Victorious news of 884th day of war: strikes on Crimea airfield, EU allocates €1.5 billion

EU allocates €1.5 billion to Ukraine of proceeds from frozen Russian assets

On Friday, July 26, the European Commission announced the allocation of the first tranche of EUR 1.5 billion from the proceeds of frozen assets of the Russian Federation. 

This was announced by the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen on the social network X.

“Today we transfer €1.5 billion in proceeds from immobilised Russian assets to the defence and reconstruction of Ukraine,” von der Leyen wrote.

She also added that “there is no better symbol or use for the Kremlin’s money than to make Ukraine and all of Europe a safer place to live.”

The Kremlin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, responded with threats.

"This is certainly an occasion for considering appropriate actions in response to such illegal decisions by the European Union... Naturally, such measures by the European Commission will not go unanswered," Peskov said, as reported by Interfax.

Ukrainian forces target Saky airfield in occupied Crimea overnight

On the night of July 26, explosions were heard in the temporarily occupied Crimea as the Ukrainian Defense Forces hit the Saky airfield in Novofedorivka.

Local residents reported a fire at the Saky airfield in Novofedorivka, and the detonation of ammunition was also heard.

In addition, explosions were heard near Okunivka and in Simferopol. Crimean Wind also provided a video of Russian air defense near Yevpatoria.

At the same time, fire trucks and ambulances were sent there.

The occupying Russian authorities themselves didn't comment on the UAV attack on Crimea, but around 02:40 a.m., an air alert was announced on the peninsula due to the threat of ballistic missiles.

On the morning of July 26, the Russian Defense Ministry published a report on the work of Russian air defense, but did not mention the night attack in Crimea.

Ukraine’s General Staff confirmed the attack. "Last night, units of the missile forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, in cooperation with other components of the Defense Forces, struck at the Saky airfield in the temporarily occupied Crimea as part of a single plan," the General Staff said in a statement.

It is noted that this is one of the operational airfields used by Russia to control the airspace, in particular the Black Sea, and to launch air strikes on Ukrainian territory.

Additional $2 billion for Ukraine from the Pentagon

The U.S. Department of Defense has identified an additional $2 billion in aid for Ukraine after correcting an accounting error in its calculations of ammunition, missiles, and other equipment.

The Pentagon discovered an accounting error in its calculations of ammunition, missiles, and other equipment sent to Ukraine. 

The report says that the vague definition of value in the Foreign Assistance Act and the lack of specific valuation guidelines led to inconsistencies in the reported value of military aid.

Reuters notes that this accounting error will allow Ukraine to receive additional weapons worth $2 billion.

Ukrainian farmers harvest over 22 million tons of new crops

As of July 26, Ukrainian farmers have gathered more than 22 million tons of crops. This total includes over 19 million tons of grains and more than 3 million tons of oil seeds.

The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine reports.

"In total, over 5.87 million hectares have been threshed, yielding 22.32 million tons of new crops. Farmers in the Poltava region have completed harvesting early grains and legumes," the ministry reported.

As of today, the following amounts have been harvested:

• Wheat: 3.50 million hectares harvested, with a yield of over 14.7 million tonnes.
• Barley: 1.02 million hectares harvested, with a yield of over 3.8 million tonnes.
• Peas: 189.8 thousand hectares harvested, with a yield of 416,300 tonnes.
• Rapeseed: 1.09 million hectares harvested, with a yield of over 3 million tonnes.

The regions leading in grain harvesting are:

• Odesa region: 733.3 thousand hectares
• Dnipropetrovsk region: 630.7 thousand hectares
• Mykolaiv region: 536.5 thousand hectares

Khmelnytskyi region is the leader in terms of yield with 64 centners per hectare.