The Ukraine war widens across ports, warehouses and diplomacy
As attacks extended across Black Sea ports and Russian logistics sites, Zelenskyy said Ukraine had sent the US proposals for ending the war. Military and diplomatic pressure advanced side by side.
Geopolitics··Evening
Reciprocal attacks around the Black Sea
According to official statements compiled by Al Jazeera, port cities and nearby settlements in Russia and Ukraine came under attack through the night. Novorossiysk mayor Andrei Kravchenko said a Ukrainian drone attack killed a child and injured eight people. One person died in the village of Volna when debris fell into a garden. Ukrainian officials said a Russian Shahed strike killed two people in Kherson, while another attack set a shopping centre alight in Zaporizhzhia and cut power to about 1,200 customers. Zelenskyy said Ukraine's military targeted air-defence positions, piers and seaport infrastructure at a Russian naval base. Russia's Defence Ministry claimed it downed 502 Ukrainian drones and struck a fuel depot in Odesa. These military accounts belong to the parties, and the report preserves the limits of independent verification. The concrete effects show why ports matter for both military operations and urban life: piers, a fuel depot, power lines, homes and a shopping area were affected by separate attacks during the same night.[1]
Why did Wildberries warehouses become wartime targets?
A further line of attacks reaches warehouses belonging to Wildberries, Russia's large retail and distribution network. Al Jazeera reported that Ukrainian drones have struck at least 12 company warehouses and logistics hubs since mid-July, including facilities in Yekaterinburg, Elektrostal and Voronezh. The attacks killed 13 employees and wounded dozens, the report said. At Elektrostal, 24 people were injured on 18 July; 800 workers were evacuated safely in Yekaterinburg. The company operates 40 large warehouses and about 200 smaller sites with a total storage area of 5.2 million square metres. An adviser to Zelenskyy alleged that the Wildberries network carries military logistics, pointing to drone components, navigation equipment, first-aid kits and body armour. The Kremlin and the company reject that allegation and call the strikes terrorism. The report therefore presents two competing accounts of target selection. Ukraine's side says a broad distribution network that appears civilian also serves military supply, while the Russian side emphasizes employees and commercial facilities being struck. The scale and national reach of the warehouses show economic infrastructure far from the front entering the argument over wartime targets.[2]
Proposals reach Washington while the war continues
On the same day that military pressure continued, Zelenskyy said Ukraine had passed its own proposals for ending the war to the American side; he did not disclose their contents. He asked Washington to strengthen Ukrainian air defences and pressure Moscow to prepare to end the war rather than prolong it. Al Jazeera reported that US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner last travelled to Moscow in January and had not visited Kyiv, while Russia continued to tie a settlement to Ukraine withdrawing from four regions. The external-support dimension of the military picture is also contested. BBC News reported Zelenskyy's allegation that Russia used North Korean missiles in strikes on Zaporizhzhia and explicitly noted that he presented no evidence for it. Ukrainian and Western officials have made similar statements before, and Ukraine's military says dozens of North Korean missiles have been fired at its territory. The reports place the diplomatic proposal's undisclosed contents beside current battlefield pressure without merging them. Kyiv is seeking stronger air defences and external pressure while taking its own settlement text to Washington; Russia's territorial conditions and the dispute over weapons used in the war show how far apart the parties remain.[3], [4]
