The months go by but the conflict continues tirelessly. The Russian invasion of Ukraine entered its sixth month on Sunday July 24, the day after strikes on the port of Odessa which threaten the application of the agreement on the resumption of grain exports blocked by the war, signed Friday, July 22 in Istanbul, Turkey.
Moscow assured Sunday having destroyed the day before in this port, vital for the trade of Ukrainian cereals, a warship as well as missiles supplied by the United States. The spokeswoman for Russian diplomacy, Maria Zakharova, said that a Ukrainian “military star” had been destroyed in this attack. “Kalibr missiles destroyed military infrastructure in the port of Odessa with a high-precision strike,” she said. On Saturday July 23, Russia had however denied to Ankara having been involved in this bombardment.
- Kherson region ‘definitely liberated’ by September, local official says
The Kherson region in southern Ukraine will be “permanently liberated” from Russian forces by September, adviser to the head of the Kherson regional military administration loyal to Kyiv, Sergiy Khlan, said on Sunday in a statement. interview on Ukrainian television. “We can say that the Kherson region will be definitely liberated by September, and all the occupiers’ plans will fail,” the local official said.
The Ukrainian army has begun in recent weeks to regain ground in this region, helped by Western arms deliveries. “We can speak of a turnaround on the ground. During recent operations, it was the Ukrainian armed forces who had the advantage,” assured Sergiy Khlan. He added: “Our army is advancing frankly, we are moving from a defensive phase to a counter-offensive.”
According to Sergiy Khlan, the Ukrainian strikes targeting two strategic bridges, as well as those on ammunition depots and Russian command posts served to prepare the ground for the ongoing ground offensive. He added that the occupying Russian forces had been unable to proceed with the repair of the Antonivka Bridge and therefore faced difficulties in moving heavy weapons to Kherson.
The Russians took control of the region’s main city, Kherson, on March 3. It was then the first major city to yield to Moscow’s offensive since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Essential for Ukrainian agriculture, the region borders the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014.
- “A war against the unity of Europe”, denounces the German president
The war that Russian President Vladimir Putin is waging against Ukraine is also “a war against the unity of Europe”, castigated German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Sunday.
“The war that Putin is waging against Ukraine is also a war against the unity of Europe. We must not allow ourselves to be divided, we must not allow the great work of a united Europe that we have begun to so promising,” he said during a speech in Paderborn. “This war is not just about the territory of Ukraine, it is about the doubly common foundation of our values and our peace order,” he added.
But defending these values and vouching for them also means being ready to “accept significant disadvantages”, underlined the German president, without giving more details on the disadvantages in question. “Are we ready for this? We all face this question – today and in the days, weeks and months to come,” he said.
- Money raised in Poland to donate a combat drone to Ukraine
A sum of 4.7 million euros has been collected from the Polish population in order to offer a Turkish Bayraktar combat drone to Ukraine, the initiator of this project announced on Sunday. “22,500,000 zlotys! Made in Poland”, welcomed the journalist Slawomir Sierakowski on the website of the Polish leftist magazine Krytyka Polityczna of which he is the co-founder.
This collection in Poland follows a similar project successfully carried out last May in neighboring Lithuania. “Until now, we have only been able to watch all these terrible things through the media. There, we gave ourselves the chance (…) to do something real to defend Ukraine, for the Ukrainians”, he explained to the television channel TVN24.
More than 200,000 people participated in this public quest to buy this Turkish military drone TB2 and offer it to Ukraine. Pride of Ankara, the Turkish combat drones which Ukraine acquired came into action in the early hours of the Russian invasion and, according to kyiv, proved to be a particularly formidable weapon.
- Cereals: Sergei Lavrov wants to reassure Arab countries
The head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov wanted to be reassuring on Sunday against his Arab partners in Cairo after the agreement on “secure corridors” to export cereals from Ukraine and Russia supposed to ward off the specter of hunger, in Africa in particular.
“We have confirmed the commitment of Russian exporters of grain products to meet all their obligations,” said Sergey Lavrov during a press conference with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shukri. “(Russian) President Vladimir Putin also underlined this during a recent telephone discussion with Egyptian President (Abdel Fattah) al-Sisi,” continued Sergei Lavrov, who will be in Uganda, Ethiopia and Congo next week.
The agreement signed Friday in Istanbul between Moscow and kyiv, under the aegis of the UN, provides for “secure corridors” for the circulation in the Black Sea of merchant ships. It should make it possible to export 20 to 25 million tonnes of cereals blocked in Ukraine and to facilitate Russian agricultural exports, thus reducing the risk of a food crisis in the world where, according to the UN, 345 million people suffer from acute food insecurity.