The Russian Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline has restarted with gas flowing from Russia to Germany after maintenance, according to data viewed this morning. “It’s working,” a Nord Stream spokesperson said, without specifying the amount of gas being delivered. If Gazprom resumes gas deliveries at 40% of the capacity before the maintenance break, Germany will narrowly scrape through the winter without shortages, modelling by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy suggests.
Russia’s foreign minister has said Moscow’s military “tasks” now go beyond the eastern Donbas region to permanently occupy broad swaths of southern Ukraine. Sergei Lavrov said Russia may seek more territory along the frontlines in Ukraine, calling it a buffer against US-supplied Himars rocket artillery. “Now the geography is different,” Lavrov said. “It’s not just Donetsk and Luhansk, it’s Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and a number of other territories.”
Russia has shut down the idea of resuming peace talks with Ukraine, accusing it of being undeserving of “serious attention from serious people”. Lavrov said the previous sit-down proved Ukraine had no “desire to discuss anything in earnest”. He continued: “They simply will never be able to articulate anything that would deserve the serious attention of serious people.” “[Peace talks] don’t make any sense in the current situation.”
At least two people have been killed and 19 injured in an attack on Kharkiv, according to the region’s governor Oleh Synyehubov. He posted on Telegram to say that the injured included one child, and that four people “are in serious condition”.
Russian forces destroyed two schools in the Donetsk towns of Kramatorsk and Kostiantynivka overnight, Ukrainian officials say.
The state emergency services of Ukraine has stated on Telegram that in the Donetsk region, the central market of the city of Bakhmut has also been shelled.
Russian and separatist forces continue to attempt small scale assaults along the Donbas front line and are also closing in on Ukraine’s second biggest power plant at Vuhlehirska, according to the latest British intelligence report.
Russia’s ministry of defence claims to have shot down one Ukrainian Su-25 aircraft, one Mi-8 helicopter, and five unmanned drones in the last 24 hours.
The United States estimates that Russian casualties in Ukraine so far have reached around 15,000 killed and perhaps 45,000 wounded, CIA director William Burns said.
Ukraine’s central bank has devalued the hryvnia currency by 25% against the US dollar because of the impact of the invasion by Russia.
Officials from Turkey, Finland and Sweden will meet in August to evaluate the progress made in fulfilling Ankara’s counter-terrorism demands from the Nordic countries to lift its veto on their Nato membership bid, foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has said.
Russian missile strikes in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv also killed three people on Wednesday, according to local officials. Regional governor Oleh Synehubov said those killed included a man, a woman and a 13-year-old boy as he waited at a bus stop.
Ukrainian shelling on Wednesday badly damaged the crucial Antonivskiy bridge in the Russia-controlled Kherson region of southern Ukraine, Moscow-installed regional authorities said. The bridge is one of only two crossing points for Russian forces to territory they have occupied on the western bank of the Dnieper river in southern Ukraine. It has been a key target for Ukrainian forces in recent days.
The Ukrainian first lady, Olena Zelenska, appealed to US lawmakers to provide more weapons to fight “Russia’s Hunger Games” in an emotional 15-minute speech to members of the House and Senate. “I am asking for weapons, weapons that would not be used to wage a war on somebody else’s land, but to protect one’s home and the right to wake up alive in that home,” she said, adding that US weapons could help assure a “joint great victory”.
What could be a priceless Fabergé egg has been found onboard a Russian oligarch’s superyacht seized by US authorities. US deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco told the Aspen security forum on Wednesday it was one of the more “interesting” finds her team has made. Monaco did not specify exactly which yacht she was referring to but did say it was currently docked in San Diego Bay after being sailed from Fiji last month.
The US will provide four more advanced precision Himars rocket systems to Ukraine, the defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, has announced. “Ukraine needs the firepower and the ammunition to withstand this [Russian] barrage and to strike back,” he said. In addition, the US will provide additional guided multiple launch rocket system (GMLRS) ammunition, which can precisely strike targets up to 80km (50 miles) away.
The European Union will mobilise a fifth tranche of military assistance of €500m to further support Ukraine. The EU foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, said the region “remains focused and steadfast in its support for Ukraine, together with partners”.
Lithuania will offer Ukraine additional military support, the Lithuanian ministry of defence announced on Wednesday. Included in the package will be M13 and M577 armoured personnel carriers, as well as ammunition for reserve training.
The European Union has set out emergency plans to reduce its gas use amid fears Russia could cut off its supply in winter. It proposed a voluntary target for countries to restrict usage by 15% from August until March, accusing the Kremlin of weaponising gas exports. “Russia is blackmailing us. Russia is using energy as a weapon,” the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said in a news conference.
South America’s Mercosur trade bloc has declined Zelenskiy’s request to address its upcoming summit. Bloc members Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay failed to reach an agreement on the request which he made to Paraguay last week, according to the deputy foreign relations minister Raul Cano, who declined to say which states were against it.
The European Union has agreed on a new round of sanctions against Russia, this time targeting its gold exports, as well as individuals and entities. The move marks the seventh package of penalties and will see assets frozen at Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, with several more names added to the blacklist.
Pro-Russian separatist forces have stepped up the forced conscription of men in the occupied areas of Donbas. Video emerged of a Ukrainian woman confronting officials who attempted to force her husband to join pro-Russian fighters in Donetsk. “He doesn’t want to go and fight. Nobody wants to fight. We are so sick of you and your war,” she said.
Russia’s communications watchdog has said it is taking steps against the Wikimedia Foundation, which hosts online encyclopedia Wikipedia, for violating Russian laws. The laws are aimed at restricting truthful reporting around the conflict in Ukraine.
