Here is how things stand on Saturday, July 12:
Fighting
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A Russian drone attack on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv damaged a maternity hospital, authorities said, terrifying patients as windows shattered and shards of glass fell onto the beds, leaving families rushing to shelter their babies. Three women and three newborns suffered acute stress and received medical help.
- Nine people were injured in Kharkiv, and an apartment building was also damaged in Russian attacks over the past day, while one person was killed and five others injured as a result of various Russian attacks in the surrounding region, governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
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Ukraine said its drones struck a Russian fighter aircraft plant in the Moscow region and a missile production facility in the Tula region, causing explosions and fires at both.
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The Russian Ministry of Defence said that 155 Ukrainian drones were downed between Thursday and Friday, including 11 bound for Moscow.
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Dmitry Milyaev, Tula regional governor, said on Telegram that one person was killed and another injured in a Ukrainian attack on the region, approximately 200km (124 miles) south of Moscow.
- Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had taken the village of Zelena Dolyna in Donetsk, northeast of the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, as their troops move westward.
Politics and diplomacy
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The United States has resumed military supplies to Ukraine, and senior officials in Kyiv will work on military cooperation next week with US special envoy Keith Kellogg, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Russian media covering his ASEAN meeting in Malaysia that he outlined Russian President Vladimir Putin’s position on settling the Ukraine war during a meeting with top US diplomat Marco Rubio the day before.
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Lavrov has arrived in North Korea, according to North Korea’s state media KCNA, the latest visit by a senior Russian official to the isolated state amid warming ties between the countries. The visit, scheduled for Sunday, includes a meeting with the country’s foreign minister.
- After North Korea, Lavrov is expected to travel to China to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting, which is set to take place on Monday and Tuesday.
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South Korean intelligence service said North Korea may be preparing to deploy additional troops in July or August, after sending more than 10,000 soldiers to fight with Russia in the war against Ukraine.
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has described as “unacceptable” French President Emmanuel Macron’s proposal to send a peacekeeping force to Ukraine should Moscow and Kyiv agree to an elusive ceasefire. He also accused European leaders of a “pattern of militaristic anti-Russian sentiment”.
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Russia is awaiting the “major statement” that US President Donald Trump announced he would deliver on Monday, Peskov said.
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Peskov also said wartime censorship in Russia is justified amid the conflict with Ukraine and the closure of opposition-minded media. Several Russian-language media outlets have been blocked since the start of the war in February 2022, as well as social media platforms like X, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
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Fatigue over the war in Ukraine and US-led foreign aid cuts are jeopardising efforts to support people fleeing hardship, International Organization for Migration (IOM) Director-General Amy Pope warned, a day after a Ukraine recovery conference in Rome mobilised over 10 billion euros ($11.69bn) for the country.
- The United Nations trade and development agency, UNCTAD, has announced that its agreement with Moscow to facilitate exports of Russian foodstuffs and fertiliser to international markets in a bid to rein in global food prices “will not be renewed” when it expires on July 22, citing disagreements.
Weapons
- Germany has no plans to procure additional F-35 fighter jets, a Federal Ministry of Defence spokesperson said on Friday, denying a Politico report that the country planned to grow its planned fleet to 50 amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
- NATO will need more long-range missiles in its arsenal to deter Russia from attacking Europe because Moscow is expected to increase production of long-range weapons, US Army Major-General John Rafferty told the Reuters news agency.
- Kyiv will allocate 260 million hryvnias ($6.2m) for a drone interceptor programme to defend the capital’s skies from Russian drones, city authorities said.
The post Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,234 appeared first on Al Jazeera.
