Local news outlets are reporting some more details surrounding the arrest of Russian journalist, Marina Ovsyannikova.
The 44-year-old was reportedly taken to a police department in the Krasnoselsky district but was later released on Sunday night.
Ovsyannikova uploaded a series of photos of her arrest to her official Telegram account.
В Москве полиция задержала журналистку и бывшую сотрудницу Первого канала Марину Овсянникову.
— ОВД-Инфо (@OvdInfo) July 17, 2022
Ее доставили в отдел по Красносельскому району, на помощь отправился адвокат от ОВД-Инфо Дмитрий Захватовhttps://t.co/NSbJrHI9TW
Фото: телеграм-канал Марии Овсянниковой pic.twitter.com/LgqPZutXaK
Summary
- Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has fired the country’s head of the security service and the prosecutor general, claiming more than 60 of their employees have been “working against” Ukraine in Russian-occupied territory. He added that 651 criminal proceedings had been registered relating to high treason and collaboration by employees of prosecutor’s offices, pretrial investigation bodies and other law enforcement agencies.
- Russia is preparing for the next stage of its offensive in Ukraine, according to Ukrainian military officials, after Moscow said its forces would step up military operations in “all operational areas”. The Ukrainian military said Russia appeared to be regrouping units for an offensive towards Sloviansk, a symbolically important city held by Ukraine in the eastern region of Donetsk. The British defence ministry added that Russia is also reinforcing its defensive positions across the occupied areas in southern Ukraine.
- 1,346 civilians have been found dead in the Kyiv region after the retreat of Russian forces, according to the region’s police chief. Andriy Nebytov said about 300 individuals are still missing, adding that 700 of those killed were shot with small arms such as a handgun.
- Russia has lost more than 30% of its land combat effectiveness and 50,000 of its soldiers have either died or been injured in the conflict, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the chief of the defence staff for the UK, told the BBC. The military chief added that Russia poses “the biggest threat” to the UK and that its challenge would endure for decades.
- Mourners have buried a four-year-old girl who was killed by a Russian missile strike in the city of Vinnytsia, in central Ukraine, last week. The killing of Liza Dmitrieva, who had Down’s syndrome, as she was pushed in a stroller through a crowded square was reported around the globe, becoming a poignant symbol of the heavy civilian cost of Russia’s invasion.
- Russian missiles hit an industrial and infrastructure facility in Mykolaiv, a shipbuilding centre and city near the Black Sea in southern Ukraine. Oleksandr Senkevych, the city’s mayor, said there was no immediate information about casualties.
- A Russian attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut in Donetsk has injured six people, including three children, according to local media reports. The three injured children have shrapnel wounds, the Donetsk prosecutor’s office said.
- A British man apparently being held captive by Russian forces in Ukraine has been shown in a video appealing for help from Boris Johnson, saying he could face the death penalty. “I would say to Boris Johnson, if you can help, if you can influence President Zelenskiy … or if you can influence President Putin, then please do. People’s lives are depending on this. So if you can, please help,” John Harding, in his 50s and originally from Sunderland, said while interviewed by a Russian journalist.
- Russian police have detained journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who in March interrupted a live TV broadcast to denounce the military action in Ukraine, her lawyer has said. No official statement has been made, but her entourage posted a message on the journalist’s Telegram account on Sunday, according to Agence France-Presse. “Marina has been detained. There is no information on where she is,” it read.
- Sunday marked the eighth anniversary of the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Donetsk in 2014, which killed 298 people onboard. Russia denied involvement in the downing of MH17, despite the findings of an international investigation that found witnesses who saw an anti-aircraft missile launcher that had secretly crossed into Ukraine from Russia in the hours before it shot down the commercial flight. Iryna Venediktova, the prosecutor general of Ukraine, called for international action against Russia.
- A Ukrainian cargo plane transporting munitions from Serbia to Bangladesh crashed and exploded in northern Greece, killing all eight crew onboard. Serbia’s defence minister, Nebojša Stefanović, said the plane was carrying 11.5 tonnes of military products, including illuminating mortar shells and training shells, and the buyer was the Bangladesh defence ministry. A Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman said all eight crew members onboard were Ukrainian citizens.
- European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will travel to Baku on Monday to seek more natural gas from Azerbaijan, the EU’s executive said, as the EU seeks to reduce its reliance on Russian energy.
- The European Union is to discuss tightening sanctions against Russia on Monday, as Moscow is accused of using the captured Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant to store weapons and launch missiles on the surrounding regions of southern Ukraine.
Russia has moved a “significant number” of ships from Crimea to Russia, according to an Odesa military official.
Serhii Bratchuk, a spokesman for Odesa’s military administration, reportedly citing Ukraine’s Armed Forces, said Russia has moved ships from Sevastopol in Crimea to Novorossiysk in Russia.
Bratchuk also said Russian forces are continuing the illegal transportation of products from Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, the Kyiv Independent reports.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will travel to Baku on Monday to seek more natural gas from Azerbaijan, the EU’s executive said, as the EU seeks to reduce its reliance on Russian energy. The Commission said:
Amid Russia’s continued weaponisation of its energy supplies, diversification of our energy imports is a priority for the EU.
President von der Leyen and (Energy) Commissioner Kadri Simson will be tomorrow in Azerbaijan to further strengthen the cooperation.”
According to a draft document seen by Reuters on 14 July, the Commission has proposed to EU countries a deal with Azerbaijan to increase imports of natural gas and support the expansion of a pipeline to do this.
EU governments have already agreed a gradual oil embargo on Russia.
Amid Russia's continued weaponisation of its energy supplies, diversification of our energy imports is a priority for the EU.
— European Commission 🇪🇺 (@EU_Commission) July 17, 2022
President @vonderleyen and Commissioner @KadriSimson will be tomorrow in Azerbaijan to further strengthen the 🇪🇺🇦🇿 cooperation.#REPowerEU
Russia has used more than three thousand cruise missiles against Ukraine, according to its president.
In his latest national address, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said:
As of 7pm today, Russia has already used more than three thousand cruise missiles against Ukraine.
It is impossible to count the number of artillery and other projectiles that were used against our country and our people. But it is definitely possible to bring all Russian war criminals to justice.
Each of the collaborators. All those responsible for terror. For everything that happens during 144 days and in more than eight years. It will be done.”
Russian police have detained journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who in March interrupted a live TV broadcast to denounce the military action in Ukraine, her lawyer has said.
No official statement has been made, but her entourage posted a message on the journalist’s Telegram account on Sunday, according to Agence France-Presse.
Marina has been detained. There is no information on where she is.”
The message included three photos of her being led by two police officers to a white van, after apparently having been stopped while cycling.
Her lawyer, Dmitri Zakhvatov, confirmed her arrest to the Ria-Novosti news agency, saying he did not know where Ovsyannikova had been taken.
“I assume that it is linked one way or another to her act of protest,” he added.
In March Ovsyannikova, an editor at Channel One television, barged onto the set of its flagship Vremya (Time) evening news programme, holding a poster reading ‘No War’ in English.
On Friday, Ovsyannikova posted photos of herself on Telegram showing her near the Kremlin and carrying a protest placard raising the deaths of children and denouncing Putin as a “killer”.
It's 1am in Kyiv. Here's where things stand:
- Soldiers from Russia’s Republic of Buryatia have faced threats from their commanders after they refused to be deployed to Ukraine, the Kyiv Independent reports. According to the outlet, soldiers said that deserters are taken to a military command post where there are detained in a garage for 3-4 four days. They are then taken to a detention center near the Russian-occupied territory of Luhansk.
- A Russian attack on the Bakhmut district in the Donetsk obalst has injured six people, including 3 children, the Kyiv Independent reports. On Sunday, Russian forces shelled the city of Soledar and the Yahidne village, according to the Donetsk oblast prosecutor’s office. The three injured children have shrapnel wounds, the office said.
- Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy followed up on decrees in which he removed the State Security Service head and his Prosecutor General. Zelenskiy said that more than 60 of their employees were working against Ukraine in Russian-occupied territory.
- Russian occupation authorities are planning to deport residents of Ukraine’s occupied south, according to the Association for the Reintegration of Crimea. The association reports, “Any action that will be considered by the occupiers as a ‘violation’ will entail “forced expulsion from the territory of the Kherson region.”
- Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has issued an executive order dismissing the head of state security service and proesecutor general, according to the presidential office website.
- The Vinnytsia concert hall Officer’s House struck by Russian forces will not be completely demolished, only damaged structures will be dismantled, said regional authorities. In a Telegram post, Vinnytsia regional governor Serhiy Borzov said, “We are not talking about the demolition of the entire facility, but about the dismantling of emergency structures where it is dangerous.”
- 1,346 civilians have been found dead in the Kyiv oblast after the retreat of Russian forces, according to the region’s police chief. In a new Kyiv Independent report, Andriy Nebytov is cited saying that about 300 individuals are still missing, adding that 700 of those killed were shot with small arms such as a handgun.
- The head of Britain’s armed forces has dismissed as “wishful thinking” speculation that Russian President Vladimir Putin is suffering from ill-health or could be assassinated. “I think some of the comments that he’s not well or that actually surely somebody’s going to assassinate him or take him out, I think they’re wishful thinking,” the chief of the defence staff said of Putin, in a BBC television interview broadcast on Sunday.
That’s it from me, Maya Yang, as I hand the blog over to my colleague Samantha Lock in Australia who will bring you the latest updates. I’ll be back tomorrow, thank you.
Updated
Soldiers from Russia’s Republic of Buryatia have faced threats from their commanders after they refused to be deployed to Ukraine, the Kyiv Independent reports.
According to the outlet, soldiers said that deserters are taken to a military command post where there are detained in a garage for 3-4 four days. They are they taken to a detention center near the Russian-occupied territory of Luhansk.
One soldier told the Russian media outlet Mediazona that around 77 Buryatia refused to be sent to Ukraine.
A Russian attack on the Bakhmut district in the Donetsk obalst has injured six people, including 3 children, the Kyiv Independent reports.
On Sunday, Russian forces shelled the city of Soledar and the Yahidne village, according to the Donetsk oblast prosecutor’s office. The three injured children have shrapnel wounds, the office said.
Zelenskiy says staff of sacked officials have been 'working against' Ukraine
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy followed up on decrees in which he removed the State Security Service head and his Prosecutor General.
Reuters reports:
Zelenskiy said that more than 60 of their employees were working against Ukraine in Russian-occupied territory.
He added that 651 criminal proceedings had been registered relating to high treason and collaboration by employees of prosecutor’s offices, pretrial investigation bodies and other law enforcement agencies.
“In particular, more than 60 employees of the prosecutor’s office and the Security Service of Ukraine remained in the occupied territory and are working against our state,” he said.
He said that such crimes raised “very serious questions” for the relevant leaders, and added, “Each of these questions will receive a proper answer.”
Updated
Russian occupation authorities are planning to deport residents of Ukraine’s occupied south, according to the Association for the Reintegration of Crimea.
The association reports, “Any action that will be considered by the occupiers as a ‘violation’ will entail “forced expulsion from the territory of the Kherson region.”
It went on to add, “It is stated that the criminal ‘decision’ about this will be approved by the ‘military commandant’, with the execution of the ‘expulsion’ within 24 hours. A similar criminal ‘decree’ was announced by the occupiers in Melitopol.”
The association said that such evictions from the occupied territories of Kherson and Zaporizhia will mean deportations to Russia through Crimea and Mariupol where residents will be used as “labor force and ‘cannon fodder’ to Crimea and Russia.
President Zelenskiy dismisses head of state security service and prosecutor general - report
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has issued an executive order dismissing the head of state security service and proesecutor general, according to the presidential office website.
The orders dismissing domestic security chief Ivan Bakanov, a childhood friend of Zelenskiy, and Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova, who leads the effort to prosecute Russian war crimes in Ukraine, were published on the president’s official website.
Another decree has appointed deputy prosecutor general Oleksii Symonenko as acting prosecutor general.
According to Euromaidan, Bakanov was fired under Article 47 of the Disciplinary Statute of Ukraine’s Armed Forces which states, “Non-performance (improper performance) of official duties, which resulted in human casualties or other serious consequences or created a threat of such consequences.”
Updated
The Vinnytsia concert hall Officer’s House struck by Russian forces will not be completely demolished, only damaged structures will be dismantled, said regional authorities.
In a Telegram post, Vinnytsia regional governor Serhiy Borzov said, “After being hit by a missile, the building is in a state of emergency,” referring to the midday attack on Thursday that left at least 23 people dead and scores more hospitalized.
“After examination by specialists, a decision was made to dismantle the debris. We are not talking about the demolition of the entire facility, but about the dismantling of emergency structures where it is dangerous,” he added.
“The Officer’s House survived the Second World War. It endured this one too - it has already become a symbol of Vinnytsia’s resilience.”
Vinnytsia concert hall "Officers' House" hit by Russia won't be completely demolished, only damaged structures will be dismantled - oblast authorities
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) July 17, 2022
It "survived WWII, will endure this one too, it has already become a symbol of Vinnytsia's resilience"https://t.co/UoGTrguvE3 pic.twitter.com/xUazsWtK7o
1,346 civilians have been found dead in the Kyiv oblast after the retreat of Russian forces, according to the region’s police chief.
In a new Kyiv Independent report, Andriy Nebytov is cited saying that about 300 individuals are still missing, adding that 700 of those killed were shot with small arms such as a handgun.
The head of Britain’s armed forces has dismissed as “wishful thinking” speculation that Russian President Vladimir Putin is suffering from ill-health or could be assassinated.
Agence France-Presse reports:
As the Conservative party chooses a successor to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Admiral Tony Radakin also said Britain’s next leader should be aware that Russia poses “the biggest threat” to the UK and that its challenge would endure for decades.
“I think some of the comments that he’s not well or that actually surely somebody’s going to assassinate him or take him out, I think they’re wishful thinking,” the chief of the defence staff said of Putin, in a BBC television interview broadcast on Sunday.
“As military professionals we see a relatively stable regime in Russia. President Putin has been able to quash any opposition, we see a hierarchy that is invested in President Putin and so nobody at the top has got the motivation to challenge President Putin,” Radakin added.
“And that is bleak.”
Russia’s land forces may pose less of a threat now, after suffering setbacks in the war in Ukraine, the military chief said.
The invasion has killed or wounded 50,000 Russian soldiers and destroyed nearly 1,700 Russian tanks, as well as some 4,000 armoured fighting vehicles, he estimated.
“But Russia continues to be a nuclear power. It’s got cyber capabilities, it’s got space capabilities and it’s got particular programmes under water so it can threaten the underwater cables that allow the world’s information to transit around the whole globe.”
Ukraine will dominate military briefings for Johnson’s successor when he or she takes office on September 6, Radakin said.
“And then we have to remind the prime minister of the extraordinary responsibility they have with the UK as a nuclear power, and that is part of the initiation for a new British prime minister.”
Hello everyone, Maya Yang here. I will be taking over the blog for the next few hours and will be bringing you the latest updates. Stay tuned.
Updated
A British man who appears to be being held captive by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, has been shown in a video asking Boris Johnson for help.
John Harding, who is in his 50s and originally from Sunderland, is being interviewed by a Russian TV presenter in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). In the video he says he could face the death penalty.
It’s understood that he was captured in May when Ukrainian units he was fighting with at the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol were forced to surrender, the BBC has reported.
The video says he was part of the Azov regiment. Harding has told friends he was fighting as part of the Ukrainian national guard.
A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesman said: “We are supporting the family of a British national and are concerned by his detention.
“We condemn the exploitation of detainees for political purposes and have raised this with Russia. We are in constant contact with the government of Ukraine on their cases and are fully supportive of Ukraine in its efforts to get them released.”
Mourners in central Ukraine have buried a four-year-old girl who was killed by a Russian missile strike in the city of Vinnytsia last week, as officials and analysts warned that Moscow’s operational pause of recent days had come to an end, signalling further death and pain to come.
Twenty-three people were killed in the attack, and one person is still missing.
The killing of Liza Dmitrieva, who had Down’s syndrome, as she was pushed in a stroller through a crowded square was reported around the globe, becoming a poignant symbol of the heavy civilian cost of Russia’s invasion.
Wearing a crown of white flowers, Liza was buried on Sunday, as an Orthodox priest burst into tears and told weeping relatives that “evil cannot win”.
Russian forces in Kherson, southern Ukraine, are changing their tactics and trying to “hide behind the civilian population”, according to Ukraine’s armed forces.
Operational Command south said Russian soldiers are deploying in “densely populated areas”, hoping Ukraine will not carry out strikes on regions where their own people are living.
It added that the Russian military continues periodic attacks on Zmiinyi Island, “trying to create the illusion of control of the island”.
“At night, a pair of Su-24 bombers struck the remnants of enemy equipment on the island again. We have no losses,” it said, via a video posted on its Facebook page.
Updated
Correspondents from Agence France-Presse (AFP) have spoken to a sushi restaurant owner in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, about how life is continuing despite the ongoing bombardment.
Working in a sushi restaurant in eastern Ukraine, Igor Besukh turns up the music to drown out the sound of air raid sirens as he prepares the next order.
But the music could not mask the deafening sound of a missile that struck central Kramatorsk on Friday, landing in the city’s Peace Square near the town hall, culture centre and the sushi bar where Besukh works.
The restaurant is one of the few still open in the city, only 20km (12 miles) from the frontline with Russian troops, in the industrial Donbas region that Russia is attempting to conquer.
When they heard the blast, the employees of “Woka”, a restaurant with red-lacquered walls and Asian designs, quickly moved to a shelter.
They re-emerged 20 minutes later to examine the damage. All the windows and doors were broken despite being boarded up with plywood panels.
They cleaned up the debris and continued preparing the orders waiting to be delivered.
There were no casualties following the strike that hit at around 8:00 pm but the impact shattered the windows of several buildings nearby.
“It was a loud noise. We didn’t expect it, of course. I was scared,” says the 23-year-old chef with tattoo-covered arms.
Coming back to work the next day was not easy, he admits, however “war is war, but lunch must be served on time”, he says, quoting a popular saying with a smile.
Updated
Today so far …
- Russian missiles hit an industrial and infrastructure facility in Mykolaiv, a shipbuilding centre in the estuary of the Southern Bug river. Oleksandr Senkevych, the city’s mayor, said there was no immediate information about casualties.
- The European Union is to discuss tightening sanctions against Russia on Monday, as Moscow is accused of using the captured Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant to store weapons and launch missiles on the surrounding regions of southern Ukraine.
- Russia has lost more than 30% of its land combat effectiveness, says Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the chief of the defence staff for the UK, and 50,000 Russian soldiers have either died or been injured in this conflict.
- All eight crew members who died onboard a cargo aircraft transporting munitions that crashed and exploded in a ball of flames in northern Greece were Ukrainian.
- Today was the funeral for one of the three children killed in a Russian missile attack last week in Vinnytsia. In total, 24 people were killed in the attack and more than 200 wounded, including the four-year-old girl’s mother.
- Today marked the eighth anniversary of the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Donetsk in 2014, which killed 298 people onboard. With the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, this year’s anniversary has hit the international community even harder. Russia denied involvement in the downing of MH17, despite the findings of an international investigation that found witnesses who saw an anti-aircraft missile launcher that had secretly crossed into Ukraine from Russia in the hours before it shot down the commercial flight. Iryna Venediktova, the prosecutor general of Ukraine, issued a strong statement calling for international action against Russia.
- Russia is preparing for the next stage of its offensive in Ukraine, according to a Ukrainian military official, after Moscow said its forces would step up military operations in “all operational areas”. Russian rockets and missiles have pounded cities in strikes that Kyiv says have killed at least 40 people in the past three days.
Updated
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy posted on his official Instagram account some poignant statements about the state of conflict in his country today, alongside some photos of the Ukrainian military:
“This is a war in Ukraine that Russia started, that Russia continues and that Russia does not want to end,” Zelenskiy wrote. “Ukraine defends its own land, its sovereignty, its territory. Ukraine is fighting for peace. This is a cruel paradox of the 21st century, and for us this is reality.”
🇺🇦@ZelenskyyUa: “This is a war in #Ukraine that Russia started, Russia continues and doesn’t want to end. Ukraine defends its land, sovereignty, territory. Ukraine is fighting for peace. This is a cruel paradox of the XXI century, for us this is reality.” https://t.co/f0PcVMB6NA pic.twitter.com/HCR8pDMvMz
— MFA of Ukraine 🇺🇦 (@MFA_Ukraine) July 17, 2022
An Orthodox priest burst into tears when it came time to bury four-year-old Liza, but told her weeping friends and family that “evil cannot win”. Her father, Artem Dmytriev, tears flowing down his face, cradled her still figure, taking care not to disturb her crown of white flowers.
The Associated Press has a report from the funeral of Liza, one of the three children killed in a Russian missile attack last week in Vinnytsia, whose photos have gone viral as the latest images from the brutal war in Ukraine to horrify the world. In total, 24 people were killed and more than 200 wounded, including Liza’s mother, who remained in an intensive care unit in a grave condition. The family didn’t tell her that her daughter was being buried on Sunday, fearing it could affect her condition.
“Look, my flower! Look how many people came to you,” Liza’s grandmother, Larysa Dmytryshyna, said, caressing Liza as she lay in an open coffin with flowers and teddy bears in Vinnytsia’s 18th-century Transfiguration Cathedral. “Your mommy didn’t even see how beautiful you are today.”
When the war started, Liza’s family fled Kyiv for Vinnytsia, a city 270km (167 miles) to the south-west, which until Thursday was considered relatively safe.
Shortly before the attack, her mother had posted a video on social media showing Liza in a denim jacket and white pants, straining to reach the handlebars to push her own stroller, happily toddling through Vinnytsia. The next image of Liza shared with the world was one shared by Ukraine’s emergency services showing her lifeless body on the ground next to her blood-stained stroller.
“It’s suffering and despair. There is no forgiveness for them,” said Ilona, a family friend.
Updated
Ukraine prosecutor general: Russia must be recognised as a terrorist state
On the eighth anniversary of the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Donetsk in 2014, which killed 298 people onboard, Iryna Venediktova, the prosecutor general of Ukraine, issued a strong statement calling for international action against Russia.
Though Russia denied involvement in the downing of MH17, the findings of an international investigation found multiple witnesses who saw an anti-aircraft missile launcher that had secretly crossed into Ukraine from Russia in the hours before it shot down the commercial flight.
“Russia must be recognised as a terrorist state,” Venediktova wrote on Twitter. “For eight years, we have had terrible evidence of this. The last five months were the peak of Russian terror – 23,000 war crimes committed against civilians, including international journalists showing the truth about Russian war crimes.”
8 years since the tragic shootdown of the #МН17 flight. 298 victims. The four accused are being tried in The Hague. The next technical court session, in which the sentencing hearing may be calendared, is scheduled for Sep 29, 2022. The possible dates are Nov 17 and Dec 15. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/MF4T5x0ju9
— Iryna Venediktova (@VenediktovaIV) July 17, 2022
The international investigation team of 🇺🇦, 🇳🇱, 🇧🇪, 🇦🇺 & 🇲🇾 is still searching for answers. Inter alia, to determine the crew of the Buk missile system, rf officials who gave orders & the responsible for providing aid to the "DPR" and "LPR" terrorist organizations. 2/3
— Iryna Venediktova (@VenediktovaIV) July 17, 2022
russia must be recognized as a terrorist state. For 8 years, we have had terrible evidence of this. The last 5 months were the peak of russian terror — 23,000 war crimes committed against civilians, including international journalists showing the truth about #RussianWarCrimes 3/3
— Iryna Venediktova (@VenediktovaIV) July 17, 2022
Updated
In just five months, Ukraine has become one of the most landmine-contaminated countries in the world, according to Ukrainian authorities.
🇺🇦 is now one of the most mine-contaminated countries globally. 🇷🇺 landmines keep taking lives of civilians in 🇺🇦. According to 🇺🇦 officials, it may take 10+ years to clear 🇺🇦 of mines. It is an optimistic forecast, as it is hard to assess the impact on the occupied territories. pic.twitter.com/OOBZTm36bC
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) July 17, 2022
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has issued a statement on the anniversary of the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which killed 298 people onboard.
Russia denied involvement in the downing of MH17, despite the findings of an international investigation that found multiple witnesses who saw an anti-aircraft missile launcher that had secretly crossed into Ukraine from Russia in the hours before it shot down the commercial flight.
On the 8th anniversary of the #МН17 plane crash, our thoughts are with the relatives and friends of those innocently killed by Russia. Currently, Russia continues to sow grief and death on Ukrainian soil. But nothing will go unpunished! Every criminal will be brought to justice!
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 17, 2022
Before the Russian invasion on 24 February, Ukraine was seen as the world’s bread basket, exporting 4.5m tonnes of agricultural produce a month through its ports – 12% of the globe’s wheat.
With Ukraine’s ports under siege, the world is undergoing a food scarcity crisis. Fuelling that crisis, Russian missile strikes appear to be destroying some of the country’s crop:
Updated
Russian state TV has covered the missile strike on Vinnytsia that killed 23 – including a seven-year-old boy, an eight-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl – with the same dismissive disinformation as usual, pretending that any allegations of a civilian attack are just propaganda from “the Ukrainian regime”.
Russia's strike that killed civilians—including children—in #Vinnitsa is covered on state TV with cold indifference. State TV host dismisses Kyiv's allegations, boasting about the successful "calibration" of the meeting of Ukrainian military officials with foreign arms suppliers. pic.twitter.com/ZvsdAeW0rd
— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) July 17, 2022
Meanwhile, in Vinnytsia, the family of the four-year-old girl held her funeral today:
Updated
Russia’s defence ministry is saying that Russian forces shot down a Ukrainian MI-17 helicopter near the eastern town of Sloviansk and a SU-25 aircraft in the Kharkiv region, Reuters is reporting.
The ministry is also claiming that its missiles have destroyed a depot in Odesa that stores Harpoon anti-ship missiles given to Ukraine by Nato countries. However, neither Reuters nor the Guardian were able to verify any of these claims.
Updated
Ukraine was struck by another tragedy today: all eight crew members onboard a cargo aircraft transporting munitions that crashed and exploded in a ball of flames in northern Greece were Ukrainian, and all eight were killed.
The plane was carrying 11.5 tonnes of military products, including illuminating mortar shells and training shells, from Serbia to a buyer in Bangladesh, when witness reports suggest it caught fire while still in the air before crashing 2 kilometres away from an inhabited area.
Read more here:
Updated
After nearly 38 hours, 90 firefighters have finally extinguished the fire that broke out at an industrial enterprise in Dnipro after Russian missiles hit it on Friday, Valentyn Reznichenko, governor of the Dnipropetrovsk oblast, said on his Facebook page today.
At least three people were killed and 16 people injured in the missile strike. Authorities are still searching for a man reported missing during the attack.
Updated
Russian missiles strike Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine
Russian missiles hit an industrial and infrastructure facility in Mykolaiv, a shipbuilding centre in the estuary of the Southern Bug river, the Associated Press is reporting.
Oleksandr Senkevych, the city’s mayor, said there was no immediate information about casualties. Mykolaiv, which sits near the Black Sea coast between Russia-occupied Crimea and the main Ukrainian port of Odesa, has faced regular missile strikes in recent weeks as the Russian military has declared a goal to cut off Ukraine’s entire Black Sea coast all the way to the Romanian border. Such a victory for Russian forces would deal a crushing blow to the Ukrainian economy and allow Moscow to secure a land bridge to Moldova’s separatist region of Transnistria, which hosts a Russian military base.
Ukrainian forces had fended off Russian attempts to capture Mykolaiv early on in the campaign, and now Russian troops have focused their energy into pummelling the city with regular missile strikes.
UK defence chief: 50,000 Russian soldiers have either died or been injured
Russia has lost more than 30% of its land combat effectiveness, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the chief of the defence staff for the UK, said on BBC One’s Sunday Morning show.
Because of this, Ukraine’s army “absolutely” believes it will win the war, PA Media is reporting.
“They are absolutely clear that they plan to restore the whole of their territory in terms of Ukraine, and they see a Russia that is struggling, a Russia that we assess has lost more than 30% of its land combat effectiveness.
“What that actually means is 50,000 Russian soldiers that have either died or been injured in this conflict, nearly 1,700 Russian tanks destroyed, nearly 4,000 armoured fighting vehicles that belong to Russia destroyed.
“Russia started this invasion with the ambition to take the whole of Ukraine, Russia had the ambition to take the cities in the first 30 days, Russia had the ambition to create fractures and to apply pressure to Nato – this is Russia as a challenge to the world order, Russia is failing in all of those ambitions, Russia is a more diminished nation than it was at the beginning of February.”
Updated
Politico is reporting that political turmoil amid Ukraine’s domestic intelligence and security agency – the Secret Service of Ukraine (SBU) – has led to acts of treason and betrayal.
Sources tell Politico that president Volodymyr Zelenskiy is looking to replace the current head of SBU, Ivan Bakanov – Zelenskiy’s longtime friend who once ran his entertainment company and his presidential campaign – following a series of decisions in the early days of the Russian invasion that may have cost the country the strategic city of Kherson.
Going against Zelenskiy’s orders, Gen Serhiy Kryvoruchko, the head of Kherson’s SBU directorate, ordered his officers to evacuate the city before Russian troops stormed it, Meanwhile, Col Ihor Sadokhin, his assistant and head of the local office’s Anti-Terrorist Center, supposedly tipped off Russian forces heading north from Crimea about the locations of Ukrainian mines. As he fled in a convoy of SBU agents going west, Sadokhin allegedly helped coordinate a flight path for the enemy’s aircraft, Politico reports.
Kherson, the first and so far the only major Ukrainian city captured by Russian forces since 24 February, was occupied by the Russian army on 3 March. Ukrainian officials allege that Russian troops could take Kherson so easily in part because SBU agents failed to blow up the Antonovskiy Bridge that crosses the Dnipro River, allowing troops to enter the city.
To further add to the turmoil at SBU, Andriy Naumov, a brigadier general who headed the agency’s internal security department, fled abroad a few hours before Russia’s invasion.
Authorities have charged all three former SBU officials with state treason, with Zelenskyy stripping Naumov and Kryvoruchko of their ranks on 31 March and denouncing them as “traitors”.
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Today is the anniversary of the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Donetsk in 2014, which killed 298 people onboard, including 196 Dutch nationals and 38 Australians.
With the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, this year’s anniversary has hit the international community even harder. Russia denied involvement in the downing of MH17, despite the findings of an international investigation that found multiple witnesses who saw an anti-aircraft missile launcher that had secretly crossed into Ukraine from Russia in the hours before it shot down the commercial flight.
Does evil know any limits?
— Петро Порошенко (@poroshenko) July 17, 2022
Exactly today, eight years ago, on this very day, it seemed that the limit had been reached. 298 innocent souls became victims of the boundless evil of Putin's regime #MH17 pic.twitter.com/TB8NgURzVD
On the 8th anniversary of the downing of #MH17, we remember the 298 victims, including the 38 people who called Australia home.
— Senator Penny Wong (@SenatorWong) July 17, 2022
Australia is steadfast in our pursuit of truth, justice and accountability.
Photo: Wreath-laying ceremony at the Parliament House Garden pic.twitter.com/Gm8NNliByR
July 17 is the 8th anniversary of the Russian mercenaries shooting down #MH17 with Russian Buk missile in Donbas. 298 innocent people from different countries were killed then. The case must be finished, the justice must prevail. There was enough evidence. #RussiaTerroristState pic.twitter.com/MOSRB3V3q9
— Iuliia Mendel (@IuliiaMendel) July 16, 2022
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In Vinnytsia, the family and friends of Liza, a four-year-old girl killed in a Russian missile attack last week, have gathered to pay their respects.
Twenty-three people were killed in the missile attack that killed Liza, including a seven-year-old boy and an eight-year-old boy. Liza’s mother, Iryna Dmytrieva, was among more than 100 others injured.
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Ukraine’s armed forces estimates that since the Russian invasion began on 24 February, Russia has lost at least 38,300 troops, 1,684 tanks, 220 planes – and much, much more.
These are the indicative estimates of Russia’s combat losses as of July 17, according to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/TxlI281WjL
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) July 17, 2022
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Russia reinforcing defensive positions in southern Ukraine
With Moscow saying its forces will step up military operations in “all operational areas”, Russia is now reinforcing its defensive positions across the occupied areas in southern Ukraine, the British defence ministry said on Sunday.
Russian force are moving manpower and equipment and defensive stores between Mariupol and Zaporizhzhia, and in Kherson, all the while increasing security measures in Melitopol.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 17 July 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) July 17, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/PpcuXmEzpX
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/7MQE7lJlqH
“Russian defensive moves are likely a response to anticipated Ukrainian offensives, to demands made by defence minister (Sergei Shoigu) on a recent visit to the Donbas, and also to the attacks Ukraine is launching against command posts, logistic nodes and troop concentrations,” the ministry wrote on Twitter.
“Given the pressures on Russian manpower, the reinforcement of the south whilst the fight for the Donbas continues likely indicates the seriousness with which Russian commanders view the threat.”
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Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk oblast, is reporting that two besieged villages in the region remain under Ukrainian control.
Though he does not specify which villages they are, he previously spoke of Bilohorivka and Verkhnokamianka as two that were struggling against Russian forces.
⚡️ Governor: 2 villages in Luhansk Oblast remain under Ukrainian control.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) July 17, 2022
Luhansk Oblast Governor Serhiy Haidai didn't specify the names of the villages, but he had previously reported that Bilohorivka and Verkhnokamianka villages “continue to hold the defense.”
Haidai said that Russian troops had been capturing one of them several times only to be pushed back by the Ukrainian forces, preventing them from reaching their goal of taking the whole region.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) July 17, 2022
The European Union is to discuss tightening sanctions against Russia on Monday, as Moscow is accused of using the captured Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant to store weapons and launch missiles on the surrounding regions of southern Ukraine.
Describing “a deluge of fire”, the regional governor, Valentyn Reznichenko, said on Saturday that Grad missiles had pounded residential areas.
“Rescuers found two dead people under the ruins” in the riverside city of Nikopol, he said.
With the conflict grinding on and increasingly spilling out into global energy and food crises, the EU’s foreign ministers are considering banning gold purchases from Russia, which would align with sanctions already imposed by G7 partners.
More Russian figures could also be placed on the EU’s blacklist.
“Moscow must continue to pay a high price for its aggression,” the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said after forwarding the proposed measures.
Brussels is expected to hold initial sanctions discussions on Monday but not make a same-day decision, according to a senior EU official.
G20 'strongly condemns' Russia's invasion of Ukraine
Many nations in the Group of 20 major economies condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and called for it to end the war during ministerial talks in Indonesia, the host said in its closing statement early on Sunday.
Agence France-Presse reports that the two-day gathering of finance ministers and central bank governors on the resort island of Bali ended without a joint communique because of disagreements with Russia about the war.
But western nations pressed Russia over the military assault, accusing Moscow of sending a shockwave through the global economy and its technocrats of complicity in alleged war crimes committed during the invasion.
Indonesia said: “Many members agreed that the recovery of the global economy has slowed and is facing a major setback as a result of Russia’s war against Ukraine, which was strongly condemned, and called for an end to the war.”
However, Canada said earlier that Russia’s participation in the forum was inappropriate and “absurd”.
“Russia’s presence at this meeting was like inviting an arsonist to a meeting of firefighters,” the Canadian finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, said on Saturday in Bali, adding that her government protested at the gathering that it did not want Russia to be there.
“That is because Russia is directly and solely responsible for the illegal invasion of Ukraine, and its economic consequences, which are being felt by us all.”
Jakarta, which has been balancing its neutral foreign policy stance with hosting the G20 summit in November, replaced a joint communique with a 14-paragraph chair’s statement that did not fall under the forum’s banner and included two sections on members’ differences.
“One member expressed the view that the sanctions are adding to existing challenges,” it said, in an apparent reference to Russia, which has denied blame for the global economic headwinds.
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Ukraine accuses Russia of using Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant as weapons silo
Ukraine’s atomic energy agency has accused Russia of using Europe’s largest nuclear power plant to store weapons and shell the surrounding regions of Nikopol and Dnipro, which were hit on Saturday.
Petro Kotin, president of Ukrainian nuclear agency Energoatom, called the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant “extremely tense”, with up to 500 Russian soldiers controlling it, Agence France-Presse reports.
The plant in south-east Ukraine has been under Russian control since the early weeks of Moscow’s invasion but is still operated by Ukrainian staff.
Russian missiles struck residential buildings in the city of Nikopol on Saturday, killing two people, said the Dnipro regional governor, Valentin Reznichenko.
In the north-east region around Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv, the governor, Oleg Synegubov, said an overnight Russian missile attack killed three in the town of Chuguiv.
Updated
Russia planning to step up military operations in 'all operational areas', Ukraine says
Russia is preparing for the next stage of its offensive in Ukraine, according to a Ukrainian military official, after Moscow said its forces would step up military operations in “all operational areas”.
Russian rockets and missiles have pounded cities in strikes that Kyiv says have killed at least 40 people in the past three days.
“It is not only missile strikes from the air and sea,” Reuters reported Vadym Skibitskyi, a spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence, as saying on Saturday.
“We can see shelling along the entire line of contact, along the entire frontline. There is an active use of tactical aviation and attack helicopters ... Clearly preparations are now under way for the next stage of the offensive.”
The Ukrainian military said Russia appeared to be regrouping units for an offensive towards Sloviansk, a symbolically important city held by Ukraine in the eastern region of Donetsk.
Updated
Summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war. As it approaches 10am in Kyiv, here’s a summary of the latest developments.
- Seven civilians have been evacuated from Sviatohirsk Lavra in Ukraine’s eastern region of Donetsk. Among those evacuated include a family with three children and two elderly people, according to Ukraine’s defence ministry intelligence directorate. The youngest evacuee was born just a few days earlier at a monastery.
- The Ukraine armed forces are advancing “confidently” towards Kherson in south-east Ukraine, according to a Ukrainian military spokesperson. Natalia Hemeniuk, the head of the press centre at Operation Command South, “speaking about what is happening directly in Kherson direction, we are advancing there”, she said. “Maybe we are not moving as fast as those who present positive news would like, but believe me, these steps are very confident.”
- Russian forces are preparing for a new offensive, the Kyiv Independent reports. According to Vadym Skibitsky, a representative of the intelligence directorate at Ukraine’s defence ministry, Russian activity signals that “undoubtedly, preparations for the next stage of offensive actions are under way”.
- The war in Ukraine “concerns the west as a whole” but at the same time must not lead to “forgetting Africa’s security” needs, France’s armed forces minister, Sebastien Lecornu, said. “We have a form of myopia in Europe and France, where the Ukraine war mobilises all our energy, and that is natural – it is a conflict that concerns the west as a whole,” Lecornu said in Ivory Coast on Saturday after visiting Niger.
- “No Russian missiles or artillery can break our unity,” the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in a statement on Saturday. In an address on the anniversary of the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine, he added: “It should be equally obvious that it cannot be broken with lies or intimidation, fakes or conspiracy theories.”
- All bodies have been identified after Russia’s missile strike on Vinnytsia, the region’s governor announced. According to the Vinnytsia oblast governor, Serhii Borzov, 68 people are currently hospitalised, 14 of them are in serious condition. Rescue operations after the attack have concluded. Twenty-three people were killed, 202 injured, one person is missing and three others have been rescued in the central-west Ukrainian city, according to the country’s state emergency service.
- Around 100 to 150 civilians were killed by Russian military strikes in Ukraine over the past two weeks, according to the Pentagon. In a briefing on Friday, a senior US military official said: “I think all told over the week ... we’re looking at between 100, 150, somewhere in there, civilian casualties, civilian deaths, this week in Ukraine as a result of Russian strikes.”
