In wake of drone attacks, Zelensky says war is "gradually" being pushed back to Russian territory
From CNN's Radina Gigova and Kostan Nechyporenko
Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends a press conference in Kyiv on July 19. Volodymyr Tarasov/Ukrinform/Future Publishing/Getty Images
The war is "gradually returning" to Russia's territory, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday, after another round of drone attacks on Moscow.
"Russian aggression has gone bankrupt on the battlefield. Today is the 522nd day of the so-called 'special military operation,' which the Russian leadership expected to last for a week or two," Zelensky said.
"Ukraine is getting stronger. Gradually, the war is returning to the territory of Russia — to its symbolic centers and military bases, and this is an inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process," he added.
Zelensky warned, however, that Russia can still attack Ukraine's critical energy infrastructure this winter, as it did last year to devastating effect. The president said that on Sunday he met with regional officials to discuss preparations for possible scenarios.
On Sunday, Zelensky also met with wounded fighters and medical teams during a trip to Ukraine's western Ivano-Frankivsk region.
Attacks on Russian soil: Russia said it brought down three Ukrainian drones trying to attack Moscow on Sunday, the second reported attack on the country's capital in a week.
Officials report another drone crash on Russian soil, this time in a southern border region
From CNN's Mariya Knight
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) crashed in Russia's Rostov region. danilenko_vf/telegram
A drone came down in a rural area of Russia's southwestern Rostov region near the border with Ukraine on Sunday, according to regional Gov. Vasily Golubev.
“An unmanned aerial vehicle crashed in the settlement of Daraganovka,” Golubev said in a Telegram post Sunday.
The village sits about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from Taganrog, where a missile was shot down on Friday. The missile’s remnants fell on the center of the city, wounding 14 people.
In the case of Sunday's drone crash, the governor said a home and a car were damaged, but no casualties were immediately reported.
The governor said officials are still determining whether the unmanned aerial vehicle was a Ukrainian drone.
Drones on Russian soil: Russia said it brought down three Ukrainian drones trying to attack Moscow on Sunday, the second reported attack on the country's capital in a week. Russia also said it intercepted more than two dozen drones in Crimea, the peninsula it seized in 2014.
Paired with missile strikes, like the one in Taganrog, and incursions by anti-Kremlin Russian fighters aligned with Ukraine, drones are part of the increasing number of instances where the reverberations of Moscow's invasion have reached its own territory.
52 min ago
Ukraine reports "slow but steady" progress around Bakhmut, picking up ground each day
From CNN's Radina Gigova and Maria Kostenko
Ukraine's forces are "gradually moving forward" around the battered city of Bakhmut, while also claiming some gains elsewhere on the eastern front, a military spokesperson told CNN on Sunday.
Surrounding Bakhmut, Kyiv's military has generally been able to gain hundreds of meters per day and capture kilometers of territory each week, according to Serhii Cherevatyi, who represents the military's eastern grouping.
"This is a tactic of slow but steady progress. We realize that we have comparable forces and means, and sometimes the enemy outnumbers us," Cherevatyi said. "We use the tactics of coverage, maneuvers, ambush and not direct frontal attacks. And so, we are gradually moving forward."
In this aerial view released on June 15, destroyed buildings are seeing in Bakhmut, Ukraine. 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Brigade/Reuters
Remember: Bakhmut is one of the most fiercely contested cities in the conflict, with both militaries pouring significant resources into its capture. While the territory bears some strategic value, it also has become a powerful symbol in a war where Russian President Vladimir Putin has had few recent clear-cut victories.
In May, fighters with the Wagner private military group claimed to have captured the city and handed it over to Russia's military. But in the time since, Ukraine has reported that heavy fighting continues in the area and claimed regular gains all around the city.
CNN cannot independently verify battlefield reports from either side in the conflict.
Other fighting nearby: North of Bakhmut, near the focal point cities of Lyman and Kupyansk, the Ukrainian military spokesperson said Russia's military is maintaining a presence of around 100,000 troops but suffering "heavy losses."
A bit farther east, the Luhansk region's Serebryansky forest "is a site of constant fighting," Cherevatyi said. Despite Russia's strategic actions, "they are failing there," he claimed.
In his evening address on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was "a good day, a powerful day" at the front lines. He highlighted Bakhmut and "other very hot and painful areas," including the small eastern cities of Avdiivka and Marinka, which have been long battered by the war.
29 min ago
Wagner troops moving towards Polish border and could try sneaking across, PM says
From CNN's Martin Goillandeau, Sharon Braithwaite and Oleg Racz
Mateusz Morawiecki attends a press conference in Katowice, Poland on July 20. Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto/Getty Images
More than 100 troops from the Russian mercenary group Wagner are moving towards a thin strip of land between Poland and Lithuania, says Poland’s prime minister, who warned they could pose as migrants to cross the border.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Saturday that his government had received information that the Wagner mercenaries were not far from Grodno, a city in western Belarus close to the land, which is also known as the Suwalki gap or corridor.
Thousands of Wagner troops are reportedly in Belarus following a failed military uprising in Russia.
Morawiecki repeated allegations that Belarus, a key ally to Russia, has been sending migrants westward in an attempt to overwhelm Polish border forces.
The troop movements, Morawiecki said, appeared to be another element in this campaign to destabilize the border.
“They will probably be disguised as Belarusian border guards and will help illegal immigrants to enter Polish territory, destabilize Poland, but they will also probably try to infiltrate Poland pretending to be illegal immigrants and this creates additional risks,” he said.
So far this year, there have been about 16,000 attempts by migrants to cross the border illegally, “pushed to Poland” by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Morawiecki said.
What exactly Wagner troops are doing in Grodno is unclear, as Wagner has not commented on the reports. But deploying Russian-allied forces near the Suwalki corridor would represent an escalation that could rattle NATO and EU members.
Though just 60 miles long, the corridor is strategically important to NATO, the EU, Russia and Belarus. The border region connects the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad to Belarus and it is the only overland link between the Baltic states and the rest of the EU.
Russia says it downed three Ukrainian drones trying to attack Moscow, the second reported attack on Russia's capital in a week. Later Sunday, officials said a drone crashed in a Russian border region where a missile recently wounded 14 people.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says the war is "gradually" being pushed back to Russian territory, as Ukraine's military ramps up efforts to break through Russian defenses.
Ukraine announced Saudi Arabia will soon host peace talks, to include Western and several developing countries but not Russia.
President Vladimir Putin has blamed Ukraine and its counteroffensive for the lack of a ceasefire. Kyiv has ruled out negotiations until Russia withdraws from its territory.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends a press conference in Kyiv on July 19. Volodymyr Tarasov/Ukrinform/Future Publishing/Getty Images
The war is "gradually returning" to Russia's territory, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday, after another round of drone attacks on Moscow.
"Russian aggression has gone bankrupt on the battlefield. Today is the 522nd day of the so-called 'special military operation,' which the Russian leadership expected to last for a week or two," Zelensky said.
"Ukraine is getting stronger. Gradually, the war is returning to the territory of Russia — to its symbolic centers and military bases, and this is an inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process," he added.
Zelensky warned, however, that Russia can still attack Ukraine's critical energy infrastructure this winter, as it did last year to devastating effect. The president said that on Sunday he met with regional officials to discuss preparations for possible scenarios.
On Sunday, Zelensky also met with wounded fighters and medical teams during a trip to Ukraine's western Ivano-Frankivsk region.
Attacks on Russian soil: Russia said it brought down three Ukrainian drones trying to attack Moscow on Sunday, the second reported attack on the country's capital in a week.
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) crashed in Russia's Rostov region. danilenko_vf/telegram
A drone came down in a rural area of Russia's southwestern Rostov region near the border with Ukraine on Sunday, according to regional Gov. Vasily Golubev.
“An unmanned aerial vehicle crashed in the settlement of Daraganovka,” Golubev said in a Telegram post Sunday.
The village sits about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from Taganrog, where a missile was shot down on Friday. The missile’s remnants fell on the center of the city, wounding 14 people.
In the case of Sunday's drone crash, the governor said a home and a car were damaged, but no casualties were immediately reported.
The governor said officials are still determining whether the unmanned aerial vehicle was a Ukrainian drone.
Drones on Russian soil: Russia said it brought down three Ukrainian drones trying to attack Moscow on Sunday, the second reported attack on the country's capital in a week. Russia also said it intercepted more than two dozen drones in Crimea, the peninsula it seized in 2014.
Paired with missile strikes, like the one in Taganrog, and incursions by anti-Kremlin Russian fighters aligned with Ukraine, drones are part of the increasing number of instances where the reverberations of Moscow's invasion have reached its own territory.
Ukraine's forces are "gradually moving forward" around the battered city of Bakhmut, while also claiming some gains elsewhere on the eastern front, a military spokesperson told CNN on Sunday.
Surrounding Bakhmut, Kyiv's military has generally been able to gain hundreds of meters per day and capture kilometers of territory each week, according to Serhii Cherevatyi, who represents the military's eastern grouping.
"This is a tactic of slow but steady progress. We realize that we have comparable forces and means, and sometimes the enemy outnumbers us," Cherevatyi said. "We use the tactics of coverage, maneuvers, ambush and not direct frontal attacks. And so, we are gradually moving forward."
In this aerial view released on June 15, destroyed buildings are seeing in Bakhmut, Ukraine. 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Brigade/Reuters
Remember: Bakhmut is one of the most fiercely contested cities in the conflict, with both militaries pouring significant resources into its capture. While the territory bears some strategic value, it also has become a powerful symbol in a war where Russian President Vladimir Putin has had few recent clear-cut victories.
In May, fighters with the Wagner private military group claimed to have captured the city and handed it over to Russia's military. But in the time since, Ukraine has reported that heavy fighting continues in the area and claimed regular gains all around the city.
CNN cannot independently verify battlefield reports from either side in the conflict.
Other fighting nearby: North of Bakhmut, near the focal point cities of Lyman and Kupyansk, the Ukrainian military spokesperson said Russia's military is maintaining a presence of around 100,000 troops but suffering "heavy losses."
A bit farther east, the Luhansk region's Serebryansky forest "is a site of constant fighting," Cherevatyi said. Despite Russia's strategic actions, "they are failing there," he claimed.
In his evening address on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was "a good day, a powerful day" at the front lines. He highlighted Bakhmut and "other very hot and painful areas," including the small eastern cities of Avdiivka and Marinka, which have been long battered by the war.
Mateusz Morawiecki attends a press conference in Katowice, Poland on July 20. Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto/Getty Images
More than 100 troops from the Russian mercenary group Wagner are moving towards a thin strip of land between Poland and Lithuania, says Poland’s prime minister, who warned they could pose as migrants to cross the border.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Saturday that his government had received information that the Wagner mercenaries were not far from Grodno, a city in western Belarus close to the land, which is also known as the Suwalki gap or corridor.
Thousands of Wagner troops are reportedly in Belarus following a failed military uprising in Russia.
Morawiecki repeated allegations that Belarus, a key ally to Russia, has been sending migrants westward in an attempt to overwhelm Polish border forces.
The troop movements, Morawiecki said, appeared to be another element in this campaign to destabilize the border.
“They will probably be disguised as Belarusian border guards and will help illegal immigrants to enter Polish territory, destabilize Poland, but they will also probably try to infiltrate Poland pretending to be illegal immigrants and this creates additional risks,” he said.
So far this year, there have been about 16,000 attempts by migrants to cross the border illegally, “pushed to Poland” by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Morawiecki said.
What exactly Wagner troops are doing in Grodno is unclear, as Wagner has not commented on the reports. But deploying Russian-allied forces near the Suwalki corridor would represent an escalation that could rattle NATO and EU members.
Though just 60 miles long, the corridor is strategically important to NATO, the EU, Russia and Belarus. The border region connects the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad to Belarus and it is the only overland link between the Baltic states and the rest of the EU.
