A summary of today's developments
A group of 100 soldiers from the Russian Wagner group moved closer to the Belarusian city of Grodno near the Polish border, the Polish prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, said, raising fears of a potentially “dangerous” situation.
Kyrylo Budanov, the head of the main intelligence directorate of Ukraine’s defence ministry, raised the prospect of Ukrainian forces “soon” entering Crimea in an effort to retake the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.
The UN secretary-general, António Guterres, has criticised Russia’s “handful of donations [of grain] to some countries” which he said does not offset the consequences of the end of the Black Sea initiative.
South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, called for the reopening of the Black Sea grain initiative at a summit with Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
Ukrainian soldiers have been observed firing North Korean rockets that they said were seized by a “friendly” country before being delivered to Ukraine, it was reported.
A Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant engineer has been held illegally by Russia since his “abduction” last month and is being subjected to torture, the Ukrainian state nuclear energy company claimed.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, visited Ukrainian troops in “advanced positions” near the eastern Bakhmut frontline.
Unesco representatives arrived in Odessa to assess the damage to cultural and religious sites caused by Russian strikes on 19 to 23 July.
A nine-year-old girl and her 10-year-old brother in Russia have been called as witnesses in a criminal case against their mother after she was accused of repeatedly “discrediting” the Russian army.
Russia has received around 30 peace proposals on Ukraine through official and unofficial channels, the country’s foreign ministry spokeswoman said. Maria Zakharova insisted Moscow has never refused negotiations on the war, the TASS state news agency reported.
Volunteers have donated 24 drones to Ukraine’s military, the head of Donetsk’s regional administration said.
Pavlo Kyrylenko said the batch was made up of Kamikaze drones, Sky News reported.
The weapons have been produced by a military support project called Time X.
“Our defenders have now received 24 drones, and this is just the beginning,” Kyrylenko wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
“Everyone understands the importance of quality drones on the front line, and that’s why we put a lot of effort into keeping such drones on the front lines.”
Thousands of people attended a Pride event Liverpool hosted on Kyiv’s behalf on Saturday.
Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, has tweeted footage of an apartment hit by a missile strike in Dnipro.
An apartment in Dnipro after yesterday's Russian missile strike. pic.twitter.com/rsjjcaBqHD
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) July 29, 2023
Russia has received around 30 peace proposals on Ukraine through official and unofficial channels, the country’s foreign ministry spokeswoman said.
Maria Zakharova insisted Moscow has never refused negotiations on the war, the TASS state news agency reported.
“We are grateful to everyone. There were many such initiatives. It seems to me that a month ago there were already about 30 [initiatives] that were made by public figures through state channels or even in some private way,” the diplomat said.
“Even when we understood that they [negotiations] were unlikely to bring any added value, but we always gave such a chance to partners or the situation in general.”
An explosion in a former prison where Ukrainian prisoners of war were being held last year was caused by the use of a rocket thermobaric grenade launcher, according to the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office.
Ukraine has blamed Russian forces for the attack in Olenivka, in the eastern Donetsk region, a year ago today.
The prosecutor general said today that the prisoners were intentionally killed, Sky News reported.
Officials have been carrying out a pre-trial investigation and have identified the bodies of 33 people killed in the former prison.
A further 24 bodies are being examined.
Thirteen Ukrainian soldiers who were released from Russian captivity and survived the attack were questioned as victims.
At the time, Russia claimed Ukraine’s military used US-supplied rocket launchers to strike the prison.
The Ukrainian military denied carrying out any rocket or artillery strikes in Olenivka.
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Summary
A group of 100 soldiers from the Russian Wagner group moved closer to the Belarusian city of Grodno near the Polish border, the Polish prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, said, raising fears of a potentially “dangerous” situation.
Kyrylo Budanov, the head of the main intelligence directorate of Ukraine’s defence ministry, raised the prospect of Ukrainian forces “soon” entering Crimea in an effort to retake the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has criticised Russia’s “handful of donations [of grain] to some countries”, which he said does not offset the consequences of the end of the Black Sea initiative.
The South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, called for the reopening of the Black Sea grain initiative at a summit with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
Ukrainian soldiers have been observed firing North Korean rockets that they said were seized by a “friendly” country before being delivered to Ukraine, it was reported.
A Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant engineer has been held illegally by Russia since his “abduction” last month and is being subjected to torture, the Ukrainian state nuclear energy company claimed.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, visited Ukrainian troops in “advanced positions” near the eastern Bakhmut frontline.
Unesco representatives arrived in Odessa to assess the damage to cultural and religious sites caused by Russian strikes on 19 to 23 July.
A nine-year-old girl and her 10-year-old brother in Russia have been called as witnesses in a criminal case against their mother after she was accused of repeatedly “discrediting” the Russian army.
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Ukrainian forces to enter Crimea ‘soon’, defence official claims
Kyrylo Budanov, the head of the main intelligence directorate of Ukraine’s defence ministry, today raised the prospect of Ukrainian forces “soon” entering Crimea in an effort to retake the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.
Budanov, Sky News reports, citing Ukrainian television channel TSN, did not specify a date by which the military operation would begin. However, Crimea has been subject to attacks in recent weeks – including the explosion which damaged the Kerch Bridge.
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The former spokesperson to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Iuliia Mendel, has tweeted a photo a Guinean embassy staffer sporting an interesting choice of attire.
Lama Jacques Sevoba, the man in question, reportedly said:
I’ve had it for three years already because I love him very much, so I wear it any time, in any place. And today it’s to show my people that Russia and Africa will be even bigger friends than before.
Nothing to hide here. A staff member of the Guinean embassy arrived at the summit in St Petersburg yesterday wearing a shirt covered in Vladimir Putin's face.
— Iuliia Mendel (@IuliiaMendel) July 29, 2023
Lama Jacques Sevoba posed with a Russian man for a photo as the talks went on. pic.twitter.com/8BJBEVHBhr
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Ukraine has moved its official Christmas Day state holiday from 7 January to the western-standard 25 December to “abandon the Russian heritage of imposing Christmas celebrations”.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed the bill into law yesterday, as efforts continue to distance Ukraine from Russia. They began in the several years prior to the invasion but have intensified since.
Jaroslav Lukiv at the BBC reports:
For centuries, first imperial Russia and then the Moscow-dominated Soviet Union had tried – but always failed – to totally control Ukraine. This included the imposed authority of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) over Ukraine’s churches. But in 2019, the recently formed Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) was granted independence by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians worldwide.
The move provoked a furious response in the ROC, which is openly defending president Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Until this year, the OCU – like several other Orthodox churches, including the ROC – celebrated Christmas Day on 7 January, in line with the Julian calendar. But the OCU has now officially switched to the more-precise Gregorian calendar used in most parts of the world.
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A nine-year-old girl and her 10-year-old brother have been called as witnesses in a criminal case against their mother after she was accused of repeatedly “discrediting” the Russian army.
Lidia Prudovskaya and her two children were summoned by investigators in the northern Russian region of Arkhangelsk on Friday to give testimony in the case, Russian news outlet Sota reported.
Prudovskaya previously faced administrative charges on similar allegations after sharing anti-war posts on Russian social media platform VKontakte in September 2022, AP reports.
Discrediting the Russian military is a criminal offence under a law adopted after Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. The law is regularly used against Kremlin critics.
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The Guardian’s Shaun Walker reports on the programme of “de-Russification” that is going on all over Ukraine. It has a particular hue in Odesa, where it is not only the figure of Catherine that binds the historical and cultural landscape to Moscow.
Many of the great Russian-language writers were from Odesa or spent time there, its residents largely speak Russian and its Transfiguration Cathedral was consecrated by Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, in 2010. A barrage of missile attacks over the past two weeks, the first time the centre of the city has been significantly damaged since the start of the war, is likely to only accelerate this process.
Unesco representatives have arrived in Odessa to assess the damage to cultural and religious sites caused by Russian strikes on 19 to 23 July.
The mission will work in Odessa for four days, according to chair of the Odessa Regional State Administration Oleg Kiper. Experts will record the consequences of Russian attacks.
As a result of Russian shelling in Odessa, 28 architectural monuments were seriously damaged, including the Transfiguration Cathedral.
Poland raises fears about 'dangerous' situation with Wagner troops near border
A group of 100 soldiers from the Russian Wagner group have moved closer to the Belarusian city of Grodno near the Polish border, the Polish prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, has said.
Poland, a former Warsaw Pact member which has been a full member of the US-led Nato military alliance since 1999, has been concerned about the possible spillover of war on to its territory ever since Russian invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Reuters reports.
The move of several thousand Wagner mercenaries to Belarus was part of a deal that ended the group’s mutiny attempt in June, when they took control of a Russian military headquarters, marched on Moscow and threatened to tip Russia into civil war, president Vladimir Putin has said.
Earlier this month, Poland began moving more than 1,000 troops to the east of the country amid rising concerns that the presence of Wagner fighters in Belarus could lead to increased tension on its border.
The situation is getting increasingly dangerous … Most likely [the Wagner personnel] will be disguised as the Belarusian border guard and help illegal migrants get to the Polish territory [and] destabilise Poland.
They will most likely try to enter Poland pretending to be illegal migrants and this poses additional threats.
In further comments reported by the BBC, he added:
This is certainly a step towards a further hybrid attack on Polish territory.
However he did not give the source of his information on the Wagner movements, and Anton Motolko, founder of the Belarusian opposition Hajun project, which monitors military activity in the country, told Reuters his group had not seen any evidence of the Wagner group moving closer to Grodno.
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Russia has claimed that its forces struck a command post in Ukraine’s Dnipro yesterday, after Kyiv said a missile hit an apartment block there, wounding nine people including two children.
“On the evening of 28 July, the Russian armed forces attacked a command post of the Ukrainian armed forces in the city of Dnepropetrovsk with high-precision weapons,” the Russian defence ministry said, referring to Dnipro by its earlier name. “The designated target has been hit.”
Kyiv officials said that several other buildings had been hit including an empty building belonging to the country’s security service.
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Eritrea’s enthusiastic embrace of Russia’s narrative on the Ukraine war is explained by its isolation and deep suspicion of the US.
President Isaias Afwerki’s comments are part of a broader pattern of Eritrean diplomacy, which has seen Asmara lean strongly on Russia’s side in a series of conflicts where Moscow has gobbled up the territories of its much smaller neighbours.
When Russia expanded its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Eritrea joined an isolated club of countries – including Iran, North Korea and Syria – in voting against a UN general assembly motion which condemned the Kremlin’s move. A month later Eritrea’s foreign minister, Osman Salah, visited Russia, where he blamed western countries for attempting to “contain, weaken and isolate Russia”.
In 2014, Eritrea caused fury in Kyiv, when its foreign minister visited Crimea shortly after Russia invaded and then annexed it. An Eritrea delegation also visited the self-declared Republic of Abkhazia which declared independence from Georgia in 1999 with Russian support and South Ossetia which seceded from Georgia in 1992 but was recognised by Russia after a brief 2008 war between Moscow and Tbilisi.
Eritrea has frosty relations with Washington and other western countries. Eritrea came under UN security councils sanctions in 2009, which Afwerki believed were enforced on his isolated country at Ethiopia’s behest with whom Eritrea had a deadly border war in 1998 and a proxy conflict in the Horn of Africa throughout the early 2000s.
Another round of US sanctions followed when Eritrea entered a conflict in northern Ethiopia on the side of the federal government against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) which ruled Ethiopia from the 90s until 2018 when Abiy Ahmed came to power. Afwerki remains deeply suspicious of the west and frequently launches verbal tirades against the US.
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Thousands of people have taken to the streets of Liverpool as the city hosted Pride on behalf of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, as a KyivPride organiser praised the “amazing friendship” between the cities.
Hundreds of LGBTQ+ Ukrainians and their allies were expected to take part in the event on Saturday.
The joint march continues a relationship built when Liverpool hosted the Eurovision song contest on behalf of the war-torn country earlier this year.
Edward Reese, a spokesperson for KyivPride, travelled from Ukraine’s capital to Liverpool to take part in the city’s Pride events, along with other members of the Ukrainian LGBTQ+ organisation.
He said: “We are marching together for Ukraine, for freedom, to remind the world and the UK that the war is not over.”
Reese added: “LGBTQ people right now suffer from a lack of rights all over the world …The conservative Christian agenda and anti-gender movement are very powerful here in the UK, in the US and Europe and everywhere, so it’s very important to stand together because this war for our rights is not over.”
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More from Zelenskiy on his visit to troops near the eastern Bakhmut frontline. He added further thanks to Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces.
He posted:
Thank you for the fact that even after 520 days of the very difficult full-scale war for our freedom and the lives of all of us, our children – the present and the future of our state – you are still strong.
The Ukrainian SSO did not let our country be occupied, Ukraine and everything we have: our identity, our life be destroyed. Thank you for the fact that even after 520 days of the very difficult full-scale war for our freedom and the lives of all of us, our children – the present… pic.twitter.com/kGHSt7gJ6Z
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 29, 2023
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Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has visited Ukrainian troops in “advanced positions” near the eastern Bakhmut frontline today.
Photos published by Zelenskiy on Twitter showed him meeting troops and looking at maps in a dimly lit, windowless concrete-walled room. He praised Ukraine‘s Special Operations Forces. “The performance of tasks for the sake of Ukraine by you, guys, is truly heroic,” he wrote.
Ukraine last month began its highly anticipated fightback after stockpiling western weapons and building up its offensive forces. Kyiv has, however, admitted difficult battles and called on the US and other allies to provide long-range weapons and artillery.
Bakhmut direction, advanced positions of the Special Operations Forces. Today, I am here to congratulate our warriors on their professional day, to honor their strength. I heard a commander's report, talked with the warriors. Very powerful, very effective. Thank you!
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 29, 2023
Although I… pic.twitter.com/4yJhfO8UBI
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A Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant engineer has been held illegally by Russia since his “abduction” last month and is being subjected to torture, the Ukrainian state nuclear energy company has claimed.
Energoatom said on Telegram:
More than a month ago, on 23 June 2023, invaders abducted Serhiy Potinga, an occupational safety engineer of the Central Aviation Safety Agency of the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, who was staying in Enerhodar and working at the station. He was seen in the police station, where the Russians are holding the city’s residents and the workers of the ZANP.
Serhiy, being in real captivity of the Rashists, is regularly subjected to torture and physical violence. And after the torture, the invaders send the engineer to the hospital every time so that he does not die. At the same time, they have not brought any charges against the man, but they continue to harass and repress him.
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The Eritrean president, Isaias Afwerki, has launched a blistering attack on Nato at the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg, accusing the military alliance of stoking the conflict in Ukraine – a classic Russian talking point used to deflect from its war of aggression.
Video of a meeting with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, shows Afwerki – who has ruled the east African country since the 1991 independence war – sat alongside several other African leaders yesterday, claiming in a rambling speech that the conflict was reminiscent of a cold war proxy campaign.
Afwerki’s regime, which has been subject to US sanctions after Eritrean forces entered Ethiopia in support of the government’s military campaign and whilst it does not host Russian troops like Mali but it remains one of the most pro-Russian governments in Africa.
[Nato] came up with this fantasy of containing Russia, any power – small, big – that challenged them; technologically, economically, socially, culturally. They have to contain everybody: it’s a defunct ideology.
Thirty years ago, when they decided to contain Russia, they thought it was the major threat for them, China was not considered a threat at that time. Now they know, they missed the point … Ukraine is a sacrifice. It’s a price they have to pay. They will not pay it on their own, they will provide billions and billions, even trillions, to continue this war … They have to defeat Russia so they can hegemonise everything.
We need a new financial architecture globally, not controlled by the dollar or other currencies … We are being punished by their sanctions because we are not bowing to their conditionalities. We are not even a threat to them.
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The UN secretary-general, António Guterres, has criticised Russia’s “handful of donations [of grain] to some countries” which he said does not offset the consequences of the end of the Black Sea initiative.
He said yesterday at the UN in New York:
It is clear that when taking out of the market millions and millions of tons of grain, it is clear that, based on economic laws, that it will lead to higher prices than the ones that would exist with the normal access of Ukrainian grain to international markets. And these increases of prices will be paid by everybody, everywhere, and namely, by developing countries and by the vulnerable people in middle-income and even developed countries.
Guterres added that efforts to restart the deal are ongoing that he has “had contacts with the Russian Federation”.
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The US senator Bernie Sanders has been criticised for voting against an audit of the billions of dollars provided for Ukraine’s war effort, less than a day after criticising the defence department for lagging on audits.
On Wednesday night, Democrats in the senate – along with Sanders, fellow independent Angus King and the Republican senator Rand Paul – voted down a GOP proposal to establish an “Office of the Lead Inspector General for Ukraine Assistance”.
It would have allotted $10m from the National Defense Authorization Act’s near $900bn budget to fund the staffing of a 30-person oversight office, the New York Post reported, amid questions over whether some US-provided arms were falling into the wrong hands.
The Republican senator Roger Wicker said:
I am dismayed that my Democrat colleagues withheld support for this reasonable, effective effort to conduct additional oversight of US aid to Ukraine. Lawmakers are far better positioned to support Ukraine when taxpayers feel confident that their money is spent on a transparent and effective basis. I will continue promoting rigorous oversight of Ukrainian military aid as I also push the Biden administration to provide Ukraine the weapons it needs to win this war.
Lol within about 15 hours from this tweet Bernie Sanders voted against a special inspector general audit of $117 billion in Ukraine war money/contractors. https://t.co/GCjRRDguxF
— Lee Fang (@lhfang) July 28, 2023
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The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, yesterday claimed that his country was prepared to negotiate a peace agreement – though this would certainly demand Ukraine give up the approximately 20% of its territory occupied by Russia.
He said at the meeting with African leaders yesterday, according to the BBC:
In fact, a draft of this treaty was agreed upon, but after the withdrawal of our troops from Kiev – and we were asked to do this in order to create conditions for concluding a final treaty – the Kiev authorities abandoned all previous agreements … Of course, I won’t talk about the details of what we agreed on now, probably, this will not be very correct.
Moscow claimed its retreat from the Ukrainian capital was a “goodwill gesture” but observers said Russia had been forced into the move and had to concentrate its forces closer to its border.
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Four African heads of state will attend Russia’s annual Navy Day parade in St Petersburg tomorrow, the Kremlin has said, with five more African countries also sending other representation.
African leaders pressed Putin yesterday to move ahead with their plan to end the Ukraine conflict and to renew a deal crucial to Africa on the safe export of Ukrainian grain.
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Global humanitarian needs have been “going through the roof” since 2021 because of the pandemic and then the war in Ukraine.
“Those needs continue to grow, those drivers are still there,” said Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the World Food Program (WFP). “But the funding is drying up. So we’re looking at 2024 [being] even more dire.”
The UN has been forced to cut food, cash payments and assistance to millions of people in many countries because of “a crippling funding crisis” that has seen its donations plummet by about half as acute hunger is hitting record levels, Skau said.
At least 38 of the 86 countries where WFP operates have already seen cuts or plan to cut assistance soon, including Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen and West Africa, he said, according to AP.
He said WFP’s operating requirement is $20bn to deliver aid to everyone in need, but it was aiming for between $10bn and $14bn, which was what the agency had received in the past few years. “We’re still aiming at that, but we have only so far this year gotten to about half of that, around $5bn,” Skau said.
“It’s clear that aid budgets, humanitarian budgets, both in Europe and the US, [are] not where they were in 2021-22,” he said.
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The Russia-Africa summit marks a renewed Kremlin effort to bolster ties with a continent of 1.3 billion people that is increasingly assertive on the global stage.
Africa’s 54 nations make up the largest voting bloc at the UN and have been more divided than any other region on general assembly resolutions criticising Russia’s actions in Ukraine, AP reported.
Only 17 heads of state were at the summit, compared to 43 at the first Russia-Africa summit in 2019, a sharp drop in attendance that the Kremlin has attributed to what it described as “outrageous” western pressure to discourage African countries from showing up.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, hailed Africa’s role in the emerging “multipolar world order”:
The era of hegemony of one or several countries is receding into the past, albeit not without resistance on the part of those who got used to their own uniqueness and monopoly in global affairs.
Russia and Africa are united by an innate desire to defend true sovereignty and the right to their own distinctive path of development in the political, economic, social, cultural and other spheres.
Putin noted that Moscow also stands ready to bolster defence ties with African countries by helping to train their military and expanding supplies of military equipment, some of them on a no-cost basis.
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South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has called for the reopening of the Black Sea grain initiative at a summit with Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
According to the BBC, he welcomed the offer to send up to 50,000 tons of free grain to six African countries, but said it was necessary to “open” the Black Sea for food supplies.
We proposed to implement the Black Sea Grain Initiative, we talked about the need to open the Black Sea, we said that we would like the Black Sea to be open to world markets. And we did not come here to ask for some ‘gifts’ for the African continent.
Of course, we understand that out of generosity you have decided to donate grain to some African countries that are facing certain difficulties. We treat this with great respect and celebrate it. However, this is not our main goal here, this is not our main task – to achieve some kind of supplies of this nature.
The African Union commission chair, Faki Mahamat, also said yesterday:
The disruptions of energy and grain supplies must end immediately. The grain deal must be extended for the benefit of all the peoples of the world, Africans in particular.
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Ukrainian soldiers have been observed firing North Korean rockets that they said were seized by a “friendly” country before being delivered to Ukraine, the Financial Times has reported.
Ukraine’s defence ministry suggested the arms were captured from the Russians. “We capture their tanks, we capture their equipment and it is very possible that this is also the result of the Ukrainian army successfully conducting a military operation,” Yuriy Sak, an adviser to Ukraine’s defence minister, told the FT. “Russia has been shopping around for different types of munitions in all kinds of tyrannies, including North Korea and Iran.”
The US has accused North Korea of providing arms to Russia, including alleged shipments by sea, but has not offered proof and North Korean weapons have not been widely observed on the battlefields in Ukraine. North Korea and Russia deny conducting arms transactions.
The North Korean weapons, manufactured mostly in the 1980s and 90s, are being used by Ukrainian troops operating Soviet-era Grad multiple-launch rocket systems near the destroyed eastern city of Bakhmut, site of lengthy brutal fighting, the report said.
Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, made a rare visit to Pyongyang this week to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean war, the first visit by Moscow’s top defence official since the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union.
During the visit, Shoigu was photographed viewing banned North Korean ballistic missiles with the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, at a military expo in Pyongyang.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has issued a special invitation to a Ukrainian fencer to take part in the Paris Olympics next year, after she was disqualified from a tournament for refusing to shake hands with her defeated Russian opponent.
The IOC president, Thomas Bach, a former Olympic champion fencer himself, wrote in person to Olha Kharlan to make a “unique exception” to Olympic qualifying procedures, in an unusually emotional letter.
“As a fellow fencer, it is impossible for me to imagine how you feel at this moment,” Bach said. “The war against your country, the suffering of the people in Ukraine … all this is a roller coaster of emotions and feelings. It is admirable how you are managing this incredibly difficult situation, and I would like to express my full support for you.”
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Many of the great Russian-language writers were from Odesa or spent time there, its residents largely speak Russian, and its Transfiguration Cathedral was consecrated by Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, in 2010.
But recent strikes targeting the southern Ukrainian city, including the cathedral, have left residents questioning its historical links to Russia.
Read Shaun Walker’s exploration of how the war is changing this cosmopolitan, rebellious port city:
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Fighting intensifying in south of Ukraine, says UK
Fighting in southern Ukraine has intensified in the past two days, according to the UK Ministry of Defence, with mixed success for Ukrainian forces.
“Over the last 48 hours there has been an uptick of fighting in two sectors in southern Ukraine,” the MoD said in its latest intelligence update on Saturday.
“South of Orikhiv, fighting is focused near the village of Robotyne, in the area of responsibility for Russia’s 58th Combined Arms Army.
“80km to the east, Ukrainian forces defeated elements of Russian airborne forces’ (VDV) 247th Guards Air Assault Regiment to capture the village of Staromaiorske.
“Meanwhile, in the north, other VDV units continue offensive operations in the Serebriansk Forest west of Kremina but have achieved little ground.”
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 29 July 2023.
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) July 29, 2023
Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/fMz5G0zMCP
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/40214yywD6
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Russia’s Wagner mercenary group is ready to increase its presence in Africa, its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, told an African news outlet in an audio interview published online earlier this week.
Fighting on Russia’s side, Wagner has taken part in some of the bloodiest battles of the Ukraine war. But its future role was called into question when Prigozhin staged a brief mutiny last month.
“We aren’t reducing [our presence]; moreover we’re ready to increase our various contingents,” Prigozhin told Cameroon-based Afrique Media. The telephone interview was posted on YouTube but had been viewed only 1,400 times as of late Friday.
Reuters could not immediately verify the veracity of the audio, but a voice that appeared to be Prigozhin’s could be heard under a French translation.
In the interview, he said Wagner was fulfilling all its obligations on the continent, and was ready to further develop relations with African countries.
Prigozhin confirmed to Afrique Media that a new rotation of Wagner forces had recently arrived in the Central African Republic ahead of a constitutional referendum on 30 July that could see the president, Faustin-Archange Touadera, extend his term.
“New forces have arrived, we control the territory of the republic,” he said, without stating the size of the force.
Russian mercenaries, including many from Wagner, intervened in 2018 on the side of the CAR government to quell a civil war that has raged since 2012.
Wagner’s role in CAR, Mali and elsewhere in Africa is a source of concern for western governments, including France and the United States. Washington has accused the group of committing widespread atrocities and imposed sanctions on it as a criminal organisation.
Prigozhin denies that, saying in the interview that all Wagner’s activity was lawful and of benefit to the countries where it operates and to their relations with Russia.
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Shoigu in North Korea looking for weapons, Blinken says
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said Washington believes that Russia’s defence minister is in North Korea to secure supplies of weapons to aid the stalled invasion of Ukraine.
After Sergei Shoigu’s arrival on a rare trip to Pyongyang, Blinken said Russia was scrambling to buy arms from allies across the world.
“I strongly doubt he’s there on holiday,” Blinken told reporters in Australia.
“We’re seeing Russia desperately looking for support, for weapons, wherever it can find them to continue to prosecute its aggression against Ukraine,” he said.
“We see that in North Korea, we see that as well with Iran, which has provided many drones to Russia that it’s using to destroy civilian infrastructure and killed civilians in Ukraine.”
While in North Korea, Shoigu met the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, in what Pyongyang’s state media described as “a friendly talk”.
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Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has posted footage of the aftermath of the Russian missile strike in Dnipro.
Dnipro. Friday evening. A high-rise building and the Security Service of Ukraine's building were hit. Russian missile terror again.
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 28, 2023
Promptly held conversations with the Security Service of Ukraine, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the State Emergency Service, and the military… pic.twitter.com/UulEGKjQUj
Two children were among the nine people injured by the Russian missile strike on Dnipro, the local governor, Serhiy Lysak, has said, calling it “a difficult night” for his region.
“First, missile strikes on the Dnipro. And already at night, the enemy continued his terror. I visited Nikopol region,” the Dnipropetrovsk governor wrote on Telegram.
“Heavy artillery hit Nikopol itself and the Marganets community. The consequences are being investigated. But the main thing is that the locals are whole.
“In Dnipro, the number of victims has not changed. Nine people, including two children. In addition to the attacked administrative buildings and high-rise buildings, we also have damage. These are four residential buildings around. One is high-rise, the others are two-story. Three administrative buildings and seven cars were also affected.
“After the third night, emergency workers completed the search and rescue operations. Utility workers got involved. I have personally seen how all services work. Coordinated and eager to help everyone. Thanks to them for that.
“I know it’s difficult, but we will persevere. Those who gave criminal orders, carried them out and sincerely rejoiced at our misfortune, will get theirs. After all, evil always returns to those who bear it.”
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Some images from the site of the missile strike on the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Friday night.
Russian missiles hit Dnipro, injuring nine people
Russian missiles hit an apartment block and a nearby building of Ukraine’s security service in the central city of Dnipro on Friday night, injuring nine people and causing widespread damage.
The regional governor, Serhiy Lysak, said on Telegram the injured were receiving treatment at home.
The Dnipro mayor, Borys Filatov, said it was the third time the SBU security service building had been targeted. Both buildings were largely empty – the residential building because it had just been completed and units were being put up for sale.
“There were two hits in Dnipro at about 8.30pm, Iskander missiles, according to preliminary information,” Lysak said on national television.
“Part of the apartment building was destroyed. It was not even yet in use and there weren’t many people there. A few people were trapped but are now out. The security service building is partially destroyed.”
Pictures posted on social media showed part of one building reduced to rubble and debris strewn across a large courtyard.
“Dnipro. Another terrorist attack,” said Sergiy Kruk, head of the Ukrainian State Emergency Service, on Telegram. “Currently, we know of 9 injured, including two children. Work continues.”
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said: “Dnipro. Friday evening. A high-rise building and the security service of Ukraine’s building were hit. Russian missile terror again”.
Russia says it does not target civilian sites.
Zelenskiy said he had convened emergency meetings with the SBU, the interior ministry, emergency services and local officials following the missile strikes.
Opening summary
Welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. This is Mark Gerts with the latest.
Our top stories this morning:
Russian missiles hit an apartment block and a nearby building of Ukraine’s security service in the central city of Dnipro on Friday night, injuring nine people and causing widespread damage. The Dnipro mayor, Borys Filatov, said it was the third time the SBU security service building had been targeted. Both buildings were largely empty – the residential building because it had just been completed and units were being put up for sale.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said Washington believes Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, is in North Korea to secure supplies of weapons to aid the stalled invasion of Ukraine. “We’re seeing Russia desperately looking for support, for weapons, wherever it can find them,” Blinken said.
More on these shortly. Elsewhere:
The Russian defence ministry said it shot down a Ukrainian missile in the southern city of Taganrog, about 40km (24 miles) east of the border with Ukraine, and local officials reported 20 people were injured, identifying the centre as an art museum. The ministry said it downed a second Ukrainian missile near the city of Azov, which like Taganrog is in the Rostov region, and debris fell in an unpopulated location.
Russian air defences downed a Ukrainian military drone before it could attack its targets near Moscow on Friday, the RIA news agency cited Russia’s defence ministry as saying. The ministry said the incident caused no casualties or damage to buildings.
The head of Ukraine’s ground forces has said Russian forces are constantly attacking in the direction of Kupiansk and Lyman in the Donetsk region but that Ukraine’s defence line is holding firm. Oleksandr Syrskyi said the main task for Ukrainian troops at the moment was to knock out enemy artillery where possible, and he claimed small advances in the Bakhmut direction.
Yevgeny Balitsky, the head of the Russian-imposed administration of the occupied Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, described the situation on the frontline there as “tense” and on Friday claimed that Russian forces control the Vremivka direction and that “the enemy suffers significant losses but is trying to hold out in the north-western part of the village of Staromaiorske”.
Poland and Lithuania are considering closing their respective borders with Belarus amid concerns over the presence there of the Wagner mercenary group.
The Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, urged Russia on Friday to revive the Black Sea grain deal. Sisi told the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg that it was “essential to reach agreement” on reviving the deal.
