Odessa port bombed despite grain deal: Russia responds to allegations

Created: 07/24/2022, 13:30

By: Bedrettin Bölükbasi, Christoph Gschoßmann, Franziska Schwarz, Fabian Müller

Grain processing plants are said to have been targeted in the attack on the port of Odessa.

Russia responds to the allegations.

The news ticker on military events.

• Russia denies responsibility for Odessa rocket fire: Turkey reports.

• Grain processing plant at the port of Odessa hit: Ukraine accuses Russia of targeted attack.

• Russia

  attacks

  central Ukraine

  : three civilians have died.

• This 

  news ticker

   on the military situation in the 

  Ukraine conflict

   is continuously updated.

  Here is the background to the Ukraine war.

Update from July 23, 5:57 p.m .:

According to the US State Department, two American citizens were killed in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbass.

"We are in contact with the families and provide all possible consular support," said a ministry spokeswoman on Saturday on request.

Further details were not known.

The spokeswoman said out of respect for the family, no further information was given about the case.

According to US media reports, an unknown number of American volunteers are fighting on the side of the Ukrainians against the invading Russian army.

The US is an important ally of Ukraine and the largest arms supplier for the war-torn country.

Russia denies responsibility for Odessa missile attack

Update from July 23, 5:10 p.m .:

Russia has denied responsibility for the rocket attack on the port of the Ukrainian city of Odessa, according to Turkey.

Turkey is in contact with Ukraine and Russia, and Moscow has given assurances that it had nothing to do with the attack and wants to investigate the incident, Turkey's Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Saturday.

Ukraine accuses Russia of shelling the port of Odessa.

According to Ukrainian military information, two Russian missiles were intercepted by air defenses and two more hit the commercial port.

Odessa: Targeted attack on grain processing plants by Russia?

Update from July 23, 3:20 p.m .:

According to Ukrainian information, grain processing plants were targeted during a Russian rocket attack on the Ukrainian port of Odessa on Saturday.

The port was "hit specifically where grain deliveries were processed," Ukrainian military spokesman Yuriy Ignat told the AFP news agency.

Ukraine and Russia reached an agreement on Friday, mediated by the UN and Turkey, to resume grain deliveries from Ukraine, which had been blocked since the beginning of the war.

Ukraine War: Russia attacks Odessa port

Update from July 23, 12 p.m.:

One day after the agreement to resume blocked grain deliveries, the Ukrainian port of Odessa, which is important for exports, was hit by Russian missiles, according to Ukrainian information.

“The enemy attacked the port of Odessa with Kalibr cruise missiles.

Two rockets hit the infrastructure of the port,” Serhiy Brachuk, a representative of the Odessa region, told online networks.

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Two more missiles were shot down by anti-aircraft defenses, Bratschuk added.

In doing so, Russian President Vladimir Putin "spit in the face" of the UN and Turkey, according to the Ukrainian side.

The UN and Turkey mediated between Kyiv and Moscow.

Both sides signed an agreement in Istanbul on Friday that provides for secured transit routes in the Black Sea for grain deliveries.

The regulations reached in weeks of negotiations provide for corridors for grain exports from three Ukrainian ports in the Odessa area.

The warring parties agreed not to attack ships on these routes.

Russia attacks central Ukraine - at least three civilians killed

Update from July 23, 10:40 a.m .: At

least three people were killed in central Ukraine by Russian attacks.

The dead were a soldier and two guards from a substation, Kirovograd Governor Andriy Raikovych told Ukrainian media.

Nine other Ukrainian soldiers were injured.

The Russian attacks were directed against railway systems and a military airfield.

According to Raikovych, a total of 13 Russian missiles were fired.

The information cannot be independently confirmed.

Meanwhile, according to the British Ministry of Defence, Ukrainian troops are continuing their counter-offensive in southern Kherson.

In the last secret service report on the Ukraine war, the ministry in London spoke of heavy fighting in the region within the last 48 hours.

Russian units would try to stall the Ukrainian counter-offensive with artillery attacks along the Inhulez River.

Ukraine war: Putin's soldiers surrounded in Cherson - Kyiv speaks of "tactical encirclement"

Update from July 23, 8:42 a.m .:

According to information from Kiev, more than 1,000 Russian soldiers were surrounded by Ukrainian forces in the occupied southern Ukrainian region of Cherson, the German Press Agency reported.

Not far from the Vysokopillya settlement, the Russians got into a "tactical encirclement," said President Volodymyr Zelenskyi's adviser, Oleksiy Arestovych, on Friday evening.

They had unsuccessfully attempted a breakthrough.

There were no confirmations from the Russian side.

Arestowych's statements could not be checked independently either.

In the Cherson region, which the Russian army had largely brought under control since the beginning of the war, the Ukrainian army had recently launched several counter-offensives.

Ukraine also wants to reconquer lost territories with the help of western weapons.

The US newspaper

, citing statements by Zelenskyj, wrote that the Ukrainian army is now recording significantly fewer casualties than a few weeks ago.

Meanwhile, several "strong impacts" were reported from Kharkiv on Saturday morning,

quoted Mayor Ihor Terekhov as saying.

Russia has not yet confirmed the attack.

Torture in the Ukraine war: Organization accuses Russian soldiers of mistreatment of prisoners and civilians

Update from July 22, 10 p.m.:

The human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) accuses Russia’s armed forces of torturing prisoners of war and civilians in Ukraine.

In the southern Kherson and Zaporizhia regions, interviews with dozens of people revealed 42 cases in which Russian occupation forces either disappeared or otherwise arbitrarily detained civilians.

Some had had no contact with the outside world, and many had been tortured.

Two of the three prisoners of war affected had died.

"Russian troops have turned the occupied territories of southern Ukraine into an abyss of fear and rampant lawlessness," Yulia Gorbunova, senior Ukraine researcher at Human Rights Watch, was quoted as saying.

Torture, inhuman treatment and arbitrary and unlawful detention of civilians are flagrant war crimes.

"The Russian authorities must stop such abuses immediately and understand that they can and will be held accountable."

Ukraine-News: Three dead in rocket attack on school in Kramatorsk

Update from July 22, 7:20 p.m .:

According to Ukrainian information, Russian forces are said to have shot at a school in the city of Kramatorsk.

The attackers are said to have fired at the school with Iskander missiles, completely destroying it.

Three people are said to have died in the attack.

The bodies were said to have been discovered while clearing the rubble.

The Russian military leadership has denied the allegations.

Up to 300 nationalists were killed in the attack.

The reports cannot be independently verified at this time.

The city of Kramatorsk, along with the nearby city of Sloviansk, is the next target for Russian forces in the battle for the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic.

War in Ukraine: Russian advance in Donetsk appears to be faltering

Update from July 22, 3:06 p.m .:

According to the Ukrainian military, the Russian armed forces have not been able to make any progress despite the artillery and rocket fire in the Donetsk region.

Currently, the most intense fighting is taking place in eastern Ukraine immediately west of Lysychansk and south of Bakhmut.

The US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in its latest assessment of the situation that the Russian military has so far undertaken “not significantly” more operations than the pause in operations announced earlier this month.

Sometimes even less troop movement is observed.

"The lack of successful ground attacks" corresponds to the assessment of the ISW, "that the Russian offensive will probably end without taking (...) Bakhmut", according to the ISW.

Canadian military sees Putin in trouble – separatists apparently block Google

Update from July 22, 11:19 a.m

.: The Kremlin has been pursuing critics since March – the basis is a new law against the spread of alleged “fake news” about Russian armed forces.

15 years imprisonment threaten.

The self-proclaimed People's Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine have apparently blocked the Google search engine, according to the Ukrainian exile portal

.

Together with the Kremlin, their leaders wanted to ensure the "safety and comprehensive protection" of the residents there, also reported

.

"The West and Ukraine are exerting unprecedented pressure on the republics, endangering physical and psychological security," the portal quoted Telegram posts by separatist leader Denis Puschilin as saying.

“This inhumane propaganda has long since crossed all borders.

There were real threats against Russians,” Puschilin continued.

If Google finds its way back to the "middle of law, morality and common sense", the group's activities will no longer be hindered.

Last week, a Moscow court fined Google the equivalent of around 360 million euros for not deleting articles critical of the Ukraine war.

According to observers, it is questionable whether Google will pay.

It had withdrawn from Russia after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine began.

"Russia no longer has the capacity": Canadian military sees Putin in trouble

First report from July 22

: Kiev - The Russian army is apparently weakening in the Ukraine war.

"I think they're about to run out of breath," is a recent assessment by Richard Moore, head of the British foreign intelligence service MI6.

The Canadian military is now making similar statements.

The troops probably no longer have the strength to achieve their war goals in the country, the

quotes from official tweets.

The reason is a “considerable” number of dead and the destruction of war equipment on the part of the Russians.

The Canadian military therefore assumes that the Kremlin must now find a "new reason" for territorial losses in the military conflict.

Mines in the Black Sea: turning point through grain agreement?

Meanwhile, Kyiv has agreed to partially remove mines from the Black Sea.

The background is the current negotiations on the grain dispute in Istanbul.

If the goods are released, this is part of a “deal”.

quotes this information

from an article in the

, which in turn refers to insiders.

Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin has repeatedly accused Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky of thwarting grain deliveries across the Black Sea.

Russia is ready to guarantee the ships safe conduct.

Before that, however, the Ukrainians would have to clear the mines in their own ports.

However, according to the AFP news agency, observers say that the threat comes from mines laid by both Russian and Ukrainian units.

Weapons from the west: Zelenskyj is happy about "potential"

Zelenskyy, meanwhile, is optimistic about both the grain negotiations and the military situation.

At a meeting with the heads of reconnaissance, the military and the Interior Ministry, the situation at the front and the supply of their own troops with new weapons were discussed.

We "agreed that we have significant potential to advance our forces on the front line and inflict significant new casualties on the occupiers," Zelenskyy said.