Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 852

Ukrainian soldiers firing towards Russian positions on the front line in the eastern Donetsk region [Evgeniy Maloletka/AP]

Here is the situation on Wednesday, June 26, 2024.

Fighting

• One woman was killed, four people injured and dozens of buildings damaged in multiple Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia’s southern Belgorod region, according to Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the area bordering Ukraine.
• Vadym Filashkin, the governor of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, ordered the evacuation of children and their parents or guardians from several front-line towns and villages because of advancing Russian forces. Filashkin has been urging civilians to leave over recent weeks amid an increase in deadly Russian bombardments.
• The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington, DC-based think tank, said Russian forces were attempting “to make tactically and operationally significant gains” before long-awaited supplies of Western weaponry arrived on the front lines.
• Russia launched 42 glide bombs on the northeastern Kharkiv region over a 24-hour period, according to local authorities. No injuries were reported.
• Ukraine said it had hit an ammunition depot in the Olkhovatsky district of Russia’s Voronezh region about 50km (30 miles) from the border with Ukraine. Voronezh Governor Alexander Gusev reported a fire at the site but no casualties.

Politics and diplomacy

• The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Russia’s former Minister of Defence Sergei Shoigu and army chief General Valery Gerasimov for attacks targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
• The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) found Russia guilty of systematic violations of human rights in the Crimean Peninsula, which it invaded and seized in 2014.
• Russia and Ukraine each handed back 90 prisoners of war, with the United Arab Emirates acting as an intermediary in the exchange.
• Defence chiefs from the United States and Russia spoke by telephone for the first time in more than a year. The Pentagon said US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov discussed the importance of open lines of communication. Russia’s Ministry of Defence said Belousov warned Austin of the dangers of the US continuing to supply arms to Ukraine.
• Russia said it was banning access inside Russia to 81 different media outlets from the European Union, including the AFP news agency, digital outlet Politico and Ireland’s RTE in retaliation for an EU ban on several Russian media outlets. Moscow accused the organisations of “systematically distributing inaccurate information” about the war in Ukraine.
• The EU opened membership talks with Ukraine. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, addressing the meeting in Luxembourg by video link, said the start of the talks was a historic moment. “For our nation, the European Union signifies much more than a physical space,” he said. “It represents values and home.”
• Two key advisers to presumptive US Republican nominee Donald Trump have presented him with a plan to end Russia’s war in Ukraine – if he wins the November 5 presidential election – which involves telling Ukraine it will only get more US weapons if it enters peace talks. Washington would at the same time warn Moscow that any refusal to negotiate would result in increased US support for Ukraine, retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, one of Trump’s national security advisers, told the Reuters news agency in an interview.

Weapons

• Ukraine’s Air Force commander said Kyiv had brought down 1,953 Shahed drones out of 2,277 launched by Russia this year.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said the first shipment of ammunition under a Prague-led initiative to buy ammunition with funding from NATO allies had arrived in Ukraine “some time ago”. The Czechs said in May that the first 50,000 to 100,000 artillery shells would arrive in June.