July 26, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

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

North Korea’s Defense Minister Kang Sun Nam Wednesday said he fully supports what he called “the just struggle of the Russian army” to “defend the sovereignty and security of the country,” according to state newspaper KCNA. 

During a reception welcoming the Russian military delegation to Pyongyang on Wednesday, Kang reaffirmed the mandate of the North Korean army to strengthen cooperation against the “anti-imperialist struggle,” and wished the Russian army success in “building a powerful Russia” under President Vladimir Putin, KCNA reported. 

Kang noted that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s visit demonstrates the “might of the militant unity” between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), Russian armies and people, against a “common enemy,” KCNA reported.

Shoigu also made a speech stressing that the North Korean army “has become the strongest army in the world,” according to KCNA.

During his visit, Shoigu also met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, KCNA reported. Kim and Shoigu discussed matters “of mutual concern” regarding defense and security. The meeting served to develop DPRK-Russia relations and “strategic and tactical collaboration and cooperation,” according to KCNA.

The meeting took place during a congratulatory visit by Shoigu’s delegation for the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War, KCNA reported.

Heavy fighting continues in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, especially around the village of Robotyne, where Ukrainian forces have been trying to break through heavily mined Russian defensive lines, according to Ukrainian and Russian accounts.

Ukrainian forces are also “gradually advancing” in the Melitopol and Berdiansk directions, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said. Farther east, Ukraine is “making progress” and consolidating its positions in the area of Staromaiorske, she added.

Ukrainian forces have made only modest territorial advances in the south since the counteroffensive began at the end of May, committing more forces in the southeast after nearly two months of slow progress, according to two US officials — a sign that they have identified potential weaknesses in Russian defensive lines to exploit. Additionally, the Ukrainian Air Force says it intercepted 40 Russian missiles Wednesday.

If you’re just now catching up, here’s what else you should know:

The US and its allies are grappling with how to avert a global food crisis following Moscow’s withdrawal from the Black Sea grain deal and its subsequent attacks on Ukraine’s ports and storage facilities.

To keep Ukraine’s massive farming industry afloat, and with the harvest only a few months away, US and Western officials are looking for any options to increase storage capacity, and whether any more grain, wheat or barley can be driven or railed out of Ukraine.

Over the past several days, a number of urgent meetings have been convened by organizations including the United Nations, NATO, and the European Commission. There have been new pledges of support for Ukraine’s agricultural industry, including a new $250 million commitment from the US Agency for International Development.

But officials acknowledge that none of those solutions will be able to replace the millions of tons of food Ukraine was able to export from its deep water ports.

Attacks on grain infrastructure: Since leaving the grain deal on July 17, Russia has unleashed a flurry of attacks on grain supplies in key Ukrainian cities, including the port city of Odesa, wiping out 60,000 tons of grain, enough to feed 270,000 people for a year, British Ambassador to the UN Barbara Woodward said last Friday.

Moscow’s attack last week on Ukraine’s Chornomorsk port, which “facilitates nearly 70 percent of Ukrainian wheat exports to developing countries, caused damage that experts say will take at least a year to repair,” UN Ambassador to the United Nations Linda-Thomas Greenfield said Wednesday.

And earlier this week, Russia targeted a Ukrainian port on the Danube River near NATO ally Romania.

About the grain deal: The Black Sea grain deal, brokered by Turkey and the United Nations, lasted about a year and allowed billions of dollars worth of grain and wheat to safely transit out of war-torn Ukraine via the Black Sea. Now, Russia’s defense ministry has warned that ships sailing to Ukraine’s Black Sea ports will be viewed as military targets.

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Ukraine has committed more forces to its counteroffensive in the southeast after nearly two months of slow progress, according to two US officials — a sign that they have identified potential weaknesses in Russian defensive lines to exploit. 

The Ukrainian military still has additional combat power in reserve, but this is the “main bulk” of the forces committed to the counteroffensive, one official said.

The newly committed units had been held in reserve until now as other Ukrainian forces made slow, grinding progress against widespread Russian defensive lines and minefields while under threat of aerial assaults and artillery fire.

In the southeast, the Ukrainian counteroffensive has broken through some elements of Russian defensive lines, the official said, and the reserve units have come in to capitalize on the opportunity. 

The New York Times was the first to report on the commitment of additional Ukrainian forces to the counteroffensive.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov acknowledged over the weekend that the highly anticipated counteroffensive was behind schedule, but he insisted he was “not worried because it is going to plan.”

Reznikov said that Ukraine needs to use “soldiers, sappers, and deminers” to pick their way through Russian minefields, but that they were preparing the battlefield for the “real offensive movement.”

Even with the commitment of additional forces to the counteroffensive, Ukraine’s progress may not be immediate, since Russia has multiple layers of defensive lines which they’ve building and reinforcing for months. 

Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley said last week that Russia had a “very complex defense in depth” across the front line in Ukraine, comparing it to trenches in World War I. 

“They’ve got a very extensive security zone in-depth,” Milley said at a briefing following a virtual meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group,” and then they’ve got at least two, perhaps even three main defensive belts.”
“What the Ukrainians have, though, is a significant amount of combat power not yet committed,” Milley said at the time.

On Wednesday, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said that offensive operations along the southern front were “gradually advancing,” with similar, gradual progress also taking place further east in the area of Staromaiorsk.

Near the village of Robotyne, Ukraine’s 47th Brigade has been trying to break through heavily-mined Russian defensive lines, making use of US armored vehicles to attack enemy positions.

A member of the Russian-installed Zaporizhzhia military-civilian administration, Vladimir Rogov, wrote on Telegram on Wednesday that Ukrainian forces, backed by armored vehicles and tanks, had managed to “wedge in three sections of our first line of defense” near Robotyne.

Rogov said Russian forces were using their full arsenal, including aviation strikes, to push back against the Ukrainian units carrying out the assault, which he claimed were Western-equipped and trained.

“The fighters of these brigades have been trained abroad, and the brigades themselves are equipped with Western military equipment, including Leopard tanks and Bradley BMPs,” he wrote.”

The Russian-installed governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, Yevgeny Balitsky, also said a Ukrainian attack was underway.

Ukrainian officials have not publicly commented or confirmed this offensive.

CNN’s Vasco Cotovio and Olga Voitovych contributed to this report.

The NATO-Ukraine Council discussed what it called a “serious security situation” in the Black Sea at a meeting on Wednesday, according to the NATO website. 

The council strongly condemned Russia’s decision to withdraw from the Black Sea Grain Initiative and “its deliberate attempts to stop Ukraine’s agricultural exports on which hundreds of millions of people worldwide depend.” 

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg accused Russia of “weaponizing hunger and threatening the world’s most vulnerable people with food instability.” 

“Russia’s actions also pose substantial risks to the stability of the Black Sea region, which is of strategic importance to NATO,” Stoltenberg said, adding that “allies are stepping up support to Ukraine and increasing their vigilance.” 

The NATO Allies welcomed efforts of the European Union and the United Nations “to enable the continued export of Ukrainian grain by land and sea.”

The council also condemned Russia’s recent missile attacks on Ukrainian port cities, noting that Russia has created “new risks for miscalculation and escalation, as well as serious impediments to freedom of navigation.” 

Stoltenberg convened the meeting following a request for crisis consultation from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. 

US President Joe Biden has decided to allow the US to cooperate with the International Criminal Court’s investigation of Russian war crimes in Ukraine, two US officials and a source familiar with the matter tell CNN. 

The decision comes after months of internal debate and marks a historic shift, as it would be the first time the US has agreed to share evidence with the court. The US is not a party to the ICC. 

“It could be deeply consequential,” said one of the sources, adding that the US government now has “a clear green light” to share information and evidence with the ICC. 

What information the US shares will ultimately depend on what the ICC prosecutor requests for the investigations, the source explained.

A National Security Council spokesperson would not comment directly on the decision, but said in a statement that Biden “has been clear: there needs to be accountability for the perpetrators and enablers of war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine.”

Some background: Over the course of the war, Biden administration officials have obtained evidence of alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine, through intelligence gathering mechanisms among other channels, officials told CNN.

But the administration debated for months internally over whether to share that evidence with the court, as officials grappled with the possibility that doing so could set a precedent that could one day be used against the United States, officials explained.

The Pentagon was the most concerned about cooperating with the court, officials said, and worried that doing so might set a precedent for the ICC to investigate alleged war crimes carried out by Americans in Iraq.

Belarus’ Deputy Interior Minister Nikolay Karpenkov said the newly arrived Wagner fighters provide Belarus’ armed forces with a “unique opportunity” to become battle-ready.

Karpenkov told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti that Wagner was “the kind of modern army that came to us here.”

He said Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko told law enforcement that the country’s army, which has not fought for 40 years, is not combat-ready. 

“[Lukashenko] said, ‘Take this as a unique opportunity. Meet them, get to know them, work together on battle formations,’” Karpenkov said.

Commanders of all special units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs have been tasked with interacting [with Wagner], Karpenkov said, so that “we could already go into battle shoulder-to-shoulder tomorrow, even here.”

“So here we will be given the unique experience that the Wagner PMC has, those fighters, those heroes. There is no other way to put it,” he told the Belarusian state-run STB agency, as reported by RIA Novosti. “The use of artillery. And we will train our own specialists. And our groups will be joint in this situation. They have artillery, they have everything, let’s say, to use it. And here they will help us.”

It’s not clear what, if any, heavy weaponry Wagner fighters were allowed to bring into Belarus. It was previously reported that they had to transfer such weapons to Russian regular units before leaving in convoys of cars and trucks for Belarus.

A man identified as a Wagner commander in Belarus told the agency: “We will share some experience, of course, we will show people what we can do from our side. But in general, I think that the work will be interesting, very productive.”

“Here the military guys are disciplined, very high level guys who communicate with us about what we are seeing … We both understand what’s at stake and are ready to get to work,” the commander said.

The number of Wagner personnel currently in Belarus isn’t clear. Over the weekend, Andrii Demchenko, a spokesperson for the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, said the number of Wagner fighters in Belarus “may reach about 5,000.” He said initially there were hundreds, but that mercenaries kept arriving.

The Ukrainian Air Force says it intercepted 40 Russian missiles Wednesday.

“A total of 36 missiles were launched from eight Tu-95MS strategic bombers,” the Ukrainian air force said, adding that all 36 were destroyed.

The destroyed targets included three Kalibr cruise missiles and 33 X-101/X-555 cruise missiles, it said.

“The missiles entered Ukrainian airspace from the southeast and headed west, constantly changing direction,” the statement said. 

In addition, four Kh-47 Kinzhal missiles were fired from MiG-31K fighter jets toward the Khmelnytskyi region, according to the air force. 

Serhii Tiurin, first deputy head of the Khmelnytskyi regional military administration, said the attack was repelled and debris from the missiles fell on settlements of the Khmelnytskyi district. 

“According to the available information, there are no casualties at the moment,” Tiurin said.

The United States and its allies are working with Kyiv on alternative land routes to deliver critical grain to the world after Russia pulled out of the grain deal that had permitted Ukrainian grain to travel through the Black Sea, the White House said Wednesday. 

“We are working with our EU partners, we’re working with Ukraine and other European partners to see if there’s other ways to get grain to market over land. But that’s not as efficient,” John Kirby, a spokesperson for the US National Security Council, told reporters at the White House Wednesday. 

“The best way for this grain to get to market is through maritime lanes,” he said. “But we’re working to see what we can do.”

Some background: The US has previously warned that Russia could target civilian ships in the Black Sea and blame Ukraine after the Kremlin withdrew participation from the Black Sea grain deal earlier this month. The deal was originally brokered by Turkey and the United Nations last year to ensure the safe passage of grain from Ukrainian ports. 

Ukrainian grain is critical to global food supplies, especially for developing countries. Grain prices have risen sharply since the deal collapsed and as Moscow targets Ukrainian port infrastructure.

The Ukrainian Air Force has issued a warning that powerful Russian Kinzhal missiles have been fired toward the Khmelnytskyi and Kirovohrad regions in western Ukraine, as well as at the capital of Kyiv.

Yurii Ihnat, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Air Force, said the latest volley involved a variety of types of missiles launched from different areas and changing direction.

Explosions have been reported in the western Khmelnytskyi region in Ukraine, hours after the Ukrainian Air Force had warned that Russian strategic bombers were airborne.

The air force said “a group of missiles is moving along the border with Moldova in the direction of Khmelnytskyi region.”

The missiles had been launched from the Caspian Sea, but had changed course and were eventually targeted at infrastructure in western Ukraine.

Ihnat said that at least some cruise missiles had been intercepted in the Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions, as well as in Kharkiv.

The Khmelnytskyi regional military administration said on its Telegram channel: “Sounds of explosions are heard in Khmelnytskyi region. Air defense is working.”

It’s unclear whether all the explosions were caused by air defenses in action or the impact of missiles. There are no reports of damage or casualties so far.

Threats in neighboring regions: In the Ternopil region, the regional military administration warned people to remain in shelters, saying on Telegram that there were missiles in its airspace.

The Ukrainian Air Force also said rockets have entered the western Lviv region, urging residents to head to shelters.

About the missiles: Kinzhals travel at hypersonic speeds and cannot be intercepted by most air defense systems, but they have previously been brought down by US Patriot systems donated to Ukraine.

Heavy fighting continues in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, especially around the village of Robotyne, where Ukrainian forces have been trying to break through heavily mined Russian defensive lines, according to Ukrainian and Russian accounts.

“We came close to Robotyne. Have not yet entered the settlement itself. Fighting continues in trench positions in front of Robotyne,” Ukraine’s 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade, which is involved in the offensive, told CNN.

Ukrainian forces are also “gradually advancing” in the Melitopol and Berdiansk directions, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said. Farther east, Ukraine is “making progress” and consolidating its positions in the area of Staromaiorske, she added.

Ukrainian forces have made only modest territorial advances in the south since the counteroffensive began at the end of May.

Russia attempted to attack Ukrainian forces in the Kupyansk and Lyman directions, but Ukraine has “stabilized the situation,” Maliar added, saying it was Russia’s attempt to divert Kyiv’s troops from the Bakhmut area. The Ukrainian military’s General Staff also said Wednesday that Russia attempted an assault in the Lyman direction, but it was foiled.

In the eastern Donetsk region, Maliar said Russians suffered “huge losses in equipment and personnel” in an attempt to go around the town of Avdiivka.

“They want to surround the city, but they are afraid to enter it, because they will get bogged down in urban battles with our defenders, so they have been trying to bypass Avdiivka for several months now. This morning they tried to bypass Avdiivka again, but suffered huge losses in equipment and personnel,” she said.

More than 40 Ukrainian companies have contracts to develop drones for use in the war against Russia, according to Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

Shmyhal appeared at a forum marking the first anniversary of the “Army of Drones” project that brought together Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle manufacturers. The prime minister said the production of UAVs has since increased tenfold.

Both surveillance and attack drones have played a critical role for both sides in the Ukrainian-Russian conflict, assisting with targeting enemy weapons, tracking the movement of units and taking out armor.

Shmyhal said the Ukrainian government has allocated about $1 billion this year for investing in Ukrainian UAV manufacturers.

“We have eliminated customs barriers for importing spare parts and complete sets. The profit share of UAV manufacturers has been raised to 25%, and a decision has been made that will facilitate the mass production of ammunition for drones,” he said.

Mykhailo Fedorov, the Ukrainian minister of digital transformation, displayed some 1,700 UAVs at the forum that are being sent to the front lines.

The program has so far trained 10,000 operators at 26 training centers, and another 10,000 are slated to be trained in the future.

However, some Ukrainian military officials have recently noted that Russia’s advantage in electronic warfare has blunted the effectiveness of drone operations, as Moscow is able to jam the UAVs.

Russian-installed officials and military bloggers have claimed Ukrainian forces have launched a major offensive in the Zaporizhzhia region, to the south of Orikhiv, though Kyiv has remained silent on the reports. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s security service has acknowledged that it was responsible for an October attack on a key bridge linking Crimea to mainland Russia.

Here are the latest headlines:

After months of silence, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has acknowledged its involvement in the attack on the Crimean bridge in October last year.

“SBU officers have been destroying the enemy in the hottest spots and doing everything to liberate our land as soon as possible. The destruction of the Crimean bridge is one of our achievements,” said SBU chief Vasyl Malyuk at a ceremony in Kyiv to mark the issuing of a postage stamp celebrating the security services.

Earlier this month Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar became the first Ukrainian official to acknowledge directly that Ukraine was responsible for the attack, which involved a powerful explosion on the bridge, apparently caused by a bomb concealed in a shipping container.

Some context: The Crimean bridge links the annexed peninsula to mainland Russia.

The crossing is a vital artery for supplying Russia’s ongoing war on Ukraine, allowing people and goods to flow into the Ukrainian territories that Moscow has occupied in the south and east of the country.

Also known as the Kerch Bridge, it holds personal value for Russian President Vladimir Putin. In the Kremlin narrative it marks the “reunification” of Crimea with the Russian mainland.

The bridge was also hit by two strikes on July 17, which a Ukrainian security official told CNN that Kyiv was responsible for.

The Ukrainian air force says two Russian cruise missiles fired from the Black Sea have been brought down, but more are expected.

“The enemy launched a Kalibr cruise missile attack from the Black Sea. The missiles were allegedly launched from a Russian submarine,” it said, adding that the launch happened around 1 p.m. local time on Wednesday (6 a.m. ET)

The missiles were shot down in the Vinnytsia region of central Ukraine, the air force said.

It also warned that Russian Tu-95MS strategic bombers were still airborne, and enemy aircraft were moving towards airspace over the Caspian Sea, from where cruise missiles against Ukraine are frequently launched.

Western officials believe the Russian government has silenced dissent by detaining up to seven people following Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mutiny last month.

“We’ve seen up to seven individuals have been reported to have been detained,” the officials said during a briefing on Wednesday.

“What we’re seeing is anybody who does actively speak up, is either removed from post or imprisoned,” they added.

The officials say they have not seen any impact on the frontline in Ukraine, but believe the threat of demotion or detention has discouraged many of those critical of Putin and the Russian government from coming forward. 

“What it has done is anyone who’s thinking of speaking out effectively is keeping their head down now, and just getting on with it,” the officials said.

During the briefing, they also said that Prighozin is facing a “cash-flow” problem which is affecting his ability to keep his fighters under employment.

“[Prigozhin] still seems to be active but there seems to be an element of offloading financial assets, both inside Russia and outside to try and raise funds,” the officials said.

“He does seem to have a cash flow problem at the moment, which is obviously impacting his ability to continue employing mercenaries,” they added.

“Everybody’s still trying to work out exactly what Prigozhin is doing in Belarus,” said the officials.

As the Russia-Africa summit gets underway in St Petersburg, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has accused western governments of trying to sabotage the event.

Asked why only 17 heads of state would be attending the summit, about half the number that attended in 2019, Peskov told reporters: “We are happy to welcome the heads of state who have arrived. We are happy to welcome all other representatives who come from the vast majority of states in Africa.”

“As for the reduction in the number of heads of state, yes indeed, this is largely due to the work plans of the heads of state,” Peskov said.

But he also claimed: “There is overt brazen interference by the US, France and other states through their diplomatic missions in African countries and attempts to put pressure on the leadership of these countries in order to prevent their active participation in the forum.”

“This is indeed a fact, and this is absolutely outrageous. But this will in no way interfere with the success of the summit,” Peskov said.

Earlier, Russia’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that the West’s attempts to “cause discord in our relations have failed.”

The summit, taking place in St Petersburg on Thursday and Friday, “will be dedicated to the development of the entire range of relations with the African continent,” Zakharova said in comments shared online Wednesday by the ministry. 

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is set to hold bilateral meetings with all heads of African states taking part in the summit, the Kremlin said Tuesday.

Ukrainian and Russian sources have reported a push by Kyiv’s forces in Staromaiorske, along the Velyka Novosilka – Berdiansk axis in the southern frontline.

Ukrainian special forces shared footage from the village, saying they had captured paratroopers from Russia’s 247th Parachute Regiment, along with important documentation and intelligence. CNN was unable to independently verify the Ukrainian claim or geolocate the footage.

However, different video from Staromaiorske, geolocated by CNN, shows Russian fighters leaving positions and retreating, purportedly after being driven out by Ukrainian forces.

The two videos match separate accounts from two well-connected Russian military bloggers which say Ukraine has been intensifying operations in the area. Russian blogger Rybar had reported “the 36th Marine Corps of the Ukrainian Navy again tried to attack the positions of the RF Armed Forces west of the village.”

 Another insider, Batalyon Vostok, said the situation around the village had “has become more complicated.”

“At Staromayorskoye (Russian for Staromaiorske) and Urozhaynoye (Russian for Urozhaine) it’s not easy for the guys now - they are repulsing intensive attacks,” Vostok said. “The situation is very difficult at Staromayorskoye. There is a probability that the enemy will take control of the settlement.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Ukrainian forces said they were continuing to make advances along the Velyka Novosilka – Berdiansk axis.

“Ukrainian troops were successful in the Staromaiorske area on the southern front,” the spokesman of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Andrii Kovalev, said on Wednesday. “[Ukrainian] Defense Forces are entrenched there at the achieved boundaries [of the village].”

The European Union has agreed to adopt additional sanctions against Belarus over the country’s involvement in Russia’s war on Ukraine, the EU’s Spanish presidency announced Wednesday. 

“Today, EU ambassadors agreed on adopting restrictive measures in view of the situation in Belarus and the involvement of Belarus in the Russian aggression against Ukraine,” the presidency said in a post on social media. 

“The measures include listings of individuals and entities,” it added.

While EU ambassadors have agreed to the measures, they are yet to be formally adopted. 

Some context: Belarus is Russia’s closest ally. It has been a subject of renewed focus in recent months as Moscow says it has moved some of its nuclear weapons to the country, and as Minsk says its forces will hold joint training exercises with the Wagner private military group in the wake of its failed rebellion against the Kremlin.

Ukrainian forces have been able to wedge themselves in Russia’s first line of defense, with heavy and fierce fighting still ongoing amid a large offensive along the southern front in the Zaporizhzhia region, a Russian official has claimed. 

“At least 100 armored vehicles have been used to attack by the enemy on the Orekhov [Russian spelling of Orikhiv] section of the Zaporizhzhya (Russian spelling of Zaporizhzhia) front,” a member of the Russian-installed Zaporizhzhia military-civilian administration, Vladimir Rogov, wrote on Telegram on Wednesday.
“At the moment, as a result of several waves of attack near Rabotino [Russian spelling of Robotyne] with more than 100 units of armored vehicles, including tanks, BMPs, APCs and AFVs, the enemy managed to wedge in three sections of our first line of defense.”

Rogov went on to say Russian forces were using their full arsenal, including aviation strikes, to push back against the Ukrainian units carrying out the assault, which he claimed were Western equipped and trained. 

“The fighters of these brigades have been trained abroad, and the brigades themselves are equipped with Western military equipment, including Leopard tanks and Bradley BMPs,” he wrote. “Now there are heavy, fierce battles of high intensity going on in this area.”

Well-connected Russian military blogger Rybar says fighting in the area has slightly decreased in intensity, adding Russian forces have been able able to hold their ground. 

Some context: Russian-installed officials and military bloggers have claimed Ukrainian forces have launched a major offensive in the Zaporizhzhia region, to the south of Orikhiv, as they appear to build on modest gains in the area over the past couple of days. 

Ukrainian officials and sources have yet to comment on this alleged offensive.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has expressed belief in his soldiers amid reported Ukrainian pushes in the south and eastern frontline. 

“We believe in our guys. We continue to work,” he posted on Telegram after being updated by the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

His remarks come amid a reported large Ukrainian offensive along the southern front and renewed pushes around Bakhmut, specifically in the south of the beleaguered city, where Kyiv’s forces are closing in on the settlements of Andriivka and Klishchiivka. 

Zelensky went on to say he had received updates on the supply of weapons and ammunition. 

“There is a reinforcement for our air defense system,” he said. “It will be sent to where it is needed most.”

The West’s attempts to “cause discord in our relations have failed,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova has said, ahead of the second Russia-Africa summit.

The summit, taking place in St Petersburg on Thursday and Friday, “will be dedicated to the development of the entire range of relations with the African continent,” Zakharova said in comments shared online Wednesday by the ministry. 
“The spirit of mutual understanding and trust formed over the years of Soviet-African cooperation still serves as a good basis for maintaining Russia’s high reputation in Africa,” she added.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is set to hold bilateral meetings with all heads of African states taking part in the summit, the Kremlin said Tuesday.

The assistant for foreign affairs to President Vladimir Putin, Yuri Ushakov, told the official TASS news agency that the “summit is expected to be attended by 17 heads of African states.”

The Kremlin said that 49 African countries will be represented. 

It noted Putin and the leaders of a number of African states will also continue to discuss “possible ways of settling the situation around Ukraine within the African Peace Initiative, which they launched in St Petersburg in June.” 

Putin will describe to the summit’s plenary session “the state of and prospects for developing the full range of ties between Russia and African nations in the political, economic and humanitarian areas,” the Kremlin added. 

“The President of Russia will take part in the plenary session of the Economic and Humanitarian Forum, to be held as part of the summit. Russian and African officials, businesspeople and public figures have been invited to attend the session. The Russian President has plans to meet with the heads of African regional organisations,” the Kremlin also said. 

The Kremlin said “dozens” of agreements in trade, economic, investment, scientific, technical, cultural and humanitarian areas are expected to be signed.

African leaders are beginning to arrive in St Petersburg, with some events taking place ahead of the main summit. Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi will meet Putin on Wednesday, Ushakov said.

The summit comes as the British government is heavily criticized for underplaying and underestimating the activities of Russia’s Wagner private military company (PMC) for nearly a decade, including its significant expansion in Africa, in a report by the UK Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee published Wednesday. 

The report outlines the Wagner Network’s increased activity in Africa and lists the countries in which Wagner military operations have been identified, including the Central African Republic (CAR), Sudan, Libya, Mozambique and Mali. 

In a voice note to Afrique Media earlier this week, Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin is reported to say: “As for our work in Africa… of course we will continue to work in all the countries where we have started or where we are working currently.” 

Questions have recently been asked about what Wagner’s continued role on the continent following its failed mutiny in Russia last month.

“The only condition by the way that we fulfil is that we must not contravene the interests of the Russian federation. For the rest, we are open to dialogue. Consequently, there has not been and will not be a reduction of our programme in Africa,” Afrique Media’s French translation of Prigozhin’s voice note, originally in Russian, said.  

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu expressed his intention to “consistently develop bilateral ties” and “strengthen the cooperation” between Russia and North Korea, during talks with his North-Korean counterpart in Pyongyang. 

Shoigu also called North Korea an “important partner of Russia,” according to a statement by the Russian MoD. 

The defense minister is leading a Russian delegation visiting North Korea for the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean war.

Shoigu emphasized the “rich history of cooperation” between Russia and North Korea and noted that the interaction between the two countries was strengthened in the post-war period.

Some context: Russia has, alongside China, sent high level delegations to North Korea this week in a rare flurry of diplomatic activity for the secluded nation – as it marks the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War.

The Russian delegation led by Shoigu is visiting North Korea from July 25-27, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

“This visit will help strengthen Russian-North Korean military ties and will be an important stage in the development of cooperation between the two countries,” the ministry said ahead of the trip.

Both Russia and China are longtime allies of Pyongyang.

The Ukrainian military has denied the loss of three settlements in the northeastern part of the country, near Kupyansk. 

“We do not confirm this. The tactical line there has not changed much,” the spokesman for the Eastern Grouping of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Serhii Cherevatyi, told CNN on Wednesday, when asked about the losses. 

His remarks come after Russian officials and Ukrainian sources reported Moscow’s troops had forced Kyiv’s forces to retreat several kilometres, abandoning three small settlements in the process. 

“In the course of successful counterattack actions, units of the 15th Motorised Rifle Brigade under the skilful command of Lieutenant Colonel Builov liberated Sergeevka (Russian spelling for Serhiivka),” the Russian Ministry of Defense said on Tuesday.

“The total advance of our troops was up to 4 kilometers along the front and up to 2 kilometers deep into the defending enemy troops.”

Russian-installed officials and military bloggers have claimed Ukrainian forces have launched a major offensive in the Zaporizhzhia region, to the south of Orikhiv, as they appear to build on modest gains in the area over the past couple of days. 

“Zaporizhzhia front - the second wave of the [Armed Forces of Ukraine] counteroffensive has begun,” a member of the Russian-installed Zaporizhzhia military-civilian administration Vladimir Rogov posted on Telegram on Wednesday.
“The enemy has sent maximum forces to break through our defenses in the Orekhov (Russian spelling of Orikhiv) direction.”
“Early this morning after massive artillery preparation and air strikes the [Ukrainians] went to storm our positions near Rabotino (Russian spelling of Robotyne),” he added. 

The Russian-installed governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, Yevgeny Balitsky, also said a Ukrainian attack was underway. 

Well-connected Russian military blogger Rybar described a similar situation along the southern front. 

“After artillery preparation by a howitzer division and a jet battery of the formation, [Ukrainian assault detachments] swooped down to break through northeast of Rabotino (Russian spelling for Robotyne),” they wrote, describing an attack with dozens or armored vehicles, “including tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers and armored combat vehicles.”
“The enemy managed to penetrate in three areas,” Rybar also said. “Now fierce battles are going on in this area.”

Ukraine has remained silent, as it is customary, and has not yet commented on this reported offensive, which follows from advances its forces had made in the area in previous days. 

In its morning update, the military’s General Staff said only that “Ukrainian Defense Forces continue to conduct offensive operations in the Bakhmut, Melitopol and Berdiansk directions.”

“The enemy made unsuccessful attempts to regain the lost position northeast of Robotyne in Zaporizhzhia region,” it also said, without going into detail. “At the same time, it continues to put up strong resistance, moves units and troops, and actively uses reserves.”

Elsewhere, on the Zaporizhzhia front, Ukrainian forces continued to make advances along the Velyka Novosilka – Berdiansk axis. 

“Ukrainian troops were successful in the Staromaiorske area on the southern front,” the spokesman of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Andrii Kovalev, said on Wednesday. “[Ukrainian] Defense Forces are entrenched there at the achieved boundaries [of the city].

The British government has been heavily criticized for underestimating the Wagner private military company (PMC) for nearly a decade, despite it being a major threat for the country’s interests, in a report by the UK Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee published Wednesday. 

“For nearly 10 years, the Government has underplayed and underestimated the Wagner Network’s activities, as well as the security implications of its significant expansion,” the committee says in a report titled “Guns for gold: the Wagner network exposed.”

One of the issues, the report explains, is that the British government has looked at “Wagner through the prism of Europe,” which the committee sees as a “a significant failing,” given the “geographic spread and the impact of its activities on UK interests further abroad.”

The report goes on to say Wagner’s operations in Ukraine “are not representative of the [Wagner] network’s operations globally,” and it says the PMC had operated in at least seven countries for nearly a decade before the UK began investing greater resources into understanding it in 2022.

“It is deeply regrettable that it took this long, and that the Government continues to give so little focus to countries beyond Ukraine,” the report reads.
“This leaves us even less prepared to respond to the evolution of this notoriously shape-shifting network.”
“The Government’s failure to address the Wagner Network leads us to conclude a fundamental lack of knowledge of, and policy on, other malign PMCs,” it adds.

The report calls on the government to improve its intelligence gathering on Wagner’s operations “in a wider range of countries,” and calls for “faster and harder” sanctions on those linked to the network, going as far as providing a list.

It also says the government should “urgently proscribe the Wagner Network as a terrorist organisation,” as well as provide an alternative for countries seeking the PMC’s services.

When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, a slew of Western companies left in protest. But some of the world’s biggest firms — including Nestlé, Heineken and snack maker Mondelez — stayed put.

More than a year later, companies that chose to remain in Russia are in an increasingly sticky position: Leaving has become costlier and more complex, while staying has grown riskier.

Companies now find themselves caught between Western sanctions and public outrage on the one hand, and an increasingly hostile Russian government on the other. The Kremlin is making it more difficult for Western firms to sell their Russian assets — and imposing steep discounts and punitive taxes when they do.

The experience of French yoghurt maker Danone (DANOY) and Danish brewer Carlsberg (CABGY) provides a chilling example of the kind of far-reaching state intervention that could befall other foreign firms hoping to beat a retreat from Russia.

Both companies had been finalizing sales to local buyers when President Vladimir Putin signed an order nationalizing their local assets earlier this month.

Carlsberg said the development meant the prospects for the sale of its Baltika Breweries — one of Russia’s largest consumer goods companies — were now “highly uncertain.”

Read the full story here.

Russian forces south of the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut have taken heavy losses and appear to have fallen back amid intense artillery fire from the Ukrainian side, according to official and unofficial Ukrainian accounts, and reports from Russian military bloggers.

Ukraine has been trying to break Russian resistance there for several weeks. Ukrainian advances near Andriivka are part of a plan to encircle Bakhmut and drive out Russian forces, the spokesperson for the eastern grouping of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Serhii Cherevatyi, said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military said it has made slight progress on the southern front, in an area that has seen constant fighting for nearly two months. Valerii Shershen, the spokesperson for Ukrainian forces in the south, said troops had advanced by some 500 meters in an area near the town of Staromaiorske — a target of the Ukrainians since the beginning of their counteroffensive.

Here’s what else you should know to get up to speed:

Trevor Reed’s fighting in Ukraine “shouldn’t have any effect” on negotiations to free other detained Americans, Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday.

Reed is a former US Marine who was wrongfully detained in Russia for nearly three years before being released in a prisoner swap. The State Department said earlier Tuesday that he was injured fighting in Ukraine.

“As I’ve noted before, even with countries where we have profound differences, and almost by definition, countries that are arbitrarily detaining or unlawfully detaining Americans are usually countries with which we have profound differences, we manage to find ways to bring Americans home,” Blinken said at a news conference in Tonga.

He touted the success of the administration so far, saying 29 Americans from at least 10 countries were brought back home.

“So my expectation is that even as we’re dealing with all sorts of other challenges in our relationship with Russia, we will and we are determined to continue to work to bring both Evan and Paul home,” Blinken said.

Blinken said he had seen the reports that Reed was injured but didn’t have any additional information on his condition. The top US diplomat said it underscored why the US warns Americans against traveling to Ukraine.

Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, has been detained in Russia following his arrest on espionage charges that he, the WSJ, and the US government vehemently deny.

Whelan has been imprisoned for nearly five years, also on espionage charges that he and the US government have denied.

Read more about Reed fighting in Ukraine here.

Two children were among three people killed as a result of cluster shelling in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka on Monday, a local military official said Tuesday. 

“Yet another tragedy happened yesterday,” Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk region military administration said in an interview on Ukrainian TV. “A Smerch MLRS cluster munition exploded over a water body,” he said.

The victims were an 11-year-old girl, a 10-year-old boy and a 28-year-old man, Kyrylenko said. Six people were also wounded, he said in a Telegram post with a link to his TV interview.

“The mother of the deceased boy is in serious condition, she was evacuated to the neighboring region,” Kyrylenko said. “The enemy is using cluster munitions against civilians. I urge parents with children to evacuate.” 

Some context: Cluster munitions indiscriminately scatter “bomblets” across large areas, posing such a threat to civilians that key US allies have outlawed its use in warfare. Russia is known to have deployed them throughout its invasion of Ukraine, and Ukrainian troops are now using US-provided cluster munitions.

US intelligence officials have warned that Russia is building a drone-manufacturing facility in country with Iran’s help that could have a significant impact on the war in Ukraine once it is completed.

Analysts from the Defense Intelligence Agency told a small group of reporters during a briefing on Friday that the drone-manufacturing facility now under construction is expected to provide Russia with a new drone stockpile that is “orders of magnitude larger” than what it has been able to procure from Iran to date.

When the facility is completed, likely by early next year, the new drones could have a significant impact on the conflict, the analysts warned. In April, the US released a satellite image of the planned location of the purported drone manufacturing plant, inside Russia’s Alabuga Special Economic Zone about 600 miles east of Moscow. The analysts said Iran has regularly been ferrying equipment to Russia to help with the facility’s construction.

They added that to date, it is believed that Iran has provided Russia with over 400 Shahed 131, 136 and Mohajer drones — a stockpile that Russia has almost completely depleted, they said.

Russia is primarily using the drones to attack critical Ukrainian infrastructure and stretch Ukraine’s air defenses, a senior DIA official said. Iran has been using the Caspian Sea to move drones, bullets and mortar shells to Russia, often using vessels that are “dark,” or have turned off their tracking data to disguise their movements, CNN has reported.

The US obtained and analyzed several of the drones downed in Ukraine, and officials say there is “undeniable evidence” that the drones are Iranian, despite repeated denials from Tehran that it is providing the equipment to Russia for use in Ukraine.

Read more here.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday announced a new $400 million tranche of security assistance for Ukraine, which includes air defense munitions and armored vehicles.

The assistance includes “air defense munitions, artillery rounds, armored vehicles, and anti-armor capabilities, as well as other equipment essential to strengthening Ukraine’s brave forces on the battlefield, helping them retake Ukraine’s sovereign territory, and defend their fellow citizens,” according to a statement announcing the latest drawdown — the 43rd to date.

Blinken also slammed Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, noting that Moscow “continues to attack Ukrainian ports and grain infrastructure,” including in the southern port city of Odesa.

The strikes — the latest in a wave of attacks on Odesa — killed at least one person and injured several others, Ukrainian officials said. At least 25 architectural monuments were destroyed and a historic Orthodox cathedral was badly damaged, a regional military official said.

“Russia could end this war at any time by withdrawing its forces from Ukraine and stopping its brutal attacks against Ukraine’s cities and people,” Blinken said. “Until it does, the United States and our allies and partners will stand united with Ukraine, for as long as it takes.”

According to a State Department spokesperson, some of the specific capabilities in this package are:

The United Nations has said that Russian accounts of a rocket attack on a camp holding Ukrainian prisoners of war in July 2022 are not supported by the evidence.

More than 50 Ukrainian prisoners were killed in the strike that year on a detention center in the town of Olenivka. An extensive CNN investigation published in August last year demonstrated that the Russian narrative that the camp had been hit by a Ukrainian HIMARS rocket did not stand up to scrutiny — a finding now supported by the findings by the UN Human Rights Commissioner (OHCHR).

Russian and local officials from the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic said the attack was carried out by the Ukrainian side, using one of the HIMARS rockets that had been recently supplied by the US.

The morning after the blast, Andrey Lazarev, who works for the Russian Defense Ministry’s Zvezda media channel, pointed to fragments, one of which included the serial number of a HIMARS rocket in remarkably good condition.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said the detention center was “hit by a missile attack from the American HIMARS.”

But CNN’s investigation, based on analysis of video and photographs from the scene, satellite imagery from before and after the attack and the work of forensic and weapons experts, concluded “the Russian version of events is very likely a fabrication. There is almost no chance that a HIMARS rocket caused the damage to the warehouse where the prisoners were being held.”

Experts consulted by CNN discounted a HIMARS strike on Olenivka — but could not say definitively what killed and wounded so many prisoners. The investigation noted that “experts say most signs point to an intense fire, and according to several witnesses there was no sound of an incoming rocket.”

Read more here.