Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and a patient at Okhmatdyt children’s hospital, Kyiv, July 27, 2024
Saturday’s Coverage: Kyiv Confirms Strike on Russian Airfield in Crimea
Map: Institute for the Study of War
UPDATE 1041 GMT:
Dozens of Russian troops and Wagner Group mercenaries have been killed, wounded, and/or captured by a rebel ambush in the African country of Mali.
The Taureg rebels struck a convoy near the town of Tinzaouaten, near the Algerian border. Photos showed dozens of casualties, captured Russians, and their weapons and equipment.
A local official said the Malian military lost at least 17 troops, and a former employee of the UN mission in Kidal in northern Mali said 15 Wagner mercenaries were killed or captured after a three-day battle. The rebels also shot down a Mi-24P helicopter that was covering the column.
The former commander of the 13th mercenary detachment said, “There are more than 80 people…[dead] as a result of this operation. More than 15 people are in captivity.” He said he had asked the Russian Defense Ministry for help.
A Wagner commander who led offensives in eastern Ukraine, Anton Elizarov, call sign “Lotus”, was reportedly killed or captured. Another reported fatality is the administrator of Wagner’s Telegram channel Grey Zone, Nikita Fedyanin.
Russia has expanded its presence in Mali, backing the junta that took power in a May 2021 coup. Wagner mercenaries, invited by the junta to provide “security”, soon entered the country.
See also Why France Failed in Mali — and How Russia Took Advantage
The Tuaregs are an ethnic group in the northern part of the country who are seeking an independent state of Azawad.
UPDATE 0752 GMT:
An overnight Ukrainian drone attack on the Kursk region in southwest Russia damaged an oil depot and set several other blazes.
Posting video, the Russian channel Baza said on Telegram that three depot tanks caught fire in Polevaya.
Kursk Governor Alexei Smirnov said air defense forces are “on alert” and urged residents to remain “vigilant.” He gave no details on casualties or damage, but said 82 firefighters and 32 units of equipment were involved in trying to extinguish the blazes.
UPDATE 0729 GMT:
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned China that Washington will take measures if Beijing continues to support Russia’s defense industrial base.
Blinken met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Laos on the sidelines of an ASEAN summit. Beijing has also been pressed to renounce aid to Russia in the past week by Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who met Wang in Guangzhou, and by the European Union’s foreign policy head Josep Borrell.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said, “The Secretary reiterated serious concern with [Chinese] support for Russia’s defense industrial base and made clear that if the PRC does not act to address this threat to European security, the United Stares will continue to take appropriate measures to do so.”
A senior Department official added, “There was no commitment by the Chinese to take action.”
Wang denied China was assisting the Russian invasion and said Beijing will take “forceful measures” to protect its interests.
UPDATE 0718 GMT:
Eleven civilians have been killed and 41 wounded by Russian attacks on four Ukrainian regions in the past 24 hours.
A 14-year-old boy was killed and 14 other civilians, including seven children, injured in the Sumy region in northern Ukraine.
Russia assaulted the town of Hlukhiv with multiple launch rocket systems, damaging high-rise buildings, houses, vehicles and an educational institution.
In the Kherson region in the south, four civilians were killed and at least 11 injured.
Six people were wounded early Sunday in the village of Komyshany. Among the victims were two children aged 10 and 15.
In the Donetsk region in the east, five residents were killed and 15 wounded.
In the neighboring Kharkiv region, Russian strikes killed an elderly woman and injured a 54-year-old man.
Ukraine air defenses downed a Kh-59 guided air missile and seven Iran-type attack drones early Sunday. All were above the Odesa region in the south of the country.
UPDATE 0650 GMT:
A Ukrainian official says a Russian supersonic bomber was damaged in a strike on three airfields deep inside Russia early Saturday.
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency oversaw drone assaults on airfields in the Saratov and Murmansk region and on an airfield and an oil refinery in the Ryazan region.
The damaged Tu-22M3 long-range supersonic bomber-missile carrier was based at the Olenya airfield in Murmansk, close to northern Finland and around 1,800 km (1,118 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
The Tu-22M3 is armed with AS-4 heavy anti-ship or Kh-22 cruise missiles that are used in strikes on Ukraine.
An official in the military intelligence agency said three Russian helicopters have been damaged by sabotage operations.
A Mi-28 and a Ka-226 helicopter on at a construction and repair center in Moscow were damaged in explosions last Sunday. A Mi-8 helicopter was destroyed on Wednesday at a military airfield in the Samara region, around 800 km (497 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
Russia has lost 326 helicopters during its invasion, according to the Ukrainian military.
ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his wife Olena Zelenska visited Kyiv’s Okhmatdyt children’s hospital, heavily damaged by a Russian missile on July 8, on Saturday.
The couple toured the wards of the hospital, one of Europe’s largest, and spoke with the children.
Zelenskiy pledged after the visit, “We will definitely restore everything and prove that life is stronger than its enemy.”
Today, Olena @ZelenskaUa and I visited the National Specialized Children's Hospital “Okhmatdyt”. We spoke with the children who are undergoing treatment.
Despite everything, the institution is resuming its normal operations and rebuilding its strength after the Russian attack. I… pic.twitter.com/iAZGYy2OCG
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 27, 2024
Russia’s strike largely destroyed the toxicology ward, where patients with severe kidney issues were being treated. Dazed and crying, parents held babies in the streets as hundreds of Kyiv residents cleared debris, including smashed windows and panels ripped from the building.
The attack came amid a Russian launch of 38 missiles across Ukraine. At least 43 people were killed and almost 200 injured, as 100 buildings were damaged.
