July 19, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

By Kathleen Magramo, Rob Picheta and Aditi Sangal, CNN

Updated 3:01 a.m. ET, July 20, 2022
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11:00 p.m. ET, July 18, 2022

Ukrainian official reports fatalities and injured Russian soldiers in incident at nuclear power plant

From CNN's Kostan Nechyporenko

A number of people died and at least nine Russian soldiers were injured in an unexplained incident on Monday at a nuclear power plant in central Ukraine, the mayor of the city of Enerhodar said.

Mayor Dmytro Orlov, who is not in the Russian-occupied city, said the Russian troops "were urgently delivered to the city hospital with injuries of varying severity. Some had been hospitalized and one was in intensive care."

"There are also dead people, but we cannot give their exact numbers at the moment," he said.

There has been no word from the Russian side on what happened. The Russians occupied Enerhodar and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant early in March.

2:36 a.m. ET, July 19, 2022

Zelensky says influx of Western weapons is shifting battlefield balance

From CNN's Tim Lister

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivers his nightly address on Monday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivers his nightly address on Monday. (Office of the President of Ukraine)

Ukraine is now able to inflict "significant losses" on the Russians, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, as other Ukrainian officials said an influx of Western weapons is changing the battlefield.

In his daily video message Monday, Zelensky said Ukrainian forces are "able to inflict significant logistical losses on the occupiers."

"It is increasingly difficult for the Russian army to hold positions on the captured territory," he said. "Step by step, we advance, disrupt the supply of the occupiers, and identify and neutralize collaborators."

Valeriy Zaluzhniy, commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, said the "timely arrival" of longer range artillery such as the US HIMARS system was helping to change the battlefield.

"We managed to stabilize the situation. It is complex, intense, but completely controlled. An important factor contributing to our retention of defensive lines and positions is the timely arrival of M142 HIMARS, which deliver surgical strikes on enemy control posts, ammunition and fuel storage depots," Zaluzhniy said.

CNN has identified nearly 20 strikes far behind Russian lines, in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Mykolaiv and Kherson regions, so far this month — some of them causing large explosions and multiple detonations.

Ukrainian service members prepare to shoot from a towed howitzer FH-70 at a front line in the Donbas Region, Ukraine, on July 18.
Ukrainian service members prepare to shoot from a towed howitzer FH-70 at a front line in the Donbas Region, Ukraine, on July 18. (Gleb Garanich/Reuters)

Zaluzhniy said he had thanked Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the United States, for the help of the US and its allies "in the struggle for freedom."

Separately, Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, told Ukrainian television that "today, we really have a completely different situation than it was a month ago. Now, thanks to the fact that we receive enough weapons from our partners, we have established a certain parity in certain positions."

Danilov said Ukraine would like more weapons in future to tip the balance in its favor "so that we have as many capabilities as possible to end this war as soon as possible."

Speaking about the situation in Donbas, Serhiy Hayday, head of the Luhansk regional military administration, said Monday that "Western weapons work not at 100% but at 200% because [Russian] warehouses are blown up. Command posts are also blown up. "

Hayday said "we can clearly understand that the Russians are really afraid of a further increase in those Western weapons."
11:23 p.m. ET, July 18, 2022

Ukrainian forces claim success in defense of cities in Donetsk

From CNN's Tim Lister

People stand in front of a destroyed market after a Russian missile strike in the town of Bakhmut, Donetsk region on July 16.
People stand in front of a destroyed market after a Russian missile strike in the town of Bakhmut, Donetsk region on July 16. (Anatolii Stepanov/AFP/Getty Images)

Ukrainian forces are resisting attacks by Russian forces in the eastern Donetsk region, the Ukrainian military said Monday.

"The enemy continues offensive attempts in the direction of the cities of Bakhmut and Siversk" but is meeting pushback from Ukrainian forces, the Ukrainian General Staff said.

At the same time, Russians are intensifying hostilities toward the town of Avdiivka, trying to improve their "tactical position," but they were unsuccessful and had withdrawn, the General Staff added.

Avdiivka is immediately north of the city of Donetsk and remains in Ukrainian hands despite months of Russian bombardment. 

However, the leadership of the Russian-backed separatist-held Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) claimed its offensive was going to plan.

Preparations are underway "to carry out the tasks planned for the liberation of the republic's territory. The same thing is happening in Avdiivka and in the Horlivka area," DPR militia spokesman Eduard Basurin said.

The goal of DPR forces was to surround Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut and ensure that territory held by the DPR is beyond the range of Ukrainian artillery, Basurin said.

Advances by DPR forces along with Russian units and the separatist Luhansk People's militia would ""make it possible to force the enemy to retreat deep into the Ukraine territory, thereby securing both Donetsk and Yasynуvata and Makiivka from shelling," he added.

8:44 p.m. ET, July 18, 2022

Zelensky suspends top officials over staffers' "collaboration" with Russia

From CNN's Tim Lister and Mariya Knight

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has suspended two important figures in his government, questioning their leadership qualities and accusing many of their subordinates of treason and collaborating with Russia.

The two high-ranking officials — Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova and State Security Service (SBU) head Ivan Bakanov, a long-time associate of the President — are now subject to an investigation and have been temporarily replaced.

"For a long enough time, we have been waiting for more concrete and sufficiently radical results from the leaders of these two departments, to clean these two departments of collaborators and state traitors," the deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andrii Smyrnov, told Ukrainian television on Monday.
"However, in the sixth month of the war, we continue to find ... packs of these people, in each of these departments," Smyrnov said.

In his nightly video address on Sunday, Zelensky appeared to suggest that the pair had been fired. "Today I made a decision to remove the Prosecutor General from office and to dismiss the Head of the Security Service of Ukraine," Zelensky said, adding that many officials within both departments were suspected of treason.

But Smyrnov said Monday that the pair have been suspended to ensure they did not interfere with the investigations. Zelensky will decide whether or not to submit a motion to dismiss them to Ukraine's Parliament, depending on the results of the probe.

Read more here.