The governor of the Russian region of Belgorod, bordering Ukraine, accused kyiv on Saturday July 22 of having bombarded the village of Jouravlevka the day before with cluster munitions. “In the Belgorod region, 21 artillery and three cluster munitions fires from a multiple rocket launcher were carried out (by the Ukrainian army) on the village of Zhuralevka,” Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram.
These so-called cluster munitions scatter or indiscriminately release up to 600 small explosive charges designed to explode before, on, or after impact, posing a significant danger to civilians around the target area. Many countries have banned their use and production under the 2008 Oslo Convention, which does not include Ukraine, the United States, which supplied them with these weapons, or Russia, which also uses them.
The UN is alarmed by the missiles fired in the Black Sea
The UN was alarmed on Friday at the risk of a military incident causing an escalation of the conflict, after Russia announced that it had carried out maneuvers involving missile fire in the Black Sea. This closed sea has been the scene of growing tensions with Ukraine and its allies – in particular via the bombardment of Ukrainian ports by Russia – since the expiration, on Monday July 17, of the crucial cereal agreement which allowed cargo ships loaded with agricultural products and intended for world food (Ukraine is the 5th largest producer of cereals in the world) to leave Ukrainian ports using protected maritime corridors.
“Threats to target civilian ships in the Black Sea are unacceptable,” UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo told the Security Council. “The risk of the conflict spreading in response to a military incident in the Black Sea – intentional or accidental – must be avoided at all costs,” she added.
The Russian army announced on Friday July 21 that its ships had fired anti-ship cruise missiles and destroyed “a target boat in the combat training area in the northwestern part of the Black Sea”, off the coast of Ukraine. An ostentatious provocation. Russia had already said on Wednesday that it would consider ships heading for Ukraine in the Black Sea as potentially having a military cargo, and therefore as targets. On Thursday, Ukraine warned that it would in turn symmetrically treat boats heading to ports controlled by Moscow as carrying military equipment, “with all the associated risks”.
Russia assures that its “African friends” will receive cereals
The UN, which mediated in the negotiation of the grain agreement, also expressed concern about the consequences for world food. “We are already seeing the negative effect on world wheat and maize prices, which is hurting everyone, especially vulnerable populations in southern countries,” said Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary general.
Russia responded on Friday to understand “the concerns that our African friends may feel” about the halt in exports. “It’s understandable and it will be taken into account,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Verchinin told a press conference. “The countries in need, through our contacts with them and the Russia-Africa summit (Editor’s note: scheduled for the end of July in Saint Petersburg) will receive the cereals”, he added, specifying that work was underway to ensure delivery “routes”.
Children and civilians killed in eastern Ukraine
Two children, a brother and his sister, were killed on Friday July 21 by Russian shell fire in the village of Druzhba, in eastern Ukraine, the regional governor announced. “Around 3 p.m. the Russians shelled the village with artillery. One of the shells hit the yard where the children were,” Pavlo Kyrylenko said on his Telegram account. The boy was 10 and his sister was 16, he said. Earlier on Friday, the governor announced the death of a couple killed by Grad rocket fire in Kostiantynivka. In the North, the governor of the Cherniguiv region announced the death of an employee of a cultural center in a Russian strike. He later added that a woman’s body was also found under the rubble.
Influential Russian separatist blogger arrested
The influential Russian nationalist blogger and former separatist commander in Ukraine, Igor Girkin, was detained on Friday in Moscow in an “extremism” case for which he faces five years in prison, after having long criticized the command of the Russian army. Since the beginning of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, Igor Girkin, better known by the pseudonym of Igor Strelkov, regularly denounced the shortcomings of the Russian general staff on his Telegram account, followed by more than 875,000 subscribers. One of his last messages, published on Tuesday, seemed to attack with virulence, without naming him, President Vladimir Putin. He claimed there that a “shabby” had ruled the country for 23 years and that Russia would not support “six more years of this coward in power”.
After being arrested by the security forces in the morning, Igor Girkin was placed in pre-trial detention for two months renewable by a Moscow court at the end of the afternoon. He is accused of having launched on the Internet “public calls to carry out extremist activities”, a crime punishable by five years in prison. Since the abortive rebellion of another virulent critic of the Russian general staff, the leader of the Wagner group Evgueni Prigojine, the experts regularly evoke possible purges within the army and the repression of the last critical voices, in particular military or nationalist bloggers who have become the few in Russia to be able to attack the authorities.
Bulgaria sends tanks to Ukraine for the first time
Bulgaria decided on Friday to send a hundred armored vehicles to Ukraine, a first for this Balkan country so far reluctant to directly help kyiv because of historical ties with Moscow. Parliament approved by a large majority (148 for, 52 against) this proposal by the new pro-European government, which has initiated a new strategy after previous interim governments who were keen not to interfere in the conflict. These Soviet-designed BTR armored personnel carriers, purchased in the 1980s, have never been used. “Bulgaria no longer needs this equipment which can provide valuable support to Ukraine in its battle to preserve its independence and territorial integrity” against Russia, writes the text.
Bulgaria, a member of the EU and NATO, has a large stock of Soviet equipment and weapons and also produces ammunition. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also came to Sofia in early July to discuss an acceleration of deliveries. Since this visit, the government has announced an unprecedented aid package, which probably includes weapons and shells, even if it did not want to provide details as the subject is so divided in the country.