End of day summary
- The Sierra Leone-flagged ship Razoni, carrying 26,000 tons of corn, has left the port of Odesa, destined for Lebanon. It is the first such departure since the start of the Russian invasion, according to Ukraine’s infrastructure ministry. “Ukraine together with our partners has taken another step today in preventing world hunger,” Oleksandr Kubrakov, Ukraine’s infrastructure minister, said in a statement on Monday. Kubrakov stressed that Ukraine had done “everything” to restore the ports and said the lifting of the blockade would give Ukraine’s economy $1bn in foreign exchange revenue.
- Russia agreed to allow grain ships to leave Ukraine and to not attack them, in a deal signed on 22 July in Istanbul. But less than 24 hours later, the veracity of the deal was cast into doubt when Russian forces struck Odesa port. When questioned by Turkey’s defence minister, Russia at first denied it was involved in the attack. But the next day it issued a statement saying it had struck a Ukrainian vessel carrying western weapons that was in the port. Ukraine’s authorities rejected Russia’s explanation.
- Russia is moving large numbers of troops to Ukraine’s south in preparation for a Ukrainian counteroffensive, according to Ukraine’s deputy head of military intelligence. “They are increasing their troop numbers, preparing for our counteroffensive [in Ukraine’s south] and perhaps preparing to launch an offensive of their own,” Vadym Skibitsky said. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Russia was relocating some of its troops from their positions in the east to the south in order to push towards Kherson’s regional capital as well as the Zaporizhzhia region.
- Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been urged to evacuate the frontline eastern Donetsk region, the scene of fierce clashes with the Russian military. More than 50,000 children are still in the region, according to local officials. “They need to be evacuated, you cannot put them in mortal danger in the winter without heating, light, without the ability to keep them warm,” Kyiv’s ministry of reintegration of temporarily occupied territories said in a statement.
- Russia claims five people were injured after a Ukrainian drone strike on its Black Sea fleet headquarters, prompting officials to cancel festivities planned for Navy Day. “Early this morning, [Ukraine] decided to spoil our Navy Day,” said Mikhail Razvozhayev, the head of the local Russian administration in Sevastopol in Crimea. “An unidentified object flew into the yard of the fleet headquarters. According to preliminary data, it was a drone. Five people were injured.”
- Russian strikes hit the southern Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv early on Sunday, wounding three people and damaging homes and schools, according to the city’s mayor, Oleksandr Senkevych. Zelenskiy described the strikes as “probably the most brutal” on the city and region of the entire war.
- Russian shelling on Mykolaiv reportedly killed one of Ukraine’s wealthiest men, Oleksiy Vadatursky, and his wife, Raisa. Vadatursky headed the grain production and export business Nibulon, which included a fleet of ships for sending grain abroad. A presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, said Vadatursky was specifically targeted and his death was “not an accident, but a well thought out and organised premeditated murder”.
- The European Union has sent Ukraine €1bn (£837m) in financial aid to support its budget and help it tackle the financial consequences of the Russian invasion, the Ukrainian prime minister said on Monday. Denys Shmyhal wrote on the Telegram messaging app: “The €1bn is a part of a large package of support for Ukraine … totalling €9bn. The funds will help finance priority budgetary needs.”
- Ukrainian forces have recaptured more than 40 settlements in the key southern region of Kherson, as Kyiv looks to drive back Russian troops in a counteroffensive, the local governor said Monday. Moscow seized almost all the territory of the economically and strategically important region bordering the annexed Crimea peninsula during the first days of its invasion, Reuters reports. But in recent weeks the Ukrainian army, bolstered by deliveries of western-supplied long-range artillery, has sought to stage a counteroffensive in the area.
- The mayor of Mykolaiv has said an attack on medical facilities in the city today is “nothing more than cynical terrorism by Russian troops”. Oleksandr Syenkevych described the damage on Telegram, informing residents: “This is an ordinary hospital, which every day received residents of the city, including victims of Russian shelling. Therefore, today’s attack on this medical facility is nothing more than cynical terrorism by Russian troops.”
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Russia has banned 39 senior British politicians, businesspeople and journalists from entering the country, including the Labour party leader, Keir Starmer, the former prime minister David Cameron and the presenter Piers Morgan. The journalists banned include the Guardian’s defence and security editor, Dan Sabbagh, as well as British journalists working for the BBC, the Sunday Times, the Economist, the Daily Telegraph and Sky News.
We are closing this liveblog now. Thanks so much for joining us.
The daily gas production of Russia’s Gazprom dropped in July to its lowest level since 2008, figures suggest, amid continued fears that Moscow could cause an energy crisis in Europe by shutting off the supply.
The state-owned energy firm pumped 774 million cubic metres a day last month – 14% less than in June – according to analysis by Bloomberg of data released on Monday.
It found the Russian gas export monopoly’s overall total output for the year was 262.4 billion cubic metres, a 12% fall compared with the same period last year.
The slowdown in production follows the deterioration in relations between Russia and the European Union since Vladimir Putin ordered troops to invade Ukraine in late February.
The Kremlin-controlled business cut gas supplies to the continent’s main pipeline to Europe – Nord Stream 1 – last week to just 20% of capacity.
Gazprom has claimed this is due to maintenance issues with its turbines, but the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said there was “no justifiable technical reason” for the reduction.
Read more here:
Full story: Keir Starmer and Piers Morgan among new list of Britons banned from Russia
Russia has banned 39 senior British politicians, businesspeople and journalists from entering the country, including the Labour party leader, Keir Starmer, the former prime minister David Cameron and the presenter Piers Morgan.
The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement published on its website on Monday:
It was decided to include on the Russian ‘stop list’ a number of British politicians, businessmen and journalists who contribute to London’s hostile course aimed at the demonising of our country and contributing to its international isolation.
Given London’s destructive drive to spin the sanctions flywheel on far-fetched and absurd pretexts, work on expanding the Russian stop list will continue.
The shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, and the shadow levelling up secretary, Lisa Nandy, are also on the list.
The journalists banned include the Guardian’s defence and security editor, Dan Sabbagh, as well as British journalists working for the BBC, the Sunday Times, the Economist, the Daily Telegraph and Sky News.
Moscow banned dozens of British journalists, media figures and defence figures from entering the country in June in what the foreign ministry said was a response to western sanctions and the “spreading of false information about Russia”. In total, more than 200 Britons, including most of the country’s leading politicians, are banned from entering the country.
Russia has launched an unprecedented crackdown on Russian and foreign independent news outlets since its 24 February invasion of Ukraine, as well as on foreign social media networks. Legislation was introduced soon after the war began to criminalise media outlets that disseminate “false information” about the Russian army. Russia has already barred dozens of US and Canadian officials and journalists from entering.
Read more here:
Vladimir Putin said on Monday there could be no winners in a nuclear war and no such war should ever be started.
The Russian president made the comment in a letter to participants of a conference on the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), more than five months into his war on Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Putin said:
We proceed from the fact that there can be no winners in a nuclear war and it should never be unleashed, and we stand for equal and indivisible security for all members of the world community.
His words to the NPT forum appeared aimed at striking a reassuring note and portraying Russia as a responsible nuclear power.
They contrasted with earlier statements by Putin and other Russian politicians that have been interpreted in the west as implicit nuclear threats.
In a speech on 24 February as he launched the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Putin pointedly referred to Russia’s nuclear arsenal and warned outside powers that any attempt to interfere would “lead you to such consequences that you have never encountered in your history”.
Days later, he ordered Russia’s nuclear forces to be put on high alert.
Earlier on Monday, a Russian foreign ministry source questioned the seriousness of comments by the US president, Joe Biden, calling for talks on a nuclear arms control framework to replace a treaty expiring in 2026.
Updated
Russian lawmakers on Monday tabled a bill that would ban the adoption of Russian children by citizens of “unfriendly” countries as tensions soar over Moscow’s military intervention in Ukraine.
If passed, the bill would expand a 2012 law that prohibited US families from adopting Russian children, AFP reports.
At the time the ban provoked an outcry, with Kremlin critics saying it made Russian orphans – many with physical or mental difficulties – the victims of a standoff between Washington and Moscow.
The new bill published on the website of parliament’s lower house, the State Duma, proposes extending the ban to citizens of countries “that commit unfriendly actions” against Russia.
After the West piled unprecedented sanctions on Moscow following President Vladimir Putin’s decision to send troops to pro-Western Ukraine on February 24, Russia expanded the list of what it calls “unfriendly” countries.
They now include the US, Australia, Canada, Britain, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, and all EU member states.
The bill has to be approved by both chambers of the Russian parliament and signed into law by Putin.
In 2012, Moscow banned the adoption of Russian children by American families to punish Washington over its passing of a law sanctioning Russian officials implicated in the death in jail of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in 2009.
Since the law was introduced, the number of Russian children adopted by foreign families has dropped drastically.
State news agency TASS said 240 Russian children were adopted abroad in 2019, compared with 2,604 in 2012.
Updated
Updated
Full story: Grain ship leaves Ukraine port for first time since Russia blockade
A ship carrying Ukrainian grain has left the port of Odesa for the first time since the start of the Russian invasion under an internationally brokered deal to unblock Ukraine’s agricultural exports and ease a growing global food crisis.
The Sierra Leone-flagged ship Razoni, carrying 26,000 tonnes of corn, finally set sail for Lebanon on Monday morning, according to Ukraine’s infrastructure ministry, after weeks of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, led by Turkey and the United Nations.
The Russian blockade of Ukraine’s ports since the start of the war in February has stoked a worldwide grain shortage that has caused the UN to warn of a looming hunger catastrophe.
“Ukraine, together with our partners, has taken another step today in preventing world hunger,” said Oleksandr Kubrakov, Ukraine’s infrastructure minister. He said Ukraine had done “everything” to restore the ports and said the lifting of the blockade would give Ukraine’s economy $1bn (£820m) in foreign exchange revenue.
The Kremlin said the news of the departure was “very positive”, and Turkey’s defence ministry said more ships would follow. Kubrakov said 16 loaded vessels had been stuck in Ukraine’s ports since the Russian invasion began, and officials planned for the ports to regain full transport capacity in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, fighting continued across Ukraine’s frontlines, according to Ukraine’s general staff, as four additional US-supplied Himars long-range rocket systems as well as a third German Mars II, another long-range rocket system, arrived in Ukraine.
Read more here:
Updated
Russia bans 39 more Britons including Labour leader Keir Starmer
Moscow has blacklisted another 39 Britons including the Labour party leader, Keir Starmer, and the former prime minister David Cameron.
Russia’s foreign ministry said the citizens listed, including journalists, “contribute to the hostile course of London aimed at the demonisation of our country and its international isolation”.
Russia has banned 39 more British journalists and politicians from entering the country, including Starmer, Cameron and Piers Morgan pic.twitter.com/BaCcpSydCx
— Pjotr Sauer (@PjotrSauer) August 1, 2022
The ministry added:
The choice in favour of confrontation is the conscious decision of the British political establishment, which bears all responsibility for the consequences.
Russia has banned several dozen British citizens – mostly politicians and journalists – from entering Russia since the start of its military campaign in Ukraine.
The new additions include several Labour MPs, Scottish politicians and members of the House of Lords.
Among the media names is the head of the BBC newsgathering, Jonathan Munro, the TV presenter Piers Morgan, ITV News’ political editor Robert Peston, The Sunday Times’ political editor Caroline Wheeler and the BBC News presenter Huw Edwards.
The list also features shadow communities secretary Lisa Nandy, shadow international trade secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds and Conservative former cabinet minister Liam Fox.
Reacting to the news on Twitter, Morgan said:
It wasn’t on my immediate vacation to-do list.
Updated
Attack on hospital in Mykolaiv described as 'cynical terrorism' by mayor
The mayor of Mykolaiv has said an attack on medical facilities in the city today is “nothing more than cynical terrorism by Russian troops”.
Oleksandr Syenkevych described the damage on Telegram, informing residents:
For some time, our emergency hospital will not be able to accept patients.
There it is necessary to dismantle the rubble of the destroyed trauma centre and remove dangerous structures from the surviving part, dismantle the frames of damaged windows and remove all the garbage.
Part of the hospital’s main building was also destroyed. There, too, it is necessary to put everything in order. In those departments that survived, we will remove all the debris, block the windows and check the equipment.
He added: “This is an ordinary hospital, which every day received residents of the city, including victims of Russian shelling. Therefore, today’s attack on this medical facility is nothing more than cynical terrorism by Russian troops.”
Images have emerged of firefighters tackling a blaze at the hospital, and of a crater left by the attack.
Updated
A crew member onboard the Razoni, which left Odesa this morning, has said the news that the ship would depart was the “best feeling” of the year. Abdullah Jendi, a junior engineer from Syria, had been stuck in Odesa for some time, and said that because of his work at sea he had not seen his family for more than a year.
“It was a great feeling,” he said about the news they could leave. “Everyone on the ship was very happy. I can say that it was the best feeling we have had in 2022.”
He admitted some concern, however. He told Reuters: “To be honest, I am scared from the fact that there are naval mines. This is the only thing that I fear during this trip. As for the other things, we are used to them as sailors.”
Jendi said alarms would go off in Odesa every day and the crew had feared they would never get to go home. “We did not know when we would be released, so we lived every day on the hope of being released,” he said. “In the beginning there was a lack of food and water supplies reaching the ship, as there was a lockdown when the war started. When the restrictions were eased, we were able to go to the city and buy what we needed and clear our minds from the stress.”
The journey to Lebanon will take about a week.
“The feeling is indescribable. It is so important to live in security, because I spent a while experiencing the feeling of danger, the great fear knowing that at any moment something could happen to us because of the air strikes,” Jendi said.
“We couldn’t even turn on the lights at night. We couldn’t be outside at night for our safety. The port would be completely dark for security reasons.”
Updated
Ukrainian forces have recaptured more than 40 settlements in the key southern region of Kherson, as Kyiv looks to drive back Russian troops in a counteroffensive, the local governor said Monday.
Moscow seized almost all the territory of the economically and strategically important region bordering the annexed Crimea peninsula during the first days of its invasion, Reuters reports.
But in recent weeks the Ukrainian army, bolstered by deliveries of western-supplied long-range artillery, has sought to stage a counteroffensive in the area.
Kyiv’s forces have been carrying out strikes on Russian military warehouses and positions behind the frontline and hit bridges acting as crucial supply routes for Moscow’s troops in the city of Kherson.
“Today, 46 settlements have already been de-occupied in the Kherson region,” Dmytro Butriy, the head of the Ukrainian regional administration, told national TV.
Butriy added that the majority of the regained villages lie in the northern part of the region, while some others are located in its southern part, close to the Black Sea and the heavily bombarded Mykolaiv region.
The governor said some of the recaptured villages “have been 90% destroyed and today are still under constant fire”.
Butriy said the humanitarian situation in the region was “critical” and he reiterated authorities’ call to those who remain in the area “to evacuate to safer regions”.
Updated
Ukraine has received a batch of four more US-made high mobility artillery rocket systems (Himars), Ukraine’s defence minister said on Monday.
Oleksii Reznikov wrote on Twitter that he was grateful for the help strengthening the Ukraine army.
4 additional HIMARS have arrived in🇺🇦. I’m grateful to @POTUS @SecDef Lloyd Austin III and 🇺🇸people for strengthening of #UAarmy
— Oleksii Reznikov (@oleksiireznikov) August 1, 2022
We have proven to be smart operators of this weapon. The sound of the #HIMARS volley has become a top hit 🎶 of this summer at the front lines!
🇺🇦🤝🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/iOBoxfjV7e
Himars have a longer range and are more precise than Ukraine’s Soviet-era artillery, allowing Ukrainian forces to hit Russian targets that were previously unreachable, Reuters reports.
Updated
Updated
My colleague Shaun Walker has looked into Dmitry Medvedev’s journey from liberal to anti-western hawk. Critics say the former Russian leader’s furious tirades are a desperate attempt to retain political relevance.
Joe Biden is a “strange grandfather with dementia”. The EU leadership are “lunatics”. Russia will ensure that Ukraine “disappears from the map” in the near future.
Welcome to another week as seen through the eyes of Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president and prime minister, and the deputy head of the country’s security council.
Medvedev has been on quite a political journey in recent years. Back in 2008, when he became Russia’s president, he promised modernisation and liberalisation, and frequently spoke of his love for blogging and gadgets. He even visited Silicon Valley and received a new iPhone 4 from Steve Jobs.
Now, he is an enthusiastic participant in the macho posturing and genocidal rhetoric that have become the main currency of political discourse in wartime Moscow.
“I’m often asked why my Telegram posts are so harsh,” wrote Medvedev recently. “Well, I’ll answer: I hate them. They are bastards and degenerates. They want us, Russia, to die. And while I’m still alive, I will do everything to make them disappear.” He did not specify whether the “they” in question referred to Ukrainians, western politicians, or both.
Medvedev’s physical transformation is as extraordinary as his ideological shift: a decade ago he was boyish, nerdy and seemed almost charmingly awkward wearing a suit and conducting the business of state. Now he looks jaded and puffy-faced, his eyes glazed over as he launches tirades against the west.
Medvedev’s rebooted persona is an apparent attempt to retain political relevance in a climate that has darkened significantly in the decade since he left the presidency.
“He’s trying to save himself from political oblivion by out-Heroding Herod, and consequently posturing as a candidate in a Kremlin Apprentice show,” said Ekaterina Schulmann, a Russian political scientist at the Robert Bosch Academy in Berlin.
Maria Pevchikh, an associate of the imprisoned Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, interpreted Medvedev’s shift in more personal terms: “When you feel you are a pointless and pathetic person, like Dmitry Medvedev, you try to reinvent yourself from time to time. He could have shaved his head, or gone to the gym … but instead he decided to reinvent himself as a hawk,” she said, in a video discussion devoted to Medvedev’s strange behaviour in May.
Read more here:
Updated
The EU and Nato on Monday welcomed the departure of the grain shipment from Ukraine as a “first step” towards easing the food crisis caused by the Russian invasion.
But an EU spokesperson, Peter Stano, said Brussels still expected the “implementation of the whole deal and resumption of Ukrainian exports to the customers around the world”, Agence France-Press reports.
Separately, the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said western allies “strongly support the full implementation of the deal to ease the global food crisis caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine”.
Earlier the Razoni, a Sierra Leone-registered cargo ship, had left the Ukrainian port of Odesa bound for Lebanon with a vital shipment of 26,000 tonnes of grain.
It was the first vessel to leave a Ukrainian port since Moscow and Kyiv signed an agreement brokered by Turkey and the UN to permit food shipments despite the conflict.
Speaking to the EU foreign service, Stano accused the Kremlin of blocking the shipments for months and noted that Russia had fired missiles at the port of Odesa a day after the deal was signed.
He blamed the food shortages affecting parts of the Middle East and Africa on “the unprovoked Russian aggression on February 24 and the blocking of Ukrainian ports and grain exports”.
Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February and have seized or bombarded several ports, some of which Ukrainian defenders have since mined to protect them.
Under the deal signed in Istanbul on 22 July, Ukraine is to remove the mines and Russia to lift its blockade, but shipments have been slow to restart and fighting on land continues.
In addition, according to Stano, Russia is “destroying the fields in Ukraine, destroying the silos in Ukraine, burning the grain or looting and trying to sell it on behalf of Russia”.
Updated
The European Union has sent Ukraine €1bn (£837m) in financial aid to support its budget and help it tackle the financial consequences of the Russian invasion, the Ukrainian prime minister said on Monday.
Denys Shmyhal wrote on the Telegram messaging app:
The €1bn is a part of a large package of support for Ukraine … totalling €9bn. The funds will help finance priority budgetary needs.
He said the first tranche, amounting to €500m, was already in the account of the Ukrainian central bank, while the remainder is expected to be there on 2 August.
Updated
Updated
Twitter accounts that have promoted QAnon and anti-vaccine conspiracy theories are switching focus and increasingly spreading disinformation about the global food crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to a new study.
The research by the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) found that conspiracy theorist social media accounts have started pushing the idea that western countries are responsible for the interruption of wheat, barley and maize exports from Ukraine.
The Russian government has made the same claims in recent weeks, blaming western sanctions for a slowdown in grain exports. Russia has blocked Ukraine’s shipping ports, which has prevented the export of tens of millions of tonnes of grain. The UN has suggested 49 million people could be pushed into famine or famine-like conditions because of Russia’s actions.
The NCRI, which tracks misinformation and manipulation on social media, found that conspiracy communities and influencers linked to QAnon, the extremist conspiracy movement whose followers believe Donald Trump is waging war against the “deep state”, are shifting from conspiracy theories around Covid-19 to food crisis disinformation.
According to NCRI, the accounts frequently link rising food insecurity to a “cabal of shadowy, and often Jewish elites, for bringing about the ‘New World Order’”, rather than to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In one example GhostEzra, an antisemitic QAnon social media influencer who has declared Covid “fake”, wrote on Telegram: “Never believe for one moment there’s a shortage of anything. Food. Water. Oil. They create and manufacture these shortages. These aren’t naturally occurring whatsoever.”
The “they”, the NCRI said, referred to Jewish people.
“There is a significant overlap between QAnon and other anti-vax and online conspiracy communities,” said Alex Goldenberg, the lead intelligence analyst at the NCRI and a research fellow at the Rutgers Miller Center for Community Protection and Resilience.
“Some of the more colourful food-mandate conspiracies intermingle with anti-vaccine conspiracy theories.”
Read more here:
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
- The Sierra Leone-flagged ship Razoni, carrying 26,000 tons of corn, has left the port of Odesa, destined for Lebanon. It is the first such departure since the start of the Russian invasion, according to Ukraine’s infrastructure ministry. “Ukraine together with our partners has taken another step today in preventing world hunger,” Oleksandr Kubrakov, Ukraine’s infrastructure minister, said in a statement on Monday. Kubrakov stressed that Ukraine had done “everything” to restore the ports and said the lifting of the blockade would give Ukraine’s economy $1bn in foreign exchange revenue.
- Russia agreed to allow grain ships to leave Ukraine and to not attack them, in a deal signed on 22 July in Istanbul. But less than 24 hours later, the veracity of the deal was cast into doubt when Russian forces struck Odesa port. When questioned by Turkey’s defence minister, Russia at first denied it was involved in the attack. But the next day it issued a statement saying it had struck a Ukrainian vessel carrying western weapons that was in the port. Ukraine’s authorities rejected Russia’s explanation.
- Russia is moving large numbers of troops to Ukraine’s south in preparation for a Ukrainian counteroffensive, according to Ukraine’s deputy head of military intelligence. “They are increasing their troop numbers, preparing for our counteroffensive [in Ukraine’s south] and perhaps preparing to launch an offensive of their own,” Vadym Skibitsky said. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Russia was relocating some of its troops from their positions in the east to the south in order to push towards Kherson’s regional capital as well as the Zaporizhzhia region.
- Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been urged to evacuate the frontline eastern Donetsk region, the scene of fierce clashes with the Russian military. More than 50,000 children are still in the region, according to local officials. “They need to be evacuated, you cannot put them in mortal danger in the winter without heating, light, without the ability to keep them warm,” Kyiv’s ministry of reintegration of temporarily occupied territories said in a statement.
- Russia claims five people were injured after a Ukrainian drone strike on its Black Sea fleet headquarters, prompting officials to cancel festivities planned for Navy Day. “Early this morning, [Ukraine] decided to spoil our Navy Day,” said Mikhail Razvozhayev, the head of the local Russian administration in Sevastopol in Crimea. “An unidentified object flew into the yard of the fleet headquarters. According to preliminary data, it was a drone. Five people were injured.”
- Russian strikes hit the southern Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv early on Sunday, wounding three people and damaging homes and schools, according to the city’s mayor, Oleksandr Senkevych. Zelenskiy described the strikes as “probably the most brutal” on the city and region of the entire war.
- Russian shelling on Mykolaiv reportedly killed one of Ukraine’s wealthiest men, Oleksiy Vadatursky, and his wife, Raisa. Vadatursky headed the grain production and export business Nibulon, which included a fleet of ships for sending grain abroad. A presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, said Vadatursky was specifically targeted and his death was “not an accident, but a well thought out and organised premeditated murder”.
That is it from me, Martin Belam for now. I will be back later on. Nicola Slawson will be with you for the next few hours.
Updated
Here is a video clip issued by the Ukrainian ministry of infrastructure of the departure of the Razoni from Odesa.
Reuters reports that the Kremlin has said in a short statement that the news of the first ship carrying grain to leave Ukraine’s port of Odesa under a deal brokered by Turkey is “very positive”.
Updated
Russia’s ministry of defence has issued its daily operational bulletin, in which it has claimed to have killed at least a further 250 Ukrainian service personnel, and injured at least the same amount.
The report, however, covers several days, listing attacks that the ministry said took place on 28 July and 29 July.
The report lists a large amount of military equipment that Russia says it has destroyed. It also claims 13 Ukrainian drones have been shot down. None of the claims have been independently verified.
Updated
This is a short video clip posted to social media that appears to show the Razoni on her way out of Odesa.
A moment: The Razoni making her way out of the port of Odesa with 26,000 tonnes of Ukrainian grain.
— James Waterhouse (@JamWaterhouse) August 1, 2022
A small but significant start . pic.twitter.com/7CpoaoqtdM
Updated
Here are some of the latest images that we have been sent over the news wires from Ukraine.
Updated
The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) has issued its daily operational briefing. It claims that one person was killed and nine civilians were injured in shelling by Ukrainian forces on eight of the settlements it claims to control. It says 19 houses and two civil infrastructure facilities were damaged.
The DPR says: “At present, the DPR and Luhansk People’s Republic troops, with fire support from the Russian Federation armed forces, have liberated 263 settlements.”
The claims have not been independently verified. Russia, Syria and North Korea are the only UN member states to recognise the DPR and the similarly self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic as legitimate authorities.
Updated
Here is a reminder of the mechanics of the grain export deal.
There are some images emerging of the Razoni in Odesa as it becomes the first ship to depart under the new grain export arrangement.
The first 🇺🇦 grain ship since #RussianAggression has left port. Thanks to the support of all our partner countries & @UN we were able to full implement the Agreement signed in Istanbul. It’s important for us to be one of the guarantors of 🌏 food security. pic.twitter.com/jOz3bdmdfB
— Oleksandr Kubrakov (@OlKubrakov) August 1, 2022
The ship is bound for Lebanon, and carrying 26,000 tonnes of corn.
Grain ship leaves Ukraine port for first time since Russia blockade
Isobel Koshiw reports for us from Kyiv:
The Sierra Leone-flagged ship Razoni, carrying 26,000 tons of corn, has left the port of Odesa, destined for Lebanon. It is the first departure since the start of the Russian invasion, according to Ukraine’s infrastructure ministry.
“Ukraine together with our partners has taken another step today in preventing world hunger,” Oleksandr Kubrakov, Ukraine’s infrastructure minister, said in a statement on Monday.
Kubrakov stressed that Ukraine had done “everything” to restore the ports and said the lifting of the blockade would give Ukraine’s economy $1bn in foreign exchange revenue.
Ukraine’s infrastructure minister said 16 loaded vessels had been stuck in Ukraine’s ports since the Russian invasion began, and officials planned for the ports to regain full transport capacity in the coming weeks.
But the world is watching to see if Russia sticks to its side if the bargain, after an attack on Odesa port a week ago.
Russia agreed to allow grain ships to leave Ukraine and to not attack them, in a deal signed on 22 July in Istanbul. But less than 24 hours later, the veracity of the deal was cast into doubt when Russian forces struck Odesa port.
When questioned by Turkey’s defence minister, Russia at first denied it was involved in the attack. But the next day it issued a statement saying it had struck a Ukrainian vessel carrying western weapons that was in the port. Ukraine’s authorities rejected Russia’s explanation.
Read more of Isobel Koshiw’s report from Kyiv: Grain ship leaves Ukraine port for first time since Russia blockade
Updated
Reuters is carrying a little more detail on the first ship expected to depart the port of Odesa under the Turkey-brokered grain export deal – although there has been some conflicting information about destinations and timings.
The Turkish ministry of defence is quoted as saying the Sierra Leone-flagged ship Razoni will set off from Odesa port for Lebanon with its cargo of corn.
The ministry went on to say: “Deployment of other ships are planned within the scope of the determined corridor and method.”
Ukrainian officials have said there are 17 ships docked in Ukraine’s Black Sea ports with almost 600,000 tonnes of cargo. Of them, 16 hold Ukrainian grain with a total volume of about 580,000 tonnes.
Updated
Oleh Synyehubov, the governor of Kharkiv, has posted to Telegram to say that two men were injured by shelling at 7am today in the Saltivka region of Kharkiv. One of the men, aged 72, subsequently died in hospital. The claim has not been independently verified.
- This is Martin Belam in London taking over the live blog from my colleague Samantha Lock.
Updated
About 300 people are still considered missing as a result of hostilities in the Kyiv region, according to the region’s police chief.
Andrii Nebytov also said some Ukrainian citizens are currently being held in Belaru and another 216 bodies have not yet been identified in a Telegram post this morning.
About 300 people are now considered missing during the hostilities in the Kyiv region. The 216 bodies found have not yet been identified. An appropriate DNA selection procedure was carried out. I hope that thanks to cooperation with relatives, we will be able to identify these persons.
It is not only that some citizens are now in captivity. While documenting war crimes in the Kyiv region, we found out that many people are currently being held on the territory of Belarus.
According to the testimony of eyewitnesses, these persons were abducted by the occupiers from Gostomel, Buchi and Irpen.”
300 people are still considered missing as a result of hostilities in #Kyiv region, reports head of the police of the Kyiv region, Andrii Nebytov. pic.twitter.com/Z47rXl0JyW
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) August 1, 2022
Zelenskiy urges civilians to flee eastern Donetsk
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has urged civilians to evacuate the frontline Donetsk region, the scene of fierce clashes with the Russian military, as Kyiv called on the Red Cross and UN to gain access to its soldiers being held by Moscow’s forces.
Ukraine’s president warned in his daily address that hundreds of thousands of people, including tens of thousands of children, were still in the region’s battleground areas, with the Donetsk governor saying six civilians were killed and 15 wounded on Friday.
He asked those who knew people still in the Donbas region – especially those with children – to speak to them about leaving. “Many people refuse to leave .. but it really needs to be done … The sooner it is done, the more people leave Donetsk region now, the fewer people the Russian army will have time to kill,” he said.
“Leave, we will help,” Zelenskiy said. “At this stage of the war, terror is the main weapon of Russia.”
A mandatory evacuation notice posted on Saturday evening said the coming winter made it a matter of urgency, particularly for the more than 50,000 children still in the region.
“They need to be evacuated, you cannot put them in mortal danger in the winter without heating, light, without the ability to keep them warm,” Kyiv’s Ministry of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories said in a statement.
Russia re-allocating forces from Donbas to southern Ukraine: UK MoD
Russia is likely re-allocating a significant number of its forces from the northern Donbas sector to southern Ukraine, the UK Ministry of Defence has said.
The latest intelligence report reads:
Over the last four days, Russia has continued to attempt tactical assaults on the Bakhmut axis, northeast of Donetsk, only managing to make slow progress.
Russia is probably adjusting the operational design of its Donbas offensive after failing to make a decisive operational breakthrough under the plan it had been following since April.
It has likely identified its Zaporizhzhia front as a vulnerable area in need of reinforcement.”
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 1 August 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) August 1, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/WFgCHPs7yY
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/sU8IJmgiyF
Updated
Mykolaiv attack one of the ‘most brutal’ on region in war so far
Russia appears to be stepping up its offensive on regions in Ukraine’s south.
The mayor of the southern city of Mykolaiv said two people were killed and three wounded after rockets pounded two residential districts on Sunday night.
Oleksandr Senkevych said the strikes were “probably the most powerful of the entire time [of the war]”.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, also addressed the attack in his latest national address:
Today, one of the most brutal shellings of Mykolaiv and the region over the entire period of the full-scale war took place. Dozens of missiles and rockets... The occupiers hit residential buildings, schools, other social infrastructure, and industrial facilities.”
The Russian attack also reportedly took the lives of Oleksiy Vadaturskyi, 74, and his wife Raisa, the founder of one of the largest Ukrainian agricultural companies ‘Nibulon’.
An adviser to the Ukrainian president has said he believes the leading Ukrainian agricultural magnate Oleksiy Vadatursky was deliberately killed when a missile struck their home in the southern city.
Mykhailo Podolyak said a missile hit the businessman’s bedroom, which he said “leaves no doubt” it was a targeted attack.
First grain-exporting ship to leave Ukraine port today, Turkey says
The first ship to export Ukrainian grain will depart from Ukrainian ports at 8.30am today, according to the Turkey’s Ministry of Defence.
The ministry issued an announcement at 7.30am local time, saying: “The first ship from Ukrainian ports will depart today at 8:30.”
Ukrayna limanlarından ilk gemi bugün saat 08.30’da hareket edecektir.#MSB pic.twitter.com/vi18ggoyAg
— T.C. Millî Savunma Bakanlığı (@tcsavunma) August 1, 2022
The first ships will arrive in Istanbul port on Wednesday 3 August en route to Africa, according to CNN.
Updated
Two people have reportedly been injured as a result of shelling this morning in Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv.
The head of the regional state administration, Oleg Synegubov, said Russia attacked the Saltiv district of the northeastern city and urged residents to stay in shelters in a Telegram post just before 8.30am on Monday.
Citing information from the regional centre for emergency medical assistance, he said two people were injured as a result of the shelling.
UK property register cracks down on oligarchs
Britain will now require foreign companies holding UK property to identify their true owners in an official register as part of a crackdown on Russian oligarchs and corrupt elites laundering illicit wealth.
The register of overseas entities, which becomes active from today, is part of a wider economic crime law enacted this year in an effort to stop the flow of illicit Russian cash into London following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
It will seek to ensure criminals cannot hide behind secretive chains of shell companies, and support government efforts to root out Russian oligarchs using property in Britain to hide dirty money, the business ministry said in a statement. Junior business minister Martin Callanan said:
To ensure we are free of corrupt elites with suspicious wealth, we need to know who owns what.
We are lifting the curtain and cracking down on those criminals attempting to hide their illicitly obtained wealth.”
Foreign entities that already own land in the UK that is within the scope of the register will have six months to comply by identifying their beneficial owner to Companies House.
The register will apply to property bought since January 1999 in England and Wales, and since December 2014 in Scotland.
Those not complying with the new rules could face sanctions including fines of up to £2,500 ($3,043) per day or five years in prison.
The register has been described as a significant provision of the economic crime law, with a Transparency International official in March calling the step a “seismic change” that will force foreign property ownership into the open.
The law was brought in in March as the government faced calls to do more to make it harder for those close to Russian President Vladimir Putin to launder dirty money through property in London, long dubbed by some as “Londongrad”.
Russia bolsters troops in Ukraine's south
Russia is moving large numbers of troops to Ukraine’s south for battles against the country’s forces through the newly occupied territories and Crimea, according to Ukraine’s deputy head of military intelligence.
If Russia won, it would try to capture more territory, said Vadym Skibitsky. “They are increasing their troop numbers, preparing for our counteroffensive [in Ukraine’s south] and perhaps preparing to launch an offensive of their own. The south is key for them, above all because of Crimea,” he said.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy corroborated these reports in his latest national address, saying Russia was relocating troops from the east to the south of Ukraine in order to push towards Kherson’s regional capital as well as the Zaporizhzhia region.
“Now the Russian army is trying to strengthen its positions in the occupied areas of the south of our country, increasing activity in the relevant areas,” he said, adding that “strategically, Russia has no chance of winning this war”.
The fight for forest lines along the fields - this is what position war in the South of Ukraine is like now.
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) July 31, 2022
There forests are almost thick as Vietnam jungle. This is where the most violent battles take place face to face between our Heroes and Russians.#UkraineRussianWar pic.twitter.com/txRm4QCIas
Russian troop movements come in response to Ukraine’s declared counteroffensive to liberate the southern occupied regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Ukrainian forces have retaken dozens of villages and towns along the border, according to the region’s military governor, Dmytro Butrii, and are pushing towards Kherson’s regional capital.
Updated
Summary and welcome
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
I’m Samantha Lock and I will be bringing you all the latest developments for the next short while.
According to multiple Ukrainian officials, Russia is moving large numbers of troops to Ukraine’s south where battles are expected to intensify.
From today, Britain will now require foreign companies holding UK property to identify their true owners as part of a crackdown on Russian oligarchs and corrupt elites laundering illicit wealth.
It is 8am in Ukraine. Here is everything you might have missed:
- Russia is moving large numbers of troops to Ukraine’s south in preparation for a Ukrainian counteroffensive, according to Ukraine’s deputy head of military intelligence. “They are increasing their troop numbers, preparing for our counteroffensive [in Ukraine’s south] and perhaps preparing to launch an offensive of their own,” Vadym Skibitsky said. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Russia was relocating some of its troops from their positions in the east to the south in order to push towards Kherson’s regional capital as well as the Zaporizhzhia region.
- Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been urged to evacuate the frontline eastern Donetsk region, the scene of fierce clashes with the Russian military. More than 50,000 children are still in the region, according to local officials. “They need to be evacuated, you cannot put them in mortal danger in the winter without heating, light, without the ability to keep them warm,” Kyiv’s ministry of reintegration of temporarily occupied territories said in a statement.
- Russia claims five people were injured after a Ukrainian drone strike on its Black Sea fleet headquarters, prompting officials to cancel festivities planned for Navy Day. “Early this morning, [Ukraine] decided to spoil our Navy Day,” said Mikhail Razvozhayev, the head of the local Russian administration in Sevastopol in Crimea. “An unidentified object flew into the yard of the fleet headquarters. According to preliminary data, it was a drone. Five people were injured.”
- Russian strikes hit the southern Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv early on Sunday, wounding three people and damaging homes and schools, according to the city’s mayor, Oleksandr Senkevych. Zelenskiy described the strikes as “probably the most brutal” on the city and region of the entire war.
- Russian shelling on Mykolaiv reportedly killed one of Ukraine’s wealthiest men, Oleksiy Vadatursky, and his wife, Raisa. Vadatursky headed the grain production and export business Nibulon, which included a fleet of ships for sending grain abroad. A presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, said Vadatursky was specifically targeted and his death was “not an accident, but a well-thought-out and organised premeditated murder”.
- The International Committee of the Red Cross has not yet received permission to visit the building in Olenivka where at least 50 prisoners Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed, it said on Sunday. Russia said it had invited experts from the UN and Red Cross to examine the deaths “in the interests of conducting an objective investigation”. Zelenskiy denounced the attack as a war crime.
- Two-hundred Russian marines from the 810th naval infantry brigade refused to return to fight in the southern regions of Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s defence ministry intelligence directorate.
- Ukraine’s harvest this year could be half its usual amount because of the Russian invasion, Zelenskiy claimed. “Ukrainian harvest this year is under the threat to be twice less,” the Ukrainian president said in comments likely to intensify fears of global hunger.
- The first grain-exporting ship could leave Ukraine’s ports on Monday, a spokesperson for the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said. Speaking in an interview with broadcaster Kanal 7, Ibrahim Kalin said the joint coordination centre in Istanbul would probably complete the final work on the exporting routes very soon.
- Britain will now require foreign companies holding UK property to identify their true owners as part of a crackdown on Russian oligarchs and corrupt elites laundering illicit wealth. The Register of Overseas Entities will seek to ensure criminals cannot hide behind secretive chains of shell companies or use property in Britain to hide dirty money, the business ministry said in a statement on Monday.
