The Russian army continues to gain ground in eastern Ukraine. It announced on Sunday, July 21, that it had captured two villages in the Lugansk and Kharkiv regions. This very slow advance has come at the cost of great human losses for Moscow, which has not managed to truly break through the Ukrainian defenses.
Key information to remember
⇒ Two villages captured by the Russian army in eastern Ukraine
⇒ Russian fighter jets drive away American bombers
⇒ Former Ukrainian MP assassinated in Lviv
Russian army continues to gain ground in the east
The Russian military claimed control of two small towns in eastern Ukraine on Sunday, continuing to gain ground in parts of the front despite heavy losses in the face of smaller Ukrainian forces. “Units of the “West” group liberated the towns of Rozovka (Andriyevka in Ukrainian) and Peschanoe Nizhnee (Pishchane in Ukrainian),” the Russian Defense Ministry said in its daily report.
These small towns, very sparsely populated before the large-scale Russian attack in February 2022, are located respectively in the Lugansk and Kharkiv regions, about fifteen kilometers from each other.
The Ukrainian army, short of men and firepower, has been facing Russian attacks since last fall along the front line, which stretches for nearly 1,000 km. In the east, Russian forces have conquered several small towns in recent weeks. In the Donetsk region, they are currently pushing in particular towards the cities of New York and Toretsk. These attacks, which are very costly in terms of soldiers and equipment, have not yet led to a major breakthrough capable of radically changing the situation on the front.
Russia dispatches fighter jets to keep US bombers away from its border
Russia said on Sunday it had dispatched fighter jets to prevent two U.S. strategic bombers from crossing its border over the Barents Sea in the Arctic.
The U.S. military regularly conducts flights over international waters, operations it says are conducted in neutral airspace and in accordance with international law. But Moscow has responded more aggressively to the exercises in recent months, warning in June that U.S. drone flights over the Black Sea risked leading to a “direct” military confrontation.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it had dispatched fighter jets to intercept an “air target approaching the border of the Russian Federation.” “The crews of the Russian fighters identified the air target as two U.S. Air Force B-52H strategic bombers,” it added. “As the Russian fighters approached, the U.S. strategic bombers corrected their flight path, moving away from and then turning away from the Russian border,” it added.
In June, Moscow accused the United States of using its reconnaissance drone flights over neutral Black Sea waters to help Ukraine strike the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula. It said the flights increased the risk of a “direct confrontation” between NATO and Russia, and that its military had been instructed to prepare an “operational response.”
Former Ukrainian MP Murdered in Lviv
A former nationalist MP and ardent defender of the use of the Ukrainian language over Russian, Irina Farion, died after being shot in Lviv, western Ukraine, authorities announced Friday evening. “I always say that no place is safe in Ukraine,” lamented Lviv Mayor Andrii Sadovy, denouncing a “heinous assassination” and offering his condolences to the victim’s relatives.
According to the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office, the attack took place on Friday evening, around 7:30 p.m., when an unidentified individual fired at Irina Farion, seriously injuring her in the head. “All surveillance cameras are being checked, witnesses are being questioned and several districts (of Lviv) are being examined. All leads are being explored, including the one leading to Russia,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reacted on X on Saturday.
Interior Minister Igor Klimenko said investigators were currently focusing on the possibility of a murder motivated by “personal grudge” related to the victim’s activities, but did not rule out a “contracted assassination” either.
Aged 60, this language teacher and linguist was a member of parliament for the nationalist Svoboda party between 2012 and 2014. In April 2022, a few weeks after the start of the Russian invasion, AFP met her at Lviv University during a report on efforts to strengthen the use of Ukrainian in the face of Russian, which remains the mother tongue of many Ukrainians. “If we do not defend our language, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin will come here, right into this building,” she assured, saying she was leading a “permanent battle of Ukrainians for the right to be Ukrainians.”
Her radical defense of Ukrainian, however, made her a controversial figure. In November 2023, she said in a television interview that she could not “consider as Ukrainians” the soldiers fighting for the Azov Brigade but continuing to speak Russian. “The fighters are great patriots, so let them show their patriotism by learning the language of Taras Shevchenko,” the great Ukrainian national poet, she said.