WAR IN UKRAINE: July 28, 2022
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 155
In the early hours of Thursday, Russian missile strikes hit Kyiv and Chernihiv oblasts, according to news reports. Most of Ukraine, including the large Odesa oblast, were under air raid siren alerts early this morning.
People in the Russian-occupied city of Kherson woke to news of a new Ukrainian rocket strike on a bridge connecting it to the east bank of the Dnipro river. The Russian-backed authorities closed the Antonivskiy Bridge to civilian traffic after the overnight bombardment, the third in a week. The attack using the high-precision Himars system further punctured the bridge with holes. It is a crucial supply line for Russian forces as they prepare to defend the city from an expected Ukrainian offensive, although Russian-appointed officials say it is used mainly by civilian traffic - BBC
The US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, is to hold talks with his Russian counterpart for the first time since the start of the war in Ukraine, reportedly over a prisoner exchange. Meanwhile, according to unsourced channels, the American Embassy in Kyiv says the US promises to act "quickly and strictly" if the Kremlin tries to annex parts of southern Ukraine.
A high-ranking Ukrainian official has accused Russia of abandoning the bodies of its dead soldiers in Ukraine to avoid paying compensation to their families. “They [the Russians] don’t care about their soldiers,” Oleg Nikolenko, the spokesman for Ukraine’s foreign ministry, said in an interview with The Irish Times. “They don’t take dead bodies from the battlefield. We have so many bodies of Russian soldiers. They are kept in freezers. We are waiting for Russia to take them. They don’t take them because, according to their legislation, the family of every dead soldier receives seven million Russian roubles. When the soldier is missing, no body means no money” - Irish Times
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin assured Ukrainian colleague Oleksii Reznikov that the US will as soon as possible hand over to Ukraine four additional high-mobility artillery missile systems HIMARS. “We reaffirmed that the commitments made by all parties will strengthen the capabilities of the Ukrainian army and bring us closer to our common goal - the victory for Ukraine!” Reznikov says.
Hungary's hardline nationalist leader Viktor Orban is facing international condemnation after making remarks on race and multiculturalism that were slammed as a "pure Nazi text" by his longtime aide. Zsuzsa Hegedus, who served as an adviser to Orban for two decades, quit Tuesday over what she called Orban's "illiberal turn," describing his comments in Romania on Saturday as a "pure Nazi text worthy of (Nazi propagandist) Goebbels," according to her resignation letter published by Hungarian outlet HVG - CNN
