Here is how things stand on Friday, July 18:

Fighting

• The Russian Ministry of Defence claimed that its forces have captured three Ukrainian settlements: Kamianske in the southeastern Zaporizhia region, Dehtiarne in the northeastern Kharkiv region, and Popiv Yar in the Donetsk region.

• Russian air defences destroyed a Ukrainian drone headed for Moscow, the city’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said.

• Russia’s Defence Ministry said 46 Ukrainian drones were destroyed over a period of four hours on Thursday evening, including a single drone over the Moscow region. Most were downed in areas near the Ukraine border, including 31 over Russia’s Bryansk region and 10 over the Russian-annexed Crimea peninsula.

• Russia and Ukraine have exchanged more bodies of their war dead, a Kremlin aide said, part of an agreement struck at the second round of peace talks in Istanbul in June. A total of 1,000 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers were turned over in exchange for 19 bodies of Russian soldiers.

Military aid

• Preparations are under way to quickly transfer additional Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine, NATO’s top military commander, Alexus Grynkewich, said.
• Czech-coordinated shipments of artillery ammunition for Ukraine are rising this year, according to Ales Vytecka, director of the Czech Defence Ministry’s AMOS international cooperation agency. So far this year, shipments have totalled 850,000 shells, including 320,000 NATO 155mm calibre projectiles.
• Ukraine will let foreign arms companies test out their latest weapons on the front line of its war against Russia, Kyiv’s state-backed arms investment and procurement group Brave1 said.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the US publication The New York Post that he and United States President Donald Trump are considering a deal that involves Washington buying battlefield-tested Ukrainian drones in exchange for Kyiv purchasing weapons from the US.

• Zelenskyy told the country’s parliament that he expects his new government to increase the amount of domestically-produced weapons on Ukraine’s battlefield from 40 percent to 50 percent within the next six months.

• The US has informed Switzerland of delays to the delivery of Patriot air defence systems, the Swiss Defence Ministry said, adding that Washington wants to prioritise delivery of the systems to Ukraine.

• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said clarity is needed on how the US could replace any weapons that Europe plans to send to Ukraine. He issued the statement during a visit to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

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Politics and diplomacy

• President Trump’s decision to ramp up arms shipments to Ukraine is a signal to Kyiv to abandon peace efforts, Russia Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

• Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Russia had no plans to attack NATO or Europe but floated the idea of preemptive strikes if it believed the West was escalating what he cast as its full-scale war against Russia.

• Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico said his country will stop blocking the approval of the 18th package of European Union sanctions against Russia, which could be approved on Friday.

• Ukraine’s parliament appointed Yulia Svyrydenko, 39, as the country’s first new prime minister in five years, part of a major cabinet overhaul aimed at revitalising wartime management of the country as prospects for peace with Russia grow dim. Ukraine’s former Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has been named defence minister.

• Ukraine’s parliament also voted to keep Andrii Sybiha as foreign minister, while appointing Olha Stefanishyna, a deputy prime minister responsible for Euro-Atlantic integration, as the country’s new ambassador to the US.
• Russian lawmakers have advanced a bill that would outlaw opening or searching for content online judged to be “extremist” in nature, such as songs glorifying Ukraine and material by the feminist rock band, Pussy Riot.