This week, fighting continued to rage along the front lines. Russia pummeled near-front areas with missiles and drones. Ukraine proceeded with its deep strike campaign, targeting Russian shadow fleet vessels and warehouses that store components used in war-related production.
Russia dropped a glide bomb on the city of Pavlohrad, in the region of Dnipro, on Monday for the first time in the war, killing two people and injuring 16 others. The second such attack happened on Thursday, killing three people and injuring 19 others. A Russian missile strike on a foreign cargo ship off the coast of Odesa on Sunday killed 10 people, including a Ukrainian maritime pilot. Vessels stopped entering Ukraine’s Black Sea ports due to a threat of Russian attacks. Russian aerial strikes against Ukraine destroyed more than 1.5 million books in July alone, the Ukrainian Book Institute said on Monday.
Ukrainian drones have hit multiple warehouses of Russia’s Wildberries online retailer. These attacks have damaged or destroyed around 10 per cent of logistics capacity of the Wildberries company, Russia’s Kommersant daily said on Wednesday. Ukrainian aerial attacks overnight on Tuesday cut off power to part of Crimea.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, named Major General Mykhailo Drapatyi as the new Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The outgoing army chief, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, was sacked following protests across Ukraine.
Putin’s approval rating has fallen to the lowest level since 2021, Newsweek said Monday. After meeting with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Manila on Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that “new ideas” would be needed to bring an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
EU’s 21st sanctions package against Russia includes measures on 33 banks, disconnecting them from Swift.
The EU approved its 21st sanctions package against Russia on Thursday, imposing transaction bans on 33 Russian banks, which means they will be disconnected from the Swift international payments system. The listings take the total share of sanctioned banks to more than half of the sector, Interfax Ukraine said, citing a European Commission’s briefing on Thursday.
The news site also quoted an unnamed European Commission official as saying that the ban on the use of Swift means a prohibition on use of financial messaging services internationally for these banks. It is expected to create a significant hit to Russia’s ability to move its money around. The measures will target large regional banks or ones that have already been banned from making transactions, the official said.
The measures will also target banks in third countries that help Russia circumvent European sanctions. Third country banks include ones in Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan and Russian banking subsidiaries in India. The sanctions will also hit a Chinese bank that uses Russia’s MIR payment system, Interfax Ukraine said.
At the same time, the EU removed some of the banks and financial institutions that were part of preliminary listings from the final package.
The EU has sanctioned nearly half of Russia’s banks. These institutions account for most of the sector’s income, assets and transactions, the official explained.
Responding to a new sanctions package, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said on X Thursday: “I am grateful to the European Union and to every European leader for adopting the 21st sanctions package against Russia. It is very important that pressure on Russia over the war it started — and refuses to end — continues.”