July 25, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine has moved here.

Trevor Reed’s fighting in Ukraine “shouldn’t have any effect” on negotiations to free other detained Americans, Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday.

Reed is a former US Marine who was wrongfully detained in Russia for nearly three years before being?released in a prisoner swap. The State Department said earlier Tuesday that he was injured fighting in Ukraine.

“As I’ve noted before, even with countries where we have profound differences, and almost by definition, countries that are arbitrarily detaining or unlawfully detaining Americans are usually countries with which we have profound differences, we manage to find ways to bring Americans home,” Blinken said at a press conference in Tonga.

He touted the success of the administration so far, saying 29 Americans from at least 10 countries were brought back home.

Blinken said he had seen the reports that Reed was injured but didn’t have any additional information on his condition. The top US diplomat said it underscored why the US warns Americans against traveling to Ukraine.

Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, has been detained in Russia following his arrest on espionage charges that he, the WSJ, and the US government vehemently deny.

Whelan has been imprisoned for nearly five years, also on espionage charges that he and the US government have denied.

Two children were among three people killed as a result of cluster shelling in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka on Monday, a local military official said Tuesday.?

The victims were an 11-year-old girl, a 10-year-old boy and a 28-year-old man, Kyrylenko said.

Six people were also wounded, he said in a Telegram post with a link to his TV interview.

Some context: Cluster munitions indiscriminately scatter “bomblets” across large areas, posing such a threat to civilians that key US allies have outlawed its use in warfare.?Russia is known to have deployed them throughout its invasion of Ukraine, and Ukrainian troops are now using US-provided cluster munitions.

Russian forces south of the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut have taken heavy losses and appear to have fallen back amid intense artillery fire from the Ukrainian side, according to official and unofficial Ukrainian accounts, as well as reports from Russian military bloggers.

Ukraine has been trying to break Russian resistance here for several weeks. Ukrainian advances near Andriivka are part of a plan to?encircle Bakhmut and drive out Russian forces, the spokesperson for the eastern grouping of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Serhii Cherevatyi, said on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military said it has made slight progress on the southern front, in an area that has seen constant fighting for nearly two months. Valerii Shershen, the spokesperson for Ukrainian forces in the south, said troops had advanced by some 500 meters in an area near the town of Staromaiorske — a target of the Ukrainians since the beginning of their counter-offensive.

Here’s what else you should know to get up to speed:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is sternly rebuking lawmakers and public officials who are going on vacation during the war.

“Millions of Ukrainians are focused on one thing day after day. Not on themselves, not on their own desires, but on defending the state and their lives,” he said, according to an official English transcript of his nightly address on Tuesday. “But unfortunately, some people think that the war is somewhere far away from them.”

He spoke directly to members of parliament, officials and others in public office, asking them to work “in Ukraine and for the sake of the Ukrainian people.”

His remarks come amid a slew of corruption scandals being reported in Ukrainian media involving public officials.?

Five European Union member states bordering Ukraine are requesting that an existing ban on imports of four types of Ukrainian grain be extended beyond the scheduled expiry date of September 15, the EU Council said on Tuesday.??

Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Romania would like to see a temporary EU import ban of Ukrainian wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower oil be extended to the end of the year, Spain’s Minister for Agriculture Luis Planas Puchades said at a news conference in Brussels. He was speaking in his capacity as president of the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council.?

The EU adopted the measures in May to ease logistical bottlenecks and protect local farmers from being undercut in price by cheaper grain produced in Ukraine.?

Speaking at the same event, the EU’s Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski said the bloc will need to consider “new circumstances” while considering the extension given Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea grain deal.??

A banner with a picture of Trevor Reed hangs in Lafayette Park near the White House in March 2022.

Trevor Reed, a former US Marine who was wrongfully detained in Russia for nearly three years?before being released last year, was injured while participating in fighting in Ukraine, US State Department deputy spokesperson?Vedant Patel confirmed Tuesday.

Reed, who was freed in a prisoner swap in April 2022, was transported to a hospital in Kyiv and then evacuated to Germany for medical care at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, which is a US military hospital near Ramstein Air Base, a US official told CNN.

The circumstances around Reed’s injury in combat were not immediately clear.

The Messenger was?first to report?the news.

The Biden administration is aware Reed “was injured while participating in fighting in Ukraine,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Tuesday.

Jean-Pierre noted that Reed “was not engaged in any activities on behalf of the US government,” while fighting in Ukraine.

And she warned that, for Americans traveling to the region, “we are not able to provide assistance to evacuate US citizens — that’s not something that we are able to do from Ukraine, including those Americans who may decide to travel to Ukraine to participate in an ongoing war.”

Impact on other detained US citizens: When asked if he is concerned this will have negative implications on negotiations for Americans designated as wrongfully detained in Russia, Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich, the State Department’s Patel said he wouldn’t speculate.?

“We will continue to engage directly with the Russian Federation, calling for the release, you’ve seen us do so in the case of Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich, and will continue to remain deeply engage on those issues,” Patel said.

A US official, however, said that “of course” they are concerned about the potential impact this will have on negotiations, but stressed that they should not be considered together.

“This was something an individual did of their own volition and should be treated entirely separately from negotiations for the release of Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan,” the official told CNN.

CNN’s Natasha Bertrand contributed to this report.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday announced a new $400 million tranche of security assistance for Ukraine, which includes air defense munitions and armored vehicles.

The assistance includes “air defense munitions, artillery rounds, armored vehicles, and anti-armor capabilities, as well as other equipment essential to strengthening Ukraine’s brave forces on the battlefield, helping them retake Ukraine’s sovereign territory, and defend their fellow citizens,” according to a statement announcing the latest drawdown – the 43rd?to date.

Blinken also slammed Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, noting that Moscow “continues to attack Ukrainian ports and grain infrastructure,” including in the southern port city of Odesa.

The strikes – the latest in a wave of attacks on Odesa – killed at least one person and injured several others, Ukrainian officials said. At least 25 architectural monuments were destroyed and a historic Orthodox cathedral was badly damaged, a regional military official said.

According to a State Department spokesperson, some of the specific capabilities in this pacakge are:

A security guard stands in front of the prison building, which was damaged by shelling in July, in Olenivka on August 10, 2022.

Russian accounts of a rocket attack on a camp holding Ukrainian prisoners of war in July 2022 are not supported by evidence, according to the United Nations.

The findings by the UN Human Rights Commissioner (UN OHCHR) support the conclusions of an extensive CNN investigation published in August last year, which demonstrated that the Russian narrative that the camp had been hit by a Ukrainian HIMARS rocket did not stand up to scrutiny.?

More than 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed in the strike at the detention center in the town of Olenivka.

Russian and local officials from the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic said the attack was carried out by the Ukrainian side, using one of the HIMARS rockets that had been recently supplied by the United States.

But the CNN investigation, based on analysis of video and photographs from the scene, satellite imagery from before and after the attack and the work of forensic and weapons experts, concluded that “the Russian version of events is very likely a fabrication. There is almost no chance that a HIMARS rocket caused the damage to the warehouse where the prisoners were being held.”?

A UN statement issued Tuesday concurred that “the information available and our analysis enable the Office to conclude that [the strike] was not caused by a HIMARS rocket.”

“The Russian Federation provided neither satisfactory assurances about secure access for the United Nations to visit the particular site, nor granted general requests by the UN Human Rights Office to access areas of Ukraine under the temporary military control of the Russian Federation,” the statement said.

A European Union official proposed on Tuesday that member states should cover the additional costs of exporting Ukrainian grain by land following the collapse of the Black Sea grain deal.?

The EU is prepared to facilitate the export of all of Ukraine’s grain via the bloc’s so-called “solidarity lanes” since Russia withdrew from the UN-brokered deal — which allowed for vital grain transits through the Black Sea, EU’s Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski?said, speaking at a news conference in Brussels.

The additional land transits through EU member states that border Ukraine will create a spike in transport costs, he highlighted.?

Wojciechowski?said he will propose to discuss with the European Commission — the union’s executive branch – the prospect of supporting “the transport costs using also the EU money.”??

The Ukrainian military said it has made slight progress on the southern front, in an area that has seen constant fighting for nearly two months.

Valerii Shershen, the spokesperson for Ukrainian forces in the south, said troops had advanced by some 500 meters in an area near the town of Staromaiorske — a target of the Ukrainians since the beginning of their counter-offensive.

Elsewhere along the front lines in the south, Shershen said their had been no changes, adding that “the enemy is putting up stiff resistance, moving units and troops, and using reserves. Our attack units are consolidating their positions at the achieved lines and inflicting artillery fire.”

“There are no changes in the Melitopol direction near Robotyne due to dense mining. Demining is the top priority on the seized frontlines. Undercover demining teams are operating at full speed,” Shershen said.

In parts of the Donetsk region — where the Russians are trying to take territory — Shershen said attacks near Avdiivka and Marinka? had been repelled.

There has been virtually no change in control of territory in these directions since last year. He said Ukrainian troops “are holding back any advance of Russian troops in the areas of Krasnohorivka and Marinka. The enemy was unsuccessful in advancing in the area of Rivnopil.”

Shershen gave a glimpse into the huge consumption of munitions in Ukraine’s counter-offensive, saying “Ukrainian Defense Forces carried out 1,289 firing missions over the past 24 hours. Our artillery used over 7,550 shells and ammunition over the last day.”

In a brief Telegram post, Tuesday, Brig. Gen. Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, who commands forces on the southern front, said: “There are successes and advances, knocking the Russians out of their positions. The work continues.”

According to the military’s general staff, Russian air strikes and artillery fire continued in many areas of the front lines in the north (Luhansk and Kharkiv regions.)

Yet another attack in the Lyman sector (close to the border of Donetsk and Luhansk) by the Russians had been unsuccessful, the general staff said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to visit China in October, when the Chinese government hosts the Belt and Road Forum, according to Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will host the 3rd International Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing. He invited Putin to the event when he visited Moscow earlier this year.

The forum is China’s answer to Davos or the G20 and is designed to increase cooperation among Eurasian states. Putin attended and spoke at the first two Belt and Road Forums, held in 2017 and 2019 in Beijing.?

Ukrainian soldiers transport shells into a camouflaged tank on the Bakhmut frontline in the Donetsk region of Ukraine on Monday.

Russian forces south of the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut have taken heavy losses and appear to have fallen back amid intense artillery fire from the Ukrainian side, according to official and unofficial Ukrainian accounts, as well as reports from Russian military bloggers.

Ukraine has been trying to break Russian resistance here for several weeks. Ukrainian advances near Andriivka are part of a plan to encircle Bakhmut and drive out Russian forces, the spokesperson for the eastern grouping of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Serhii Cherevatyi, said on Tuesday.

Why this matters: At stake are a string of villages that are important in safeguarding Russian resupply routes into the ruined city of Bakhmut, which fell to the Russians in the spring. Control of this area would also enable Ukrainian forces to hit Russian targets in and around the city from higher ground.?

Both Russian and Ukrainian sources have reported heavy fighting around the village of Klishchiivka, with the Russian Defense Ministry claiming on Monday that Ukrainian attacks near the village had been repelled. However, Ukrainian progress towards the nearby village of Andriivka makes Russian positions in Klishchiivka more vulnerable.

In the Bakhmut sector, Russian losses have outnumbered those of Ukraine by a ratio of eight or nine to one, Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar claimed Tuesday. “And the question should be asked not about the number of kilometers passed, but about the fact whether we are moving forward or not.”

US intelligence officials have warned Russia is building a drone-manufacturing facility in the country with Iran’s help that could have a significant impact on the war in Ukraine once it is completed.

Analysts from the Defense Intelligence Agency told a small group of reporters during a briefing on Friday that the drone-manufacturing facility now under construction is expected to provide Russia with a new drone stockpile that is “orders of magnitude larger” than what it has been able to procure from Iran to date.

When the facility is completed, likely by early next year, the new drones could have a significant impact on the conflict, the analysts warned. In April, the US released a satellite image of the planned location of the purported drone manufacturing plant, inside Russia’s Alabuga Special Economic Zone about 600 miles east of Moscow. The analysts said Iran has regularly been ferrying equipment to Russia to help with the facility’s construction.

They added that to date, it is believed that Iran has provided Russia with more than 400 Shahed-131, 136 and Mohajer drones — a stockpile that Russia has almost completely depleted, they said.

Russia is primarily using the drones to attack critical Ukrainian infrastructure and stretch Ukraine’s air defenses, a senior DIA official said. Iran has been using the Caspian Sea to move drones, bullets and mortar shells to Russia, often using vessels that are “dark,” or have turned off their tracking data to disguise their movements, CNN has reported.

The US obtained and analyzed several of the drones downed in Ukraine, and officials say there is “undeniable evidence” that the drones are Iranian, despite repeated denials from Tehran that it is providing the equipment to Russia for use in Ukraine.

The DIA analysts showcased debris from drones recovered in Ukraine in 2022 during the briefing on Friday, comparing them side-by-side with Iranian-made drones found in Iraq last year.?

One of the drones recovered in Ukraine had only its wings and engine partially intact. But judging by its shape and size, it appeared to be a Shahed-131, the same model as an Iranian-made drone found in Iraq. The analysts removed components from one and easily slid them onto the other, showing that they are virtually “indistinguishable” in their design.

Read more about this here.

The logo of the TV Rain (Dozhd) is seen in a studio in Moscow in 2021.

The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office?has declared?the TV channel Rain (Dozhd) as an?“undesirable?organization,” which means penalties, including jail time, for anyone in Russia who donates to or cooperates with the channel.??

Latvia-based TV Rain is devoted to covering events in Russia. TVR Studios B.V. of the Netherlands has also been designated as “undesirable on the territory of the Russian Federation,” the official statement on Telegram read.

To justify the designation, the office made the following claims about TV Rain:

The official statement cited that these organizations discredit Russian government bodies, spread false information about Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine, and provide support to registered foreign agents.?

In response to the designation, TV Rain released a statement on Telegram,?saying it intended?to take appropriate steps, including legal action.?The channel announced it had suspended?the collection of?donations?from Russia, canceled existing subscriptions from Russian viewers, and urged those who remain in the country not to share links to their materials due to safety concerns.

TV Rain (Dozhd) editor-in-chief Tikhon Dzyadko and news anchor Ekaterina Kotrikadze work in a studio at the start of live newscast in Tbilisi, Georgia, in June 2022.

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly speaks at a United Nations Security Council meeting on July 17.

The UK believes that Russia could target civilian ships in the Black Sea, following the Kremlin’s decision to leave the Black Sea Grain Initiative, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said on Tuesday.?

Russia could target civilian ships in the Black Sea and blame Ukraine, a spokesperson for the US National Security Council said last week.?

Russia has also laid additional sea mines in the approach to Ukrainian ports, NSC spokesperson Adam Hodge said in a statement Wednesday. Earlier that day, Russia’s defense ministry said any ship sailing toward a Ukrainian port would be considered a potential carrier of military cargo.?

Multiple bulk carrier cargo ships navigate the Sulina Canal, a river channel between the Danube River and the Black Sea, in Tulcea, Romania, on Sunday.

Repeating the warning from the NSC, the director of the CIA said on Thursday that Russia could be preparing a false-flag operation attacking a ship in the Black Sea.

Russia’s Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov said on Thursday that attempts to attribute to Russia the preparation of attacks on civilian vessels are “pure fabrication” and “completely contradicts our approaches.”

UK PM on Russian grain threats: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said any Russian attempt to stop grain exports from leaving Ukraine would be completely “unacceptable.”??

Sunak said in a tweet that he spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier on Tuesday “and made it clear that any Russian attempt to stop grain leaving Ukraine is completely unacceptable. We must continue to stand with Ukraine.”

CNN’s Oren Liebermann, Radina Gigova and Mick Krever contributed reporting to this post.

An advertisement promoting contract military service in the Russian army is seen in a Moscow metro station on July 19.

The Russian state Duma has passed an amendment extending the military call-up age to include citizens from 18 to 30 years.?

Previously, military service was compulsory for Russian citizens aged 18 to 27 years.

The new bill will now be forwarded to the Federation Council for further consideration before the law can be signed by President Vladimir Putin.

The senators of the Federation Council will support the law, said Valentina Matvienko, the speaker of the upper house, adding that there is “no reason for excessive resonance” regarding these changes, according to state news RIA Novosti.

A pile of grain is seen at the Izmail Sea Port in Ukraine's Odesa region, on July 22.

The Kremlin said it is “impossible” for Russia to return to the expired Black Sea Grain Initiative until all conditions are met, snubbing suggestions by UN Secretary General António Guterres to rejoin the crucial deal.

“Mr. Guterres’ letter [to Russian President Vladimir Putin] once again outlined a certain plan of action and a promise that one day it would be possible to fulfil the Russian part of these agreements,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

Moscow has repeatedly insisted that the agreement in place does not allow for Russia to adequately export its own foodstuffs.

Commenting on the Kremlin’s attitude to the proposal of the Kyiv authorities to export grain through the ports of the Baltic, Peskov said: “It is the sovereign right of these states.”

Moscow will fight attempts to use any supply channels of Ukrainian grain for “military purposes and terrorist attacks” against Russia, Peskov added.

Some background: The Black Sea grain deal, first brokered last summer, allowed for the safe export of Ukrainian wheat from ports after Russia initially barricaded docks in the southern region and exacerbated a global food crisis.

Western allies of Kyiv have accused Russia of weaponizing the deal, the collapse of which prompted a rapid increase in global wheat prices and threatened food security in Global South countries that rely on Ukrainian grain.

Sergei, not his real name, is seen in an image supplied by him. He says many from his unit were killed and injured fighting in Ukraine.

One?fighter?was shot twice, sent from the hospital back to the front, where he drank melted snow to live. Forced to assault Ukrainian positions repeatedly, until a grenade blinded him. Saved from the trenches by a doctor who made him a hospital orderly.

Another was jailed at 20 for minor drugs charges, sent to the front aged 23. Given almost no training, he was dead three weeks later — among likely 60 Russians killed in an assault on the very day Russian President Vladimir Putin celebrated the defeat of the Nazis in Red Square.

These two stories, of remarkable survival and premature death, epitomize the squalid and exhausting loss of life in Russia’s trenches. Yet there is one distinction: the dead are prisoners, promised respite from their jail terms if they join so-called Storm-Z battalions run by the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Life expectancy is short, conditions themselves tough to survive, and convicts describe being used as cannon fodder. Tens of thousands of convicts have been recruited to serve at the front line, at first by the mercenary group Wagner — a scheme then taken over by the defense ministry.

CNN spoke to the mother of one convict, Andrei, who was jailed aged 20 on drug charges and sent to the front line as part of the Russian military’s recruitment program. The mother provided extensive video, documentation and chat messages to verify her son’s story, and his early death, just three weeks after deployment.

CNN also spoke to a rare survivor of the Storm-Z units, Sergei — who was first interviewed by phone in a military hospital months earlier and last week recounted the savage and deteriorating life in the Russian trenches.

While the appalling fighting conditions are well known, much?Russian testimony is from prisoners of war, and provided through Ukrainian facilitators. These two stories represent rare testimony delivered directly from Russians. CNN has changed the names and removed key details from these two accounts for the safety of the interviewees.

Read their stories here.

Kyiv reported new advances in the south, as Ukrainian forces struggle to puncture Moscow’s tight defense lines amid a sweeping counteroffensive operation focusing on the southeastern regions.

Here are the latest developments:

Soldiers and mechanics from Ukraine's 47th Mechanized Brigade work on the tracks of a US Bradley Fighting Vehicle in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Region, on July 13.

Ukrainian forces have made gains along the southern front, according to Kyiv military officials and battlefield reports.

Andrii Kovalov, spokesperson for the Ukrainian military’s general staff said Tuesday that Kyiv’s forces “had success in the direction of Staromaiorske,” in the Berdiansk front, south of Velyka Novosilka.

Ukrainian forces are “entrenching themselves in the reached positions,” he said, adding that Russian troops were “resisting strongly.”

In an update Tuesday, the general staff said Russian forces continued to focus on preventing Ukraine’s advances along the southern front, indicating stiff resistance.?

Some of those offensive operations toward Melitopol are taking place just south of the town of Orikhiv, with some advances reported over the past 24 hours.?

Battlefield reports: The Institute for the Study of War said Ukraine was reportedly able to advance 1.7 kilometers (just over a mile) toward the northeastern outskirts of the village of Robotyne.

The advancement was documented by several Russian military bloggers.?

Some reported Ukraine had shifted the vector of its attack in the area by going around Russian fortifications with the support of its artillery, driving Moscow’s troops back.

The Melitopol axis was one of the main thrusts of the early stages of Ukraine’s counteroffensive, where Kyiv first employed some of the Western equipment it received specifically for the push forward — meeting with notorious Russian resistance.

In the east: Ukrainian forces drove back the Russians near Andriivka, just south of the embattled city of Bakhmut, spokesperson Kovalov also claimed. The advance comes as Ukrainian troops continue offensive operations north and south of Bakhmut, he said.

Ukrainian advances near Andriivka are part of a plan to encircle Bakhmut and drive out Russian forces, the spokesperson for the eastern grouping of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Serhii Cherevatyi, said on Tuesday.

Cherevatyi acknowledged the situation was more difficult north of the city.?

“The enemy is better prepared there (north of Bakhmut). There are also certain natural obstacles there, including water obstacles,” he explained. “But the work there is also ongoing and will be visible over time, despite the fact that the enemy is preparing everything to complicate our movement.”

A Ukrainian soldier fires artillery in the direction of Bakhmut, Ukraine, on July 22.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, meets with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Strelna, outside Saint Petersburg, Russia, on July 23.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko spoke about the Wagner private military company — which led a failed mutiny against Moscow last month — at their recent talks in St. Petersburg, according to the Kremlin.

“The topic of the Wagner group was also raised there, the topic of trade and economic cooperation, as well as the Union State, and the external threat along the perimeter of our countries – all this, of course, was on the agenda,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

Peskov did not provide any additional detail on what both leaders discussed regarding Wagner, but added that the meeting served to align positions and share views on multiple issues.

“There were no goals to reach any agreements,” Peskov continued.

Lukashenko arrived in Russia last Saturday and held meetings with Putin in St. Petersburg on Sunday and Monday, according to both presidential press services.

Some background: Lukashenko has remained Putin’s closest ally since he allowed Russian forces to use Belarusian territory to launch its invasion of Ukraine.

Wagner forces were stationed in Belarus after Lukashenko helped negotiate a deal to end the group’s short-lived insurrection against the Kremlin.

As many as 5,000 fighters are already in the country, according to Ukraine.

Last week, Belarus’ defense ministry said it would hold join military sessions with Wagner troops after the failed rebellion.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak are pictured speaking during the NATO-Ukraine meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, on July 12.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated his plea for resources to bolster Kyiv’s air defense system in a call with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Tuesday.

“[We] spoke about Russia’s daily attempts to destroy Odesa’s historic center and port infrastructure. We must defend Odesa. Ukraine urgently needs to strengthen its air defense to protect its historical heritage and continue the Black Sea Grain Initiative,” Zelensky said of the call between the two leaders on Tuesday.

“We discussed our further defense cooperation, the course of Ukrainian offensive operations. I outlined the current defense needs of [Ukraine].”

The southern port city of Odesa has been hit with a barrage of Russian strikes in recent days, damaging architectural sites and targeting grain stocks – days after Moscow withdrew from a deal that allowed for the safe passage of Ukrainian wheat from ports in the region.

Zelensky also said he discussed Ukraine’s bid for NATO membership, echoing calls from other senior officials in Kyiv to speed up the country’s accession into the bloc.

“[We] noted the adoption by the G7 of the Joint Declaration of Support for Ukraine at the NATO Summit in Vilnius and the subsequent accession of other countries to it,” he added. “We also coordinated future steps to fill it with concrete security guarantees on a bilateral basis.”

The UK has remained a staunch ally of Kyiv since Moscow launched its invasion in February 2022, donating billions of dollars’ worth of military aid to Ukraine and imposing sanctions on Russia in an attempt to squeeze its economy.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei?Shoigu, center, attends a meeting as part of the inspection of defence industry enterprises, in the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia, in an image released on July 11.

A Russian delegation led by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu will begin a three-day visit to North Korea on Tuesday, according to the Russian Defense Ministry and North Korean state media.

North Korea is one of only a handful of countries to show outright support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and has blamed the United States and the West for the?war.

North Korean state newspaper KCNA confirmed the visit.

Meanwhile, a high-level Chinese government delegation is headed to North Korea this week, believed to be the highest-level representatives from Beijing to visit Pyongyang since the isolated country closed its borders during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Read more about the visit here.

Ukrainian forces use a searchlight to scan the sky during a Russian drone strike in?Kyiv, Ukraine, on July 25.

Ukrainian air defenses repelled a Russian drone attack on the Kyiv region in the early hours of Tuesday, officials said.?

Kyiv city military administration head Serhiy Popko said in a Telegram post that Russia used Iran-made Shahed drones in the sixth attack on the capital this month.

No casualties or damage was reported, he said. ??

Here are the top headlines:

Leopard 2A4 tanks take part in a military training near Tata, Hungary, February 6.

Leopard 2 tanks are among a new batch of military and humanitarian equipment en route from Spain to Ukraine, the Spanish defense ministry said Monday.

In a statement, the ministry said the shipment had departed from the port of Santander and was expected to be delivered to Ukraine’s military in early August.?

The shipment includes:

Spanish aid: Spain has already sent six?Leopard?2 tanks to Ukraine, as part of a pledge to send a total of 10 such vehicles.?Spanish?Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez?said in July that?Madrid will provide four more Leopard 2 tanks to Kyiv. A portable field hospital with surgical capacity arrived in Ukraine on Sunday, according to Spain’s defense ministry.??

A Russian warship is seen on July 17 sailing near the Kerch bridge, linking the Russian mainland to Crimea, following an attack claimed by Ukrainian forces.

Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov says that?Ukraine?will continue carrying out attacks on Russian-occupied Crimea and the Kerch Bridge that connects it to the Russian mainland, while also admitting that Ukraine’s plan for its sluggish counteroffensive?is behind schedule.

As Russia has pummeled the southern port city of Odesa and the surrounding region over the past week, Ukraine has continued to carry out strikes inside Crimea. On Tuesday, Ukrainian drones?hit an ammunition depot, just a week after seaborne drones?struck the Kerch Bridge.

Asked if Ukraine’s goal is to permanently disable the bridge, Reznikov responded: “It’s normal tactics to ruin the logistic lines of your enemy to stop the options to get more ammunition, to get more fuel, to get more food, etcetera. That’s why we will use these tactics against them.”

Reznikov also accused Russia of operating as “a terrorist state.”

The fifth night of Russian strikes in Odesa badly damaged more than two dozen landmarks in the historic city center. Drones meanwhile pounded the region’s port infrastructure, targeting crucial grain stocks.

Read more here.

Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks during an interview in Tokyo, Japan, on July 7.

Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) discovered mines at the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear?power?plant, agency chief Rafael Grossi said Monday —after?previous claims by Kyiv that the site had been mined.???

The IAEA team has been aware of the previous placement of mines outside and inside of the plant and they have been told it was “a military decision, and in an area controlled by military,” Grossi said.?

“IAEA team saw some mines located in a buffer zone between the site’s internal and external perimeter barriers,” Grossi said, noting that the mines were “situated in a restricted area that operating plant personnel cannot access and were facing away from the site.”??

Grossi called having explosives on the site “inconsistent with the IAEA safety standards and nuclear security guidance.”??

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly called on world leaders to put pressure on Russia to hand the plant over to the IAEA.?

Ukrainian forces say they are making modest progress in the east and south, as well as restraining Russian efforts to move forward in the Donetsk region, but overall there appears to have been little change on the front lines.

Ukrainian military officials said Russian minefields and electronic warfare capabilities are impeding progress.

Here’s where things stand:

Storage tanks damaged by a Russian?drone?strike are seen in a sea port in Odesa Region, Ukraine on July 24.

Wheat prices?rose sharply?Monday following a strike by a Russian drone on a Ukrainian port on the Danube river.

Moscow’s drones attacked Ukraine’s port infrastructure overnight, targeting the country’s grain stocks, the Ukrainian Army said. One grain silo at the Reni port was hit and substantially damaged, according to geolocated images and video.

Wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade jumped 8.5% to $7.57 a bushel, and corn futures rose 4.7% to $5.52 a bushel.

Traders are concerned about tightening supply following the?collapse?of the Black Sea grain deal last week and a string of Russian drone attacks on Ukrainian port infrastructure.

The deal — originally brokered by Turkey and the United Nations a year ago — had ensured the safe passage of ships carrying grain from Ukrainian ports. So far the pact has allowed for the export of almost 33 million metric tons of food through Ukrainian ports, according to?UN data.

Read more here.

Investigators examine an area next to a damaged building after a reported drone attack in Moscow, Russia, on Monday, July 24.

Russia’s foreign ministry on Monday urged international organizations to condemn the recent?Ukrainian drone attacks on Moscow?and Crimea.?

The ministry blamed the West for exacerbating the situation, stating the actions of Kyiv were influenced by the West’s focus on further escalating tensions.

“The Russian side reserves the right to take tough retaliatory measures,” the ministry said, adding that the Investigative Committee of Russia has opened criminal cases in response to these incidents, assuring that all those responsible will be identified and brought to justice.

Some context:?The reported attacks come after Russian missiles badly damaged a historic Orthodox cathedral in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa, sparking outrage and prompting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to vow retaliation.

The Odesa strikes killed at least one person and injured several others, Ukrainian officials said, the latest in a wave of attacks on the port city. The attacks also destroyed other historic buildings, Ukraine’s culture ministry said.