As the war enters its 859th day, the major events are as follows:
Here’s what it’s like on Wednesday, July 3, 2024:
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- Two women, aged 61 and 86, were killed and nine others injured in a Russian attack on the central Ukrainian city of Nikopol, according to regional governor Serhiy Lysak. The attack damaged residential homes, educational facilities and a hospital in the city, which is located across the Dnipro River from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
- Russia said it had destroyed five Ukrainian Su-27 fighter jets with Iskander-M missiles and damaged two more at the Mirovod air base in central Ukraine’s Poltava region. The attacks came as Ukraine prepared for the arrival of long-awaited F-16 fighter jets.
- Ukraine says there was an airstrike on the Myrhorod air base, but claims Moscow is exaggerating the damage. Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleschuk said Ukrainian forces carried out a “devastating airstrike” on a Russian ammunition depot in the Moscow-occupied Crimean town of Balaklava on Monday.
- The Russian Defense Ministry said its air defense systems destroyed 11 drones fired by Ukraine early Tuesday morning toward Russian territory and the occupied Crimea peninsula.
- Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said he will not tolerate any clashes on his country’s border with Ukraine, as the country’s military has stepped up air defenses in the area amid increased drone activity in Ukraine.
Politics and Diplomacy
- Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, in his first visit to Kiev in a decade, urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to consider a ceasefire to hasten the end of the war with Russia. But Ukraine said it saw his approach as a path to peace.
- President Zelensky said he had spoken with Prime Minister Orban about Ukraine’s steps to achieve peace in cooperation with international partners and asked the Hungarian prime minister to join Kiev’s efforts.
- According to a U.S. official, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Andriy Yermak, a senior adviser to the Ukrainian president, in Washington, D.C., to discuss the NATO member’s intention to bring Ukraine closer to the alliance. The meeting came as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin pledged to “take steps to build a bridge for Ukraine to NATO membership” at the alliance’s summit in the U.S. capital next week.
- The German and Polish governments presented a joint action plan in which the two countries agreed to discuss ways to strengthen defense cooperation, including strengthening NATO’s presence on the eastern border and coordinating support for Ukraine.
- Lithuania’s Foreign Ministry said it had lodged a diplomatic protest with Russia after a Russian civilian aircraft entered Lithuanian airspace without permission. The Pobeda Airlines aircraft entered Lithuanian airspace for one minute over the Baltic Sea on Sunday evening while en route from Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport to Kaliningrad Airport, the Foreign 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 does not know what the plan is.
- A court in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, has sentenced a 19-year-old man to 12 years in prison for donating money to the Ukrainian military, according to Russian state media.
Military support
- Defense Secretary Austin said during a meeting with his Ukrainian counterparts at the Pentagon that the United States will soon announce more than $2.3 billion in new security assistance to Ukraine. Austin said the latest weapons package will include weapons such as anti-tank weapons and air defense interceptors, and will allow for the rapid procurement of the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) and Patriot air defense interceptors.
- The Netherlands said it would soon deliver the first of 24 F-16 fighter jets it had promised to Ukraine, but did not specify how many would be sent in the initial delivery or when they would arrive in Kiev for security reasons.
