Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 07-19-2024

Russia has provided no public evidence for the charges against Gershkovich, saying only that he spied on a tank factory in the Urals region.

Evan Gershkovich, the 32-year-old Wall Street Journal reporter that Russia charged with espionage, could soon be sentenced in a fast-tracked trial condemned by the US as a Kremlin ploy to secure prisoner swaps with the West.

The US-born son of Soviet emigres had reported from Russia for six years, staying on even after dozens of other Western journalists had left following Moscow's Ukraine offensive.

Russian media cited unnamed social media reports of the sighting of at least four F-16 fighters, having taken off from Romania, making test flights over the western Black Sea.

Both Russian mainstream and social media has been claiming for more than a week to have seen four F-16 fighter aircraft flying over the city of Odesa and surrounding areas of Ukraine. Some of those sources insisted the aircraft had taken off from airfields in Romania.

Romania’s Ministry of National Defense of Romania was quick to deny the allegations, issuing a statement on Tuesday, July 16 that said: “So-called unidentified ‘sources’ on the Russian Telegram platform, have claimed that F-16 aircraft took off from Romanian airfields to carry out missions in Ukrainian airspace, over the Odesa region.”

Among other things, the Russian athletes “liked” posts about “military feats” of Russian soldiers killing Ukrainians and posts displaying the pro-war “Z” symbol, the report said.

Two-thirds of the Russian athletes approved by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to compete in the Paris Olympics as neutrals have expressed support for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine or have links to the military, according to a new report.

Fifteen Russians and 16 Belarusians have accepted invitations to compete under a neutral banner at the Paris Games, which begin on July 26, according to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Kyiv Post asked passerby in London, Warsaw, and Vilnius how likely is it that Russia’s war on Ukraine will spread into the EU.

In an interview with the BBC during his UK visit, President Volodymyr Zelensky discussed his position on Donald Trump’s potential re-election, talks with the UK’s new Labour government, and more.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said he would try to work with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump if the latter gets re-elected despite the difficulties, and he noted positive developments with London’s new Labour government in a BBC interview.

The interview, which took place during Zelensky’s UK visit to attend the fourth European Political Community (EPC) on July 18, also covered Zelensky’s perspective on the upcoming peace summit.

After being deprived of the essential domestic product for more than two years Russia was proud to announce via TASS on Thursday, July 18 this important scientific breakthrough.

When the Swedish hygiene products manufacturer Essity decided to withdraw from Russia in April 2022 following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine the Russian public was deprived of Libero diapers, Libress pads and Zewa toilet paper – the only brand with a flushable toilet roll core. At the same time the US company Johnson & Johnson also suspended supplies of its personal hygiene products in Russia.

The Russian state news agency TASS reported on Thursday that, after two years of intensive development, the Arkhbum Tissue Group had produced Russia’s first flushable toilet paper tube.

Officials at the Russian atomic energy station say an emergency shut-down gutting power production capacity was perfectly safe and no radiation was released.

Kremlin-appointed officials responsible for electricity deliveries in southwest Russia and Russia-occupied eastern Ukraine on Friday were struggling to halt accelerating blackouts and prevent collapse of the regional power grid, as millions of power consumers sat in the dark or sweltered without air conditioners.

A punishing trifecta of an emergency shutdown of one of four reactors at one of Russia’s biggest nuclear power stations, record-high temperatures that meteorologists predict will last at least another week, and damage caused by Ukrainian drones targeting transformer stations was responsible for rolling black-outs, emergency shut-downs and other interruptions to service.

The International Olympic Committee designated “neutral” Russian and Belarusian athletes who will be allowed to participate in this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris.

The International Olympic Committee has published a list based on the results of checks with a list of neutral athletes from the Russian Federation and Belarus who will be able to perform at the 2024 Games in Paris, the committee’s website reported.

Who are neutral athletes?

Zelensky urged the UK to help boost Ukraine's "long-range capability," saying lifting restrictions on Western weapons would allow Ukraine to better defend against Russian offensives.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday received a standing ovation from senior ministers as he became the first foreign leader to address the British cabinet in person since 1997.

Zelensky gave members of the new Labour government a rundown of the latest situation in Ukraine after a red-carpet welcome at Prime Minister Keir Starmer's 10 Downing Street residence and office.

Fighters from Ukraine’s Third Assault Brigade hit a mortar system capable of destroying the most fortified defenses and entire buildings with an FPV drone.

A Russian 2S4 Tyulpan (NATO: M-175 “Tulip”) 240mm self-propelled mortar was struck by an FPV drone, according to a report on Telegram by the Third Assault Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU).

The post said that Russian troops were being held back by the Third Assault Brigade's strong defenses and attempted to break through by attacking from the flanks using the mortar:

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

Democratic megadonors believe Joe Biden is close to exiting the White House race after they threatened to halt funding for his campaign and party grandees indicated they now considered his candidacy untenable. Donors from Wall Street to Hollywood have in the past three days heaped new pressure on party grandees including Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries and Nancy Pelosi, urging them to persuade Biden to drop out. One megadonor close to Schumer, who has spoken with people close to the Senate majority leader in recent days, said: “I think it’s going to end very shortly.” “The pressure is insurmountable,” said one senior Democrat in Washington, predicting that Biden would be “out by Monday”. Other people close to the party leadership said it could happen earlier. “Biden’s gotten the message that there’s not another dollar of fundraising,” said one Wall Street bundler — a donor tasked with raising money from other backers. “Members of Congress are getting more aggressive . . . He’s just not going to be able to withstand it.” The moves gained momentum in recent days as a damaging split-screen for the president unfolded on national television, showing Republicans rallying around Donald Trump after he was nearly assassinated, while Biden defied calls from his party to quit and on Thursday was seen struggling to climb aboard Air Force One after testing positive for Covid. - FT

American Airlines, United and Delta have asked the FAA for global ground stop on all flights, according to an alert from the FAA on Friday morning. The FAA is telling air traffic controllers to tell airborne pilots that airlines are currently experiencing communication issues. Meanwhile, flights in the air will stay in the air, but no American, United or Delta flights will take off. It is unclear how widespread the issue is but Melbourne Airport in Australia has also said they are "experiencing a global technology issue" which is impacting their check-in procedures. Global IT outages have also been reported in many countries across the world as airlines, airports, banks and media companies all seem to be experiencing outages and disruptions, including Berlin Airport in Germany, the London Stock Exchange, Google Cloud and Gatwick Airport in the United Kingdom. Crowdstrike, the U.S. cybersecurity company, has admitted to being responsible for the error and are working to correct it. - ABC News

Aleksander Kwaśniewski, Poland’s president from 1995-2005, says Ukraine’s Orange Revolution was pivotal in forming President Putin’s view of the world.

This exclusive interview with Aleksander Kwaśniewski, the former two-term Polish president (1995-2005), covers recent events in Ukraine, Russia and Poland. The ex-president was heavily involved in Ukrainian affairs during his presidency and remains so to this day. The interview covered what went on behind the scenes during the Orange Revolution and the Euromaidan Revolution of Dignity and whether the subsequent Russo-Ukrainian War could have been avoided.

Here is the first part of the interview.

The blue screen of death has appeared on Microsoft Windows devices worldwide, and it has also affected cellular operators and banking operations in Ukraine.

Global businesses reported widespread system failures on the morning of Friday, July 19, in relation to issues with US tech giant Microsoft.

At present, there are speculations that a faulty update from CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company that develops anti-virus software, is to blame for the outage as it clashed with Microsoft’s Windows, bricking devices worldwide.

Thursday's meeting in Pyongyang followed Vladimir Putin's visit a month ago, where a mutual defense agreement was signed, raising concerns in Seoul and Washington.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un hosted a Russian military delegation led by Vice Defence Minister Aleksey Krivoruchko to discuss the "importance and necessity" of bilateral defence cooperation, state media said Friday.

Thursday's meeting in Pyongyang came roughly a month after Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to the North Korean capital, during which the two countries signed a mutual defence agreement that raised hackles in Seoul and Washington.

Starmer is expected to tell Zelensky that Britain will do more in the coming months to dent Russia’s “war machine”, including agreeing a new defense export support treaty.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will host Volodymyr Zelensky at a meeting of his top ministers on Friday (19 July), a show of support for the Ukrainian leader who will welcome a new plan to try to disrupt Russia’s attempts to evade shipping sanctions.

A day after hosting a forum of European leaders at Blenheim Palace, Starmer pressed on with his bid to raise Britain’s role in international affairs by inviting Zelenskyy to address his cabinet. The last foreign leader to address a UK cabinet meeting was US President Bill Clinton in 1997, Starmer’s office said.

According to Amsterdam, Ukraine most likely will first use F-16s for air defense, not surface attack. And Athens wants to add some advanced variants of the warplane to Kyiv’s combat fleet.

Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans in Wednesday comments said F-16 fighter aircraft Kyiv has waited for more than a year to beef up national air defenses will arrive in skies over Ukraine “in the near future.”

Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans told the Ukraine state-financed Ukrinform news wire service that Ukraine’s allies are “working diligently” to deliver the aircraft to Kyiv. Final training and practice for Ukrainian pilots and ground crews was continuing, and “a smooth and reliable” engagement in air combat operations was a priority, he said.

Zelensky will be the first official visitor to Downing Street since Keir Starmer became PM, and the first foreign leader to address Cabinet in person since US President Bill Clinton in 1997.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will address the UK's new Cabinet on Friday, briefing senior ministers about the battlefield situation in the war with Russia, Downing Street said Thursday.

Zelensky will be the first official visitor to Downing Street since Keir Starmer became prime minister on July 5, and the first foreign leader to address Cabinet in person since US president Bill Clinton in 1997.

In a new intercept between a father and son fighting against Ukraine, the conversation gets heated as they talk about how a Russian commander was shot by his own men.

The commander of a Russian unit was shot by his own men, according to a newly released intercepted conversation between a Russian soldier and his father.

“Today I gave a ride to a man in the morning, right after he was wounded. He’s from Krasnodar. He said our commander was killed, a good commander, he took pity on everyone. Eleven bullet wounds,” the man said in an intercepted conversation published by Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR) on Wednesday evening, July 18.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• Ukrainian forces reportedly struck a Russian coast guard base in occupied Crimea on the night of July 17 to 18.
• European countries continue to display their commitment to Ukraine and unity in the face of Russian aggression.
• Rosgvardia made an unprecedented proposal on July 17 to grant Russian Central Bank leadership the right to carry automatic weapons and handguns.
• Kremlin officials continue to expand the geographic scope of Russia's proposed alternative "Eurasian security architecture."
• The US continues efforts to build out a partnership with Armenia, sparking critical reactions from Kremlin officials.
• Russian forces recently marginally advanced along the Kupyansk-Svatove-Kreminna line and near Kharkiv City, Toretsk, Avdiivka, and Hulyaipole.
• Russian officials continue efforts to expand the Russian Armed Forces' training capacity and address force generation issues.