Here is the situation on Sunday, July 30, 2023.

Fighting

• The Russian defence ministry said it intercepted three Ukrainian drones over Moscow early on Sunday. The “attempted terrorist attack” damaged the facades of two buildings but caused no casualties, officials said.
• On the other side of the border, at least one civilian was killed in a Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Sumy, according to the national police force. The attack on Saturday night also wounded five people, it said.
• The United Kingdom defence ministry reported an “uptick of fighting” in southern Ukraine and said Kyiv’s forces had defeated elements of Russian airborne forces to capture the village of Staromaiorske.
• Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said a group of soldiers from Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group have moved close to a Belarusian city near the border with Poland.
• “The situation is getting increasingly dangerous … Most likely they [the Wagner personnel] will be disguised as the Belarusian border guard and help illegal migrants get to the Polish territory [and] destabilise Poland,” Morawiecki said at a press conference in Gliwice, western Poland. “They will most likely try to enter Poland pretending to be illegal migrants and this poses additional threats,” he added.

Diplomacy

• Russian President Vladimir Putin said an African initiative could be the basis for peace in Ukraine but that the ongoing Ukrainian counteroffensive made provisions of the proposal – such as a call for a ceasefire – “virtually impossible to implement”.
• The Russian leader, who was speaking to reporters after meeting with African leaders in Saint Petersburg, also appeared to downplay not attending the BRICS summit in South Africa next month, saying he did not think his presence there “is more important than my presence here”. South African authorities had said Putin would not attend the August 22-24 gathering because of a controversy over an arrest warrant issued against the Russian president by the International Criminal Court.
• The Wall Street Journal reported that Saudi Arabia is set to host talks in August about Ukraine and has invited Western states, Ukraine and major developing countries including India and Brazil. The meeting will bring officials from up to 30 countries to Jeddah on August 5 and 6, it added.

Politics

• In the northern Russian region of Arkhangelsk, prosecutors summoned a nine-year-old girl and her 10-year-old brother as witnesses in a criminal case against their mother after she was accused of repeatedly “discrediting” the country’s army.