Latest war news. Two Turkish ships that set sail from Russia have been hit in the Black Sea
Two Ukrainian cargo ships hit south of Odessa. Zelensky signs decree imposing sanctions on Russian defence industry firms
Ukraine will never join NATO. This was stated by the Ukrainian ambassador to the United Kingdom and former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, as quoted by the publication Strana.ua. ‘I know NATO very well. For around twelve years, I personally worked to ensure we adopted the Alliance’s standards, and every year I heard fairy tales about how we were on the verge of joining. Unfortunately, we will never join,” said Zaluzhnyi. The NATO Secretary-General, Mark Rutte, had stated on 2 July that Ukraine currently has no prospects of joining the Alliance.
Drone attack leaves five dead in the Moscow region
Meanwhile, on the military front, five people have died and a further six have been injured in a drone attack in the Moscow region. This was reported by the governor Andrey Vorobyov. “Several fires broke out in the Novosyolki industrial area following the drone attack. The largest affected a warehouse, where the flames have already been extinguished,” Vorobyov wrote on Telegram. “According to preliminary information, five people have died and a further six have been injured. All the victims are receiving the necessary medical care,” he added.
An electrical substation and an administrative building were also damaged in the attack. Firefighters and emergency services are continuing to work at the scene.
Man chased by a drone in Kherson as it explodes near him; Zelensky condemns the incident
Ukraine today expressed outrage at a video showing a man being pursued by a drone in the city of Kherson, denouncing the incident as a deliberate “manhunt” and a “safari” targeting civilians. In the footage, the authenticity of which has not been immediately verified by AFP, a man seeks shelter behind a vehicle to escape a remotely piloted FPV (first-person view) drone that is chasing him before detonating its warhead. The man, who was selling vegetables at a local market in the southern city, “sustained physical injuries but survived”, said Yaroslav Shanko, head of the military administration of the city of Kherson, on Telegram.
“I’d just put up the parasols and started bringing out the crates… My wife was there too. We heard a buzzing sound,” said the 52-year-old greengrocer, identified as Yuriy, in a video published by the local authorities. He suffered blast injuries, shrapnel wounds and a concussion, but his life is not in danger, the governor of Kherson, Oleksandr Prokudin, wrote on Telegram. “Today, many people were shocked by yet another video of the ‘drone safari’ that the Russians are carrying out against civilians in Kherson,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on X, sharing the footage. “The world must see all of this. It must see every piece of evidence that Russia has gone mad and that its soldiers take pleasure in killing and mistreating civilians,” he added. The incident “calls for international condemnation and justice,” Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said on X, describing it as a “barbaric Russian war crime”. “This is a deliberate and systematic Russian strategy... The sadist operating this drone knew full well that he was targeting a civilian,” he added. (ANSA-AFP).
