Moscow launched a massive aerial assault on Ukrainian territory Friday night, July 18, into Saturday, according to a post on X from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Meanwhile, on Saturday, Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine had sent Moscow a proposal for a new round of peace talks.
This comes less than a week after U.S. President Donald Trump gave Russia an ultimatum –– either end its war with Ukraine within 50 days or face a fresh wave of sanctions.
3 dead, at least 6 injured in more than 300 drone strikes
On Saturday morning, Zelenskyy took to X, where he reported that Russia had launched more than 300 drones and 30 missiles into Ukraine. The strikes targeted regions all across the country, from Donetsk and Kherson to Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk.
In Odesa, one person was killed and another six injured, including a child, after a residential building was hit, according to the Ukrainian president. Meanwhile, in Sumy, several thousand families were left without electricity after critical infrastructure was damaged.
Two people were also killed during a bombardment that lasted six hours in Dnipropetrovsk, which also suffered heavy damage, including to a factory, a fire station and a residential building.
“A hellish night and morning for Pavlohrad,” regional Governor Sergey Lysak said. “The most intense attack on the city. Explosion after explosion.” The governor added that “an outpatient clinic, a school and a cultural institution” were also damaged.
On the other side of the conflict, Russia’s Defense Ministry said it downed 87 Ukrainian drones between Friday night and Saturday morning. According to German public broadcaster DW, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 13 drones targeting Russia’s capital were downed after midnight.
Some drone strikes caused train delays in Rostov, which sits near Russia’s border with Ukraine. One railway worker was reportedly injured in the strikes, as passengers were left stranded.
Increasing air attacks
Such ramped-up aerial attacks have become a fixture of the war between Russia and Ukraine, which is roughly six months shy of stretching into its fourth year.
On July 4, more than 550 drone attacks targeted Ukraine. That, however, was outdone roughly four days later, when Russia launched more than 700 drones, a record according to The Associated Press.
All of this means that Ukraine’s air defense systems need to be consistently updated. To that end, Trump announced Monday, July 14, that the U.S. and NATO had signed a new weapons deal that will deliver American-made Patriot missile systems to Ukraine.
In an X post late Saturday, Zelenskyy wrote that there is “good momentum” for deals between Ukraine and the U.S. “We are counting on good results and strengthening our cooperation with the U.S.,” Zelenskyy said, adding, “We are preparing a meeting with ambassadors for this Monday (July 21) to define priorities, including those regarding future relations with the U.S.”
Is an end to the war possible?
Trump’s relationship with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, is growing increasingly strained. At the same time that he announced the plans to deliver more Patriot missiles to Ukraine, Trump also said that if the Kremlin doesn’t bring an end to the war within 50 days, new sanctions –– or secondary tariffs –– would be placed on both Russia and the countries that do business with it.
“I’m disappointed in President Putin because I thought we would have had a deal two months ago, but it doesn’t seem to be getting there,” Trump said. “So based on that, we’re going to be doing secondary tariffs if we don’t have a deal in 50 days.”
However, those threats were snubbed by the Kremlin, which called the ultimatum “unacceptable.”
Putin is also feeling the pressure from the European Union, which adopted its 18th sanctions package against Russia on Thursday, July 17. According to the European Commission, the new measures will target Russia’s banking and energy sectors, weaken its military-industrial complex, make it more difficult for Moscow to skirt the sanctions, and hold the country accountable for its “crimes against Ukrainian children and cultural heritage.”
In response, the Russian Mission to the EU described the measures as “illegitimate.”
“This is not merely a figure of speech in this case, but rather an accurate reflection of the exhausting process that the EU Member States subject themselves to again and again in the futile hope of delivering a ‘crushing blow’ to the Russian economy,” the agency wrote on X.
Despite this, during his nightly address Saturday, Zelenskyy said that his government had sent Moscow a proposal for a new round of peace talks. Moscow is yet to comment on that proposal.
