War in Ukraine: Russia threatens military reaction if Sweden and Finland join NATO

Created: 07/31/2022 05:03

By: Sandra Kathe, Tobias Utz, Lukas Zigo, Fee Halberstadt, Jan-Frederik Wendt

Fighting continues in the Ukraine war.

Meanwhile, Russia is announcing a reaction to Sweden and Finland's plans to join NATO: the news ticker.

• Pro-Russian separatists:

  Russia to conquer more cities in Ukraine.

• Recapture:

  Ukraine reports recapture of southern areas.

• Editor

  's note: You can read all the news about the Ukraine conflict in this news ticker.

  Some of the information comes from warring factions in the Ukraine war and cannot be checked directly and independently.

This news ticker has ended: You can read all the latest developments on the Ukraine war in the new news ticker.

Update from Friday, July 29, 6:45 a.m.:

Da

Sweden and Finland were worried about their own security after the Russian attack on Ukraine, and the two previously neutral countries applied to join NATO.

According to the former head of the Kremlin, Dmitry Medvedev, such a NATO accession will result in a military counter-reaction from Russia.

If NATO bases are set up on the territory of the two countries and weapons are stationed, then "our reaction steps would be symmetrical," said the deputy chief of the Russian Security Council, according to the

.

Russian soldiers in action.

Sweden and Finland want to join NATO.

Russia announces a reaction to it.

(archive image).

© RIA Novosti / Imago Images

Ukrainian forces advance: Kherson cut off from other occupied territories

+++ 17.33:

In a Russian attack on the airport in the city of Kropyvnyzskyj in central Ukraine, according to the responsible regional governor Andriy Raikowitsch, five people were killed and 25 people were injured, including civilians.

According to a report by the AFP news agency, the targets of the attacks were two warehouses at an airport.

Several planes and buildings were destroyed.

The Ukraine War in Pictures - Destruction, Resistance and Hope

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Kropywnyzskyj is about 300 kilometers south of Kyiv and had about 220,000 inhabitants before the war.

There were said to have been attacks on the city last weekend, in which people died.

According to Ukrainian sources, there were also attacks on a military base near Kyiv, in the Chernihiv region and on Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city near the Russian border, during the course of Thursday.

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Counter-offensive in Ukraine gaining momentum: Kherson cut off from other areas

+++ 1:22 p.m .:

According to

, the secret service reports that the Ukrainian counter-offensive in the Kherson Oblast is gaining momentum.

The British Ministry of Defense has said that Ukrainian forces are likely to have established a bridgehead south of the Inhulets River, "which forms the northern border of the Russian-held Kherson region".

Ukrainian troops also used long-range weapons to damage three bridges across the Dnipro River that Russia relies on to supply areas it controls, the ministry said.

Kherson is now "virtually cut off from the other occupied territories," the ministry said.

War in Ukraine: Russia achieves partial successes in the Donetsk region - Focus on Bakhmut

+++ 11.40 a.m .:

In the Donetsk war zone in eastern Ukraine, fighting between the troops of Kiev and Moscow is approaching the cities of Bakhmut and Soledar.

The Ukrainian general staff announced on Facebook on Thursday that the enemy had achieved partial success near Werschyna, about ten kilometers south-east of Bakhmut.

Other attacks in the Bachmut area and also in neighboring Soledar, however, were repelled.

Russian attacks north of Sloviansk also failed.  

+++ 11.00 a.m .:

Russia fires almost 20 rockets at Ukrainian targets.

This is reported

.

Accordingly, Russia has attacked Ukraine with Kalibr cruise missiles from the Black Sea and Iskander missiles from Belarus, according to the spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force Command Yuri Ihnat.

Ukraine-News: Russia is holding back food in Mariupol

+++ 8.14 a.m .:

According to the Ukrainian military, nine rockets hit the Chernihiv region.

Chernihiv Oblast Governor Vyacheslav Khaus stated that since 5 a.m. local time on July 28, a number of rockets had been fired from Belarusian territory at the municipality of Honcharivska.

Meanwhile, the Institute for the Study of War reports that Russian proxies are holding back humanitarian aid to force civilians in Mariupol to cooperate.

According to the experts, Russian officials used food aid and other humanitarian aid to force the people of Mariupol to "de-mine and clear debris."

War in Ukraine: US Secretary of State wants to speak to Lavrov - who denounces "diplomacy from the megaphone".

Update from Thursday, July 28, 6:45 a.m .:

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken wants to speak to his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in a “phone call in the coming days” for the first time since taking office.

There are two reasons for this, as

reports: the release of US basketball player Brittney Griner and her compatriot Paul Whelan, who were imprisoned in Moscow, and compliance with the new agreement on exporting grain from Ukraine, Blinken said at a press conference in Washington on Wednesday ( July 27) with.

There is speculation that the two could be traded for Russian arms dealer Viktor But, who is in prison in the United States.

On the other hand, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Wednesday evening (July 27) that there was no official request for such a talk.

Instead of using the megaphone for diplomacy, Washington should stick to diplomatic practice, Moscow said.

Russian attack on Bakhmut in Ukraine: wounded and dead

+++ 19:52:

The head of the pro-Russian separatists in the Donetsk region has called on Russia to conquer most of Ukraine.

"Today is the time to liberate Russian cities founded by Russians: Kyiv, Chernihiv, Poltava, Odesse, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Zaporizhia, Lutsk," wrote separatist leader Denis Puschilin on Wednesday in the online service Telegram on the anniversary of the liberation of the Belarusian ones City of Brest by the Nazis.

The cities identified by Pushilin as “Russian” cover almost the entire territory of Ukraine.

Russia has captured much of southern and eastern Ukraine since late February, but failed in its attack on the capital, Kyiv.

+++ 4:34 p.m .:

According to a survey published on

, 84 percent of Ukrainians are against a peace with Russia if it includes territorial concessions.

The Kiev International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) determined that only 10 percent of the Ukrainians surveyed are ready to make some territorial concessions.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's state emergency service reported at least two dead and four wounded in the Russian attack on Bakhmut.

The rescue operation is currently underway, the service said.

Russian forces attacked a hotel and apartment building in Bakhmut, Donetsk region.

Ukraine-News: Russia shells hotel and residential building: civilians die

+++ 1:20 p.m .:

Russia shells a hotel and a residential building in Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, killing civilians.

This is reported by the portal

.

The number of fatalities is not yet known.

According to the governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, a rescue operation is currently underway.

Russia also carried out three rocket attacks on Toretsk, where there were no casualties, and one attack on Avdiivka.

Shelling continued in other parts of Donetsk region.

+++ 11.25 a.m .:

The Ukrainian army bombed a strategically important bridge during its counter-offensive in the city of Cherson in southern Ukraine, which was occupied by Russian troops.

The Ukrainian military released video Wednesday morning apparently showing rockets being fired at the bridge.

The deputy head of the Russian-deployed regional administration in Kherson, Kirill Stremusov, confirmed the attack.

The attack will affect the outcome of the fighting in the region "in no way," he said in a video message.

Ukrainian military retakes town in the south of the country

+++ 8:05 a.m .:

According to their own statements, the Ukrainian military has completely conquered the small town of Andriyivka in the Cherson region in the south of the country.

"Andriyivka has been liberated and finally cleared of the Russian occupying forces," spokesman for the "South" command center of the Ukrainian troops, Vladyslav Nazarov, said in a video message on Tuesday evening (July 26).

The information cannot be checked independently, according to reports from the

.

While troops loyal to Moscow continue to have the initiative in the east of the country, Kyiv has now launched counterattacks in the south.

According to Nazarov, the Ukrainian forces also captured the neighboring town of Losowe a few days ago.

Mainly, however, the battles are still being fought by means of artillery on supply lines.

The military administration deployed by Moscow in the Kherson region reported another shelling of a bridge over the Dnipro River.

However, the 1.4-kilometer-long car bridge in the regional capital of Cherson is still intact, a spokesman for the administration said on Wednesday night.

The bridges are strategically important because the Dnipro carries a lot of water and is therefore difficult to cross.

The primary goal of the Ukrainian military is to push the occupying Russian troops back to the line behind the Dnipro.

To do this, they are attempting, among other things, to shut down the supply lines with the help of the Himar rocket launchers supplied by the USA.

Russia reports capture of Ukraine's largest coal-fired power plant 

Update from Wednesday, July 27, 3:10 a.m .:

In the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, the Russian troops say they have taken control of Ukraine’s largest coal-fired power plant near Svitlodarsk.

On Tuesday, the media of the Donetsk separatists already reported the capture.

The information cannot be verified independently.

Pictures should prove the presence of Russian mercenaries of the so-called Wagner group in front of the administration building.

According to other reports, however, the fighting around the power plant site, which had been going on since the end of May, continued.