Here are the key events from day 1,139 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Fighting
- Russia’s Ministry of Defence reported intercepting and destroying 19 Ukrainian drones overnight, with 13 of them downed over the Sea of Azov.
- The ministry also stated that Ukraine targeted Russia’s energy infrastructure six times in the past 24 hours, despite a mutually agreed moratorium on such strikes. The attacks reportedly damaged power facilities and electrical substations in Russia’s Rostov, Voronezh, and Bryansk regions, as well as in Ukraine’s Kherson and Donetsk regions, which are partially controlled by Moscow.
- A Ukrainian drone intercepted by Russian air defence systems damaged railway tracks in the Krasnodar region of southwestern Russia, according to local authorities.
- Russian forces reportedly gained control of the Katerynivka settlement in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, as per Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti, citing the Defence Ministry.
- Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov denied Ukraine’s claims that Russia targeted civilian infrastructure following a deadly attack on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, which killed 20 people, including nine children.
- Russian forces launched multiple attacks on villages near the eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk, according to the Ukrainian military’s general staff.
Ceasefire
- Russian President Vladimir Putin supports a ceasefire, but a “huge number” of questions remain unresolved, Peskov told reporters. He added that there is a shared understanding between Russia and the United States to maintain mutual contact.
- Former US President Donald Trump expressed dissatisfaction with Russia for intensively bombing Ukraine but noted that Kyiv and Moscow were “sort of close” to reaching a deal.
Politics and Diplomacy
- Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko announced that a Kyiv delegation is set to visit Washington this week to discuss a deal granting the US access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals.
- Ukraine requested an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council following last week’s Russian missile attack on Kryvyi Rih, as stated by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha on X. He called for a “robust international response to Russian atrocities.”
- For the first time, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged that Ukrainian troops were operating in Russia’s Belgorod region. “We continue active operations in the enemy’s border areas, and this is absolutely justified,” he said in his nightly video address.
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