July 27, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

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

Ukraine's Olga Kharlan, left, leaves the fencing strip after she refused to shake hands with Russia's Anna Smirnova during the Fencing World Championships in Milan, on Thursday, July 27, 2023.

The leader of Ukraine’s national fencing team, Olga Kharlan, has spoken out after her disqualification from the world championships for refusing to shake hands with her Russian opponent, saying “I acted with my heart.” 

The four-time individual world champion and four-time Olympic medalist took to Instagram late Thursday to defend her actions and thank her supporters, particularly the Ukrainian military. 

Kharlan said that she came “back to life” thanks to messages of support from the public, “especially the support from our fighters who are defending us.” 

“When I hear that I motivated them, or this act motivated them it’s impossible to put into words how it makes me feel. It is impossible to convey, I thank each and every one of you, I thank every soldier who defends us,” Kharlan said. 

Ukrainians can never “be forced into peace […] by any handshake,” she added. 

The International Fencing Federation has not offered any account of the decision on its website or social media accounts. But the refusal to shake hands after contest results in a black card and expulsion, according to federation rules. 

The Ukrainian athlete approached the end of her video message by saying “the rules have to change because the world is changing.” 

Ukrainian forces in southern Ukraine can be seen for the first time at one of Russia’s long-stretching “dragon’s teeth” defensive lines in a new video circulating on Russian social media. 

CNN has geolocated the video to an area just east of the small villages of Nove and Kharkove in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia oblast. 

The video was taken from a Russian military position and shows a Ukrainian military vehicle moving in a field, heading toward a ditch in front of a large row of “dragon’s teeth” — concrete and rebar pyramids that can serve as barriers against tanks. The apparent driver of the vehicle appears and begins running back toward a tree line. 

For months, satellite images have shown that the Russians have installed the “dragon’s teeth” lines across the territory they control in Ukraine. The “teeth” are laid out in three-deep rows that stretch for hundreds of miles; on either side of the concrete lines, Russian forces have also dug massive anti-tank trenches.

When the vehicle hits the trench, a big puff of dirt and smoke is seen. A second later, the front end of the vehicle appears to be stuck, with its front end sitting on top of the trench. 

It’s unclear what exactly is happening in the video. Pro-Ukrainian channels claim it’s their forces testing the ability for a vehicle to make it over the trench and the “dragon teeth,” while pro-Russian channels claim it’s a casualty of one of their military strikes. 

What is clear, however, is the Ukrainian counteroffensive in southern part of the country has made notable gains in the last several days. 

While the ability of the Ukrainians to push Russian forces back behind their “dragon teeth” line is a clear indicator, the counteroffensive has been successful so far. 

The defensive line also poses a significant obstacle that the counteroffensive will need to find ways to overcome in the days, weeks, and months to come. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said architecture experts are “working to assess the possibility of restoring” the Transfiguration Cathedral — a UNESCO World Heritage site in the southern port city of Odesa that was badly damaged by a Russian missile attack over the weekend.

He added that he is “grateful to our partners in Europe for their willingness to join the reconstruction.”

Zelensky also published a video of himself speaking in Ukrainian (with English subtitles) from inside the historic church on Thursday, according to Zelensky’s office.

The Ukrainian leader said he “listened to the report on the liquidation of the consequences of Russian strikes on Odesa and the region.”

Russia shelled the northeastern Ukrainian Kupyansk district in the Kharkiv region Tuesday, wounding five people, according to the Kharkiv regional military administration.

Syniehubov said Russians struck “a private residential building.”

“The details of the occupiers’ crime are being established by law enforcement officers working at the scene,” he said.

A Ukrainian serviceman prepares to fire a mortar at Russian positions on the front line near the city of Bakhmut on July 13.

Ukraine’s military is waging attritional battles south of Bakhmut with the ultimate aim of cutting Russian supply routes into the devastated eastern city, which Moscow’s forces captured in the spring, according to officials.

Ukraine is “gradually advancing” south of Bakhmut and fighting persists in Klishchiivka, Kurdiumivka and Andriivka — three villages south of the city, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said.

The Ukraine military also said Ukrainian units repelled a Russian counter-attack south of Bakhmut.

Serhii Cherevatyi, the spokesperson for the Eastern Grouping of the Ukrainian military, said there had been 11 combat engagements in the area over the past day.

Along the border of the Kharkiv and Luhansk regions, the Russians were continuing efforts to push Ukrainian units back, Maliar said.

However, Cherevatyi noted that the number of enemy assaults around Lyman was lower than average. Compared to a recent peak of 10 to 15, he said there were three enemy attacks in areas within the Serebryansky forest and Bilohorivka.

Ukrainian soldiers are seen in the Ukrainian village of Staromaiorske, in this screen grab from video posted by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday.

Both Russian and Ukrainian sources report intense fighting along the front lines in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia, where Ukrainian forces are stepping up efforts to break through entrenched Russian defenses.

Late Thursday, video emerged of a Ukrainian unit claiming to be in the village of Staromaiorske – a target for several weeks, located east of Zaporizhzhia city.

A group of soldiers posted the video, with one saying Ukrainian fighters have “fulfilled the task and liberated the village.”

The video was reposted on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Telegram account, with the caption: “Our South! Our guys!”

Earlier Thursday, the commander of a Russian-backed battalion from the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic acknowledged the loss of Staromaiorske.

Kyiv’s troops “methodically” took the village over the course of several days, “knocking personnel out of their shelters and turning those shelters into piles of broken bricks,” said the commander, Alexander Khodakovsky. He acknowledged that losing the area was “a blow to our military ego.” 

Fighting intensifies in the south: Besides committing additional brigades to the fight in the south, the Ukrainian military has kept up a campaign to degrade Russian logistical hubs, with Russian-appointed officials in occupied areas reporting several rocket strikes against the town of Tokmak, a critical resupply site.

“Tokmak has essentially become a frontline city, because the intensity of hostilities directly on the Zaporizhzhia frontline toward Tokmak is increasing every day,” the Ukrainian mayor of nearby Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, told CNN. 

Fedorov claimed Moscow’s troops are “constantly suffering losses” in villages around Tokmak.

Few frontline accounts have emerged, but a member of the Freedom for Russia Legion — a militant group of Russian dissidents that fights against Moscow — said the battles are unceasing.

Denysov said Russia has responded with artillery barrages and aviation. Their priority is preventing the Ukrainian advance toward Tokmak and other towns near Zaporizhzhia city, including Vasylivka to the south and Polohy, further east of the city.

Denysov claimed some Russian units have suffered “such losses that they are now waiting for replenishment.”

Two weeks ago, a senior Russian commander in the area was dismissed for demanding that the defense ministry rotate units out of frontline positions.

China is providing technology and equipment to Russia that is increasingly important to Moscow’s war in Ukraine, according to a newly released report compiled by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. 

The report is unclassified and largely cites open-source data and western press reporting to support its claims. But it includes the US intelligence community assessment that China “has become an increasingly important buttress for Russia in its war effort.”  

The report — mandated by the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 passed by Congress, and released by House Intelligence Committee Democrats — says that as of March, China “had shipped more than $12 million in drones and drone parts” to Russia, citing a “third-party analysis” of Russian customs data. 

Chinese state-owned defense companies have also been providing sanctioned Russian government-owned defense companies with other dual-use technology “that Moscow’s military uses to continue the war in Ukraine,” the report says, including “navigation equipment, jamming technology, and fighter-jet parts.”  

Semiconductor exports from China to Russia have also jumped considerably since 2021, it adds, with “hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of US-made or US-branded semiconductors flowing into Russia” despite heavy western sanctions and export controls. 

The report says Chinese firms are “probably” helping Moscow to evade these sanctions — though it is “difficult to ascertain the extent” of that help. The report says the intelligence community cannot be sure whether Beijing is deliberately interfering with the US’ ability to conduct export control checks, via interviews and investigations, inside China. 

The report does say, however, that China “has become an even more critical economic partner for Russia since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.”

CNN has asked the Chinese embassy in Washington, DC, for comment on the report.

What the US has said: The Biden administration has repeatedly raised concerns with China about evidence it has suggesting that Chinese companies have sold non-lethal equipment to Russia for use in Ukraine, but US officials say they have seen no signs so far that China has provided weapons or lethal military aid to Russia. 

The US believes that at the outset of the war, China intended to sell Russia lethal weapons for use in Ukraine, a US official previously told CNN. But China significantly scaled back on those plans as the war progressed, this person said — something the Biden administration has considered a victory.

What China has said: China has claimed neutrality over the war in Ukraine and called for peace in the conflict. But Beijing has also avoided publicly criticizing Russia’s war efforts and the two countries have repeatedly emphasized their cooperation, with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu declaring a “boundless” military partnership after a meeting in April.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that a “handful of donations” will not counter the “dramatic” impact of Russia’s move to withdraw from the Black Sea grain deal. 

Speaking to journalists in New York on Thursday, the UN Secretary General stressed that the UN will continue to engage with Turkey, Ukraine, Russia, and other relevant countries to “re-establish the Black Sea initiative” which helped export nearly 33 million tons of grain from Ukrainian ports. 

He added that these price increases will be “paid by everybody everywhere,” and will hit developing countries hardest. 

“So, it’s not with a handful of donations to some countries that we correct this dramatic impact that affects everybody everywhere,” Guterres added. 

Putin’s attempt to help global food insecurity: The UN chief’s comments come after Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier on Thursday that Russia has sent nearly 10 million tons of grain to Africa, accusing Western sanctions of making it harder for Russia to send grain to the African continent.

Putin reiterated that Russia remained a “reliable” supplier of food to Africa, despite pulling out of a key Ukraine grain deal and continued attacks against port infrastructure in the city of Odesa.

On Monday, wheat prices rose sharply following a strike by a Russian drone on a Ukrainian port on the Danube River.

CNN’s Anna Cooban and Tim Lister contributed reporting to this post.

Heavy rocket strikes slammed the critical logistics hub of Tokmak in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine on Thursday, according to a regional leader installed by Moscow.

Ukraine’s military carried out the “massive” attack using multiple rocket launchers, according to Vladimir Rogov, a senior Russian-appointed official in the Zaporizhzhia region. 

Three rockets exploded and a fourth fell near a railway station but did not explode, Rogov said on Telegram. One person was wounded, he added.

What’s happening in the region: Tokmak is a Russian logistics headquarters located south of Zaporizhzhia city, with a rail line to the Russian-annexed peninsula of Crimea. It is about 20 to 25 kilometers (15 miles) from Ukrainian frontline positions.

It has come under regular fire from Ukrainian rocket and missile systems, including multiple rocket launchers, but is currently beyond the range of most artillery systems.

Ukraine appears to be ramping up its counteroffensive in the area, deploying extra troops to the southern front, according to Russian and US officials. Rogov admitted this week that Kyiv’s forces have been able “to wedge in” three sections of Russia’s first line of defense in the Zaporizhzhia region.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner private military company, has been spotted in St. Petersburg, meeting with an African dignitary on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa summit, according to accounts associated with the mercenary group.

CNN has been unable to identify the dignitary but he was wearing a lanyard that matched the ones being worn by other officials at the summit. The dignitary is part of the Central African Republic delegation to the Russia-Africa summit, the accounts say.

This is the first time Prigozhin has been seen in public inside Russia since he led an armed mutiny last month. Since the rebellion, Prigozhin had only been seen in public on July 19, when he seemingly appeared in in a video inside Belarus, apparently greeting Wagner fighters to a base in Asipovichy.  

The video was grainy and filmed in low light so CNN cannot definitively say the speaker is Prigozhin or when it was filmed, but CIA Director Bill Burns subsequently confirmed the Wagner founder was in Minsk.

Wagner has had a presence in the Central African Republic for several years now, as previously reported by CNN. 

CNN was able to geolocate the photograph of Prigozhin and the dignitary to the Trezzini Palace Hotel in St. Petersburg, where the Wagner founder has kept an office, according to Russian media. The hotel was one of the locations searched by Russian authorities on July 6, after he led a recently failed insurrection.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, left, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un walk together in Pyongyang on Wednesday.

Delegations from Russia and China — North Korea’s key allies in the Korean War — gathered in Pyongyang this week to celebrate North Korea’s “Victory Day” in the war that ravaged the Korean Peninsula seven decades ago as they align over another very contemporary conflict – Russia’s devastating invasion of Ukraine.

At a state reception for Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the Russian delegation, in a reference to the war in Ukraine, North Korean Defense Minister Kang Sun Nam expressed Pyongyang’s full support “for the just struggle of the Russian army and people to defend the sovereignty and security of the country,” according to a report from the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

In remarks of his own, Shoigu then said the Korean People’s Army (KPA) has “become the strongest army in the world” and pledged continued cooperation to keep it that way.

Shoigu’s presence at “Victory Day” celebration is “particularly notable: a sign of just how close Pyongyang and Moscow have become since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year,” said Ankit Panda, Stanton senior fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

But the gathering in Pyongyang illustrates a weakness too, said Blake Herzinger, a research fellow at the United States Studies Center in Australia. “It’s really representative of how short both China and Russia’s lists of friends are, and the willingness of both to show support for a rogue regime,” Herzinger said.

Read more about the meeting here.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed that Ukrainian forces have suffered heavy losses during an intensified effort to break through Russian defenses in southern Ukraine.

Putin was speaking on the margins of the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg.

He said that in the last few days “we confirm that hostilities have intensified and in a significant way,” and that the main clashes took place in the Zaporizhzhia region.

His comments come as US officials tell CNN that Ukraine appears to be ramping up its counteroffensive and has committed additional resources in this area in recent days.

Putin said that “without any exaggeration, I can say that our soldiers and officers have demonstrated the best examples of mass heroism. The enemy used a large number of armored vehicles - this is 50 units. Of these, 39 units, including 26 tanks and 13 armored vehicles, were destroyed….The enemy was not successful in any of the areas of clashes. All counteroffensive attempts were stopped, and the enemy was driven back with heavy losses.”

Putin added: “Today they tried to pick up abandoned wrecked equipment, the wounded and the bodies of the dead, which they left yesterday on the battlefield…The enemy has very heavy losses of personnel — over 200 people. Unfortunately, we did not do without losses, but the difference is colossal, at times - more than ten times less than our enemy. “

Some key context: There has been little independent evidence of the state of the front lines in the south, but Russian military bloggers and official Ukrainian accounts suggest that Ukrainian forces have cut a path through at least one of the many minefields laid by the Russians and made modest territorial gains in the area of Robotyne, south of the town of Orikhiv.

A Ukrainian soldier fires artillery in the direction of Bakhmut on July 22.

After two months of painstakingly slow progress on the battlefield, Ukraine appears to be ramping up its counteroffensive, deploying extra troops to the southern front and signaling a new phase of the operation, US and Russian officials said.

Ukraine has committed more forces to the southeast of the country, a sign that Kyiv has identified potential weaknesses in Russian defensive lines, two US officials told CNN.

The Ukrainian military had been holding large numbers of trained troops, some equipped with more powerful Western weapons, back since the operation started in early June. While it still maintains some combat power in reserve, it has now deployed the “main bulk” of the forces committed to the counteroffensive forces, one of the US officials said.

The thrust appears to have brought some results. The counteroffensive has broken through some elements of Russian defensive lines in the southeast, the US official said, and the reserve units have come in to capitalize on the opportunity.

A Russian military official admitted that Ukraine forces have been able “to wedge in” three sections of Russia’s first line of defense in the Zaporizhzhia front line on Wednesday.

Ukraine’s military did not comment in detail on the situation in the area beyond saying its offensive operations along the southern front were “gradually advancing.”

A Ukrainian serviceman inspects a destroyed Russian tank in the recently liberated village of Novodarivka in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine on July 21.

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

“The fighters of these brigades have been trained abroad, and the brigades themselves are equipped with Western military equipment, including Leopard tanks and Bradley [infantry fighting vehicles],” he wrote on Telegram.

Ukraine’s 47th Brigade, which is involved in the offensive, confirmed to CNN it was pushing ahead, saying: “Infantry is advancing. Artillery covers. Bradley crews destroy enemy infantry and their equipment.”

Read more here.

One of the judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Tomoko Akane, who issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the country’s children’s ombudsman, Maria Lvova-Belova, has been added to the Russian Interior Ministry’s criminal wanted list. 

According to the database entry of the Ministry seen by CNN, Akane is “wanted under the article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation,” although the specific article is not specified.

The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin and Lvova-Belova on March 17, accusing them of involvement in war crimes related to the illegal deportation of people, including children, and their transfer to Russia. In response, the Investigative Committee of Russia opened a criminal case against ICC prosecutor Karim Asad Ahmad Khan, as well as judges Rosario Salvatore Aitala, Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godinez, and Tomoko Akane.

The Russian authorities asserted that their actions are illegal due to the lack of valid grounds for bringing charges against the Russian president and Russia’s children’s ombudsman. Karim Khan and Rosario Aitala were charged and added to the wanted list in May, according to state news agency TASS.

More background: Moscow rejected the warrant when it was issued in March. Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for the ministry of foreign affairs, said the court has “no meaning” for the country, “including from a “legal point of view.” Russia withdrew from the ICC treaty under a directive signed by Putin in 2016.

CNN’s Rob Picheta and Lauren Said-Moorhouse contributed reporting to this post.

From left: Director of the Institute for African Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences Irina Abramova, African Union Chairman, President of the Union of the Comoros Azali Assoumani, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chairman of the Board of Directors at African Export-Import Bank Benedict Okey Oramah, New Development Bank President Dilma Rousseff and head of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill attend a plenary session of the Russia-Africa Summit and Economic and Humanitarian Forum in St. Petersburg on Thursday.

The Russia-Africa summit is underway in St. Petersburg, discussing topics ranging from food security to a “multipolar world order.” Yuri Ushakov, assistant for foreign affairs to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said ahead of the summit that all but five African states would be sending representatives, including 17 heads of state. 

That turnout, however, is far lower than the 45 heads of state who attended the last summit in 2019 – in a sign of unease among African leaders around aligning themselves too closely with Russia.

Meanwhile, a thousand miles south of St. Petersburg, Ukraine has sent more forces to its counteroffensive in its southern regions, drawing on units previously held in reserve. Two US officials said Ukraine has now deployed the “main bulk” of its forces committed to the counteroffensive.

Here are the latest developments:

Russia launched a missile attack overnight into Thursday on the port infrastructure of the southern region of Odesa, killing one person, Ukraine’s Operational Command South said on Facebook. 

“Kalibr missiles were launched from a submarine in the waters of the Black Sea at a critically low altitude, which made detection difficult,” the statement said.

“A civilian employee was killed when one of the administrative buildings of the port was hit,” it said.

Production equipment in one of the cargo terminals was damaged, it added. 

Oleh Kiper, the head of the region’s military administration, said on Thursday the employee who died was a security guard born in 1979. The guard building and two vehicles were also destroyed, he said.

In a separate update on Thursday, the Ukrainian Air Force said it had recorded two Kalibr missiles from a submarine in the Black Sea and eight Shahed-136/131 drones from the direction of Prymorsko-Akhtarsk. 

It said the Kalibr missiles were not intercepted, but all eight drones were destroyed by the Air Force in the Khmelnytskyi, Dnipropertovsk and Donetsk regions.

Ukrainian troops have made small gains along the Orikhiv-Melitopol axis of the southern front line, according to Kyiv officials.

“They had tactical successes, are entrenching themselves in the achieved frontiers and conducting reconnaissance on the areas of further actions,” he added.

The Ukrainian claims come after reports of fierce clashes in the area emerged early on Wednesday, with Russian officials and military bloggers reporting a scale-up in operations by Kyiv, with dozens of armored vehicles deployed to the front.

What Russia says: On Thursday, the head of the press center for Russia’s Vostok forces said an attack “attack in the direction of Rabotino (Russian for Robotyne) was repulsed.”

“Army aviation strikes and artillery fire destroyed enemy tanks and infantry,” he said in a briefing posted on the Russian Ministry of Defense social media accounts.

Another official, the Russian-installed head of the Zaporizhzhia region, Yevgeny Balitsky, claimed Moscow’s forces had been able to hold their positions.

“Our units repulsed offensive attempts, breaking enemy units,” he wrote on Telegram.

Their claims differ from the accounts of some well-connected Russian military bloggers who reported some Ukrainian advances in the Zaporizhzhia region.

“In the Zaporozhye (Russian for Zaporizhzhia) direction, Ukrainian units, after massive shelling, managed to advance northeast of Rabotino (Russian for Robotyne),” one blogger, known as “War Gonzo” wrote. “Russian troops are now holding defenses on the northern and eastern outskirts of the village.”

Head of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill attends a plenary session of the Economic and Humanitarian Forum in St. Petersburg on Thursday.

Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, said many African countries and Russia share the same “moral codes” and are ready to defend them, in remarks during a plenary session at the Economic and Humanitarian Forum in St. Petersburg on Thursday. 

“Over the last 10 years the world has changed beyond recognition. I am not talking only about political matters but about this dangerous moral climate which is being formed sometimes in aggressive manner by some Western countries,” he said, adding “the cult of freedom which is totally wrong and the annihilation of the traditional family.”

Patriarch Kirill said the mutual understanding of “the basics of the human life” and “moral codes” bring Russia and African countries closer together.

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a plenary session of the Economic and Humanitarian Forum in St. Petersburg on Thursday.

Russia and African countries will deepen their cooperation particularly in the sphere of education, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday during a plenary session at the Economic and Humanitarian Forum in St. Petersburg.

Putin said Russia’s leading universities will be opening branches on the African continent and that more than 10,000 medical students are currently studying in Russia.

Training centres for primary school teachers will be opened in 28 countries on the continent, he said.

Sport exchanges, volunteer programs and joint curricula will also be developed, he said.

Putin also invited his African guests to the World Youth Festival set to take place in Sochi in March 2024.