Ukrainian troops carry shells to fire at Russian positions on the frontline in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine (Efrem Lukatsky/AP)
Thursday’s Coverage: Kyiv — We Have Cleared Russian Navy From Sea of Azov
Map: Institute for the Study of War
UPDATE 1303 GMT:
Vladimir Putin has another problem — a declining Russian birth rate.
Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Friday, “We live in the largest country in the world. And our numbers are decreasing every year.”
He cited “a terribly low level” of 1.4 children per family: “This is comparable to European countries, Japan, and so on. But this is catastrophic for the future of the nation.”
In 2018, Putin set a goal of stopping the natural population decline within 6 years, and launched the 4 trillion rouble ($46.4 billion) national project “Demography. But the excess mortality over birth rate continued: a loss of 218,000 people in 2018; 316,000 in 2019; 689,000 in 2020; 1.04 million in 2021; 600,000 in 2022; and 500,000 in 2023.
At the end of 2023, the annual births of 1.264 million was the lowest since 1999, falling by 1/3 since 2014.
collapsed by a third. If Chechnya and occupied Crimea are excluded, the birth rate is the lowest since around 1800.
From January to April, the number of births decreased by another 3% to 396,500.
UPDATE 1247 GMT:
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy has urged China to prevent its companies from supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Lammy spoke with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of an ASEAN Foreign Ministers event in Laos.
“The Foreign Secretary underlined the UK’s ironclad commitment to Ukraine and urged China to prevent its companies supporting Russia’s military industrial complex which poses a material threat to international security and prosperity,” the Foreign Office said.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said in an earlier statement that Wang emphasized the two countries should “establish the right policy orientation [and] uphold a balanced, pragmatic, open and cooperative attitude”.
The meeting followed the visit of Ukraine Foreign Minister Kuleba to China (see 0530 GMT), where he called on Hong Kong to prevent Russia circumventing sanctions.
The New York Times reported that at least four shell companies operating out of Hong Kong are enabling the shipment of restricted military technology to Russia.
The UK Foreign Office said that, in a constructive meeting with Wang, the Foreign Office set out the government’s “long-term, consistent and strategic approach to UK-China relations”. He restated the formula of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken: “The government would cooperate where we can, compete where needed and challenge where we must”.
The statement added, “He made clear the UK would always stand firm in prioritising our national security, as well as supporting human rights.”
UPDATE 1043 GMT:
The European Union has transferred €1.5 billion ($1.6 billion) of profits from frozen Russian assets to Ukraine.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen confirmed:
The EU stands with Ukraine.
Today we transfer €1.5 billion in proceeds from immobilised Russian assets to the defence and reconstruction of Ukraine.
There is no better symbol or use for the Kremlin’s money than to make Ukraine and all of Europe a safer place to live. pic.twitter.com/keDyf9Dzzd
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) July 26, 2024
The EU agreed in May to earmark the profits from around €211 billion in frozen Russian assets for Kyiv, which is expected to receive about €3 billion ($3.2 billion) each.
The funds will be divided into 90% for military aid and 10% for recovery and reconstruction.
UPDATE 0638 GMT:
At least three civilians were killed and at least 19 injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine on Thursday.
Two people were killed and four injured in the Donetsk region in the east, with casualties in Toretsk, Illinivka,, Kostiantynivka, and Berestok.
In the neighboring Kharkiv region, eight civilians were injured.
In the Kharkiv region in the south, one civilian was slain and seven injured. A medical facility, an administrative building, eight high-rise buildings, 24 houses, and multiple cars were damaged.
UPDATE 0530 GMT:
Visiting Hong Kong, Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has called on the territory to prevent Russia from using the region to circumvent sanctions.
Kuleba met Hong Kong leader John Lee on Thursday, a day after a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Guangzhou. He said of the sanctions, “These restrictive measures are necessary to weaken Russia’s potential to wage war and kill people in Ukraine.”
The New York Times reported on Thursday that at least four shell companies operating out of Hong Kong are enabling the shipment of restricted military technology to Russia.
The four companies, owned by oligarchs with ties to the Russian defense industry, are on the seventh floor of a building near Hong Kong’s financial district. They have reportedly funneled millions of chips and sensors to sanctioned defense tech firms in Russia.
Around $4 billion worth of sanctioned chips have entered Russia during Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the Times assesses. Moscow imported almost as many chips during the last quarter of 2023 as it did in the last quarter of 2021.
The electronics have been found in Russian weapons such as Kh-101 cruise missile that struck the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital in Kyiv on July 8.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry insisted that it has not supplied military equipment to either Russia or Ukraine: “What the United States should do is reflect on its responsibility for the Ukraine crisis rather than shirking responsibility to China.”
UPDATE 0527 GMT:
Explosions have been heard in Russian-occupied Crimea, with a reported fire at Russia’s Saky military airfield in the west of the peninsula.
Residents reported seeing drones over the town of Novofedorivka. Russian proxy authorities in Sevastopol confirmed the presence of Ukrainian drones and the threat of ballistic missiles.
Russian outlets on Telegram claim Ukraine fired four US-made ATACMS missiles on the airfield. One hit an ammunition depot, setting it ablaze and wounding two servicemen. Another hit an air defense position, destroying a radar installation. Two were shot down.
Ukraine has not commented on the claims.
UPDATE 0523 GMT:
Ukraine’s air defenses downed 20 of 22 Iran-type attack drones launched by Russia overnight.
One UAV struck a residential dormitory in the city of Nizhyn in the Chernihiv region in northern Ukraine, injuring one person.
The Air Force could not intercept the lone ballistic missile fired by the Russians. It is unclear if the Iskander-M caused damage.
Debris from a drone fired the previous night landed in a rural area of Romania, the Romanian Defense Ministry confirmed Thursday.
ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukrainian defenders have reportedly defeated Russia’s largest assaults since March in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.
Russia has overrun a series of villages, as well as the town of Avdiivka, during the offensive that began last autumn. But on Wednesday, it suffered a heavy defeat near Kostyantynivka, in the west of the region and southwest of the invaders’ main position in Donetsk city.
According to a Ukrainian brigade, Russian forces attacked with 11 tanks, 45 armored combat vehicles, a rare “Terminator” armored fighting vehicle, 12 motorcycles, and around 200 troops from several directions at dawn.
After Ukrainian aerial reconnaissance identified the mechanized columns from a distance, the defenders used artillery, drones, and minefields to check the assault. Six Russian tanks, seven armored combat vehicles, and all 12 motorcycles were damaged or destroyed. The Russians retreated after the destruction of the first wave of vehicles.
The last known battalion-sized mechanized attack in Donetsk was in March.
The US-based Institute for the Study of War, which summarized the Russian defeat, concludes:
Forces likely will not make operationally significant advances in this area of the frontline in the near term even if they achieve tactically significant advances and prompt Ukrainian forces to retreat from nearby positions, as the surrounding area has no operationally significant objectives and is largely comprised of fields and isolated, small settlements and no significant nearby tactical heights.
ISW adds, “The Russian military command’s willingness to expend a large number of armored vehicles on limited tactical objectives reflects poor longer-term operational foresight, and constraints on Russian equipment in the medium- to long-term will make such failed mechanized assaults costlier with time.”
