The EU on Wednesday agreed to ban exports of battlefield equipment and aviation parts to Belarus, expanding sanctions on the Russian ally for its involvement in Russia’s war against Ukraine. Spain, the current holder of the EU’s rotating chairmanship, said in a post on social media that the sanctions were a response to “the situation in Belarus and the involvement of Belarus in the Russian aggression against Ukraine”. The decision must still be finalised and will take effect if none of the bloc’s 27 member states raise last-minute objections by Friday.
Ukrainian prosecutors have opened a criminal case into a lawmaker suspected of taking a luxury holiday in the Maldives in breach of a wartime ban on private travel abroad, the general prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday. Private trips abroad by officials have been banned since January, while most Ukrainian men aged 18-60 are also barred from leaving the country under the martial law that was brought in when Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. The lawmaker has not been named and no charges have yet been brought in the case.
The Ukrainian government plans to invest 40bn hryvnia ($1.08bn) this year into domestic drone manufacturing, the prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, has announced.
The Kremlin said it was impossible for Russia to return to the Black Sea grain export deal for now, as an agreement related to Russian interests was “not being implemented”. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters, however, that Vladimir Putin had made it clear the deal could be revived if its Russia-focused part was honoured.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, visited Liberia on Wednesday, the first visit to the country in Ukrainian diplomatic history according to the foreign ministry, in an effort to “ensure” the export of Ukrainian grain to Africa after the collapse of the Black Sea grain deal.
Interfax in Russia is reporting that overnight Russian armed forces claim to have struck at a Ukrainian fuel warehouse and training centre in Donetsk.
Tass is reporting that Russian forces are claiming to have made an advance near Serhiivka in Luhansk oblast, which is close to the border with Kharkiv oblast. It quotes Lt Gen Igor Konashenkov claiming: “The advance amounted to 3km along the front and 2.7km in the depth of the enemy’s defence.”
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that “during the night and morning of 26 July, the Russian army shelled six communities of Sumy oblast”.
Residents in Belgorod will be exempt from paying taxes on land and property lost as a result of the cross-border shelling of the armed forces of Ukraine.
A military court in Moscow has sentenced a dual Russian-Ukrainian citizen to 22 years in jail for blowing up rail track in Russia’s Bryansk region last summer at the behest of Ukraine
A decade-long failure by the British government has allowed the Wagner network to grow, spread its tentacles deep into Africa and exploit vulnerable countries, according to a highly critical report from the UK’s foreign affairs select committee. It called on the government to proscribe the Wagner group in the UK and to make a far more concerted effort to stop it using the City of London as a financial centre.
Russia’s state-owned Tass news agency is reporting that Moldova has announced it will reduce the number of diplomatic staff Russia has in the country. The head of the Russian diplomatic mission in Moldova said the decision undermines the possibility of dialogue between the countries. Moldova summoned Russian diplomats on Tuesday after media reports that the Russian embassy in Chișinău had installed a large amount of satellite equipment on its roof which reports said could be used for espionage.
Ukraine is still considering whether or not to stick with its decision to bar its athletes from competing against Russians or Belarusians, the sports minister said on Wednesday, a year before the start of the Paris Olympics. The comment by Vadym Huttsait in an interview with Reuters suggests Kyiv could be open to reversing a controversial policy that would probably rule Ukrainian athletes out of competing at the Paris Olympics in 2024.
President Vladimir Putin is planning to visit China in October, the Kremlin has said. “It is known that we have received an invitation and that we intend to go to China when the Belt and Road Forum is held in October,” Yuri Ushakov, an aide to the Russian president on international affairs, said in comments carried by Russian news agencies.
Russian lawmakers on Tuesday backed legislation increasing the maximum age limit to 30 for compulsory military service, over a year into the Kremlin’s Ukraine offensive. The bill comes as Moscow seeks to replenish its forces on the frontline in Ukraine without resorting to another mobilisation – a step the Kremlin took last September that proved unpopular.
The US state department confirmed reports that a former marine, who was released from Russia in a prisoner swap last year, has been injured while fighting in Ukraine. Trevor Reed was taken to Germany for medical care, a state department spokesperson said, adding that Reed was not acting on behalf of the US government.
The US has announced a new $400m military assistance package for Ukraine featuring ammunition for artillery and air defence systems. The military aid package includes air defence munitions, artillery rounds, armoured vehicles, and anti-armour capabilities to help Ukraine’s forces.
