Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 07-15-2024

Border guards intercepted four military deserters trying to cross into Moldova from the Odesa region, shooting one dead who resisted arrest.

The State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) reported on four servicemen from a military training unit in the Zakhariv district of the Odesa region trying to flee to Moldova.

Spokesperson from the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine Andriy Demchenko, in a comment to RBC-Ukraine, said that on the evening of Sunday,  July 14, border guards stopped a vehicle in which, in addition to the driver, were four people. Two tried to escape the scene and were caught as they tried to cross the border.

Diplomats said a de facto boycott of the foreign affairs meeting in Budapest would serve as a reprimand for Hungary and stop it from taking the spotlight afforded by the presidency.

The European Union is weighing plans for foreign ministers to skip a meeting in Budapest amid anger over Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s visit to Russian President Vladimir Putin, diplomats said Monday. 

Several diplomats said EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell was considering preventing ministers heading to Hungary for a meeting next month by calling another one at the same time in Brussels. 

As the continuing shortages of light and heat caused by Russian strikes threaten to extend into the winter, Ukrainians turn to both traditional and modern energy-efficient solutions.

Russian targeted strikes against Ukraine's energy system threatens to create a humanitarian catastrophe as daily nationwide blackouts can last up to 12 hours or more.

According to Ukraine's largest energy company, DTEK, Russia has destroyed up to 90% of its thermal generation capability along with damage to a large number of distribution substations and several hydroelectric power plants.

Zelensky said he was “not afraid” of another Trump presidency.

During a press conference on Monday, President Volodymyr Zelensky hinted at potential changes on the ministerial level in the Ukrainian government and said he’s confident in being able to work with Donald Trump if the latter is re-elected.

Zelensky also said that to protect Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, it might require attacks on Russian energy infrastructure.

The leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) said Berlin should help Ukraine “restore sovereignty over its own airspace” by transferring combat aircraft, which is easier said than done.

Friedrich Merz, leader of the German opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU), supports the call to deliver combat aircraft to Ukraine to help it “restore sovereignty over its own airspace” in light of continuing Russian strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure.

Merz, speaking on German television on Sunday, July 14, said the situation “cannot be taken under control only from the ground,” and that “Germans cannot stand aside” as Kyiv’s other Western allies have already reached a consensus on fighter deliveries.

Ukraine’s 59th Motorized Infantry Brigade has a long combat record. At the moment the formation stands in the direct path of Russia’s latest big offensive.

The Ukrainian military’s overall commander General Oleksandr Syrsky on Monday ordered a formal investigation into allegations top officers in a combat brigade deployed to the critical eastern Pokrovsk sector had lost ground and soldier lives because of tactical incompetence.

Official army sources said the unit was holding its ground in heavy combat and that claims of problems inside the brigade were overblown. An officer from the 59th Motorized Infantry Brigade contacted by Kyiv Post said the same thing.

A Ukrainian officer said the situation in the Kharkiv sector remains difficult, though he added there have been no significant changes in frontline positions.

Russian troops are regrouping in the Kharkiv sector and preparing troops to assault the city of Vovchansk, said Col. Vitaly Sarantsev, a spokesperson of Ukraine’s Kharkiv Operational Tactical Group.

In a Telegram announcement, Ukraine’s Kharkiv Operational Tactical Group said Russia is training “assault groups of the 138th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade of the 6th Army and the 153rd Motorized Rifle Regiment of the 47th Motorized Rifle Division” for its Vovchansk offensive.

Latest from the British Defence Intelligence.

• From 01 July 2024, Russia implemented an increase in domestic gas prices of per cent. This hike is almost certainly intended to increase revenue trom Russias domestic market, in response to the loss ot natural gas exports to turope. Inis was a consequence ot sanctions against Kussia for invading Ukraine, as well as Kussia intentionally reducing gas supply to turope in response. In 2023, Gazprom's net annual loss was approximately 629 billion rubles (USD $6.9 billion), its biggest annual loss in 25 years. 
• Gazprom, one of Russia's state-owned energy companies, is considered to have a monopoly over the domestic gas supply market. Price rises are therefore regulated by the Russian government. This doesn't apply to other producers such as Novatek, which account for a smaller market share. 
• Inflation in Russia is highly likely to remain above the Central Bank of Russia's target of 4 percent in the second half of 2024. This is partly due to increases in domestic as prices alongside other rising household bills and increased government spending - which is mainly driven by Russia's rising defence spending on the war in Ukraine. Gas orices for Russian households are estimated to have increased by nearly 34 per cent since the start of the invasion, despite Russia being the world's second largest producer of natural gas in 2023. These are due to rise a further 8.2 per cent in 2025, which will almost certainly add to inflationary pressures in Russia's economy andweaken spending power for ordinary Russians.

Reports of explosions close to a Russian S-400 anti-missile site support the claims that an associated radar station was damaged during the attack.

Drones attacked a Russian military unit in occupied Crimea early on July 15, according to a report by the Krymsky Veter Telegram channel.

The post says the attack targeted a Russian military unit near Cape Fiolent on the peninsula, believed to host an S-400/S-300 anti-missile system operated by a battalion from the 12th Anti-aircraft Missile Regiment (military unit 85702).

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Vasyl Malyuk, and the US Ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink made statements.

On July 15, Ukraine celebrates its Day of Statehood.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Head of the Security Service of Ukraine Vasyl Malyuk and US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink recognized the day with statements.

Speaking on Ukraine’s telethon on Sunday, the NATO Secretary General rebuffed any prospect of Poland or other NATO nations shooting down Russian missiles over Ukrainian territory.

The NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, restated his and the Alliance’s position on taking any active part in the war in Ukraine – NATO will continue supporting Ukraine “in destroying Russian aircraft” but “will not be involved directly.”

On July 8 Ukraine and Poland signed a security cooperation agreement which included a commitment to consider the use of Polish air defenses to intercept Russian missiles in Ukrainian airspace. Both Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Polish Minister of Defense Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamys said the idea would be considered in consultation with their NATO partners.

Hours later, the Boeing 777 jet was shot down by a Russian-made BUK surface-to-air missile over eastern Ukraine on its way to Kuala Lumpur. All 298 people on board perished.

Ten years after Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was blasted from the sky over war-torn Ukraine, families of the victims will gather Wednesday to remember the tragedy as hopes fade that those responsible will soon be behind bars.

Hundreds of relatives as well as government representatives and dignitaries are expected to attend the event at a memorial park near Schiphol airport where the doomed flight took off on a bright summer's day on July 17, 2014.

The Kremlin’s press secretary announced on TASS that the website ‘biography’ for Russia’s head of state has been brought up to date from the previous version’s 2018 cut-off.

Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov told the State news agency TASS on July 13 that the biography of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the Kremlin’s official website has been updated for the first time since 2018 (the previous version ended with his re-election that year).

The biographical section of the presidential website includes personal and professional details of the key events in Putin’s life and focuses on “the country’s development during Putin’s tenure in senior political positions.” This is all delivered with the requisite amount of “positive spin,” broken down into ten-year slices over seven “fact-filled” pages, with the darker facts about the belligerent despot omitted or glossed over

Despite their bitter enmity, both Biden and Trump called for calm after the most serious attack on a US president or ex-president in over four decades.

US President Joe Biden sought to calm a divided nation Sunday after his rival Donald Trump survived an assassination bid, saying in a rare Oval Office address that it was time to lower the temperature of America's hostile politics.

"It's time to cool it down. We all have a responsibility to do that," Biden said in a televised address following the attack in which Republican Trump was injured in the ear and a bystander was killed by gunfire.

HUR’s scouts also hit a Russian military base with a drone.

Ukrainian servicemen using FPV drones struck Russian communication and surveillance complexes, as reported by the Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR) on Telegram.

“The operators of FPV drones of the Firebird special unit of the HUR continue to methodically destroy enemy targets on the front - communication and surveillance complexes have been successfully hit,” the caption to the released video read.

Spain beat England to win Euro 2024 final with a late Oyarzabal goal.

Substitute Mikel Oyarzabal scored a dramatic late winner as Spain triumphed in Sunday's Euro 2024 final, beating England 2-1 to confirm their re-emergence as a force on the international stage.

England had been dreaming of winning a first title in almost six decades and it looked as if it could be their night as Spain lost influential midfielder Rodri to injury at half-time.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• Russian officials and milbloggers reiterated complaints about poor security around critical infrastructure in rear areas of Russia in response to a July 13 Ukrainian drone strike against an oil depot near Tsimlyansk, Rostov Oblast.
• The Russian military command may have committed under-equipped units initially intended to act as an operational reserve to combat operations, possibly due to constraints on the Russian defense industrial base (DIB) or efforts to reinforce ongoing Russian grinding assaults in Ukraine.
• Ukraine signed a series of security agreements and received several aid packages amid and following the July 9-11 NATO summit.
• Ukrainian forces recently regained lost positions near Vovchansk, and Russian forces recently advanced near Avdiivka.
• Russian State Duma Defense Committee Chairman Andrei Kartapolov reiterated on July 14 that the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) is not planning to demobilize servicemembers that Russia mobilized in Fall 2022 before the end of the war.