The Deputy Minister of Defense of Kyiv stated that the Ukrainian troops have recaptured the highlands around Bakhmut and are managing to surround the Russian troops in the city. In an interview with The Guardian, Hanna Malyar said that Russian soldiers could no longer move around Bakhmut and that progress was being made in outflanking enemy forces after months of heavy fighting.

Highlights of the war in Ukraine, day 534, LIVETEXT:

07:41 According to the Russian emergency service, quoted by TASS, a warehouse caught fire in Odintsovo, a city west of Moscow between the official residence of Vladimir Putin and Vnukovo airport.

He did not say how the fire broke out at the warehouse located 6.5 kilometers from President Putin’s residence in Novo-Ogaryovo. Around midnight Moscow time, the area of ​​the fire was 2,000 square meters, TASS reports with reference to the rescue service.

07:07 Spanish fighter jets stationed in the Baltic Sea have already intercepted the first Russian military aircraft. The command explained that since the activation of the mission, which took place on Monday, July 31, there have already been two cases when Spanish fighter jets were forced to respond to warning sirens and take off to control and identify Russian military aircraft.

06:10Representatives of Romania, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, as well as representatives of the European Commission and the United States will meet on Friday in Galata to discuss decisions on Ukrainian grain exports as a result of Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

00:38 The Ukrainian army is under fierce attack by Russian troops using artillery fire and airstrikes on many fronts in the east and south of the country, according to a report of the General Staff released on Thursday in Kyiv.

00:16 At least twelve people are missing after an explosion at a factory in Sergiev Posad, northeast of Moscow, the Russian Investigative Committee said.

A brief summary of recent events:

• On Thursday evening, Zelensky again assured Ukrainians that he is working on strengthening the country’s air defense, and mentioned in the context of the fruitful, but so far secret, conversation between Kyiv and representatives of the British military leadership.
• Ukrainian officials say that significant reinforcements received by the Russians have turned the northern front in the Kupyansk region into the “epicenter” of hostilities, but assure that Ukrainian defenses are holding even though the authorities have ordered the evacuation of civilians.
• One of Russia’s most famous TV presenters and propagandists, Volodymyr Solovyov, threw a tantrum on one of his shows after the ruble depreciated again, reaching almost 100 to 1 to the dollar.
• A Russian military official has published an unvarnished account of how Moscow’s armed forces “inflate” the amount of equipment they allegedly destroy during hostilities, explaining that the often phantasmagoric figures presented by the defense ministry have at least two reasons.
• Ukraine has included Bacardi on Vladimir Putin’s list of international war sponsors as the Bermuda-based company continues to operate in Russia.
• Arkady Voloi, the founder and former CEO of the largest Russian Internet company Yandex, criticized President Vladimir Putin’s “barbaric” invasion of Ukraine.
• Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said on Thursday that Poland was considering deploying around 10,000 troops as a “deterrent” on its eastern border with Moscow’s ally Belarus.
• Russian military bloggers and other sources have talked about the fact that the Ukrainians are going to surround the troops in Urozhany, a key redoubt of the Russian army in the south of Donetsk region, which protects the road to Mariupol.
• Ukraine has an elite Special Operations Forces unit known as the Shaman Battalion, which focuses on destroying Russian infrastructure used to attack Ukrainian territory.
• The Russian occupiers “twinned” the Chechen city of Grozny with the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, destroyed by the Russian army, which is now under its occupation.
• According to “The Economist”, Austria is one of “Putin’s useful idiots”. The Alpine country not only continues to import Russian gas, but also signed long-term gas contracts with Russia.

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• Thursday’s events related to Russian aggression were broadcast LIVE on HotNews.ro