- Russia-Ukraine Daily News
- Posts
- Weekend Briefing
Dear Reader, if you find this email interesting, helpful or of value, please do consider forwarding it to your friends or colleagues and encouraging them to subscribe. Thank you.
Morning Headlines
Reuters: Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban met Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday, days after holding talks on a potential Ukrainian peace deal with Putin that angered some European Union leaders.
AP News: India’s prime minister begins a two-day visit to Russia on Monday, his first since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine, a war that has complicated the relationship between the longtime allies and pushed Russia closer to India’s rival China.
Reuters: U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday during the NATO summit in Washington, according to Johnson's schedule.
WaPo: Russian troops invading Ukraine’s Kharkiv region are short of food and water, Ukrainian soldiers say, citing intercepted communications and interrogations of POWs (archive).
RFE/RL: The European Union's capacity to produce 155 mm artillery ammunition may be less than half as large as public estimates by senior EU officials indicate, affecting the bloc's ability to keep promises about supplies to Ukraine.
ISW: Ukrainian drone operators appear to be improving their capabilities to interdict longer-range Russian drones in mid-air, and these technological innovations may allow Ukrainian forces to ease pressures on short-range and medium-range air defense assets if successfully fielded at scale.
Reuters: South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said he would discuss with NATO leaders the distinct threat North Korea poses to Europe by deepening military ties with Russia, warning that Moscow must choose between the two Koreas where its true interests lie.
07.07.2024
POLITICO: NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Sunday, “The war in Ukraine demonstrates how closely aligned Russia and China and North Korea and Iran are. China is the main enabler of Russia’s war aggression against Ukraine.”
The Kyiv Independent: A family car hit a Russian mine while driving through a forest in Kharkiv Oblast, killing at least four people including a child on July 7, according to Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov.
The UK's new Defence Secretary has pledged to step up the UK's support for Ukraine on a visit to Odesa, less than 48 hours after his appointment.
RFE/RL: Days after taking office, top leaders of the new far-right Dutch government sought to dispel concerns about a shift toward Russia, vowing during a visit to Kyiv that its support for Ukraine was “rock solid” and that sophisticated warplanes and an air-defense system were on the way.
The Kyiv Independent: Ukrainian forces have shot down yet another Russian Su-25 fighter jet in the embattled Donetsk Oblast, the Khortytsia group of forces reported on July 7.
The Guardian: Campaigners are urging Britain’s new Labour government to prevent Ukraine being sued in the UK courts if the country defaults on its debts to private creditors.
NY Times: US Treasury officials want to impose penalties on tankers that help Russian oil evade sanctions. White House aides worry that risks making gasoline more expensive (archive).
Kyiv Post: The Economist estimates that between 462,000 and 728,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded in the war against Ukraine. These figures are based on leaked documents from the US Department of Defense.
A law enforcement source told the Kyiv Independent that Ukrainian drones operated by the Security Service of Ukraine struck a large ammunition depot in the village of Sergeevka in Voronezh Oblast.
ISW: Russian forces likely recently seized Sokil (northwest of Avdiivka) amid continued fighting near Avdiivka on July 6. Geolocated footage shows that Russian forces advanced west of Sokil towards Voskhod and marginally advanced within eastern Karlivka (west of Avdiivka).
06.07.2024
The Kyiv Independent: Russia has lost up to 5,000 service members in the fighting over one district of the town of Chasiv Yar in Donetsk Oblast, Nazar Voloshyn, the spokesperson for the Khortytsia group of forces, said on July 6.
AP News: Japan’s foreign minister on Saturday announced a joint project with Cambodia to share knowledge and technology on land mine removal with countries around the world, including Ukraine.
Reuters: Ukraine's air force commander said on Saturday his forces had duped Russian troops into deploying missiles against sophisticated models put in place to look like military targets.
The Kyiv Independent: The Ukrainian government is working on a new maritime strategy that will be soon approved by the National Security and Defense Council, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on July 6.
AP News: Russian strikes overnight left over 100,000 households without power in northern Ukraine and cut off the water supply to a regional capital, Ukrainian authorities reported Saturday, while civilian casualties rose sharply in the country’s embattled east.
RFE/RL: Moldova, Romania, and Ukraine have signed a joint cooperation agreement to combat Russian disinformation.
The Kyiv Independent: Estonia has delivered several Mistral air defense systems to Ukraine, the country's defense ministry said on July 6.
Reuters: The foreign minister of Moldova was quoted as saying on Friday that his government reserved the right to order further expulsions of Russian diplomats if Moscow engaged in new activities harmful to the country's interests.
AP News: NATO leaders plan to pledge next week to keep pouring arms and ammunition into Ukraine at current levels for at least another year, hoping to reassure the war-ravaged country of their ongoing support and show Putin that they will not walk away.
ISW: Putin used a meeting with Orban on July 5 to oppose a negotiated ceasefire altogether and expressed his commitment to pursuing a "final" end to the war that would achieve his goal of destroying Ukrainian statehood.
05.07.2024
POLITICO: Hungary abruptly told Germany’s foreign minister that she wasn’t welcome after her boss, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, excoriated Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban over his unannounced trip to Moscow.
Reuters: Russian attacks on Friday killed eight people and injured at least 28 in Ukraine's eastern frontline Donetsk region, the regional governor said.
Meduza has obtained the Putin administration’s latest guidelines for Russian propagandists, revealing the Kremlin’s spin on Putin’s “peace plan” and the current state of the “multipolar world.”
The Kyiv Independent: China has tightened export controls on military and dual-use products since July 1, the Moscow Times reported on July 5. This has already made it more difficult to deliver Chinese equipment and machinery to Russia.
POLITICO: NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Friday shot down growing calls in the U.S. to force Ukraine to give up land or future NATO membership in return for Putin ending the war.
Meduza: Some critically injured Russian soldiers who could have been saved are dying on the battlefield in Ukraine without ever receiving medical attention, according to a new investigation.
The Kyiv Independent: Riga will send more than 2,500 combat drones of different types to Ukraine this month, worth 4 million euros, the Latvian Defense Ministry announced on July 5.
CNN: Marine Le Pen vowed a prime minister from her party would prevent Kyiv using French-supplied long-range weapons to strike inside Russia and would stymie Macron’s suggestion he might put French boots on Ukrainian soil.
Reuters: The early discharge sought by India of its nationals who were "misled" into serving in the Russian army is expected to be discussed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Moscow next week, his foreign secretary said on Friday.
AFP: Denmark has charged the Nordic bank Nordea with laundering 3.5 billion euros for Russian clients, the country's financial prosecutors said Friday.
Russa-Ukraine Daily Briefing is sent 5 days a week. Do you think your friend or colleague should know about this newsletter? Forward it to them, please. They can also sign up here.
Please do support my work