As the Russia-Ukraine war enters its 144th day, we take a look at the main developments.
Here are the key events so far on Sunday, July 17.
Get the latest updates here.
Fighting
- Russia’s defence ministry said its aircraft had shot down a Ukrainian MI-17 helicopter near the eastern town of Sloviansk and an SU-25 aircraft in the Kharkiv region.
- The Russian army also said its long-range air-based missiles had destroyed a depot in an industrial zone of Odesa, southern Ukraine, that stored Harpoon anti-ship missiles delivered to Ukraine by NATO countries.
- Russia is reinforcing its defensive positions across the areas it occupies in southern Ukraine, the British defence ministry said.
- On Sunday, more Russian missiles struck industrial facilities in the strategic southern city of Mykolaiv, a key shipbuilding centre in the estuary of the Southern Bug river, local officials said. There was no immediate information about casualties.
- A Russian missile strike hit the northeast Ukrainian town of Chuhuiv in the Kharkiv region, killing three people, including a 70-year-old woman, and wounding three more, the regional governor said on Saturday.
- Russian-backed separatists said Ukraine had hit the town of Alchevsk, east of Sloviansk, with six United States-made high mobility artillery rocket system (HIMARS) rockets on Saturday. The self-styled Luhansk People’s Republic said the strikes had killed two civilians.
Economy/Diplomacy
- The Ukraine war shows that the West’s dominance is coming to an end as China rises to superpower status in partnership with Russia at one of the most significant inflection points in centuries, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said.
- Finance chiefs from the Group of 20 bloc of nations pledged on Saturday to address global food insecurity and rising debt, but remained divided over member Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
- Gazprom’s gas transit to Europe via Ukraine was stable on Sunday.
