Here are the key events on day 1,254 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Here is how things stand on Friday, August 1:
Fighting
- Russia launched waves of missiles and drones at Kyiv before dawn on Thursday, killing 16 people, including two children, and wounding more than 100 others, officials in the Ukrainian capital said. Russia’s Ministry of Defence claimed it targeted and hit Ukrainian military airfields and ammunition depots as well as businesses linked to what it called Kyiv’s military-industrial complex.
- Russia claimed to have taken full control of the shattered town of Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine after nearly 16 months of fighting, an assertion which Kyiv dismissed as “propaganda”.
- Ukrainian drones, operated by the state security agency SBU, struck an electronics plant which produces combat control systems for the Russian military in the western Russian city of Penza.
Military aid
- A powerful United States Senate committee has approved a military spending bill that includes about $1bn to support Ukraine, despite US President Donald Trump’s administration having asked Congress to eliminate such funding in its budget request.
Ceasefire
- US special envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Russia after his current trip to Israel, President Trump said. Trump did not provide an itinerary for Witkoff, who has held extensive ceasefire talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the past.
- Trump has sharply criticised Russia’s “disgusting” behaviour against Ukraine and said he plans to impose sanctions on Moscow if no agreement can be reached on a ceasefire. The US president has given Putin until August 8 to reach a deal to halt the fighting.
- The US reiterated its Ukraine war ceasefire deadline to the United Nations Security Council, with senior US diplomat John Kelley telling the 15-member council that “both Russia and Ukraine must negotiate a ceasefire and durable peace”. Kelley said: “It is time to make a deal. President Trump has made clear this must be done by August 8. The United States is prepared to implement additional measures to secure peace”.
- Trump also told Dmitry Medvedev to “watch his words” after the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council said Washington’s threats of hitting Moscow and buyers of its oil with punitive tariffs were “a game of ultimatums” and a step closer towards a war between Russia and the US.
- In response, the former Russian president said Trump should remember that Moscow possessed Soviet-era nuclear strike capabilities of last resort.
Ukrainian affairs
- Ukraine’s parliament voted to restore the independence of two key anticorruption agencies, moving to defuse the country’s biggest political crisis since Russia’s invasion.
- Lawmakers voted 331 to 0 in favour of the bill, which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy submitted last week following pressure from thousands of protesters and top European officials to reverse course on the issue.
Regional developments
- Chinese naval vessels have steamed into Russia’s far eastern port of Vladivostok in advance of joint drills scheduled from August 1-5.
