Victorious news on 511th day of war: Crimea blasts, Ukraine recaptures more  territory in south

Blasts in Crimea, occupation authorities claim fire at the landfill

On the night of July 19, local residents heard explosions in Russian-occupied Crimea. Probably, a warehouse with ammunition at one of the training grounds detonated. The occupation authorities allegedly plan to temporarily evacuate residents of 4 settlements.

Russian commander with the call sign "Tashkent" neutralized near Luhansk

Russian propagandists reported that the Armed Forces of Ukraine neutralized Brigadier Denis Ivanov with the call sign "Tashkent" who he was called "Skabeeva's favorite"

This was reported by the InformNapalm international intelligence community’s channel. 

The first to report Ivanov's death was the pro-Kremlin Cheka-OGPU Telegram channel, citing its sources. According to the Telegram channel, Tashkent died as a result of a ‘kamikaze’ drone strike on his car.

Ivanov was often shown on Russian state channels and called a "legendary brigadier".

"Russian propaganda glorified 42-year-old Ivanov during his lifetime, he was a regular guest on Kremlin channels, in particular, he was called 'Skabeeva's favourite'. Ivanov was one of the conditionally anonymous 'heroes', his name was not publicly announced, but was promoted under the call sign 'Tashkent'," InformNapalm writes.

Irish Prime Minister visits Bucha and meets with Zelenskyy

On Wednesday, 19 July, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar visited the town of Bucha in Kyiv region, which had been under Russian occupation for 33 days. He paid tribute to the victims of Russian aggression. Afterwards, he met with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

"Today we will have important talks: security, political cooperation, justice for Ukraine and our economic cooperation. Although Ireland is a neutral country, this neutrality does not mean indifference, and this is very important," Zelenskyy wrote.

Ukrainian Armed Forces surpass enemy in counter-battery combat

"The Russian forces used to have a great advantage in artillery, they fired continuously. A year ago, it was up to 80,000 shots per day. The Russians were firing a crazy tornado of fire, but now the Ukrainian Armed Forces outnumber the enemy in counter-battery combat, with a ratio of 1 to 10. When the enemy artillery starts working, Ukrainian defenders quickly find out where it is firing from and return fire," noted Hetman.

According to him, Ukrainian artillery is more accurate than the enemy's artillery.

"Destruction of 25-30 units of enemy artillery systems per day is a large number. In June, more than 600 units of enemy guns were destroyed. In the Kupiansk-Lyman sector, 800 pieces of enemy artillery were concentrated. If we are able to destroy that many in a month and a half, it means we have struck a powerful blow against the enemy's artillery. This is what Russian commander Popov also said, that they are losing in the counter-battery fight," stressed Hetman.

Ukraine’s Defense Forces recapture more than a kilometer in the Melitopol sector

Valeriy Shershen, spokesman for the Joint Press Centre of the Tavria Defence Forces, said this on the air of a national news telethon.

"We should focus on the Melitopol direction. We can state that there is an advance of our units' strike units - more than one kilometer along the frontline.

The Russian enemy continues to focus on holding company strongholds. This is important for us. The enemy is concentrating significant efforts to prevent further advance of our troops."

Ukrainian aviation carries out 5 strikes against Russian enemy

This was reported by the General Staff.

Over the past day, the Ukrainian aviation carried out 5 strikes on the areas where personnel were concentrated. Also, Ukrainian defenders targeted 2 reconnaissance UAVs of operational and tactical level.

Missile and artillery units struck 3 areas of concentration of enemy manpower, weapons and military equipment, 9 artillery pieces at firing positions, 2 air defense systems and Russian electronic warfare station over the last day.