NATO accession without MAP, advances in the south and evacuation from Sumy Oblast: highlights

NATO Membership Action Plan for Ukraine

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that NATO allies have agreed to remove the Membership Action Plan (MAP) stage from Ukraine's path to joining the Alliance. This decision speeds up Ukraine's accession to the military bloc.

However, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, commenting on Kuleba's statement, noted that negotiations on the final declaration of the NATO summit on Ukraine are still ongoing, Interfax-Ukraine reports.

In addition, the German newspaper Bild, citing its sources and an internal government document, writes that the government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz is trying to block the decision to accelerate Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic integration.

Evacuation from the border of Sumy Oblast

The Sumy Defense Council decided to prepare and evacuate people living in the 5-kilometer border zone.

Volodymyr Artyukh, head of the Sumy Oblast Military Administration, explained that the evacuation of residents from the border area is "a necessity that has been long overdue."

Between January and July 2023, 35 civilians were killed in the region by Russian shelling. In particular, over the past month, 17 people, including one child, were killed by Russian troops in border communities

Ukrainian nuclear power plants are insured

In June 2023, the state NPP operator Energoatom signed an insurance contract for all four nuclear power plants in Ukraine for more than UAH 5 billion ($135 million) in case of a nuclear incident.

At the same time, the agreement states that insurance coverage for Zaporizhzhya NPP will be valid only after the de-occupation of the plant.

Energoatom explained that it cannot be held responsible for all nuclear risks that may arise at the occupied ZNPP, as the company does not manage reactor facilities under current Ukrainian law.

Situation at the frontline

According to the General Staff, since the beginning of the offensive on the Melitopol and Berdyansk axes, the Ukrainian Defense Forces have already liberated 169 square kilometers of Ukrainian land from the Russians. This is roughly the size of the city of Odesa.

In addition, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said that the Defense Forces have been keeping the exits and entrances to Bakhmut under fire control for several days, as well as the movement of the Russian army inside the city.

At the same time, the Russians are focusing their main efforts on the Kupyansk, Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Maryinka axes, where heavy fighting is ongoing. As of July 10, there were 17 combat engagements in these areas, the General Staff noted.

Other news

• On July 9, the Russian occupiers launched a guided aerial bomb during the distribution of humanitarian aid in a residential area of the frontline town of Orikhiv, Zaporizhzhya Oblast. Seven people were killed.
• Construction of the Bayraktar drone production plant begins in Ukraine.
• A court found the mayor of Rivne, Oleksandr Tretiak, guilty of a corruption administrative offense and banned him from holding office for one year.
• A 6-year-old child undergoes a successful heart transplant for the first time in Ukraine.
• In Lviv Oblast, a 9-year-old boy raised more than UAH 2.5 million ($67,681) for the Armed Forces by singing.
• The German concern Rheinmetall will open an armored vehicle manufacturing plant in western Ukraine over the next three months.
• About one-sixth of Ukraine's wheat harvest is located in the temporarily occupied territories.