Have you missed the latest events on the war in Ukraine? 20 Minutes Get the point for you every night. Here is the essentials of this Saturday, July 19, 1.242nd day of the conflict.
The fact of the day
Ukraine has proposed to Russia to hold new talks next week, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Saturday, while peace negotiations have been pending since an unsuccessful meeting in June.
Volodymyr Zelensky told his daily message to the Ukrainians that the Secretary of the Security Council Roustem Oumerov had “offered a new meeting with the Russian party next week”. He added that the exact date should be fixed.
“We must relaunch negotiations,” he added. The Ukrainian president also said he was again ready to negotiate directly with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. “An encounter at the highest level is necessary to truly ensure peace,” he said.
Two successive meetings in Istanbul between Russian and Ukrainian delegations have hardly brought advances to a cease-fire, only leading to exchanges of prisoners and bodies of soldiers killed. During these last negotiations in June, Russia had again presented maximum requirements, including the sale by Ukraine of four regions and the renunciation of all Western military aid. Ukraine had rejected what it had described as “ultimatums”, and had questioned Moscow’s disposition to negotiate a ceasefire.
The Kremlin said, however, in early July to be ready to continue negotiations with Ukraine, after US President Donald Trump gave him 50 days to negotiate peace, threatening sanctions and announcing the same day to take up arms deliveries to kyiv funded by NATO countries.
The Declaration of the Day
« The conditions are inhuman. They are deprived of basic necessities: food, water, sanitation »
Ukraine has evacuated 43 citizens expelled by Russia and detained under inhuman conditions in an underground center near the Dariali crossing point, on the Georgian border, according to the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Andriï Sybiga. These people, including the former political prisoner Andriï Kolomiyets, were evacuated via Moldova, but others remain in “difficult” conditions, without documents for many.
“The conditions are inhuman. They are deprived of basic products: food, water, sanitation, “said Maria Belkina, head of the NGO Volunteers Tbilisi, adding that some had medical problems, including suspicions of contamination to tuberculosis and HIV.
The figure of the day
87. The city of Odessa, located in southern Ukraine, was the target on the night of Friday to Saturday of a massive drone attack in which at least one person was killed and six other injured, according to its mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov. “Odessa was attacked by enemy drones, more than 20 aircraft approached the city, coming from different directions,” said the mayor.
“Civil infrastructure was damaged following this attack. A residential building is on fire, rescuers are rescuing people trapped by the fire, “he added.” Despite the entry into action of our air defense forces, there are damage to civil infrastructure, in particular residential buildings, “said Regional Governor Oleg Kiper.
The Russian Ministry of Defense reported on Telegram of “destruction and interception Friday evening of 87 Ukrainian drones” including “48 in the British region”, border of Ukraine, and “Five in the Moscow region, two of which are heading on Moscow”.
