July 21, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

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

A new round of talks between Turkey, Russia and Ukraine on the export of Ukrainian grain are set to take place in Turkey on Friday, according to a top Ukrainian official.

“Following negotiations, a document can be signed, that will contain the obligations of the parties regarding the safe operation of the export routes in the Black Sea,” Oleg Nikolenko, the spokesperson for Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Thursday evening.

Nikolenko stressed that the Ukrainian delegation “will support only those decisions that will guarantee the security of the southern regions of Ukraine, the strong positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Black Sea, and the safe export of Ukrainian agricultural products to the world markets.” 

Turkish, Ukrainian and Russian officials last held talks with the support of the United Nations on the issue of grain exports over a week ago on July 13. 

Speaking at the time, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said that although the meetings had proven that Russia and Ukraine can talk, there is still “a long way to go” to broker peace between the two countries. 

On Thursday, Deputy Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, Farhan Haq said the UN is trying to reach an “agreement that would allow for Ukrainian and Russian food and fertilizer to reach global markets.” 

Although no deal has been formalized, Haq told a briefing that the UN is “hopeful” and will wait to “see what happens” when talks pick up again Friday. 

The United States welcomes the “agreement in principle” brokered by the UN and Turkey between Russia and Ukraine to allow the safe transport of Ukrainian grain from blocked ports, but is focused on “holding Russia accountable for implementing this agreement and for enabling Ukrainian grain to get to world markets,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Thursday.

European officials familiar with the discussions expressed optimism about the agreement, but cited concerns about its implementation. The officials said that Russia is unlikely to follow through on the agreement without any issues.

Price noted “this is very early going” when asked about details of the “agreement in principle.” 

“Reports have just emerged, but I can say that throughout these discussions we have supported the UN Secretary-General, we have supported our Turkish allies, we of course supported our Ukrainian partners in their efforts in this as well,” he said. 

“We’ve been briefed by the UN at various stages. Our experts have compared notes and shared notes with their experts. The same goes with our Turkish allies and our Ukrainian partners,” Price added. 

Western officials have accused Moscow of “weaponizing” food supplies, and as leaders and experts warned of a catastrophic food crisis as millions of tons of Ukrainian grain are unable to reach the global market due to the war. 

A US official said last month that they had intelligence that the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Navy “is under orders to effectively blockade the Ukrainian ports of Odesa and Ochakiv.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his national security team believes “we have a significant potential for the advance of our forces on the front and for the infliction of significant new losses on the occupiers.”

Zelensky was speaking in his daily video message after meeting with intelligence chiefs, the armed forces commander, and the Interior and Defense Ministers.

He said that his chief of staff Andriy Yermak and armed forces commander Gen. Valery Zaluzhny had another conversation with the US national security adviser Jake Sullivan and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley.

“And tomorrow we also expect news for our state from Turkey regarding the unblocking of our ports,” Zelensky said. 

Listing places struck by Russian artillery and rocket forces Thursday, Zelensky said each strike “is an argument for Ukraine to receive more HIMARS and other modern and effective weapons.”

He also welcomed a proposed resolution in the US Senate that would recognize Russia’s actions against Ukraine as genocide. 

Ukrainian authorities collect fragments after a Russian rocket strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Thursday.

The Ukrainian military has reported another day of heavy artillery and rocket fire by Russian forces in both Kharkiv and Donetsk regions, accompanied by air strikes. But it says the Russians have failed to gain ground in either region, nor in the south.

In Kharkiv, “the enemy unsuccessfully tried to advance in the direction of Velyki Prohody - Pitomnyk with assault actions,” the military’s general staff said. The area is about 20 kilometers (about 12 miles) north of Kharkiv.

In one of the most intense current battles in Donbas, the General Staff said that another attempt to break through Ukrainian lines along the Luhansk-Donetsk border had failed. “Ukrainian soldiers repulsed the offensive in the direction of the Lysychansk refinery - Ivano-Daryivka. The enemy suffered losses and retreated,” it said.

In the Sloviansk direction, Russia launched artillery fire in areas to the north of the city, The General Staff said.

“The Russians have been constantly shelling the city for 20 days now. As a result of today’s shelling, two people were injured,” The mayor of Sloviansk, Vadym Liakh, told Ukrainian television. “There has been no water supply in the city for two months, and 15% of residents do not have electricity due to shelling.”

“22,000 people remain in the city. If the shelling increases, more people will want to evacuate,” Liakh added.

The area around the town of Bakhmut was also shelled again Thursday, and there were also air strikes, the General Staff said.

In the south, the Russians had tried to launch an assault along the border of Mykolaiv and Kherson regions, it said, but had been repelled. This area, around Andriivka, has seen an increase in combat in recent days but no shift in current positions. 

The chief of Britain’s foreign intelligence service believes that Russia has lost its ability to spy in Europe “by half,” following the expulsion of more than 400 Russian intelligence officers from cities across Europe and the arrest of several deep-cover spies posing as civilians. 

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, European countries have expelled “north of 400 Russian intelligence officers operating under diplomatic cover” across the bloc, Richard Moore, the head of MI6, the UK’s foreign intelligence service, told CNN’s Jim Sciutto at the Aspen Security Forum.

“And we reckon, in the UK, that has probably reduced their ability to do their business to spy for Russia in Europe by half,” Moore said.

A number of “illegals,” or Russian spies operating under deep cover and masquerading as ordinary civilians, have also been exposed and arrested in recent months, he added.

Asked whether the war in Ukraine has made Russia a “target-rich environment” for the UK and its allies to recruit potential assets, Moore would only say that “it is our hope” that Russians in the intelligence and diplomatic services will “reflect on what they are witnessing in Ukraine” and decide to “strike back against the system” as many did during the Prague Spring in 1968.  

“Our door is always open,” he said. 

The European Union further tightened sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine by adopting additional measures on Thursday, the European Council announced in a press release. 

The new measures, which the EU refers to as a “maintenance and alignment” package, are a broadening of previous measures and now include Russian gold exports. The package also extends the list of individuals and entities that would be subject to potential asset freezes.

“We are effectively banning Russia’s most significant export after energy – Russian gold. We are also extending the exemption of transactions for agricultural products and transfer of oil to third countries. Because the EU is doing its part to ensure we can overcome the looming global food crisis. It is up to Russia, to stop bombing Ukraine’s fields and silos, and stop blocking Black Sea ports,” said EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell.

Thursday’s package introduces a new prohibition “to purchase, import, or transfer, directly or indirectly, gold, if it originates in Russia and it has been exported from Russia into the EU or to any third country after,” the press release stated. The prohibition also covers jewelry.

The package extends the list of controlled items, “which may contribute to Russia’s military and technological enhancement or the development of its defense and security sector,” it added. 

However, the EU is extending the exemption from prohibition to engage in transactions with state-owned entities the transactions for agricultural products and the transport of oil to third countries “with a view to avoid any potential negative consequences for food and energy security around the world,” the release noted.

This step is aimed at avoiding food crisis stemming from the war.

Similarly, third countries and their nationals operating outside of the EU won’t be prohibited from purchasing pharmaceutical or medical products from Russia.

The Ukrainian military says Russia has used up to 60% of its pre-war stocks of high-precision weaponry and that Western sanctions have made it harder for Moscow to replenish its stocks. 

“[Ukrainian] military intelligence is tracking the condition and numbers of the weaponry that Russia using. As for the high-precision weaponry — that it is what Russians are saying, Iskander, Kalibr system, the cruise missiles Kh-101, Kh-555 — we asses that 55-60% of the pre-war stores have been used up,” a representative of the Defense Intelligence of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Vadym Skibytsky, said during a press conference on Thursday.

Russia has been using repurposed anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles to target Ukrainian forces in recent weeks, according to Kyiv.

Ukrainian military intelligence says Western sanctions have made it harder for Russia to replenish stocks of the parts of its more advanced equipment. 

“Many components were manufactured abroad. But the restrictions introduced due to international sanctions do not enable [Russia] to openly get the components,” Skibytsky explained. “But as for the old, Soviet Union weaponry […] these are quite huge stores and it’s difficult to assess them.”

Investigators work at the site of a Russian military strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine on July 21.

Russian bombardment killed three people and injured 23 in Kharkiv on Thursday, according to the regional prosecutor’s office.

Russia attacked a public transport stop near the market in the Kyivskyi district of Kharkiv with Uragan rocket launchers on July 21 at 9:30 a.m. local time, the prosecutor’s office posted on Telegram. 

The Russian military also shelled the Saltivskyi district of Kharkiv, hitting a residential building and injuring three civilians, the office added, saying it launched a criminal investigation into these attacks.

“The Russian enemy attacks streets of the city, trade pavilions, and residential infrastructure only,” said Oleh Synehubov, head of Kharkiv region military administration.

There was also heavy shelling of the town of Chuhuiv overnight, according to the regional military administration. Chuhuiv lies to the west of important Russian supply lines for its offensive in the eastern city of Donetsk. 

The administration said the water treatment plant was damaged.

Synehubov said despite relentless shelling in the Kharkiv region, “since May, the enemy has not taken new territory — not a single meter.”

The shelling follows a series of Russian bombardments on the northeastern city this week.

A 13-year-old boy was among three victims of a Russian attack in the Saltivskyi district of Kharkiv on Wednesday.

At the time, Synehubov advised people in Kharkiv — Ukraine’s second-largest city before the start of Russia’s invasion — not to go outside unless necessary. 

CNN’s Olga Voitovych contributed reporting to this post.

The landfall facility of the Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea pipeline and the transfer station of the OPAL gas pipeline are seen in Lubmin, Germany, on Thursday.

Germany and EU countries need to remain prepared in case Russia decides to turn off the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline tap, German Vice Chancellor and Energy Minister Robert Habeck said on Thursday, just hours after gas started flowing again at around 40% of the pipeline’s maximum capacity.

”We cannot rely on commitments from Gazprom,” Habeck said Thursday via video call on Nord Stream 1 and Germany’s gas situation, after Gazprom, the Russian state energy giant, resumed gas shipments through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline from Russia into Germany on Thursday.

Gas shipments via Nord Stream 1 have fallen by 60% in recent weeks, while an annual maintenance period from July 11 to July 21 reduced gas flows to zero. On Thursday, Gazprom restarted the gas flows at the same lower level as before the pipeline was shut down for maintenance works.

In June, Habeck said that Germany would struggle to fill up its gas storage tanks before cold weather arrives if the gas pipeline Nord Stream 1 does not become fully operational again, raising the likelihood of energy rationing.

To that end, Habeck urged Germans to take shorter showers to save energy and called on industry and consumers to turn down the heating this winter.

He also announced another package of measures to ensure Germany’s energy security, saying that the measures include stricter requirements for filling gas storage facilities and activating lignite reserve plants from Oct. 1.

Habeck went on to say that the package also includes energy-saving measures in public buildings.

Reports suggesting something is wrong with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s health are “nothing but hoaxes,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Thursday.

When asked about the Russian president’s health on a conference call with reporters, Peskov said Putin feels “fine” and that “he is in good health.”

Putin was visibly having symptoms of a cold during his visit to Tehran on Tuesday and coughing during meetings the next day, which he explained with heat and strong air conditioning. 

“Yesterday it was very hot in Tehran — plus 38, and the air conditioning there was working full on there, so I apologize,” Putin said during a video conference on Wednesday.

Vladimir Putin is “entirely too healthy,” CIA Director William Burns said Wednesday. But he acknowledged that this wasn’t “a formal intelligence judgment.” 

“There are lots of rumors about President Putin’s health, and as far as we can tell, he’s entirely too healthy,” he said.

Rescuers and servicemen work at a damaged school building in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, on July 21.

Russian forces are struggling to make headway in the grueling battle for control of Donetsk, despite striking the eastern region with a flurry of attacks in the past week.

Elsewhere in Europe, Russian state energy giant Gazprom resumed gas shipments through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline into Germany. It comes following fears Russia would not renew deliveries after 10 days of scheduled maintenance.

Here are the latest developments:

A Ukrainian commander shows the rockets of a HIMARS vehicle in Ukraine on July 1.

Russia has yet to take out any of the Western rocket artillery donated to Ukraine, according to the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley. This comes as Russia claims that they had hit HIMARS near the front line. 

“To date the HIMARS that we have provided them – and we’re not the only country by the way, other countries are providing long range fires as well, Britain, for example, and some others are donating long range rocket artillery – to date those systems have not been eliminated by the Russians,” he said after the fourth meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group on Wednesday, a platform which includes 50 countries from all continents.

Milley went on to detail how Ukraine was putting the donated rocket systems to use.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov acknowledged the praise that Ukraine has received from the US and other allies on its use of the donated multiple launch rocket systems, such as the HIMARS.

“I would like to note that the American partners and as well as colleagues from other countries expressed their admiration for the skill of our soldiers, including the way they use artillery and HIMARS,” Reznikov said.

The minister said these Western donated weapons were “already affecting the course of the war.”

In his review of the meeting, Reznikov also said the Ukraine Defense Contact Group had been presented with an overview of the situation in the battlefield, which, he claimed, showed Russia had suffered significant losses in terms of manpower and equipment. 

“These are impressive numbers which prove that Ukraine is indeed the shield of Europe,” he said. “It is important that this overview was prepared specifically by the partners based on their data and evaluations.”

A father holds the hand of his 13 year-old son, who was killed by a Russian military strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine on July 2o.

The father of a 13-year-old boy who was killed by Russian shelling in Kharkiv on Wednesday prayed over the body of his dead child for two hours, according to a top Ukrainian official.

The boy’s sister was also wounded in the shelling, the Ukrainian Ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova, said on Thursday.

Markarova’s post also featured two photos showing the father holding the hand of his dead son as the boy’s body lay on the ground covered with a red foil sheet. 

The young teenager was among three victims of a Russian attack in the Saltivskyi district of Kharkiv, according to Oleh Synehubov, head of the regional military administration. The shelling also killed a man and a woman.

Seven missiles struck critical infrastructure in the southern city of Mykolaiv overnight, according to the city’s mayor.

“Today at 3 a.m. (local time) it was chaotic shelling of the city,” Oleksandr Sienkevych said.

Seven S-300 missiles had been fired at the southern Ukrainian city, he added.

Sienkevych said months of shelling has destroyed about 540 multi-story apartment blocks, “including six which are impossible to restore.” About 680 private homes have been damaged and 121 people killed in the city.

Mykolaiv lies close to the front lines dividing Ukrainian and Russian troops along the regional border with Kherson.

Out of 480,000 Mykolaiv residents before the war, only around 230,000 remain in the city, according to Sienkevych.

“I do recommend Mykolaiv residents to leave the city, as the city is being constantly shelled,” he said.

Two of the missiles hit and destroyed a warehouse full of humanitarian aid, Vitalii Kim, head of Mykolaiv region military administration, said.

Some background: Fighting has intensified in southern Ukraine as recently supplied US weapons have bolstered the country’s military ability to strike down Russian targets, causing fresh problems for Moscow.

Earlier this month, there were huge explosions in several occupied areas in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. The available evidence, from satellite imagery and Western analysts, is that the targeting has been highly effective.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that as the West continues to supply Ukraine with more long-range weaponry, including High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), the Kremlin’s geographical objectives in Ukraine would extend beyond the eastern Donbas region into the country’s south.

CN’s Radina Gigova, Sana Noor Haq and Jack Guy contributed reporting to this post.

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a news conference following the Astana Process summit in Tehran, Iran, on July 19.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is “entirely too healthy” despite “lots of rumors” about his health, according to a top US intelligence official.

Burns acknowledged his public remarks at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado Wednesday were not “a formal intelligence judgment.”

Putin has recently appeared in photos with some apparent facial puffiness that have led to speculation that he may be undergoing medical treatment for an unknown illness. 

The Kremlin has previously denied rumors of ailments.

“I do not think that any sane person can see in this person signs of some kind of illness or ailment. I leave this on the conscience of those who spread such rumors despite daily opportunities to ensure who looks how in this world,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told French broadcaster TF1 in May.

Some background: When Russia invaded Ukraine in February, American politicians and former diplomats openly speculated about Putin’s stability.

From using an enormous table during talks with French President Emmanuel Macron after he refused a Russian Covid-19 test, to making a speech laced with conspiracy theories to justify invading Ukraine, some of Putin’s behavior has bordered on bizarre.

According to a CNN report published in March, US officials are also “on guard for the possibility that Putin’s strategy may well be to project instability, in an attempt to push the US and allies to give him what he wants for fear that he could do worse.”

When asked in March if there have been noticeable changes in Putin’s behavior, psychiatrist Dr. Kenneth Dekleva told CNN: “Yes and no.”

Dekleva, who previously worked at the US Embassy in Moscow and specializes in leadership analysis/political psychology profiling for national security purposes, said Putin’s behavior is a sign of frustration at the pace of Russia’s invasion.

“I don’t think he’s erratic or changed, but he certainly is in more of a hurry,” Dekleva said.

“The saddest thing here, the most tragic thing is Putin has gone from being a respected world leader when he first came to power to … he’s now looking more and more like Russia’s Slobodan Milosevic,” Dekleva added, comparing Putin to the Serbian autocrat who died in The Hague in 2006 while awaiting trial for war crimes.

CNN’s Uliana Pavlova, Sarah Diab and Zachary B. Wolf contributed reporting to this post.

Several Russian ammunition warehouses and command posts in Kherson have been destroyed, the Ukrainian armed forces have said.

Natalia Humeniuk, spokeswoman for Operational Command South, said a total of six ammunition warehouses in occupied Kherson had been destroyed in the last day.

CNN is unable to confirm the new strikes but has previously geolocated several strikes by long-range Ukrainian artillery in the Kherson, Beryslav and Kakhovka districts.

A bridge over the Dnipro river — an important link for the Russians to Crimea — was also hit several times. Despite damage it appears to remain open to some traffic.

The regional military administration for Kherson said Thursday that “there were loud explosions and gunshots at night in Kherson region,” including in Beryslav, on the north bank of the river. 

Fighting continues along the border of Mykolaiv and Kherson regions, with the Russians trying to improve their defensive positions. The command said the Russians had tried to counter-attack around the settlement of Lozove but without success.

The command said it had carried out 10 airstrikes against the enemy: “Five times enemy strongholds were hit, three times — accumulation of manpower and equipment in Kherson region.”

The Ukrainian air force has continued to operate despite Russian air superiority.

The Russians continue to use missiles against the city of Mykolaiv, according to the regional military administration.

“Russian occupiers fired seven S-300 missiles at Mykolaiv at night,” the administration said. A gas pipeline and a warehouse were hit.

“Villages located on the demarcation line remain under constant shelling,” it added. 

“As a result of constant fighting in the region, fields with crops and forest areas continue to burn,” the regional military administration said.

Destroyed forests: According to official information, more than 230 hectares of wheat in the Beryslav and Henichesk districts, as well as about 10 hectares of forest near the city of Oleshki, burned in just the last few days.

Alexey Nechipurenko, 45, speaks with CNN recently.

On a sweltering summer day in July, hundreds of Ukrainians try to rest on metal beds lined up in a basketball court-turned-shelter. Their tales of horror and hardship along with a few belongings are all they have left.

But with this safe haven being inside Russia, they are hesitant to share those stories.

Alexey Nechipurenko, 45, was maimed as Russian forces entered the southern port city of Mariupol. His foot was shot to pieces and his wife was killed before his eyes, he tells CNN.

But, as a Russian doctor tends his wounds, he insists Ukraine, not Russia, is to blame for his suffering.

The basketball court shelter is in Taganrog, southern Russia, just 69 miles from Mariupol where Ukrainian soldiers and civilians held out for weeks in the Azovstal steel plant before Russia took full control of the city.

CNN was given exclusive access to the center set up to process some of the more than 2 million refugees estimated to have poured onto Russian soil since the invasion began on Feb. 24.

Human rights groups say Ukrainians are being “filtered” before being taken to the temporary shelters in Russia and any suspected of posing a threat are not allowed through.

And those who passed Russia’s first test and made it to Taganrog are reluctant to say too much.

Read the full story here.

Ukrainian firefighters work at the Bakhmut market after it was shelled in the city of Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, on July 21.

Russian forces are trying “around the clock” to break through Ukrainian lines in the eastern Donetsk region but have not been successful, according to Ukrainian officials.

Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk Civil Military Administration, said on Ukrainian television Thursday that shelling around the city of Bakhmut is constant.

The Russians have inflicted considerable damage in Bakhmut, according to Kyrylenko. He added that 350,000 people were still in the region and evacuations were taking place daily.

In its latest operational update, the Ukrainian military’s General Staff said more than a dozen locations around Bakhmut had come under fire Wednesday.

“Ukrainian soldiers forced the occupiers to flee. Fighting continues in the area near Novoluhanske,” it said. 

Novoluhanske and neighboring settlements are under almost constant attack as the Russians try to break down Ukrainian defenses south of Bakhmut and encircle Ukrainian defenses in the pocket of territory bordering the neighboring Luhansk region. 

The General Staff said the Russians also continued shelling in the Sloviansk direction.

Kramatorsk: The eastern city again came under attack Wednesday night.  

Kyrylenko said two schools were destroyed in Kramatorsk and Kostiantynivka, to the south of the city. The mayor of Kramatorsk said two industrial plants were also hit. There were no details about casualties.

Tens of thousands of people are thought to remain in Kramatorsk and the surrounding areas. 

Southern Ukraine: Russian artillery continues to bombard towns behind the front lines that run through parts of Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv and Kherson regions, according to the General Staff. On Wednesday, Russia’s foreign minister said Moscow’s objectives in Ukraine now extend beyond the Donbas into the south of the country, warning it “cannot allow” Ukraine to have weapons that threaten Russia or its territories.

The number of Russian citizens who have declared bankruptcy and faced liquidation in the first half of 2022 rose by 37.8% over the same period from last year, a Russian Ministry of Economic Development report shows.

From January to the end of June, 121,313 Russian citizens filed for bankruptcy and had their assets liquidated to pay off debts, the report stated. Among them, the largest number of bankruptcy declarations were from Moscow at more than 6,000 individuals, followed by the region surrounding the capital, with more than 5,600.

Within the same timeframe, 20,185 Russian citizens filed for bankruptcy and went through debt restructuring, according to the report. 

The number of individual bankruptcies in the country nearly tripled from 68,980 in 2019 to 192,833 in 2021, the report added. 

Some context: While there is no clear link between the significant increase of individual bankruptcy filings and the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine in February, Russia has since seen numerous high-profile international conglomerates end operations in the country or cut business ties. Meanwhile, Russia has been slapped with sanctions including asset freezes by the United States, European Union, Japan and other governments.