The Kremlin said it was impossible for Russia to return to the Black Sea grain export deal for now, as an agreement related to Russian interests was “not being implemented”. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters, however, that Vladimir Putin had made it clear the deal could be revived if its Russia-focused part was honoured.
Russia’s withdrawal from the deal could drive global grain prices up by 10-15%, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned. IMF chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas told reporters that the UN-brokered deal, which allowed Ukrainian exports via the Black Sea, had been “instrumental in making sure that there will be ample grain supply to the world in the last year”.
President Vladimir Putin is planning to visit China in October, the Kremlin has said. “It is known that we have received an invitation and that we intend to go to China when the Belt and Road Forum is held in October,” Yuri Ushakov, an aide to the Russian president on international affairs, said in comments carried by Russian news agencies.
Russian lawmakers on Tuesday backed legislation increasing the maximum age limit to 30 for compulsory military service, over a year into the Kremlin’s Ukraine offensive. The bill comes as Moscow seeks to replenish its forces on the frontline in Ukraine without resorting to another mobilisation – a step the Kremlin took last September that proved unpopular.
The US state department confirmed reports that a former marine, who was released from Russia in a prisoner swap last year, has been injured while fighting in Ukraine. Trevor Reed was taken to Germany for medical care, a state department spokesperson said, adding that Reed was not acting on behalf of the US government.
The US has announced a new $400m military assistance package for Ukraine featuring ammunition for artillery and air defence systems. The military aid package includes air defence munitions, artillery rounds, armoured vehicles, and anti-armour capabilities to help Ukraine’s forces.
The UN’s human rights chief, Volker Türk has rejected Russian claims that the deaths of at least 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war being held in occupied Donetsk were caused by a Ukrainian Himars rocket. Türk’s office has has been investigating the incident.
Putin “hid” and could not act decisively when the head of the Wagner mercenary group launched his attempted rebellion in June, with some critics saying Putin has now lost his reputation as the “toughest man in town” due to the incident, according to a Washington Post report.
The British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has shared with Ukraine intelligence that Russia has laid additional mines in the Black Sea and may attack civilian shipping in the region, the UK’s ambassador to the UN, Barbara Woodward, has said. “We agree with the US assessment that this is a coordinated effort to justify and lay blame on Ukraine for any attacks against civilian ships in the Black Sea.”
Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, has arrived in North Korea leading a government delegation, Shoigu’s ministry has said. The Russian delegation joins a Chinese group to celebrate the 70th anniversary of “Victory Day” on Thursday in Pyongyang, state media KCNA reported. The Korean war did not end in a victory by the North, but a ceasefire.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has warned that “no one will forgive” any of his country’s politicians or officials if they “oppose” the state after the arrest of a Ukrainian MP suspected of collaborating with Russia. Oleksandr Ponomaryov, a Ukrainian member of parliament, was placed in detention without bail by Kyiv’s Pechersk district court pending trial on treason allegations, the prosecutor general’s office said on Tuesday.
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