July 28, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

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

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will “pay attention”?to the US State Department’s request to speak with Secretary of State Antony Blinken when “time permits,” Maria Zakharova, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, said according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

Zakharova added, “Now he has a busy schedule with international contacts: the SCO Ministerial Council in Tashkent, bilateral meetings.”

The United Nations had been hoping for the first ship to leave Ukraine’s Odesa port with grain bound for global markets on Thursday, but procedural details for safe passage are still being worked out, the organization’s chief aid coordinator said Thursday.?

Martin Griffiths, UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, helped broker a deal between Kyiv and Moscow — signed in Istanbul — to facilitate vital grain exports from Ukrainian Black Sea ports to avoid a global hunger crisis.?

“We had been hoping to see that happen, even today or tomorrow. But we can only see that happen safely,” he said.

He noted that the parties need to get the exact location of safe passage corridors “absolutely nailed down,”?adding “I think we’ll see this very quickly.”

“It has to do with what are the exact coordinates of the channels,” he continued. “There’s a general reference in the agreement. We need exact coordinates of the channels.”

Even still, Griffiths hailed the agreement, which swiftly saw the opening of a Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul, as “the most rapid stand up of an operation that I can think of” in his experience at the UN.?

Russia’s attack on Odesa on Saturday, the day after the deal was signed, was “a reminder that we had no time to waste,” he added.

Also delaying the exports is the commercial side of the operation, as there is “a lot of detail that’s necessary to share” with shipping and insurance companies, he continued.?

“This is as much about price as it is about availability of food […] if ships move without the right procedures to approving those movements, then they are at risk. And the commercial sector would be right not to wish to move,”?Griffiths said.

“My information on the commercial viability of it from colleagues in Istanbul is consistently that there is an appetite for this and there is at a reasonable price,” he continued.

The US State Department said that Russia yesterday “acknowledged” the request from the United States for a call between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and the two countries have been going “back and forth” on the request.

“Foreign Minister Lavrov is in the midst of travel so I don’t have any update to provide in terms of when they may be able to connect,” said State Department spokesperson Ned Price. “But we continue to discuss that in the appropriate channels.”

Price reiterated that Blinken planned to use the call to follow up on the “substantial proposal” to free Americans detained in Russia, Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan, which CNN first reported is a proposed prisoner swap for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

Price on Thursday suggested that Moscow has not meaningfully engaged on the proposal.

Price noted that the deal has been conveyed to Russia “repeatedly” and “directly” over the course of several weeks, and he reiterated that Blinken intended to raise it in an expected call with Lavrov.

CNN reported earlier Thursday that?Biden administration officials are frustrated?that Moscow has yet to respond in a meaningful way to the proposal. Officials told CNN that they felt Moscow would jump at the offer, but it is now almost August and they have not received a substantive response.

Asked if the Russians had presented any counter-proposals and whether the US was prepared to add more to the deal on the table, Price said he would not “negotiate in public.”

The spokesperson said the “one single overriding interest” is the release of Griner and Whelan, noting they “are going to be careful in everything we do, and everything we say not to run afoul of that overriding priority, not to do anything, not to say anything that might set back that ultimate goal.”

The Ukrainian Embassy in Lebanon has called on authorities to clarify the conditions under which a Syrian ship — which Ukraine claims is carrying stolen barley — was allowed to dock in Tripoli.?

The Syrian vessel, the Laodicea, belongs to state shipping company SYRIAMAR and was photographed passing through the Bosphorus strait into the Mediterranean on July 23.?

Both the company and the vessel were sanctioned by the US Treasury in 2015.?

In a meeting with Lebanese President Michel Aoun on Thursday, Ukrainian Ambassador Ihor Ostash “drew the attention of the President of the Republic to the fact that a Syrian ship entered the sea port of Tripoli on July 27, 2022 carrying barley exported from the occupied territories in the port of Fyudosia,” the embassy said in a readout posted on Facebook on Thursday.?

The Laodicea was photographed transitioning through the Bosphorus on July 23.?

Some background: Ukraine has repeatedly said that Russia has taken grain from the country to ports around the Middle East. In May, satellite images appeared to show two Russia-flagged bulk carrier ships docking and loading up with what was believed to be stolen Ukrainian grain in the Crimean port of Sevastopol.

Last week, Ukraine and Russia agreed a deal to allow the resumption of?grain exports?from Ukrainian Black Sea ports. Ministers from both countries signed the agreement brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in Istanbul.

The German city of Hanover has banned hot water in public buildings and has introduced measures to reduce heating amid the gas crisis, according to the Hanover mayor’s office.

It’s the first city in Germany to switch to cold showers in public buildings, making hot water unavailable for hand-washing and other uses in government facilities, gyms, and swimming pools.??

The city will also reduce heating in public buildings, as well as switch off?fa?ade lighting and fountains.?

“The goal is to reduce our energy consumption by 15%,” said Mayor Belit Onay. “This is a response to the looming gas shortage, which is a big challenge for municipalities — especially for a big city like Hanover.”?

“The situation is unpredictable, as just the last few days have shown,” he added. “Nevertheless, the state capital is trying to prepare as best it can.”

Across the European Union, member states are scrambling to save gas and store it for winter, and on Tuesday, energy ministers agreed in principle to cut gas use by 15% from August to March.?

Nobel Peace Prize winner Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, holds up a copy of his paper after the conclusion of bidding during a charity auction in New York on June 20, 2022.

Russia’s media watchdog, Roskomnadzor, filed a lawsuit this week seeking to revoke the registration license of independent investigative news outlet Novaya Gazeta, according to court records.

“There are two lawsuits from Roskonadzor, one for the website and another for the print edition,” said Prusenkova, adding that a court hearing regarding the website’s license has been scheduled for Sept. 15.

According to Novaya Gazeta, the legal action is based on two warnings received on March 24 and March 28, due to the absence of “foreign agents” disclaimer markings on two news materials on the Novaya Gazeta website.

Novaya Gazeta is one of the few remaining independent Russian-language news outlets covering Russia. The outlet?has been declared a “foreign agent” by the Russian government, meaning that it is required to?preface every publication, including social media posts, with a disclaimer.

The Ukrainian military has conceded that Russian forces have been able to make small gains near the Donetsk towns of Soledar and Vershyna in eastern Ukraine.

Russia has been making a push in that area of the Donbas for the past several weeks but with limited gains.?

“The enemy units retreated here with losses,” it said.?

The Ukrainian military continued to report intense long-range attacks with artillery, missiles and air strikes across most of the frontline.

The Russian government has opened delegations of its interior ministry in Russian-controlled territories in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported on Thursday.?

According to the report, the delegations arrived in the occupied territory to “organize the work of the temporary departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia and provide practical assistance to local law enforcement authority.”

The agency also reported that territorial internal affairs bodies of those specific regions were being created.?

Some context: Ukrainian troops claim to have won back some territory in the southern flank of the war. But there are growing signs that the Russians are reinforcing their military presence in Kherson, determined to hold it as a vital part of the land bridge to Crimea – and as the peninsula’s main source of water.

In the past two weeks, large convoys have traveled west from Mariupol through Melitopol in the Zaporizhzhia region and on to Kherson.

Ukrainian officials estimate that nearly half the population of Kherson has left the region for Ukrainian-held territory. They accuse the Russians of preventing more people from leaving cities like Melitopol, so that they can be exploited as “human shields” in the event of a Ukrainian offensive.

CNN’s Tim Lister contributed reporting to this post.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, seen in this file photo released by the government, has announced July 28 as the first-ever Day of Ukrainian Statehood.

For the first time, Ukraine is celebrating the Day of Ukrainian Statehood today.

In a speech published on the presidential site on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the week “symbolic” because it marks the first time they will hold a day of statehood.

Zelensky said they will “celebrate at the time of such a brutal war — in the sixth month of it. After eight years of war in Donbas. But we will celebrate, despite all, because Ukrainians cannot be broken.”

Unlike Ukraine’s independence day, which falls on Aug. 24, the Day of Ukrainian Statehood will connect Ukrainian people through their experiences, culture and an identity that Zelensky described as stretching back more than a millennium.

“Now, in many exploits of our warriors, in the wisdom of our people in battles, even simply in the conversations of ordinary Ukrainians about what is happening, we can see, we can hear and understand examples of the same characters but hundreds of years ago,” Zelensky said.

On Thursday, Zelensky addressed citizens saying that the history of Ukraine’s statehood can be described in one sentence: “We existed, exist and will exist!”

He also told lawmakers that Ukraine’s resistance against Russia will be remembered.

“We will become not a new legend of heroic resistance, but a state of winners,” Zelensky told lawmakers inside the Ukrainian Parliament. “Not 300 Spartans, worthy of films, books and plays, but the multimillion-strong nation-hero which is worthy of living, worthy of winning and which will teach others in the world how to defend themselves and how to win.”

The Ukrainian president highlighted that even after more than 150 days of war with Russia, Ukraine was still able to celebrate.?

“Due to the cruelty of history — after several unfortunate historic turns — our state was not mentioned for some time. Then they’ve been saying that Ukraine is somewhere next to Russia, or is even allegedly a part of it. We know that now they definitely know: Ukraine is the only state in the world that has the bravery to beat Russia, beat on our land notwithstanding any of its threats,” the president said.

Rescuers help a woman evacuate from a residential building damaged by a Russian military strike in the town of?Toretsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on July 28.

At least two people were killed as a five-story building in the Donetsk town of Toretsk in eastern Ukraine collapsed following a Russian strike on Thursday.

“Today, the rescuers of the Toretsk garrison, during emergency rescue operations on the destroyed part of a 5-story residential building in the city of Toretsk, discovered and pulled out the bodies of 2 dead persons (1 man and 1 woman),” the State Emergency Service of Ukraine reported on Thursday.?

The Ukrainian military’s General Staff had reported a missile strike on the town early in the morning.

“At 5.00 in the morning, there was a rocket attack on Toretsk. A rocket hit an apartment building; two floors were destroyed,” it said on Thursday.

Toretsk has been under intense fire as Moscow’s armies continue to try and make gains in the Donetsk region. In addition to the missile strikes, heavy shelling was also reported in the the area.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut ?avu?o?lu attends a press conference in Istanbul, Turkey, on July 28.

The deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey that will allow both Russian and Ukrainian grain exports from Black Sea ports removes obstacles for both countries, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut ?avu?o?lu said on Thursday.

Speaking at a joint news conference with visiting Georgian Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili, ?avu?o?lu praised the agreement brokered by the United Nations and Turkey and signed by Ukraine and Russia last week.

Once the deal goes into effect, ?avu?o?lu said the grain and wheat could then be transported to countries in urgent need.?

The successful implementation of the deal “could really boost trust between Russia and Ukraine,” he said.

“Now, it is time to focus on brokering a ceasefire. This is not just a process to be carried out at the level of foreign ministers,” ?avu?o?lu said, according to state-run Anadolu Agency.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban speaks at a press conference on July 28, in Vienna, Austria.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told journalists on Thursday that Ukraine cannot defeat Russia with NATO’s current strategy of support, while also warning of dire consequences?for the European economy.?

“This war in this form cannot be won,” Orban said, speaking alongside Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer in Vienna. Orban added that NATO countries’ strategy of supporting Ukraine with weapons and training “has shown until now that it will not lead to success.”

“It is not clear how we can avoid recession in the EU if the war carries on,” Orban added.

Both leaders warned against the possibility of a European Union embargo on Russian gas.

“We met a wall just now, and that wall is called gas embargo, and I would suggest to the EU that we do not knock against that wall,” Orban said, as Nehammer warned such an embargo “is not possible.”

“Not only because we, as Austria, are dependent on Russian gas. The German industry is also dependent on Russian gas. And if the German industry collapses, the Austrian industry collapses,” said Nehammer, adding that that situation could result in “mass unemployment.”

“There are many announcements from the EU Commission, but very little is being implemented,” he said, regarding EU action on the energy crisis, adding that there is “no sign” of the implementation of the common gas purchase platform that was proposed by the EU Commission.

He said that, given the current pressures on the energy market, that “this common platform would be more important than ever.”

Former Russian state TV employee?Marina?Ovsyannikova attends a court hearing in Moscow, Russia, on July 28.

Marina Ovsyannikova, the Russian state television journalist who made a dramatic, on-air stand against the invasion of Ukraine in the first weeks of the war, has been found guilty of “discrediting the Russian armed forces” after staging more protests this month.

Ovsyannikova was fined 50,000 rubles (around $820) over a video recorded on July 13 in which?she?spoke out against the conflict, calling it a war, according to her lawyer Dmitry Zakhvatov. The Kremlin euphemistically refers to the invasion as a “special military operation.”?

On July 15, Ovsyannikova also shared content of herself holding a one-woman anti-war demonstration on an embankment opposite the Kremlin in Moscow.

In the video and photo she shared on her Telegram channel, the journalist was seen holding a poster saying: “Putin is a murderer, his soldiers are fascists. 352 children are dead. How many more children need to die before you stop?”

At her feet were two dolls and a stuffed toy, apparently stained with red paint.

More background: Ovsyannikova’s live demonstration during a Russian state TV evening news bulletin in March was one of the defining moments of the early days of the conflict, and earned her international renown for visibly speaking out against the invasion from inside Russia.

During that unexpected demonstration, the former Channel One editor appeared behind a news anchor holding a sign that said: “NO WAR.” She told CNN days after the incident that many Russians have been “brainwashed” by state propaganda.

Following her protest on Russian state TV, Ovsyannikova was arrested, interrogated for more than 14 hours, released and fined 30,000 rubles (around $500).

A Moscow court found her guilty of organizing an “unauthorized public event” and she fled Russia in March, but returned in July, according to her official Facebook page.

In June, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called the “arbitrary arrest of a large number of anti-war protesters” in Russia “worrying.”

This post has been updated to clarify the details of Marina Ovsyannikova’s latest court appearance. She was in court on Thursday over the video in which?she?spoke about Russia’s “special military operation,” not over her?demonstration outside the Kremlin.

The Antonivskyi bridge?in the Russian-controlled city of?Kherson, Ukraine, on July 27.

Ukrainian officials claimed that Russian troops can no longer carry heavy weapons and munitions across a strategic road bridge in the Kherson region after it was repeatedly struck by long-range Ukrainian artillery.

Serhii Khlan, adviser to the head of Kherson civil-military administration, said the Antonivskyi bridge, which is about 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) wide, “used to be the main route for the supply of weapons, ammunition and food to the Mykolaiv front” for Russian forces.

Ukrainian officials said the bridge was hit on Tuesday night. Social media video also showed large detonations in a cluster toward one end of the bridge.

“Hypothetically, the Russians might be able to build a pontoon crossing. However, the left bank of Dnipro almost entirely consists of floodplains and swamps,” Khlan said.?

The Russian-appointed deputy head of the Kherson region, Kirill Stremousov, said via Telegram that ferry crossings from near the bridge were already underway, adding, “just come here to the bridge and you will definitely get to the opposite bank of Dnipro.”??

Video grabs show the damaged Antonivskyi?bridge?in the aftermath of shelling, in?Kherson, Ukraine, on July 27.

On Thursday, the UK’s defense ministry said that Russia’s 49th Army, which is stationed on the west bank of the Dnipro river, “now looks highly vulnerable” after Ukrainian long-range artillery hit a total of three bridges.

“Kherson city, the most politically significant population centre occupied by Russia, is now virtually cut off from the other occupied territories,” the ministry said.?

However, the Russians still control large areas to the northeast of the city and may be able to resupply forces on the west bank with pontoon bridges and river ferries across the Dnipro.?

Khlan also said that “a month ago, the invaders used the railway bridge. They brought whole trains to Kherson and to the right bank (of the Dnipro river) of military equipment and weapons. After the ammunition depots located near the railway bridge were destroyed, the occupiers stopped using the railway bridge.”

As a result of the damage to the Antonivskyi bridge, Khlan said that “the detour for civil transport is via the hydroelectric power station through Kakhovka; a lot of cars have accumulated there.”?

The bridge at Kakhovka upstream from Kherson is smaller than the Antonivskyi.

Khlan also referenced reports that a police vehicle in Kherson was attacked with an explosive device Wednesday, claiming that “the resistance movement in Kherson is gaining momentum. This is the result of their work.”

Dmytro Butriy, temporary acting head of Kherson region military administration, said the attack on the police car had been carried out by a radio-controlled explosive device and had killed one policeman.

Butriy said attacks against Russian positions in Kherson continued. “Our aircraft made five strikes on the enemy. Pairs of attack aircraft and a bomber hit three enemy strongholds,” he said.

He also claimed that?Russian occupation authorities had announced a ban on the Ukrainian currency hryvnia. “The so-called occupation ‘police’ are walking around the market and warning people who sell cash that they will be punished for issuing hryvnias,” he said.

Ukrainian officials say Russian forces are trying to build a pontoon crossing next to the Antonivskyi bridge to help them move heavy military equipment across the Dnieper river.?

The First Deputy Head of Kherson regional council, Yurii Sobolevskyi posted a picture of the operation on Facebook. CNN geolocated the picture to one of the banks, next to the Antonivskyi bridge.

“Four tugboats pulling pontoons with cars will not solve the problem of supplying the military group of ‘orcs’ in Kherson,” Sobolevskyi said in the post. “Not much they will help during the retreat of the occupying forces.”

CNN has reached out to the Ukranian General Staff and Southern Command for additional information but has yet to hear back.

US President Joe Biden’s administration officials are frustrated that Moscow has yet to respond in a meaningful way to their?“substantial proposal” to try to free two detained Americans – a deal which includes a trade for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, as?CNN exclusively reported?Wednesday.

That proposal was presented to Russia weeks ago, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said when publicly announcing it Wednesday. Administration officials told CNN that they felt Moscow would jump at the offer, but it is now almost August and they have not received a substantive response, officials said.

On Thursday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed that “so far there is no agreement on this issue.”

Frustration at Russia’s lack of substantive response to the deal was an underlying factor in the administration’s decision to publicize that an agreement from the US is on the table.

“We communicated a substantial offer that we believe could be successful based on a history of conversations with the Russians,” a senior administration official told CNN Wednesday.

However, there was acknowledgement within the administration that negotiations to try to free detained Americans are often difficult.

“So in some ways, it’s not surprising, even if it’s disheartening, when those same actors don’t necessarily respond directly to our offers, don’t engage constructively in negotiations,” they said.

New details: National Security Council strategic coordinator for communications John Kirby offered some new details Thursday on the decision to go public with news that the US had offered the prisoner swap.

“We have made that decision seriously in terms of whether we were going to go public with it and I could just tell you that there was a lot that went into that decision. A lot of context here, both in terms of what was happening, what wasn’t happening, and certainly in the context of Mrs. Griner having to testify yesterday,” Kirby said during an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Kirby did not offer any updates on the status of the offer.

“We’re still hoping that this proposal will be accepted by the Russians and then we can move forward to bring Brittney and Paul home,” he said.

He said it had been put forth “many weeks ago.”

Smoke rises over?Kyiv?after Russian missile strikes in?Kyiv, Ukraine, on July 28.

At least 15 people were injured in Thursday morning strikes in the Kyiv region, according to Andrii Nebytov, the head police in the Kyiv region.

More than 20 projectiles were fired in five separate attacks on the area — hitting a military facility — Oleksiy Kuleba, the head of Kyiv region state administration, posted on Telegram.

“Two more missiles were shot down by air defence forces,” Kuleba said.

“The enemy launched a rocket attack on a community in the Vyshhorod district this morning.?An infrastructure target was hit,” Kuleba said earlier.

Ukraine is observing a new national holiday today — its first Day of Ukrainian Statehood. Here are the latest headlines:

Prisoner swap possible? The US made a “substantial offer” in June to release convicted Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout — dubbed the “Merchant of Death” — in exchange for Moscow’s release of two US citizens, Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan, according to sources, which Biden signed off on. On Thursday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said “no agreement” has been reached so far regarding the issue.?

Ukraine’s new holiday: July 28 marks the first Day of Ukrainian Statehood, to celebrate the connection between all Ukrainian people, past and present, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky. He summed up the day as: “We existed, exist and will exist.” In a video, Zelensky said Ukraine is “a free, sovereign, undivided and independent state” and always will be.?

Numbers on Russian casualties: According to US officials on Wednesday, “over 75,000 Russians have either been killed or wounded” during the war. Casualty figures are difficult to determine, with both Russian and Ukrainian officials having at times exaggerated events. The Kremlin dismissed the figures, which were quoted in a New York Times report on Thursday, saying that “even the most reputable newspapers do not shy away from spreading all sorts of fakes.”

Attacks near Kyiv and in the north: Shelling was reported in the northeastern cities of Chernihiv and Kharkiv “from the territory of Belarus,” according to V?yacheslav Chaus, the head of the Chernihiv regional military administration. Meanwhile, explosions were heard in Kyiv on Thursday morning. Oleksiy Kuleba, head of Kyiv’s regional state administration, said “the enemy launched a rocket attack on a community in the Vyshhorod district this morning,” hitting infrastructure.

Russian gains in Donetsk: The Ukrainian military on Thursday said that Russian forces had made “partial success” in gaining ground outside of Vershyna, a town located around 10 kilometers (6 miles) southeast of Bakhmut, which they have been bombarding for several weeks. The Ukrainian military’s General Staff also said that four attacks from different directions on Bakhmut were repelled, and in northern Sloviansk, two Russian advances were thwarted on Wednesday.

Russian journalist protester: The former Russian state TV employee Marina Ovsyannikova is appearing in court on Thursday over another anti-war protest: a one-woman anti-war protest on an embankment opposite the Kremlin in Moscow. Ovsyannikova previously gained attention in March for holding up a “No War” sign during a live nightly newscast on the station where she previously worked.

Marina Ovsyannikova, who has been accused of "discrediting" the Russian army fighting in Ukraine, appears in court in Moscow on July 28, 2022.

Former Russian state TV employee Marina Ovsyannikova will appear at a court hearing in Moscow today over another anti-war protest.

Earlier this month, Ovsyannikova shared content of herself holding a one-woman anti-war protest on an embankment opposite the Kremlin in Moscow.

In the video and photo she shared on her Telegram channel, she was seen holding a poster saying: “Putin is a murderer, his soldiers are fascists. 352 children are dead. How many more children need to die before you stop?”?

At her feet were two dolls and a stuffed toy stained with what looks like red paint.?

Ovsyannikova was briefly detained in Moscow on July 17, her lawyer Dmitry Zakhvatov told CNN.

According to Zakhvatov, Ovsyannikova was detained by the police for “actions aimed at discrediting the Russian army” for a video statement she recorded.?

Ovsyannikova, a former journalist for Russian state TV “Channel One,” gained international attention in March for?holding up a “No War” sign during a live nightly newscast on the channel.?

Speaking to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour days after her protest, she said that it was “impossible to stay silent” and that?she wanted the world to know that many Russians are against the invasion.

Following her protest on Russian state TV,?Ovsyannikova was arrested, interrogated for more than 14 hours, released and fined 30,000 rubles (approximately $526).

A Moscow court found her guilty of organizing an “unauthorized public event.” She?fled Russia in March but returned in July, according to her official Facebook page.

In June,?the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said the “arbitrary arrest of a large number of anti-war protesters” in Russia was “worrying.”

Following reports of a prisoner exchange offer by the US to release convicted Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout for US citizens Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan, the Kremlin has responded, “so far, there is no agreement on this issue,” according to a spokesman.

When asked by journalists during his daily conference call on Thursday, Dmitry Peskov said: “Well, look, since there are no agreements now that would be finalized, then, accordingly, I have nothing more to add to what has been said.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that he expected a call with his Russian counterpart this week to discuss a “substantial proposal” presented to Moscow “weeks ago” to try to secure the release of the two Americans, whom the US say are wrongfully detained.

In this photo provided by the U.S. Department of Justice, former Soviet military officer and arms trafficking suspect Viktor Bout, center, deplanes after arriving at Westchester County Airport November 16, 2010 in White Plains, New York.

Is the United States really ready to let the “Merchant of Death” out of prison?

Viktor Bout, one of the world’s most notorious arms dealers, could be the key to a possible deal with Moscow to win the freedom of basketball star Brittney Griner and another American, Paul Whelan,?according to an exclusive CNN report.

A “substantial offer” was made to Moscow in June, according to three sources, and President Joe Biden personally signed off on it.

To put it mildly, this is a stunning development. The Kremlin has yet to respond. But if the swap goes ahead, it could transform perceptions of how the US deals with governments who detain its citizens overseas, making American travelers more tempting targets. It would also be an act of great humanity by Biden to bring Americans home from hellish Russian prisons.

This is one of those problems with no right answer that leaders face. Freeing a prisoner like Bout is a risk. He is not only close to Russian intelligence, but could pose a future threat – he was convicted in 2011 of conspiracy to kill Americans, among other charges. A high-profile swap like this might also send a message to hostile governments and bandits around the world that the US will cut deals to get people home.

Read the full analysis here.

Ukrainian forensics experts examine the body of a Russian soldier exhumed in the village of Zavalivka, west of Kyiv, in a refrigerated rail car stacked with the bodies of deceased Russian soldiers on May 11.

More than 75,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded during the war in Ukraine, Biden administration officials told US lawmakers during a classified briefing on Wednesday.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov disputed the figure in regard to a New York Times report.

“This is not a statement from the American administration,” Peskov said during a call with journalists on Thursday. “This is a newspaper article. Nowadays, even the most reputable newspapers do not shy away from spreading all sorts of fakes. This, unfortunately, is a practice that is becoming more and more common. This is how it should be treated.”

It’s difficult to independently gauge casualty figures in the war. Both Russian and Ukrainian officials, seeking to gain the upper hand in propaganda efforts, have at times exaggerated military advancements and downplayed setbacks. The Kremlin does not regularly provide updates on casualties; on March 25, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said 1,351 of its soldiers had died in the first month of the invasion, but it has not shared any updates since.

Last week, Richard Moore, the head of MI6, said at the Aspen Security Forum that he believes the Russians will begin to lose steam in the coming weeks because they are running out of manpower.?

And the next few weeks of the war will be crucial, US and Western officials have said, because the Ukrainians are going to try to mount a major counteroffensive in the south before the winter. Ukraine is looking for additional reinforcements, lawmakers were told in Wednesday’s briefing.

Ukraine will aim to take back the southern city of Kherson, which has been occupied by Russia since March, US and western officials believe.

“The sort of main conversation in the briefing was, you know, what more we can and should be doing for the Ukrainians, literally in the next three to six weeks, very urgently. Ukrainians want to go to the south and do operations in the south. And we want them to be as successful as possible,” Slotkin said.??

“I think that what we heard very firmly from President Zelensky and reinforced today is that the Ukrainians really want to hit Russia in the teeth a few times before the winter comes, put them in the best position possible, particularly hitting them down south.”

During the briefing, Slotkin said there was bipartisan support for sending Ukraine long-range missiles, known as ATACMS, that can strike as far as 180 miles away.

The Ukrainians have been urging the US to provide these systems for months, because the HIMARS they possess can only strike distances of around 49 miles.?

But national security adviser Jake Sullivan said last week at the Aspen Security Forum that the US would not be providing the ATACMS, because they could be used to strike into Russian territory, which would escalate the war even further.?

Firefighters tackle a blaze after the Russian shelling of a house in Bakhmut, Ukraine, on 27 July.

Russian forces have made further incremental progress in the eastern Donetsk region, where they have been bombarding areas south of the town of Bakhmut for several weeks, according to the Ukrainian military.

In an operational update Thursday, the General Staff of the Ukrainian military said Russian forces were trying to advance toward Bakhmut from the south and east.

Russian forces had “partial success” in the direction of Vidrodzhennia-Vershyna and were entrenched southeast of the settlement of Vershyna, the update said.

Vershyna is about 10 kilometers (6 miles) southeast of Bakhmut. Earlier this week, the Russians took the nearby village of Novoluhankse and an adjacent power plant.

Russian advances blocked: However, the General Staff said attacks from four different directions toward Bakhmut were repelled.

It said that the Russians continue to use a wide variety of weapons, including tank fire, airstrikes and artillery, across the front lines in Donetsk.

The Russians hit several settlements north of Sloviansk in order to break down Ukrainian defenses and advance, although two such advances attempted Wednesday had been repelled, the General Staff said.

The General Staff also said it is using drones to establish the positions of Ukrainian troops as Russian artillery continues to fire on settlements around the northeastern city of Kharkiv.

Battlefield overview: The General Staff assessed that Russia was focusing its main efforts on “establishing full control over the territories of Luhansk and Donetsk,” and maintaining the captured southern Kherson region and parts of Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Mykolayiv.

Russia was blocking Ukraine’s maritime communications in the Black Sea, it added.

A soldier stands in front of a damaged Ukrainian?government?administration building following shelling in?Mykolaiv, Ukraine, on April 8.

A?Ukrainian?reconnaissance team squats in a modest home in a village near?Mykolaiv. Machine guns and army knapsacks line the walls, sleeping bags lie rolled out on the floor, and a pot of soup warms on the stove.

Outside, the garden shed is stacked with Javelins and other shoulder-launched anti-tank weapons.

The soldiers smoking on the porch hardly notice the boom of incoming artillery shells landing some 10 kilometers away. Today is not their turn to fight on?Ukraine’s southern front.

The owners of the house, who fled to Poland after the war broke out in late February, are happy in the knowledge that their village is now back in Ukrainian hands.

Pidlisnyi commands a unit of 100 men tasked with identifying Russian positions, often by drone. They then call in the artillery.

On his computer, he shows CNN bodycam videos from his missions earlier in the war. He has had some close calls, but says his morale is high after recent successes. US hardware has helped.

One video shows Pidlisnyi sitting in a trench, using his drone to pinpoint Russian tank positions. “Call in the American gift,” he says over the radio.

Russian troops are now on the defensive in this part of the south — unlike in the east, where Ukrainian troops are the ones being forced to cede ground.

Read the full story here.

More than 25,000 people, including nearly 4,000 children, have been evacuated to Russia from the?Russian-backed separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in the past 24 hours, state-run news agency TASS said Thursday, citing Russian authorities.

Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev, head of?Russia’s National Defense Management Center,?said about 3,000 vehicles had crossed the border into Russia in the past day, TASS reported.

Mizintsev added nearly 2.9 million people, including about 460,000 children, in total have been evacuated since the start of what he called Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Some context: Bloody battles have raged for months in eastern Ukraine, where Russian forces now control the Luhansk region but have so far been unsuccessful in taking all of Donetsk. According to an adviser to Ukraine’s president, Russian troops are attempting to consolidate gains in Donetsk rather than taking over the entire region “at this stage.”

Russian shelling was reported early Thursday in the northeastern Ukrainian cities of Chernihiv and Kharkiv.

Earlier in the night, officials in Kharkiv said two?S-300 long-range surface-to-air missiles had hit the region.?

“Kharkiv was shelled twice overnight, both coming immediately after midnight. One hit closer to the center, while the second targeted an adjacent district,” Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.?“As a result, two small fires broke out and were extinguished by our rescue team. Currently we have no information about casualties,” Terekhov said.?

Southern attacks: Meanwhile, “powerful explosions” were also heard early Thursday in the?southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv,?the city’s mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said.

Smoke rises over the city skyline after Russian missile strikes on the Ukrainian capital in Kyiv,?Ukraine, on?July 28.

Explosions have been reported in the region of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, early on Thursday morning.

Emergency services are already on site,?Kuleba said, adding that information on victims is not yet known.?

The Kyiv city state administration urged residents to seek shelter as the air raid alarm is still in effect.?

Some context: Russia initially attacked and occupied multiple Kyiv suburbs following the start of its invasion in February, before the Kremlin withdrew its forces in April from around the capital to concentrate on the east of the country.?Sporadic Russian attacks against Kyiv have occurred since the withdrawal, including a series of deadly missile strikes last month.

Vuhlehirsk's power plant burns in the distance after shelling in the Donetsk region on July 13.

Russian forces have taken over Ukraine’s second-largest power plant, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview posted on YouTube on Wednesday.

The coal-fired Vuhlehirsk power plant is in the eastern Donetsk region, close to the border with Russian-controlled Luhansk.

Arestovych added that Russian forces were attempting to consolidate gains in the area. The Russians are now “moving to strategic defense on all conquered fronts,” rather than taking over the Donetsk region “at this stage,” he said.

He said it is based on an “assumption, which is sufficiently substantiated, that a strategic decision has been made in the Kremlin.”

The Ukrainian military said Wednesday is had repelled Russian offensives in the region, which has seen heavy fighting for the past several months.

Former Soviet military officer and arms trafficking suspect Viktor Bout, center — who has since been convicted and is serving a 25-year US prison sentence — deplanes after arriving at Westchester County Airport in White Plains, New York, in November 2010.

After months of internal debate, the Biden administration has offered to exchange?Viktor Bout, a convicted Russian arms trafficker serving a 25-year US prison sentence, as part of a potential deal to secure the release of two Americans held by Russia, Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan, according to people briefed on the matter.

These sources told CNN that the plan to trade Bout for Whelan and Griner received the backing of President Joe Biden after being under discussion since earlier this year. Biden’s support for the swap overrides opposition from the Department of Justice, which is generally against prisoner trades.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Wednesday that the US presented a “substantial proposal” to Moscow “weeks ago” for Whelan and Griner, who are classified as wrongfully detained.

The top US diplomat said he intended to discuss the matter on an expected call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov this week — his first conversation with his counterpart since the war in Ukraine began — telling reporters, “my hope would be that in speaking to Foreign Minister Lavrov, I can advance the efforts to bring them home.”

“There is in my mind utility in conveying clear, direct messages to the Russians on key priorities for us. And as I mentioned, these include securing the return home of Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan,” he said.

Read the full story here.

The Ukrainian military said it was able to repel Russian offensives toward the Donetsk city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.

In its evening update on Wednesday, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said it had inflicted losses on Russian forces looking to advance in that area.

Artillery shelling and airstrikes were reported in most villages and towns around the area, and along most of the front line in the Donetsk region, as Russia “continues its attempts to improve the tactical position in the directions of the cities of Kramatorsk and Bakhmut with assault actions,” the General Staff said.?

The Ukrainian military said an assault along the Bilohorivka-Verkhnokamianske axis was also repelled.?

Front lines: Ukrainian forces said the Russian military has mostly maintained its defensive positions In the area around the northeastern Kharkiv region, and along the southern flank near Kherson.

Blogger Graham Phillips is escorted away by police officers after he disrupted a press conference in London on October 9, 2018.

The UK government has?sanctioned?a British blogger over content that it says “destabilizes” Ukraine, according to the British Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office.

Blogger Graham Phillips was added to the UK sanctions list on Monday, according to the Foreign Office. He is the only British national sanctioned in relation to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to public records.

Philips has appealed the decision, describing it as “absolutely absurd, dangerous, ridiculous.”

In a video posted on YouTube on April 19, Phillips questions captured British national Aiden Aslin, who had been fighting with Ukrainian forces in Mariupol. On camera, Aslin says he is not speaking under duress but is handcuffed during the video.

YouTube removed the video. At the time of writing, parent company Google had not provided a statement to CNN on the removal of the video.

On April 20, British MP Robert Jenrick, who represents Aslin’s constituency in the UK, criticized the video in Parliament as a “flagrant breach of the Geneva conventions.”

Read more here.