Zelensky visits troops in Donetsk Oblast, hands out military awards

Newly appointed Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal met with Digital Transformation Minister Mykhailo Fedorov on July 19 to discuss scaling up battlefield technologies, with a focus on interceptor drones and anti-Shahed systems.

President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on July 19 that Ukraine has proposed new peace talks with Russia for next week, with National Security Council Secretary Rustem Umerov extending the offer and signaling readiness for high-level discussions.

President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 19 announced the updated composition of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, following the country's latest government reshuffle. While most members remain the same, one notable change is the appointment of Rustem Umerov as the council’s new secretary.

A new initiative will examine how the Ukrainian language describes foreign locations while at home, with the aim of standardizing and promoting a Ukrainian spelling, said Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.

Pavlohrad, a city in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast that has become a key humanitarian aid hub for those evacuating the front lines, suffered one of its most severe attacks of the war, Governor Serhii Lysak said on July 19.

In what could be one of the last visits by journalists to Pokrovsk, the Kyiv Independent spent 24 hours in the front-line city, embedded with a drone team of Ukraine’s 68th Jaeger Brigade.

At least one person was killed and three were injured as a fire engulfed a residential building amid a Russian drone attack on Odesa overnight on July 19.

Russian strikes killed at least seven people and injured 31 others in multiple regions over the past 24 hours, Ukrainian regional authorities said on July 19.

The cyberattack allegedly destroyed large volumes of data and installed custom software designed to further damage the company's information systems.

Russia has lost 1,040,950 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces reported on July 19.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on July 18 signed an order withdrawing Moscow from a military technical cooperation agreement with Germany amid strained relations between the two countries.

The "Darts" twin-engine strike drone is capable of traveling over 40 kilometers (25 miles) and carries a payload of 12-14 kilograms as opposed to the company's pre-existing single engine drone which can handle a maximum of 8 kilograms.

Russian air defense units intercepted 13 drones flying towards Moscow in under two hours, Mayor Sergey Sobyanin reported at around 1:46 a.m. local time on July 19.

The U.S. will send its next Patriot system to Germany rather than Switzerland, in order to speed up Berlin's shipment of two Patriot batteries to Ukraine, officials said.

The tanks were promised to Kyiv in October 2024, but delivery was reportedly delayed due to resistance from the U.S. The remaining tanks will arrive "in the coming months."