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Latest Developments in Ukraine: July 24, 2022
For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.
The latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT.
11:25 p.m.: A number of industrial companies in Germany are cutting production in reaction to soaring energy prices, a survey by the country's Chambers of Industry and Commerce showed on Sunday.
The survey of 3,500 companies in Europe's largest economy found that 16% are scaling back production or partially discontinuing business operations.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February has had major implications for governments and businesses across Europe as they grapple with soaring energy costs and fears of acute gas shortages over the peak demand winter months.
Germany is largely dependent on Russian gas to fuel its export-led economy and to keep homes warm. But the nation has been bracing for a possible complete halt in Russian supplies if Moscow steps up its use of gas as an economic weapon against the West while it wages war in Ukraine.
10:55 p.m.: The war Russian President Vladimir Putin is waging against Ukraine is also "a war against the unity of Europe," German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Sunday according to Agence France-Presse.
"We must not let ourselves be divided, we must not let the great work of a united Europe that we have begun so promisingly be destroyed," he said in a speech in the western German city of Paderborn.
"This war is not just about the territory of Ukraine, it is about the double shared foundation of our values and our order of peace," he said.
But defending these values also means being prepared to "accept significant disadvantages," he warned, without giving further details.
8:55 p.m.: The head of Russia's investigative committee said Moscow had charged 92 members of the Ukrainian armed forces with crimes against humanity and proposed an international tribunal backed by countries including Bolivia, Iran and Syria.
The government's Rossiiskaya Gazeta on Monday quoted committee head Alexander Bastrykin as accusing "more than 220 persons, including representatives of the high command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as commanders of military units that shelled the civilian population."
The Ukrainians were involved in "crimes against the peace and security of humanity, which have no statute of limitations," he said. Bastrykin, whose committee probes major crimes, said 92 commanders and their subordinates had been charged, and 96 people, including 51 armed forces commanders, declared wanted.
Reuters could not independently verify the committee's allegations. Ukrainian authorities were not immediately available for comment.
8 p.m.: Ukraine estimates what the war has cost.
7:10 p.m.: The war in Ukraine entered its sixth month on Sunday.
The Ukrainian military reported Russian shelling in the north, south, and east, and again referred to Russian operations paving the way for an assault on Bakhmut in the eastern Donbas region, according to Reuters.
In his nightly video address on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took an upbeat tone.
"Even the occupiers admit we will win. We hear it in their conversations all the time. In what they are telling their relatives when they call them," he said.
The military said in a Sunday evening briefing note that Russians continue to work to control the area around the Vuhlehirsk power plant, which is 50 kilometers northeast of Donetsk. Russia also shelled several dozen settlements along the entire front line in the past 24 hours, it said.
Four Russian Kalibr cruise missiles fired from the Black Sea and aimed at the western Khmelnytskiy region were shot down on Sunday, the Ukrainian air command reported.
While the Donbas is the focus of the combat, Ukraine's military said its forces have moved within firing range of Russian targets in the occupied eastern Black Sea region of Kherson where Kyiv is mounting a counter-offensive.
Reuters could not immediately verify the battlefield reports.
6:20 p.m.: Ukraine will continue to do all it can to inflict as much damage on its enemy as possible, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address on Sunday.
"We do everything to inflict the highest possible damage on the enemy and to gather for Ukraine as much support as possible," he said, adding that Ukraine was not letting up.
He said Ukraine had an important week ahead, including the upcoming day of Ukrainian statehood, July 28, a new annual holiday that Zelenskiy announced in August last year.
"But we will celebrate against all odds,” he said despite what he called a cruel war. “Because Ukrainians won't be cowed."
5:45 p.m.: From a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty interview with U.S. Ambassador to Kyiv Bridget Brink.
4:55 p.m.: Not all of Ukraine’s attacks on Russian positions end up circulating on social media. There are operations that Ukraine quietly carries out deep into Russian-occupied territories.
Among these low-profile operations was the destruction of a Wagner Group base in Russian-occupied Kadiivka in Luhansk Oblast in early June
The Kyiv Independent newspaper said it has recreated the events of the operation based on conversations with local civilians and sources in intelligence agencies.
3:41 p.m.: In early July, Lithuanians crowdfunded a Bayraktar drone and delivered it to Ukraine.
2:45 p.m.: Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his forces are advancing "step by step" into the occupied southern region of Kherson, west of the Dnipro river, the BBC reports.
U.K. defense officials reported heavy fighting near Kherson. According to the U.K. Defense Intelligence, “heavy fighting has been taking place near Kherson.” The Ukrainian advance meant that Russian supply lines west of the river were "increasingly at risk.” If the Dnipro crossings were denied, and Russian forces in Kherson were cut off, it would be a significant military and political setback for Russia, the report says.
2:40 p.m.: At least 18 medical personnel had been killed and nearly 900 medical facilities damaged or destroyed by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which entered its sixth month on Sunday, Reuters reports.
In a Facebook post, Ukraine's health ministry said that over 50 medical workers had been wounded by Russian attacks since Feb. 24, when Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in the biggest European war since 1945.
The post also said that 123 medical facilities in Ukraine were totally destroyed by the invasion, while another 746 needed repairs.
1:20 p.m.: In an address in Moscow this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that “a new stage in world history” is coming. Putin condemned “the model of total domination" by the West. He described the populations of Western countries as the “golden billion,” according to the Washington Post, the term has been around in Russia since the 1990s to describe the future battle for resources between the global elite and Russians.
1:10 p.m.: A Canadian citizen has died in Ukraine. Reuters reports the Canadian was with two U.S. citizens, who died in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. The deaths of the two U.S. citizens were confirmed Saturday by the State Department. Canada says no further details will be provided on the death of the Canadian for privacy considerations.
1:00 p.m.: After the breakup of the U.S.S.R., the United States, Russia, and the United Kingdom persuaded Ukraine and several other former Soviet states to eliminate nuclear weapons on their territory.
In return, the nuclear-armed countries signed a memorandum that included the vow "to refrain from the threat or use of force" against Ukraine, and to respect its existing borders, RFE/RL reports.
12:45 p.m.: Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskyy said Russia’s attack on the Ukrainian port of Odessa “destroyed the very possibility” of dialogue with Russia. Russian defense officials insist that the airstrike on Odessa hit only military targets, the Associated Press reports.
12:30 p.m.: Once influential and powerful, Ukrainian oligarchs have lost influence because, during the war, they need government and military protection. The Guardian reports, the outcome of the war will determine whether their influence has ebbed permanently.
12:20 p.m.: More than 200 adoptions are completed every year from Ukraine to the United States, according to State Department statistics. But the Washington Post reports, those have stopped because of the war.
12:00 p.m.: More than five months since Russia invaded Ukraine, a war of attrition has emerged with losses of materiel and men on both sides, not advances on the ground, said Michael Kofman, head of the Russia Studies Program at the Virginia-based think tank CNA.
In an interview with RFE/RL’s Georgian Service the expert said those casualties and equipment losses will largely determine the “long-term sustainability of the war efforts” by Russian and Ukrainian forces.
11:45 a.m.: Industrial companies in Germany are cutting production due to soaring energy prices, a survey by the country's Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) showed on Sunday.
According to Reuters, the survey of 3,500 companies in Europe's largest economy found that 16% are scaling back production or partially discontinuing business operations.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February has had major implications for governments and businesses across Europe as they grapple with soaring energy costs and fears of acute gas shortages over the peak demand winter months.
Germany, largely dependent on Russian gas to fuel its export-led economy and to keep homes warm, has been bracing for a possible complete halt in Russian gas supplies.
11:00 a.m.: The BBC reports about 20m tons of grain meant for export are trapped in the country.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said this could rise to 75m tons after this year's harvest. The BBC provides a graph that shows the countries where Ukraine’s wheat exports go, with Egypt being the largest importer of 3.62 million tons.
10:50 a.m.: Ukrainian legislator Valentyn Nalyvaichenko told British broadcaster Sky News that Odesa was a “totally civilian seaport” and called on the international community to press Russia to stick to a deal signed to allow grain exports to resume from there, RFE/RL reports.
10:45 a.m.: Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov offered reassurances over Russian grain supplies to Egypt during a visit to Cairo on Sunday, amid uncertainty over a deal to resume Ukrainian exports from the Black Sea.
Egypt is one of the world's top wheat importers and last year bought about 80% of those imports from Russia and Ukraine. Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine disrupted shipments and sped up a rise in global commodity prices, delivering a financial shock to Egypt.
Reuters reports Egypt has been torn between long-standing ties to Russia and its close relationship to Western powers that have sanctioned and sought to isolate Moscow.
10:35 a.m.: In an interview with RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, Bridget Brink, the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine said the United States will continue to “support Ukraine for as long as it takes.” She added she was “really proud” that the U.S. was “the largest provider of security assistance to Ukraine.”
10:30 a.m.: “We will protect what is ours,” wrote Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Telegram July 25 marking five months since Russia’s invasion into Ukraine on February 24. “We will win,” said the Ukrainian President. “The war has not broken Ukraine and will not break it,” he added.
9:20 a.m.: Ukraine tech expatriates use digital networks to help Ukraine resist the Russian invasion. According to the Financial Times, Andrey Liscovich, a former CEO at Uber Works, and others like him use their tech skills to support military logistics. Tapping into his global networks, they source military equipment, raise donations and assemble engineers to detect Russian drones and exchange ideas on how to organize and innovate Ukrainian resistance.
9:10 a.m.: Russian defense ministry officials are insisting that an airstrike on the port of Odesa — less than a day after Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement on resuming grain shipments from there — hit only military targets, the Associated Press reports. The ministry spokesman said Saturday's attack destroyed a docked Ukrainian warship and a warehouse containing anti-ship missiles.
8:40 a.m.: According to the Kyiv Independent, Russia has fully or partially destroyed at least 183 religious sites, churches, mosques, synagogues in 14 regions of Ukraine, the Kyiv Independent reports.
8:10 a.m.: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was in Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials as his country seeks to rally support for Moscow and to break diplomatic isolation and sanctions by the West over its invasion of Ukraine. The first leg of his Africa trip that will also include stops in Ethiopia, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Associated Press reports.
8:15 a.m.: Ukraine pressed ahead on Sunday with efforts to restart grain exports from its Black Sea ports under a deal aimed at easing global food shortages but warned deliveries would suffer if Russia's strike on Odesa was a sign of more to come.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy denounced Russia’s strike on Odessa as "barbarism" that showed Moscow could not be trusted to implement a deal struck just one day earlier with Turkish and United Nations mediation.
5:35 a.m.: The latest Ukraine assessment from The Institute for the Study of War, a U.S. think tank, said Ukrainian forces are likely preparing to launch, or have already launched, a counteroffensive in Kherson Oblast. Russian forces, meanwhile, conducted limited reconnaissance operations east of Bakhmut and continued limited ground attacks northwest of Slovyansk, east of Siversk, and south of Bakhmut.
4:52 a.m.: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his wife, Olena Zelenska, on Saturday opened the Second Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
The summit convened with virtual attendees from around the world seeking to help with the reconstruction effort in Ukraine when the war with Russia ends.
During the summit, Zelenskyy expressed his hope for peace in Ukraine.
3:51 a.m.: The latest intelligence update from the U.K. defense ministry said small-scale Russian offensive action remains focused on the Bakhmut axis in the Donbas, but it is making minimal progress.
2:55 a.m.: The New York Times reported that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will try to blame the U.S. and its allies for food shortages when he's in Africa on Sunday.
Lavrov will visit Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda and the Republic of Congo, the Times reported, and he aims to make the case that Russia is Africa's ally.
1:20 a.m.: Six months after Russia invaded Ukraine there is no sign of the war coming to an end. Among the refugees are many Jewish families, some who are now being given sanctuary at a new center with a kosher kitchen, The Associated Press reports.
12:02 a.m.: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has called on the United States and Russia to hold peace talks to end the war in Ukraine, adding that Kyiv cannot win against Moscow’s larger force.
Some information in this report came from The Associated Press.
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