Here is the situation on Tuesday, July 9, 2024:

Fighting

Russia’s missiles rained down on Kyiv and other cities across Ukraine, damaging the country’s largest children’s hospital and killing at least 41 people. More than 150 people were wounded.

It was Russia’s heaviest bombardment of the Ukrainian capital in almost four months, hitting seven of the city’s 10 districts. Authorities in Kyiv said at least 27 people had died in the city, including three children.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy promised retaliation, writing on the Telegram app, “The Russian terrorists must answer for this.” He also called for Kyiv’s Western allies to respond firmly.

The Russian Ministry of Defence said its forces had carried out strikes on defence industry targets and aviation bases in Ukraine.

In Russia, a fire broke out at a power substation in the Rostov region after Ukraine launched “tens” of drones overnight, according to Vasily Golubev, governor of the southern border region with Ukraine.

Three Russian civilians were killed and several others wounded in the Belgorod border region when Ukrainian shells hit a village there, the governor said.

Ukraine’s navy chief Vice Admiral Oleksiy Neizhpapa told the Reuters news agency that the Russian navy’s Black Sea Fleet has been forced to rebase nearly all its combat-ready warships from occupied Crimea to other locations, and its main naval hub is becoming ineffectual because of attacks by Kyiv.

Politics and diplomacy

Diplomats said the United Nations Security Council would meet on Tuesday at the request of the United Kingdom, France, Ecuador, Slovenia and the United States.

US President Joe Biden said that Moscow’s deadly missile strikes in Ukraine, including on the children’s hospital in Kyiv, were “a horrific reminder of Russia’s brutality”. He added that Washington and its NATO allies would be announcing new measures at an upcoming leader’s summit to strengthen Ukraine’s air defences.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk deplored Russia’s attacks, saying: “Among the victims were Ukraine’s sickest children.”

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing to discuss a potential Ukraine peace deal. The visit is part of what Orban described as a third leg of a “peace mission” that he has undertaken without the backing of the European Commission or Ukraine.

SOURCE: ALJAZEERA.COM