July 19, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

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Russia struck the city center of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine on Thursday, according to Vitaliy Kim, the head of the Mykolaiv regional military administration.

At least nine people were wounded, including five children, he said. Among the wounded children were a 3-year-old and a child who was less than 1 year old.

Kim reported fatalities but did not specify how many. He also did not provide more details on the nature of the attack.

Russia attacked the southern port city of Odesa for the third night in a row, according to Ukrainian authorities.

At least two people were injured in the attacks, the head of the region’s military administration Oleh Kiper said in a post on Telegram.

At least eight Russian Tu-22M3 aircraft were “flying in the direction of the Black Sea,” the Ukrainian air force said early Thursday.

The air force warned that Russian supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles “were launched in the direction of the Odesa region.”

A CNN team on the ground witnessed a large explosion and heard the sound of other explosions.

Some background: Russian attacks over the previous two nights damaged the port infrastructure in the city, officials said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday the attacks were the largest since the war began, and he accused Russia of trying to weaponize hunger and destabilize the global food market.

The president linked the strikes with Russia’s decision to pull out Monday of the UN-brokered Black Sea Grain initiative, which allowed Ukraine to export its grain via the contested body of water.

A TQ Samsun grain ship in the Black Sea in Istanbul, Turkey, on Monday.

Russia could target civilian ships in the Black Sea and blame Ukraine following the Kremlin’s decision to leave the Black Sea Grain Initiative, according to a spokesperson for the National Security Council.

Russia has laid additional sea mines in the approach to Ukrainian ports, spokesperson Adam Hodge said in a statement Wednesday. Earlier in the day, Russia’s Defense Ministry said any ship sailing toward a Ukrainian port would be considered as potentially carrying military cargo. 

The Black Sea Grain Initiative, a deal brokered one year ago by Turkey and the United Nations, which allowed for the export of Ukrainian grain, expired Monday at midnight. The agreement guaranteed safe passage for ships carrying Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea to Turkey’s Bosphorus Strait.

In the days since the grain deal expired, Russia has targeted the port city of Odesa with missiles and drones, destroying agricultural infrastructure and 60,000 tons of grain, Hodge said. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attacks on Odesa were the largest since the war began, and he accused Russia of trying to weaponize hunger and destabilize the global food market.

An explosion of ammunition at a military training field in Crimea, on Wednesday.

A series of explosions were reported at a Russian ammunition dump in occupied Crimea, forcing thousands of people to evacuate and prompting leaders there to redirect traffic. Russian President Vladimir Putin was briefed on the explosions.

According to Sergey Aksyonov, the Russian-backed leader of Crimea, “a fire occurred at a military training ground.” The head of Crimea’s parliament said that it could take two days to fully extinguish the blaze, according to Russian state media. 

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

Russia has taken “fairly dramatic actions” since pulling out of the Black Sea grain deal and it would be “very hard at this point to get Russia back,” according to David Harland, executive director of the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue.

Earlier Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the “continuation of the grain deal in the form in which existed has lost all meaning.” The Russian Ministry of Defense also announced all ships sailing in the Black Sea to Ukrainian ports will be considered potential carriers of military cargo, starting Thursday. 

When asked about what options still remain on the table, and remarks by Ukrainian officials about the possibility to continue shipments through the Black Sea, Harland said it won’t be possible without Russia’s consent. 

There may be a chance that Russia agrees to “humanitarian shipments” only, if pressured by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and leaders of countries facing huge food supply shortages, like nations in Africa, Harland said. But he added he doubts the initial deal can be revived. 

“I doubt we are going to get back there. I think next time there will be a big deal, it will probably be in the context of the deal that ends the war,” he said. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to have declared open season on Ukraine’s consequential grain exports, targeting the port city of Odesa with a new ferocity and jeopardizing worldwide food prices.

With the strikes on Odesa, Putin says he wants payback for damage to a nearly 12-mile bridge that connects annexed Crimea to the Russian mainland.

But they also coincide with Russia’s retreat from a yearlong deal known as the Black Sea Grain Initiative to keep Ukrainian grain flowing to the world.

Wheat and corn prices on global commodities markets jumped Monday after Russia pulled out of the deal, and they spiked again Wednesday after attacks on the ports in Odesa and as hope faded for Russia to rejoin the grain deal.

Turkey brokered previous versions of the grain deal and it plans to host Putin for talks in August.

Without a new grain deal, the options are to use railroads to ship Ukrainian grain to ports in Romania or in southeastern Europe. The problems in both of those scenarios are time and money, according to Simon Evenett, a professor of international trade and economic development at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. He told CNN’s Rosemary Church that ports in Romania are currently being expanded.

Church noted that China has come to rely on grain from Ukraine and wondered if Beijing could lean on Russia to reenter the deal.

Evenett said it’s true that China has also suffered from droughts that have affected its domestic production.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the United States and President Joe Biden for another defense support package.

Some context: The US committed to providing Ukraine with more air defense systems and attack drones in a $1.3 billion aid package, according to the Department of Defense. 

The package includes four more National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, which are medium-range air defense batteries that have already helped Ukraine withstand ongoing Russian barrages of missiles and drones. It is the same system used to protect Washington, DC, and the area around the nation’s capital. 

Vladimir Putin during a meeting in Moscow, Russia on Monday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called the West’s failure to comply with Moscow’s demands to extend the UN-brokered Black Sea Grain initiative “arrogance and impudence,” and says his country would consider returning if conditions are met.

Moscow had shown “miracles of endurance and tolerance,” by continuously extending the deal in the past, the Russian president said.

“The West has done everything to derail the grain deal, they have not spared their efforts,” he said, adding Russia was obstructed from donating fertilizers to the poorest countries.

Putin also said Moscow would consider the possibility of returning to the deal if all the principles in it, without exception, are taken into account and implemented.

“The continuation of the grain deal in the form in which it existed has lost all meaning. That is why we objected to the further extension of this so-called deal,” he said. “All obstacles must be removed for Russian banks, financial institutions that aid the supply of food and fertilizers. This includes their immediate connection to the SWIFT international banking settlement system.”

“We don’t need promises and ideas in this regard. We need the fulfillment of these conditions,” he added. 

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky attending a meeting with Ireland's Prime Minister at Horodetsky House,in Kyiv, Ukraine, today.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says overnight Russian missile and drone strikes on Odesa were the biggest Russian attempt to “inflict pain” on the southern port city since the war began. 

“Throughout the day, maximum attention was paid to eliminating the consequences of the Russian terrorists’ attack on Odesa, on communities in the region, on Chornomorsk, on our ports,” Zelensky said in his daily address on Wednesday. “This was perhaps the largest attempt by Russia to inflict pain on Odesa in the entire period of full-scale war. Thanks to the air defense and all our defenders of the sky, the consequences of this strike are still less than they could have been.”

Zelensky linked the strikes with Russia’s decision to pull out of the UN-brokered Black Sea Grain initiative, which allowed Ukraine to export its grain via the contested body of water. Kyiv had signaled it wanted the United Nations and Turkey, which was also involved in the deal, to continue to oversee its implementation despite Russia’s withdrawal.

“This attack proves that their target is not only Ukraine, and not only the lives of our people. About a million tons of food is stored in the ports that were attacked today. This is the volume that should have been delivered to consumer countries in Africa and Asia long ago,” he said. “The port terminal that suffered the most from the Russian terror last night had 60,000 tons of agricultural products stored in it, which were intended to be shipped to China.”

“Everyone is affected by this Russian terror,” he added, thanking first responders.

He said his government was preparing for the Crimea Platform summit, which he asserted would put the region, declared annexed by Russia in 2014, closer to being returned to Ukraine.

The US has committed to providing Ukraine with more air defense systems and attack drones in a $1.3 billion aid package announced Wednesday, according to the Department of Defense. 

The package includes four more National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS), which are medium-range air defense batteries that have already helped Ukraine withstand ongoing Russian barrages of missiles and drones. It is the same system used to protect Washington, DC, and the area around the nation’s capital. 

The latest commitment will give Ukraine a total of 12 NASAMS from the United States. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said last November that the NASAMS had a 100% success rate in intercepting Russian attacks. 

The latest package falls under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), which is part of the long-term US commitment to provide aid to Ukraine. Unlike drawdown packages, which are pulled directly from Defense Department stocks and can be sent in relatively quickly, USAI packages are contracted with industry, a process which can take months or more. 

On Tuesday, following an international meeting of countries providing aid to Ukraine, Austin said, “Make no mistake: We are determined to support Ukraine’s fight for freedom for as long as it takes.”

The package also includes Phoenix Ghost and Switchblade attack drones, as well as counter-drone equipment. 

The sizable Ukraine aid package comes during Ukraine’s ongoing counter-offensive, which has faced stiff Russian resistance and widespread minefields, which have slowed its progress. 

The US is also expected to announce a separate aid package of about $400 million that will include more ammunition for the NASAMS, according to two US officials, as well as ammo for Patriot missile defense systems and HIMARS rocket launchers. 

The package will also contain more artillery ammunition, which officials have warned is in short supply, especially with the possibility of a prolonged Ukrainian counteroffensive that will drain current stockpiles. 

In addition, the package includes anti-tank and anti-armor weapons such as Javelins and TOW missiles, the officials said.

The officials cautioned the package has not been finalized yet and could still change. It could be announced as early as this week, one of the officials said.

Notably, the package is not expected to include more of the controversial cluster munitions, the officials said, which the US provided for the first time in the previous drawdown package announced earlier this month. 

The Biden administration decided to provide cluster munitions, known officially as dual-purpose improves cluster munitions, in part to meet the Ukrainian need for more artillery ammunition as the US and other countries ramp up their ammo production.

New Wagner camp in Belarus filled with vehicles as convoys continue to arrive near Asipovichy, Belarus.

About 72 hours after the first convoy arrived, hundreds of vehicles from Wagner Group convoys are filling a disused military base in Belarus, according to satellite imagery taken by Planet Labs PBC. 

The new image, taken around 6:29 a.m. Wednesday morning, comes less than eight hours after video was taken that showed a man — purportedly Wagner Group CEO Yevgeny Prigozhin — speaking with his troops at the camp. CNN has geolocated the video, and determined it was likely shot just after sunset on Tuesday. 

The area in which the man is seen speaking is now covered in vehicles, an indication that another convoy arrived overnight. 

For days, videos have surfaced online showing 100-vehicle-long convoys traveling along major highways in Russia toward Belarus. 

CNN visited that military base at Osipovichi on July 7, at the invitation of the Belarusian government. Belarusian Maj. Gen. Leonid Kasinsky told CNN’s Matthew Chance at the time that the camp had been constructed for the training of Belarusian territorial defense and militia, but could also house Wagner fighters should they come to the country.

Archival satellite imagery reviewed by CNN shows dozens of tents were erected at the base, which had been vacant for years, just days after Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin backed down from his attempted insurrection last month. 

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko claimed to have brokered a deal between Prigozhin and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Since then, Lukashenko has invited Wagner forces into Belarus to help train his country’s military.  

The following still is a screengrab from a video showing the silhouette of a man who appears to be Prigozhin. The still has been brightened to make the image clearer.

A video emerged on Wednesday that appears to show Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin greeting his fighters in Belarus, in what would be his first public appearance since he led an armed rebellion in Russia last month.

“Welcome guys! I am happy to greet you all. Welcome to the Belarusian land! We fought with dignity! We have done a lot for Russia,” a man resembling and sounding like Prigozhin says in the video, which was posted on pro-Wagner Telegram channels on Wednesday and then shared on Prigozhin’s account.

Prigozhin’s rebellion posed one of the biggest challenges to the long rule of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He played a prominent role in the invasion of Ukraine and since the uprising his whereabouts have been unclear.

In the video, a fighter seemingly addresses the Wagner leader as “Yevgeny Viktorovich,” Prigozhin’s first name and patronymic. The video appears unedited and metadata on the file suggests it could have been created at dusk on Tuesday, July 18 or at dawn on Wednesday, July 19.

Some key context: The Belarusian Hajun Project, an activist monitoring group that tracks military activity in the country, reported on Wednesday that Prigozhin’s plane landed in Machulishchy, on the outskirts of the capital Minsk, at 11:05 a.m. local time, on July 18, and left at 12:15 a.m. local time on July 19, indicating the video was likely filmed on July 18. The video appears unedited and the metadata on the file, as well as the position of the sun in the footage, suggests it was likely filmed at dusk on July 18.

The video is grainy and filmed in low light so CNN cannot definitively say the speaker is Prigozhin or when it was filmed.

CNN has geolocated the video to a previously disused military base in Asipovichy, roughly 80 kilometers (nearly 50 miles) southeast of the capital of Minsk. A CNN team visited this very same base on July 6.  

In the video, the individual seemed to maintain his criticism of the Russian Ministry of Defense’s planning and execution of military operations in Ukraine.

The person also goes on to suggest their stay in Belarus could be temporary and calls on his fighters to prepare to travel elsewhere.

Earlier on Wednesday, the UK’s intelligence chief told CNN that Prigozhin is alive and at liberty, and he claimed Russian President Vladimir Putin had no choice but to reach an agreement with the Wagner leader in order to end the short-lived rebellion.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday that all ships sailing in the Black Sea to Ukrainian ports will be considered as potential carriers of military cargo, starting on Thursday. 

The defense ministry’s announcement comes as the Russian Foreign Ministry said that, in withdrawing from the Black Sean Grain Initiative, its government was removing guarantees for safe navigation in the Black Sea.

According to the ministry, the countries whose national flags fly on the vessels will be considered involved in the Ukrainian conflict on the side of Kyiv.

“A number of sea areas in the northwestern and southeastern parts of the international waters of the Black Sea have been declared temporarily dangerous for navigation,” the ministry added. 

More on the grain deal: Russia said Monday it was suspending its participation in a crucial deal that allowed the export of Ukrainian grain. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov left the door open to reviving the deal in the future, saying Russia will comply “as soon as the Russian part (of the deal) is completed.”

Russia has for some time complained that it is being prevented from adequately exporting its own food, and Peskov cited that objection as the reason for pulling out of the deal.

Overnight Russian missile and drone strikes on Odesa damaged port infrastructure on July 19.

Overnight Russian missile and drone strikes on Odesa damaged port infrastructure that was being used as part of the UN-brokered Black Sea grain initiative, which Moscow pulled out of, the Ukrainian Agriculture Ministry said.

“The aggressor has once again proved that human values are an empty sound for it and that its words are not trustworthy,” the country’s Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi said on Wednesday, according to a ministry statement. “Grain terminals and port infrastructure in the ports of Odesa and Chornomorsk were attacked.” 

According to the ministry, it will take at least a year to fully restore the damaged facilities.

“This is a terrorist act not only against Ukraine but against the whole world. Its food security is once again under threat. Humanity is being held hostage by a terrorist country that is blackmailing the world with hunger,” the minister said. “The world must react firmly and according to the situation!”

Earlier Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of deliberately targeting infrastructure in the city associated with the Black Sea grain deal.

“Russian terrorists deliberately targeted the grain deal infrastructure, and every Russian missile is a strike not only against Ukraine, but against everyone in the world who wants a normal and safe life,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram.

Most of the captured members of Ukraine’s Azov battalion, who are being tried in Russia’s southern district military court, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday, according to the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti report from the court. 

“I don’t consider myself guilty,” most of the 22 defendants said, as reported by RIA.

According to RIA, several defendants partially admitted their guilt, confirming their participation in the Azov battalion, the rest stated that they would express their attitude to the prosecution during the debate of the parties.

More background: The Prosecutor’s Office of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) accused the captured Azov fighters of committing actions aimed at forcibly seizing power and changing the constitutional order.

Several defendants were also charged with organizing the activities of the Azov battalion, and most of them with participation in the activities of the battalion. According to the investigation, all the defendants were taken prisoner during hostilities on the territory of the DPR from March to May 2022.

According to RIA, initially, there were 24 members of the battalion being judged but in June two were exchanged in a prisoner’s swap with Ukraine. 

The next court meeting will be held on August 9.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit in Johannesburg in late August via videoconference, Russia state media RIA Novosti reported on Wednesday citing the Kremlin.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa confirmed on Wednesday in a statement that Putin will not be attending the summit in person, adding that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov would attend instead. 

The leaders of Brazil, India and China are still expected to attend in person. 

Since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, South African leaders have made contradictory statements over the country’s obligation to arrest Putin should he attend.  

As a signatory to the Rome statute, the treaty governing the Hague court, South Africa is compelled to arrest individuals indicted by the ICC. 

CNN’s David McKenzie and Catherine Nicholls contributed reporting to this post.

A United Nations official carries out an inspection of grain aboard the cargo ship TQ Samsun, which traveled from Odesa, Ukraine, while the ship lays anchored in the Black Sea near Istanbul, Turkey, on Monday, July 17.

Turkey’s chief presidential adviser told CNN’s Eleni Giokos that Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea grain deal was not in retaliation to Turkey’s support for Sweden’s bid to join NATO. 

“We are very closely working together with all the parties there, but also with the Russian Federation, and I don’t believe that is that there’s friction regarding the NATO Summit,” he added.

Some background: Turkey approved Sweden’s bid to join the military alliance on July 11, which made the alliance complete a historic expansion in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Turkey had previously spent months blocking Sweden’s application, accusing it of hosting Kurdish militants. As one of NATO’s 31 members, Turkey has a veto over any new country joining the group.

The movement on NATO’s accession comes after months of opposition and demands from Ankara. Turkey claimed that Sweden allows members of recognized Kurdish terror groups to operate, most notably the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Turkey had also accused Swedish officials of complicity in Islamophobic demonstrations, such as the burning of the Quran.

British intelligence chief Richard Moore speaks at an event in Prague, Czech Republic, on July 19.

The head of Britain’s foreign intelligence service used a rare speech in Prague Wednesday to issue a plea to disaffected Russians to spy for the UK. 

Speaking in Prague, Richard Moore appealed to Russians “wrestling with their conscience” to take a stand against the Putin regime and offered them the opportunity to “share secrets with MI6.”

Moore also issued a warning to African states that are connected to the private mercenary army Wagner, saying if its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin could “betray” Russian President Vladimir Putin then it will betray them in turn.

“The truth is that Russia has no interest in peace or stability and African countries,” he said, adding Moscow “requires active complex, and weak states, which the Kremlin views as targets to be controlled, and exploited in a new Russian imperialism.”

The Kremlin was recently startled by a short-lived insurrection led by Wagner chief Prigozhin. The incident marked the greatest challenge to Putin’s authority in 23 years.

What Russia is saying: In response to Moore’s open plea for Russians to become spies, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that any citizens disaffected by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime who are tempted to spy for Western intelligence should think again. 

Zakharova warned of an outcome such as that of Sergei Skripal, a former officer in Russia’s military intelligence agency, GRU. In March 2018, Skripal, convicted in Russia for treason, and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in Salisbury, England, according to UK authorities. Moscow has denied any involvement as the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said there was lack of any evidence of Russia’s guilt in the case. 

“As for ‘open doors and keeping secrets’, you perhaps would be believed if you showed us the Skripals. Usually those who believe you and trust you, end up being destroyed by you in the first place,” Zakharova said in a statement posted on her Telegram channel on Wednesday.

Zakharova also made light of Moore’s claims that Russia will not be able to regain momentum in the war.  “If Russia had a ‘little chance’ to regain ground, you, Richard Moore, wouldn’t make such a fuss,” she said. 

The UK’s intelligence chief has said that Iran’s decision to supply Russia with drones for use in the war in Ukraine has triggered “internal quarrels” at the “highest level” of the regime in Tehran. 

“Iran has chosen to receive cash and presumably to receive some military know how in return to support the Russians,” Moore added. 

The intelligence chief described Iran as an “accomplice” of Russia, calling its decision to supply arms to Russia an “unconscionable” act.  

Some context: Iran has denied accusations of supplying drones to Russia for use in the war in Ukraine, only acknowledging providing drones to Russia before the war started.

Last month, National Security Council official John Kirby said the US believes that an attack drone manufacturing plant Russia is building with Iran’s help could be fully operational by early next year.

CNN’s Natasha Bertrand contributed reporting to this post.