Summary
Here the latest developments at a glance:
- Russia and Ukraine have both launched criminal investigations into strikes that have reportedly killed at least 40 Ukrainian prisoners of war who were held at a pre-trial detention centre in the village of Olenivka, after both countries blamed the other side for the deadly attack.
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Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has accused Russia of a “petrifying war crime” over the killings and called on world leaders to “recognise Russia as a terrorist state”.
- Ukraine has said it is ready for grain exports to leave its ports again but is waiting for the go-ahead from the United Nations, which it hopes it will receive later on Friday.
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Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said on Friday that Russia staunchly supports China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, after Chinese president Xi Jinping warned US president Joe Biden against “playing with fire” over Taiwan in a phone callon Thursday.
- Germany’s economy minister said on Friday that putting the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline into operation was not an option as this would only play into the hands of Russian president Vladimir Putin, despite growing anger over soaring energy prices in the German population and industry.
- Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, a Russian operative who was subjected to US sanctions on Friday, has been charged with using political groups in the United States to advance pro-Russia propaganda, including during the invasion of Ukraine earlier this year.
- The US treasury department said on Friday it had imposed sanctions on another individual alongside Ionov, as well as on four entities that support the Kreml’s global malign influence and election interference operations, including in the US and Ukraine.
- Belarus recalled its ambassador to the UK on Friday in response to what it called “hostile and unfriendly” actions by London.
- North Macedonia plans to donate an unspecified number of Soviet-era tanks to Ukraine as it seeks to modernise its own military to meet NATO standards, its defence ministry said on Friday.
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Germany will deliver 16 BIBER bridge-layer tanks to Ukrainian forces, the German defence ministry announced.
- A Ukrainian court on Friday reduced to 15 years a life sentence handed to a Russian soldier in May for pre-meditated murder in the country’s first war crimes trial.
- A Russian ammunition depot in the southern Kherson region has been destroyed, Ukrainian officials said on Friday.
- At least five people have been killed and seven injured in a strike on a bus stop in the city of Mykolaiv, according to regional governor Vitaliy Kim. Graphic images from the scene show the street littered with bodies.
- The UK defence minister, Ben Wallace, has said that Russian forces in Ukraine are in “a very difficult spot”, and said that Vladimir Putin’s strategy is akin to putting his forces through a meat grinder. In his opinion, he said Russia was “certainly not able to occupy the country. They may be able to carry on killing indiscriminately and destroying as they go, but that is not a victory”.
That’s all from me for today, thanks for following our blog.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday told US secretary of state Antony Blinken that Washington was not living up to promises regarding the exemption from sanctions for the supply of food from Russia, the Kremlin said.
A Russian foreign ministry read-out of the call also cited Lavrov as telling Blinken that Russia would achieve all the goals of its “special military operation” in Ukraine and said western arms supplies would only drag out the conflict, Reuters reports.
Updated
Some of my colleagues have compiled a handy overview of what European countries have come up with to save gas and electricity and whether the energy crisis and potential shortages this winter.
Approaches across the bloc of 27 countries vary wildly, with air-conditioned shops in France risking a €750 (£635) fine if they don’t keep their doors shut, while German cities are switching water fountains and public spotlights illuminating monuments off, and Irish authorities have urged people to reduce their speed in order to cut petrol use and to consume less energy in their homes.
Updated
Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, a Russian operative who was subjected to US sanctions on Friday, has been charged with using political groups in the United States to advance pro-Russia propaganda, including during the invasion of Ukraine earlier this year, the US justice department said on Friday.
Ionov is charged in federal court in Florida with conspiring to have US citizens act as illegal agents of the Russian government. It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf, the Associated Press reports.
“Ionov allegedly orchestrated a brazen influence campaign, turning US political groups and US citizens into instruments of the Russian government,” assistant attorney general Matthew Olsen, the head of the justice department’s national security division, said in a statement.
The case is part of a much broader justice department crackdown on foreign influence operations aimed at shaping public opinion in the US.
In 2018, the justice department charged 12 Russian nationals with participating in a huge but hidden social media campaign aimed at sowing discord during the 2016 presidential election won by Donald Trump.
Updated
The US treasury department said on Friday it had imposed sanctions on two individuals and four entities that support the Kremlin’s global malign influence and election interference operations, including in the US and Ukraine.
“The individuals and entities designated today played various roles in Russia’s attempts to manipulate and destabilise the United States and its allies and partners, including Ukraine,” the treasury said in a statement, naming the individuals as Russian citizens Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov and Natalya Valeryevna Burlinova, Reuters reports.
The affected entities are the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia (AGMR), Ionov Transkontinental, STOP-Imperialism and the Center for Support and Development of Public Initiative Creative Diplomacy (PICREADI).
The treasury accused Ionov of having “provided support, usually in the form of monetary donations, to organisations that he and Russia’s intelligence services believed would create socio-political disturbances in the United States”.
Updated
Russian state-run Gazprom’s senior manager said on Friday that the delivery of the Nord Stream 1 gas turbine to Germany from Canada after maintenance was not in line with the contract.
Vitaly Markelov, Gazprom’s deputy chief executive, also said that Siemens Energy, which is servicing the Nord Stream 1 equipment, succeeded in fixing only a quarter of the faults found, Reuters reports.
Updated
Analysts have trimmed their year-end inflation forecasts for Russia and see room for the central bank to continue cutting rates as it tries to blunt the impact of major sanctions, a Reuters poll suggested on Friday.
Russia’s economic landscape changed drastically after Moscow invaded its neighbour Ukraine in February, triggering sweeping western restrictions on its energy and financial sectors.
The average forecast among 17 analysts polled in late July suggested the Russian economy was on track to shrink by 5% this year, after a similar poll in June had predicted a contraction of 7.1%.
Analysts’ forecasts are becoming less pessimistic, although new data published this week showed industrial output, real disposable incomes and retail sales all fell in year-on-year terms in June, although the unemployment rate stayed at a record low.
The economy ministry in April said gross domestic product could fall by more than 12% this year, in what would have been the biggest contraction since the mid-1990s, but forecasts have softened since then as Russia pushes back against restrictions.
Primarily, the rouble soared to over seven-year highs in late June, supported by capital controls Moscow introduced in response to sanctions, but Russia is also benefiting from skyrocketing prices for commodity exports, while the Russian economy is boosted by falling imports.
But the currency is seen as weakening in coming months as the government is expected to take steps to curb its strength.
The rouble is expected to trade at 75.00 against the dollar in a year from now, according to the poll, compared with a rate of 75.73 predicted by analysts in late June. Friday’s official rate was at 60.20 roubles per dollar.
Inflation, one of the key concerns among Russian households, is expected to accelerate to 13.4%, from 8.4% in 2021, according to the poll, but below last month’s expectations of a 14.5% annual consumer prices increase, Reuters reports.
Updated
Here is a video from Sky News showing Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the port of Chornomorsk in the Odesa region on Friday, where vessels loaded with grain are ready to resume export to the world.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy travelled to the Black Sea port of Chornomorsk in the Odesa region as Kyiv hopes to begin exporting grain.
— Sky News (@SkyNews) July 29, 2022
Ukraine live updates: https://t.co/X3flQUk9BR pic.twitter.com/jmXGV2FNoV
Updated
The British defence ministry has published its daily intelligence update on military positions on the battlefield in Ukraine.
The illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine is continuing.
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) July 29, 2022
The map below is the latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 29 July 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/elQG6o2bAt
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/CiUXpcjNNL
29 wounded Ukrainian servicepeople, accompanied by family members, have arrived on a special medical train in the southern Polish city of Kraków.
They will receive treatment or attend rehabilitation programmess in Polish hospitals.
According to the state news agency Polish Radio, 15 wounded servicemen were taken to hospitals in Kraków and the surrounding area. The remaining 14 were taken to the southern city of Katowice.
According to Polish officials, the soldiers have typical combat injuries, including gunshot wounds and injuries from bomb blasts, mines, and missiles. They require further treatment, but their lives are not in danger, the Kyiv Post reports.
“I relayed to the soldiers that they are welcome in Poland and that we’ve been waiting for them; they are very grateful for this,” said Vyacheslav Voynarovsky, Ukraine’s consul general in Kraków.
“There are soldiers in different conditions here: from those who are in a serious condition but have already been examined to those who [...] need rehabilitation. The soldiers will be sent to various hospitals in Malopolska,” the governor of Malopolska, Lukasz Kmita, said.
Updated
Germany’s economy minister said on Friday that putting the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline into operation was not an option as this would only play into the hands of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
“That is why in my view it would be wrong and is not an option,” Robert Habeck said in a conversation with representatives of a glass company in the state of Thuringia, Reuters reports.
The Nord Stream 2 pipeline was designed to double the flow of Russian gas directly to Germany but the German government decided two days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine it would not go into operation, as diplomatic relations with Moscow broke down.
A new regulation stipulates that German gas storage facilities must be at least 75% full by 1 September. In order to achieve this goal, a good 0.2 percentage points must be added every day until 31 August, dpa reports.
From Tuesday to Wednesday, the filling level increased slightly by 0.3 percentage points to 67.5%, the Federal Network Agency said on Friday in its daily gas management report, but it stressed that businesses and private consumers would have to adjust their energy usage to significantly increasing gas prices – a warning that was met with outrage in some quarters.
Habeck was greeted with loud protests at a debate event with members of the public in Bayreuth on Thursday evening, but defended the course of the federal government.
My colleague Patrick Wintour wrote a fascinating long read about how Germany became dependent on Russian gas and oil supplies last month.
Updated
Russia and Ukraine both launch criminal investigations into prison strike deaths
Reuters reports that the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office has opened a pre-trial investigation into an attack that is said to have killed at least 40 Ukrainian prisoners of war.
It said “the occupying state struck the territory of correctional colony No 120” in an attack in which 130 people were also injured.
Each side has accused the other of carrying out the attack in territory held by Russian-backed separatists.
Earlier on Telegram a statement from the military forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic said:
The Investigative Committee of Russia opened a criminal case on the grounds of a crime under Article 356 of the criminal code of the Russian Federation in connection with the strike by Ukrainian nationalists on the pre-trial detention centre in the village of Olenivka in the DPR.
Investigators are currently investigating the scene. The Russian Investigative Committee will take measures to establish all the circumstances of the incident and the Ukrainian nationalists involved in this crime.
Peter Beaumont is in Kyiv for the Guardian, and he reports for us on two videos that are circulating on television and social media:
Footage broadcast on Russian television said to be from the scene at the Olenivka prison showed military personnel examining a building with a hole in the roof, tangled metal from bunk beds and blood trails among personal effects. Other images showed charred bodies and dismembered limbs.
Ukraine’s armed forces have denied they were responsible for a missile strike on a prison in Russian-occupied Donbas in which Moscow claimed 40 Ukrainian prisoners were killed.
Ukraine’s military added that the claims that the prisoners were killed in shelling were designed to hide the fact that the men had been “tortured and murdered”. The country’s foreign minister, Dymtro Kuleba, accused Russia of a “barbaric war crime”.
The claim comes amid outrage over a widely circulated video on social media channels that claimed to show a Russian soldier castrating a Ukrainian captive. The gruesome video – which clearly shows the face of the alleged perpetrator as he appears to mutilate a bound man in uniform – could not immediately be verified by the Guardian but has provoked anger among Ukrainians.
The videos once again raise serious questions over the Russian treatment of Ukrainian prisoners after previous allegations emerged about the murder of nine men in Bucha, and widespread claims by human rights groups of serious violations of human rights including torture, disappearance and extra-judicial murders.
Warning: this post contains images that some readers may find upsetting
Earlier today Vitaliy Kim, governor of Mykolaiv posted to Telegram to say that he believed that the Russians had changed tactics as a result of the success of Ukrainian forces in the south of the country. He said:
Yesterday, during non-curfew hours, a residential area of the city was targeted, as a result of which many houses were destroyed. There is not even a hint of a military facility.
Today another area was shelled, they hit a public transport stop. 12 people are lying on the ground. Emergency services went to the scene.
Be very careful. Because both yesterday and today they are shelling the city during the day when all the people are doing their business.
Images have emerged of the scene at the bus stop in Mykolaiv, where authorities say that five people were killed and seven were injured.
Updated
While he has been visiting Odesa on Ukraine’s south coast, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has taken the opportunity to meet injured service personnel in a hospital there. These are some of the images of the trip that have been released to the media.
Updated
Russian news agencies are reporting that Yury Borisov, the newly appointed Roscosmos (Russian space agency) head, has said there is not yet a fixed date for Russia to withdraw its co-operation from the International Space Station (ISS).
“We are starting the exit process. Whether it will be in the middle of 2024 or 2025, it all depends on the condition and working capacity of the ISS. But the fact we will start doing this is no secret,” he is reported to have said on state television.
The work between Roscosmos and Nasa remains one of the last links of cooperation between the United States and Russia, but tensions have been heightened since Russian cosmonauts onboard the ISS appeared to fly the flags of the Russian-backed breakaway self-declared republics in Ukraine’s Donbas region.
Updated
Shaun Walker reports from Warsaw for us:
With a stirring rendition of the Ukrainian national anthem, the first concert of the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra came to an end in Warsaw late on Thursday evening amid thunderous applause from a packed house at the Polish National Opera. It was hard to believe that two weeks ago this orchestra did not exist and that these musicians had never played together.
The 74 musicians, all Ukrainian, come from many different orchestras inside the country and elsewhere across the world. They assembled in Warsaw 10 days before the concert for intensive rehearsals. More than half have spent the war in Ukraine, and only left to join the tour.
Following its Warsaw debut, the orchestra is now on its way to London, where it will perform on Sunday at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the Proms. Later stops include Edinburgh, Berlin and Amsterdam before the tour concludes with concerts in New York and Washington DC later in August.
Read more of Shaun Walker’s report from Warsaw here: Channelling our anger’: Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra heads for the Proms
Moscow on Friday offered strong support to China amid tensions over Taiwan, and warned the US against any “provocative” moves that could exacerbate the situation.
The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, warned the US president, Joe Biden, against “playing with fire” over Taiwan in a highly anticipated phone call that lasted more than two hours on Thursday, as tensions remain high over the House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s potential trip to the island next month.
Speaking in a call with reporters, Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said that Russia staunchly supports China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, Associated Press reports.
“We believe that no other country has the right to call (that) into doubt or take any provocative steps,” Peskov said.
He warned the US against “destructive” moves, adding that “such behaviour on the international arena could only exacerbate tensions as the world is already overloaded with regional and global problems”.
Ties between Moscow and Beijing have grown stronger since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February.
China has refused to criticise Russia’s action, blaming the US and Nato for provoking Moscow, and has condemned western sanctions imposed on Moscow.
This is not the first time Xi has used such language to dissuade Washington from publicly supporting Taipei. Last November, Xi also warned the US president in a virtual summit that China was prepared to take “decisive measures” if Taiwan makes any moves towards independence that cross Beijing’s red lines.
Taiwan and China split in 1949 following a civil war that ended with a communist victory on the mainland. They have no official relations, but both sides say they are one country.
However, the two sides disagree over which government is entitled to national leadership.
Updated
A Ukrainian court on Friday reduced to 15 years a life sentence handed to a Russian soldier in May for pre-meditated murder in the country’s first war crimes trial.
“According to the result of the appellate review, the appeal filed by the defence was partially satisfied,” a statement on the Kyiv court of appeals’ website said, adding that Russian soldier “Vadim Shishimarin was sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment”.
Shishimarin, who was 21 at the time of the ruling in May, was found guilty of war crimes for killing an unarmed civilian and handed a life sentence, in the first verdict of its kind of Russia’s invasion, AFP reports.
The sergeant from Siberia had admitted to killing a 62-year-old civilian, Oleksandr Shelipov, as he was riding his bike in the village of Chupakhivka in north-east Ukraine.
Shishimarin claimed he shot Shelipov under pressure from another soldier as they tried to retreat and escape back into Russia in a stolen car on 28 February.
His lawyer Viktor Ovsyannikov had vowed to appeal against the verdict, arguing that “societal pressure” weighed on the decision.
Updated
There is no upcoming maintenance planned for the Nord Stream gas pipeline, according to a website that publishes information about works on Europe’s pipeline infrastructure.
Gazprom and Nord Stream AG did not immediately reply to requests for comment on reports on social media that more maintenance is planned, Reuters reports.
Gas began flowing through Nord Stream 1 again last week after an annual maintenance outage, but supply has slumped to currently only 20% capacity.
Gazprom had already cut the pipeline’s capacity to 40% on 14 June, citing the delay of a turbine under maintenance work in Canada by the equipment supplier Siemens Energy.
Russia’s explanation was rejected by the European Union.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has accused Russia of conducting “gas blackmail”, while the German economy minister, Robert Habeck, says the Kremlin is using gas “as a weapon”.
Updated
My colleague Ed Ram is also in Odesa, and has sent this photo dispatch:
Ukraine ready for grain exports to resume but waiting for UN approval
My colleague Isobel Koshiw is in Odesa and has just sent this report on the situation surrounding the possible resumption of grain exports from the Black Sea port:
Ukraine has said it is ready for grain ships to travel through its waters but is waiting for the go-ahead from the United Nations, which it hopes it will receive later on Friday.
An announcement from the Lloyd’s of London insurer Ascot and broker Marsh that it had launched marine cargo and war insurance for grain and food products moving from the Black Sea ports, removing a hurdle to getting shipments under way.
“We hope to receive approval today from the UN confirming the corridors we have proposed the ships take in the Black Sea,” said Ukraine’s minister of infrastructure, Oleksandr Kubrakov, standing in Odesa next to a ship that has been stranded since the invasion and is now ready to set sail.
“After [receiving approval] we are ready to begin […] we hope that by the end of this week the first ship will leave our ports,” he said. Ukraine’s media earlier reported that the shipments would start on Friday.
Under the grain agreement, the UN and Turkey have guaranteed the safe passage of ships carrying much needed grain from Ukraine. Russian forces blockaded Ukraine’s ports in February as part of Moscow’s attempt to capture the country, causing a worldwide grain shortage that has pushed some countries towards famine.
Updated
Ukrainian officials said on Friday that a Russian ammunition depot in the southern Kherson region had been destroyed.
Video and images published overnight and Friday morning on local Telegram channels indicated a major explosion in the area of Brylivka, about 40km (25 miles) southeast of Kherson city, CNN reports.
“One of the important logistical hubs of the occupiers, the railway station in Brylivka, was destroyed in Kherson region. The Russians just brought equipment and ammunition there; everything has burned down,” Serhii Khlan, adviser to the head of Kherson Civil Military Administration, said on Facebook.
“People are reporting loud explosions and detonation. It is likely the oil depot was hit,” Khlan added.
Updated
Ukraine calls on world leaders to condemn Russian 'war crime' over killings of at least 40 PoWs
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has accused Russia of a “petrifying war crime” and blamed the Kremlin for the shelling of a prison in the Russian-controlled settlement of Olenivka, Donetsk oblast, which Russia’s defence ministry said killed 40 Ukrainian prisoners of war on Friday.
Russia has committed another petrifying war crime by shelling a correctional facility in the occupied Olenivka where it held Ukrainian POWs. I call on all partners to strongly condemn this brutal violation of international humanitarian law and recognize Russia a terrorist state.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) July 29, 2022
Russia blamed Ukrainian forces for the killings.
Updated
Ukraine’s infrastructure minister Oleksandr Kubrakov told reporters in the southern port of Odesa on Friday that 17 vessels that had been blockaded in the Black Sea port for five months were already loaded with grain, and another was now being loaded.
He said he hoped the first vessels would start leaving port by the end of this week, Reuters reports.
Updated
North Macedonia plans to donate an unspecified number of Soviet-era tanks to Ukraine as it seeks to modernise its own military to meet NATO standards, its defence ministry said on Friday.
In a statement, the ministry said Ukraine will receive tanks belonging to the western Balkan country’s tank battalion which is in the process of being upgraded.
“Taking into account this situation and the requirements of the Ukrainian defence ministry, the government has decided that a certain quantity of these [tank] capacities will be donated to Ukraine, in line with its needs,” the statement said.
The ministry did not specify the number of tanks, but it said they belonged to the so called third generation of main battle tanks from the 1970s and 1980s that have composite armour and computer-stabilised firing control systems.
North Macedonia, an ex-Yugoslav republic, is a NATO member and candidate to join the European Union.
It has, like other western countries, already donated military equipment to Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February, Reuters reports.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy only said at the beginning of July that Ukrainian forces were finally seeing the impact of western weapons on the frontlines of the war.
Germany will deliver 16 BIBER bridge-layer tanks to Ukrainian forces, the German defence ministry said on Friday.
The ministry said in a statement:
The BIBER will enable Ukrainian troops to cross waters or obstacles in combat.
The delivery of the first six systems will take place this year, starting in autumn. Ten more systems will follow next year.
The German government has faced accusations of flip-flopping over pledges of military support to Ukraine, after chancellor Olaf Scholz was forced to U-turn over an initial refusal to send tanks and heavy weaponry to Ukraine.
The Russian embassy in Lebanon has no information about a Syrian ship docked in Lebanon or its cargo, it said on Friday, after the Ukrainian embassy claimed the ship was carrying flour stolen by Russia.
“The Embassy of the Russian Federation to the Lebanese republic has no information regarding the Syrian vessel or a cargo brought to Lebanon by a private company,” the embassy told Reuters in an emailed statement.
Concerns have been growing across the Middle East and north Africa for months over soaring prices for wheat triggered by the war in Ukraine.
Russia and Ukraine supply a quarter of the world’s wheat exports, while Egypt is the world’s biggest importer of wheat.
Ukraine ready to resume shipping grain from Black Sea ports, president says
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said on Friday his country is ready to resume grain shipments from Black sea ports and is awaiting a signal from the United Nations and Turkey to start the shipments.
Zelenskiy’s office said the president had visited the Black Sea port of Chornomorsk, which has been blockaded by Russia, to see preparations for the shipments under a UN-brokered agreement signed in Turkey last week.
The office quoted him as saying:
Our side is fully prepared. We sent all the signals to our partners – the UN and Turkey, and our military guarantees the security situation.
The infrastructure minister is in direct contact with the Turkish side and the UN. We are waiting for a signal from them that we can start.
on 28 July, 2022. Photograph: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Reuters
Exporters raised concerns this week over whether insurance companies are going to be willing to insure grain vessels navigating mined waters in Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, while buyers are hesitant to place new orders given the risk of Russian attacks.
Updated
Belarus recalled its ambassador to the UK on Friday in response to what it called “hostile and unfriendly” actions by London.
In a statement, Belarus’ foreign ministry said Britain had adopted policies that were “systematically aimed at causing maximum damage to Belarusian citizens and legal entities,” citing sanctions on its companies, a ban on the national airline, Belavia, and restrictions on Belarusian state media, Reuters reports.
A barrage of 25 missiles targeting locations in the Chernihiv region, outside Kyiv and around the city of Zhytomyr on Thursday was fired by Russian forces from neighbouring Belarus, a close ally of the Kremlin.
Belarus also allowed Russia to use its territory to launch a major prong of its invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.
Relations between Belarus and the west have deteriorated sharply since the country’s leader, Alexander Lukashenko, was accused of sending refugees to the EU’s external border in an attempt to punish the bloc for criticism of Lukashenko’s domestic crackdown on dissent after a controversial 2020 presidential election.
Updated
Ukraine denies attack on prison that reportedly killed 40 POW
Ukraine’s military has just denied carrying out the attack on a prison in separatist-held territory that Russia’s defence ministry said killed 40 Ukrainian prisoners of war on Friday, and blamed it on Russian forces.
The general staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a statement:
The armed forces of the Russian Federation carried out targeted artillery shelling of a correctional institution in the settlement of Olenivka, Donetsk oblast, where Ukrainian prisoners were also held.
In this way, the Russian occupiers pursued their criminal goals - to accuse Ukraine of committing ‘war crimes’, as well as to hide the torture of prisoners and executions [...].
Russia has denied involvement in war crimes in what it calls its “special military operation” to protect Russian speakers and root out dangerous nationalists.
Ukraine says Moscow is waging an unprovoked war of conquest.
Summary of the day so far …
- Russia and authorities in occupied in Donetsk have claimed that more than 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war have been killed and at least 75 injured after Ukrainian forces shelled a prison where they were being held. The claims have not been independently verified, and there has been no comment from Ukrainian authorities.
- The prison in Yelenovka was housing Ukrainian service personnel who had been held there since the fall of Mariupol. Russian authroities have suggested they were targeted to either prevent them testifying against Kyiv, or to deter other Ukrainian armed forces from surrender.
- At least five people have been killed and seven injured in a strike on a bus stop in the city of Mykolaiv, according to regional governor Vitaliy Kim. Graphic images from the scene show the street littered with bodies.
- Ukraine has stepped up its campaign to retake Russian-controlled regions in the south by trying to bomb and isolate Russian troops in hard-to-resupply areas. Ukrainian planes struck five Russian strongholds around Kherson and another nearby city on Thursday, its military claimed. Kyiv said it had also retaken some small settlements on the Kherson region’s northern edge.
- The Ukrainian counteroffensive in the country’s south is “gathering momentum”, according to British defence and intelligence officials. Ukraine has virtually cut off the Russian-occupied southern city of Kherson, leaving thousands of Russian troops stationed near the Dnieper River “highly vulnerable” and isolated, the UK ministry of defence said.
- Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that Moscow would soon propose a date for a call with his US counterpart, secretary of state, Antony Blinken. It is expected the call would be about a potential prisoner exchange.
- The UK defence minister, Ben Wallace, has said that Russian forces in Ukraine are in “a very difficult spot”, and said that Vladimir Putin’s strategy is akin to putting his forces through a meat grinder. In his opinion, he said Russia was “certainly not able to occupy the country. They may be able to carry on killing indiscriminately and destroying as they go, but that is not a victory”.
- Russian private military firm Wagner has likely been allocated responsibility for specific sectors of the front line in eastern Ukraine, possibly as Russia is facing a major shortage of combat infantry, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said in an intelligence update this morning.
- Residents of Russian-occupied areas in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region have been urged to evacuate. Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said people risked being cut off from “power, water, food and medical supplies, heating and communication” if they stayed in the area.
Updated
Reuters is reporting, via Interfax, that the self-declared leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, has said that the prison where Russia claims at least 40 Ukrainian prisoners of war have been killed, housed 193 people, and that there were no foreigners among the detainees.
RIA Novosty reports Pushilin claimed the Kyiv authorities ordered the shelling out of a desire to destroy prisoners who began to testify, including “Azov militants”.
There has been no official comment from Ukrainian authorities on the reports of the attack on the prison, which has not been independently verified.
The Telegram account of the headquarters of the territorial defence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic has raised the claimed death toll at Yelenovka prison to 53.
In a statement it said:
In Yelenovka, 53 people died and another 75 were injured. The criminal Kyiv regime purposefully destroys Ukrainian militants who have surrendered in order to cover up the traces of war crimes committed against the civilian population of Donbas, and thereby force the rest to continue hostilities, and not surrender to the group of troops of the Donetsk People’s Republic.
Russia, Syria and North Korea are the only UN member states that recognise the Donetsk People’s Republic as a legitimate authority. The claims of the attack on the prison have not been verified, although the Guardian has seen video footage which purports to show the aftermath.
Reuters reports that the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said on Friday that Moscow would soon propose a date for a call with the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken. It is expected the call would be about a potential prisoner exchange.
Updated
Ukraine’s governor of Luhansk has issued an update on what he says is the situation in the region, which is almost entirely occupied by pro-Russian forces. Serhai Haidai posted to Telegram to say:
There are no Russian breakthroughs on the front line – all enemy attempts were repulsed by the Armed Forces. The bodies of the dead lie on the streets of occupied cities for months, the rubble of broken buildings, where human bodies also remain, are not being sorted out.
The occupiers are unable to provide the population with water, gas and electricity, despite numerous promises. Young people who express opinions disagreeing with the enemy are taken to the basement, where they are “brainwashed”.
The claims have not been independently verified.
The Russian ministry of defence has said that what it claims is a Ukrainian attack on a prison was “a bloody provocation” and an attempt to intimidate Ukrainian armed forces against surrendering. It says:
Currently, a large number of Ukrainian servicemen voluntarily lay down their arms, knowing about the humane attitude towards prisoners of war on the Russian side. This blatant provocation was committed to intimidate Ukrainian servicemen and prevent their surrender.
It gave casualty figures as “40 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed and 75 wounded. In addition, eight employees of the isolation ward received injuries of varying severity.”
There has been no comment on the alleged incident yet from Ukrainian authorities. The claims have not been independently verified.
Russia and DPR claim 40 POWs killed by Ukrainian strike on prison barracks
Russia’s defence ministry has said Ukraine struck a prison in separatist-held territory with US-made Himars rockets on Friday, killing 40 Ukrainian prisoners of war and leaving 75 wounded.
The RIA Novosti news agency quotes Daniil Bezsonov, a minister in the self-proclaimed and unrecognised Donetsk People’s Republic in occupied Ukraine saying:
Direct hit in the barracks with prisoners. The result as of now: 40 dead, 130 wounded. While the rubble is being sorted out. The numbers may increase. The military-political leadership of Ukraine, apparently, decided to get rid of unnecessary ballast.
RIA identifies it as the penal colony No. 120 in the village of Yelenovka, where prisoners from the Azov battalion were taken after the siege of Mariupol.
The claims have not been independently verified.
At least 5 dead and 7 wounded in strike on Mykolaiv - governor
At least five people have been killed and seven wounded in an attack that has taken place near a public transport stop in Mykolaiv, according to a video posted by regional governor Vitaliy Kim.
In the video, Kim gives the death toll as four, but he has subsequently posted to Telegram to say “at the moment, it is known about seven wounded and five dead already.”
The claims have not been independently verified.
The UK defence minister, Ben Wallace, has said that Russian forces in Ukraine are in “a very difficult spot”, and said that Vladimir Putin’s strategy is akin to putting his forces through a meat grinder.
He told listeners of the BBC’s Today programme in the UK that “by any benchmark, Russia is in a position where it hasn’t achieved its major objectives. It has taken huge numbers of losses and casualties”.
In his opinion, he said Russia was “certainly not able to occupy the country. They may be able to carry on killing indiscriminately and destroying as they go, but that is not a victory”.
“Putin hasn’t changed from his desire to occupy the whole of Ukraine, take Kyiv and Odesa,” he said, adding: “But his army has been effectively crippled by huge amounts of losses. Over 25,000 dead. Maybe twice as many injured.”
He likened the current tactics to the first world war, saying: “When I talk about meat grinder, which is what they’re doing, is that they are resorting to a sort of Soviet tactic of just a massive Russian meat grinder moving very slowly metres, not miles, a day, in some parts.
“And in the top of the meat grinder they’re shoving in, and this is the cruelty of that system, they are recruiting from the poorest districts in Russia, and the ethnic minorities, and they are using mercenaries, shoving these people in with very little regard to the outcome, grinding forward.”
He said that longer-range western weapons were “now having a material effect”, and the Russians “are operating their army at roughly about 40-to-50% combat effective.”
Wallace said the Ukrainian attack on bridges, which appears to have had an impact on the ability to resupply troops in Kherson north of the River Dnieper, had put them “in a very difficult spot” and left the Russians “in a defensive position” in the south.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images to be sent to us over the news wires from Ukraine.
Oleksandr Syenkevych, the mayor of Mykolaiv, has just posted to Telegram to say that there has been “the arrival of cluster shells in one of Mykolaiv’s districts”. “There are victims. Ambulances have already arrived,” he added.
He urged residents to stay in shelters. The claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
On Telegram, Dmytro Zhyvytskyi, governor of Sumy in Ukraine’s north-east, has said that the night was quiet, with no air raid warnings. Maksym Kozytskyi, governor of Lviv, has said the same about his western region, posting “everything is calm”.
The same is not true for the Mykolaiv region, where in the last few minutes both the city’s mayor Oleksandr Syenkevych and regional governor Vitaliy Kim have posted to Telegram to warn that there is an air raid warning in progress.
Ukraine’s state emergency service has issued an update on the situation in Kharkiv. It says on Telegram:
At night, the enemy launched a rocket attack on the city of Kharkiv. An educational institution and a two-story residential building were partially destroyed, as well as nearby buildings were damaged. A fire broke out in a two-story residential building, which was promptly extinguished by rescuers.
In the Borivskyi community, rescuers put out a fire in a field with wheat on an area of 5 hectares. In addition, a man born in 1963 was injured in one of the cases of enemy hits on a residential high-rise building in the city of Chuhuiv.
Ukraine had hoped to begin exporting grain through its ports from today under a recently agreed deal with Russia, Turkey and the UN.
However, UN aid chief Martin Griffiths has said “crucial” details for the safe passage of vessels were still being worked out and “the devil was in the details”.
Griffiths said he was hopeful the first shipment of grain from a Ukrainian Black Sea port could take place as early as today.
Expert mission to review human rights in Russia
The United States and 37 other countries are establishing an expert mission to review the human rights situation in Russia, US state department spokesperson Ned Price said on Thursday.
The review, triggered by the invocation of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s “Moscow Mechanism,” is in response to recent actions by Russia to restrict freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, and reports of torture of those held in detention in Russia, Price said in a statement.
The expert mission will release its report to the public in September, he said.
The OSCE is an organisation of 57 countries that includes former Cold War foes the United States and Russia as well as various countries in Europe, Central Asia and North America.
This is the third time the Moscow Mechanism has been invoked since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
In April, an OSCE mission said it had found evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Russia in Ukraine. Russia’s mission to the OSCE called the report “unfounded propaganda.”
Russian news outlet Novaya Gazeta to be stripped of licence under court order
Novaya Gazeta, one of Russia’s last remaining independent news outlets, is under threat after the country’s media watchdog demanded that its website and print edition be stripped of its licence.
“Russia’s censorship agency Roskomnadzor has demanded that Novaya Gazeta’s certificate of registration be declared invalid,” the publication said in a statement on Thursday.
The announcement was made after the newspaper received two warnings over alleged violations from the state communications watchdog.
On Thursday, Novaya Gazeta said Roskomnadzor went to court demanding that the media licence of the newspaper’s website be cancelled.
“Roskomnadzor asked the court to declare the print media outlet Novaya Gazeta’s licence invalid due to the editorial office not providing its editorial statute within the timeframe established by the law on media,” the agency told Russian news outlet RBC.
The newspaper said it did not know why such a request had been made now.
“Why are the lawsuits filed four months after the warnings were issued, what has changed?” the outlet asked.
“Is it politics? What is not politics now?’
The media outlet said it would fight for its rights in court.
“What will Novaya Gazeta do? Prepare for the courts, defend our case, in which we are sure, prepare a new issue of the NO magazine, restart the website and the new studio Novaya,” it said in a statement.
A photo of a Ukrainian girl wearing a T-shirt bearing the words ‘Ukraine’ while defiantly pointing towards a building partially destroyed by Russian shelling is quickly becoming a symbol of Ukrainian resistance across local media outlets this morning.
The photo was reportedly taken in Russian-occupied Mariupol.
A courageous girl went out with a #Ukrainian t-shirt in occupied #Mariupol. pic.twitter.com/ANJ2hU5ehT
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) July 29, 2022
Russia's Wagner allocated responsibility for sectors of front line, UK says
Russian private military firm Wagner has likely been allocated responsibility for specific sectors of the front line in eastern Ukraine, possibly as Russia is facing a major shortage of combat infantry, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said in an intelligence update this morning.
Since March, Russian private military company (PMC) Wagner Group has operated in eastern Ukraine in coordination with the Russian military. Wagner has likely been allocated responsibility for specific sectors of the front line, in a similar manner to normal army units.
This is a significant change from the previous employment of the group since 2015, when it typically undertook missions distinct from overt, large-scale regular Russian military activity.
This new level of integration further undermines the Russian authorities’ long-standing policy of denying links between PMCs and the Russian state.”
It also said that Wagner’s forces are highly unlikely to be sufficient to make a significant difference in the trajectory of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 29 July 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) July 29, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/CD3LU2jI92
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/NMjaQWZiQU
Updated
Ukraine step ups counter-attacks in south
Ukraine has stepped up its campaign to retake Russian-controlled regions in the south by trying to bomb and isolate Russian troops in hard-to-resupply areas, military officials have said.
Ukrainian planes struck five Russian strongholds around Kherson and another nearby city on Thursday, its military claimed.
Kyiv said it had also retaken some small settlements on the Kherson region’s northern edge.
The Ukrainian counteroffensive in the country’s south is “gathering momentum”, according to British defence and intelligence officials.
Ukraine has virtually cut off the Russian-occupied southern city of Kherson, leaving thousands of Russian troops stationed near the Dnieper River “highly vulnerable” and isolated, the UK ministry of defence said.
Kharkiv centre struck by Russian shelling, mayor says
Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv has reportedly been hit this morning by Russian shelling, local officials say.
City mayor Ihor Terekhov said a central part of the northeastern city was hit, including a two-story building and a higher educational institution.
Terekhov said the strike occurred just after 4am on Friday
“The State Emergency Service is already working - they are sorting out the rubble, looking for people under them,” in a Telegram update.
This morning, #Russian occupiers shelled #Kharkiv again. pic.twitter.com/tNf1EMuvw6
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) July 29, 2022
⚡️Mayor: Russian strike hits Kharkiv downtown.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) July 29, 2022
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov reported that Russian forces hit a two-story house and a university at 4:09 a.m. on July 29. The State Emergency Service is working on the scene. There is no information on casualties at the moment.
Summary and welcome
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
I’m Samantha Lock and I will be bringing you all the latest developments for the next short while.
Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv has reported been hit this morning by Russian shelling, local officials say. We will bring you more details as they unfold.
It is 8am in Kyiv and here is where things stand.
- Ukraine has stepped up its campaign to retake Russian-controlled regions in the south by trying to bomb and isolate Russian troops in hard-to-resupply areas. Ukrainian planes struck five Russian strongholds around Kherson and another nearby city on Thursday, its military claimed. Kyiv said it had also retaken some small settlements on the Kherson region’s northern edge.
- The Ukrainian counteroffensive in the country’s south is “gathering momentum”, according to British defence and intelligence officials. Ukraine has virtually cut off the Russian-occupied southern city of Kherson, leaving thousands of Russian troops stationed near the Dnieper River “highly vulnerable” and isolated, the UK ministry of defence said.
- Residents of Russian-occupied areas in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region have been urged to evacuate. Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said people risked being cut off from “power, water, food and medical supplies, heating and communication” if they stayed in the area.
- Five people were killed and at least 25 injured when Russian missiles struck the hangars of an aviation enterprise in Kropyvnytskyi, north of Mykolaiv, on Thursday.
- At least two people were killed in the Donetsk town of Toretsk on Thursday, when a five-storey building collapsed after a Russian missile strike.
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Two people in the southern seaside town of Koblevo were blown up by a sea mine while swimming despite a ban, said the Mykolaiv regional governor, Vitaliy Kim.
- US lawmakers were briefed by US officials who said more than 75,000 Russians were estimated to have been killed or injured in the war. The number was “enormous”, Elissa Slotkin, a Democratic House representative who previously attended a secret US government briefing, told CNN. However, there was no current information from official authorities in Russia on the number of deaths.
- The UN aid chief said he was hopeful the first shipment of grain from a Ukrainian Black Sea port could take place as early as Friday. Martin Griffiths said “crucial” details for the safe passage of vessels were still being worked out and “the devil was in the details”.
- Talks between the Kremlin and Washington about a possible prisoner swap were said to not have come to a concrete agreement “yet” on Thursday. The deal reportedly involves trading a notorious Russian arms dealer for a US basketball star and a former marine.
- Estonia said on Thursday it would block Russian nationals from obtaining temporary residence permits or visas to study in Estonia, in a move its foreign minister described as putting “relentless pressure” on Russia and its population.
- Hungary’s prime minister said Ukraine could not win the war against Russia under Nato’s current support strategy. “This war in this form cannot be won,” Viktor Orbán said. “Without changing the strategy, there is not going to be peace.”
- Former Russian state TV journalist Marina Ovsyannikova was fined 50,000 roubles ($820 or £681) after being found guilty of discrediting the country’s armed forces in social media posts condemning Russia’s actions in Ukraine. Ovsyannikova rejected the proceedings against her as “absurd”.
- Russia’s media regulator, Roskomnadzor, has filed a lawsuit to revoke the registration of the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper, which had previously announced it would resume operations in Russia after the war had ended.
- The UK foreign minister, Liz Truss, said she would be Ukraine’s “greatest friend” if she replaced the British prime minister, Boris Johnson. Truss said she would work with allies to provide more weapons and humanitarian aid in a commitment to “ensuring Putin fails in Ukraine and suffers a strategic defeat, and that Russia is constrained in the future”.
- German cities are imposing cold showers and turning off lights to reduce their energy consumption in the face of a looming Russian gas crisis. Hanover announced energy-saving measures including turning off hot water in the showers and bathrooms of city-run buildings and leisure centres. Other cities are switching off spotlights on public monuments and turning off fountains.
