While rumors of retreat in the face of repeated Russian attacks are circulating, the Ukrainian army denies it, assuring that it is “holding” in Krynky, on the occupied bank of the Dnieper, in southern Ukraine. “The Ukrainian defenders continue to hold their positions and their bridgeheads, in the plural, on the left bank of the Dnieper River,” assured a spokesman for the Ukrainian army, Dmytro Lykhovy, on television this Thursday, July 18.
Key information to remember
⇒ Volodymyr Zelensky in the UK for a European summit
⇒ von der Leyen denounces Viktor Orban’s visit to Moscow
⇒ More than 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers expected in France
Volodymyr Zelensky in UK for EU summit
This Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is in the United Kingdom for a European summit. “I will meet His Majesty King Charles III, Prime Minister Keir Starmer,” he said on social media, adding that he would sign “an intergovernmental agreement on support for the Ukrainian industrial and defense complex.”
Upon his arrival near Oxford, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Europeans to remain united in their support for his war-torn country. “It is very important to maintain unity in Europe, because unity always allows strong decisions to be taken,” he said from Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of Winston Churchill, where this fourth meeting of the European Political Community (EPC) is taking place.
Ursula von der Leyen criticizes Orban’s visit to Moscow
Ursula von der Leyen has accused Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban of “playing into the hands” of Vladimir Putin by travelling to Moscow on 5 July for what the European Commission president, who is running for re-election, calls a “so-called peace mission”.
“Russia is continuing its offensive in eastern Ukraine. It is banking on a war of attrition, on a next winter that will be even harsher than the last. Russia is banking on the weakness of Europe and the West, and some Europeans are playing the game,” she denounced before the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
2,100 Ukrainian soldiers expected in France
2,100. This is the number of Ukrainian soldiers expected in French training camps by the end of September for a period of one month, according to our colleagues at France 3. Information that has not been confirmed by the French general staff. Still according to France 3, the objective of this mission would be to form a brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces by the end of the year. But also to provide military equipment: “128 troop transport vehicles, type VAB (armored front vehicle). But also 18 artillery guns, type Caesar, light tanks, numbering 24, moreover”, it is indicated.