern suburb of Moscow causing misunderstanding as to who the actual target was.

On the morning of Wednesday, July 24 a device exploded inside a Toyota Landcruiser in the parking lot near an apartment block on Sinyavinskaya Street in Moscow.

The target was identified as Andrey Torgashov, a 49-year-old GRU major, according to a post by Irina Volk, a spokeswoman for Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, on her official Telegram channel.  Volk said the bomb went off as he and his wife Maya got into the vehicle.

The German arms manufacturer wants the plant to start producing ammunition within the next two years.

The German arms manufacturer, Rheinmetall, stated that it received Kyiv’s first official order to build an ammunition plant in Ukraine.

The company announced in March that it plans to set up at least four factories in Ukraine.

On July 24, 1990, the hitherto banned blue-and-yellow flag of Ukraine was raised at Kyiv City Hall, making its first official appearance thirteen months before Ukraine gained its independence.

We instantly recognize many countries by their flags: the United States’ Stars and Stripes, the UK’s Union Jack, New Zealand’s Southern Cross, Lebanon by the Cedar tree, Israel by David’s Star, and Japan’s red circle on a white background.

Ukraine, too, has its recognizable national symbols: the blue-and-yellow flag and the Golden “Tryzub,” or Trident.

Latest from the British Defence Intelligence.

• Open-source reporting highlights that on the 07 July 2024, Ukrainian forces conducted a drone strike against a Russian ammunition storage depot near Sergeerka, Voronezh Oblast. This attack resulted in the near total destruction of ammunition and equipment stored in open bermed areas as well as buildings located at the facility.
• This is a significant loss at a depot that reportedly covered approximately 9 square kilometres. The depot was highly likely storing a mixture of surface-to-surface munitions as well as small arms to be used by personnel on the frontlines. This will further stretch Russia's already struggling logistics chains and force yet more dispersals due to the continued threat of Ukrainian strikes. This incident further highlights Russia's continued inability to protect key locations in an area that boasts a densely layered Air Defence posture, some 80km from the Ukraine border. Such shortcomings will almost certainly see further losses to other well-planned Ukrainian strikes.
• Russia can ill afford such losses considering the attritional warfare strategy it has adopted, which shows little regard for the lives of its soldiers. This approach requires huge amounts of ammunition. Russia is now relying on its limited foreign partners for this supply due to its own defence industry struggling to meet the frontline demand.

Prosecutors did not give any details of the alleged plot, except to say that it was not terrorist in nature.

French police on Tuesday arrested a Russian man suspected of plotting acts of "destabilisation" during the Paris Olympics, prosecutors said.

The man, born in 1984, was held in custody and placed under judicial investigation on suspicion of "organising events likely to lead to destabilisation during the Olympic Games", a source in the state prosecution service, who asked not to be named, told AFP.

President Zelensky praised the Vatican’s efforts in seeking peace and releasing prisoners of war in talks with a senior official, a contrast from previous tensions between Kyiv and the Holy See.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday (23 July) praised the Vatican’s efforts in seeking peace and releasing prisoners of war in talks with a senior official, a contrast from previous tensions between Kyiv and the Holy See.

Zelensky thanked Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin for “the signal” his visit to Kyiv had brought.

Although Kremlin strike planners probably didn’t intend to hit a NATO member, Romania’s military launched F-16s fighters and said it would investigate.

A Russian kamikaze drone on Wednesday flew into NATO air space and detonated near a Romanian village, Ukrainian news reports said, but official Bucharest said the fact of the strike wasn’t confirmed and that they would check.

The Iran-manufactured Shahed robot plane reportedly struck and blew up in the vicinity of the Danube River shoreside hamlet of Plaura, in southeastern Romania.

The world in focus, as seen by a Canadian leading global affairs analyst, writer and speaker, in his review of international media.

Vice President Kamala Harris, in the first rally of her 2024 presidential campaign, told supporters in Wisconsin Tuesday that she will spend the coming weeks “continuing to unite our party” ahead of the Democratic National Convention next month and this fall’s showdown with Donald Trump. Speaking about her record as a prosecutor in California, Harris said she “took on perpetrators of all kinds: Predators who abused women; fraudsters who ripped off consumers; cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain.” “So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump’s type,” she said. - CNN

French President Emmanuel Macron said he will keep a centrist caretaker government on through the Olympics to avoid “disorder," brushing aside an 11th-hour prime minister nomination by the country's leftist coalition. Macron made his widely expected announcement in a TV interview late Tuesday. Just before that appearance, the leftist coalition that won the most votes in this month's parliamentary elections selected little-known civil servant Lucie Castets as their choice for prime minister. But Macron told the France 2 network that the current government, who resigned last week to take on a purely caretaker role, would “handle current affairs during the Olympics,” staged in Paris and elsewhere in France through August 11. - Euronews

Despite the change of government in the United Kingdom, the new prime minister intends to make continued support for Ukraine against Russian aggression a cornerstone of its foreign policy.

The United Kingdom’s new Labour government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, faces a multitude of complex challenges in its foreign and defense policies immediately upon assuming office.

His electoral victory marked a seismic shift in political power after 14 years of Conservative rule. Despite this change, Labour’s stance on critical issues such as NATO, nuclear deterrence, defense spending, and particularly Ukraine, shows a reassuring continuity, both domestically and internationally.

Beijing's foreign ministry said the pair held talks in Guangzhou, with spokeswoman Mao Ning telling journalists they "exchanged views on the Ukraine crisis".

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi hosted his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba in southern China on Wednesday, with both sides calling for peace as Russia's war grinds on against its neighbour.

China presents itself as a neutral party in the war and says it is not sending lethal assistance to either side, unlike the United States and other Western nations.

Cyber warriors from Ukraine's HUR have been hacking Russia's banking and payment systems, causing major disruptions in banks, public transport, and mobile services since July 23.

Cyber specialists from Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) have successfully hacked into Russia's banking and other payment systems, sources from the agency told Kyiv Post on Wednesday, July 24.

As a result of the cyberattack, which began on the morning of July 23, payment systems, mobile applications of banks, personal accounts, public transport payment systems, etc. have ceased working or been significantly impeded. The hack has also caused interruptions to Russian major mobile operators and Internet providers across the country.

Russian drones struck targets in Romania on July 24, causing fires near Niculițel, 7 km from the Ukrainian border, confirmed by the IAR-330 helicopter crew from the 57th Air Base.

Russian drones struck targets in Romania early Wednesday morning, July 24, during Moscow’s attack on the port infrastructure of Ukraine’s Odesa region, informed sources in Ukraine’s Security and Defense Sector exclusively told Kyiv Post.

Three Shahed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) were recorded falling and subsequently causing fires in Romania.

Considering the amount of cash saved, Ukraine’s private creditors rank third in terms of the volume of financial support to Ukraine since Russia invaded the country.

Ukraine has reached a deal that helps the country ease the debt burden – private creditors and the government reached a compromise to rewrite conditions for $20 billion of debt in Ukraine’s Eurobonds. 

Thanks to the deal, Ukraine expects to save $11.4 billion over the next three years by a combination of lower coupons and maturity extensions, the Ministry of Finance said on Monday, July 22.

Biden seeks to rally support for Democrats and their likely presidential candidate Kamila Harris and also salvage his own standing.

US President Joe Biden will give what could be his final Oval Office speech Wednesday to explain why he dropped out of November's election and deny that he will spend six months as a lame duck.

With the world's eyes already on a looming clash between Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, Biden will insist in his address to the nation that he still has work to do despite his historic decision to bow out.

The Russian autonomous technical surveillance post is one of several situated in the border areas of Russia, each one costing more than $200,000.

Russian anti-Kremlin volunteers from the Freedom of Russia Legion (LSR) reportedly used drones to destroy the Grenadier autonomous technical observation post (TOP) worth more than $200,000 in the Belgorod region of Russia, according to their report via Telegram. This is not the first that pro-Ukrainian and Ukrainian Armed Forces have destroyed.

The Telegram post included a video of the TOP being destroyed by a UAV flown by the pilots of the Groza platoon which operates the unit’s unmanned attack aircraft systems.

While a new survey still shows the majority of Ukrainians against making territorial concessions to Russia, almost a third would now accept it if it could bring peace.

A poll made in May and June by the Kyiv Institute of Sociology (KIIS) shows 55 percent of Ukrainians would vote against making any territorial concessions to Russia. However, the numbers of those who are ready to give up land if it would lead to an end to the war has tripled in the last 12 months with 32 percent now prepared to offer territory for peace.

In Ukraine as a whole there has been a gradual increase in the numbers prepared to make territorial concessions ready Russia to end the war since May 2023, as the chart below shows:

Media noticed that the mock-up of the C929 long-range wide-body airliner displayed at the Farnborough International Air Show by COMAC had dropped visible references to Russia’s involvement.

The Chinese aircraft manufacturing corporation COMAC displayed a model of its proposed C929 airliner at the Farnborough International Air Show, which opened on July 22.

Development of the 280-seat, long-range wide-body aircraft began around 10 years ago as a joint venture between Russia and China. The agreement was signed between Russia’s United Aircraft Company (UAC) and COMAC during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 2014 visit to China. It was seen as an attempt to both reduce Moscow’s reliance on Western aircraft and to position the companies as global competitors to Boeing and Airbus.

Ukraine's foreign minister said he would hold "extensive, detailed, substantive talks" with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on achieving a "just peace".

Ukraine's foreign minister said Tuesday it was important for Kyiv and Beijing -- a close ally of Moscow -- to speak directly about ending the war in Ukraine, during a visit to China.

China presents itself as a neutral party in the war and says it is not sending lethal assistance to either side, unlike the United States and other Western nations.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• The Russian State Duma proposed an amendment that would allow commanders to punish subordinates for using personal communications and navigation devices at the frontline, prompting significant milblogger backlash and highlighting how Russian forces continue to struggle with command and control (C2) issues and overreliance on insecure technologies to conduct combat operations in Ukraine.
• Ukrainian forces reportedly conducted drone strikes against a ferry crossing in Kavkaz, Krasnodar Krai on the night of July 22 to 23.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed a new Deputy Head of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Services on July 22, and there were several personnel changes within the Russian State Duma on July 23.
• Russian forces recently marginally advanced near Siversk, Avdiivka, and Donetsk City.
• Russian regional officials are continuing to increase financial incentives to entice more men to fight in Ukraine.
• Russian occupation officials continue to rely on Russian security organs for law enforcement and filtration functions in occupied Ukraine aimed at degrading pro-Ukrainian sentiment.

New UK Defence Minister John Healey said that an audit of the British Forces started last week shows there are significant shortcomings after decades of budget cuts.

John Healey, the new British Defence Minister under the Labour government, warned that British forces are in a deplorable state after an external audit began last week.

Speaking at the British Army’s annual Land Warfare Conference hosted by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think tank, Healey said that there are issues facing all three branches of the British military, and that they are “much worse than [they] thought.”