July 31, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

The White House is criticizing senior Russian defense official Dmitry Medvedev’s comments suggesting Russia may resort to nuclear weapons if Ukraine is successful in its counteroffensive.

A National Security Council spokesperson called the rhetoric "reckless and irresponsible" on Monday. So far, the US has not seen any indications Russia is preparing to turn to nuclear weapons, the spokesperson added. 

“We continue to monitor this closely, but we have not seen any reason to adjust our own nuclear posture nor any indications that Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon,” they added.

Some context: Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, made the comments in a Telegram post. They are the latest in a series of nuclear threats made by Moscow since launching its war against Ukraine. 

"Just imagine that the offensive… in tandem with NATO, succeeded and ended up with part of our land being taken away. Then we would have to use nuclear weapons by virtue of the stipulations of the Russian Presidential Decree,” Medvedev said in the post. 

“There simply wouldn’t be any other solution,” he added. “Our enemies should pray to our fighters that they do not allow the world to go up in nuclear flames.”

US President Joe Biden said earlier this month that he does not believe Russia would deploy nuclear weapons. 

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan is expected to attend peace talks on the war in Ukraine next week in Saudi Arabia, US officials said. 

Ukraine is taking the lead on the effort which is expected to be attended by Western countries and developing nations. Russia is not expected to attend the talks. 

Ukraine’s goal is that the talks work to identify shared principles for ending the war and that there is a peace summit later this year with global leaders signing up to support those principles, US officials said. 

The talks hosted in Saudi Arabia are the second in a series of meetings organized by the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak. The first talks took place earlier this year in Copenhagen.

Saudi Arabia was picked for the talks in part because of the country’s relationship with China, one US official explained. While China is not expected to attend the talks, US officials have publicly encouraged China in recent months to play a constructive role in resolving the Ukraine war though there has been no signal of China taking any proactive steps towards a peaceful end. 

Ukraine says Russian shelling of the city of Kherson has killed at least 4 people and injured 17 others, the head of the Ukrainian President’s Office, Andrii Yermak posted on Telegram on Monday.

“The enemy is hitting residential areas,” Yermak wrote. “The Korabelny district and the central part of the city suffered the most. There are 4 dead and 17 wounded as of now.”

Local officials said Russia had intensified shelling on the city to provide cover for rotating troops.

Kyiv and Zagreb have agreed on the “possibility” of using Croatian ports on the Danube river to export Ukrainian grain, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said after a meeting with his counterpart Gordan Grlic-Radman. 

“We agreed on the possibility of using Croatian ports on the Danube and the Adriatic Sea to transport Ukrainian grain,” Ukraine’s Kuleba said on Monday, according to the Ukrainian government website. “Now we will work to build the most efficient routes to these ports and make the most of this opportunity.” 

Some more context: The announcement follows Russia’s withdrawal from the UN-brokered Black Sea Grain Initiative, as well as several missile and drone strikes on Ukraine’s grain storage and export infrastructure in the Odesa region, targeting both sea and river ports.

The death toll has risen to six, with 75 others injured, after two Russian missiles struck a residential area and a university in Kryvyi Rih, according to a revised death toll from the head of the Dnipropetrovsk region military administration, Serhii Lysak.

“Floors four through nine of the residential building have been completely destroyed,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on Monday afternoon. “The work is difficult – parts of the building's structure were falling down.”

More than 350 people are involved in the search and rescue effort following Monday’s strikes, according to Zelensky.

Russia used two ballistic missiles to target Kryvyi Rih, the head of the city’s Defense Council, Oleksandr Vilkul, told CNN earlier on Monday.

Here's the other information Vilkul provided:

The Russian Ministry of Defense has yet to comment on Monday’s strikes on the central Ukrainian city.

The death toll and the number of injured people have been updated to reflect the latest information from authorities.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on Monday, imposing fines for failure to notify or ensure the presence of those who are subject to mobilization, as well as for failure to facilitate mobilization.

According to the law, the fine for officials will be 60,000 to 80,000 rubles ($650 -$870) for officials and 400,000 to 500,000 rubles ($4350-$5440) for collective entities.

Putin also signed a law raising the fine to 30,000 rubles ($326) for failure to appear at the draft board without a good reason.

Previously, the fine for failure to appear at the draft board on the agenda without a good reason ranged from 500 to 3,000 rubles ($5-$32).

More than 700,000 Ukrainian children have been taken to Russia since the beginning of the war, according to Maria Lvova-Belova, Russian ombudsperson for children's rights.

“Since February 2022, the Russian Federation has received about 4.8 million residents of Ukraine and the Donbas republics, of which more than 700,000 are children,” she said in a report Monday.

The report claims most of them arrived “with their parents or other relatives.”

Lvova-Belova is one of the two Russians that the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague issued a warrant against in March, alleging their responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation and transfer of children during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin is the second individual they charged.

According to the document, about 1,500 students of institutions for orphans or those left without parental care came to Russia, and 288 children from the occupied Donetsk region were subsequently placed under guardianship in foster families of Russian citizens.

“Children from the LPR [Luhansk People’s Republic] returned to their institutions, but subsequently 92 children left without parental care, at the request of the authorized bodies in the field of guardianship and guardianship of the Republic, were placed under guardianship in Russian foster families,” it added.

Residents of the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih say they heard no air raid sirens before two Russian missiles struck on Monday.

“At the time of the missile attack, I was at work, which is quite far away, but we could hear it very clearly. My husband and son were at home. The house shook and swung — the explosion was very powerful,” a Kryvyi Rih resident Natalia Balaba, who lives opposite one of the buildings that was hit, told CNN over the phone on Monday. “All the windows in our apartment are completely smashed, everything is damaged. We were very frightened, we were in great shock.”

Balaba's son was in their bathroom when the missile struck, away from any windows, which shielded him from the blast, she said. “It was easier for him to go through this. My husband was in the corridor, he was knocked down by the wave.”

One of the missiles hit the State University of Economics and Technology and destroyed most of the building, according to acting director Natalia Voloshaniuk. 

“The missile landed right in our laboratory building, where classes are usually held. The building was almost completely destroyed. Windows and doors in our administrative building were blown out,” Voloshaniuk told CNN on Monday. “I was blown away with my chair, a little scratched. We sent two employees to the clinic, they have minor injuries.”

Voloshaniuk went on to say the toll could’ve been much higher had classes been in session. 

“There were no people in that building at the time of the explosion. Sometimes teachers come there and prepare the classrooms for classes. But today, thank God, there was no one there,” she explained. “We were preparing to start classes on September 1. But now no one will enter these buildings. They cannot be restored.”

According to Voloshaniuk, the missiles landed without warning.

“I did not hear the alarm, my colleagues only heard whistling. Everything happened very quickly. When it hit, we ran to hide in the shelter, because we were afraid that there would be another attack,” she explained. “There are three educational buildings here, two dormitories across the street, and a nine-story building where people live. I don't know what military targets Russians were shooting at. They always lie. They are not human! Shooting at educational buildings is beyond the pale.”

The Kremlin has said it will be “monitoring” upcoming peace talks on Ukraine expected to take place in Saudi Arabia, between Kyiv and the heads of several western and developing nations. 

The Kremlin spokesperson reiterated Russia’s claim that it does not have any “prerequisites” when it comes to a peaceful resolution of the Ukrainian conflict, but accused Kyiv of not wanting peace.

“The Kyiv regime does not want and cannot want peace as long as it is used solely as a tool in the war of the collective West with Russia,” presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists during a call on Monday. “Is it possible at the moment to reach a peaceful settlement with the participation of the Kyiv regime and its current position, the answer is unequivocal: no, it is impossible.”

“We have repeatedly said that any attempts to promote a peaceful settlement are worthy of a positive assessment,” he added.

Saudi Arabia is set to host Ukraine peace talks including Western and several developing countries, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, said on Sunday. Yermak did not provide specific dates for the summit. 

Yermak said that "each point of the Peace Formula is being discussed in an individual and group format with representatives of more than 50 countries of the world on an almost weekly basis," referring to President Volodymyr Zelensky's 10-point plan he presented to world leaders at the Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, last year. The steps include a path to nuclear safety, food security, a special tribunal for alleged Russian war crimes and a final peace treaty with Moscow. 

Yermak said that the goal of the talks is “to unite the world around Ukraine.”

CNN's Mariya Knight and Jonny Hallam contributed reporting to this post.