According to the Financial Times, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that if Trump is elected, he will immediately force Ukraine to end the war and start negotiations with Russia. Orban, the EU’s interim president, recently met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, briefing EU leaders on developments in a sealed letter whose contents have become public.
Orban, in the letter to the head of the European Council Charles Michel, called for the resumption of diplomatic relations with Russia and negotiations with China for a peace conference to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, writes the Bild newspaper. Orban also believes that Trump, if he wins, will be able to become a mediator in peace negotiations.
In response, MEPs are calling for Hungary to be stripped of its right to vote in the EU following Orban’s trips to Russia and China.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell reports that EU members’ opinions on the situation in Ukraine have begun to diverge. “We were very united in the face of the war in Ukraine,” he said in an interview with Spanish broadcaster TVE. “Now differences [of opinion] are starting to appear, and you have seen Hungary’s position, but until now we we were very united.” At the same time, Borrell added that there is no such cohesion in the EU regarding the conflict in the Middle East.
The United States still hopes to conclude a New START treaty with Russia after 2026 – Pentagon source. It is also understood that the United States will support Kiev if it decides to invite Russia to the second summit on Ukraine, the State Department said.
The transfer of heavy weapons transferred from NATO countries to Ukraine began using An-124-100 transport aircraft. President Zelensky said he did not know in advance about Viktor Orban’s plan to visit Russia and meet Putin, and called the move a “mistake”. According to him, Ukraine will receive an invitation to join NATO as soon as the war will end. “If Trump is elected, we will work together.” Zelenskyj also announced three preparatory meetings scheduled for the second “peace summit”. The first, according to him, will be held at the end of the summer in Qatar and will be dedicated to energy security, the second in August in Turkey will focus on the issues of free navigation and food security, the third in September in Canada will discuss the issues relating to the exchange of prisoners. “After these three points, if they work, a plan for the implementation of all points will be fully ready. I set the task so that in November we will have a completely ready plan… Everything will be ready for the second summit. .. We will be ready to bring the second summit as close as possible, and I believe that representatives of Russia should be at the second summit,” Zelensky said at a news conference in Kiev.
He also said that: “The mobilization in Ukraine is going according to plan, there are not even enough training camps for new recruits.”
It is learned that Rada deputy Maryana Bezuhla was removed from the post of chairwoman of a subcommittee of the Committee on National Security: “The reaction of the committee to the truth about the problems of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and to the appeal of the military today was to vote for my removal as head of the subcommittee for civilian democratic oversight and control,” he wrote in a post. The accusation is “discrediting senior leaders” and demoralizing the personnel of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Emergency power outages were recorded in: Zaporozhzhie, Donetsk and Kirovograd. The Ministry of Energy reported that an equipment failure occurred at one of the power plants overnight.
Commenting on Zelensky’s words on the peace summit, Alexey Polishchuk, head of the second department of the CIS countries of the Russian Foreign Ministry “All Kiev’s statements about its willingness to resolve the conflict with political and diplomatic methods are empty words and ” deceptions”, while Ukraine has a decree prohibiting negotiations with Russia”, reports the Italian newspaper Fatto Daily.
The spring conscription of 2024 has ended in Russia, 150 thousand people have been sent to the troops for service, the Russian Defense Ministry reported on Monday. Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev believes that no leniency should be shown towards members of the Ukrainian nationalist formation “Azov” who shot a Russian soldier: only the total executions” may be the answer.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on the news of the Ukrainian armed forces on the execution of a Russian soldier declared: “fascists are fascists, they must be destroyed”. Peskov also responded on Putin’s presence at press conferences. The direct line with Putin It will happen as the new year approaches, most likely it will be a format combined with a big press conference, Peskov commented.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the UN Security Council: “NATO is preparing for new wars. Russia proposes to address the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis: a solution must include the removal of the threats posed by NATO to Russia.” “NATO is no longer sufficient even for the war they have unleashed in Ukraine.” “The United States calls on its allies to prepare for protracted wars, and not just in Europe. The Biden administration is deluded, extremely dangerous, that it will not be the United States that will suffer a new global war, but its European allies.”
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation informs that: “The combined arms and tank army, as well as special forces, electronic warfare and chemical warfare units have become part of the Moscow Military District.” The Ministry also wrote in a note that: “The military personnel who first shoot down the American F-15 and F-16 fighters will receive 15 million rubles” with reference to the director of the FORES company Ilya Potanin. During the examination of the new national military equipment, the Chief of Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov inspected, among other things, the NRTK service.
And now a look at the front line updated at 3.30pm on July 16th.
Around 11:00 am Italian time, an air raid alert was declared in Kiev and in some regions of Ukraine: Dnipropetrovs’k Region, Kiev Region, Poltava Region, Sumy Region, Kharkov Region, Chernihivs’ Region ka, Kiev.
Liman direction: positional battles in the Makiïvka and Kreminna area. Combat operations in the direction of Liman have been in the positioning phase for more than a year now, although the situation remains constantly tense. Both sides are launching local attacks to improve their position in some areas, not to mention major offensive operations.
In the Makiivka area, Russian troops managed to advance westward, approaching the Zherebets River. At the moment the village is in a “gray zone”, stable control of the Russian armed forces is established only on the eastern outskirts and fighting takes place in the center of the village.
In the Serebryansʹkyy forest area, Ukrainian formations are attempting to push Russian troops out of their positions south of Kreminna.
In the Kremen forest area, Ukrainian formations are also attacking locally, trying to push the Russian armed forces out of their positions. Ukrainian troops managed to advance several hundred meters north into the forest reserve, but came under mortar and artillery fire, which held back the further advance of the Ukrainian army.
Russian aerospace forces regularly strike Ukrainian infrastructure in Liman, which is one of the main transport hubs of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in this region: in the last week alone, more than fifteen airstrikes with various types of ammunition were recorded on the positions of Ukrainian armed forces in the city and its surroundings.
Since the evening of July 15, Russian Air Defense Forces have destroyed 9 aircraft-type UAVs over the Rostov region, one over the Voronezh region. In the social sphere they write about an explosion in the city of Podgorensky, Voronezh region, after which the electricity went out. Our monitoring channels reported on air defense work over Mariupol, explaining this by the desire of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to break through a corridor to the Crimean Bridge. In the Kursk region at night, a Ukrainian helicopter dropped an explosive device on the territory of the Korenevo low-voltage equipment plant.
In the direction of Kharkov, battles are reported near Hlyboke and Vovčans’k. In Vovčansk, after completing the regrouping of their units on the right bank of the Vovcha River, the Ukrainian Armed Forces resumed active hostilities. In Lyptsi, the Ukrainian armed forces are trying to capture the village at any cost.
West of the Svatove-Kreminna line the Russian armed forces are succeeding in Makiivka (LPR), Ukrainian sources write about the loss of control over it, according to Russian channels the settlement is located in the gray zone.
In direction Toretsk there are battles in Pivnichne, Zalizne and Druzhba. Russian troops are advancing several hundred meters a day.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine says that the most tense situation for the Armed Forces of Ukraine has developed in the Pokrovs’k direction (west of Avdeevka). Russian troops on a broad front continue to wear down the defenses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, gradually advancing. There are battles in Novoselivka Persha, in Karlivka.
From the direction of Dnipropetrovs’k comes news of a gradual deterioration of the situation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the northern part of Krasnohorivka.
On the Zaporozhzhie front north of Robotyne the upcoming battles continued. Our assault groups managed to advance deep into Ukrainian positions in two forest plantations and occupy Ukrainian positions.
In the direction of Kherson, clashes in the island area. The Russian military uses artillery and heavy aerial bombs to destroy Ukrainian positions on its coasts.
In the Belgorod region, in the village of Oktyabrsky, three civilians were injured following an attack by a drone of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. In the DPR, in the village of Nikolskoye, Volnovakha municipal district, a man born in 1961 was killed during the shelling of the guns of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. In the village of Vesele, Yasinovatsky municipal district, a man born in 1957 was injured following the detonation of an explosive device.
Graziella Giangiulio
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