Overview of events on July 20: A 13-year-old teenager died in Kharkiv as a result of shelling, the US will transfer 4 more HIMARS systems to Ukraine

From the very beginning of Russiaʼs full-scale war against Ukraine, "Babel" conducts live text coverage every day and promptly informs about the main news on the Telegram channel. We also do a daily digest of the dayʼs highlights in case you werenʼt able to follow along live.

At night, the Russians again shelled Nikopol with Grad multiple rocket launchers. Dozens of private houses were damaged. Two people died, nine were injured. Six victims are in the hospital, among them four children. The youngest injured is only three years old. The mayor of Nikopol, Yevhen Yevtushenko, calls on residents to temporarily evacuate to safe areas, as shelling from the occupied Energodar has become regular. As a result of morning shelling by the occupiers of the Saltivsky district of Kharkiv, three people were killed: a 13-year-old boy, a man, and a woman.

In Donbas, the occupiers are trying to advance on Bakhmut and seize the Vuhlehirsk TPP. On the border of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts, they again launched rocket artillery strikes. However, the Armed Forces hold their positions.

Deputy Minister of Defense Hanna Malyar and commander of the Operational Command "South" Andriy Kovalchuk urged Ukrainians not to name the types of weapons with which the Armed Forces of Ukraine hit targets before the General Staff does so.

In a week or two, the authorities plan to close Mykolaiv for a few days in order to check data on alleged collaborators, the head of Mykolaiv oblast military administration Vitaly Kim said. He added that Mykolaiv will be closed when the harvest is over. Local residents will be warned about this in advance so that people can buy food, water and plan their actions.

For the first time, the Russians officially admitted that they are trying to seize not only the Ukrainian Donbas. They are also "interested in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblast and some other territories."

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced that the United States will transfer 4 more HIMARS systems to Ukraine. Earlier, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov noted that Ukraine needs at least 50 HIMARS and M270 systems to effectively deter the enemy and at least a hundred for an effective counteroffensive.

The ambassadors of the countries of the European Union have approved the seventh package of sanctions against the Russian Federation: the import of Russian gold will be banned, and the assets of Sberbank will be frozen. The sanctions list will also include 50 more individuals and legal entities, including politicians, military leaders, oligarchs, and propagandists. In addition, the sanctions package will include a commitment that these restrictions will not threaten food and energy security around the world. Further, the package of sanctions must be approved by the Council of Europe.