Here is how things stand on Tuesday, July 22:
Fighting
- A large-scale Russian drone and missile attack on Kyiv killed two people and wounded 15, including a 12-year-old, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
- The attack caused widespread damage, including when a drone hit the entrance to a subway station in Kyiv’s Shevchenkivskyi district, where people had taken cover.
- Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia launched 426 drones and 24 missiles in the overnight attack, making it one of Russia’s largest aerial assaults in months.
- A Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region injured 11 people, including a five-year-old boy, Governor Oleh Hryhorov said on Telegram.
- Ukraine’s Air Force said it downed or jammed 224 Russian drones and missiles, while another 203 drones disappeared from radars.
- The Russian Ministry of Defence said that Russian air defence systems downed 132 Ukrainian drones on Monday.
- The governor of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhia region, Yevgeny Balitsky, said that fragments of Ukrainian drones fell on a kindergarten and a fire station in the region’s port city of Berdyansk but there were no casualties.
Military aid
- Norway is ready to help fund the deployment of US Patriot missile systems for Ukraine’s air defences, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store told reporters at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin.
- The Netherlands will also make a “substantial contribution” to the delivery of Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine, the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reported on Monday, quoting the country’s Minister of Defence Ruben Brekelmans.
- Zelenskyy wrote on X that “a decision by French companies to begin manufacturing drones in Ukraine” is “highly valuable”.
- Ukrainian Minister for Defence Denys Shmyhal said the country needs $6bn to close this year’s defence procurement gap, in an online meeting with Western allies.
- Ukraine will also need at least $120bn for defence spending next year, Shmyhal adding. He added talks are ongoing with NATO and EU members as Ukraine seeks $60bn in funding from partners.
- The Ukraine Defence Contact Group meeting of high-level military donors to Kyiv was led by the United Kingdom’s defence secretary, John Healey, and his German counterpart, Boris Pistorius. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and NATO leader Mark Rutte were among the attendees.
Politics and diplomacy
- New talks between Russia and Ukraine will take place in Turkiye on Wednesday, Zelenskyy said in his daily public address, with more details to be released on Tuesday.
- “A lot of diplomatic work lies ahead,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters earlier on Monday, commenting on the prospects for a breakthrough with Kyiv on ending the war.
- French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot emphasised France’s support to Ukraine in a surprise visit to Kyiv.
- Ukraine’s security services detained an official from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine on accusations of spying for Russia.
- Italy’s Royal Palace of Caserta cancelled a concert by Russian conductor Valery Gergiev, a vocal backer of Russian President Vladimir Putin, after uproar from Ukraine and its supporters.
