WAR IN UKRAINE: July 29, 2023
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 521
New video shows Ukrainian troops rolling into a village in the Donetsk region on Thursday, after fighting for it for weeks. And for the first time, a Ukrainian military vehicle was recorded along Russian anti-tank obstacles known as "dragon's teeth” - CNN
A Russian missile strike on the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro has targeted a Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) facility and a high-rise apartment building, injuring at least nine people, including two children. Both building were mostly empty - RFE/RL
Russia said it shot down a Ukrainian missile over the southern Russian city of Taganrog and that fragments from the blast injured several civilians. It’s believed to be the first time that Taganrog – some 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the border with Ukraine — has been hit since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine - CNN
The chairman of the African Union said on July 28 that proposals by Russian President Vladimir Putin to provide grain to Africa were insufficient. In a closing address to a Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg, Azali Assoumani also said that a cease-fire is necessary in Ukraine. Russia wants to provide 25,000 to 50,000 tons of grain for free in the next three to four months, Putin told the African leaders on July 27. Zimbabwe, Mali, Burkina Faso, Somalia, Eritrea, and the Central African Republic are to receive the grain. Assoumani said Putin had “demonstrated that he is ready help us in the field of grain supply," adding that this is important, “but it may not be quite enough. We need to achieve a cease-fire” - RFE/RL
Russia has illegally held Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant engineer Serhii Potynh in captivity since June and subjected him to torture, Ukraine's state nuclear energy company Energoatom reported on July 28. "More than a month ago on June 23, 2023, the (Russian) invaders abducted Serhii Potynh, a labor protection engineer of the Central Technical and Administrative Department of the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, who remained to work at the station," Energoatom wrote on its Telegram channel. According to the company's statement, Potynh was seen at a police station where the occupation authorities held other employees of the plant and local residents."Serhii, held in actual captivity by the Russians, is regularly subjected to torture and physical violence” - Kyiv Independent