Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky referred to as the Crimean Bridge a goal that should be “neutralized,” ratcheting up tensions after Kyiv launched an assault on the construction final week. The assault on the bridge killed two individuals and quickly shut down its roadway, which hyperlinks the peninsula to Russia.
Right here’s the most recent on the struggle and its ripple results throughout the globe.
Russia’s Protection Ministry stated it struck Odessa in a single day, claiming with out offering proof that the assault was designed to focus on Ukrainian forces making ready assaults in opposition to Russia. The Russian armed forces used long-range sea and air-launched precision-guided weapons to strike areas the place unmanned boats meant for assaults in opposition to Russian territory have been being ready and manufactured, stated Igor Konashenkov, a ministry spokesman, at a information briefing Sunday.
Zelensky stated Ukraine would retaliate in opposition to Russian assaults in Odessa. Photographs and pictures posted by Ukrainian authorities on Telegram confirmed piles of rubble, overturned automobiles and blown-out roofs within the metropolis, in addition to shattered non secular murals on the destroyed Transfiguration Cathedral, a non secular construction with greater than 200 years of historical past that was beforehand destroyed by Soviet authorities in 1936.
The U.S. ambassador to Ukraine stated the Odessa assault had “horrible prices.” Bridget A. Brink stated that the town, “a world heritage web site and a significant port for international meals safety,” was left with “a destroyed cathedral, ruined properties, and burning grain silos” following the in a single day strike.
Missiles in opposition to peaceable cities, in opposition to residential buildings, a cathedral… There might be no excuse for Russian evil. As at all times, this evil will lose. And there will certainly be a retaliation to Russian terrorists for Odesa. They’ll really feel this retaliation.
All those that… pic.twitter.com/gcpD30BFP1
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 23, 2023
One individual was killed by Russian shelling in Kherson, Ukraine’s armed forces stated. The assaults have been geared toward a residential space and an administrative constructing, they stated.
Zelensky mentioned steps with NATO’s secretary normal to unblock grain export routes outlined within the Black Sea Grain Initiative, the pact that Russia pulled out of final week, Ukraine’s president stated in his night handle. Zelensky and NATO Secretary Basic Jens Stoltenberg additionally mentioned Ukraine’s “quickest potential accession to NATO,” he added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian chief Alexander Lukashenko will meet on Sunday to debate their nations’ “strategic partnership,” the Kremlin stated, two days after Putin warned that any assault in opposition to the neighboring state would even be thought of an assault in opposition to Moscow. The assembly is about to happen in Russia.
Ukraine’s counteroffensive operations are more likely to “acquire tempo,” Zelensky stated throughout a digital look on the Aspen Safety Discussion board, as Ukrainian forces attempt to retake floor from Russian troops. “We’re already going via some mines’ places and we’re demining these areas,” he stated.
Radar imagery seems to indicate newly arrived autos and tools in Belarus at a rumored base for fighters from the Wagner Group. The pictures, offered to The Washington Publish by Maxar Applied sciences and Umbra, present that “dozens, if not lots of, of autos and tools have just lately arrived on the facility,” in line with Stephen Wooden, senior director at Maxar. The pictures present a rise in materiel in contrast with earlier imagery gathered on July 16.
A drone assault in Crimea brought on an explosion at an ammunition depot, prompting evacuation orders, Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-backed head of Crimea, stated Saturday. Aksyonov blamed the explosion on Ukraine, and the Ukrainian armed forces later claimed they’d destroyed oil and ammunition depots.
“Many might die” from hunger with out an lively Black Sea grain deal in place, stated U.N. help chief Martin Griffiths. He additionally warned of a spike in international meals costs and monetary devastation for Ukrainian farmers. “Some will go hungry, some will starve, many might die because of these selections,” he stated.
A Russian official condemned Ukraine and america after the dying of a struggle correspondent from Russia’s RIA state information company. In a Telegram submit, Viktor Bondarev, chairman of the protection and safety committee within the Federation Council, the higher home of Russia’s parliament, accused Ukraine of utilizing cluster munitions and implied america was additionally accountable. Human Rights Watch has beforehand stated that Russia and Ukraine have been utilizing cluster munitions throughout the struggle.
President Biden elevated CIA Director William J. Burns to his Cupboard, a symbolic transfer that displays the central function the spy chief has performed within the administration’s overseas coverage, The Publish’s Shane Harris studies.
Ukraine is plagued by explosives. It’ll take a long time to make it protected. In a yr and a half of battle, Ukraine’s heartland has been reworked into patches of wasteland riddled with hazard. Explosive supplies, artillery shells, undetonated bombs or rockets and land mines have contaminated a swath of land roughly the scale of Florida or Uruguay. Undoing it might take lots of of years and billions of {dollars} in what’s now probably the most mined nation on this planet, Eve Sampson and Samuel Granados write.
“The sheer amount of ordnance in Ukraine is simply unprecedented within the final 30 years. There’s nothing prefer it,” stated Greg Crowther, the director of applications for the Mines Advisory Group.
Natalia Abbakumova contributed to this report.
