Here are the key events on day 1,248 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.Here is how things stand on Saturday, July 26:
Fighting
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces were facing fierce fighting around the city of Pokrovsk in the country’s east, a logistics hub near where Russia’s military has been announcing the near-daily capture of Ukrainian villages.
Ukraine’s top commander, Oleksandr Syrskii, described Pokrovsk and five other sectors as among the most difficult theatres of war along the 1,000km (620-mile) front with Russia.
Earlier on Friday, Russia’s Ministry of Defence announced the capture of two villages on either side of Pokrovsk – Zvirove to the west and Novoekonomichne to the east. A third village – Novotoretske – near Pokrovsk was declared “liberated” by Moscow earlier this week.
President Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces were also “continuing to act” in border areas in the northern Sumy region, where Russian troops have gained a foothold in recent weeks.
According to the popular Ukrainian military blog DeepState, Kyiv’s forces have retaken the previously lost village of Kindrativka in Sumy.
Moscow is trying to establish in Sumy what Russia’s President Vladimir Putin calls a “buffer zone” between Russia and Ukraine.
Weapons and military aid
Zelenskyy has toured a local factory producing interceptor drones, increasingly seen as a solution to protecting Ukrainian cities from Russian air attacks, and said a goal had been set to make up to 1,000 of the weapons each day. He said interceptor drones had proved efficient at downing waves of Russian attack drones.
Zelenskyy …