Summary
Thank you for joining us for today’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
We will be pausing our live reporting overnight and returning in the morning.
In the meantime, you can read our comprehensive summary of the day’s events below.
- Russian forces shelled a town in eastern Ukraine, killing six people, according to Ukrainian officials. “Early in the morning, the town of Toretsk was shelled. A two-story building with people inside was destroyed,” Ukraine’s state emergency services said. “Rescuers found and recovered the bodies of five dead people in total. Three people were rescued from the rubble and one of them died in hospital.”
- Zelenskiy has appointed a new security official as acting head of the domestic security agency after two top officials were fired over claims of failure to counter Russian infiltration. Zelenskiy’s childhood friend, Ivan Bakanov, will be replaced by Vasyl Maliuk, a former first deputy head of the SBU who led the anti-corruption and organised crime unit of the agency’s central directorate.
- Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, met with US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, on Monday as she began a series of high-profile appearances in Washington that will include a session with US counterpart Jill Biden.
- Russia’s Gazprom has told customers in Europe it cannot guarantee gas supplies because of “extraordinary” circumstances, according to a letter seen by Reuters. The Russian state gas monopoly said it was declaring force majeure on supplies, starting from 14 June.
- Turkey has said a meeting with Ukraine, Russia and the UN this week to discuss resuming Ukraine’s Black Sea grain exports is “probable”, while a Turkish official said lingering “small problems” should be overcome. A Kremlin aide also told reporters that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and Erdoğan will discuss the export of Ukrainian grain at their meeting in Tehran on Tuesday.
- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan threatened once again to “freeze” Sweden and Finland’s Nato bids unless the military alliance complies with his conditions. “I want to reiterate once again that we will freeze the process if these countries do not take the necessary steps to fulfil our conditions,” he said. Last month, Erdoğan urged the two countries to “do their part” in the fight against terrorism, accusing them of providing a haven for outlawed Kurdish militants.
- Ukraine will break diplomatic ties with Belarus if its forces cross the border in support of the Russian invasion, foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said in an interview with Forbes. “Belarus is an accomplice to the crime of aggression, there is no doubt about that. We broke off diplomatic relations with the Russian Federation immediately after the start of the full-scale attack. Relations with Belarus will likewise be severed if the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus cross the border of Ukraine,” he said.
- Foreign ministers from European Union countries have agreed another €500m (£425m) of EU funding to supply arms to Ukraine, taking the bloc’s security support to €2.5bn since February. “Today at the EU foreign ministers’ meeting, a political agreement was reached on the fifth tranche of military assistance to Ukraine,” Sweden’s minister for foreign affairs, Ann Linde, said.
- Putin said it would be impossible to cut Russia off from the rest of the world, adding that sanctions imposed by western countries would not turn the clock back on Russia’s development.
- The United States will continue to provide intelligence to Ukraine despite recent changes in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s inner circle, the US state department said on Monday. Zelenskiy removed his security service chief and top prosecutor from office on Sunday. US state department spokesperson Ned Price said: “We invest not in personalities, we invest in institutions. We do have an intelligence-sharing relationship with our Ukrainian counterparts ... We continue to proceed ahead with that.”
- EU foreign ministers are discussing a ban on Russian gold imports to further curb funding for the Kremlin’s war machine. The EU’s high representative for foreign policy, Josep Borrell, said the ban on Russian gold was the most important measure of the latest plan, which is focused largely on “improving the implementation of the already existing sanctions”.
- The independent Russian TV station, Dozhd, has begun broadcasting from abroad. The outlet was blocked in March as the government cracked down on independent media outlets following the invasion of Ukraine.
Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg urged members of the European Parliament to “stop complaining and step up and provide support” to Ukraine.
In a passionate speech, he said:
The price we pay as the European Union, as Nato is the price we can measure in currency, in money. The price they pay is measured in lives lost every day.
We should stop complaining and step up and provide support, full stop.”
Stoltenberg said that European Union member countries should aim to provide substantial support to Ukraine for a long time because “the price of not supporting them is much higher.”
It is in our interest to help Ukraine because you have to understand that if Ukraine loses this that’s a danger for us.
If you don’t care about the moral aspect of this, supporting the people of Ukraine, you should care about your own security interests.
Pay for the support, pay for the humanitarian aid, pay the consequences of the economic sanctions, because the alternative is to pay a much higher price later on.”
❝The price we pay as the EU, as #NATO, is the price we can measure in currency, in money. The price they pay is measured in lives lost every day. So, we should stop complaining and step up and provide support, full stop.❞
— NATO (@NATO) July 18, 2022
🗣 @JensStoltenberg to MEP's#StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/Xbuw6XwNmN
The 27 member states of the European Union agreed on Monday to open accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia after Skopje resolved a long dispute with its EU neighbour Bulgaria.
The EU’s member states have “just agreed to open accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia!” Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said late on Monday, whose country holds the EU’s rotating presidency.
“We have taken another important step towards bringing the Western Balkans closer to the EU,” he added after the green light was approved in a meeting of EU envoys in Brussels.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and his North Macedonian counterpart Dimitar Kovacevski were expected in Brussels on Tuesday to formally start the accession talks that will take years.
The @EUCouncil led by @EU2022_CZ has just agreed to open accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia!
— Petr Fiala (@P_Fiala) July 18, 2022
We have taken another important step towards bringing the Western Balkans closer to the EU. It's a great success of our Presidency.
The United States will continue to provide intelligence to Ukraine after recent personnel changes in the inner circle of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the US state department said on Monday.
Zelenskiy removed from office the head of Ukraine’s security service and top prosecutor in Kyiv’s biggest internal purge of the war, citing the failure of the two to root out Russian spies.
State department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters in a news briefing:
We are in daily contact with our Ukrainian partners ... We invest not in personalities, we invest in institutions.
We do have an intelligence-sharing relationship with our Ukrainian counterparts ... We continue to proceed ahead with that.”
More than 60 officials from Bakanov’s SBU security agency and the prosecutor’s office were working against Ukraine in Russian-occupied territory, and 651 treason and collaboration cases had been opened against law enforcement officials, Zelenskiy said earlier.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has provided a little more detail on Ukrainian territory that has been retaken from Russian occupation, claiming 1,028 settlements have been “liberated from the occupiers”.
As of today, 1,028 settlements were liberated from the occupiers.
Another 2,621 are still under the control of the invaders. And we must maintain information communication with all of them - with all where there are people. As much as possible.”
Summary
It’s 1am in Kyiv. Here’s where things stand:
- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday threatened once again to “freeze” Sweden and Finland’s NATO bids unless the military alliance complies with Ankara’s conditions. Speaking Monday, the eve of three-way summit with Russia and Iran, Erdogan said; “I want to reiterate once again that we will freeze the process if these countries do not take the necessary steps to fulfill our conditions.”
- Ukraine will break diplomatic ties with Belarus if its forces cross the border in support of the Russian invasion, Euromaidan reports.The outlet cited Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s minister of foreign affairs, who said that Ukraine ceased diplomatic relations with Russia when it invaded the country in February and will do the same if Belarus chooses to invade.
- The Ukrainian armed forces have helped evacuate 943 civilians, including 216 children, from occupied territories in Kharkiv, a northeastern region of Ukraine. According to Kharkiv oblast governor Oleh Syniehubov, authorities and volunteers participated in the evacuation, the Kyiv Independent reports.
-
Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday as she began a series of high-profile appearances in Washington that will include a session with U.S. counterpart Jill Biden. The low-key arrival reflects that Zelenska is not traveling as an official representative of the government of her husband, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
-
Russian forces shelled a town in eastern Ukraine on Monday, killing six people, Ukrainian officials have said. According to reports, a residential building, school, kindergarten and medical college were also damaged.
- The Russian TV station Dozhd, which was blocked in March as the government cracked down on independent media outlets following the invasion of Ukraine, has begun broadcasting from abroad. At 1700 GMT on Monday, the station began broadcasting via its YouTube channel with a news programme hosted by Tikhon Dzyadko, the station’s editor-in-chief and top presenter.
That’s it from me, Maya Yang, as I hand the blog over to my colleague Samantha Lock in Australia who will bring you the latest updates. Thank you.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday threatened once again to “freeze” Sweden and Finland’s NATO bids unless the military alliance complies with Ankara’s conditions.
Last month, Erdogan urged the two countries at a NATO summit in Madrid to “do their part” in the fight against terrorism, accusing them of providing a haven for outlawed Kurdish militants.
Speaking Monday, the eve of three-way summit with Russia and Iran, Erdogan said; “I want to reiterate once again that we will freeze the process if these countries do not take the necessary steps to fulfill our conditions”.
“We particularly note that Sweden does not have a good image on this issue,” the Turkish leader added.
Earlier this month NATO began accession procedures for Sweden and Finland after a deal was struck with Turkey, which had previously blocked the Nordic countries from joining the military alliance.
Erdogan has accused both countries of being havens for Kurdish militants, specifically highlighting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) he has sought to crush, and for promoting “terrorism.”
In Washington DC, State Department spokesman Ned Price did not respond directly when asked about Erdogan’s remarks but referred to Turkey’s green light during the NATO summit to the Nordic nations’ NATO membership.
“Turkey, Finland, Sweden - they signed a trilateral memorandum in Madrid to set this process in motion,” Prices said.
“The United States will continue to work with those three countries to see to it that this accession process and ratification - here and around the world - is as swift and efficient as it can possibly be,” he added.
Updated
Ukraine will break diplomatic ties with Belarus if its forces cross the border in support of the Russian invasion, Euromaidan reports.
The outlet cited Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s minister of foreign affairs, who said that Ukraine ceased diplomatic relations with Russia when it invaded the country in February and will do the same if Belarus chooses to invade.
“Belarus is an accomplice in this crime of aggression, no one questions this,” the minister said.
He also said, “Belarus gave up its territory to the Russians for the shelling of Ukraine. At the same time, we have diplomatic relations with them. How does this stack up? They [diplomatic relations] will be severed from Belarus if their armed forces cross the border of Ukraine.”
The Ukrainian armed forces have helped evacuate 943 civilians, including 216 children, from occupied territories in Kharkiv, a northeastern region of Ukraine.
According to Kharkiv oblast governor Oleh Syniehubov, authorities and volunteers participated in the evacuation, the Kyiv Independent reports.
Ukraine's first lady meets US Secretary of State
Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday as she began a series of high-profile appearances in Washington that will include a session with U.S. counterpart Jill Biden.
Associated Press reports:
Blue and yellow Ukrainian flags flew alongside American ones on Pennsylvania Avenue as Zelenska headed for her first announced event in the United States, the meeting with Blinken.
The State Department announced and then canceled a planned brief appearance by Blinken and Zelenska before photographers there. The low-key arrival reflects that Zelenska is not traveling as an official representative of the government of her husband, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Updated
Russian shelling leaves six dead in eastern Ukraine – report
Russian forces shelled a town in eastern Ukraine on Monday, killing six people, Ukrainian officials have said.
Rescue workers in blue helmets were seen digging through debris and clearing rubble from a collapsed two-storey building in Toretsk in the industrial east after it was struck by Russian artillery early on Monday, Agence France-Press reports.
I had my windows open. There was a huge explosion around 5am - stones and dust,” local resident Nadia told AFP.
Emergency services said the bodies of five people had been recovered from the rubble, while a sixth, seriously wounded, had died in hospital.
According to reports, a residential building, school, kindergarten and medical college were also damaged.
Russian missile strikes on civilian objects in Toretsk, Zalizne, Kostiantynivka and Soledar. A residential building, a school, a kindergarten, and a medical college were damaged.
— UkraineWorld (@ukraine_world) July 17, 2022
Source: Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk Regional Military Civil Administration. pic.twitter.com/BiBDkJNzXh
Updated
The Russian TV station Dozhd, which was blocked in March as the government cracked down on independent media outlets following the invasion of Ukraine, has begun broadcasting from abroad.
At 1700 GMT on Monday, the station began broadcasting via its YouTube channel with a news programme hosted by Tikhon Dzyadko, the station’s editor-in-chief and top presenter.
Dozhd suspended its operations after authorities blocked its broadcasts, which contained critical coverage of the conflict.
Like several other media outlets, Dozhd decided to base itself in Latvia. It said it has a licence to broadcast in the European Union and that it also has studios in Amsterdam, Paris and Tbilisi.
“During the four and a half months that Dozhd wasn’t operating, a bloody and senseless war waged by Russian leaders against Ukraine has continued and people died and lives were destroyed,” the TV station said in a statement.
“Today, more than ever, Russian citizens should have access to independent information,” it said, adding that the conflict “destroys Ukrainian cities and the future of Russia”.
It said it would gradually increase its operations and broadcast through social media and television.
Launched in 2008, TV Dozhd has actively covered Russia’s opposition and protest movements. In 2021, Russian authorities labelled it as a “foreign agent”, a status that placed it under heavy administrative constraints and put it at risk of heavy fines and being banned.
Updated
Summary
The time in Kyiv is 9pm. Here is a brief roundup of the day’s main headlines:
- Russia’s Gazprom has told customers in Europe it cannot guarantee gas supplies because of “extraordinary” circumstances, according to a letter seen by Reuters, upping the ante in an economic tit-for-tat with the west over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
- The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has suspended the country’s head of the security service and the prosecutor general, claiming that more than 60 of their employees have been “working against” Ukraine in Russian-occupied territory. He added that 651 criminal proceedings had been registered relating to high treason and collaboration by employees of prosecutors’ offices, pretrial investigation bodies and other law enforcement agencies.
- Zelenskiy has appointed Vasyl Maliuk, an experienced security official and corruption fighter, as the acting head of the domestic security agency.
- Foreign ministers from European Union countries have agreed another €500m (£425m) of EU funding to supply arms to Ukraine, taking the bloc’s security support to €2.5bn since February. “Today at the EU foreign ministers’ meeting, a political agreement was reached on the fifth tranche of military assistance to Ukraine,” Sweden’s minister for foreign affairs, Ann Linde, said in a statement, as reported by Reuters.
- The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, will discuss the export of Ukrainian grain at their meeting in Tehran on Tuesday, a Kremlin aide has told reporters. The Turkish defence minister, Hulusi Akar, said officials from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations would most probably meet this week to discuss resuming Ukraine’s Black Sea grain exports.
- Putin said on Monday that it was impossible to cut Russia off from the rest of the world. He added that sanctions imposed by western countries would not turn the clock back on Russia’s development.
- A gas pipeline has been damaged as a result of a strike by the Ukrainian armed forces near the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant in Kherson, a region currently controlled by Russian forces, Tass has reported, citing the regional administration.
- Russia is preparing for the next stage of its offensive in Ukraine, according to Ukrainian military officials, after Moscow said its forces would step up military operations in “all operational areas”. The Ukrainian military said Russia appeared to be regrouping units for an offensive towards Sloviansk, a symbolically important city held by Ukraine in the eastern region of Donetsk. The British defence ministry added that Russia was also reinforcing its defensive positions across the occupied areas in southern Ukraine.
- Six people were killed in Russian shelling of the town of Toretsk in the Donetsk region of east Ukraine on Monday, according to Ukraine’s state emergency service.
That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, for today. I’ll be back tomorrow but my colleague Maya Yang will be along shortly to continue bringing you all the latest from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Updated
Foreign ministers from European Union countries have agreed another €500m (£425m) of EU funding to supply arms to Ukraine, taking the bloc’s security support to €2.5bn since February.
“Today at the EU foreign ministers’ meeting, a political agreement was reached on the fifth tranche of military assistance to Ukraine,” Sweden’s minister for foreign affairs, Ann Linde, said in a statement, as reported by Reuters.
The money should help the EU continue to jointly buy equipment and supplies for the Ukrainian military, including lethal weaponry, which the bloc has said should be used for defensive purposes.
EU rules normally prevent the bloc from using its seven-year budget to fund military operations, but the European Peace Facility, which has a limit of €5bn, is off-budget and can be used to provide military aid.
Updated
A gas pipeline has been damaged as a result of a strike by the Ukrainian armed forces near the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant in Kherson, a region currently controlled by Russian forces, Tass has reported, citing the regional administration.
A spokesperson for Ukraine’s state gas system Naftogaz said there was no immediate evidence that the developments in the Kherson region had affected the transit of Russian natural gas to Europe.
Updated
Russia's Gazprom tells Europe gas halt beyond its control
Russia’s Gazprom has told customers in Europe it cannot guarantee gas supplies because of ‘extraordinary’ circumstances, according to a letter seen by Reuters, upping the ante in an economic tit-for-tat with the West over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Dated 14 July, the letter from the Russian state gas monopoly, said it was declaring force majeure on supplies, starting from 14 June, Reuters reported.
Known as an ‘act of God’ clause, force majeure is standard in business contracts and spells out extreme circumstances that excuse a party from their legal obligations.
In its analysis, Reuters reported:
Uniper, Germany’s biggest importer of Russian gas, was among the customers who said they had received a letter, and that it had formally rejected the claim as unjustified. Meanwhile, RWE, Germany’s largest power producer and another importer of Russian gas, also said it has received a force majeure notice.
“Please understand that we cannot comment on its details or our legal opinion,” the company said.
A source, asking not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the force majeure concerned supplies through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, a major supply route to Germany and beyond.
Flows through the pipeline are at zero as the link undergoes annual maintenance that began on 11 July and is meant to conclude on Thursday.
Updated
It may take years to hold perpetrators of war crimes in Ukraine accountable, the European Union’s top justice official told Reuters, but those responsible should know the threat of prosecution will hang over them “forever”.
The European justice commissioner, Didier Reynders, spoke as the United States and more than 40 other countries work to align evidence to help prosecution and trials for atrocities Russian troops committed in Ukraine.
“It will be for the next weeks, next months, next years, maybe for the next decades. For some cases, it will be very fast. It will be longer for others,” said Reynders.
“But it is also a clear message to the Russian authorities – the risk of these investigations and prosecutions and trials will hang over them for the rest of their lives. It’s forever.”
Reynders said Russia’s war in Ukraine marked the first time the international community started working to bring those guilty of war crimes to justice even before the conflict ended.
Updated
Turkey will freeze Finland and Sweden’s Nato membership bids if the Nordic countries do not keep promises on counter-terrorism made last month, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said on Monday, adding he believed Sweden was “not showing a good image” for now.
Finland and Sweden applied for membership of the defence alliance in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but were met with opposition from Turkey, which accused the Nordic countries of supporting groups it deems terrorists.
The three countries signed an accord at the Nato summit in Madrid last month to lift Ankara’s veto in exchange for pledges on counter-terrorism and arms exports.
Turkey has said it will closely monitor the implementation of the accord to ratify their membership bids, Reuters said.
Updated
Ukraine’s foreign ministry accused Russia on Monday of treating Ukrainian prisoners of war illegally and using them for political purposes, and demanded humane treatment of captured foreigners fighting for Ukraine.
It urged Russia to adhere strictly to the provisions of international humanitarian law, including the 1949 Geneva conventions that define international legal standards for humanitarian treatment, Reuters reported.
It said “all foreign citizens and stateless persons” fighting for Ukraine on Ukrainian territory had been voluntarily accepted for military service, and that international humanitarian law should apply to them.
Updated
Zelenskiy appoints Vasyl Maliuk as acting chief of the SBU
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has appointed an experienced security official and corruption fighter as the acting head of the domestic security agency after abruptly sidelining his predecessor.
Zelenskiy signed a decree appointing Vasyl Maliuk as acting chief of the State Security Service (SBU), one day after the president suspended childhood friend Ivan Bakanov over what he portrayed as a failure to root out treason in the agency.
Reuters reports that in a further top-level change, parliament voted to accept the resignation of social policy minister, Maryna Lazebna. She did not explain her resignation, which she tendered last week. The prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, issued a statement thanking her for her “effective” work in the role since March 2020.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the newswires showing the impact of the war in Ukraine and in Moscow.
Updated
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, will discuss the export of Ukrainian grain at their meeting in Tehran on Tuesday, a Kremlin aide has told reporters.
Reuters reports Yuriy Ushakov, foreign policy adviser to Putin, said “The issue of Ukrainian grain shipment will be discussed with Erdoğan. We are ready to continue work on this track.”
Updated
Ukrainian spy chief’s dismissal renews questions over Russian infiltration
Peter Beaumont reports for us from Kyiv:
The sidelining of Ukraine’s security chief and prosecutor general by the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has renewed questions over Russian intelligence infiltration of key ministries before the war, as well as suggesting increasingly public divisions among his inner circle of top officials.
After recent anonymous briefings against Zelenskiy’s childhood friend Ivan Bakanov – who had been in charge of the 30,000-strong state security service, the SBU, since 2019 – over claims of failure to counter Russian infiltration, Bakanov was abruptly suspended on Sunday along with the prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, who had been leading war crimes investigations.
While the reason cited for the dismissals was the claim of widespread Russian collaboration in the two departments, it also appears to reflect jostling for influence around the president among key players.
Zelenskiy, widely feted on the world stage as a wartime leader, had been dogged on the domestic stage before the invasion by accusations that he had named inexperienced outsiders, including friends, to jobs in which they were out of their depth.
The latest move comes just a week after Zelenskiy dismissed ambassadors to five countries including Germany, and several other envoys including to Hungary, Norway, the Czech Republic and India,. Last month there was a public spat with the head of his armed forces.
Bakanov, in particular, was regarded as close to Zelenskiy, growing up in the same city of Kryvyi Rih. He worked for Zelenskiy’s Studio Kvartal-95 production company and ran the former actor’s campaign headquarters during his presidential race. At the time of his appointment, he was accused of holding a top position in a private company registered in Spain in apparent breach of Ukraine’s anti-corruption legislation.
While observers suggest that one motive is to demonstrate to the Ukrainian public that Zelenskiy will not tolerate underperformance, the moves also come amid hostile briefing against key figures that has ticked up in recent weeks.
Read more of Peter Beaumont’s report from Kyiv: Ukrainian spy chief’s dismissal renews questions over Russian infiltration
Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said on Monday that it was impossible to cut Russia off from the rest of the world.
He added that sanctions imposed by western countries would not turn the clock back on Russia’s development, Reuters reported.
Since sending troops into Ukraine, Russia has been hit with a barrage of sanctions, designed to isolate it from the global economy, that have deprived it of access to goods including commercial electronics, semiconductors and aircraft parts.
“Not just restrictions but the almost complete closure of access to foreign hi-tech products is being deliberately, intentionally used against our country,” Putin said, speaking to a video-conference with government figures.
“It is clear that this is a huge challenge for our country, but ... we are not going to give up and stay in a state of disarray or, as some of our ‘well-wishers’ predict, go back decades. Of course not,” he said.
Updated
Officials from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations will most likely meet this week to discuss resuming Ukraine’s Black Sea grain exports, Turkish defence minister, Hulusi Akar, said on Monday.
Last week, Akar said Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN would sign a deal this week on the grain exports corridor, but UN chief António Guterre,s warned there was still “a long way to go” before there would be peace talks to end the war.
Akar said on Monday there was an agreement on “a plan, general principles” regarding the export corridor, and added a meeting between all parties to discuss details was “probable” this week, Reuters reported.
He said technical matters like forming a monitoring centre in Istanbul, identifying safe routes, and checkpoints at port exits and entries were on the agenda.
Updated
EU foreign ministers are discussing a ban on Russian gold imports, the most significant measure in a limited plan by the bloc to further curb funding for the Kremlin’s war machine.
The EU’s high representative for foreign policy, Josep Borrell, said the ban on Russian gold was “the most important” measure of the latest plan, which is focused largely on “improving the implementation of the already existing sanctions”.
The EU has passed six rounds of sanctions against Russia, but agreeing the last package – an incomplete ban on oil agreed in May – was a bruising experience that revealed stark differences of opinion on how far the bloc should go.
The latest measures have been dubbed the “six-and-a-half package”, in a sign of the limited appetite for further sanctions against Russia.
Updated
Kremlin-backed rolling news channel RT breached British broadcasting rules on 29 separate occasions in the four days after Russia invaded Ukraine, according to a ruling by media regulator Ofcom.
The “serious and repeated” breaches of the UK’s rules on due impartiality are enough to warrant a sanction - but RT has already had its licence to broadcast in the UK revoked on separate grounds.
RT, formerly known as Russia Today, vanished from European television screens in March after the businesses that provided technical services to the channel were hit by EU sanctions. Ofcom then later revoked its licence to broadcast in the UK after concluding it was ultimately controlled by the Russia state - and not operated at arms length.
The UK’s due impartiality rules do not require equal airtime to opposing views and do allow broadcasting some leeway for politically-biased broadcasting. However, when dealing with matters such as armed conflict Ofcom requires broadcasters to take additional steps to preserve due impartiality” by including and giving due weight to a wide range of significant views”.
RT attempted to fight the punishment by saying it made a “sincere desire and effort” to maintain due impartiality in its coverage of the conflict and staff in the RT newsroom were “constantly reminded of the necessity to pay special attention to maintaining” due impartiality. However, Ofcom concluded it failed to represent an “appropriately wide range of significant viewpoints” when explaining the war in Ukraine to viewers.
Updated
European Union foreign ministers have been arriving in Brussels for a crucial meeting during which they are expected to approve more sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
The bloc’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, told reporters as he headed into the meeting: “We are not going to stop supporting Ukraine” but he also said it was was becoming harder to keep up the sense of urgency.
Swedish deputy foreign minister Robert Rydberg said: “Sweden will raise the importance of agreeing a new package of military support for Ukraine. We will also raise the importance of continuing to strengthen the restrictive measures against Russia.”
Reuters reports Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba will address the 27 EU ministers via video conference later today.
- Hello. I’m Tom Ambrose and will be bringing you coverage from Russia’s war on Ukraine today. Follow me on Twitter @tomambrose89 for more.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
- The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has removed the country’s head of the security service and the prosecutor general, claiming more than 60 of their employees have been “working against” Ukraine in Russian-occupied territory. He added that 651 criminal proceedings had been registered relating to high treason and collaboration by employees of prosecutors’ offices, pretrial investigation bodies and other law enforcement agencies.
- EU foreign ministers are expected to meet in Brussels on Monday to hold sanctions discussions, according to a senior EU official. Among the measures being considered is a ban on gold purchases from Russia, a move already put in place by international partners. The EU could also act to impose sanctions on additional Russian individuals.
- Russia is preparing for the next stage of its offensive in Ukraine, according to Ukrainian military officials, after Moscow said its forces would step up military operations in “all operational areas”. The Ukrainian military said Russia appeared to be regrouping units for an offensive towards Sloviansk, a symbolically important city held by Ukraine in the eastern region of Donetsk. The British defence ministry added that Russia was also reinforcing its defensive positions across the occupied areas in southern Ukraine.
- Six people were killed in Russian shelling of the town of Toretsk in the Donetsk region of east Ukraine on Monday, according to Ukraine’s state emergency service said.
- Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, has instructed the military to prioritise destroying Ukraine’s long-range missile and artillery weapons, according to a defence ministry statement.
- The UK’s Ministry of Defence has claimed that Russia is using the private military company Wagner in Ukraine to reinforce its frontline forces, but that losses they have sustained are likely to be impacting their effectiveness.
That is it from me, Martin Belam. I will be back later. Tom Ambrose will be with you shortly to continue our live coverage.
The Russian ministry of defence has issued its daily operation briefing. It claims:
- “Up to 250 foreign fighters, seven armoured vehicles, and 12 special vehicles were destroyed” were destroyed in an attack on the village of Konstantinovka in occupied Donetsk.
- “10 Ukrainian installations of Grad multiple launch rocket systems” were destroyed in a strike on a railway facility.
- two Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopters were destroyed.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Six people were killed in Russian shelling of the town of Toretsk in the Donetsk region of east Ukraine on Monday, according to Ukraine’s state emergency service said.
Reuters report that in a statement the agency said rescuers retrieved five bodies from the rubble of a two-storey house and another person died in hospital.
Confusion as Ukraine president's aide says Bakanov and Venediktova removed, not fired
One of Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s top aides has denied that Ivan Bakanov and Iryna Venediktova have been fired, instead saying on Ukrainian television that Bakanov had been “temporarily removed from fulfilling his duties” while “checks and investigations” are carried out, and Venediktova had been suspended.
Bakanov had been head of the SBU domestic security agency and Venediktova was prosecutor general.
Reuters reports Andriy Smyrnov, deputy head of the presidential office, asked if the two may return to their jobs, said “We live in a law-abiding country, and of course I can conceive of (the possibility of) this” if investigations exonerate.
Zelenskiy said on Sunday he had fired the top officials because it had come to light that many members of their agencies had collaborated with Russia.
Here is a selection of photographs that have been sent to us over the newswires today from inside the occupied port city of Mariupol, which was under siege for several weeks at the beginning of Russia’s invasion.
Updated
The daily operation briefing has been released from the self-proclaimed republic in Donetsk . It claims that its forces, alongside those of Russia and the similarly self-proclaimed republic in Luhansk, now control 253 “liberated” settlements. This is a slight increase on the number it was claiming last week. It claims that 12 of these settlements were shelled by Ukrainian forces in the last 24 hours. It did not report any casualties. None of the claims have been independently verified.
Updated
Oleksandr Syenkevych, mayor of Mykolaiv, is reporting no casualties from overnight shelling on Telegram, but says: “It is already known that Russian missiles hit a car showroom and a showroom selling agricultural machinery. The occupiers also shelled the outskirts of the city. Fortunately, there were no victims.”
Updated
Ukraine’s governor of Luhansk, Serhai Haidai, has given a sparse update today. He has posted to Telegram to say that part of the Luhansk region is still resisting the Russian occupation, and “does not let the enemy through”.
He says that shelling continues constantly, and that “the Russians are still losing personnel and equipment in our region”.
He implies that Ukrainian resistance groups are active in the occupied areas of Luhansk, commenting “local residents in the underground help us to keep the defence”.
Updated
Maksym Kozytskyi, governor of Lviv, has posted to Telegram to say that his western region of Ukraine was quiet overnight with no air raid warnings. He said that in the last day, 304 people arrived in Lviv on evacuation trains from the east of Ukraine, and that 805 people had departed for Przemyśl in Poland.
Updated
During his interview with Sky News, Oleksii Makeiev, the special envoy on sanctions at Ukraine’s foreign ministry, was asked about the sacking of SBU’s Ivan Bakanov and war crimes prosecutor Iryna Venediktova by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
He said “no way those two people are accused in treason. This is not correct”. He went on to say: “What is important is that we get rid of the Soviet past, and of the Russian agents all over a country who is now fighting a war against Russia.”
In a Telegram post, Zelenskiy had said he had fired them because many members of their agencies had collaborated with Russia.
Updated
Oleksii Makeiev, the special envoy on sanctions at Ukraine’s foreign ministry, has been interviewed from Kyiv by Sky News in the UK. He was asked about the prospect of further EU sanctions on Russia. He said:
We are happy the sanctions coalition and the European Union increase the pressure on Russia, but of course I would never say it is enough, because sanctions is what essentially help us in winning this war. And weapons is the most important thing.
Getting rid of the dependence on Russian energy is very important for the whole western coalition. Let’s look practically. Every day the European Union has been paying over €700m to Russia.
And that’s made it possible for Russians that they continue shooting us with their cruise missiles. Just imagine, 145 days of war, and they shot 3000 cruise missiles over Ukrainian territory, hitting civilian infrastructure, schools and kindergartens and hospitals.
So getting rid of that dependence, stop paying the Russians, so Russians cannot produce weapons anymore. That’s killing my country.
Reuters has a quick snap that Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, has instructed the military to prioritise destroying Ukraine’s long-range missile and artillery weapons, according to a defence ministry statement.
Updated
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has claimed that Russia is using the private military company Wagner in Ukraine to reinforce its frontline forces, but that losses they have sustained are likely to be impacting their effectiveness.
The MoD said in their daily intelligence briefing on the situation in Ukraine:
Russia has used private military company Wagner to reinforce front-line forces and to mitigate manning shortfalls and casualties.
Wagner has almost certainly played a central role in recent fighting, including the capture of Popasna and Lysyschansk. This fighting has inflicted heavy casualties on the group.
Wagner are lowering recruitment standards, hiring convicts and formerly blacklisted individuals. Very limited training is made available to new recruits.
It goes on to say that “this will highly likely impact on the future operational effectiveness of the group”.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 18 July 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) July 18, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/FLMyNFy4J2
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/F4p4UkX1KT
Updated
Valentyn Reznichenko, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, has posted on Telegram to say that the city of Nikopol in his region was fired on overnight. He said:
Russian troops hit Nikopol several times during the night with anti-aircraft guns. More than 60 shells were directed at residential quarters and city infrastructure. One person was injured. This is a 75-year-old woman. She is in the hospital. Dozens of private residential buildings were destroyed.
- This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com
Updated
EU to discuss tightening sanctions against Russia
EU foreign ministers are expected to meet in Brussels on Monday to hold sanctions discussions, according to a senior EU official.
Among the measures being considered is a ban on gold purchases from Russia, a move already put in place by international partners.
The EU could also act to impose sanctions on additional Russian individuals.
A senior EU official told Agence France-Presse the EU was likely to discuss further sanctions at the meeting but would not make an immediate decision.
The new measures come as “Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine continues unabated”, Ursula Von der Leyen said in a statement.
Therefore, we are proposing today to tighten our hard-hitting EU sanctions against the Kremlin, enforce them more effectively and extend them until January 2023. Moscow must continue to pay a high price for its aggression.”
Josep Borrell, high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy, added:
The EU’s sanctions are tough and hard-hitting. We continue to target those close to Putin and the Kremlin … I will also present proposals to Council for the listing of more individuals and entities, with their assets frozen and ability to travel curtailed.”
Updated
In case you missed this exchange earlier, British prime ministerial candidate Liz Truss said she was prepared to sit down with Vladimir Putin at the G20.
In the latest TV debate on Sunday night, the Conservative leadership hopefuls were asked if they would sit next to the Russian president at a G20 summit.
Truss said she would “call Putin out” and it was important for the free world to face down Russia.
Prime Ministerial candidate @trussliz answered the question whether she would sit down with Vladimir #Putin at the #G20. pic.twitter.com/bmbUqZNjjY
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) July 18, 2022
Penny Mordaunt, Tom Tugendhat and Kemi Badenoch all said they would not sit down with Putin, at least in current circumstances.
Rishi Sunak said he has walked out before rather than sit down with the Russians.
Updated
China is not a party to the Ukrainian crisis, but will not sit idly by, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi reportedly said during a phone call with his Hungarian counterpart Péter Szijjártó.
Yi and Szijjarto talked over the phone on Sunday about bilateral ties between the countries and the Ukraine crisis, according to a report by China’s Xinhua news agency.
Russia’s state media agency RIA Novosti quoted Yi as saying:
China is not a party to the Ukrainian crisis, but we are not going to be an indifferent spectator and, moreover, we are not going to add fuel to the fire, we have always been adamant and consistent in encouraging peace and negotiations.”
The lessons from the Ukraine crisis are “profound and worth well learning for all sides”, Wang noted, saying that in the long run, the parties should discuss building a balanced, effective, and sustainable European security framework, so as to realise lasting peace and security.
Updated
Russian journalist who staged TV protest arrested, later released
Russian police detained the journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who in March interrupted a live television broadcast to denounce the military action in Ukraine, her lawyer said earlier on Sunday.
No official statement has been made, but her entourage posted a message on the journalist’s Telegram account on Sunday, according to Agence France-Presse.
Marina has been detained. There is no information on where she is.”
The message included three photos of her being led by two police officers to a white van, after apparently having been stopped while cycling.
Ovsyannikova also posted images of herself and two dogs on her Facebook page, later revealing she had been released.
Went for a walk with the dogs, just stepped outside the gate, people in uniform approached me. Now I’m sitting in Krasnoselsky ministry of internal affairs.
Three hours later, Ovsyannikova said she had been released. “I’m home. Everything is OK,” she wrote. “But now I know it’s always best to bring a suitcase and passport if you go out.”
В Москве полиция задержала журналистку и бывшую сотрудницу Первого канала Марину Овсянникову.
— ОВД-Инфо (@OvdInfo) July 17, 2022
Ее доставили в отдел по Красносельскому району, на помощь отправился адвокат от ОВД-Инфо Дмитрий Захватовhttps://t.co/NSbJrHI9TW
Фото: телеграм-канал Марии Овсянниковой pic.twitter.com/LgqPZutXaK
Her lawyer, Dmitri Zakhvatov, confirmed her arrest to the Ria-Novosti news agency, saying he did not know where Ovsyannikova had been taken.
“I assume that it is linked one way or another to her act of protest,” he added.
In March, Ovsyannikova, an editor at Channel One television, barged on to the set of its flagship Vremya (Time) evening news programme, holding a poster reading “No War” in English.
On Friday, Ovsyannikova posted photos of herself on Telegram showing her near the Kremlin and carrying a protest placard raising the deaths of children and denouncing Putin as a “killer”.
Updated
Russia prepares for next offensive
Russia is preparing for the next stage of its offensive in Ukraine, according to Ukrainian and British military officials after its military claimed to have undertaken an “operational pause”.
The Ukrainian military said Russia appeared to be regrouping units for an offensive towards Sloviansk, a symbolically important city held by Ukraine in the eastern region of Donetsk.
The British defence ministry added that Russia was also reinforcing its defensive positions across the occupied areas in southern Ukraine.
Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, ordered Russian military units operating in all areas of Ukraine to step up their operations to prevent strikes on eastern Ukraine and other territories under Russian control, the ministry said in a statement on its website on Saturday.
It said Shoigu “gave the necessary instructions to further increase the actions of groups in all operational areas in order to exclude the possibility of the Kyiv regime launching massive rocket and artillery strikes on civilian infrastructure and residents of settlements in Donbas and other regions”.
Zelenskiy fires Ukraine’s spy chief and top state prosecutor
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has fired the head of Ukraine’s powerful domestic security agency, the SBU, and the state prosecutor general, citing dozens of cases of collaboration with Russia by officials in their agencies.
Sunday’s abrupt sackings of SBU chief Ivan Bakanov, a childhood friend of Zelenskiy, and the prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, who played a key role in the prosecution of Russian war crimes, were announced in executive orders on the president’s website.
Zelenskiy said he fired the top officials because it had come to light that many members of their agencies had collaborated with Russia.
As of today, 651 criminal proceedings have been registered regarding treason and collaboration activities of employees of prosecutor’s offices, pretrial investigation bodies, and other law enforcement agencies.
In particular, more than 60 employees of the prosecutor’s office and the Security Service of Ukraine remained in the occupied territory and are working against our state.
Such an array of crimes against the foundations of the national security of the state and the connections detected between the employees of the security forces of Ukraine and the special services of Russia pose very serious questions to the relevant leadership. Each of these questions will receive a proper answer.”
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.
In a fairly explosive new development, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, fired the country’s head of the security service and the prosecutor general on Sunday, citing dozens of cases of collaboration with Russia by officials in their agencies.
Military officials in both Ukraine and the UK have also warned Russia is preparing for the next stage of its offensive.
It is 7.30am in Kyiv and here is where things stand:
- The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has fired the country’s head of the security service and the prosecutor general, claiming more than 60 of their employees have been “working against” Ukraine in Russian-occupied territory. He added that 651 criminal proceedings had been registered relating to high treason and collaboration by employees of prosecutors’ offices, pretrial investigation bodies and other law enforcement agencies.
- Russia is preparing for the next stage of its offensive in Ukraine, according to Ukrainian military officials, after Moscow said its forces would step up military operations in “all operational areas”. The Ukrainian military said Russia appeared to be regrouping units for an offensive towards Sloviansk, a symbolically important city held by Ukraine in the eastern region of Donetsk. The British defence ministry added that Russia was also reinforcing its defensive positions across the occupied areas in southern Ukraine.
- 1,346 civilians have been found dead in the Kyiv region after the retreat of Russian forces, according to the region’s police chief. Andriy Nebytov said about 300 individuals were still missing, and that 700 of those killed were shot with small arms such as a handgun.
- Russia has lost more than 30% of its land combat effectiveness and 50,000 of its soldiers have either died or been injured in the conflict, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the chief of the UK defence staff, told the BBC. The military chief added that Russia posed “the biggest threat” to the UK and that its challenge would endure for decades.
- Mourners have buried a four-year-old girl who was killed by a Russian missile strike in the city of Vinnytsia, in central Ukraine, last week. The killing of Liza Dmitrieva, who had Down’s syndrome, as she was pushed in a stroller through a crowded square was reported around the globe, becoming a poignant symbol of the heavy civilian cost of Russia’s invasion.
- Russian missiles hit an industrial and infrastructure facility in Mykolaiv, a shipbuilding centre and city near the Black Sea in southern Ukraine. Oleksandr Senkevych, the city’s mayor, said there was no immediate information about casualties.
- A Russian attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut in Donetsk has injured six people, including three children, according to local media reports. The three injured children have shrapnel wounds, the Donetsk prosecutor’s office said.
-
A British man apparently being held captive by Russian forces in Ukraine has been shown in a video appealing to Boris Johnson for help, saying he could face the death penalty. “I would say to Boris Johnson, if you can help, if you can influence President Zelenskiy … or if you can influence President Putin, then please do,” John Harding, in his 50s and originally from Sunderland, said while interviewed by a Russian journalist. “People’s lives are depending on this. So if you can, please help.”
- Russian police have detained journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who in March interrupted a live TV broadcast to denounce the military action in Ukraine, her lawyer has said. No official statement has been made, but her entourage posted a message on the journalist’s Telegram account on Sunday, according to Agence France-Presse. “Marina has been detained,” it read. “There is no information on where she is.”
- Sunday marked the eighth anniversary of the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Donetsk in 2014, which killed 298 people onboard. Russia denied involvement in the plane’s downing, despite the findings of an international investigation that found witnesses who saw an anti-aircraft missile launcher that had secretly crossed into Ukraine from Russia in the hours before it shot down the commercial flight. Iryna Venediktova, the prosecutor general of Ukraine, called for international action against Russia.
- A Ukrainian cargo plane transporting munitions from Serbia to Bangladesh crashed and exploded in northern Greece, killing all eight crew onboard. Serbia’s defence minister, Nebojša Stefanović, said the plane was carrying 11.5 tonnes of military products, including illuminating mortar shells and training shells, and the buyer was the Bangladesh defence ministry. A Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson said all eight crew members onboard were Ukrainian citizens.
- The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, will travel to Baku on Monday to seek more natural gas from Azerbaijan, the EU’s executive said, as the EU seeks to reduce its reliance on Russian energy.
- The European Union is to discuss tightening sanctions against Russia on Monday, as Moscow is accused of using the captured Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant to store weapons and launch missiles on the surrounding regions of southern Ukraine.
Updated
