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The “terrorists’ attack on Odesa” shows that Russia is not just targeting Ukraine but also other countries, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his daily evening address late Wednesday.
“About a million tons of food is stored in the ports that were attacked today. This is the volume that should have been delivered to consumer countries in Africa and Asia long ago,” he said. “Everyone is affected by this Russian terror.”
Today's 🇷🇺 terrorists' attack on Odesa proves that their target is not only 🇺🇦, and not only the lives of our people. About a million tons of food is stored in the ports that were attacked today. This is the volume that should have been delivered to consumer countries in Africa… pic.twitter.com/7jbz9TaqKg
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 19, 2023Russia may attack civilian ships on Black Sea and blame Ukraine, US warns
This third night of Russian attacks targeting southern coastal cities comes as the US warned that Russia may attack civilian ships on the Black Sea and then blame Ukrainian forces.
“The Russian military may expand their targeting of Ukrainian grain facilities to include attacks against civilian shipping,” national security council spokesperson Adam Hodge told AFP on Wednesday.
He said the allegation was based on newly declassified intelligence. The warning came hours after Moscow said it would consider all ships sailing on the Black Sea to Ukrainian ports as potential military targets.
The Kremlin pulled out of an international deal allowing safe passage of massive Ukrainian grain exports across the Black Sea to world markets earlier this week.
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A total of 18 people have been wounded in the strikes on Mykolaiv, the governor Vitaliy Kim has said. Nine were taken to hospital, including five children. Two people were rescued from the rubble, he said on Telegram. “It is a miracle they were saved,” he said.
He gave no further information on the deaths he had reported earlier.
One person killed in drone attack on occupied Crimea, governor says
A teenage girl has died in a Ukrainian drone attack on north-west Crimea, the Moscow-back governor of the occupied peninsula has said.
“As a result of an enemy UAV [drone] strike on one of the settlements in the north-west of Crimea, four administrative buildings were damaged. [Emergency] services are on site,” Sergei Aksyonov said in a Telegram post.
Deaths reported after Russian strike on Mykolaiv, military says
Deaths have been reported in Mykolaiv after Russia launched strikes on the southern port city, the Ukrainian military and the local governor have said.
The city centre was hit in the attack and a garage and three-storey residential building were set on fire, governor Vitaliy Kim said on Telegram. Nine people were wounded, including five children, Kim said, later adding “there are also dead”.
Two people were also hospitalised after strikes on Odesa, the military said. The Black Sea port has already endured two nights of Russian bombardment after Moscow said it was pulling out a deal that allowed Ukrainian grain to be exported via Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.
Earlier the military had warned that both cities were being targeted by Kh-22 anti-ship missiles.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine with me, Helen Livingstone.
An unconfirmed number of people have been killed and nine injured, including five children, in a Russian missile strike on the southern port city of Mykolaiv, the Ukrainian military has said.
In a series of Telegram posts, the military warned the city was being targeted by Kh-22 anti-ship missiles and later said a garage and a three-storey building in the city centre had been hit.
It also said Odesa, which has already endured two nights of strikes, was being targeted and reported “strong explosions”. Two people were in hospital.
The bombardments come after Russia said its decision to withdraw from a year-long deal that allowed Ukrainian grain to be exported via Black Sea ports was final.
In other developments:
Russia says all ships travelling to Ukrainian ports on Black Sea will be considered carriers of military equipment from Thursday, days after quitting the Black Sea grain deal. Russia’s defence ministry said it would “flag countries of such ships … considered parties to the Ukrainian conflict”. The ministry did not say what actions it might take.
US officials have information indicating Russia has laid additional sea mines in the approaches to Ukrainian ports, said Adam Hodge, White House national security council spokesperson. “We believe that this is a coordinated effort to justify any attacks against civilian ships in the Black Sea and lay blame on Ukraine for these attacks,” he said.
The developments came after the Black Sea port Odesa endured a second “hellish night” of attacks, with Russia targeting grain facilities and port infrastructure. The strikes were an effort to stop Ukrainian grain reaching world markets, said Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
A video has appeared purporting to show the Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin addressing his fighters in Belarus and calling the Russian war effort in Ukraine a “disgrace”, in the first footage of the Russian warlord to emerge since his mutiny last month.
In it, Prigozhin says Wagner will no longer fight in Ukraine and will head to Africa. “What is happening at the front [in Ukraine] now is a disgrace in which we do not need to participate,” he said. “[We will] wait for the moment when we can prove ourselves in full.”
Vladimir Putin will attend a Brics summit in South Africa next month via video conference amid speculation that he could be detained under an international criminal court warrant for his arrest for war crimes in Ukraine if he appeared in person. South Africa is an ICC member, meaning they would have been obliged to arrest Putin if he entered the country.
The Belarus Red Cross has sparked international outrage after its chief told Belarusian state television that the organisation is actively involved in bringing Ukrainian children from Russian-occupied areas to Belarus. “The Belarus Red Cross has taken – and is taking, and will be taking – an active part in it, [the deportations]” Dzmitry Shautsou told state-run Belarus 1 TV channel.
Talks being mediated by Saudi Arabia and Turkey on the repatriation of Ukrainian thousands of children taken to Russia since Moscow’s invasion have been under way since at least April, a source with knowledge of the discussions said on Wednesday according to Reuters. The source expressed doubt that a deal would be reached because it would depend on the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. “For him to give (the children) back would mean that he agrees that he’s a war criminal,” the source said.
The US has announced $1.3bn in additional security assistance for Ukraine. The package is set to include air defence capabilities and munitions. “This announcement represents the beginning of a contracting process to provide additional priority capabilities to Ukraine,” the Pentagon said in a statement on Wednesday.
EU foreign ministers are expected to discuss a proposal on Thursday to spend up to €20bn ($22.4bn) on weapons, ammunition and other military aid for Ukraine over four years. The proposal is part of an effort to put the bloc’s support for Kyiv on a longer-term footing.
A fire broke out at the military training grounds in the Kirovske district on the Crimean Peninsula, the Moscow-backed governor of Crimea said on Wednesday. The fire forced the closure of the nearby Tavrida highway and the evacuation of 2,000 people, Sergei Aksyonov said on Telegram. Messaging channels linked to Russian security services and Ukrainian media said an ammunition depot was on fire at the base after a Ukrainian overnight air attack.
The Wagner group’s mutiny attempt in June showed Putin was under pressure, the head of Britain’s MI6 foreign spy service, Richard Moore, said in a rare public address. Moore said he was optimistic about the Ukrainian counteroffensive appealed to Russians appalled by the war in Ukraine to spy for Britain. “Our door is always open … Their secrets will be safe with us.”
The lawfulness of the UK sanctions regime set up in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will face its biggest legal test on Thursday when a Soviet-era oligarch and ally of Roman Abramovich seeks a court order to release his assets. At stake in the case brought by Eugene Shvidler, a billionaire oil businessman, is billions of pounds worth of assets, some of which the west wants to siphon off to help fund Ukraine’s reconstruction.
An Australian photographer has spoken of her pain and upset at what she has described as the unauthorised use of an image of her daughter as the basis for a pro-Russia mural on a bombed-out building in Mariupol. Helen Whittle said she was “very saddened” by the way her daughter’s portrait had been used by Italian street artist Ciro Cerullo.
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