‘Foreign Wars Contrary to Our National Interests’ – Ukraine at War Update for July 18

As US right-wing politicos gathered for the third day of the Republican National Convention (RNC), with the first day devoted to Donald Trump’s nomination and the second day reserved for his former rivals to pledge him their loyalty and whip up raging anti-immigration rhetoric to satiate his base, talk on the stage Wednesday turned to foreign policy.

The first zinger was delivered by RNC Chairman Michael Whatley, who easily convinced the base that Russia had “parked a nuclear missile capable boat” in Cuba while offering no evidence.  

“Where are we today? Russia has invaded Ukraine,” he said. “They’ve parked a nuclear missile capable boat 90 miles off our shore in Havana, Cuba.”

In reality, the boats in question were part of routine naval exercises Russia holds periodically in Cuba. CNN noted that Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Charlie Dietz said in June that “given Russia’s long history of Cuban port calls, these are considered routine naval visits, especially in the context of increased US support to Ukraine and NATO exercises.”

Richard Grenell, a one-time Fox News contributor who worked for the State Department under George W. Bush and later acted as Trump’s Director of National Intelligence, followed up with an isolationist message reflective of the current Republican mood.

“From 2001 to 2008 I served as America’s spokesman to the United Nations. Back then... we intervened in other countries’ affairs and signed treaties that only benefitted other nations. We spent too many years ignoring America’s priorities.

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“That’s what happened when Washington stopped being the capital of the United States and started being the capital of the world,” he said to approving hoots and hollers.

And then he rolled out the Trump campaign’s script on Ukraine:

“Russia invaded Ukraine under both Obama and Biden, but Putin did not dare escalate under President Trump,” Grenell said, omitting, as did others, the four years of Russia’s uncontested occupation of Crimea under Trump.

Grenell also neglected to name which treaties signed by Bush only benefitted other nations, but at least one benefitted the US, the Russian Federation, and the rest of the world. Bush signed the SORT (Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty), colloquially known as the Treaty of Moscow, in which the US and Russia agreed to nuclear arsenal reductions, later ratified by the US Senate.

Freshman representative Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) said that the current administration has “misused our resources in foreign wars contrary to our national interests.”

She went on to claim that Trump knows the sacrifices of war and is “willing to lay down his life in defense of this great nation” when in fact the former president evaded military service during the Vietnam War by claiming he had bone spurs even after a military board classified him in 1968 as eligible to serve.

At the end of the evening, the keynote speaker, vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance, mostly steered clear of the Ukraine discussion, as his opposition to aid for Kyiv is already well-documented. But he gave a parting shot at NATO members, saying they must “share in the burden” of securing world peace.

Almost 800 Marines and other soldiers are unaccounted for in a recently ceded village on the left bank

On Wednesday, media outlet Slidtsvo reported that Ukrainian police believe that 788 Ukrainian soldiers have gone missing during the defense of Krynky, a fishing village on the left bank of the Dnipro River and the site of a daring, ten-month Ukrainian raid into Russian-held territory from October 2023 into July of this year.

Slidstvo spoke to about a dozen sailors and medics from different marine brigades who either were themselves in Krynky or had transported people there, Ukrainska Pravda wrote, with the sailors describing the difficulty in the defense of Krynky, with limited resources from the beginning.

“It was especially difficult to go there in October for the winter,” said one of the officers.

The soldiers recounted that when the Kherson region's village was destroyed and not even its ruins were left at the end of winter, holding these positions became a “one-way road” for many. Ukrainska Pravda wrote that some veterans had defended that part of the left bank for at least three tours of duty.

The search is ongoing for 788 people who went missing there from October 2023 to the present, while 262 have been buried.

On Wednesday, coincidentally, Ukraine celebrated the return of 95 prisoners of war.

 “We continue to bring our people home,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said. “These are soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard, and border guards… No matter how difficult it may be, we are looking for everyone who may be in captivity. We have to return everyone.”

Air defenses take down a Russian drone over Kyiv, but no casualties are reported

On Wednesday evening, air raid sirens sounded in northern neighborhoods of the Ukrainian capital, but the initial damages from an apparent drone strike were minimal to none, the city’s mayor reported.

Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, posted to social media that air defense forces in Kyiv were deployed on Wednesday evening to intercept a Russian drone attack on the city’s left bank, where fires were reported.

But at about 11:30 p.m., Klitschko reported that rescue workers had not found any fire at the location in the Darnytskyi district after the Russian drone was shot down.

Tensions in Kyiv have been elevated after the capital was rocked last week by Russian missiles that infamously devastated the Ohmatdyt Children’s Hospital and heavily damaged the Isida Maternity Center, targeted in separate attacks on July 8. The civilian casualties included at least 44 people killed and 196 wounded, including 10 children, Ukraine's State Emergency Service spokesperson Svitlana Vodolaha said during an update briefing on July 11.