July 26, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

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

North Korean Defence Minister Kang Sun Nam meets with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in this image released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency on July 27.

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:

Sunlight streams through shrapnel holes onto piles of barley in Pavlivka, Odesa region, on July 24, days after Russian missiles struck a grain storage facility.

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.

Read more

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. 

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.” 

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 speaks at a shipyard in Philadelphia on July 20.

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. 

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.”

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.”

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.

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. 

A container filled with wheat is seen aboard a cargo ship in a sea port in Ukraine's Odesa region on March 24.

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. 

“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.

Ukrainian servicemen prepare for a flight of a Leleka reconnaissance UAV in Ukraine's Donetsk region on June 27.

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.

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:

Smoke rises above the Kerch Bridge after an explosion on October 8, 2022 in Crimea.

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.

Wagner fighters are deployed in a street in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, on June 24.

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.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov leaves a meeting with African leaders on June 17, in St Petersburg, Russia.

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.