WAR IN UKRAINE: July 30, 2023
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 522
More than 100 troops from the Russia’s Wagner Group moving towards a thin strip of land between Poland and Lithuania known as the Suwalki gap/corridor; they could pose as migrants to cross the border, Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki says. "Now the situation is becoming even more dangerous," he told a news conference in Gliwice, Poland. "This is certainly a step towards a further hybrid attack on Polish territory.” I’d said earlier that with the so-called exile to Belarus, that we certainly wouldn’t see the last of Wagner’s menacing ways. Nor Mr. Prigozhin driving off into the sunset on a tractor or digging potato fields. Watch this space folks…
Russia said two office blocks were damaged in a drone attack on Moscow early on Sunday. The city's mayor Sergei Sobyanin said no one was injured in the attack, which he blamed on Ukraine. The airspace over Moscow was temporarily closed but Vnukovo Airport has since reopened - BBC
Saudi Arabia will host a Ukrainian-organized peace summit in early August seeking to find a way to start negotiations over Russia’s war on the country, an official said Saturday night. The kingdom and Kyiv did not immediately acknowledge the planned talks. The summit will be held in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as no authorization had been given to publicly discuss the summit. Those taking part in the summit will include Ukraine, as well as Brazil, India, South Africa and several other countries, the official said. A high-level official from U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration also is expected to attend, the official said. Planning for the event is being overseen by Kyiv and Russia is not invited, the official said - AP
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he does not reject the idea of peace talks on Ukraine. Speaking after meeting African leaders in St Petersburg, he said African and Chinese initiatives could serve as a basis for finding peace. But Mr Putin also said there could be no ceasefire while the Ukrainian army was on the offensive - BBC
Ukraine’s counteroffensive lurches forward: Key moment looms as more forces committed. Fresh videos of Western-made armor rolling across open fields, a new settlement liberated, and a lot of noise on Russian military blogger Telegram channels heralded to the world on July 28 that the Ukrainian summer counteroffensive had upped its gear - Kyiv Independent
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on July 29 that the United States believes Russia's defense minister is in North Korea to secure supplies of weapons to aid the stalled invasion of Ukraine - RFE/RL
Negative perceptions of China have soared in India and Brazil, two of the biggest members of the Brics group, a Pew Research Centre study released on Thursday revealed. Views of China that are “broadly negative” in both Brazil and India surged by 21 percentage points, according to the survey’s results. The increase was pegged at 5 percentage points for South Africa - SCMP