Offensive on Soledar//Vladimir Putin flew to Iran

1 Donbass

On 19th of July the DPR representatives in the Ceasefire Center reported that over the past day, the Ukrainian forces attacked the DPR 59 times. They fired 397 missiles and shells. «The Kirovsky, Kuibyshevsky, Kievski, and Petrovsky districts of the city of Donetsk were under fire. The towns of Yelenovka, Yasinovataya, Gorlovka, Verkhnetoretskoye, Bayrak, Mikhailovka, Dolomitnoye, Panteleimonovka, Novoselovka, Novo-bakhmutovka, and Yakovlevka were under fire as well. Ukraine used the MLRS ’’Grad’’ and ’’Uragan’’, artillery and mortars. «As a result of shelling of the village of Verkhnetoretsky, 1 civilian was killed. 3 civilians in the Kuibyshevsky district of Donetsk, the villages of Luganskoye and Rubtsi were wounded. 22 houses and 7 infrastructure buildings were damaged’’ — the report stated.

2 Donbass

An artillery serviceman of the LPR told to the RIA NEWS that the Ukrainian forces can barely contain the offensive operation against the town of Soledar in Donbass. The LPR, the DPR, and the Russian forces are advancing from several directions at once. «Their activity is reduced because they have to be in multiple places at once. They used to expect the action from one location. Now they expect actions from 4 or 5 places at once. We capture each city differently. The LPR forces come from one side, the DPR forces from the other side, and the Russian forces from the third side» — the LPR serviceman explained. The representative of the People’s Militia of the LPR, Ivan Filiponenko, stated that the LPR, the DPR and the Russian forces took positions 2.5 kilometers from Soledar.

3 Switzerland

The Swiss government has refused to treat the Ukrainian servicemen and civilians within the country due to the neutral status of Switzerland. The news agency ’Izvestia’ reported that Switzerland denied the medical care to the Ukrainian servicemen and civilians due to the fear of violating of the international law, and becoming a participant in the conflict in Ukraine. According to the rules of the Geneva and Gaga conventions, the neutral countries, participating in the treatment of military personnel from the warring countries, must ensure that after the medical assistance — the servicemen won’t be sent back to the conflict zone. The Swiss authorities explained their refusal to treat the Ukrainian servicemen and civilians due to the inability to identify if a certain person participated in the hostilities or not. Switzerland had previously denied the right to transfer 35-mm shells for anti-air tanks «Gepard», prepared for a shipment to Ukraine, and to supply the locally made APCs ’’Piranha 3’’ to Ukraine.

4 The USA — China

The spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Zhao Lijian, stated that the USA should reflect on their own actions on the Ukrainian issue, and instead — help to create conditions for the peace negotiations. He called the recent threats from the USA to China to be ’unacceptable’. Earlier, the spokesman for the US state department, Ned Price, stated that China will pay «a very high price» if China helps Moscow to get around the sanctions. He added that the USA have yet to spot such actions, but the USA are still closely watching the compliance with the sanctions. «We have always opposed the illegal, one-sided sanctions and extra-territorial jurisdictions that have no basis in international laws. The USA must show the responsibility, and contribute to the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis in a proper way. And also — create the necessary conditions for the peace negotiations between the parties» — he explained.

5 Iran

Vladimir Putin has arrived in Tehran — he has a planned meeting with the leadership of Iran, and participation in Russia-Iran-Turkey negotiations. Firstly Putin will meet with Iranian President, Ibrahim Raisi. Then with the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei. Putin also has a planned separate conversation with Erdogan. After that, the Russia-Iran-Turkey talks will take place. The presidents will make a joint statement after the meeting — the RIA NEWS reported. The press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, stated that the main topics of the negotiations will be the trade and economic matters with Iran and Turkey, plus the issues of mutual and regional cooperation.

6 The EU

The EU has started the membership negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia. These are long-delayed negotiations of their accession into the EU. Recently the government of North Macedonia announced that it had reached a compromise with Bulgaria in a long-running dispute that officially stood in the way of the EU membership negotiations. «From a procedural point of view, and given how many countries in Europe, especially Bulgaria, have treated us in the last 2 years — it was a clear humiliation» — Pendarovski stated during a recent interview. Greece initially blocked the entry of Macedonia. Greece pulled back their veto when Macedonia was renamed as ’North Macedonia’. Bulgaria demanded to recognize the Macedonian language as a dialect of Bulgarian, and to stop talking about the Macedonian minorities in Bulgaria, in order to exclude the possible interests of the neighboring country on the Bulgarian land. The negotiations took place under the mediation of France. North Macedonia agreed to make a constitutional amendment in order to resolve the issues with Bulgaria. Constantine Reztsov, specially for the ANNA NEWS.