Ukrainian miltiary intelligence said Tuesday that its troops had rescued five Ukrainians in a special operation in the southern Kherson region, which is occupied by pro-Russia forces. The rescue came as Ukraine said it struck Russian military units and an ammunitions depot in Kherson, where Moscow-backed authorities claimed seven people were killed. Read about the day's events as they unfolded on our live blog. All times are Paris time, GMT+2.
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2:12am: NBA star LeBron James asks how Brittney Griner ‘can feel like America has her back’
NBA superstar LeBron James criticized US efforts to bring home WNBA star Brittney Griner, wondering Tuesday why she would even want to return to the US after so long.
On a 30-second trailer for his YouTube talk show “The Shop: Uninterrupted”, it was noted that Griner has been imprisoned in Russia since February, days before Russian troops invaded Ukraine.
“Now, how can she feel like America has her back?” James said. “I would be feeling like, ‘Do I even want to go back to America?’”
Griner remains in a Russian prison after pleading guilty to possessing drugs, traces of which authorities found on vape equipment in her luggage five months ago.
US officials have said they consider Griner’s situation to be a wrongful detention.
1:41am: Brazil wants to buy as much diesel as it can from Russia, foreign minister says
Brazil is looking to buy as much diesel as it can from Russia and some of the deals were being closed “as recently as yesterday”, Brazilian Foreign Minister Carlos Franca said on Tuesday, without giving further details on the transactions.
“We have to make sure that we have enough diesel to the Brazilian agribusiness and, of course, for Brazilian drivers,” Franca said to reporters during a visit to the United Nations in New York. “So that’s why we were looking for safe and very reliable suppliers of diesel – Russia is one of them.”
Brazil is looking to buy “as much as we can” from Russia, he said.
It was not immediately clear how Brazil would buy Russian diesel without coming up against Western sanctions, imposed on Moscow over its February 24 invasion of Ukraine.
July 13, 12:20am: Russia opens criminal case against opposition figure Yashin, lawyer says
Russian authorities have launched a criminal case against Ilya Yashin, one of the last opposition figures remaining in the country, for allegedly spreading false information about the army, his lawyer said Tuesday.
“I got a call from an investigator – they are beginning to search his home,” lawyer Vadim Prokhorov said on Facebook.
Prokhorov was later quoted by Russian news agencies as saying the probe was launched because his client spoke of “the murder of civilians in Bucha” on his YouTube channel on April 7.
Another of Yashin’s lawyers, Mikhail Biriukov, said a search had been carried out at his home and that Yashin was taken out of prison to attend.
In June, Yashin, who is a Moscow city councillor, was sentenced to 15 days in jail for disobeying police. He was set to be released in the early hours of Wednesday.
Yashin has been a prominent opposition figure in Russia since the mass protests against President Vladimir Putin in 2011-2012. He is an ally of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny and was close to Boris Nemtsov, an opposition politician assassinated near the Kremlin in 2015.
10:15pm: Over a dozen ships pass through Danube’s Bystre Canal: Ukraine
Sixteeen ships had passed through the Danube's newly-reopened Bystre rivermouth in the last four days, Ukraine's infrastructure ministry said in a statement, in an important step towards speeding up grain exports.
Ukraine was also negotiating with Romanian colleagues and European Commission representatives about increasing crossings through the Sulina canal, Yuriy Vaskov, deputy infrastructure minister, said in the statement.
The two shallow inland ports can transship cargo into Romania for onward transport.
Ukraine's port authority said last week that Kyiv's recapture of Snake Island in the Black Sea has allowed it to resume shipments into Romania along the Danube River.
The infrastructure ministry statement noted that with access to the Bystre route, Ukraine expected congestion to be cleared within a week "and we will be able to increase the monthly export of grain by 500,000 tonnes."
9:10pm: France's foreign minister cautious on grain deal talks in Turkey
France's foreign minister has said she remains cautious about the prospects of four-way talks in Turkey to unblock Ukraine's grain exports succeeding given Russia had repeatedly added obstacles to achieve such an accord.
Speaking to lawmakers in parliament, Catherine Colonna said she hoped the talks between Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN on Wednesday saw progress, but in previous weeks Russia had "added conditions on conditions" making her prudent about any positive outcome.
Military delegations from Ukraine, Russia and Turkey are set to meet UN officials in Istanbul on Wednesday in a bid to try to resume safe exports of Ukraine grain from the major Black Sea port of Odesa as a global food crisis worsens.
Turkey has been working with the UN to broker a deal between Russia and Ukraine.
According to diplomats, elements of the plan being discussed include Ukrainian vessels guiding grain ships through mined port waters; Russia agreeing to a truce while shipments move; and Turkey – supported by the UN – inspecting ships to allay Russian fears of weapons smuggling.
6:10pm: State of the war in eastern Ukraine
As Ukraine readies for a counter-offensive to recapture southeastern parts of the country now under Russian control, Peter Zalmayev, director of the Eurasian Democracy Initiative, assesses the situation in eastern Ukraine.
“Russia has no other choice, it has said that it has to keep up this slow, grinding assault,” said Zalmayev. But the Russians still have to capture parts of Luhansk before they turn their sights on the rest of the Donbas “which is a much bigger terrain and much much more heavily fortified than Luhansk was”, he noted.
Russia took weeks to capture Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, two cities in the Luhansk region, Zalmayev explained. Capturing the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region will be much harder because they are “veritable fortresses”, he said.
The battle calculations are also slowly changing in Ukraine’s favour, maintained Zalmayev. “Ukrainians are having much more success targeting Russian stockpiles far behind the frontlines and Western weaponry continues to arrive while at the same time, the Russians are running out of manpower to throw at this war.”
4:45pm: US announces additional $1.7 billion aid to Ukraine
The US Treasury has announced that it will send an additional $1.7 billion in economic aid to Ukraine to help fund the country's recovery from Russia's invasion.
"This aid will help Ukraine's democratic government provide essential services for the people of Ukraine," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement. The funds are part of the $7.5 billion aid package signed by President Joe Biden in May.
4:23pm: Civilian toll in Ukraine conflict passes 5,000 mark: UN
More than 5,000 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since Russia invaded on February 24, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) said Tuesday, adding that the real toll was likely much higher.
OHCHR, which has dozens of human rights monitors in Ukraine, said in its weekly update that 5,024 people had been killed and 6,520 injured since the war began in Feburary.
2:26pm: Ukraine says five fighters rescued from Kherson in 'special operation'
Five Ukrainian fighters captured during a special operation in the Russian-occupied southern Kherson region have been rescued, according to Ukrainian miltiary intelligence.
In a statement released Tuesday, Ukrainian military intelligence said, "Five Ukraine citizens held by the Russian occupiers were released" during a "special operation". A military serviceman, a former police officer and three civilians had been freed, it added in a statement.
"One of the released has a serious combat wound," it said.
11:49am: EU approves €1 billion in financial aid to Ukraine
European Union finance ministers on Monday approved €1 billion in financial aid to Ukraine, a first instalment of a promised €9-billion budget for Kyiv agreed by European leaders in May.
"This will give Ukraine the necessary funds to cover urgent needs and ensure the operation of critical infrastructure," said Zbynek Stanjura, minister of finance from the Czech Republic, which holds the EU's rotating presidency.
11:23am: EU has frozen Russian assets worth €13.8 billion since invasion
The European Union has frozen Russian assets worth €13.8 billion ($13.8 billion) since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said Tuesday.
“For the moment, we have frozen—coming from oligarchs and other entities -- €13.8 billion, so it’s quite huge,” Reynders told reporters in Prague.
“But I must say that a very large part of it is more than 12 billion... coming from five member states,” he added ahead of an informal meeting of EU justice ministers held by the Czech presidency of the EU.
He refused to name the five countries, but added he expected the other countries in the 27-member bloc to step up their efforts soon.
At the end of June, an international sanctions task force said its members, including several EU countries, had blocked $30 billion in assets belonging to Russian oligarchs and officials.
The Russian Elites, Proxies, and Oligarchs Task Force (REPO) said its members, who also include the US, Canada, Britain, Japan and other allies, had immobilised $300 billion owned by the Russian central bank.
9:29am: Ukraine says it struck Russian ammunition depot in Kherson region
Ukraine said Tuesday it had struck Russian military units and an ammunitions depot in the Russian-controlled region of Kherson, where Moscow-backed authorities claimed seven people had been killed.
Ukrainian military officials responsible for the south of the country said Ukrainian shelling and missiles had killed 52 Russian servicemen, artillery, armoured vehicles “and a warehouse with ammunition in Nova Kakhovka”.
08:33am: Ukrainian strike kills seven in occupied Kherson, Russian state news agency reports
At least seven people were killed in an attack by Ukrainian armed forces on Monday in the Russian-held town of Nova Kakhovka in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, Russian state news agency TASS said on Tuesday.
“There are already seven dead for sure and about 60 wounded,” TASS quoted Vladimir Leontyev, head of Russia-installed Kakhovka District military-civilian administration in the Kherson region.
“There are still many people under the rubble. The injured are being taken to the hospital, but many people are blocked in their apartments and houses,” Leontyev added.
According to TASS, in addition to damaged buildings, the attack also led to an explosion at fertiliser warehouses in the region.
FRANCE 24 could not immediately verify the report.
06:09am: Kyiv warns Russia will step up Donbas offensive
Ukraine warned Monday that Russian forces were preparing to intensify their fight for key cities in the Donbas.
The Ukrainian army warned that Russian troops were likely planning to launch some of their heaviest attacks yet in the Donetsk region.
“There are signs of enemy units preparing to intensify combat operations in the direction of Kramatorsk and Bakhmut,” it said, referring to two main cities still under Ukrainian control.
Moscow’s slow advance into the east—despite fierce Ukrainian resistance emboldened by recent deliveries of Western-supplied artillery—contrasts with their failure to capture the capital Kyiv at the start of the invasion.
In Bucha, a town outside Kyiv, 36-year-old web designer Maxim said just three months ago, Russian soldiers were rummaging through his home and sleeping in his children’s bedroom.
“In this atmosphere, I feel like nothing can happen and that life is normal,” he said, sitting with his family outside his home. “But we know there’s a war and there’s no place safe in Ukraine right now.”
12:12am: Iran set to deliver armed drones to Russia, White House says
The White House on Monday said it believes Russia is turning to Iran to provide it with “hundreds” of unmanned aerial vehicles, including weapons-capable drones, for use in its ongoing war in Ukraine.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said it was unclear whether Iran had already provided any of the unmanned systems to Russia, but said the US has “information” that indicates Iran is preparing to train Russian forces to use them as soon as this month.
“Our information indicates that the Iranian government is preparing to provide Russia with up to several hundred UAVs, including weapons-capable UAVs on an expedited timeline,” he told reporters Monday.
Sullivan said it was proof the Russia’s overwhelming bombardments in Ukraine, which have led it to consolidate gains in the country’s east in recent weeks, was “coming at a cost to the sustainment of its own weapons”.
(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS, AFP, AP)
