This is where the war stands on Saturday, July 27, 2024:
Fighting
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Ukraine’s air defences shot down four attack drones and one missile fired by Russia in an overnight attack in the regions of Dnipro, Poltava, Kharkiv and Kyiv, the Ukrainian air force said.
- Russian air defence units intercepted 12 Ukrainian drones in the space of an hour over southern Russia’s border region of Bryansk, according to Alexander Bogomaz, the regional governor. No casualties or serious damage were reported.
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Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Belgorod region, also on Ukraine’s border further to the southeast, said three drone attacks and a number of shelling incidents had smashed windows and caused some other damage to buildings.
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Ukrainian missiles struck Russia’s Saky military airfield in western Crimea that has been used for long-range attacks against Ukraine, the military’s general staff said in a statement, the latest in a series of blows to the Russian army on the occupied peninsula.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged the strike in his nightly address to the nation, commending “our soldiers who are striking Russian bases and logistics on occupied territory”. He added: “To our guys, our soldiers, I thank you for your accuracy.”
- Russia has begun including new, cheaply made drones in its long-range attacks on Ukraine, to try to identify air defences, film any damage and act as decoys, a Ukrainian military official told the Reuters news agency. The two new types of drones are produced from materials like foam plastic and plywood.
Politics and diplomacy
- Finland suspects a Russian vessel violated the Nordic country’s territorial waters, the government said, adding that its border guard is investigating the incident.
- A Ukrainian court placed an 18-year-old in custody for at least 60 days over the shooting death of former lawmaker Iryna Farion, state media reported. Farion, a hardline campaigner against the use of the Russian language in Ukraine, was shot near her apartment in the western city of Lviv. The suspect, Vyacheslav Zinchenko, was arrested in Dnipro, 800km (497 miles) east of Lviv.
- A Russian military court jailed two men for allegedly plotting to blow up fuel tanks at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on orders from Ukraine’s secret services. Mikhail Dariy and Ilya Kovylkov were sentenced to 22 years and 15 years, respectively, on “terrorism” and other charges.
Economy
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Ukraine’s decision to suspend the transit of oil from Russia’s Lukoil to Hungary and Slovakia was in keeping with its sanctions against the company and had nothing to do with blackmail, Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said.
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An aide to Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban accused Ukraine of blackmailing Hungary and Slovakia by halting oil deliveries. Ukraine last month adopted sanctions blocking the transit of Russian crude through the Druzhba pipeline, sparking fears of fuel shortages.
- Russia’s central bank raised its key interest to 18 percent, the sixth hike in just over a year as it seeks to control soaring price increases. The bank’s governor, Elvira Nabiullina, said businesses were facing higher costs and payment problems as the West puts pressure on Russia’s trading partners to stop helping it circumvent sanctions.
