A summary of today's developments
Ukrainian officials said Russia struck the Ukrainian Black Sea city of Odesa again and kept up a barrage that has damaged critical port infrastructure in southern Ukraine. At least one person was killed and 22 others wounded in the attack in the early hours of this morning local time.
The regional governor said four children are among those wounded in the blasts, which severely damaged the historic Transfiguration Cathedral, a landmark Orthodox cathedral in the city.
The archdeacon of the cathedral, Andrii Palchuk, rued the “enormous” destruction of the church – which he said was caused by a direct hit from a Russian missile.
The Russian defence ministry has denied that the intended target of strikes in Odesa was the Orthodox Cathedral. The ministry said it was more likely a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile that caused the damage.
The US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, has condemned the attack on Odesa. Amnesty Ukraine also denounced how Russian forces have been “continuously showing disregard for civilian life”.
Russian president Vladimir Putin said Ukraine’s counteroffensive “has failed” as he hosted Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, his close ally, for talks in St Petersburg. Lukashenko claimed Minsk is “controlling” the situation with fighters from the Wagner group.
There has reportedly been no change in US policy on whether to provide long-range missiles to Ukraine despite growing pressure from lawmakers in Congress and Kiev’s government.
The Ukrainian defence ministry alleged Russia this morning shelled a cultural centre in Donetsk with cluster munitions.
Updated
An update from Ukraine’s defence ministry on the attack in Odesa on Saturday.
russia attacks Ukraine with indiscriminate high-power weapons. The Kh-22 missile, in particular, has a 50% chance of reaching a target with a 300-meter deviation. In fact, this means that even if the Kh-22s were targeting military or other infrastructure in Odesa last night, they…
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) July 23, 2023
It said the cultural centre in Chasiv Yar, Donetsk region, was targeted on Sunday morning.
Cultural center in Chasiv Yar, Donetsk region. It housed the humanitarian headquarters and was used as an aid distribution point for the civilian population. In the morning, russian terrorists shelled this place with cluster munitions. pic.twitter.com/jOkIjTsw8h
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) July 23, 2023
Updated
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has called for more air defence systems “for our entire territory, for all our cities and communities” following the latest attack on Odesa.
Ukraine needs a full-fledged sky shield – this is the only way to defeat Russian missile terror. We have already shown that we can shoot down even the Russian missiles that the terrorists boasted about. Thanks to the help of our partners and the air defense systems provided to… pic.twitter.com/eDvbrKQpip
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 23, 2023
Updated
Russia and China have ended their joint naval exercises in the Sea of Japan, the Russian defence ministry has announced, as the two allies seek to deepen their military ties.
The two countries, which share a common desire to counter American hegemony, have grown closer in the military sphere since Russia launched its Ukraine offensive last year, a move China has not condemned, AFP reports.
The Russian defence ministry previously said the main goal of the latest exercises, which began on Thursday, was to “strengthen naval cooperation” between the two countries and “maintain stability and peace in the Asia-Pacific region”.
“The joint Russian-Chinese naval exercises ... have ended in the Sea of Japan,” the Russian military said today. “Some 20 combat exercises were carried out ... including joint artillery fire on maritime, coastal and air targets.”
Last month China and Russia carried out a joint air patrol over the Japan and East China seas which prompted South Korea to deploy fighter jets as a precaution.
Updated
Summary
Ukrainian officials said Russia struck the Ukrainian Black Sea city of Odesa again and kept up a barrage that has damaged critical port infrastructure in southern Ukraine. At least one person was killed and 22 others wounded in the attack in the early hours of this morning local time.
The regional governor said four children are among those wounded in the blasts, which severely damaged the historic Transfiguration Cathedral, a landmark Orthodox cathedral in the city.
The archdeacon of the cathedral, Andrii Palchuk, rued the “enormous” destruction of the church – which he said was caused by a direct hit from a Russian missile.
The Russian defence ministry has denied that the intended target of strikes in Odesa was the Orthodox Cathedral. The ministry said it was more likely a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile that caused the damage.
The US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, has condemned the attack on Odesa. Amnesty Ukraine also denounced how Russian forces have been “continuously showing disregard for civilian life”.
Russian president Vladimir Putin said Ukraine’s counteroffensive “has failed” as he hosted Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, his close ally, for talks in St Petersburg. Lukashenko claimed Minsk is “controlling” the situation with fighters from the Wagner group.
There has reportedly been no change in US policy on whether to provide long-range missiles to Ukraine despite growing pressure from lawmakers in Congress and Kiev’s government.
The Ukrainian defence ministry alleged Russia this morning shelled a cultural centre in Donetsk with cluster munitions.
Updated
The British ambassador to Ukraine, Melinda Simmons, has said there are no military installations in the centre of Odesa, as she condemned the strikes last night.
“This is just a beautiful Ukrainian city, a Unesco World Heritage Site, whose ports export vital food products around the world,” she said, according to the BBC.
EU representative for foreign and security policy Josep Borrell tweeted:
Continuous Russian missile terror on @UNESCO-protected #Odesa constitutes yet another war crime by the Kremlin, demolishing also the main Orthodox Cathedral -a world heritage site.
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) July 23, 2023
Russia has already damaged hundreds of cultural sites, trying to destroy Ukraine.#Accountability pic.twitter.com/S3cG7hymzd
The Ukrainian defence ministry has alleged Russia this morning shelled a cultural centre in Donetsk with cluster munitions.
Cultural center in Chasiv Yar, Donetsk region. It housed the humanitarian headquarters and was used as an aid distribution point for the civilian population. In the morning, russian terrorists shelled this place with cluster munitions. pic.twitter.com/jOkIjTsw8h
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) July 23, 2023
US secretary of state Antony Blinken has said Ukraine has taken back about 50% of the territory that Russia seized since the rapid advances it made following the invasion before being pushed back.
“It’s already taken back about 50% of what was initially seized,” Blinken told CNN today. “These are still relatively early days of the counteroffensive. It is tough … It will not play out over the next week or two. We*re still looking I think at several months.”
Some people became trapped in their apartments following the Odesa attack last night, which left rubble strewn in the street and partly blocking the road.
Svitlana Molcharova, 85, was rescued by emergency workers. But after she received first aid, she refused to leave her destroyed apartment. “I will stay here,” she said to the worker who advised her to leave, AP reports.
“I woke up when the ceiling started to fall on me. I rushed into the corridor,” said Ivan Kovalenko, 19, another resident of the building. “That’s how I lost my home in Mykolaiv, and here, I lost my rented apartment.”
His unit revealed a partially collapsed ceiling and the balcony that came off the side of the building. All the windows were blown out.
Anton Gerashchenko, a Ukrainian interior ministry adviser, digests a new report by the Black Sea Strategic Research Institute.
Some key takeaways:
“The war will not end with reaching the 1991 state borders of Ukraine. A peace agreement with Russia will mark the end of the war. Ukraine will not become a NATO member until then.”
“Even partial isolation of Russia seems impossible in the current global economy. Russia has renewed and even surpassed its 2021 figures for imports of complex goods/devices/dual-use components.”
“The global world seems to be getting more and more divided into 2 parts based on its attitude to the Great War.”
“It is premature to hope for a rapid disintegration of Russia.”
“Unless there is a “black swan,” we should assume that the war will last for a long time. Being a warrior state becomes Ukraine’s historical mission.”
An analysis of the situation and development prospects of the Black Sea region by Andriy Klymenko, project manager at Black Sea Strategic Research Institute
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) July 23, 2023
Current situation:
1️⃣No one can predict when the war will end.
🔹The war will not end with reaching the 1991 state…
Russia is considering how to supply grain to Africa and cut Ukraine out after Moscow’s withdrawal from the Black Sea initiative, according to reports.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Vershinin said on Friday that Moscow “understands African countries’ concerns” about the collapse of the grain deal and that the country was “working on new routes for supplying grain”.
According to a draft memo of a previous plan seen by the Financial Times, Russia was to send grain to Turkey, which would distribute supplies to “countries in need”. It would be paid for by Qatar on a humanitarian basis, though it remains unclear whether all parties have ever signed up to any potential deal in principle. However, Qatar declined to comment on the FT story.
A Ukrainian diplomat reportedly said they had sight of a “trilateral [memorandum of understanding] between Turkey, Russia and Qatar”.
Russia could advance the proposal at a summit with African leaders in St Petersburg next week.
Further condemnation of Russia’s Odesa attack, this time from the Ukraine foreign secretary.
Russia has been systematically destroying the Orthodox Church in Ukraine and its premises. The latest is today’s strike on Odesa’s Transfiguration Cathedral. We will raise this at the next UNSC meeting on Ukraine to make it clear: Russia is the only threat to Ukraine’s Orthodoxy. pic.twitter.com/JsgM5Tv3sZ
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) July 23, 2023
Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko has claimed Minsk is “controlling” the situation with fighters from the Wagner group, and restricting them to staying in the centre of the country.
The eastern European state hosts Wagner fighters on its territory after brokering a deal that convinced its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, to end a march on Moscow and exile himself to Belarus.
Wagner’s presence in Belarus has rattled EU and Nato member Poland, which has strengthened its border, AFP reports.
Putin and Lukashenko again today accused Warsaw of having territorial ambitions on Ukraine and Belarus. “They are asking to go west, ask me for permission ... to go on a trip to Warsaw, to Rzeszów,” Lukashenko said, referring to Wagner fighters. “But of course, I am keeping them in central Belarus, like we agreed … We are controlling what is happening [with Wagner] … They are in a bad mood.”
Lukashenko accused Poland of trying to “rip off a western chunk” of Ukraine. He also alleged Poland had brought mercenaries to the border, saying he had “brought him a map of moving armed forces of Poland to the borders of the union state”.
Updated
The Guardian’s Shaun Walker is in Odesa, where clergymen are conducting an al fresco service today following the direct hit from a Russian missile last night which caused serious damage to the cathedral.
The priests at the Transfiguration Cathedral in central Odesa, which took a direct hit by a Russian missile overnight, are doing an outdoor service. pic.twitter.com/iDkzJMyZ06
— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) July 23, 2023
Destroyed twice - by Stalin and Putin - the Odesa Transfiguration Cathedral was built between 1794 and 1808. It was blown up by the Bolsheviks in 1936 and rebuilt after Ukraine regained independence (1996–2006).
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) July 23, 2023
On the night of July 22–23, 2023, it was hit by a russian missile.… pic.twitter.com/vCwDhANoR1
Updated
Western leaders knew that Ukrainian forces were very unlikely to dislodge Russian forces from entrenched positions in the counteroffensive which began in the spring, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Deep and deadly minefields, extensive fortifications and Russian air power have combined to largely block significant advances by Ukrainian troops. Instead, the campaign risks descending into a stalemate with the potential to burn through lives and equipment without a major shift in momentum.
Western military doctrine holds that to attack a dug-in adversary, an attacking force should be at least three times the enemy’s size and use a well-coordinated combination of air and land forces. Kyiv’s troops lack the mass, training and resources to follow those prescriptions.
No Western military would also try to breach established defenses without controlling the skies.
Zelensky acknowledged in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in May that Russia has air superiority at the front and that a lack of protection for Ukrainian troops means “a large number of soldiers will die” in the fight.
Ukraine had hoped to find gaps in Russia’s fortifications, flood troops through, and cause the kind of havoc that its forces achieved last year among enemy ranks. Instead, unexpectedly dense minefields slowed Kyiv’s initial attacking forces, leaving them exposed to strikes from Russian aircraft and rockets.
US 'holds firm on refusal' to provide Ukraine with long-range missiles - report
There has been no change in US policy on whether to provide long-range missiles to Ukraine despite growing pressure from lawmakers in Congress and Kiev’s government, the Washington post reports.
US defence and administration officials told the paper that there had been no substantive discussion about the issue for months. The US did, however, agree to controversially supply Ukraine with cluster bombs. Ukraine wants missiles worth $1.5m each, weighing two tonnes, that can strike targets up to 190 miles away to hit Russian bases behind the front lines.
US president Joe Biden in May said that the possibility of providing ATACMS, the Army Tactical Missile System, was “still in play” despite previous denials.
The Washington Post reported:
The number of ATACMS in American stockpiles is fixed, awaiting replacement with the next generation, longer-range Precision Strike Missile, called the Prism, for PrSM, which is expected to enter service by the end of this year, officials said. Lockheed Martin still manufactures 500 ATACMS each year, but all of that production is destined for sale to other countries.
Since last year, the administration has cited several reasons for holding back. Refusal initially centered on concerns that Ukraine might fire the long-range missiles into Russian territory, escalating the conflict into a U.S.-Russia confrontation. Even supplying the weapons, Moscow has said publicly, would cross a red line.
The House Foreign Affairs committee has passed a bipartisan resolution urged the US to “immediately” provide the missiles. “There’s no reason to give Ukraine just enough to bleed but not enough to win,” Republican chair Michael McCaul said. “If we’re going to be helping them, either go all in or get out.”
Britain and France have already supplied cruise missiles with a range of about 140 miles on the proviso that they are not used to attack Russian soil.
Colin Kahl, the recently departed Pentagon undersecretary for policy, said during a panel this week:
The problem now is not their ability to strike deep … They have that ability. They are doing it now. The Russian command and control, their logistics, have been disrupted in the deep. The problem is not a hundred kilometers away, it’s one kilometer in front of them with the minefields.
Ukraine counteroffensive 'has failed', says Putin
Russian president Vladimir Putin has said Ukraine’s counteroffensive “has failed” as he hosted Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, his close ally, for talks in St Petersburg on Sunday.
“There is no counteroffensive,” Russian news agencies quoted Lukashenko as saying. Putin replied: “It exists, but it has failed.”
Ukraine began its long-anticipated counter-offensive last month but has so far made only small gains against well entrenched Russian forces who control more than a sixth of its territory after nearly 17 months of war.
US general Mark Milley, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Tuesday the Ukrainian drive was “far from a failure” but would be long, hard and bloody.
In the Telegraph on Friday, retired British Army officer Richard Kemp wrote:
The Ukrainians prepared – militarily, politically, financially – to carry out months and potentially years of these attacks to penetrate 1914-18 style defensive belts of tank traps, barbed wire, minefields, bunkers and trench lines? The UK Ministry of Defence has described these Russian fortifications as ‘some of the most extensive systems of military defensive works seen anywhere in the world’.
Updated
The Russian defence ministry has denied that the intended target of strikes in Odesa was the Orthodox Cathedral.
“The information disseminated by the Kyiv regime about the defeat as a result of the use of high-precision weapons of the Transfiguration Cathedral in the city of Odessa is not true,” Interfax cites a statement by the ministry.
It said that they were planning strikes “based on information carefully verified and confirmed through several channels, deliberately excluding the defeat of civilian facilities where civilians are located, as well as objects of cultural and historical heritage.”
The ministry said it was more likely a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile that caused the damage.
Given the video footage from the Transfiguration church published by local residents, the most likely cause of its destruction was the fall of a Ukrainian anti-aircraft guided missile as a result of the illiterate actions of the operators of air defence systems, which the armed forces of Ukraine deliberately place in residential areas of settlements, including in the city of Odessa.
At least one person has died as a result of the attack, while 22 civilians, including three children, were injured. One 17-year-old is now also reportedly in intensive care in a serious condition.
Updated
Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky has warned Russia that it will retaliate over the strikes against civilian targets in Odesa.
Missiles against peaceful cities, against residential buildings, a cathedral... There can be no excuse for Russian evil. As always, this evil will lose. And there will definitely be a retaliation to Russian terrorists for Odesa. They will feel this retaliation.
Missiles against peaceful cities, against residential buildings, a cathedral... There can be no excuse for Russian evil. As always, this evil will lose. And there will definitely be a retaliation to Russian terrorists for Odesa. They will feel this retaliation.
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 23, 2023
All those who… pic.twitter.com/gcpD30BFP1
In the Observer, Simon Tisdall writes on Russian president Vladimir Putin’s declining international acceptability.
As his spectral bogeyman image grew, so Putin’s international acceptability shrank. Since February last year, only Iran, Belarus and some former Soviet republics (plus adoring Dagestan) have been honoured by his presence. He briefly travelled to occupied Ukraine in April – but that was strictly not by invitation.
Ukraine’s most famous rock star Andriy Khlyvnyuk has said the transition to becoming a soldier, receiving orders, was “surprisingly easy”.
I thought it would be [difficult]. I was afraid of the brutality, noise and dirt of war. But it wasn’t – it was surprisingly easy.” Why? “Look, if I was sent somewhere to fight, I’d be useless, terrified; I don’t want to kill or be killed. But that’s not what happened. They came for our streets and our children’s playgrounds.
Music is a universal language. But music also comes from where you come from; it reflects the feeling of home, and what home means – and on the obligation to protect your family, your neighbour. Anyone who grew up learning their language, and their poets and music by heart knows to say to the empire, any empire: ‘You will not do this to us.’
When our army was pushing forward [in Bucha], and we saw our people – kids, wives, fathers – killed for their phones or cars, lying there, being eaten by their own starving dogs. So: what does it mean to be a human being when he or she finds themselves looking at this, or in trench warfare? This is not some natural disaster in Ukraine – this is being done to us. You have two options: run, or fight back.
The US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, has condemned the attack on Odesa. Amnesty Ukraine also denounced how Russian forces have been “continuously showing disregard for civilian life”.
Russia’s relentless attacks continue on the people and infrastructure of Odesa, a world heritage site and a vital port for global food security.
— Ambassador Bridget A. Brink (@USAmbKyiv) July 23, 2023
Russia’s unjustifiable war against Ukraine and its people has terrible costs here. A destroyed cathedral, ruined homes, and burning…
#Russia has yet again attacked Ukrainian city #Odesa, killing at least 1 person and injuring at leat 19. Last night's attack has seriously damaged civilian buildings, architectural monuments that are #UNESCO heritage as well as Transfiguration Cathedral in Odesa.
— Amnesty Ukraine (@Amnesty_UA) July 23, 2023
Updated
The Archdeacon of the Transfiguration cathedral in the historical centre of Odesa, Andrii Palchuk, has rued the “enormous” destruction of the church – which he said was caused by a direct hit from a Russian missile
“The destruction is enormous, half of the cathedral is now roofless,” he said. Cathedral workers were working to bring documents and valuable items out of the building, the floor of which was inundated with water used by firefighters to extinguish the fire.
Palchuk said the damage was that penetrated the building down to the basement and caused significant damage. Two people who were inside at the time of the strike were wounded. “But with God’s help, we will restore it,” he said.
The cathedral belongs to the Ukrainian Orthodox church and was taken under Unesco protection earlier this year when Odesa’s historic center was designated an endangered World Heritage Site by the United Nations’ cultural agency earlier this year. Founded in the 18th century it was destroyed during Soviet rule but rebuilt after the fall of the USSR. Russian Orthodox church head Patriarch Kirill consecrated it personally.
God, look at this… The largest cathedral in #Odesa which belongs to the Ukrainian orthodox church (Moscow patriarchate!) severely damaged by russian missile. For the terrorists there’s nothing sacred.
— Kira Rudik (@kiraincongress) July 23, 2023
📷 @Liberov pic.twitter.com/hOhFIMVI3i
Updated
A Wagner group junior commander has told the BBC that he learned about the true nature of events during the mutiny on Telegram, even as he was deployed to Rostov.
Gleb, not his real name, painted a chaotic tale as he was thrown into action, of sorts, after receiving the order in his barracks in Luhansk. Wagner fighters do not usually speak to the media. “It’s a full deployment,” he was told. “We’re forming a column, let’s move out.”
He and his comrades did not face any resistance as they entered Russia. “I didn’t see any border guards,” he said. “But the traffic police saluted us along the way.”
In Rostov-on-Don, he was given orders to surround police and security service buildings. He was reportedly entrusted with taking the regional Federal Security Service offices. After some time waiting outside, two people came out to speak to them in the street.
“They said, ‘Guys, let’s make a deal’,” he said. “I said, ‘What’s there to make a deal about? This is our city’ … So we just agreed that we would leave each other alone. They came out to smoke from time to time.”
On the true nature of events, he said. “We learned what was happening from Telegram, just like you did.”
Some of his fellow mercenaries spoke to the media, though these were new recruits – either serving prisoners or convicts conscripted last year. “It was the ex-cons,” Gleb said. “Nobody told them not to, nobody cares about them.”
He claimed authorities of the breakaway Luhansk region are eager to know what Wagner’s future plans are – and what the fate of their equipment and ammunition will be. It appears Gleb would like to move onto pastures new, but: “My contract hasn’t expired yet.”
A new analysis for the Observer by Jack Watling, a senior research fellow for land warfare at the Royal United Services Institute, calls for the west to focus on preparing Ukraine’s troops, or he says, “we will all pay the price”.
Although western support has enabled Ukraine to gain serious advantages over Russian forces, it is also important for Ukraine’s international partners to appreciate what they got wrong over the past few months and to correct these mistakes.
While Ukraine’s partners have provided sufficient artillery and protected mobility, “engineering and tactical air defences have been less forthcoming. Collective and staff training have been slow to be set up, with Ukraine’s partners prioritising training individual Ukrainian soldiers,” he says.
Updated
More images are coming in from the overnight attacks on Odesa, as rescuers and residents try to clear the damage the next morning.
Russian strikes against Ukrainian shipping and agricultural infrastructure in southern Ukraine may be subsiding or entering a temporary lull, according to the same ISW update.
“The intensity of Russian drone and missile strikes against Ukrainian shipping and agricultural infrastructure in southern Ukraine has steadily decreased since July 19,” the update says.
It notes the Ukrainian General Staff reported that on 22 July Russian forces launched only five Shahed drones from the southeast direction – all of which Ukrainian air defence reportedly intercepted.
In comparison, Russian forces launched 19 Shahed drones, four Iskander missiles, and three Kalibr missiles against Ukraine on 21 July, the ISW update said.
Russian forces launched seven Onyx cruise missiles, four Kh-22 anti-ship missiles, three Kalibr sea-based cruise missiles, five Iskander ballistic missiles, and 19 Iranian-made Shahed drones on 20 July 20.
Russian forces fired even more ordnance at Ukraine on 18 July and 19, according to the ISW.
More analysis has come in on Russia’s arrest of Igor Girkin, the former Russian intelligence officer and leading nationalist military blogger.
A regular update by the US thinktank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) says further details about Girkin’s arrest for extremism continue to suggest a shifting balance of power among Kremlin factions and a notable factionalism within the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), in which Girkin had served.
It says Girkin’s affiliates have launched a public effort to cast Girkin as an embattled figure in opposition to Russian leadership.
The ISW says Girkin’s arrest has not generated widespread outrage in the Russian ultranationalist community as some previous cases have, suggesting an increasing fragmentation within the information space.
It also suggests his arrest is likely not an indicator of a wider effort to censor the Russian ultranationalist community, but rather an attempt to excise a specific segment of the community that is vocally hostile to the Kremlin.
Cathedral hit as Russia launches fresh strikes on Odesa
Ukraine’s Air Force said on its Telegram messaging app that Russia launched high-precision Onyx missiles and sea-to-shore Kalibr cruise missiles on Odesa after midnight on Sunday.
Odesa governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram besides killing one and injuring 19 people including four children, it also damaged residential and religious infrastructure.
The RBC-Ukraine news agency reported that the city’s largest Orthodox church, the Spaso-Preobrazhenskyi Cathedral consecrated in 1809, had been severely damaged in the attacks.
Social media videos showed rubble inside a dark church-like structure lit up by a fire and a distressed man walking and repeating, “The church is no longer.”
The Reuters news agency could not immediately independently verify the video or the reports of potential damage. Russia had no immediate comment on the attacks.
Odesa has been bombed several times since the start of the invasion, and in January the United Nations cultural agency UNESCO designated the historic centre of the city as a World Heritage in Danger site.
Moscow had described the attacks as revenge for a Ukrainian strike on a Russian-built bridge to Crimea – the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula seized by Moscow in 2014.
The head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, repeated Kyiv’s call for more missiles and defence systems after the attack on Odesa.
The city has come under repeated attack since Moscow pulled out of a grain export deal last week.
Ukraine has accused Russia of targeting grain supplies and infrastructure vital to the Black Sea deal.
Updated
Opening summary
Welcome back to our continuing live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine. This is Christine Kearney and here’s a roundup of the latest key developments.
Russia launched another wave of overnight attacks on the Black Sea port of Odesa early on Sunday, killing one and injuring 19 people including four children, and damaging residential and religious infrastructure, Ukrainian officials said.
“Odesa: another night attack of the monsters,” said Oleh Kiper, governor of the broader Odesa region, on the Telegram messaging app. “Unfortunately, we have one civilian who was killed.”
Meanwhile, Russian president Vladimir Putin and Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko are set to meet on Sunday in St Petersburg.
The meeting comes two days after Moscow warned Poland that any aggression against Belarus, its neighbour and staunchest ally, would be considered an attack on Russia. Warsaw had earlier said it would troops to the east, due to concerns over the presence of the Russian mercenary group Wagner in Belarus.
More on those stories shortly. In other news:
A drone attack on an ammunition depot in Crimea prompted authorities to evacuate everyone within a 3-mile (5km) radius and briefly suspend road traffic on the Kerch Bridge linking the occupied peninsula to Russia on Saturday, the Moscow-installed regional governor said.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the bridge, which was also temporarily closed earlier this week after an attack on it, “brings war not peace” and is therefore a military target.
Unesco has condemned Russia’s attack on the historic centre of Odesa, which is protected under the World Heritage Convention. Oleh Kiper, governor of the Odesa region, said on the Telegram channel, warning people not to film the air combat.
Russian president Vladimir Putin and Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko will meet on Sunday in St Petersburg, the Kremlin said, two days after Moscow warned that any aggression against its neighbour and staunchest ally would be considered an attack on Russia.
Russia criticised the US after the alleged death of a war correspondent for Russia’s RIA news agency after what was claimed to have been the use of cluster bombs near the frontline in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region. Moscow called it “a heinous, premeditated crime” committed by western powers and Kyiv, vowing a “response” against those to blame.
Russia’s arrest of Igor Girkin, a former Russian intelligence officer and leading nationalist military blogger, will probably infuriate elements in the military as well as his fellow bloggers, according to UK intelligence.
The US plans to announce a new military aid package for Ukraine worth up to $400m as Ukraine’s counteroffensive grinds on, it was reported. Zelenskiy also said Ukraine’s counteroffensive was about to “gain pace”.
The Polish deputy foreign minister, Pawel Jablonski, has said his meeting with the Russian ambassador to Poland – after he was summoned after Vladimir Putin alleged Poland harboured territorial ambitions in western Ukraine – was “very brief”.
President Zelenskiy said he spoke with Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg on the phone about sustaining the Black Sea grain initiative as well as agreements reached during the Vilnius summit and “further actions regarding the integration of Ukraine into Nato”.
Ukraine’s air defence units shot down five Russian combat and nine reconnaissance drones over the past 24 hours, Euromaidan Press has reported, citing the air force.
The director of the CIA has been made a cabinet member by the US president, Joe Biden, who said the agency has been providing “good intelligence, delivered with honesty and integrity”.
