It’s just gone 19.15 in Kyiv, and here’s a roundup of the day’s events.
South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk-yeol, has pledged to increase his country’s humanitarian and non-lethal military assistance to Ukraine after a summit with Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv.
Russia’s FSB security service said on Saturday it had thwarted alleged Ukrainian-backed plots to kill two prominent Russian journalists, Interfax news agency reported.
Ukrainian forces said they had downed 10 Russian drones across the country on Friday and overnight, the air force said.
Russia’s military leadership is likely to face an increasing problem in being directly criticised by subordinates, according to the UK Ministry of Defence.
A top Ukrainian general has reported new progress on the war’s southern front, saying his troops are “systematically moving the enemy out of their positions”.
That is all for today – thank you for following along. For more updates, follow our live coverage tomorrow.
Here are some of the latest images coming through on the wires:
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Ukraine criticised Bulgaria’s pro-Russia president over his remarks that Kyiv is to blame for Russia’s ongoing war and that supplying arms to Ukraine only prolongs the conflict.
President Rumen Radev had told reporters on Friday, during a news conference in which he spoke about the recent Nato summit, that he wanted “to make it clear that Ukraine insists on fighting this war”.
“But it should also be clear that the bill is paid by the whole of Europe,” he added.
The remarks by the pro-Russia leader are part of his continuing efforts to keep Bulgaria out of joint EU military support for Ukraine, AP reported.
The embassy of Ukraine in Sofia said in a statement on Saturday that Kyiv was making all possible efforts to restore peace, and rejected Radev’s stance that supplying arms to Ukraine fuels and prolongs the war.
Blaming the war on Ukraine, which “was treacherously attacked by its northern neighbour, is one of the most common supporting theses of Russian propaganda and hybrid warfare in Europe,” the embassy said.
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A large convoy carrying fighters from the Wagner private army was spotted entering Belarus from Russia early Saturday, a monitoring group reported after the country’s defence ministry said it planned for the mercenaries and Minsk’s own armed forces to conduct joint military drills.
The independent monitoring group Belaruski Hajun, which tracks the movements of armed forces in Belarus, said at least 60 trucks, buses and other large vehicles crossed into the eastern European country accompanied by Belarusian police.
The group did not immediately provide photos or videos of the vehicles but said they had licence plates from Russian-occupied areas of eastern Ukraine, where Wagner mercenaries fought alongside Russian troops until a short-lived mutiny last month, AP reported.
The convoy headed toward a military base outside Osipovichi, a town 142 miles (230km) north of the Ukrainian border. Satellite images analysed by the Associated Press this month showed rows of tent-like structures that appeared to have been built at the base between 15 and 30 June.
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President Zelenskiy has tweeted about the visit by South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk-yeol.
Zelenskiy said:
During this visit, the first in the history of our relations, we are discussing everything that is important for the normal and safe life of people, for the rules-based international order.
The return of deported adults and children, the implementation of the #PeaceFormula and the preparation of the Global Peace Summit, food and energy security and economic cooperation ... I am sure together we will give more strength to our nations and the global positions of Ukraine and the Republic of Korea.
Today, President of the Republic of Korea Yoon Suk Yeol @President_KR and First Lady Kim Keon Hee are in Ukraine.
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 15, 2023
During this visit, the first in the history of our relations, we are discussing everything that is important for the normal and safe life of people, for the… pic.twitter.com/0zYvzQnDsW
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South Korea to 'expand scale' of its support for Ukraine
South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk-yeol, has pledged to increase his country’s humanitarian and non-lethal military assistance to Ukraine after a summit with Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv.
At a press briefing after the two leaders met, he said Seoul:
… will expand the scale of supplies from last year, when we provided materials such as helmets and bullet-proof vests.
Yoon added that humanitarian aid would be increased to $150m in 2023, from $100m last year, Agence France-Presse reported.
South Korea, the world’s ninth largest arms exporter, has sent humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and has also sold tanks and howitzers to Poland – a key ally for Kyiv as it battles invading Russian forces.
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President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has thanked his South Korean counterpart, Yoon Suk Yeol, for a substantial first visit to his war-torn country.
During a joint statement to the press with Yoon, Zelenskiy said:
Today, during this first visit of the president of the Republic of Korea to Ukraine in the history of our relations, we talked about everything that is important for people to lead a normal and safe life.
Thank you for the meaningful talks. Thank you for your strong support.
South Korea, the world’s ninth largest arms exporter, has sent humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and has also sold tanks and howitzers to Poland - a key ally for Kyiv as it battles invading Russian forces, Agence France-Presse reported.
However, it has a long-standing policy of not providing weapons to active conflict zones, which it has stuck to despite repeated requests from the United States, European allies and Ukraine itself for more help.
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Ukrainians have reacted with bemusement, mild irritation and irony to Ben Wallace’s notorious comments that the country should be more grateful for the help it is receiving from the UK and other allies as it fights off Russian aggression.
Kyiv previously regarded Wallace as a staunch supporter and friend. His remarks – on the second day of the Nato summit in Lithuania last week – mystified officials. “Whether we like it or not, people want to see a bit of gratitude,” Wallace said, asked about president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s frustration at not being given a formal invitation to join Nato.
Wallace said Ukraine’s brusque treatment of allies was counter-productive, especially with sceptical politicians in the US Congress and elsewhere. “I told them that last year, when I drove 11 hours to be given a list, that I’m not like Amazon,” he said. He suggested Kyiv’s demands for weapons were insatiable, with more asked for as soon as one system was provided.
In Ukraine there was uncertainty as to whether Wallace’s intervention reflected No 10 policy – something Rishi Sunak later made clear was not the case. One former deputy from Ukraine’s parliament, the Rada, asked the Observer if the “lack of gratitude” comment was a manifestation of England’s baffling class system? “We don’t understand,” they admitted. Ukrainian Twitter, meanwhile, lit up with joking memes.
Kremlin says it has thwarted Kyiv-backed plot to kill prominent journalists
Russia’s FSB security service said on Saturday it had thwarted alleged Ukrainian-backed plots to kill two prominent Russian journalists, Interfax news agency reported.
The FSB said it had detained an unspecified number of people on Friday who it said had carried out reconnaissance near the homes and workplaces of Margarita Simonyan and Ksenia Sobchak, Reuters reports.
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine, which in the past has denied involvement in assassinations of pro-war figures inside Russia.
Interfax quoted the FSB as saying that the detainees had admitted preparing attacks on the two women on behalf of Ukraine and had been promised a reward of 1.5 million roubles ($16,620) for each one.
Simonyan, head of state media outlet RT and a vocal supporter of Russia’s war in Ukraine, posted a message on Telegram about the alleged plot, urging the security services to “Keep on working, brothers!”
Sobchak is a well known journalist and TV host who also ran as a presidential candidate in 2018.
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Russian president Vladimir Putin held a phone call with South African president Cyril Ramaphosa in which the two leaders discussed the Black Sea grain deal and an African peace initiative on Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Saturday.
On the grain deal, which expires on Monday, Putin reiterated to Ramaphosa that commitments to remove obstacles to Russian food and fertiliser exports had not yet been fulfilled, the Kremlin said.
The South Korean president, Yoon Suk-yeol, made a surprise visit to Ukraine on Saturday, in an apparent show of support for the country in its war with Russia.
Yoon travelled to Ukraine with his wife, Kim Keon-hee, after trips to Lithuania for a Nato summit and to Poland, his office said. It is his first visit since Russia invaded Ukraine almost 17 months ago.
Yoon toured Bucha and Irpin, a pair of small cities near Kyiv where bodies of civilians were found in the streets and mass graves discovered after Russian troops retreated from the capital region last year. He laid flowers at a monument to the country’s war dead.
The South Korean leader was scheduled to hold talks with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, later in the day, Yoon’s senior adviser for press affairs, Kim Eun-hye, said.
Ukraine has shot down 10 Russian drones since Friday
Ukrainian forces have downed 10 Russian drones across the country on Friday and overnight, the air force said.
In a Telegram post, the Ukrainian air force added that Moscow had fired six Iranian-made Shahed drones at Ukraine’s south and east during the night, four of which were shot down.
It did not immediately give details of any casualties or damage, AP reported.
In southern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia province, where Ukraine has been engaged in a counteroffensive to take back occupied territory, there were 45 air and artillery attacks between Friday and Saturday, governor Yurii Malashka said.
Russian forces shelled neighbouring Kherson province 70 times over the same period, using mortars, artillery, drones, tanks, aviation and multiple rocket launchers, governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Saturday.
No civilians were wounded, he added.
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In case you missed it, Vladimir Putin said he sought and failed to have Yevgeny Prigozhin replaced as the leader of Wagner’s fighters in Ukraine after the mercenary chief rebuffed his proposal during a meeting at the Kremlin this month.
Putin’s version of events, which appeared in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper, was a surprise admission that the Russian president was still negotiating a takeover of the Wagner mercenary group.
Analysts have suggested that last month’s short-lived Wagner rebellion exposed Putin’s weakness and inability to manage the conflicts among the various power players in his regime.
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Every morning, when Vira Chernukha wakes up amid the rubble of what is left of the Ukrainian village of Dementiivka after seven months of Russian occupation, the first thing she does is curse Vladimir Putin.
Once a peaceful settlement of dozens of small houses, charming flower gardens and the sounds of children playing, the village now has only one remaining resident, Chernukha, 76, along with two stray puppies and a cat. The others either died in the shelling or moved to Russia, about 5 miles away.
“We had such a beautiful village you can’t even imagine,” she says in tears. “You could hear children’s voices everywhere. Beautiful! And now it’s a dead zone. No one’s here.”
For Russia, Dementiivka, with a prewar population of about 60, was a crucial point on the road from its border region of Belgorod to Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, and gave it control of a key supply line. Russia first occupied the village in March 2022, days into the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion, lost it weeks later to Ukrainian forces and then captured it again that May in an assault using heavy artillery. A rocket destroyed Chernukha’s house, leaving her with a seriously wounded leg.
“I had a piece of shrapnel in my hip,” she recalls. “It was big. I have a huge scar and it still hurts. I don’t think I’ll ever fully recover from this wound. The Russians moved me to a hospital in Belgorod. They brought me there while I was unconscious. They wanted to send me to some refugee camp in Rostov, but I wanted to go back home. I’m Ukrainian, born and raised in Ukraine. When I said this to the doctor, he said their soldiers were in my village and that I couldn’t go back.”
After a few days in the hospital, however, Chernukha managed to get in touch with her daughter. She had no intention of staying in Russia and was ready to put her own life in danger by fleeing with a group of volunteers to Europe.
South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol, was visiting Ukraine for the first time on Saturday for talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Yonhap news agency said, citing the South Korean presidential office.
The surprise trip came after Yoon attended a Nato summit in Lithuania and visited Poland this week, where he expressed solidarity with Ukraine and explored ways to support its fight against Russia’s invasion, Reuters reported.
A US ally and rising arms exporter, South Korea has faced renewed pressure to provide weapons to Ukraine, which Yoon’s administration has resisted in favour of humanitarian and financial aid, wary of Russia’s influence over North Korea.
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Here are some of the latest images coming from Ukraine over the news agency wires.
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Russian top brass likely to be increasingly criticised by subordinates, says UK MoD
Russia’s military leadership is likely to face an increasing problem in being directly criticised by subordinates, according to the UK Ministry of Defence.
In its latest intelligence update, the ministry cited the sacking of Russia’s Maj Gen Ivan Popov, who was dismissed after being scathing of the military leadership in a leaked video intended for his troops.
Popov, who commanded the 58th Combined Arms army, which is fighting on the front in Ukraine near Zaporizhzhia, said the Russian defence ministry leadership was “hitting us from the rear, viciously beheading the army at the most difficult and intense moment”.
The UK ministry said Russia had routinely sacked commanders since the start of the invasion of Ukraine but that Popov’s removal was notable because “he was apparently dismissed for voicing concerns rather than for any alleged poor performance”.
The ministry tweeted:
Popov’s comments draw attention to serious disaffection many officers likely harbour towards the senior military leadership. The complaints largely echo those made by Wagner Group owner Yevgeny Prigozhin prior to his June 2023 mutiny.
Direct criticism from subordinates is likely to become an increasing problem for defence minister Sergei Shoigu and chief of the general staff General Gerasimov.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 15 July 2023.
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) July 15, 2023
Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/S5TDxvdwT7
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/qj8XX0UD3R
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Kyiv's troops forcing Russians out of southern positions, says Ukraine
A top Ukrainian general has reported new progress on the war’s southern front, saying his troops are “systematically moving the enemy out of their positions”.
Reuters reports that Gen Oleksander Tarnavskyi, commander of Ukrainian forces in the south, said on Telegram on Saturday that enemy losses over the previous 24 hours were equivalent to at least 200.
His comments came as Ukrainian military analysts suggested things were not easy for Ukrainian forces in their bid to advance southward.
Kyiv has focused on capturing villages in the south-east in a drive towards the Sea of Azov and areas near the eastern city of Bakhmut, taken by Russian forces in May after months of intense fighting. Russian accounts said its forces had repelled Ukrainian attacks in eastern Donetsk region, including around Bakhmut.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address after chairing a meeting with top commanders on Friday:
We must all understand very clearly, as clearly as possible, that Russian forces in our southern and eastern lands are doing everything they can in order to stop our soldiers. And every thousand metres we advance, every success of every combat brigade deserves our gratitude.
Military analyst Serhiy Hrabskyi told Ukrainian NV radio that in the south, “the situation is very difficult in advancing towards Berdiansk”, referring to a port on the Sea of Azov. Ukrainian forces hoped to cut off a land bridge Russian forces had established with the annexed Crimean peninsula.
Opening summary
Welcome back to our ongoing live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine. This is Adam Fulton and here’s an overview of the latest key developments.
A top Ukrainian general has reported new progress on the war’s southern front, saying his troops are “systematically moving the enemy out of their positions”.
Gen Oleksander Tarnavskyi, commander of Ukrainian forces in the south, said on Telegram on Saturday that enemy losses over the previous 24 hours were equivalent to at least 200.
His comments came amid reports that Ukraine’s counteroffensive is progressing slowly. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday night that Ukrainians must understand that Russian forces “are doing everything they can in order to stop our soldiers” from advancing in the south and east.
In other news:
The head of the Ukrainian president’s office said battles were difficult but that western allies were not putting pressure on Kyiv to advance faster. Andriy Yermak said: “Today it’s advancing not so quickly. If we are going to see that something is going wrong, we’ll say so. No one is going to embellish.”
Vladimir Putin has said he sought and failed to have Yevgeny Prigozhin replaced as the leader of Wagner’s fighters in Ukraine. Putin’s version of events, which appeared in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper, was a surprise admission that the Russian president was still negotiating a takeover of the Wagner mercenary group.
Boris Johnson has criticised Nato’s “mealy mouthed procrastination” and called for a timetable to be drawn up for Ukraine to join, after this week’s difficult summit in Lithuania. Writing in the Daily Mail, the former British prime minister said it was “no wonder” that Volodymyr Zelenskiy “found it hard” to conceal his frustration at the joint declaration released on Tuesday that stopped short of outlining a roadmap to Nato membership.
Vladimir Putin has agreed to extend the Black Sea grain deal, which expires next week, according to the Turkish president. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Friday that he had spoken with his Russian counterpart about the crucial deal allowing for the export of Ukrainian grain to ease a global food crisis. Moscow played down Erdoğan’s comments, saying an agreement had not yet been reached.
A Kyiv court has ordered pre-trial detention for a senior cleric of a branch of the Ukrainian Orthodox church with historic links to Moscow on suspicion of sympathising with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian news reports said a Kyiv district court set bail at more than 33 million hryvnias (about $900,000). The church denies the allegations and says it severed all ties with Moscow last year. Metropolitan Pavlo had been under house arrest since April on suspicion of inflaming religious hatred and justifying the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
An alleged Russian intelligence officer has pleaded not guilty to US charges of smuggling American-origin electronics and ammunition to Russia to help its war against Ukraine. Vadim Konoschenok, who was extradited on Thursday from Estonia, entered the plea in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, on Friday. Magistrate judge Ramon Reyes ordered Konoschenok, 48, be detained pending trial, after prosecutors called him a flight risk.
Russian air defence systems shot down two UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles that Ukraine had fired at Melitopol and Berdiansk on Thursday, the Russian-imposed leader of occupied Zaporizhzhia, Yevhen Balitsky, has claimed.
Mercenary fighters from Russia’s Wagner group are training Belarusian soldiers in Belarus, the country’s defence ministry has said. “[Wagner] fighters acted as instructors in a number of military disciplines,” it said on Friday.
A Ukrainian court has jailed a man for 10 years after finding him guilty of plotting with Russia to blow up transport infrastructure to disrupt foreign arms supplies. Ukraine’s domestic security agency said it detained the man in February before he had been able to carry out his mission.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy held a meeting with Ukraine’s intelligence chief and said on Telegram that according to intelligence data, there was no threat of invasion from Belarus.
Russia has accused the west of sponsoring “nuclear terrorism” after authorities said a Ukrainian drone struck the western Russian town of Kurchatov, where a nuclear power station similar to the Chornobyl plant is located. Roman Starovoit, the Kursk oblast governor, said on Telegram that no residents were injured. “Critical facilities were not damaged as a result of the drone crash and its subsequent detonation.”
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