July 26, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine has moved here.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin approved the treatment of wounded Ukrainian soldiers at a US military hospital in Germany, according to a memo obtained by CNN and confirmed by two US defense officials. 

The plan allows for the treatment of up to 18 wounded soldiers at a time a Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, the massive hospital in Germany where the military has, for years, treated US service members who suffered injuries in combat. 

Austin offered verbal guidance on May 26 to begin offering treatment to wounded Ukraine soldiers, according to the memo. On June 29, Austin formalized the verbal guidance and in a memo entitled “Guidance for Medical Treatment of Wounded Ukrainian Service Members.” 

Despite the plan receiving final approval nearly one month ago, Landstuhl has not yet received Ukrainian service members for medical care.

An official from US European Command told CNN, “We have not treated any Ukraine troops at Landstuhl.”

The official said the purpose of the memo was to remove any red tape that would slow down the process of offering treatment if the need arose. The plan would permit treatment if there was no facility available in Ukraine or in a closer country. Landstuhl is approximately 700 miles (more than 1,000 kilometers) from the Ukrainian border. 

If Landstuhl were to receive wounded Ukrainian troops, the service members would have to leave Ukraine by train or car, which has no troops in Ukraine, before the US could evacuate them by air to Ramstein Air Base. 

On Monday, Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, posted a video on Twitter showing Ukrainian soldiers receiving prosthetic legs at a hospital in Chicago. A second video posted Tuesday showed the soldiers walking on the prosthetic limbs. 

But this would appear to be the first authorization for Ukrainian troops to receive treatment of military facilities instead of civilian hospitals.

More background: In late-April, a bipartisan group of lawmakers wrote a letter to Austin and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging the administration to do more to support the “struggling healthcare systems” in Ukraine and Poland.

One of the requests was to “scale-up” Landstuhl Regional Medical Center to treat sick and wounded Ukrainians. The authors said it would follow the US decision to offer treatment to Afghan refugees who transited through the adjacent Ramstein Air Base last year. The letter also urged the administration to send armored ambulances and establish a several military field hospitals along the Poland-Ukraine border.

“You have a unique opportunity to showcase American leadership by providing medical support to Ukrainians that will inspire other NATO states to follow suit,” the authors wrote.

John Kirby, then serving as the Pentagon press secretary, said Austin had received the letter dated April 22 and would “certainly take it seriously and respond appropriately.” Kirby said that any decision to provide field hospitals or US humanitarian support would be done in consultation with the host country. 

CNN has reached out to a number of the letter’s signatories for comment.

On the day Austin issued verbal guidance to begin offering treatment to Ukrainian soldiers, the top US general spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart. A readout of the conversation between Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Gen. Valery Zaluzhny makes no mention of opening up US military medical facilities to Ukrainian service members

One month later, Austin formalized the verbal guidance on a day he spoke with Ukrainian Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov. According to a readout of the call, Austin gave an update on US security assistance efforts, but there is no mention of offering treatment to Ukrainian soldiers.

Ukrainian officials admit Russian forces have made small advances in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine amid intense shelling along the front line, with Ukrainian officials saying the “entire territory is under fire.”

At the same time, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky is accusing Moscow of waging an “overt gas war” against Europe after Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom said it will reduce the flow through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany to repair another turbine.

Here are the other top headlines to know tonight:

Hungary was the only European Union member state on Tuesday to vote against a deal to ration its natural gas this winter to prevent a severe supply shock, according to the Hungarian government.

“The EU gas savings regulation is unfounded, unenforceable and completely disregards the interests of the Hungarian people, which is why the Hungarian government was the only member state to vote against its adoption,” Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in Brussels according to the office of the international spokesperson for Hungary’s Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister.

On Tuesday, EU energy ministers agreed to a voluntary target to reduce gas usage by 15% between August and March 2023. The votes of each member state were not made public by the European Commission. 

For Hungary, “this decision is completely unacceptable and its implementation is out of the question. The proposal completely ignores the interests of HU[ngary], but it is also more painful for other EU citizens than for those against whom it is being made,” Zoltan Kovacs, the international spokesman for Hungary’s Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister, posted on Twitter quoting Szijjártó.

Brussels “has made another step towards war economy,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Tuesday, according to Zoltan Kovacs.

An EU official told CNN that all member states but one voted in favor of the deal. The official did not specify which state voted against.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday presented Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with an award to honor his leadership at a ceremony in Downing Street, in which Zelensky appeared virtually. 

Deemed “The Sir Winston Churchill Award” in memory of Britain’s former wartime leader who led Europe to peace in World War II, the International Churchill Society honors it to people who have “demonstrated extraordinary leadership” in his spirit, according to the website of the National Churchill Museum.

“President Zelensky has faced a test of leadership just as severe as Churchill,” Johnson is quoted as saying in a news release from the International Churchill Society. 

“He has, with quintessentially Churchillian composure, showed the world what moral and physical courage really mean. His defiance, dignity and serenity under extreme pressure has moved millions. It has been a true honor to call him my friend and it is my immense privilege to present him with this award today,” Johnson said.

Also physically present at the Downing Street ceremony were members of the Churchill family and Vadym Prystaiko, Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK, the news release said. 

Accepting the award, Zelensky said: “No one knows how much time and effort it will take to achieve that victory, but the victory is worthwhile. This will become a joint history, as prominent as it was during Churchill times. It will be quoted just like he was quoted. I would like to thank you, thank you for this award, for the award for the people of Ukraine.”

Ukrainian forces are fighting an assault from Russian troops near Pokrovske as Moscow continues to make a push in the eastern Donetsk region, the Ukrainian General Staff said in a daily update on Tuesday evening, 

“In the direction Bakhmut, the enemy shelled military and civilian infrastructure in the areas of Berestove, Soledar, Pokrovske, Vesela Dolyna, Vershyna, Kodema, Maiorsk and Toretsk. It carried out airstrikes directly on the settlements of Pokrovske and Novoluhanske,” the Ukrainian General Staff said. 

“Our defenders successfully repelled enemy assault attempts in the districts of Berestove, Soledar and Semyhiria. Fighting with an assault group continues near Pokrovske,” it added. 

According to the General Staff, Russian shelling was reported across most of the frontline. Ukrainian forces also repelled assaults in other parts of the Donetsk region. 

“In the Sloviansk direction, the enemy shelled the areas of Nortsivka, Dolyna, Hrushuvakha, Krasnopillia, Mazanivka and other settlements with artillery and tanks. It tried to advance near Bohorodychne, was unsuccessful, and withdrew,” the Ukrainian military said. “Ukrainian soldiers successfully repelled the occupiers’ attempt to improve the tactical position in the Ivano-Dariivka area and forced the enemy to flee.”

US President Joe Biden’s administration is working behind the scenes to keep European allies united against Russia as Moscow further cuts its energy supplies to the bloc, prompting panic on both sides of the Atlantic over potentially severe gas shortages heading into winter, US officials said.

On Monday, Russia’s state-owned gas company Gazprom said it would cut flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany in half, to just 20% of its capacity. A US official said the move was retaliation for Western sanctions, and that it put the West in “unchartered territory” when it comes to whether Europe will have enough gas to get through the winter.  

In response to the turmoil, the White House dispatched Amos Hochstein, presidential coordinator for global energy, to Europe on Tuesday, officials said. He will be traveling to Paris and Brussels to discuss contingency planning with the US-EU energy task force created in March, one month after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

The impact on Europe could boomerang back onto the US, spiking natural gas and electricity prices, the official said. It will also be a major test of European resilience and unity against Russia, as the Kremlin shows no signs of retreating from Ukraine.  

The US and Brussels have been pleading with EU members to save gas and store it for winter, and energy ministers agreed in principle on Tuesday to cut gas use by 15% from August to March — with some concessions.

There will also be discussions in the coming days about increasing nuclear power production across Europe to offset gas shortages, officials said. Germany was planning to completely phase out its use of nuclear power by the end of 2022, but US officials are hoping to convince Germany to extend the life of its three remaining nuclear power plants amid the energy crisis, an official said.

US officials, who have been in close touch in particular with German and French officials on this topic, are extremely concerned that Europe might face a serious gas shortage going into winter. That is because Europe will struggle to fill its reserves over the next few months with Nord Stream 1 providing only a fraction of its capacity.

Officials said a 15% cut, along with a surge of global liquefied natural gas exports to Europe, including from the US, is unlikely to be enough to offset the shortages. 

“This is an open gas war that Russia is waging against a united Europe,” Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky said on Tuesday.

The US official said it was clear the Russians are “lashing out” and trying to “destabilize Europe” because they are not achieving their goals in Ukraine. 

A National Security Council spokesperson called Russia’s moves just its latest attempts “to use natural gas as a political and economic weapon.”

“Russia’s energy coercion has put pressure on energy markets, raised prices for consumers, and threatened global energy security. These actions only underscore the importance of the work the United States and the European Commission are doing to end our reliance on Russian energy,” the spokesperson said. “We will continue working with our European partners to reduce dependence on Russian energy and support their efforts to prepare for further Russian destabilization of energy markets.”

The Russian military is deploying additional forces to its southern flank, bolstering its positions in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, according to Ukrainian officials and videos posted on social media that were geolocated by CNN. Analysts suggest the move is presumably to try and counter an eventual Ukrainian counteroffensive. 

Several posts on Ukrainian social media accounts reference the movement of heavy military equipment on top of trains or clogging up highways through the Crimean peninsula and into the Kherson region. CNN geolocated several videos, filmed in the past few days, which show convoys crossing from Crimea into Kherson. Other videos showed the convoys heading toward Crimea, across the Kerch straight, from Krasnodar in Russia. 

The spokespeople for the Ukrainian General Staff and the Ukrainian Operational Command South declined to comment, but the Office of the Ukrainian President in Crimea said the “movement of military equipment, ammunition, and personnel of the Russian army continues throughout the territory of the occupied Crimean peninsula.”

“Every day, about 50 wagons with echelons of Russian military equipment move towards Dzhankoi, queues of military equipment are also noticed at the administrative border with occupied Crimea, near the settlements of Armiansk and Krasnoperekopsk,” the office said in a statement on Facebook on Monday. 

Analysts have suggested this movement of heavy equipment could be in anticipation of a Ukrainian counteroffensive to try and retake Russian-controlled areas in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia areas. In its daily assessment of the Russian campaign on Monday, the Institute for the Study of War said that “Russian forces continued to fortify their positions in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson Oblasts in preparations for Ukrainian counteroffensives.”

What Russia is saying: The Russian defense ministry denied Moscow is deploying additional forces to Ukraine.

“A number of foreign media outlets are spreading false information about alleged mobilization activities,” the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. “We draw your attention to the fact that only a part of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation is involved in the conduct of a special military operation, the number of which is quite sufficient to fulfil all the tasks set by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief.”

CNN’s Zarah Ullah and Uliana Pavlova contributed reporting to this post.

Germany has delivered three MARS2 multiple launch rocket systems launchers from its army stocks, as well as five Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and three self-propelled howitzer 2000 to Ukraine, the German Minister of Defense Christine Lambrecht said on Tuesday.

“The promised MARS2 multiple rocket launchers and another three self-propelled howitzer 2000 have been delivered. We keep our word,” Lambrecht said.

The Ukrainian President’s Chief of Staff, Andriy Yermak, acknowledged the receipt of the weapons and said they would be deployed to the frontlines.

Lambrecht also said Germany would accelerate the pace at which heavy weapons will be delivered to Ukraine, a spokesperson for the German Ministry of Defense said. In total, Ukraine will receive 30 Gepard systems from the industry with about 60,000 rounds of ammunition mainly from the Bundeswehr according to the spokesman. Altogether ten self-propelled howitzers 2000 will also come from Bundeswehr stocks.

Ukrainian forces will also receive a Cobra artillery tracking radar, with the delivery expected in September.

“The contract has already been signed, now the training of Ukrainian soldiers on this highly complex system begins,” Lambrecht said.

Russia will withdraw from the International Space Station project “after 2024” after fulfilling its obligations, according to the Kremlin readout of a meeting between the newly appointed head of Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.

“You know that we are working within the framework of international cooperation at the International Space Station. Undoubtedly, we will fulfil all our obligations to our partners, but the decision to leave the station after 2024 has been made,” Borisov told Putin in the Kremlin-issued readout.

“I think that by this time, we will begin to form the Russian orbital station,” Borisov said. 

Russia’s withdrawal would be a major blow to the ISS, a model of international cooperation for decades. The announcement comes as the war in Ukraine has deeply strained its relations with US and Europe.

Robyn Gatens, director of the International Space Station for NASA, said that NASA hadn’t received any official word from Russia about the decision to quit the ISS.

“The Russians, just like us, are thinking ahead to what’s next for them. As we are planning transition after 2030 to commercially operated space stations in low-Earth orbit, they have a similar plan. And so they’re thinking about that transition as well. We haven’t received any official word from the partner as to the news today, so we’ll be talking more about their plan going forward, ” Gatens said.

This is not the first time that Russia has threatened to abandon the ISS amid crippling US and European sanctions over the war in Ukraine. Borisov’s predecessor, Dmitry Rogozin, repeatedly threatened to do so before he was ousted earlier this month.

But this most recent threat has more teeth, and the apparent approval of Putin himself. According to the transcript of a meeting posted to the Kremlin’s website, Putin said “good” after Borisov told him that Roscosmos will begin to build its own space station after 2024.

Russia’s withdrawal would be a major blow to the ISS, a model of international cooperation for decades.

The news comes less than two weeks after NASA and Roscosmos announced a crew-exchange deal or “seat swap” that had been under negotiations for more than four years. Starting in September, two Russian cosmonauts will launch on US spacecrafts from Florida while two American astronauts will ride Russian rockets into space. It’s unclear if Russia’s decision to pull out of the ISS after 2024 will impact the crew-exchange agreement.

The ISS, which is a collaboration among the US, Russia, Japan, Canada and the European Space Agency, is divided into two sections — the Russian Orbital Segment and the US Orbital Segment. The Biden administration announced in December that it was committed to extending the ISS from 2024 to 2030. But Russia — NASA’s number-one partner at the ISS — never signed onto it.

“The Russian segment can’t function without the electricity on the American side, and the American side can’t function without the propulsion systems that are on the Russian side,” former NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman told CNN in February. “So you can’t do an amicable divorce. You can’t do a conscious uncoupling.”

Since then, NASA has been exploring ways of moving the space station without the assistance of the Russian segment. In June, a Cygnus cargo spacecraft demonstrated its ability to raise the station’s orbit. But whether the ISS would be able to survive without the Russians is still an open question.

NASA said in February it intends to keep operating the International Space Station — which was launched in 2000 — until the end of 2030, after which the ISS would be deorbited and crashed into a remote part of the Pacific Ocean. Commercially operated space platforms would replace the ISS as a venue for collaboration and scientific research, NASA said.

Hear the director general of the European Space Agency here:

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The European Union’s Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson has said that “even if all the exemptions are used in full,” the deal reached by EU ministers on Tuesday to reduce natural gas demand by 15% would “help us [EU] safely through an average winter.”

Speaking after a meeting of the EU energy ministers in Brussels, Simson said that the agreement was “a blueprint to act together in a coordinated way if the situation worsens.”

Addressing the exemptions to the deal, Simson said that the European Council “has introduced more flexibility to reflect the specific situations of the member states.”

“The discussion showed that while solidarity is necessary, it works best when we recognize that the circumstances of the member states vary widely. Some are not integrated into the EU gas network or don’t use gas at all,” she said.

Simson said that countries like Ireland, Malta and the Baltic states “have strongly underlined their intention to reduce demand.”  

The EU earlier Tuesday agreed to a voluntary target to reduce gas usage by 15% between August and March 2023. 

The EU Commission first unveiled the 15% target in its “Save Gas for a Safe Winter” plan last week, which included a proposal for a new law that, if passed, would give it the power to force states to meet mandatory reduction targets in exceptional circumstances.

But objections from some countries over the past few days pushed the bloc to make key concessions, taking into account their varying levels of dependency on gas and levels of storage.

The EU will now exempt countries that are not interconnected to other members’ gas networks from the 15% mandatory demand reduction target, as “they would not be able to free up significant volumes of pipeline gas to the benefit of other member states,” the EU Council said in a press release.

Czech Minister of Industry and Trade Jozef Síkela told reporters at the same press conference that “we will share the pain.”

“Today, we are sending a strong signal not only to Vladimir Putin, who once again failed to divide the European Union, but most importantly to our citizens,” he said. 

“We will not allow Russia to threaten our security by deliberately disrupting gas deliveries and using gas as a political weapon,” Síkela added.

The UK government has sanctioned additional people and entities in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the British Foreign Office said Tuesday.

Among the sanctioned are Vitaly Khotsenko and Vladislav Kuznetsov, the Russian-imposed Prime Minister and First Deputy Chair of the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, according to the Foreign Office statement.

“Khotsenko and Kuznetsov have been sent to implement Russia’s policies across the invaded region, supporting Putin’s plans to illegally annex more of Ukraine and use sham referendums to falsely legitimize their occupation,” the statement said. They have been hit with a travel ban and asset freeze.

Russia’s Minister of Justice Konstantin Chuychenko and Deputy Minister of Justice Oleg Sviridenko have also been sanctioned, the Foreign Office said.

“The pair are suppressing their own people by targeting those speaking out against the war,” the statement said.

The UK also targeted 29 Russian regional governors with sanctions.

“The governors have been directed by the Kremlin to transfer funds to the so-called ‘Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics’, facilitating the Russian occupation in attempting to wrest territory from Ukraine,” the Foreign Office said.

Additionally, the UK sanctioned six Syrian individuals and companies for their links to Russia’s war in Ukraine, including for assisting in the recruitment of Syrian mercenaries to fight alongside Russian troops.

Two nephews of “major Russian oligarch” Alisher Usmanov were hit with asset freezes over their “association with Putin”, the statement said. One of the two, Sarvar Ismailov, was previously a director at the English soccer club, Everton.

Usmanov, who is already subject to UK sanctions, also has close ties to the Kremlin, according to the Foreign Office.

The Foreign Office also added five Syrian individuals and entities to the sanctions list over their links to the governing regime in Syria, including Issam Shammout, the owner of Cham Wings, a Syrian airline that was released from EU sanctions in mid-July.

To date, the UK has sanctioned “more than 1,100 individuals and more than 100 entities” over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Foreign Office said. 

The European Union has agreed to ration its natural gas this winter to prevent a severe supply shock. But the bloc has watered down its ambitions by offering countries some significant leeway.

On Tuesday, EU energy ministers agreed to a voluntary target to reduce gas usage by 15% between August and March 2023. That reduction is measured against each country’s average gas consumption during the same months over the previous five years.

The EU Commission first unveiled the 15% target in its “Save Gas for a Safe Winter” plan last week, which included a proposal for a new law that, if passed, would give it the power to force states to meet mandatory reduction targets in exceptional circumstances.

But objections from some countries over the past few days have pushed the bloc to make key concessions, taking into account their varying levels of dependency on gas and levels of storage.

Read the full story here:

25 July 2022, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lubmin: Pipe systems and shut-off devices at the gas receiving station of the Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea pipeline and the transfer station of the OPAL (Ostsee-Pipeline-Anbindungsleitung - Baltic Sea Pipeline Link) long-distance gas pipeline. (to dpa "Gazprom cuts supply through Nord Stream 1 to 20 percent") Photo: Stefan Sauer/dpa (Photo by Stefan Sauer/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Related article Europe dials down its plans to ration gas this winter

An air raid siren sounds over Odesa an hour before daybreak Tuesday, cutting through a clear night.

Heavily armed soldiers patrol the moonlit streets of the historic center, blocks from Ukraine’s most crucial port.

Like all Ukrainian cities a curfew keeps Odesa still through the night, but the city’s air defense system has allowed a quality of life here in contrast to the all-out war just a short drive east.

Coffee shops and lunch spots continue their summer trade, despite a lack of tourists in what was one of the Soviet Union’s most popular holiday towns. 

Days earlier, at a skate park in view of the port, children ride scooters and skateboards.

Seven-year-old Max fled to Moldova with his mother at the beginning of the war. He’s returned to spend time with his father Roman Gainutdikov, a merchant seaman put out of work by the war.

“Of course people want to live normally,” says Gainutdikov. “But in the worst case it will be the same story as Mykolaiv.”

Each night, Mykolaiv is pummeled by Russian missiles and rockets. The city is emptying out, with many fleeing to the relative safety of Odesa three hours down the road. 

Now, Odesa is being hit too.

Fires have been put out at the port where two cruise missiles on Saturday hit what the Ukrainians say was a pumping station.

Global condemnation continues over the strikes that hit infrastructure needed for Ukraine’s effort to export its grain harvest to a hungry world. Russia says it hit a military target there. 

Tuesday’s air raid siren was no false alarm either. Just south of the city, fires burned in the coastal village of Zatoka — an “ordinary” place, according to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, who posted videos of the fiery aftermath of the strike. 

People here in Odesa expect more air raid sirens and know worse days could come. 

The Joint Coordination Center for Ukrainian grain exports is set to begin its work on Wednesday, according to the Turkish Ministry of Defense.

The defense ministry announced the opening in a press release Tuesday, saying the opening will take place at the National Defense University in Istanbul with the Turkish Minister for Defense Hulusi Akar scheduled to be in attendance. 

The center will oversee the system of maritime caravans transporting vital grain exports out of Ukraine. It was devised as part of the grain deal signed by Ukraine and Russia last Friday under the auspices of Turkey and the United Nations. 

A Russian delegation of experts headed by Rear Admiral Eduard Luik will arrive in Istanbul on Tuesday, according to a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense. 

Their main task will be to “promptly resolve all the necessary issues for the Initiative to enter the stage of practical implementation,” according to the statement.

Russian forces have struck multiple targets in the east and south of Ukraine with missiles and artillery, while European Union officials have accused Russian state-owned gas company Gazprom of “politically motivated” reductions in gas flows to member countries.

Here are the latest headlines:

EU ministers have reached a “political agreement” on gas demand reduction, according to the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The Czech Presidency announced the agreement in a tweet on Tuesday, saying “this was not a Mission Impossible.”

EU energy ministers met in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss energy supply amid a reduction in flows of Russian gas.

Some background: Last week, the European Commission laid out its “Save Gas for a Safe Winter” plan which asked the 27 member states to reduce their gas demand by 15% between August and March next year. This reduction is based on countries’ average gas consumption during the same months over the past five years.

Europe will not be divided by the Russian-imposed gas scarcity they face, Germany’s foreign minister said Tuesday.

Joining her Czech counterpart, Jan Lipavsky, in Prague for a joint press conference, Annalena Baerbock said: “We are underlining with this that we will not let ourselves be divided, where we as EU states could also act against each other because gas is so scarce, but that we are standing together and that is the most important signal to the Russian President.”

“In the long term, the path is clear: Europe will gain sovereignty through the expansion of renewable energies,” she said.

She added that, with every wind turbine and solar plant Europe erects, they will gain “freedom” and “become stronger together.”

“This also means that we need to rapidly expand the infrastructure in Europe with which we transport energy,” she said.

The challenge for all European countries is to maintain the security of supply, said Baerbock, noting that gas, not electricity, is the main source of heat supply in Germany.

A Russian checkpoint in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region has become the only relatively safe way for Ukrainians to try to leave southern occupied areas for Ukrainian-held territory. 

But recent videos from around the checkpoint show hundreds of vehicles lined up, unable to cross. 

Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of Melitopol, which lies in Russian-occupied territory, said on Ukrainian television on Tuesday that “evacuation from the occupied territories is the biggest problem. Evacuation is almost impossible today.”

He said people were attempting to leave the occupied territories of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk through the checkpoint at Vasylivka, with some having been on the road for seven days, sleeping in their cars.

“Today, more than 5,000 people, over 1,200 cars have gathered there,” he added.

Fedorov, who is not in Melitopol, reported the deaths of five people who were waiting to leave in recent days. He didn’t explain the circumstances of the deaths.

“People can’t even go and buy food for themselves. The only condition under which the Russians allow people to go to buy food in the city is to leave all the documents (passport, driver’s license etc) with them and then collect them after returning.”

The videos show people sleeping in their cars and tents and crowded into a gas station in high summer temperatures. Some people are sleeping in the open.

One video shows a large grass fire burning adjacent to the highway near the checkpoint. Large amounts of garbage have also built up around the checkpoint. 

Fedorov said the Russians are using civilians as human shields in Melitopol, and have spent the last three days making large transfers of weaponry through the temporarily occupied territories.

“Yesterday, three convoys of equipment passed through the city of Melitopol in the direction of Kherson. These are a hundred units of heavy weapons, more than 20 tanks, landing vehicles and so on,” he said.

Fedorov added that the armor was traveling west to Kherson where a Ukrainian counter-attack against Russian defenses is developing.

French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to discuss the food shortages caused by the war in Ukraine during his four-day visit to Cameroon, Benin and Guinea-Bissau, an official from the Élysée Palace said.

“The consequences of the war in Ukraine are strongly felt on the African continent, which is very dependent on Ukrainian agricultural exports,” the spokesman said.   

“The trip will be an opportunity to strengthen our collective resilience to food crises and promote long-term investment in agriculture in vulnerable countries, particularly in Africa.”   

Macron will meet Cameroon’s 89-year-old President, Paul Biya, on Tuesday. This is the first trip by a French President to the country since 2015.

Some background: The United Nations has warned that up to 49 million people could be pushed into famine or famine-like conditions due to the war’s devastating impact on global food supply and prices.     

During his tour — which started on Monday — Macron will also speak about security and the terrorist threat that continues to spread throughout the Sahel and West Africa.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is also touring Africa, hoping to seek support amid global outrage at the food crisis following Moscow’s blockade of Ukrainian ports. He has visited Egypt — the world’s largest wheat importer — and the Republic of Congo.

WNBA star Brittney Griner will be cross-examined as part of her drug trial in Russia on Wednesday, her lawyers said.

Griner will testify, her lawyers said, as her defense team claimed that cannabis oil found in her luggage was for medicinal purposes.

“Griner will testify tomorrow, and after that, it’s her decision whether she answers any questions or not,” Alexander Boykov, a lawyer for Griner, told CNN. Prosecutors also will have an opportunity to question Griner.

Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, made a brief court appearance at the Khimki court of the Moscow region on Tuesday as her defense team presented evidence.

Tuesday’s hearing lasted about an hour, and Griner was escorted out of the courtroom.

Griner, 31, pleaded guilty to drug charges earlier this month but the US State Department says she is wrongfully detained. She faces up to 10 years in prison.

Griner’s supporters have called for her release over fears she is being used as a political pawn amid Russia’s war on Ukraine.

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US WNBA basketball superstar Brittney Griner enters a defendants' cage before a hearing at the Khimki Court in the town of Khimki outside Moscow on July 15, 2022. - Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medallist and WNBA champion, was detained at Moscow airport in February on charges of carrying in her luggage vape cartridges with cannabis oil, which could carry a 10-year prison sentence. (Photo by NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA / AFP) (Photo by NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP via Getty Images)

Related article Brittney Griner in court as defense team will present evidence in trial

Gazprom’s latest announcement to further reduce flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline is a “politically motivated step,” European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson said on Tuesday, ahead of a meeting with EU energy ministers in Brussels.

“There is no technical reason to do so. This is a politically motivated step, and we have to be ready for that,” Simson said.
“And exactly for that reason, the pre-emptive reduction of our gas demand is a wise strategy.”

Some context: On Monday, the Russian state-owned energy company said it will further reduce gas flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline from Wednesday, as it halts another turbine for repairs. The pipeline is a vital artery linking Russia’s vast gas reserves to Europe via Germany.

The daily capacity from “7:00 am (Moscow time) July 27 will be up to 33 million cubic meters,” the company said in a statement. Nord Stream 1 has a capacity of around 160 million cubic meters per day.

Simson said that Gazprom’s announcement “underlined once again that we have to be ready for the possible supply cuts from Russia at any moment.”

“We have to take care of our preparedness; we have to tackle this crisis right now and together. And by doing so, we will reduce our demand pre-emptively,” she continued.

Simson added that she expects EU ministers to have “a political agreement” by the end of Tuesday.

Last week, the European Commission laid out its plan to reduce gas use in Europe by 15% until next spring.

Social media video shows that a large fire broke out Monday night in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, which is controlled by the pro-Russian separatists of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).

Russian state news agency TASS reported that the fire broke out at an oil depot in the Budennovsky district. It said the plant had come under fire from Ukraine.

The Ukrainian military rarely comments on attacks against infrastructure in Donetsk, but several fuel and munitions depots in DPR-held territory have come under attack this month.

Ukrainian officials have said that with the acquisition of long-range artillery and howitzers from the West, the military is focused on attacking Russian logistics and command positions. 

A TASS reporter in Donetsk said the blaze could be seen in several areas of the city, “with the flames reaching a couple of dozen meters in height.”

TASS said tanks of fuel and lubricants were burning. Video early Tuesday showed that smoke was still rising from the location, several hours after the fire began.

Many settlements close to the front lines in Donetsk have come under fire in the past 24 hours as Russian forces try to break down Ukrainian defenses, according to the head of the region’s military administration,

He added that “the front is approaching the city of Bakhmut, where there were systematic artillery fire and air strikes” on Monday. 

Bakhmut is a key objective of Russian forces as a gateway to the remainder of the region still in Ukrainian hands. Russian forces are estimated to be about 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) southeast of the town. 

In its latest assessment Monday, the US-based Institute for the Study of War said Russian forces “made marginal gains south of Bakhmut but are unlikely to be able to effectively leverage these advances to take full control of Bakhmut itself.”

The Ukrainian military said Tuesday that the Russians were “creating conditions for an offensive on Siversk and Soledar” — two towns in the pocket of eastern Donetsk still being defended by Ukrainian forces.

“Enemy units replenish stocks of ammunition and fuel,” the military’s General Staff said.

Russian assaults in the area around the town of Spirne had been repelled, it added. Similarly, the General Staff said a Russian effort to break through north of Sloviansk had been rebuffed in the Sviati Hory area.

WNBA star Brittney Griner is in court outside Moscow as her defense team prepares to present evidence in her trial on Tuesday.

Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, pleaded guilty to drug charges earlier this month but the US State Department says she is wrongfully detained. She faces up to 10 years in prison.

Griner’s supporters have called for her release over fears she is being used as a political pawn amid Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Some background: The Phoenix Mercury basketball star, 31, was arrested in February at a Moscow airport with less than a gram of cannabis oil in her luggage. Griner, who plays in Russia during the WNBA’s offseason, has been held since then on drug smuggling charges. Her trial began in early July.

A prosecutor at the start of her trial in Moscow accused Griner of intentionally smuggling the drugs into Russia.

Griner told a court that she had not intended to commit a crime and that it was the result of her packing in a hurry, state news agency RIA Novosti reported. Her defense team told Russian judges that she was prescribed medical cannabis for “severe chronic pain.”

Read more here.

Russian forces attacked the southern city of Mykolayiv with missiles and rockets early on Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said.

The city, which is close to the front lines in neighboring Kherson, has been struck almost every night for the past month.

Vitaliy Kim, head of the Mykolaiv regional military administration, said critical infrastructure and a vehicle business were damaged but so far there was no word on casualties.

Kim said villages near the front lines along the Mykolaiv-Kherson border had sustained more incoming fire from Russian forces over the past 24 hours.

The mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, said port infrastructure was attacked in the strike.

“A massive missile strike, including using aviation means, was launched on the south of Ukraine from the direction of the Black Sea. The infrastructure of the port was attacked,” Sienkevych said, citing the Ukrainian military’s Operational Command South.  

The Mykolaiv region was also struck by an S-300 long-range surface-to-air missile from the direction of the Russian-occupied Kherson region, he added.

There is “no indication” that Russia hit a Ukrainian warship and military targets in missile strikes on the port of Odesa at the weekend, according to a British intelligence report.

“The Russian MoD claimed to have hit a Ukrainian warship and a stockpile of anti-ship missiles. There is no indication that such targets were at the location the missiles hit,” the UK Ministry of Defence said Tuesday. 

It said Russia perceives anti-ship missiles as a “key threat” and claims Moscow will continue to prioritize its efforts to destroy Ukraine’s anti-ship capability, but that its “targeting processes are highly likely routinely undermined by dated intelligence, poor planning and a top-down approach to operations.”

The attack on Odesa on Saturday came just a day after Ukraine and Russia signed an agreement to allow grain exports from Ukrainian Black Sea ports, leading to anger and concern over the future of a deal aimed at easing the global food crisis sparked by war.

Russia’s denial: Moscow has claimed it struck military targets, including a naval ship and an ammunition depot, in the “high precision strikes” on Odesa and that it did not impact grain exports from the harbor. 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated Moscow’s defense of the strikes while he was in the Republic of Congo on Monday.

“As for the targets of those high-precision strikes, they are located in a separate part of the Odesa port, in the so-called military part of the Odesa port,” he said.
“These targets were the combat boat of the naval forces of Ukraine and the ammunition depot, where the Harpoon anti-ship missiles were recently delivered. They were brought there to pose a threat to the Russian Black Sea Fleet.”

There’s been another Russian missile strike on the Odesa region, according to Serhii Bratchuk, spokesman for the Odesa regional administration.

Bratchuk said that at around 5 a.m. local time, air launched missiles had struck a civilian area and set off fires.

It took place at the coastal village of Zatoka, where Russian forces have previously targeted a bridge with missiles.

President Volodymyr Zelensky posted a video of the missile attack.

“An ordinary village of Zatoka. People rested and lived. Just lived,” Zelensky posted on Instagram.
“There are no bases, no troops. It’s just that terrorists from the Russian Federation WANTED TO SHOOT. They will be responsible for everything.”

There are no details on casualties in the attack, but video shows a number of properties on fire.

Ukrainian authorities say they recorded a “sharp increase” in pressure on a main pipeline that supplies Russian gas to Europe through Ukraine without prior notice —warning that such incidents can lead to emergency situations. 

The Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (Gas TSOU) said in a statement Monday it had reported the increase on the “Urengoi-Pomari-Uzhhorod” pipeline at the Russia-Ukraine border to Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom.

The report “informed Gazprom that negligence in sharing information in a timely manner about switching and changing regimes [of flow] can create emergency situations,” the statement said.

Sharp changes in pressure in pipelines can lead to mechanical damage, including pipeline rupture. 

Gas TSOU said such actions must be coordinated between operators in advance and called on Gazprom to provide a reason for the change.  

“Such actions can be especially dangerous for Europe, given how Gazprom once again reduced transit through Nord Stream 1 to 33 million cubic meters per day,” said Serhiy Makohon, the company’s general director. 

CNN has reached out to Gazprom, but has not yet received a response.

Some context: Gazprom said Monday it will further reduce gas flow through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline on Wednesday as it halts another turbine for repairs just days after it resumed shipments through the vital artery linking Russia’s vast gas reserves to Europe via Germany. The pipeline had been shut 10 days for scheduled maintenance, and many had feared Russia would not resume deliveries once the work was done.

The first shipment of Ukrainian grain under the Black Sea deal brokered by the United Nations is expected to move within a few days, a spokesperson for the UN Secretary General said Monday.

Parties to the agreement have reaffirmed their commitment as of Sunday, Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq said, despite Russian strikes in the Ukrainian port of Odesa just a day after the accord was signed.

“On the Black Sea Initiative, we can tell you that since the signing of the agreement, parties to the initiative, and the UN, have been in frequent contact, including yesterday. All parties have reconfirmed their commitment to the Initiative,” Haq said Monday.

The Russian attack on Saturday cast doubt on the future of the agreement, which aims to ease the global food crisis sparked by war and Moscow’s months-long blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.

As part of the deal, grain ships would navigate through a safe corridor in the Black Sea under the direction of Ukrainian pilots, and then pass through the Bosporus strait — an important shipping corridor in northwest Turkey — in order to reach global markets.

Haq said officials from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN would have a presence at a Joint Coordination Center in Turkey by Tuesday.

“We expect that the first ship may move within a few days,” he said. “The Joint Coordination Center will be liaising with the shipping industry and publishing detailed procedures for ships in the very near future.”

The Ukrainian General Staff has conceded that Russian forces have been able to make small advances in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.

“The enemy carried out airstrikes near Soledar, Pokrovske, New York, and on the territory of the Vuhlehirska TPP. It led assault operations in the directions of Klynove — Pokrovske, and Volodymyrivka — Pokrovske, suffered losses and withdrew,” the General Staff update read. “In the area of ​​the Vuhlehirska TPP, individual units of the enemy have partial success.”

According to the General Staff, intense shelling was reported along the front line in the entire Donetsk region, especially near Siversk, Sloviansk, Bakhmut and Kramatorsk. Ukraine says Russia also made a push toward Spirne and Ivano-Dariivka.

“[Russian forces] received a tough fight back and withdrew,” the General Staff said. 

The Ukrainian military also said Russian forces are demoralized and “the Russian command in some directions is throwing manpower into the attack without being covered by armored vehicles.”

CNN could not independently verify the claims made by the Ukrainian military.

Russian state-owned energy company Gazprom said it will further reduce gas flow through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline on Wednesday as it halts another turbine for repairs.

It comes days after Gazprom resumed gas shipments through the pipeline, a vital artery linking Russia’s vast gas reserves to Europe via Germany. The pipeline had been shut 10 days for scheduled maintenance, and many had feared Russia would not resume deliveries once the work was done.

“Gazprom is shutting down one more gas turbine produced by Siemens at the Portovaya [compressor station],” the Russian company said in a statement on Monday, citing “the technical condition of the relevant machine.”

The head of Germany’s gas regulator, Klaus Muller, confirmed the move in a tweet on Monday. 

“According to our information, there is no technical reason for a reduction in gas deliveries via Nord Stream 1,“ the German Ministry of Economy insisted in a tweet on Monday. 

“If Russian gas deliveries via Nord Stream 1 continue at this low level, a storage level of 95% by November is hardly achievable without additional measures,“ Germany’s regulatory office for gas and electricity said in a statement Monday.  

The country’s Economics Minister Robert Habeck had previously called on Germans to reduce gas consumption in order to get the gas storage facilities as full as possible for the winter. 

Price rises: Germany’s current total gas inventories are at 65.9%, according to the daily figures provided by the government. 

The reduction in the gas through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline will also affect the transfer of gas to other European countries such as France, Austria and the Czech Republic.

Wholesale prices have risen noticeably as a result of the reduction in gas supplies and have recently settled at a higher level, Germany’s regulatory office said, warning that “businesses and private consumers must prepare for significantly high gas prices.”

The Nord Stream 1 pipeline delivers 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year, or nearly 40% of the bloc’s total pipeline imports from Russia.

Russia’s response: Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that a repaired gas turbine for Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline will be installed after all the technical procedures are fulfilled, after which the gas flow to Europe will resume “to the extent that is technologically possible.” 

Peskov insisted that the issues with gas supply have nothing to do with politics.

“There is no politics here. These are the consequences of the restrictions that the Europeans themselves have introduced, and the Europeans themselves suffer from these restrictions,” he said, adding that Russia does not want Europe to give up Russian gas.
Moscow will continue to be a “reliable gas supplier,” he said.

Read more here on why it matters.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has arrived in the Republic of Congo, the second stop on his Africa tour where he is aiming to seek support amid global anger over food shortages following Moscow’s blockade of vital Ukrainian ports.

After visiting Egypt over the weekend, Lavrov was scheduled to meet Congolese leaders face-to-face on Monday before traveling on to Uganda and Ethiopia. All these countries rely heavily on wheat imports from both Russia and Ukraine.

Egypt is the world’s biggest importer of wheat, and it depends on Ukraine and Russia for a supply to feed a 100-million strong population.

Ukraine and Russia agreed a deal on Friday that would allow the resumption of grain exports from Ukrainian Black Sea ports, a major diplomatic breakthrough aimed at easing a worldwide food crisis sparked by the war.

However, Russia’s attack on a key Ukrainian port a day later has left the agreement hanging in balance.

On Sunday, Moscow’s top diplomat met with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri. During that meeting, Lavrov blamed Ukraine for the stagnation in negotiations on the “wider range of issues.”

Global food prices have risen by 17% since January, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Lavrov said during the talks with his Egyptian counterpart that the deal to free up Ukraine’s ports will go ahead.

“It will be guaranteed that the Ukrainians will clear their territorial waters and allow ships to leave from there, and during their passage on the high seas, Russia and Turkey will ensure their safety with their military naval forces,” Lavrov said.

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