Russia's latest missile attack on Odesa left at least one dead Sunday, wounded many and badly damaged a UNESCO-listed Orthodox cathedral, drawing a vow of retaliation from Ukraine's leader. Read our live blog for all the latest developments in the war in Ukraine. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
This live page is no longer being updated. For more of our coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.
8:52pm: Kyiv, Warsaw 'will always stand united', says Ukraine's foreign minister
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Sunday that Kyiv and Warsaw would "always stand united" after Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko accused Poland of having territorial ambitions.
"Putin's attempts to drive a wedge between Kyiv and Warsaw are as futile as his failing invasion of Ukraine," Kuleba wrote on Twitter.
"Unlike Russia, Poland and Ukraine have learned from history and will always stand united against Russian imperialism and disrespect for international law."
Earlier Sunday, Putin and Lukashenko had suggested that Poland had ambitions to capture parts of western Ukraine for itself.
6:48pm: UNESCO condemns 'brazen' Russia strike on Ukraine's Odesa
UNESCO on Sunday condemned Russia's "brazen" attack on Ukraine's Odesa, which hit several sites in the port city's World Heritage centre.
"UNESCO is deeply dismayed and condemns in the strongest terms the brazen attack carried out by the Russian forces, which hit several cultural sites in the city centre of Odesa, home to the World Heritage property 'The Historic Centre of Odesa'", the Paris-based body said in a statement.
4:12pm: Ukraine has taken back 50% of territory that Russia seized, says Blinken
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Ukraine has taken back about 50% of the territory that Russia seized, although Kyiv's counteroffensive will extend several months.
"It’s already taken back about 50% of what was initially seized," Blinken said in an interview to CNN on Sunday.
"These are still relatively early days of the counteroffensive. It is tough," he said, adding: "It will not play out over the next week or two. We’re still looking I think at several months".
2:13pm: Putin and Lukashenko greet crowd together
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarus counterpart Alexander Lukashenko met a crowd of people in Russia's Kronstadt town on Kotlin Island, in a rare walkabout for the longtime leaders a month after a deal to end a dramatic Wagner munity in Russia.
Russia's Kommersant newspaper posted a video of Putin and Lukashenko posing for photographs with people, with bodyguards standing nearby. Asked about quarantine rules which the Russian leader has been keeping up since the pandemic, Putin replied: "People are more important than quarantine."
12:09pm: Lukashenko says 'keeping' Wagner forces in central Belarus
Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko on Sunday said he was "keeping" Russian Wagner mercenaries in central Belarus and that Minsk was "controlling" the situation with the notorious fighters on its territory.
"They are asking to go West, ask me for permission... to go on a trip to Warsaw, to Rzeszow," Lukashenko said to Putin, who smiled. "But of course, I am keeping them in central Belarus, like we agreed."
"We are controlling what is happening (with Wagner)," he said, adding: "They are in a bad mood."
11:35am: Attack on Odesa 'heaviest' of all, Ukrainian counteroffensive advancing slowly
Russia struck the Ukrainian Black Sea city of Odesa again on Sunday, local officials said, keeping up a barrage of attacks that has damaged critical port infrastructure in southern Ukraine in the past week. FRANCE 24 correspondent Gulliver Cragg says it's the "heaviest strike on Odesa" so far.
Speaking more largely on the Ukrainian counteroffensive, he says soldiers in the Zaporizhzhia region were "at pains to say there were advances every day, but only a few dozen metres … because of Russian mine fields".
11:12am: Putin claims Ukrainian counteroffensive 'failed', according to Russian media
Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Belarus counterpart Alexander Lukashenko Sunday that an ongoing Ukrainian counteroffensive to push back Russian forces from Ukraine has "failed", according to Russian news agencies.
"There is no counteroffensive," Lukashenko said, according to the TASS news agency before being interrupted by Putin: "There is one, but it has failed."
10:47am: Putin, Lukashenko in their first meet since Wagner mutiny
Russian President Vladimir Putin has met his closest ally, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, for the first time since the latter helped broker a deal to end a mutiny by Wagner fighters inside Russia last month.
A video posted on Sunday by the Lukashenko's press service showed the two longtime leaders arriving at Saint Petersburg's Konstantinovsky palace together ahead of scheduled talks.
10:33am: Moscow says Odesa strike targets preparing 'terrorist act'
Moscow said Sunday it hit all intended targets in Ukraine's port city Odesa port, claiming the sites were being used to prepare "terrorist acts" against Russia.
"At night the armed forces of the Russian Federation caried out a strike... on facilities where terrorist acts against the Russian Federation using unmanned boats were prepared," the Russian army said.
"All planned targets in the strikes were destroyed."
10:04am: Toll in Odesa strike rises to two killed, 22 wounded, says Ukraine
Ukraine on Sunday said the death toll from overnight strikes by Russia on the port of Odesa rose to two, with 22 people wounded, including four children.
"A man born in 1974 was killed in the night time shelling," Igor Klymenko, Ukraine's minister of internal affairs, said on Telegram, bringing the toll to two. "Twenty-two people were injured. Among them are four children: 11, 12, and two 17-year-olds."
9:57am: Kyiv says Russian strikes 'destroyed' UNESCO-listed Odesa cathedral
Kyiv on Sunday said Russian strikes "destroyed" an Orthodox cathedral under UNESCO protection in Odesa's historic city centre, calling it a "war crime".
"The Transfiguration Cathedral, located in the historic centre of Odesa, protected by UNESCO, was destroyed. A war crime that will never be forgotten and forgiven," Ukraine's foreign ministry said on Twitter.
9:07am: Ukraine says Russia launched 19 missiles on Odesa overnight
Ukraine on Sunday said Moscow launched 19 missiles from land, air and sea on its Black Sea port of Odesa at night, in another wave of attacks on the historic city after Russia exited the grain deal.
"In total, the enemy used 19 missiles of various types," Ukraine's air force said on Telegram, saying nine of the weapons were destroyed. It said these included Oniks cruise missiles, sea-launched Kalibrs and Iskander ballistic missiles.
8:57am: Zelensky vows 'retaliation' after Russian strikes on Odesa
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday vowed to retaliate against Russian forces after Moscow attacked the historic port of Odesa with missiles, killing one person and damaging an Orthodox cathedral.
"Missiles against peaceful cities, against residential buildings, a cathedral," Zelensky said. "There will definitely be a retaliation against Russian terrorists for Odesa. They will feel this retaliation."
5:37am: Russia's attack on Odesa kills one, damages city's largest cathedral
A Russian air attack on Ukraine's Odesa city early on Sunday killed one, injured nearly 20 and badly damaged a Russian-linked Orthodox cathedral, with officials saying they retrieved the icon of the patroness of the port city from under the rubble.
"Odesa: another night attack of the monsters," Oleh Kiper, governor of southern Ukraine's Odesa region, said on the Telegram messaging app.
12:16am: Putin, Lukashenko to meet after Russia warns about aggression against Belarus
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko will meet on Sunday, the Kremlin said, two days after Moscow warned that any aggression against the its neighbour and staunchest ally would be considered an attack on Russia.
After Poland decided earlier this week to move military units closer to its border with Belarus in response to the arrival in Belarus of forces from Russia's Wagner Group, Putin said Moscow would use all means it has to react to any hostility towards Minsk.
The Kremlin said Lukashenko is paying a working visit to Russia and will talk to Putin about further development of the countries' "strategic partnership".
Key developments from Saturday, July 22:
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday he had asked the head of NATO to convene a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council to discuss security in the Black Sea, particularly the operation of a corridor for Ukrainian grain exports.
A war correspondent for Russia's RIA news agency was killed and three other Russian journalists were wounded by shelling near the front line in Ukraine's southeastern Zaporizhzhia region on Saturday, Russia's defence ministry said.
A Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow-annexed Crimea caused the "detonation" of an ammunition depot Saturday, the Moscow-installed leader of the peninsula said, ordering the evacuation of people living within five kilometres of the attack and halting rail traffic.
The attack came five days after the only bridge linking annexed Crimea to Russia was hit, killing two people.
Read yesterday's live blog to see how the day's events unfolded.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP & Reuters)
