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NATO slams ‘dangerous’ Russian blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea grain exports
NATO condemned Russia’s “dangerous” moves to block Ukrainian grain exports in the Black Sea after urgent consultations with Kyiv on Wednesday following Moscow’s withdrawal from a key grain deal last week. Earlier in the day, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu arrived in North Korea, with delegations from Moscow and Beijing set to attend Korean War commemorations. Read our liveblog to see how the day’s events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
Issued on: 26/07/2023 – 11:22
Modified: 26/07/2023 – 11:25
12 min
A bulk grain cargo ship is anchored in the Black Sea near the entrance of the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul, Turkey on Monday, July 17, 2023.
A bulk grain cargo ship is anchored in the Black Sea near the entrance of the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul, Turkey on Monday, July 17, 2023. © Sercan Ozkurnazli, AP
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3:48am: Blinken urges African leaders to confront Putin on grain disruptions
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday pressed African leaders attending a St Petersburg summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin to demand answers about a grain crisis that has propelled poorer nations towards crisis.
Speaking ahead of the summit, Blinken insisted that African leaders knew rising food costs, grain and fertiliser shortages were a direct result of Putin’s choice to invade Ukraine.
“They know exactly who’s to blame for this current situation,” Blinken said of the leaders, some of whom have offered tacit support for Moscow or refused to denounce the invasion.
“My expectation would be that Russia will hear this clearly from our African partners,” he said, speaking during a visit to New Zealand.
3:04am: Belarusian journalist sentenced to six years in prison for reporting on the opposition
A prominent journalist in Belarus was sentenced Wednesday to six years in prison, the latest step in a years-long crackdown on opposition figures, independent journalists and human rights activists.
On trial in the city of Grodno in western Belarus, Pavel Mazheika, 45, was found guilty of “complicity in extremist activity” for covering the activities of the political opposition.
He was accused of working for news outlets including Belsat TV, which broadcasts in Belarusian from its base in neighbouring Poland. The Belarusian authorities have labelled Belsat as “extremist”.
9:48pm: ‘Very good results’ from the front line, Zelensky says
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that Ukrainian forces had achieved “very good results” on the front line and promised to provide details of their successes soon.
“By the way, today our boys had very good results at the front,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address. “Good for them! Details will follow.”
Zelensky has repeatedly said the offensive launched by Ukrainian forces last month in Russian-occupied areas of the country’s east and southeast is going more slowly than he would like.
9:39pm: Ukraine air force says 36 Russian cruise missiles downed
The Ukrainian Air Force said Wednesday it had intercepted 36 cruise missiles fired by Russia during a new wave of attacks.
In his evening address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the air force for having shot down “the vast majority” of the missiles. “I am grateful to each and every one of them who protects the Ukrainian sky,” he said.
Russia has increased the bombing of Ukrainian cities over the last two weeks, particularly targeting the key port of Odesa on the Black Sea.
9:33pm: Italy Senate names Ukraine Soviet-era famine ‘genocide’
Italian senators on Wednesday voted to recognise as “genocide” the 1930s starvation of millions in Ukraine under Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, a move welcomed by Kyiv.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba offered his thanks, posting “Grazie mille” (thank you very much) on Twitter, the social media platform undergoing a rebranding to X.
The 1932-33 “Holodomor” – Ukrainian for “death by starvation” – is regarded by Kyiv as a deliberate act of genocide by Stalin’s regime with the intention of wiping out the peasantry.
Stalin’s campaign of forced “collectivisation” seized grain and other foodstuffs and left millions to starve.
Moscow rejects Kyiv’s account, placing the events in the broader context of famines that devastated regions of Central Asia and Russia.
8:52pm: Ukraine counteroffensive is moving, US says while pledging support
Ukraine’s counteroffensive is “not a stalemate” even if it is not progressing fast enough, White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters at a press briefing on Wednesday.
“President Zelensky himself has said that he that it’s not progressing as fast as he would like and they’re not moving as far every day as they would like. The United States is not going to take a position on that,” Kirby said.
He added: “That said they are moving, it’s not a stalemate. They’re not just frozen. The Ukrainians are moving.”
The White House national security spokesman said Washington would “make sure that they (Ukrainians) have the kinds of tools and capabilities they need to stay on the move.”
6:59pm: Russian missiles strikes attack three Ukrainian regions, air force says
Russia attacked the Ukrainian regions of Kyiv, Khmelnytskiy and Kyrovohrad with missiles on Wednesday, Ukraine’s air force spokesman said in televised comments after air raid sirens were sounded across the country.
“We have registered high-speed targets, probably also ballistic missiles, the enemy is using different weapons types,” the Yuriy Ihnat said.
6:24pm: Russia ‘repelled major Ukraine attack in south’
The Russian army said Wednesday it had repelled a Ukrainian attack involving several hundred soldiers near the town of Orikhiv in the south, one of the areas where Kyiv has been carrying out its counteroffensive.
Kyiv last month began a highly anticipated counteroffensive against Russian troops after stockpiling Western weapons and building up its offensive forces.
“On the morning of July 26, the enemy resumed intensive offensive operations” near Orikhiv, Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement.
It added that Ukraine “conducted a massive attack by the forces of three battalions reinforced by tanks”.
“All attacks of the Armed Force of Ukraine were repelled. Positions were held,” the Kremlin said.
6:04pm: NATO slams Russia’s ‘dangerous’ Black Sea grain block
NATO on Wednesday condemned Russia’s “dangerous” moves to block Ukrainian grain exports in the Black Sea, after urgent consultations with Kyiv following Moscow’s withdrawal from a UN-backed deal.
“Allies and Ukraine strongly condemned Russia’s decision to withdraw from the Black Sea grain deal and its deliberate attempts to stop Ukraine’s agricultural exports on which hundreds of millions of people worldwide depend,” a statement from NATO said.
“They also condemned Russia’s recent missile attacks on Odesa, Mykolaiv, and other port cities, including Moscow’s cynical drone attack on the Ukrainian grain storage facility in the Danube port city of Reni, very close to the Romanian border.”
5:58pm: African leaders arrive in Russia for summit as Kremlin seeks allies amid fighting in Ukraine
Some African leaders arrived in Russia on Wednesday for a summit with President Vladimir Putin as the Kremlin seeks more allies amid the fighting in Ukraine.
Putin has billed the two-day summit that opens Thursday in St. Petersburg as a major event that would help bolster ties with a continent of 1.3 billion people that is increasingly assertive on the global stage.
On Wednesday, Putin held one-on-one talks with Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and said Russia will more than triple the number of Ethiopian students it hosts and cover their education costs.
5:55pm: Ukraine’s SBU claims responsibility for last year’s Crimea bridge blast
Ukraine’s domestic intelligence agency claimed responsibility for the first time on Wednesday for a sabotage operation that badly damaged the Russian-made Kerch Bridge linking occupied Crimea with Russia last October.
Vasyl Malyuk, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), said his agency was behind the attack, speaking in comments shown on television as he presented a commemorative postage stamp marking wartime special forces operations.
“There were many different operations, special operations. We’ll be able to speak about some of them publicly and aloud after the victory, we will not talk at all about others,” Malyuk said.
“It is one of our actions, namely the destruction of the Crimean bridge on Oct. 8 last year.”
The bridge – which is the only direct link between the transport network of Russia and the Crimean peninsula – was badly damaged in October in a powerful blast, with Russian officials saying the explosion was caused by a truck that blew up while crossing the bridge, killing three people.
Read more
Crimean bridge attack highlights Russian setbacks in Ukraine
5:16pm: Ukrainian troops advancing gradually in south, set to receive 1,700 drones says Kyiv
Ukrainian troops are gradually advancing in the south and the military is about to receive a consignment of 1,700 strike and reconnaissance drones to help with the counteroffensive, officials said on Wednesday.
Hanna Maliar, the deputy defence minister, reported advances towards the southern, occupied cities of Melitopol and Berdyansk which is on the Sea of Azov and said Kyiv’s troops were also successfully attacking in the east on the flanks of occupied Bakhmut.
Mykhailo Fedorov, a deputy prime minister, said 1,700 drones were on their way to the front lines to help the offensive.
“All of them are now going to the front to protect the lives of our soldiers, to make our artillery even more accurate, to destroy the enemy,” Fedorov said in a video that showed hundreds of drones laid out in rows on a field.
2:54pm: Moldova cuts Russian embassy staff over hostile ‘plots’
Moldova said on Wednesday it was sharply reducing the number of diplomats Russia can have in its capital Chisinau, citing years of “hostile actions” by Moscow and a media report about possible spying kit installed on the embassy’s rooftop.
Relations between Russia and Moldova, once part of the Soviet Union, have reached new lows after President Maia Sandu strongly condemned Moscow’s invasion of neighbouring Ukraine and accused Russia of plotting to overthrow the president.
Embassy personnel will be cut to 25 from more than 80, the foreign ministry said in a separate statement, bringing Russia’s embassy in line with Moldova’s diplomatic mission in Moscow.
2:06pm: Russian court jails man who blew up rail tracks for Ukraine to 22 years
A military court in Moscow has sentenced a dual Russian-Ukrainian citizen to 22 years in jail for blowing up rail track in Russia’s Bryansk region last summer at the behest of Ukraine, the state TASS news agency reported on Wednesday.
It said Sergei Belavin, who it said had confessed to his crimes, had been convicted of terrorism and other charges.
State prosecutors said Belavin, whom they accused of working for Ukrainian military intelligence, had entered Russia last summer and placed an explosive device on a stretch of railway near Russia’s border with Ukraine and Belarus.
He had detonated the device on July 9 last year, damaging a passing freight train and the track below, according to investigators. Nobody was injured, but service on the line was disrupted for 10 hours.
1:44pm: Police search home of Ukrainian MP after Maldives trip
Ukraine’s SBU security service said Wednesday it searched the home of a member of parliament who allegedly went on holiday abroad despite war-time restrictions on officials travelling for personal reasons.
Yuriy Aristov travelled to Lithuania for a work trip, but then faked sick leave and went to a luxurious hotel in the Maldives with his family, according to investigators.
A news report had revealed the case, triggering a vehement reaction from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday.
“For some, it’s about islands and resorts during the war, for others it’s about lining one’s pockets in the military enlistment office, for others it’s about bribes in the courts,” he said.
“Any internal betrayal, any ‘beach’ or any personal enrichment instead of Ukraine’s interests triggers fury,” Zelensky said.
Investigators opened a case on charges of forgery that carry up to three years of imprisonment, the State Bureau of Investigation said.
1:08pm: Ukraine’s Danube ports need protection to restore trust-Danube Commission
Ukrainian ports on the Danube river need to be protected from air attacks to rebuild trust following recent Russian strikes and ensure grain exports can continue, the general director of the Danube Commission said.
The Danube is Ukraine’s last waterborne way to export grain after access to its Black Sea ports was cut off when Russia quit a year-old safe passage grain corridor brokered by the United Nations and Turkey on July 17.
Russia destroyed Ukrainian grain warehouses on the Danube River in a drone attack on Monday. Police said tanks for storing other cargo at Reni, a Ukrainian transport hub on the Danube bordering Romania, were also hit in the attack.
“These ports will have to be protected against attacks from the air, no matter if it’s drones or ballistic missiles,” Manfred Seitz, the general director of the Danube Commission, an intergovernmental organization which manages navigation on the river, told Reuters.
“This will certainly contribute to restore trust, and I think it would be possible to continue. To what level, we will see.”
1:07pm: Russia and Belarus omitted from Paris Olympics invitees
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach on Wednesday formally invited 203 countries, but not Russia and Belarus, to participate in the Paris Olympics which begin in a year’s time.
Bach had said in mid-July that neither Russia nor its ally in the invasion of Ukraine, Belarus, would be invited.
The IOC has however left the door open for Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as neutrals in the 2024 Summer Games without their teams competing.
11:57am: Ukraine’s top diplomat in Liberia on third wartime tour of Africa
Ukraine’s top diplomat visited Liberia on Wednesday on a third wartime tour of Africa as Russia prepares to host a summit with leaders from the continent this week after the demise of the Black Sea grain deal.
The Liberia trip by Dmytro Kuleba, the first such visit in the history of Ukrainian diplomacy, according to the foreign ministry, comes amid a concerted push by Kyiv to challenge Russian influence in Africa and the wider “Global South”.
Foreign Minister Kuleba will hold talks with Liberian leaders to discuss “ensuring the export of Ukrainian grain to Africa” as well as the vision for peace in Ukraine set out by President Volodymyr Zelensky, the ministry said.
“Against the backdrop of Russia’s food blackmail, Ukraine is maximizing its consolidation of support from African countries to continue exporting Ukrainian grain to the Black Sea,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko said this week.
Kuleba travelled to Equatorial Guinea for two days earlier this week as part of the Africa tour where he said he had discussed food security.
10:27am: Moldova to reduce number of staff at Russian embassy, says TASS
Moldova is cutting the number of staff Russia can have at its embassy, its foreign minister said on Wednesday, according to Russia’s state news agency TASS.
5:24am: North Korea gives Russian defence ministry delegation ‘warm welcome’
North Korea welcomed Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu, state media said Wednesday, with delegations from Moscow and Beijing set to attend Korean War anniversary events.
The Russian national anthem blared throughout Pyongyang International Airport, which was “wrapped up in a warm welcome atmosphere” to greet Shoigu and his delegation on Tuesday evening, the Korean Central News Agency said.
The North Koreans expressed their “full support” for the Russian army and people, “who are struggling to defend the sovereign rights and development and interests of their country”, KCNA added.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including, Washington says, supplying rockets and missiles.
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The Russian and Chinese delegations are also set to be North Korea’s first known foreign visitors since its pandemic border closure.
Key developments from Tuesday, July 25:
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that it was impossible for Russia to return to the Black Sea grain export deal for now, as an agreement related to Russian interests was “not being implemented”. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that President Vladimir Putin had made it clear that the deal could be revived if the Russia-focused part of the agreement was honoured.
US President Joe Biden’s administration is sending up to $400 million in additional military aid to Ukraine, including a variety of munitions for advanced air defence systems and a number of surveillance Hornet drones, US officials said Monday.
Read yesterday’s liveblog to see how the day’s events unfolded.
(France 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
