Timeline: day 145 of Ukraine's defense against russia's aggression
photo: Emergency Service in Mykolaiv region
Today is July 18. russia's military attack on Ukraine has been going on for 145 days. We're reporting on the current news. The article will be updated.
What about today?
Key points
Cities fall asleep, and HIMARS wakes up.
The Ukrainian military struck the deep rear of the Luhansk region—the russians lost several warehouses and a command center.
Explosions have been heard since the morning in the Nova Kakhovka community, Kherson region. The enemy's ammunition is burning and detonating again, MP Serhii Khlan reports.
In addition, the Ukrainian military struck a deployment of the occupiers' manpower, weapons, and enemy equipment in the area of Blahodatne and Davydiv Brid. This was announced by the spokesperson of the South Operational Command, Vladyslav Nazarov.
In the past 24 hours, the occupiers' losses in the south are:
- 36 invaders,
- two Pantsir-S1 complexes,
- three communication vehicles of the strategic and operational management,
- Pidlit radar station,
- eleven units of armored and automotive equipment.
The authorities also confirmed the destruction of two ammunition depots in the occupied territories of the Mykolaiv region.
Since the beginning of russia's full-scale war in Ukraine, 38,450 occupiers have been eliminated.
Due to the effective operation of American HIMARS, the russian occupying army had to move ammunition unloading points far beyond the front line. As a result, the enemy doesn't have enough transport for delivery, and the delivery time has increased by an average of 200%.
The defense forces can hit the targets of the occupiers in Crimea even with existing HIMARS missiles, Defense Express expert Ivan Kyrychevskyi said. You can hit the airfields and railway infrastructure of the enemy on the peninsula.
Yesterday evening, President Zelensky suspended Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova and SBU head Ivan Bakanov. He explained his decision as follows: "I decided to remove the Prosecutor General from her position and remove the head of the Security Service of Ukraine. As of today, 651 criminal proceedings have been registered regarding high treason and collaborative activities of the prosecutor's office employees, pretrial investigation bodies, and other law enforcement agencies. In 198 criminal proceedings, the relevant persons were notified of the suspicion. In particular, more than 60 employees of the prosecutor's office and the SBU remained in the occupied territory and are working against our state. Such an array of crimes against the foundations of national security of the state and connections that have been recorded between employees of the law enforcement agencies of Ukraine and russia's special services are asking dire questions to the relevant leaders. Each of these questions will receive a proper answer."
Deputy prosecutor Oleksii Simonenko was appointed Acting Prosecutor General. So far, no one has been appointed to replace Ivan Bakanov. However, the president's removal of Iryna Venediktova from the post of prosecutor general and removal of Ivan Bakanov from the duties of head of the SBU doesn't mean their resignation. Official inspections will be carried out, after which the head of state will decide whether to make appropriate submissions to the parliament. The deputy head of the President's Office, Andrii Smirnov, said this on the broadcast of the UArazom information telethon.
Who's coming to Ukraine?
On financial and information aid, weapons and politicians
RND writes the Ukrainian military began to learn how to operate Gepard anti-aircraft guns. Currently, at least 100 servicemen of the Ukrainian army are in training.
News from partners
Yesterday in Warsaw, caring Poles and Ukrainians gathered under the russian embassy to protest against the actions of the aggressor country and demanded that the world community recognizes russia as a sponsor of terrorism.
"The Ukrainians are putting up a very strong fight. [vladimir] putin's war plans have proven to be not particularly effective. He has gained a little bit of territory over what he started the conflict with. I see this one headed toward a Korean War ending, which is to say an armistice, a militarized zone between the two sides, ongoing animosity, kind of a frozen conflict. Look for that in a four-to-six-month period. Neither side can sustain it much beyond that," the forecast given by the former commander of NATO's joint forces in Europe, James Stavridis, about russia's war in Ukraine.
Here are the conclusions by the Institute for the Study of War. They believe the Kremlin is creating conditions for a protracted war in Ukraine.
- According to the institute, russian forces continued their quiet exit from the operational pause and didn't achieve any confirmed territorial gains on July 17.
- russian forces also continued limited ground attacks around Siversk, Bakhmut, and Donetsk and shelled civilian and military infrastructure throughout Donbas.
- In addition, russian forces concentrated their efforts on defensive operations north of Kharkiv and along the southern axis.
russia's war in Ukraine could accelerate Germany's transition to "green" energy, despite Berlin's decision to restart coal-fired power plants to compensate for reduced fossil fuel supplies from russia. Thus, the German government insists on the transition to renewable energy sources, aiming for them to provide 80% of the country's electricity production by 2030. The study also states that it is unlikely that coal will become a long-term substitute for russian gas due to high emission prices in the EU.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the European Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson, will arrive in Azerbaijan today for negotiations on increasing the supply of Azerbaijani gas to the EU.
Olaf Scholz has said that the European Union can no longer afford to use a national veto when making decisions on the EU's foreign and security policy if it wants to maintain a leading role in world politics. According to the chancellor, russia's war in Ukraine makes unity in Europe even more urgent. It reinforces the need to end individual member states' "selfish blocking" of European decisions. This is nothing more than a hint of Hungary. In addition, this summer, it is planned to consider the issue, which involves the adoption of EU decisions by a majority, and not unanimously.
Sanctions on the aggressor!
H&M has announced that it is finally leaving russia.
Kyiv and the region
The shooting of the ZLO [evil in Ukrainian, ed.] movie started in Irpin. It is a three-part film about russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Oleksiy Kuleba, the head of the Kyiv region, reports.
Donetsk and Luhansk regions
The occupiers are throwing mobilized residents of recently occupied cities into battle, Serhii Haidai, the head of the Luhansk region, reports. According to him, about 10-15% of the civilian population remained in the captured territories.
Occupied Mariupol doesn't surrender. This guy went to the square near the Drama Theater, bombed by the russian army, with the flag of Ukraine. "It is an act of real courage to do this when even speaking Ukrainian can put you in the basement. Tens of thousands of people still cannot leave the city. But they are waiting and dreaming that soon Mariupol will be Ukrainian again," says the statement of the Mariupol City Council.
Dnipropetrovsk region
At night, more than 60 MRLS rockets hit Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region. Residential buildings, a port, an energy facility, a polyclinic, a blood transfusion station, and a gas pipeline were damaged. A woman born in 1947 was wounded; she was operated on, Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of the Kryvyi Rih civil-military administration, said.
Kherson region
"People live here," the residents write inscriptions of the temporarily occupied territories of the Kherson region to protect themselves from the chaotic shelling of russian troops. According to the testimony of residents of the liberated villages, inscriptions on houses and gates did not stop the russian military. They deliberately shoot at homes because they enjoy seeing the doors shatter, the glass in the windows smashing, the Kakhovka Operational Grouping says.
Mykolaiv region
Details of the morning shelling of Mykolaiv from Governor Vitalii Kim: "At around 03:00 on July 18, Mykolaiv was again subjected to massive rocket fire. Detailed information is being clarified. According to preliminary information, it is known that the russians hit a car dealership and a showroom selling agricultural machinery. The other hits were in the outskirts of the city. There were no victims preliminarily."
West of Ukraine
Three thousand bulletproof vests of the 4th level of protection arrived in Lviv from Chicago. About 6,000 slabs arrived in Ukraine. The weight of one is 3.5 kg. Accordingly, the bulletproof vest is 7 kg. These bulletproof vests are durable enough for small arms; their advantage is that they are pretty light, which is very important for defenders who move in the frontline.
