caving in on sanctions would be falling into Putin’s ‘trap’, kyiv warns

• Bombings in southern Ukraine overnight from Sunday to Monday. Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevich wrote on Telegram: “Another massive bombardment of Mykolaiv. Loud explosions are heard. About ten have been heard so far. »
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued decrees on Sunday evening July 17 dismissing the head of the powerful Ukrainian internal security agency, the SBU, as well as the general prosecutor. In a message posted on Telegram, Mr. Zelensky says he dismissed senior officials because of the collaboration with Russia of many members of their agencies. “Such a range of crimes against the foundations of the national security of the state (…) poses very serious questions to the leaders concerned”, said the Ukrainian president.
• In Donbass, eastern Ukraine, Russian forces are “probably coming out of operational pause” they had decreed eight days ago to regenerate, says the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW). Moscow troops conducted “a series of ground assaults”, “still on a small scale” and “largely unsuccessful” in Donetsk Oblast, northwest of Sloviansk, southeast of Bakhmout, and southwest of the city of Donetsk, he lists. Russian offensives in the Donbass remain “reduced”, confirms the British Ministry of Defense, the fighting focusing on Siversk and Bakhmout. Since abandoning Lysychansk at the beginning of July, Ukrainian troops have ” shortcut “ their line of defence, allowing them to “concentrate” their strengths “against reduced Russian attacks and contributed to reducing Russia’s momentum”notes the British Ministry of Defence.
• The Russian army has deployed missile launchers at the site of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in the south of the countrythe largest in Europe with its six reactors, which it has controlled since the beginning of March, denounced the boss of Energoatom, the Ukrainian operator, on Friday evening, according to which 500 Russian soldiers are present on the site.
• Valentyn Reznichenko, Governor of the Dnipro regionin central Ukrainedenounced on Saturday “a deluge of fire in the morning” in the territory of Nikopol, which resulted in two deaths.
• A 24^e nobody died missile strikes on the center of Vinnytsiahundreds of kilometers west of the Donbass, announced the governor of the oblast, Serhi Borzov, specifying that 68 people continued to receive care, including four children. Moscow, which does not recognize any blunder or crime of its forces in Ukraine, claims to have struck the “officers’ house” of Vinnytsia. A senior US official on condition of anonymity said he had no “indication of the presence of a nearby military target”.
• There is no overall assessment of the civilian victims of the conflict. The UN has tallied nearly 5,000 confirmed dead, including more than 300 children, but acknowledges that the true number is likely much higher. For the only city of Mariupol, in the South-East, fallen in May at the end of a terrible siege, the Ukrainian authorities evoked some 20,000 dead. On the military level, Western security sources are now talking about between 15,000 and 20,000 Russian soldiers killed. kyiv reported at least 10,000 dead in its troops. No independent statistics are available.
• More than six million Ukrainians are internally displaced, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). They are added to the few 5.5 million Ukrainians registered as refugees in other European states since the start of the invasion.

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