Closing summary
It’s just past midnight in Kyiv. That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, and the Russia-Ukraine war blog today.
Here’s a recap of today’s developments:
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 that the deal could be revived if the Russia-focused part of the agreement was honoured.
Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea grain initiative could drive global grain prices up by 10 to 15%, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned. IMF chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas told reporters that the UN-brokered deal, which allowed Ukrainian exports via the Black Sea, had been “instrumental in making sure that there will be ample grain supply to the world in the last year”.
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.
Russian claims that the deaths of at least 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war being held in occupied Donetsk region were caused by a Ukrainian HIMARS rocket have been rejected by the UN’s human rights chief, Volker Türk, whose office has been investigating the incident.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, “hid” and could not act decisively when the head of the Wagner mercenary group launched his attempted rebellion in June, with some critics saying Putin has now lost his reputation as the “toughest man in town” due to the incident. according to a Washington Post report.
The British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has shared with Ukraine intelligence that Russia has laid additional mines in the Black Sea and may attack civilian shipping in the region, the UK’s ambassador to the UN has said. “We agree with the US assessment that this is a coordinated effort to justify and lay blame on Ukraine for any attacks against civilian ships in the Black Sea,” Barbara Woodward said.
Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, will lead a government delegation to visit North Korea this week, Shoigu’s ministry has said. The Russian delegation will join a Chinese group, led by Chinese Communist party politburo member Li Hongzhong, to celebrate the 70th anniversary of “Victory Day” on Thursday in Pyongyang, state media KCNA reported.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has warned that “no one will forgive” any of his country’s politicians or officials if they “oppose” the state following the arrest of a Ukrainian MP suspected of collaborating with Russia. Oleksandr Ponomaryov, a Ukrainian member of parliament, was placed in detention without bail by Kyiv’s Pechersk district court pending trial on treason allegations, the prosecutor general’s office said on Tuesday.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has warned that “no one will forgive” any of his country’s politicians or officials if they “oppose” the state following the arrest of a Ukrainian MP suspected of collaborating with Russia.
Oleksandr Ponomaryov, a Ukrainian member of parliament, was placed in detention without bail by Kyiv’s Pechersk district court pending trial on treason allegations, the prosecutor general’s office said on Tuesday.
Ukraine’s security service said in a statement that Ponomaryov had “willingly collaborated” with Russia when he was in the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region. The agency accused him of re-registering his businesses in the area under Russian laws, transferring money into local branches of Russian banks, supplying the Russian military with “fuel-oil materials” for their vehicles and of providing equipment used to make fortifications, Reuters reported.
Ponomaryov’s arrest comes days after Yevhen Borysov, the former head of Odesa’s regional centre for recruitment and social support, was also detained by Ukrainian authorities on suspicion of illicit enrichment amounting to hundreds of millions of hryvnias and for deliberately evading his official duties.
In his nightly address, Zelenskiy said he wanted “to warn all MPs, officials, and everyone else in public office” that “any personal enrichment instead of Ukraine’s interests triggers fury at the very least”.
The Ukrainian leader said:
No one will forgive MPs, judges, ‘military commissars’ or any other officials for putting themselves in opposition to the state. For some, it’s about islands and resorts during the war, for others it’s about lining one’s pockets in the military enlistment office, for others it’s about bribes in the courts. For any public official, this is a betrayal of state principles, a betrayal of the interests of society.
