Closing summary
This blog is now closing. Below is a roundup of today’s stories:
Russia says all ships travelling to Ukrainian ports on Black Sea to be considered carriers of military equipment from Thursday. Russia’s defence ministry said it would “flag countries of such ships … considered parties to the Ukrainian conflict”. The ministry did not say what actions it might take.
Prigozhin says Wagner mercenaries will no longer fight in Ukraine war and will head to Africa. Prigozhin was shown in a video welcoming his Wagner fighters to Belarus and telling them they would for now take no further part in the Ukraine war, He also ordered his men to train the Belarusian army and collect their strength for a “new journey to Africa.”
Russian media sources reported that Vladimir Putin will be attending the BRICS summit in South Africa next month via videoconferencing instead of in person. Earlier in the day it was announced that Putin would not attend the summit in South Africa “by mutual agreement” with the hosts. The international criminal court (ICC) has a warrant out for Putin’s arrest and South Africa is an ICC member, meaning they would have been obliged to arrest Putin if he entered the country.
US announces $1.3b in additional security assistance for Ukraine. The package is set to include air defence capabilities and munitions. “This announcement represents the beginning of a contracting process to provide additional priority capabilities to Ukraine,” the Pentagon said in a statement on Wednesday.
Ukraine’s air force said on Wednesday it downed 37 out of 63 targets in an Russian overnight missile and drone attack. The air force said critical infrastructure and military facilities had been attacked in the nighttime strikes, and that the main target was Ukraine’s southern Odesa region.
The Guardian’s Shaun Walker described it as “a second noisy night for residents of Odesa, with numerous explosions audible from the centre of the city and officials telling residents to take cover in bomb shelters. Since Russia pulled out of the grain deal on Monday it has been targeting Ukraine’s main port city relentlessly.”
“A difficult night of air attacks for all of Ukraine, especially in the south, in Odesa,” Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv’s city military administration, said on the Telegram channel.
A fire broke out at the military training grounds in the Kirovske district on the Crimean Peninsula, the Moscow-backed governor of Crimea said on Wednesday. The fire forced the closure of the nearby Tavrida Highway, Sergei Aksyonov said on the Telegram messaging app.
Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesperson for the Odesa military administration in Ukraine, posted two videos which purport to show fire in an uninhabited area of Crimea, saying, “Enemy ammunition depot. Staryi Krym”. Staryi Krym is a small historical town in the Kirovske district of Crimea, the peninsula that Russia unilaterally annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The fire comes two days after a blast damaged a bridge linking Russia to Crimea that Moscow blamed on Ukraine.
Ukrainian presidential aide Andriy Yermak has criticised the west for not tightening loopholes in sanctions which are allowing Russia to re-stock its military supplies.
The Russian defence ministry said on Wednesday its forces destroyed a stray Ukrainian mine drifting in the south-western part of the Black Sea. It said the mine was detected by Russia’s Black Sea fleet, floating about 111 miles (180 km) north-east of the Bosporus Strait. Ukraine defensively mined its coast to prevent the closer approach of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, which has been repeatedly used to launch cruise missile attacks at targets within Ukraine.
Vitaliy Kim, governor of Mykolaiv, reports on Telegram that overnight, after a Russian attack, “recreational infrastructure facilities in a coastal zone were destroyed and set on fire. Detailed information is being clarified. Two people were injured, one of them was hospitalised.”
The head of Britain’s MI6 foreign spy service Richard Moore has said the Wagner group’s mutiny attempt in June showed Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was under pressure, adding he was optimistic about Ukraine’s counteroffensive. In a rare public address Moore said Iran’s decision to supply Moscow with suicide drones for the Ukraine conflict was “unconscionable”, and appealed to Russians appalled by the war in Ukraine to “join hands” with his intelligence service and bring the bloodshed to an end.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has blamed western countries who he said have “completely distorted” the expired Black Sea grain deal, but said Russia would “immediately” return to the deal if all its conditions for doing so were met, Reuters reports.
US announces $1.3b in additional security assistance for Ukraine
The US has announced additional security assistance for Ukraine, totalling about $1.3b, with the package including air defence capabilities and munitions.
“This announcement represents the beginning of a contracting process to provide additional priority capabilities to Ukraine,” the Pentagon said in a statement on Wednesday.
Reuters reports that talks being mediated by Saudi Arabia and Turkey on the repatriation of Ukrainian thousands of children taken to Russia since Moscow’s invasion have been under way since at least April, a source with knowledge of the discussions said on Wednesday.
The source confirmed a Financial Times report that Riyadh and Istanbul were trying to broker a deal to bring home children who have been taken to Russia and placed in children’s homes or adopted by Russian families.
Ukraine has accused Russia of carrying out illegal deportations. Moscow, which controls parts of Ukraine’s east and south, denies abducting children and says they have been transported away for their own safety.
“The Turks and the Saudis especially have been showing an interest in bringing Ukrainian children back,” the source, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters.
The source said talks had been going on since April but also said they could have started earlier.
The Financial Times, quoting four people familiar with the talks, said on Tuesday that discussions had been under way for several months.
The source did not indicate to Reuters how the talks were going, but expressed doubt that a deal would be reached because it would depend on Russian president Vladimir Putin. “For him to give [the children] back would mean that he agrees that he’s a war criminal,” the source said.
Russian and Turkish officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Saudi Arabia did not comment on the Financial Times article.
The source said Riyadh had won trust after helping last year to negotiate one of the largest prisoner swaps since Russia’s invasion in February 2022. About 300 Ukrainians returned home under the exchange, including commanders who fought a long battle for the city of Mariupol.
Kyiv estimates nearly 19,500 children have been taken to Russia or Russian-occupied Crimea since last year’s invasion. Ukrainian official figures show 385 children have been repatriated so far.
In March, the international criminal court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Putin and Russia’s children’s rights commissioner, accusing them of abducting children from Ukraine.
Russia rejects the ICC allegations, saying it does not recognise the court’s jurisdiction and calling the warrants null and void.
USAID Administrator Samantha Power met with Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday.
On Twitter, Zelenskiy said the pair discussed further support for Ukraine and talked “in detail [about] the consequences of Russia’s attempt to destroy the Black Sea Grain Initiative.”
Ukraine values active cooperation with the United States Agency for International Development, USAID. Today I met with USAID Administrator Samantha Power @PowerUSAID.
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 19, 2023
We discussed further support for Ukraine, our people, and our economy. We discussed in detail the consequences… pic.twitter.com/n39uxffTlQ
Russia says all ships travelling to Ukrainian ports on Black Sea to be considered carriers of military equipment from Thursday
Russia’s defence ministry has said it will consider all ships travelling to Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea as potential carriers of military equipment from Thursday.
Reuters reports that Russia’s defence ministry said on Wednesday that its forces had captured Movchanove railway station in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, citing the TASS news agency.
Prigozhin says Wagner mercenaries will no longer fight in Ukraine war and will head to Africa
Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was shown in a video welcoming his Wagner fighters to Belarus and telling them they would for now take no further part in the Ukraine war, Reuters reports.
In the video, the authenticity of which the Guardian or Reuters could not immediately verify, a man whose voice and Russian sounded like Prigozhin’s is heard welcoming his men. The video was reposted by his press service on Telegram.
“Welcome lads … Welcome to Belarusian soil,” Prigozhin said.
The video was shot after night had fallen and it was only possible to discern what looked like Prigozhin’s profile. “We fought honourably,” said Prigozhin.
“You have done a great deal for Russia. What is going on at the front is a disgrace that we do not need to get involved in.”
Prigozhin then tells his men to behave well towards the locals and orders them to train the Belarusian army and collect their strength for a “new journey to Africa.”
“And perhaps we will return to the SMO (special military operation in Ukraine) at some point when we are sure that we will not be forced to shame ourselves,” Prigozhin said.
A man who sounded like Dmitry Utkin, who helped found Wagner, then spoke to the men. “This is not the end. This is just the beginning of the biggest work in the world that will be carried out very soon,” Utkin said, before switching to English. “And welcome to hell!”
Updated
The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday said Russia’s exit from the Black Sea grain deal worsens the global food security outlook and risks adding to food inflation, especially for low-income countries, Reuters reports.
An IMF spokesperson said the global lender would continue to carefully monitor ongoing developments in the region and their impact on global food insecurity.
“The discontinuation of the initiative impacts the food supply to countries that rely heavily on shipments from Ukraine, in particular in north Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia,” the fund said.
“It worsens the food security outlook and risks adding to global food inflation, especially for low-income countries.”
Finland will cancel the operation permit of the Russian consulate in Turku, a city on the Finnish southwest coast, Reuters reports the country’s government said in a statement on Wednesday.
Finnish public broadcaster Yle reported the government said Russia’s announcement on 6 July to close Finland’s consulate general in St Petersburg was an asymmetric countermeasure to Finland’s previously announced deportations, and the closure of Turku is considered a countermeasure.
Russian media sources including RIA and Interfax are reporting that Vladimir Putin will still participate in the Brics summit, but via videoconferencing.
Interfax quotes Kremlin spokesperson stressing this will be a “full-fledged participation.”
Earlier it was announced that Putin would not attend the summit in South Africa in August “by mutual agreement” with the hosts.
On Tuesday, South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, had asked permission from the international criminal court (ICC) not to arrest Putin, because to do so would amount to a declaration of war, according to a local court submission. Earlier today the Kremlin insisted it did not tell South Africa that arresting Putin on a warrant from the ICC would mean “war”.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, will appear in person at the event, unlike the “full-fledged participation” of the president.
In March this year the IIC in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Putin for overseeing the abduction of Ukrainian children, claiming that he had issued a decree expediting the conferral of Russian citizenship on children put up for adoption in Russia after being forcibly deported from Ukraine.
In a statement in March the ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said: “My office alleges that these acts, amongst others, demonstrate an intention to permanently remove these children from their own country. We cannot allow children to be treated as if they are the spoils of war.”
Updated
The Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, will visit Pakistan on a day trip on Thursday, a Pakistani foreign ministry statement said on Wednesday.
Reuters reports Kuleba’s visit will be the first ministerial visit from Ukraine since the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries in 1993, and that he will meet his Pakistani counterpart, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, and the prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif.
Updated
Five central European EU countries want to extend ban on Ukraine's grain
Five central European countries want a ban on Ukrainian grains imports to be extended at least until the end of the year, agriculture ministers said on Wednesday after meeting in Warsaw.
The EU in May allowed Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia to ban domestic sales of Ukrainian wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower seeds, while allowing transit of such cargoes for export elsewhere. That ban is set to end on 15 September.
The countries include some of Kyiv’s staunchest diplomatic supporters in its war against Moscow, but they say inflows of Ukrainian grain have hurt farmers at home.
Reuters reports that the Polish agriculture minister, Robert Telus, said the five countries signed a common declaration regarding the extension of the ban until at least the end of the year, which they will present in talks with the European Commission.
Updated
Reuters reports that Ukraine is setting up a temporary shipping route to maintain grain shipments after Russia quit the Black Sea grain deal, Kyiv said in an official letter on Wednesday.
Russia attacked Ukraine’s Black Sea Odesa port for the second consecutive night on Tuesday after quitting the deal on Monday, which included Moscow revoking guarantees for safe navigation.
In a letter dated 18 July submitted to UN shipping agency, the International Shipping Organization, on Wednesday Ukraine said it had “decided to establish on a temporary basis a recommended maritime route”.
“Its goal is to facilitate the unblocking of international shipping in the north-western part of the Black Sea,” Vasyl Shkurakov, Ukraine’s acting minister for communities, territories and infrastructure development, said in the letter.
Ukraine added in the letter that the additional traffic route it was establishing would lead to the territorial waters and exclusive maritime economic zone of Romania, which is one of the neighbouring Black Sea countries.
Updated
Here are some pictures of the Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar, meeting the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and the prime minister, Denys Shmyhal.
Updated
The Ukrainian agriculture minister, Mykola Solsky, said on Wednesday that a “considerable” amount of grain export infrastructure at Chornomorsk port in Ukraine’s Odesa region had been damaged in a Russian attack, Reuters reports.
The attack also destroyed 60,000 tonnes of grain at the port that should have been loaded and shipped via the Black Sea Grain Initiative 60 days ago, he said.
“The night-time attack put a considerable part of the grain export infrastructure in the port of Chornomorsk out of operation,” Solsky said on Telegram.
Updated
The Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar, has made an unannounced visit to Kyiv where he said “Russia cannot be allowed to succeed”.
Speaking at a media briefing after talks with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Varadkar said: “My visits to the sites of these atrocities this morning, and my meeting here in Kyiv, has confirmed to me that Russia will not succeed, and Russia cannot be allowed to succeed.
“If Russia thinks that targeting civilians and essential infrastructure will discourage Ukraine’s friends, including Ireland, well, it’s wrong.
“Volodymyr Zelenskiy, we will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes. Ukraine will prevail and Ukraine will be rebuilt.”
On Twitter, Zelenskiy said: “Although Ireland is a neutral country, this neutrality does not mean indifference, and this is very important. Thank you for all your support!”
Welcome to Ukraine, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar @LeoVaradkar. Today, we will hold important negotiations - security, political cooperation, justice for Ukraine and our economic cooperation.
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 19, 2023
Although Ireland is a neutral country, this neutrality does not mean indifference, and this is… pic.twitter.com/qzxvkXw7uV
Updated
Putin will not attend Brics summit next month in ICC member nation South Africa
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, will not attend the summit of the Brics group of nations in South Africa in August “by mutual agreement”, with foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov taking his place.
A statement released by South Africa’s presidency on Wednesday said: “By mutual agreement, President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation will not attend the summit but the Russian Federation will be represented by foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.”
On Tuesday, South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, had asked permission from the ICC not to arrest Putin, because to do so would amount to a declaration of war, according to a local court submission.
On Wednesday, Russia said it did not tell South Africa that arresting Putin on a warrant from the ICC would mean “war”.
South Africa is due to host a summit of Brics nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – next month. But the ICC has an arrest warrant out for Putin, accusing him of the war crime of deporting Ukrainian children to Russia. South Africa, as an ICC member, is obliged to arrest him should he appear in person at the summit.
Updated
Zelenskiy: Russia 'deliberately targeted' Odesa port
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said Russia “deliberately targeted” grain terminals and infrastructure in the Black Sea port of Odesa.
On Telegram, Zelenskiy said: “At the morning conference call, I heard information about night-time Russian strikes on Odesa, Zhytomyr, and other regions of our country. Russian terrorists absolutely deliberately targeted the infrastructure of the grain agreement, and every Russian missile is a blow not only to Ukraine, but also to everyone in the world who seeks a normal and safe life.”
Updated
Russia did not tell South Africa that arresting President Vladimir Putin on a warrant from the international criminal court (ICC) would mean “war”, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, Reuters reports.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters, however, that everyone understood – without having it explained to them – what an attempt to infringe on Putin’s rights would mean.
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa had asked permission from the ICC not to arrest Putin, because to do so would amount to a declaration of war, a local court submission published on Tuesday showed.
South Africa is due to host a summit of Brics nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – next month. But the ICC has an arrest warrant out for Putin, accusing him of the war crime of deporting Ukrainian children to Russia. South Africa, as an ICC member, is obliged to arrest him should he appear in person at the summit.
Updated
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that the west had shown it was ready to turn a blind eye to what it said were “terrorist attacks” committed by Ukraine inside Russia, Reuters reports.
Two people were killed on Monday after Moscow said Ukraine used naval drones to attack the bridge linking Russia to the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Kyiv says Crimea is Ukrainian and that it intends to take it back by force.
Updated
Russia says UN has three months to implement terms of memorandum if Moscow is to rejoin grain deal
Russia has said that the UN has three months to implement the terms of a memorandum that would facilitate Russian agricultural exports if it wanted Moscow to resume talks about allowing Ukrainian grain exports to restart, Reuters reports.
Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told Radio Sputnik: “The Russia-UN Memorandum itself states, and I’ll quote … that the agreement will be in force for three years, and in case one of the parties intends to terminate it [either Russia or the UN], it must give three months’ notice. We have given notice.
“Accordingly, the UN still has three months to achieve concrete results. Therefore, people should not run to the microphones at the UN Secretariat, but use these three months to achieve concrete results. If there are concrete results, we will return to the discussion of this [wider] issue.”
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
Ukraine’s air force said on Wednesday it downed 37 out of 63 targets in an Russian overnight missile and drone attack. The air force said critical infrastructure and military facilities had been attacked in the nighttime strikes, and that the main target was Ukraine’s southern Odesa region.
The Guardian’s Shaun Walker described it as “a second noisy night for residents of Odesa, with numerous explosions audible from the centre of the city and officials telling residents to take cover in bomb shelters. Since Russia pulled out of the grain deal on Monday it has been targeting Ukraine’s main port city relentlessly.”
“A difficult night of air attacks for all of Ukraine, especially in the south, in Odesa,” Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv’s city military administration, said on the Telegram channel.
A fire broke out at the military training grounds in the Kirovske district on the Crimean Peninsula, the Moscow-backed governor of Crimea said on Wednesday. The fire forced the closure of the nearby Tavrida Highway, Sergei Aksyonov said on the Telegram messaging app.
Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesperson for the Odesa military administration in Ukraine, posted two videos which purport to show fire in an uninhabited area of Crimea, saying, “Enemy ammunition depot. Staryi Krym”. Staryi Krym is a small historical town in the Kirovske district of Crimea, the peninsula that Russia unilaterally annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The fire comes two days after a blast damaged a bridge linking Russia to Crimea that Moscow blamed on Ukraine.
Ukrainian presidential aide Andriy Yermak has criticised the west for not tightening loopholes in sanctions which are allowing Russia to re-stock its military supplies.
The Russian defence ministry said on Wednesday its forces destroyed a stray Ukrainian mine drifting in the south-western part of the Black Sea. It said the mine was detected by Russia’s Black Sea fleet, floating about 111 miles (180 km) north-east of the Bosporus Strait. Ukraine defensively mined its coast to prevent the closer approach of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, which has been repeatedly used to launch cruise missile attacks at targets within Ukraine.
Vitaliy Kim, governor of Mykolaiv, reports on Telegram that overnight, after a Russian attack, “recreational infrastructure facilities in a coastal zone were destroyed and set on fire. Detailed information is being clarified. Two people were injured, one of them was hospitalised.”
The head of Britain’s MI6 foreign spy service Richard Moore has said the Wagner group’s mutiny attempt in June showed Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was under pressure, adding he was optimistic about Ukraine’s counteroffensive. In a rare public address Moore said Iran’s decision to supply Moscow with suicide drones for the Ukraine conflict was “unconscionable”, and appealed to Russians appalled by the war in Ukraine to “join hands” with his intelligence service and bring the bloodshed to an end.
Updated
The Russian defence ministry said on Wednesday its forces destroyed a stray Ukrainian mine drifting in the south-western part of the Black Sea.
It said the mine was detected by Russia’s Black Sea fleet, floating about 111 miles (180km) northeast of the Bosporus Strait.
“On the decision of the ship’s commander, a Ka-27 helicopter was taken into the air, whose crew eliminated the mine with machine-gun fire,” Reuters reports the ministry said.
Ukraine defensively mined its coast to prevent the closer approach of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, which has been repeatedly used to launch cruise missile attacks at targets within Ukraine.
Updated
A gigantic pro-Russian mural painted by an Italian street artist on a bombed-out building in occupied Mariupol has sparked a row in Italy with the artist accused of plagiarism and spreading the Kremlin’s false information on the conflict in Ukraine.
On 11 July, Italian street artist Ciro Cerullo, known as Jorit, announced on his Instagram profile that he had completed a mural in the devastated Ukrainian city. The mural features the little girl with the colours of the flag of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in her eyes. Behind her, bombs with the word “Nato” are falling.
“They lied to us about Vietnam, they lied to us about Afghanistan, they lied to us about Iraq, and now I have proof: they are also lying to us about Donbas”, Jorit wrote in his post on Instagram. ‘’Be wary of those who would like to give us morals, their hands are covered in blood.’’
In an interview with Giornale Radio, Jorit said he had painted “a living little girl from Donbas who spent her first years in Mariupol surrounded by war”.
However, a number of users on Instagram and Twitter pointed out the striking resemblance to a photograph that appeared on the 2018 cover of the Australian photography magazine Capture, taken by Australian photographer Helen Whittle with the subject being her daughter, the very same little girl allegedly used as a model by Jorit in Mariupol.
La sapevate quella dell'artista "famoso" che ruba le foto protette da copyright di un'australiana per sponsorizzare un regime terrorista sulla facciata di un palazzo che prova un crimine di guerra dei suoi amici committenti? A sinistra l'originale, a destra la copia di Jorit. pic.twitter.com/zMMOcQ7myW
— Maestro Yoda 🥋 (@JediPerLItalia) July 14, 2023
As noted by Valigia Blu, an Italian non-profit independent factchecking and debunking website focusing on journalism, “before the full-scale Russian invasion there was a mural dedicated to a Ukrainian girl from Mariupol, Milana Abdurashytova”.
“In January 2015, she was hit by a missile strike launched by pro-Russian separatist forces, and she lost her mother and a leg” reports Valigia Blu. “Three years later, to commemorate Milana Abdurashytova’s story, street artist Sasha Korban dedicated a mural to her on the facade of a building on Prospekt Myru. But after the occupation, the Russians covered it up. For the Ukrainians — and the legitimate administration of Mariupol — the occupiers are “trying to erase the 2015 tragedy from the memory of the city’s residents”.
Soon after the Russian invasion – in late February – Mariupol was one of the first major cities to be encircled. Viewed as a key Kremlin objective, the city was the scene of a siege that the Red Cross has defined as “apocalyptic”. The outskirts of the city became the site of a mass grave, and the bodies of many more men, women and children were either dumped in the streets or remain buried beneath the rubble.
Updated
Reuters has spoken to a farmer in Ukraine who fears for his livelihood with the ending of the Black Sea grain export deal. Kees Huizinga, who moved from his native Netherlands to farm in central Ukraine in 2003, said his finances, already squeezed by Russia’s invasion last year, appear catastrophic.
“We have some reserves so we can survive for a month or so, but if we can’t sell it’s going to be a disaster,” he said at his 15,000-hectare farm in a village in the rolling hills and green flat plains of the Cherkasy region in central Ukraine.
The Dutchman, who grows seven major crops including wheat and sunflowers, estimates war-related disruption cost his business between $3m and $6m in 2022, and could cost it another $6m this year.
He said he was getting about $100 a ton for his barley, half the price that western European farmers would receive, and that his transportation costs had risen sharply.
“Some farmers who have more reserves will last longer, and those farmers who have less reserves will probably have to sell or close down the business, or give it to somebody else,” he said.
The Guardian’s Jamie Wilson has taken these pictures this morning at the scene of one of the overnight Russian strikes on Ukraine’s port city of Odesa.
He reported that windows were blown out in dozens of surrounding buildings.
Some more words from the head of Britain’s MI6 foreign spy service Richard Moore, who has said the Wagner group’s mutiny attempt in June showed Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was under pressure, adding he was optimistic about Ukraine’s counteroffensive.
Reuters reports that in a rare public address Moore said Iran’s decision to supply Moscow with suicide drones for the Ukraine conflict was “unconscionable”, and claimed it had provoked internal quarrels at the highest level of the regime in Tehran.
Updated
Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the president’s office, has also addressed the recent wave of Russian attacks on Odesa on social media. He posted to say:
Today’s massive and combined attack on Odesa absolutely concretely recorded the attitude of the Russian Federation to “food security”. The Russian Federation deliberately and purposefully struck grain terminals and other port facilities. The main task is to destroy the possibility of sending Ukrainian grain. These are direct strikes on civilian infrastructure and the civilian population and blows to the global food programme.
In a reference to recent comments by Russian officials about damage to the Crimean bridge being a terrorist attack on civilian infrastruture, he asked “Will [UN secretary general] António Guterres make statements about the ‘inadmissibility of strikes on legitimate civilian infrastructure’?” and Podolyak challenged the UN to hold a security meeting about the attacks.
There are some punchy statements coming out of Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s presidential office this morning. First off, on Telegram Andriy Yermak has criticised the west for not tightening loopholes in sanctions which are allowing Russia to re-stock its military supplies. He said:
The Russian terror of Odesa proves once again that they need hunger and problems in the countries of the global south. They want to create a refugee crisis for the west. Everything is done in order to weaken allies and politically intervene in the internal affairs of these countries.
For this, the Russians use weapons that cannot be manufactured without components produced in the west and in Asian countries.
We need a systemic response.
It is necessary to strengthen sanctions, in particular, against those who help the Russians to circumvent them. We are waiting, our allies are preparing a solution. It is also possible to stop the re-export of necessary components for the manufacture of weapons, if those with the responsibility for this will act strictly.
He reiterated Ukraine’s appeal for longer range weapons, saying:
The answer to terror is force. Weapons, aviation, long-range missiles – this is what Ukraine needs. We must expel the Russian Federation from our territory.
Updated
The head of Britain’s MI6 foreign spy service appealed on Wednesday to Russians appalled by the war in Ukraine to “join hands” with his intelligence service and bring the bloodshed to an end.
In his second speech since becoming chief of the Secret Intelligence Service in 2020, Moore said there appeared little prospect of Russia regaining momentum in Ukraine.
Delivering his speech at the British embassy in Prague, he likened the current situation in Ukraine to the Prague spring in 1968.
“As they witness the venality, infighting and callous incompetence of their leaders – the human factor as its worst – many Russians are wrestling with the same dilemmas as their predecessors did in 1968,” Reuters reports Moore said.
“I invite them to do what others have done this past 18 months and join hands with us. Our door is always open … their secrets will be safe with us and together we will work to bring the bloodshed to an end.”
Updated
Suspilne reports that Ukraine is considering the possibility of a “grain corridor” through the territorial waters of Romania and Bulgaria, after Russia’s withdrawal from the grain deal. It cited Ukraine’s ambassador to Turkey.
Updated
Here is one of the unverified video clips purporting to be the fire at a military training ground in Russian-annexed Crimea that has being doing the rounds on social media this morning.
July 19th, multiple secondary explosions at the Starokrymsky training ground in Crimea, which has been used, among other things, to train the 56th Guards Air Assault Regiment of the Russian army. pic.twitter.com/oj1CgZt1io
— Mark Krutov (@kromark) July 19, 2023
The Guardian has not independently verified the location or time the video was taken.
Here is a selection of some of the most recent pictures sent to us from Ukraine and Crimea.
Shaun Walker is in Odesa for the Guardian:
It was a second noisy night for residents of Odesa, with numerous explosions audible from the centre of the city and officials telling residents to take cover in bomb shelters. Since Russia pulled out of the grain deal on Monday it has been targeting Ukraine’s main port city relentlessly.
A wave of missiles and drones were used in the overnight attacks, most of which were intercepted by Ukrainian air defences. Various residents shared videos on Telegram of damage to windows or shrapnel damage from falling debris, but was it not immediately clear if there were casualties in the city.
Ukraine’s air force said six high-precision Onix missiles were directed at Odesa’s port, where yesterday USAid chief Samatha Power held a press conference.
On Wednesday morning, authorities reported they were battling a fire in the broader Odesa region after Russian incoming hit warehouses containing fireworks and tobacco. One person was injured there.
Updated
Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, has posted this latest news update from Odesa. It writes:
During the night attack on Odesa region, rockets hit the grain and oil terminal, damaged tanks and equipment for loading, and a fire broke out, said Vladyslav Nazarov, the spokesperson for the “South” command.
In the Odesa region, an industrial facility was hit, where an employee was injured, and two warehouses in different locations were also hit – with tobacco and fireworks.
Also, as a result of combat work, several apartment buildings were damaged by an explosive wave in residential complexes of Odesa. At least six residents of Odesa, including a nine-year-old boy, sought medical help after being injured by fragments of glass and other objects.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Jamie Wilson, who is in Odesa for the Guardian, reports that, after a night of intense Russian attacks, “it is business as usual in central Odesa this morning, with lots of cars and buses and people going off to work.”
Ukraine claims it shot down 37 out of 63 drones and missiles launched overnight
Ukraine’s air force said on Wednesday it downed 37 out of 63 targets in an Russian overnight missile and drone attack, including 23 suicide drones and 14 cruise missiles.
The air force said critical infrastructure and military facilities had been attacked in the nighttime strikes, and that the main target was Ukraine’s southern Odesa region.
Reuters reports that Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesperson for the Odesa military administration in Ukraine, has posted two videos which purport to show fire in an uninhabited area of Crimea, saying, “Enemy ammunition depot. Staryi Krym.”
Staryi Krym is a small historical town in the Kirovske district of Crimea, the peninsula that Russia unilaterally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
The fire comes two days after a blast damaged a bridge linking Russia to Crimea that Moscow blamed on Ukraine.
Vitaliy Kim, governor of Mykolaiv, reports on Telegram that overnight, after a Russian attack, “recreational infrastructure facilities in a coastal zone were destroyed and set on fire. Detailed information is being clarified. Two people were injured, one of them was hospitalised.”
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
Air alerts declared for most of Ukraine overnight
Most of Ukraine was under air raid alerts on and off starting soon after midnight on Wednesday, with Russia striking other places, including a drone attack on Kyiv.
“A difficult night of air attacks for all of Ukraine, especially in the south, in Odesa,” Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv’s city military administration, said on the Telegram channel.
He said Kyiv was attacked and according to preliminary information there was some damage or casualties.
2,000 to be evacuated following due to fire in Crimea, says governor
The Moscow-backed governor of Crimea has said on Telegram that 2,000 people will be evacuated as a result of the fire.
Sergei Aksyonov wrote:
The temporary evacuation of residents of four settlements – that’s more than two thousand people – is planned from the area adjacent to the landfill in the Kirovsky district. The operational headquarters has been deployed, all specialised services are working on the spot.
Updated
Fire breaks out at Crimea military base
A fire broke out at the military training grounds in the Kirovske district on the Crimean peninsula, the Moscow-backed governor of Crimea said on Wednesday.
The fire forced the closure of the nearby Tavrida highway, Sergei Aksyonov said on the Telegram messaging app.
Earlier, the RBC-Ukraine news agency reported that there were explosions on the military training grounds.
Updated
Russia launches second night of strikes on Ukraine’s Odesa: governor
Russia launched strikes on Ukraine‘s southern Odesa region, the local governor said early Wednesday, the second consecutive night of attacks on the area since Moscow pulled out of a grain export deal.
AFP: Oleg Kiper said there had been a “massive attack”, without providing details.
He asked residents to stay in shelters.
Ukraine’s air force said it had detected the launch of Kalibr missiles from the Black Sea, without giving details.
A video posted on social media purporting to show the aftermath of a strike showed a multi-storey apartment building with several windows blown out and shards of glass on the street.
Air alerts were issued for more than a dozen regions across Ukraine.
On Tuesday a Russian strike damaged facilities at the port city of Odesa after Moscow pulled out of an agreement facilitating the safe shipment of grain from Ukraine.
The Kremlin later issued a veiled warning over the future of grain exports via the Black Sea, claiming Kyiv was using the export corridor “for combat purposes”.
Opening summary
Welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine with me, Helen Sullivan.
Our top stories this morning: Russia launched strikes on Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, the local governor said early Wednesday, the second consecutive night of attacks on the area since Moscow pulled out of a grain export deal.
Oleg Kiper urged residents to stay in shelters, before declaring the air alarm suspended, without providing details on damage.
And a fire broke out at the military training grounds in the Kirovske district on the Crimean Peninsula early on Wednesday morning, the Moscow-backed governor of Crimea said.
The fire forced the closure of the nearby Tavrida Highway, Russian-installed Governor Sergei Aksyonov of Crimea said on the Telegram messaging app. Earlier, the RBC-Ukraine news agency reported that there were explosions on the military training grounds. Neither the Guardian nor Reuters have independently verified the report.
Elsewhere:
Russia’s defence ministry said on Tuesday it had carried out overnight strikes on two Ukrainian port cities in what it called “a mass revenge strike” a day after an attack on the Kursk Bridge, which it blamed on Kyiv. The ministry claiming thats it hit “facilities where terrorist acts against the Russian Federation were being prepared using crewless boats, as well as at the place of their manufacture at a shipyard near the city of Odesa”, and fuel depots in Mykolayiv.
Russia and Ukraine presented vastly different accounts of fighting in northeastern Ukraine on Tuesday, with Moscow reporting advances by its troops and Kyiv saying it had seized the initiative in the region. Both sides reported no letup in the fighting. Ukraine has reported a measure of progress in a counteroffensive launched early last month in the east and in capturing villages in the south, while Moscow says it has contained any move forward by Kyiv’s forces.
Both sides have achieved “marginal advances” in different areas over the past week, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said in its latest intelligence update on the conflict.
There are a “number of ideas being floated” to help get Ukrainian and Russian grain and fertiliser to global markets after Moscow quit a deal allowing the safe export of Ukraine grain through the Black Sea, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
The head of USAid accused Putin of making a “life and death decision” affecting millions of the world’s poorest people by withdrawing from the Black Sea grain deal. Speaking in the shadow of several vast grain silos in the key trading port of Odesa, Samantha Power pledged a further $250m to create and expand alternative routes for Ukrainian grain to leave the country, but admitted nothing would compensate for the loss of the Black Sea ports.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, discussed with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, ways of exporting Russian grain via routes “that would not be susceptible to Kyiv and the west’s sabotage”, Russia’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has asked permission from the international criminal court not to arrest Russia’s Vladimir Putin, because to do so would amount to a declaration of war, a local court submission published on Tuesday showed. South Africa is due to host a summit of the BRICS club of nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – next month. But the ICC has an arrest warrant out for Putin, accusing him of the war crime of deporting Ukrainian children to Russia. South Africa, as an ICC member, is obliged to arrest him should he appear in person at the summit.
An investigation has identified military units under Russia’s command that carried out human rights abuses last year during the occupation of the Ukrainian city of Izium. The report by the Centre for Information Resilience names four militia units that allegedly abused civilians and prisoners of war.
US General Mark Milley said in a Pentagon briefing that Ukraine’s counteroffensive is far from a failure but the fight ahead will be long. He said: “I think there’s a lot of fighting left to go and I’ll stay with what we said before: This is going to be long. It’s going be hard. It’s going to be bloody.”
Ben Wallace, the outgoing UK defence secretary, said the war in Ukraine is “winnable”, arguing the Nato alliance “does function” as a deterrent against Russia at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change conference in London.
Russia’s parliament has extended the eligibility for military call-up by at least five years – in the case of the highest-ranking officers, up to the age of 70.
Britain’s Ministry of Defence said on Tuesday it plans to invest £2.5bn ($3.3bn) in army stockpiles and munitions “to improve fighting readiness”, as it “takes learnings from the war in Ukraine”.
Russian air defences and electronic countermeasure systems downed 28 Ukrainian drones over Crimea in the early hours of Tuesday, the RIA news agency has cited the Russian defence ministry as saying. The drone attacks caused no casualties or damages, the ministry said.
Russian state-owned media is reporting that Russian Federation security services claim to have detained a woman on suspicion of preparing “a terrorist attack” in the Yaroslavl region, to the north of Moscow.
