President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has stated Ukraine is now able to inflicting “vital losses” on the Russian invaders because of an inflow of contemporary Western weapons that’s slowly shifting the battlefield stability, as officers reported missile strikes on the port metropolis of Odesa wounded a variety of civilians.
Zelenskiy introduced in his nightly video message late on July 18 that 1,028 settlements in Ukraine had been liberated from Russian forces, and one other 2,621 had been nonetheless below Russian management.
Reside Briefing: Russia’s Invasion Of Ukraine
RFE/RL’s Reside Briefing offers you all the newest developments on Russia’s ongoing invasion, how Kyiv is preventing again, Western navy help, worldwide response, and the plight of civilians and refugees. For all of RFE/RL’s protection of the struggle, click on right here.
Zelenskiy stated Ukrainian forces “have been in a position to inflict vital logistical losses on the occupiers,” making it more and more troublesome for the Russian Military to carry positions on captured territory.
“Step-by-step, we advance, disrupt provides for the occupiers, establish and neutralize collaborators. The prospect is apparent: the Ukrainian flag shall be in all our cities and villages. The one query is time,” he stated.
Valeriy Zaluzhniy, the Ukrainian navy’s prime commander, stated the “well timed arrival” of longer-range artillery such because the U.S.-made HIMARS system was serving to to alter the scenario on the battlefield.
“We managed to stabilize the scenario. It’s complicated, intense, however fully managed,” Zaluzhniy stated.
“An vital issue contributing to our retention of defensive traces and positions is the well timed arrival of M142 HIMARS, which ship surgical strikes on enemy management posts, ammunition and fuel-storage depots,” CNN quoted Zaluzhniy as saying.
Oleksiy Danilov, the pinnacle of Ukraine’s Nationwide Safety and Protection Council, stated on TV that “at this time, we actually have a totally totally different scenario than it was a month in the past. Now, because of the truth that we obtain sufficient weapons from our companions, we’ve established a sure parity in sure positions.”
Serhiy Hayday, the pinnacle of the Luhansk regional navy administration, stated on July 19 that “Western weapons work not at 100% however at 200 p.c as a result of [Russian] warehouses are blown up. Command posts are additionally blown up.”
Russian missiles, in the meantime, struck the port metropolis of Odesa in southern Ukraine, wounding at the least six folks, together with a toddler, Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesman of the Odesa navy administration, stated in a Telegram submit on July 19.
Bratchuk stated Odesa was focused by seven Kalibr cruise missiles fired from the Black Sea, and 6 of them evaded Ukrainian air defenses and hit areas with a “civilian inhabitants.”
Russian missile strikes additionally hit the middle of Kramatorsk, one of many final Ukrainian-controlled cities within the jap area of Donbas.
Mayor Oleksandr Honcharenko wrote on Telegram on July 19 that “there are victims” from the assault, although he gave no additional particulars.
“Explosion consultants, rescue groups are working on the website,” he wrote.
Earlier, Russian shelling of the jap Ukrainian metropolis of Toretsk on July 18 killed six folks, in keeping with emergency companies within the city. Toretsk, a city with an estimated inhabitants of 30,000 folks, is positioned some 50 kilometers south of Kramatorsk, one of many final Ukrainian-controlled cities within the industrial east.
Ukrainian and U.S. protection officers mentioned the scenario on the bottom on July 18 forward of a gathering of the Ukraine Protection Contact Group scheduled to happen later this week.
Ukrainian Protection Minister Oleksiy Reznikov stated on Twitter that he had a phone name with U.S. Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin to debate the framework of the upcoming assembly.
“We agreed on the agenda, shared data on the management of arms arriving to Ukraine and many others. Additionally, @SecDef (Austin) has some excellent information, however particulars will come a little bit later,” Reznikov stated.
The subsequent assembly of the Ukraine Protection Contact Group will happen on July 20. On the group’s final assembly in Could, a complete of 47 international locations took half and 20 of them introduced safety help packages for Ukraine.
The British Ministry of Protection stated on July 19 in its every day intelligence bulletin that Russia’s “acknowledged” instant objective is to totally seize the jap area of Donetsk.
The Ukrainian navy additionally stated that Moscow was getting ready for the subsequent stage of its offensive with the objective of absolutely capturing the Donetsk and Luhansk areas.
Nonetheless, British intelligence stated that whereas Russians should occupy extra territory, “their operational tempo and charge of advance is more likely to be very sluggish with out a vital operational pause for reorganization and refit.”
Kyiv has stated in current days that its forces are themselves getting ready for a large counteroffensive to reclaim land beforehand misplaced, particularly within the south.
With reporting by AFP, Reuters, and TASS
