Closing summary
It’s nearly 11pm 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:
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, posted a video showing Ukrainian soldiers saying they have recaptured the village of Staromaiorske. In the video, Ukrainian fighters say they have “liberated the village”, located east of Zaporizhzhia city.
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, said Ukrainian attacks have intensified in recent days, primarily on the frontline running through Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region. Speaking to Russian TV on the margins of the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg, Putin said that Ukraine had not enjoyed success on any part of the front.
Putin used the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg to announce that Russia can replace Ukraine as a supplier of grain to African nations. Having pulled out of the Black Sea grain initiative, and accused by Ukraine of actively blocking ships reaching Ukrainian ports, Putin said Moscow would be ready to start supplying grain for free to six African countries within three to four months, and named Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, Central African Republic and Eritrea as recipients.
Yevgeny Prigozhin appeared to attend the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg, according to reports. Late on Wednesday, a close ally of Prigozhin posted a picture purportedly showing the Wagner group leader meeting African officials. In the unverified photograph, Prigozhin is seen standing next to a senior official from Central African Republic (CAR), which has welcomed thousands of Wagner mercenaries over the last few years.
Russia again struck at the port city of Odesa overnight, with the Ukrainian air force reporting that eight Shahed drones and two Kalibr cruise missiles were fired over Ukraine. The air force reported a security guard was killed when a rocket hit the administration building of the port, and the equipment of one of the cargo terminals was damaged.
The British government has allowed sanctioned Russian oligarchs to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on perks such as private chefs, chauffeurs and housekeepers, thanks to numerous sanction exemptions, according to a New York Times report.
The European Commission has no money to help Ukraine with extra transport costs after Black Sea deal collapse, sources have said. Sources told Reuters that the Commission had no immediate money in the budget and no clear way to help finance the extra transport costs Ukrainian grain exports will face with the end of the Black Sea deal.
China is helping Russia evade western sanctions and likely providing Moscow with military technology for use in Ukraine, according to an unclassified US intelligence report released on Thursday. “The PRC is providing some dual-use technology that Moscow’s military uses to continue the war in Ukraine, despite an international cordon of sanctions and export controls,” the report said.
Russia has granted debt relief on over $684m owed by Somalia in a deal finalised on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg, Somali officials have said. “This step will play a big role in the completion of the country’s debt forgiveness process,” Somali Finance Minister Bihi Egeh said of the deal with Moscow in a post on the ministry’s Facebook page.
Evgeny Lebedev, the Russian-born British newspaper owner, has claimed he was a victim of “Russophobia” in the UK amid the war in Ukraine. In an article in the Evening Standard newspaper – of which he is the owner – Lebedev said the country was “long overdue” a reckoning with “corporate hypocrisy”.
The British government has allowed sanctioned Russian oligarchs to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on perks such as private chefs, chauffeurs and housekeepers, thanks to numerous sanction exemptions, according to a New York Times report.
In some cases, oligarchs were allowed more than $1m a year in living expenses, documents showed. In others, sanctioned were removed after legal battles.
Despite vowing to increase “pressure on Putin and cut off funding for the Russian war machine”, Britain granted the Russian banking tycoon Mikhail Fridman an exemption, known as a licence, to pay for 19 members of staff, including drivers, private chefs, housekeepers and handymen, during the first year of the war, the paper said.
Fridman’s former business partner, Petr Aven, received a monthly allowance of £60,000, the paper wrote. Fridman and Aven have both been described by the UK government as “pro-Kremlin oligarchs” who are closely associated with President Vladimir Putin.
The British Treasury granted at least 82 licenses last year and many more applications are pending, according to official figures seen by the paper.
Evgeny Lebedev, the Russian-born British newspaper owner, has claimed he was a victim of “Russophobia” in the UK and that he was “turned down” by businesses and institutions amid the war in Ukraine.
Controversially appointed to the House of Lords in 2020 by Boris Johnson, Lebedev said the country was “long overdue” a reckoning with “corporate hypocrisy” and a “vile culture of virtue-signalling”.
In an article in the Evening Standard newspaper – of which he is the owner – he cited several alleged examples of firms and entities refusing his business. He wrote:
Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine I’ve been turned down by all manner of businesses and institutions, who applaud their anti-Russian sentiment as a symbol of moral rectitude after spending decades prostrating for the attention of Russian money.
Lebedev, the son of former KGB officer turned oligarch Alexander Lebedev, claimed the media had “misrepresented my family to such preposterous extent our name is now seen as a liability”, adding:
Russophobia has become an easy way for companies to signal their virtue. Neither is this confined to those in positions of privilege. Since the start of the war, Russians rich and poor have both been treated as pariahs.
The US has not seen any credible indications of involvement by Russia, or the Wagner mercenary group, in the army coup in Niger, according to the White House.
Niger “is an important partner, so we’re closely monitoring the situation”, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.
She said Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea grain deal “will exacerbate hunger in some of the hardest-hit areas of the world, including Africa”.
Updated
The news that Ukrainian troops may have recaptured the village of Staromaiorske comes a day after a Ukrainian armed forces spokesperson said its troops had gained ground in the vicinity of the village.
Andrii Kovalev, the spokesperson for the general staff of the armed forces of Ukraine, also said at a briefing earlier today that Ukrainian troops had gained certain success near Staromaiorske on the southern front, reinforcing positions they had previously captured.
He added that that heavy fighting was going on, and that Russian forces were suffering losses and pulling up their reserves.
A video from Staromaiorske, geolocated by CNN, showed Russian fighters leaving positions and retreating.
Ukrainian forces say they have recaptured Staromaiorske
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has posted a video showing Ukrainian soldiers saying they have recaptured the village of Staromaiorske.
The soldiers are heard saying:
35th Brigade and the volunteer Battalion “Arei” liberated the village Staromaiorske. Glory to Ukraine! Glory to Heroes!
Our South!
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 27, 2023
Our guys!
Glory to Ukraine!
🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/GUg83fXEk0
The village is close to the frontline of the Ukrainian counteroffensive near the border of Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
Updated
Here are some images from the newswires of a meeting between North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, and Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, who has leading a Russian delegation visiting Pyongyang this week.
Shoigu and Kim visited a defence exhibition that featured North Korea’s banned ballistic missiles, and state media reported that the pair reached a consensus on unspecified “matters of mutual concern in the field of national defense and security and on the regional and international security environment”.
During the meeting, Shoigu conveyed to Kim a “warm and good letter” signed by Russian’s president, Vladimir Putin, North Korean state media reported.
In the letter, released later by the Kremlin, Putin congratulated Kim on the anniversary of “the defeat of the enemy” in the Korean war and emphasised how important it was to “preserve and increase the glorious traditions of friendship, good neighbourliness and mutual assistance”.
Putin wrote, according to Russian state Ria news agency:
Strong support from the DPRK for the special military operation in Ukraine, (and) solidarity with Russia on key international issues further emphasise our common interest and determination to oppose the policy of the collective West, which prevents the establishment of a truly multipolar, just world order.
This is Léonie Chao-Fong taking over the live blog in Washington. You can contact me at leonie.chao-fong@guardian.com.
Updated
Summary of the day so far ...
Yevgeny Prigozhin appeared to attend the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg, according to reports. Late on Wednesday, a close ally of Prigozhin posted a picture purportedly showing the Wagner group leader meeting African officials in St Petersburg. In the unverified photograph, Prigozhin is seen standing next to a senior official from Central African Republic (CAR), which has welcomed thousands of Wagner mercenaries over the last few years.
The European Commission has no money to help Ukraine with extra transport costs after Black Sea deal collapse, sources have said. Sources told Reuters that the Commission had no immediate money in the budget and no clear way to help finance the extra transport costs Ukrainian grain exports will face with the end of the Black Sea deal.
China is helping Russia evade western sanctions and is likely providing military technology, according to a US intelligence report. “The PRC is providing some dual-use technology that Moscow’s military uses to continue the war in Ukraine, despite an international cordon of sanctions and export controls,” the report said.
Putin said Ukrainian attacks have intensified in recent days, primarily on the frontline running through Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region. Speaking to Russian TV on the margins of the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg, Putin said that Ukraine had not enjoyed success on any part of the front.
Russia has granted debt relief on over $684m owed by Somalia in a deal finalised on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg, Somali officials have said. “This step will play a big role in the completion of the country’s debt forgiveness process,” Somali Finance Minister Bihi Egeh said of the deal with Moscow in a post on the ministry’s Facebook page.
Having pulled out of the Black Sea grain initiative, and accused by Ukraine of actively blocking ships reaching Ukrainian ports, Russian President Vladimir Putin has used the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg to announce that Russia can replace Ukraine as a supplier of grain to African nations. He said Moscow would be ready to start supplying grain for free to six African countries within three to four months, and named Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, Central African Republic and Eritrea as recipients.
Russia again struck at the port city of Odesa overnight, with the Ukrainian air force reporting that eight Shahed drones and two Kalibr cruise missiles were fired over Ukraine. The air force reported a security guard was killed when a rocket hit the administration building of the port, and the equipment of one of the cargo terminals was damaged.
Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern military command, said an overnight thunderstorm had helped Russia in the attack on Odesa. “The enemy took advantage of the weather conditions, and launched the missile during the thunder and wind and at an extremely low height in order to make spotting them more difficult,” she said.
Oleksandr Kubrakov, Ukraine’s minister for infrastructure, said that over the past nine days, 26 port infrastructure facilities and five civilian vessels have been damaged and partially destroyed by Russian attacks on Odesa. He also claimed that Russian is restricting shipping near Crimea and the territorial waters of Bulgaria, blocking the movement of ships in the direction of seaports of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited the city of Dnipro in southeastern Ukraine on Thursday and in a meeting with senior officials discussed supplies to the war front and air defences.
Russian state-owned news agency Tass reports that two people were injured in the occupied city of Tokmak in Zaporizhzhia region by Ukrainian shelling.
Russian-imposed authorities in Lysychansk in occupied Luhansk claim that a school was destroyed after being attacked by Ukraine with cluster munitions.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, Ukraine’s governor of Donetsk, has given civilian casualty figures in the Ukraine-controlled portion of the region. On Telegram he stated that in the last 24 hours one person was killed and nine injured.
Ukraine’s government has called on the International Fencing Federation (FIE) to reverse its decision to disqualify a Ukrainian fencer for refusing to shake hands with her defeated Russian opponent.
The country’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, called for Olha Kharlan to be reinstated in the fencing world championships in Milan, after she was excluded as a result of the aftermath of her victory over Anna Smirnova, a Russian competing as a neutral.
“Olha Kharlan won the fair competition and showed dignity,” Kuleba said on social media. “I urge [FIE] to restore Kharlan’s rights and allow her to compete.”
Mihailo Podolyak, an aide to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, asked: “Doesn’t Russian money smell of blood?”
After her defeat by Kharlan in the women’s sabre competition, Smirnova approached the Ukrainian to shake hands, but Kharlan, an Olympic champion, held up her sabre instead and walked away. Smirnova refused to move for about 50 minutes and sat on a chair on the fencing piste.
Her protest further angered Ukrainians, who saw it as a deliberate attempt to highlight the absence of a handshake so as to get Kharlan disqualified.
“Anna Smirnova lost the fair competition and decided to play dirty with the handshake show. This is exactly how [the] Russian army acts on the battlefield,” Kuleba said.
Reuters reports that Poland, Lithuania and Latvia could jointly decide to shut their borders with close Russian ally Belarus if there are serious incidents involving the Wagner group along their frontiers with the country, Poland’s interior minister said on Thursday.
“Undoubtedly, should there be serious incidents involving the Wagner group on the borders of Nato and EU countries, such as Poland, Lithuania or Latvia, we will undoubtedly take an action together,” the minister, Mariusz Kaminski, said.
“I do not exclude that if we decide that this is the right answer at the moment, we will lead to the complete isolation of Belarus.”
China helping Russia evade western sanctions and likely providing military technology, US intelligence says
Reuters reports that China is helping Russia evade western sanctions and likely providing Moscow with military and dual-use technology for use in Ukraine, according to an unclassified U.S. intelligence report released on Thursday.
The assessment by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence was released on Thursday by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
China has repeatedly denied sending military equipment to Russia since
Moscow’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“The PRC is providing some dual-use technology that Moscow’s military
uses to continue the war in Ukraine, despite an international cordon
of sanctions and export controls,” the ODNI report said.
“The customs records show PRC state-owned defence companies shipping
navigation equipment, jamming technology, and fighter jet parts to
sanctioned Russian Government-owned defence companies,” the report
said.
It also said China has become “an even more critical partner” of
Russia after Moscow invaded Ukraine last year.
ODNI said China and Russia had increased the share of bilateral trade
settled in China’s yuan currency, and both countries’ financial
institutions are expanding their use of domestic payment systems.
China has increased it importation of Russia energy exports, including
oil and gas rerouted from Europe, the report said.
ODNI cited much of the information to media reports. It added: “The
Intelligence Community lacks sufficient reporting to assess whether
Beijing is deliberately inhibiting US Government export
control end-use checks, including interviews and investigations, in
the PRC.”
Earlier this month, French President Emmanuel Macron’s top diplomatic
adviser Emmanuel Bonne said China was delivering items that could be
used as military equipment to Russia, although not on a massive scale.
US officials have previously raised concern about transfers of
“dual-use equipment” from China to Russia. However, they have
repeatedly said they have yet to see evidence of the transfer of
lethal assistance for Russia’s use on the battlefield.
Updated
European Commission has no money to help Ukraine with extra transport costs after Black Sea deal collapse
The European Commission has no immediate money in the budget and no clear way to help finance the extra transport costs Ukrainian grain exports will face with the end of the Black Sea deal, sources have told Reuters, leaving an opportunity for Moscow to cash in.
Ukraine, one of the world’s biggest grain exporters, will now have to rely almost entirely on expensive routes through the EU and the cheapest alternative artery, the Danube River, may not be able to expand its volume as much as hoped after bombings.
In a letter dated 21 July and seen by Reuters, Ukraine’s agriculture ministry asked EU trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis for the Commission to provide financial aid for the extra transport cost of using alternate EU routes known as “Solidarity Lanes”. Ukraine estimates the extra cost to be $30-40 a tonne.
This week, EU agriculture commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski said Russia could benefit by undercutting Ukraine unless the EU helped reduce the cost.
“We have not found a solution yet to support the grain transport. People have been scratching their heads since last year,” a source with knowledge of the Commission discussions said.
One diplomatic source said money was very short and substantial funds could only come after the mid-term budget review that could take several more months to hash out, even with the autumn corn harvest around the corner.
A Commission spokesperson confirmed receipt of the letter and said “we are currently assessing such requests and will reply in due course”.
Russia grants Somalia $684m debt relief
Reuters reports that Russia has granted debt relief on over $684m owed by Somalia in a deal finalised on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg, Somali officials have said.
Emerging from decades of civil war, Somalia is seeking to secure sweeping external debt relief under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank’s Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative.
“This step will play a big role in the completion of the country’s debt forgiveness process,” Somali Finance Minister Bihi Egeh said of the deal with Moscow in a post on the ministry’s Facebook page.
The agreement signed on Wednesday between Egeh and Russian deputy finance minister Timur Maksimov concerned Paris Club loans, Somali Deputy prime minister Salah Ahmed Jama told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
If Somalia continues to make steady progress on reforms, it could reach the completion point of the HIPC process by the end of 2023, which would allow it to pare its debt to around $550m from $5.2bn, the IMF said last October.
Somalia owed Moscow nearly $695m in 2019, according to the IMF.
Russia has placed a third official at the international criminal court (ICC) on its wanted list after it accused Vladimir Putin of war crimes in Ukraine, Reuters reports, citing the state news agency TASS.
Judge Tomoko Akane was listed as “wanted under an article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation” in the online database of Russia’s interior ministry, but with no mention of her alleged crime.
The ICC issued arrest warrants in March for Putin and his children’s commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, accusing them of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine, which is a war crime.
Russia acknowledges having transferred thousands of children out of Ukraine, but says this has been done exclusively to protect orphans and children abandoned in the war zone.
Russia responded to the ICC warrant three days later by opening criminal cases against ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan and judges who ordered Putin’s arrest, including Akane and the Italian Rosario Salvatore Aitala.
Khan and Aitala were placed on Russia’s wanted list in May and June respectively.
Shaun Walker is in Kyiv for the Guardian, and has spoken to presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak. Here is his report:
Ukraine cannot protect all of its main cities from Russian missile threats without a significant increase in the provision of air defence systems, according to a key adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Mykhailo Podolyak said the strikes on Odesa over the past week had shown clearly that the Russian strategy was to bombard Ukrainian cities, with the aim of overwhelming air defence systems.
“Russia’s tactics are clear: they use massive drone attacks to overload our anti-aircraft systems and then in parallel they have a window of opportunity to use ballistic missiles to target infrastructure,” he told the Guardian, in an interview at the presidential administration in Kyiv.
That strategy no longer works in Kyiv, where Ukraine has built a sophisticated multilayered air defence system using a range of equipment provided by western allies. However, in Odesa and other parts of the Ukrainian south, Russian missiles have caused chaos in the past week. There have been numerous hits on grain export infrastructure as well as multiple strikes that hit residential areas and even a cathedral.
Podolyak said: “We don’t have enough modern anti-aircraft systems like Patriot, that are able to hit the latest generation Russian missiles like Oniks and Kinzhal – the deficit of these systems means we can’t cover all the parts of the country.”
Ukraine has two Patriot systems, one provided by the US and another from Germany. Podolyak said Ukraine needed 10 to 12 Patriot or similar systems to be able to cover the whole country. He added that the recent strikes on Odesa showed that providing more air defence systems was the right thing to do economically as well as morally.
Read more of Shaun Walker’s report here: Zelenskiy adviser calls for big increase in air defence systems for Ukraine
Ukrinform reports that Ukraine’s mayor of occupied Melitopol has spoken about children being forcibly removed from the city for adoption by the occupying Russian authorities.
Ivan Fedorov, who was forced to leave the city when it was occupied, is quoted as saying:
Their hostile fake ministry reported that they had ‘adopted’ 230 children during the full occupation of our city. What does this mean? The enemy has stolen 230 children from us, transferred them to incomprehensible families, in incomprehensible conditions, and now it will be extremely difficult for us to return them after the de-occupation.
Fedorov additionally accused Russia of continuing to take Ukrainian children in the occupied territories to “propaganda camps”.
In March the International criminal court issued arrest warrants for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, in relation to the forced deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia, where many have been adopted by Russian families.
Prigozhin pictured attending Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg – reports
An unexpected attendee at the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg appears to be Yevgeny Prigozhin, according to reports. Late on Wednesday, a close ally of Prigozhin posted a picture purportedly showing the Wagner group leader meeting African officials in St Petersburg.
In the unverified photograph, Prigozhin is seen standing next to a senior official from Central African Republic (CAR), an impoverished nation that has welcomed thousands of Wagner mercenaries over the last few years.
The image was first published on Facebook by Dmitry Syty, a Russian national whom western officials have described as an important figure in the CAR branch of the Wagner group. According to local news outlet Fontanka, the image was taken at the Trezzini Palace hotel in St Petersburg, which is reportedly owned by Prigozhin.
If confirmed, the image would represent the first visual sighting of Prigozhin in Russia since the warlord halted his mutiny over a month ago. The Kremlin has previously said that Prigozhin met with Putin shortly after his march on Moscow to discuss Wagner’s future, but the warlord has since been photographed in Belarus.
Russian media publish this screenshot of Prigozhin reportedly meeting with representatives of the Central African Republic at the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg. (This means that Prigozhin is in Russia and freely visits an official event where Putin also spoke). pic.twitter.com/SKyaN5RTjr
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) July 27, 2023
Under a deal to end the rebellion, which saw Wagner troops seize a major southern city and march on the capital, charges against Prigozhin were dropped and he was ordered to move into exile in Belarus. A video circulating on social media last week purportedly showed the mercenary chief addressing his fighters in Belarus and calling the Russian war effort in Ukraine a “disgrace”.
Before the summit, Prigozhin gave a rare interview with the pro-Kremlin television channel Afrique Média, which targets French-speaking African countries. “There was no, and there will be no, reduction in our programmes in Africa,” he said.
Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa said on Thursday that his country was food-secure but was “grateful” for an offer of free grain from Russian president Vladimir Putin at the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg, Reuters reports.
“We are grateful,” Mnangagwa told reporters. “We are not in any grain deficit at all. We are food-secure, he is just adding to what we are already have.”
Putin says Ukrainian attacks have intensified in recent days
Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Ukrainian attacks had intensified in recent days, primarily on the frontline running through Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, Reuters reports.
Speaking to Russian TV on the margins of the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg, Putin said that Ukraine had not enjoyed success on any part of the front.
Updated
Ukraine’s central bank said on Thursday it expected the Black Sea grain corridor to remain closed until the end of Russia’s war on its neighbour, Reuters reports.
Deputy governor Serhiy Nykolaichuk said the central bank’s latest basic economic forecast had been drawn up with the expectation that the corridor, established under a UN-brokered deal that Moscow quit last week, will remained close.
He told a press conference after Ukraine announced its first interest rate cut since June last year that alternative export routes via central Europe would be key for Ukraine’s grain sector.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Thursday that Ukrainian forces were continuing what it called “unsuccessful” attacks across several fronts, Reuters reports, citing the TASS state news agency.
It said Russian forces had repelled Ukrainian attacks around the village of Klishchiivka near Bakhmut, and north of Robotyne on the frontline in Zaporizhzhia region.
Neither Reuters or the Guardian could independently verify the battlefield reports.
Reuters reports that Ukraine’s parliament voted on Thursday to accept the resignation of the culture minister, Oleksandr Tkachenko, a lawmaker said.
Yaroslav Zheleznyak, a member of parliament, said on the Telegram messaging app that the chamber would not consider the appointment of a replacement for Tkachenko on Thursday and was unlikely to do so this week.
Tkachenko offered his resignation to the prime minister last week due to a “misunderstanding” about the importance of culture during wartime.
In a Facebook post, Tkachenko said that culture is “no less important than drones” when it comes to private and public spending.
Updated
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Thursday that it had thwarted a planned “terrorist attack” against one of the country’s Black Sea fleet warships and arrested a Russian sailor, Reuters reports, citing Russian news agencies.
State-owned RIA quoted the FSB as saying the sailor had been detained in possession of two homemade bombs. It said he was also suspected of passing state secrets to Ukraine.
Updated
The African Union chair, Azali Assoumani, appealed for “peaceful co-existence” between Russia and Ukraine in a speech at the Russia-Africa summit on Thursday, saying this would save the lives of those who depend on food supplies from the two countries, Reuters reports.
Assoumani, president of Comoros, was speaking at a summit plenary session where he shared the stage with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
Updated
Reuters reports that Russian president Vladimir Putin told African leaders at the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg that Moscow is ready to work with them on the development of their finances, and to use regional currencies for trade payments.
In a speech to the summit, Putin said Russia was interested in deepening ties with the continent and was confident it could radically increase trade.
Summary of the day so far …
Having pulled out of the Black Sea grain initiative, and accused by Ukraine of actively blocking ships reaching Ukrainian ports, Russian President Vladimir Putin has used the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg to announce that Russia can replace Ukraine as a supplier of grain to African nations. He said Moscow would be ready to start supplying grain for free to six African countries within three to four months, and named Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, Central African Republic and Eritrea as recipients.
Russia again struck at the port city of Odesa overnight, with the Ukrainian air force reporting that eight Shahed drones and two Kalibr cruise missiles were fired over Ukraine. The air force reported a security guard was killed when a rocket hit the administration building of the port, and the equipment of one of the cargo terminals was damaged.
Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern military command, said an overnight thunderstorm had helped Russia in the attack on Odesa. “The enemy took advantage of the weather conditions, and launched the missile during the thunder and wind and at an extremely low height in order to make spotting them more difficult,” she said.
Oleksandr Kubrakov, Ukraine’s minister for infrastructure, said that over the past nine days, 26 port infrastructure facilities and five civilian vessels have been damaged and partially destroyed by Russian attacks on Odesa. He also claimed that Russian is restricting shipping near Crimea and the territorial waters of Bulgaria, blocking the movement of ships in the direction of seaports of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited the city of Dnipro in southeastern Ukraine on Thursday and in a meeting with senior officials discussed supplies to the war front and air defences.
Russian state-owned news agency Tass reports that two people were injured in the occupied city of Tokmak in Zaporizhzhia region by Ukrainian shelling.
Russian-imposed authorities in Lysychansk in occupied Luhansk claim that a school was destroyed after being attacked by Ukraine with cluster munitions.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, Ukraine’s governor of Donetsk, has given civilian casualty figures in the Ukraine-controlled portion of the region. On Telegram he stated that in the last 24 hours one person was killed and nine injured.
Updated
Putin, having pulled Russia out of Black Sea deal to allow Ukraine to export grain, promises free grain to six African nations
Having pulled out of the Black Sea grain initiative, and now accused by Ukraine of actively blocking ships reaching Ukrainian ports [See 9.04am BST], this morning Russian President Vladimir Putin has used the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg to announce that Russia can replace Ukraine as a supplier of grain to African nations.
He said Moscow would be ready to start supplying grain for free to six African countries within three to four months, and named Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, Central African Republic and Eritrea as recipients.
Russian state media is reporting two alleged agents for Ukrainian intelligence have been sentenced by a Russian court to 15 years each. Reuters notes the reports quoted the FSB security service, but did not name the accused people or say which court had passed the verdict.
This photograph has been issued of Russian President Vladimir Putin attending the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg today.
Here are some of the latest images sent over the news wires of Ukrainian service personnel training.
Today is celebrated as a day for medical workers in Ukraine, and Volodymyr Zelenskiy has posted to Telegram to say that while he is visiting Dnipropetrovsk region he has met with medics, who he described as “the same heroes as the military”.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Thursday it had found traces of explosives on board a foreign vessel en route from Turkey to Russia that had previously entered a Ukrainian port.
Reuters report it was the second such announcement this week involving a foreign ship heading to Russia to pick up grain. The FSB said on Monday that it had found traces of explosives on another ship travelling from Turkey to Rostov-on-Don.
Part of Russia’s justification for pulling out of the Black Sea grain initiative was its claim that Ukraine was using grain ship movements as cover for military cargo transport.
Senior official: Russia is blockading movement of ships towards Ukrainian ports
Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, reports from Odesa, citing senior official Oleksandr Kubrakov, the minister for infrastructure. It reports:
Over the past nine days, 26 port infrastructure facilities and five civilian vessels have been damaged and partially destroyed by Russian attacks.
Also, according to him, the Russians are restricting shipping in the area of the temporarily occupied Crimea and near the territorial waters of Bulgaria. With this, the Russian Federation actually blocks the movement of ships in the direction of seaports of Ukraine.
Zelenskiy visits Dnipro in southeastern Ukraine
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited the city of Dnipro in southeastern Ukraine on Thursday and in a meeting with senior officials discussed supplies to the war front and air defences.
“We started the working day in Dnipro,” Reuters reports Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messaging app. He said he, top military commanders and senior government officials had discussed the situation on the battlefield, supplies of munitions to troops and how to strengthen air defences.
Russian state-owned news agency Tass is reporting casualties and damage within the occupied regions of Ukraine.
It states that Russian-imposed authorities in occupied Zaporizhzhia have recorded two injuries in the city of Tokmak due to Ukrainian shelling.
In Lysychansk, the occupying authorities report that a school was damaged on Wednesday evening when it was struck by Ukrainian forces. The message on Telegram states “cluster munitions were used, which are prohibited by the Geneva Convention!”
More than 120 countries have signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which prohibits the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of the weapons. Russia and Ukraine have both declined to sign the treaty.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, Ukraine’s governor of Donetsk, has given civilian casualtiy figures in the Ukraine-controlled portion of the region. On Telegram he stated that in the last 24 hours one person was killed and nine injured.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Christopher Miller is near Bakhmut for the FT, and this morning has filed for them a report explaining how Ukraine’s tactics have changed in their counteroffensive after early heavy losses. He writes:
The losses from Ukraine’s much vaunted counteroffensive were heavy and early. Pushing into the country’s sprawling southern fields earlier this summer, Kyiv lost almost a fifth of Nato kit provided for the operation, according to Ukrainian and western officials.
Kyiv’s military response across much of the frontline is now becoming clear: to change tactics. The shift in fighting doctrine applied in recent weeks, according to Ukrainian commanders, appears to be achieving some hard-fought but tangible results on the battlefield, at a more tolerable cost.
Rather than dart across Russian minefields aiming to punch through enemy lines with Nato armour, Ukrainian forces have moved their focus to pounding Russian defensive positions with heavy artillery fire.
Artillery gunners operating multiple-launch rocket systems and howitzers, some loaded with US-supplied cluster munitions, aim to clear pathways for small teams of sappers and infantry units. These troops then attempt to advance methodically on foot, moving forward one narrow tree line at a time in a select few spots along the 1,000-kilometre front line.
Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, offers this round-up of overnight news on its Telegram channel:
At night, the Russian Federation launched eight Shahed drones and two Kalibr cruise missiles over Ukraine. Air defence forces shot down all the drones, the Kalibr could not be hit, the air force reported.
Russian troops hit the port infrastructure of Odesa: a security guard was killed when a rocket hit the administration building of the port, and the equipment of one of the cargo terminals was damaged.
The Russian army struck Kivsharivka in Kharkiv, with a guided aerial bomb. A 74-year-old woman was killed when a five-story building was hit nearby, and four more people were injured.
During the night Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk regions also came under fire. There were no injuries.
Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern military command, said an overnight thunderstorm had helped Russia in the attack on Odesa.
“The enemy took advantage of the weather conditions, and launched the missile during the thunder and wind and at an extremely low height in order to make spotting them more difficult,” she said.
Reuters reports Ukraine’s air force said it wasn’t able to shoot down the Kalibr missiles, although it said it had downed eight drones overnight in other regions of Ukraine.
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
Russia kills one in overnight missile attack on Odesa
Russia hit port infrastructure in Ukraine’s Odesa region in overnight missile attack, killing a security guard and damaging a cargo terminal, the region’s governor said.
Odesa’s ports have been regular targets for Russian attacks since Moscow’s withdrawal from the Black Sea grain initiative last week.
Governor Oleg Kiper wrote on Telegram:
At night, [Russia] launched a missile attack on the Odesa region.
The target of the aggressor is the port infrastructure.
The Russians fired Caliber missiles from a submarine in the Black Sea.
A civil guard born in 1979 died as a result of the hit.
The equipment of one of the cargo terminals was damaged, the security building and two cars were destroyed.
Sincere condolences to the family of the deceased.
Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told a weekly briefing that Moldova’s decision would “not go unanswered,” calling it “another step in the destruction of bilateral relations” between the countries.
The Kremlin said it regretted Moldova’s decision and accused the country’s leadership of encouraging “Russophobia”.
“Unfortunately, Chișinău is deliberately driving our relations into a very miserable state,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters:
Moldova orders Moscow diplomats to leave
Moldova has ordered 45 Russian diplomats and embassy staff to leave, sharply reducing the number of officials Russia can have in its capital Chișinău, while citing years of “hostile actions” by Moscow.
“We agreed on the need to limit the number of accredited diplomats from Russia, so that there are fewer people trying to destabilize the Republic of Moldova,” foreign minister Nicu Popescu said at a cabinet meeting.
Russia will have until 15 August to cut its embassy personnel from more than 80 to 25, the foreign ministry said.
“For many years we have been the object of hostile Russian actions and policies. Many of them were made through the embassy,” Popescu said.
North Korea’s official news agency reported that at a reception hosted by Kang, Shoigu praised the North Korean People’s army under the leadership of Kim, saying it “has become the strongest army in the world.” Russian media reports did not include that comment.
North Korea has been aligning with Russia over the war in Ukraine, insisting that the “hegemonic policy” of the US-led West forced Moscow to take military action to protect its security interests. The Biden administration has accused North Korea of providing arms to Russia to aid its fighting in Ukraine, although the North has denied the claim.
Both Moscow and Beijing have been derailing US efforts to strengthen UN Security Council sanctions on North Korea over its flurry of missile tests.
The North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, met with the Russian defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, to discuss military issues and the regional security environment, state media said Thursday.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said Kim and Shoigu talked Wednesday in the capital, Pyongyang, and reached a consensus on unspecified “matters of mutual concern in the field of national defence and security and on the regional and international security environment.”
The Associated Press reports that during the meeting, Shoigu conveyed to Kim a “warm and good letter” signed by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, KCNA said. The report did not specify the military matters that were discussed.
On Wednesday, Shoigu also held talks with North Korean defence minister, Kang Sun Nam, that were aimed at “strengthening cooperation between our defence departments,” Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement.
Updated
Opening summary
Welcome back to our continuing live coverage of the war in Ukraine. This is Helen Sullivan with the latest.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met with Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu in Pyongyang to discuss military issues and the regional security environment, state media said Thursday. North Korea has aligned with Russia over the war in Ukraine, insisting that the “hegemonic policy” of the US-led west forced Moscow to take military action to protect its security interests.
Meanwhile, Moldova has ordered 45 Russian diplomats and embassy staff to leave “over numerous unfriendly actions”, officials said on Wednesday. Moldova’s pro-EU government has firmly condemned Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Ukrainian forces have stepped up their counteroffensive after two months of gruelling, incremental gains, mounting a new push in the south of the country while edging closer to the fiercely contested eastern city of Bakhmut. The Ukrainian army is pouring thousands of western-trained and equipped reinforcements into a perceived weak spot in Russian defences in the Zaporizhzhia region. Ukraine is also attempting a partial encirclement of Bakhmut, pushing from the north and south to threaten Russian forces within.
The Ukrainian security service has claimed responsibly for the Crimea Bridge blast that happened in October last year. Vasyl Malyuk, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), said his agency was behind the attack, speaking in comments shown on television as he presented a commemorative postage stamp marking wartime special forces operations.
Nato said on Wednesday it was stepping up surveillance of the Black Sea region as it condemned Russia’s exit from a deal assuring the safe passage of ships carrying Ukrainian grain. The announcement came after a meeting of the Nato-Ukraine Council, a body established earlier this month to coordinate cooperation between the western military alliance and Kyiv.
The Kremlin said it was impossible for Russia to return to the Black Sea grain export deal for now, as an agreement related to Russian interests was “not being implemented”. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters, however, that Vladimir Putin had made it clear the deal could be revived if its Russia-focused part was honoured.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that just 17 African heads of state would be attending this week’s Russia-Africa summit. This is far fewer than at its 2019 conference or at similar summits held elsewhere, including a meeting in December with Joe Biden that dozens of African leaders flew to Washington DC to attend.
The EU announced a ban on exports of battlefield equipment and aviation parts to Belarus. Spain, the current holder of the EU’s rotating chair, said in a post on social media that the new sanctions were a response to “the situation in Belarus and the involvement of Belarus in the Russian aggression against Ukraine”.
A criminal case was opened against a Ukrainian lawmaker suspected of taking a luxury Maldives holiday. Private trips abroad by officials have been banned since January. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy appeared to allude directly to the case in his nightly speech on Tuesday, in which he railed against corruption and officials who shirk their responsibilities during the war.
Ukraine will spend $1bn on domestic drone manufacturing this year. Prime minister, Denys Shmyhal announced 40bn hryvnia ($1.08b) would be invested into domestic drone manufacturing.
Russian armed forces claimed to have struck at a Ukrainian fuel warehouse and training centre in Donetsk. Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, also reported that “during the night and morning of 26 July, the Russian army shelled six communities of Sumy oblast”
A decade-long failure by the British government has allowed the Wagner network to grow, spreading its tentacles deep into Africa and exploit vulnerable countries, according to a highly critical report from the UK’s foreign affairs select committee. It called on the government to proscribe the Wagner group in the UK and to make a far more concerted effort to stop it using the City of London as a financial centre.
President Vladimir Putin is planning to visit China in October, the Kremlin has said. “It is known that we have received an invitation and that we intend to go to China when the Belt and Road Forum is held in October,” Yuri Ushakov, an aide to the Russian president on international affairs, said in comments carried by Russian news agencies.
