Ukrainian sources have confirmed that two people have been killed and at least 27 injured in Russia’s overnight attacks, which have targeted Odesa and Mykolaiv for a third successive night. Ukraine’s military claimed to shoot down five cruise missiles and 13 attack drones out of 19 cruise missiles and 19 drones launched by Russia in total.
Suspilne reported that in Mykolaiv a three-storey building was struck, and residential buildings and about 15 garages were damaged in the city. 19 victims are known, with two of them hospitalised, including a child. In Odesa, due to the attack four people were injured and a security guard was killed. An administrative building was destroyed, and houses were damaged by the blast wave. Warehouses were hit in the region. Odesa’s governor has reported that the Chinese consulate in the city was damaged. Another person was killed in an attack in Kharkiv region.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy offered condolences to the victims, saying “Odesa. Mykolaiv. Russian terrorists continue their attempts to destroy the life of our country. But the evil state has no missiles that are more powerful than our will to save lives, support each other and win.”
After the attacks, Ukrainian presidential adviser Andriy Yermak made another appeal for tougher sanctions against Russia and more air defence supplies for Ukraine, tweeting: “We must unite against Russian evil. Russia’s economy should suffer a devastating sanctions blow, the military-industrial complex should be limited in its ability to produce weapons, and Ukraine should receive more weapons for defence of the sky and offensive actions.”
A teenage girl has died in a Ukrainian drone attack on north-west Crimea, the Moscow-back governor of the occupied peninsula has said. Authorities in Crimea, which Russia unilaterally annexed from Ukraine in 2014, have declared a municipal state of emergency in the area.
Russia likely made the decision to quit the Black Sea grain deal “some time ago because it decided that the deal was no longer serving its interests”, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said in its latest intelligence update on the war.
Russia is responsible for a major global food supply crisis, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said on Thursday, some days after the Kremlin announced it would suspend an agreement for Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea.
Grain prices have jumped after Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian ports. On Wednesday Ukrainian officials said Russian strikes had destroyed 60,000 tonnes of grain awaiting export.
Germany is working with allies to ensure that Ukrainian grain is not left to rot in silos, and will intensify work on getting the grain out by rail, foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said on Thursday.
Ukraine will receive a $1.5bn (£1.17bn) loan from the World Bank guaranteed by the government of Japan, Ukrainian prime minister Denys Shmyhal said on Thursday.
The US warned that Russia may attack civilian ships on the Black Sea and then blame Ukrainian forces. Russia says all ships travelling to Ukrainian ports on Black Sea will be considered carriers of military equipment from Thursday. Russia’s defence ministry said it would “flag countries of such ships … considered parties to the Ukrainian conflict”. The ministry did not say what actions it might take.
Ukraine’s ministry of defence has reciprocated, warning that “all vessels heading in the waters of the Black Sea in the direction of seaports of the Russian Federation and Ukrainian seaports located on the territory of Ukraine temporarily occupied by Russia may be considered by Ukraine” as carrying military cargo.
Yevgeny Balitsky, head of the Russian-imposed administration of the occupied Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine has described the situation on the frontline there as “stabilized”, claiming “the enemy is not taking active actions. Our command understands that this lull is just an attempt by the enemy to recuperate after significant losses of equipment and manpower.”
The Belarus Red Cross has sparked international outrage after its chief told Belarusian state television that the organisation is actively involved in bringing Ukrainian children from Russian-occupied areas to Belarus. Both Ukraine and the Belarusian opposition have labelled the transfers unlawful deportations, and there have been calls for international war crimes charges for the authoritarian Belarus leader, similar to the charges against Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Russian media sources are reporting that Russian President Vladimir Putin will address the Brics summit in South Africa remotely on 23 August. Earlier this week it was announced that by “mutual consent” between South Africa and Russia, Putin would not travel to the summit, as South Africa might be obliged to act on the ICC warrant for the Russian leader’s arrest.
Britain has added individuals and groups with links to Russia’s Wagner group and operating in Central African Republic and Mali to its sanctions list. Britain named Vitalii Viktorovitch Perfilev as head of the Wagner group in the CAR and said he would be subject to an asset freeze and travel ban.
Russia said on Thursday it was imposing restrictions on British diplomats, requiring them to give five days’ notice of any plans to travel beyond a 120-km (75-mile) radius, due to what it called London’s “hostile actions”. British diplomats, with the exception of the ambassador and three other senior diplomats, will be required to send notification of any plans to travel beyond the 120-km (75-mile) “free movement zone” at least five working days ahead.
The lawfulness of the UK sanctions regime set up in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will face its biggest legal test, when a Soviet-era oligarch and ally of Roman Abramovich seeks a court order to release his assets, which include two private jets. The case being brought by Eugene Shvidler, a billionaire oil businessman, follows similar challenges by oligarchs now entering the courts in Europe where a separate but similar sanction regime operates. Shvidler’s request for the release of his assets is the first case to reach the UK high court involving an individual. A number of other cases are waiting to be heard if he succeeds.
A video has appeared purporting to show the Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin addressing his fighters in Belarus and calling the Russian war effort in Ukraine a “disgrace”, in the first footage of the Russian warlord to emerge since his mutiny last month.
In it, Prigozhin says Wagner will no longer fight in Ukraine and will head to Africa. “What is happening at the front [in Ukraine] now is a disgrace in which we do not need to participate,” he said. “[We will] wait for the moment when we can prove ourselves in full.”
An Australian photographer has spoken of her pain and upset at what she has described as the unauthorised use of an image of her daughter as the basis for a pro-Russia mural on a bombed-out building in Mariupol. Helen Whittle said she was “very saddened” by the way her daughter’s portrait had been used by Italian street artist Ciro Cerullo.
