The U.S. ambassador to Russia met Monday with detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich at Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison for the third time since the journalist’s arrest in March on espionage charges that he, his employer, rights groups and the U.S. government have rejected as spurious, the Wall Street Journal reported. “Ambassador Tracy reported that Evan continues to appear in good health and remains strong, despite the circumstances,” the U.S. Embassy in Moscow said in a statement to the Journal.
Hours earlier, Russia attacked Odessa in “three waves” overnight, launching drones and cruise missiles at the heart of the key Ukrainian port city, according to its regional governor. Three people were injured by falling debris when the drones and missiles were shot down, Oleh Kiper said.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
Russia launched Kalibr cruise missiles and Iranian-made Shahed drones at Odessa overnight, Kiper and the Ukrainian air force said. Ukrainian forces managed to shoot them all down and said the missiles’ intended target was the “center” of Odessa, according to Kiper. But debris fell on a supermarket, a residential building and a school dormitory, and three market employees were injured, he said. The explosions and debris also damaged windows and cars nearby and started fires in three facilities, he said.
China’s defense minister is set to visit Russia and its ally Belarus this week, the Chinese Defense Ministry said. It will be Li Shangfu’s first trip to Belarus and second to Russia since he took office this year. Li is expected to speak at the Moscow Conference on International Security and meet with Russian defense officials. In Minsk, Li is scheduled to meet and hold talks with Belarusian state and military leaders, as well as visit Belarusian military institutions. Beijing and Moscow have deepened their partnership in recent years, though China has refrained from taking sides publicly in the war in Ukraine.
Kyiv called on the international community to protect trade through the Black Sea after a Russian warship shot at a Ukraine-bound cargo vessel on Sunday. Russia’s Defense Ministry said a Russian patrol ship used automatic weapons to fire “warning” shots toward a Palau-flagged bulk carrier that failed to respond to a request to halt for inspection. The carrier was later freed and allowed to sail on to the Ukrainian port city of Izmail, the ministry said on Telegram. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said the incident — a first since Russia withdrew from a U.N.-brokered grain deal last month — violated international law. The ministry called on other countries to “take decisive action to prevent” such incidents.
The Biden administration is set to provide an additional $200 million in assistance “to meet Ukraine’s critical security and defense needs,” in its 44th military aid installment since August 2021, the Defense Department said Monday. The package includes ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS; mine-clearing equipment; munitions for the Patriot air defense system and Javelin antitank system; and 12 million rounds of small-arms ammunition and grenades, among other missiles and artillery.
Britain’s Defense Ministry reported an “uptick in small-scale combat” along parts of the Dnieper River in southern Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces “have worked to raid or set up small bridgeheads at new locations on the Russian-held east bank.” According to the ministry, this leaves Russian commanders with a choice: reinforce the areas around the Dnieper to try to quash the attacks or deploy more troops farther to the east, where “Ukraine’s main counteroffensive operations” are taking place. Ukraine’s counteroffensive has yielded few visible gains to date.
A drone damaged an apartment building in the western Russian city of Belgorod, injuring a child, a Russian official said. Belgorod’s governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, blamed Ukraine for the attack, which he said left a 10-year-old girl who was walking nearby with wounds on her leg, forearm and foot. Gladkov said the strike damaged apartments, cars and one other building.
British fighter jets intercepted two Russian long-range bomber aircraft flying north of Scotland and in NATO’s northern air policing area, British Armed Forces Minister James Heappey said in a statement Monday. Danish planes on Monday also intercepted two Russian bombers flying toward Dutch airspace, the Dutch Defense Ministry said in a statement. The ministry said the Russian Tupolev Tu-95 bombers, or “Bears,” turned back before reaching Dutch airspace. Russia’s Defense Ministry said its aircraft were conducting routine flights over the Arctic and were “in strict compliance with international airspace regulations,” according to the state-run Tass news agency.
Germany’s finance minister, Christian Lindner, said in Kyiv on Monday that Germany was planning to pledge about $5.4 billion in military aid until 2027, Forbes Ukraine reported. This is Lindner’s first visit to Ukraine since the war began. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal thanked Lindner and the German government for its “military, sanction and financial support,” in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, however, expressed reservations about a possible delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine on Sunday. Berlin has long been hesitant to make the transfers for fear that the missiles, which have long-range capability, would be used on Russian territory.
Polish law enforcement detained two Russian nationals accused of “distributing propaganda materials of the Wagner Group in Krakow and Warsaw,” Poland’s interior minister said on X. Mariusz Kaminski said Poland’s Internal Security Agency and police made the arrests on allegations of espionage.
Wagner’s prisoner of war: A Ukrainian soldier’s 46-day nightmare: Russia’s Wagner Group mercenaries captured Ilia Mykhalchuk outside the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. They amputated his arms in a dark basement, he says, and subjected him to mind-bending psychological abuse as part of his captors’ alleged barbarism and efforts to break the will of Ukrainian soldiers they had taken off the battlefield, Alex Horton reports.
Wagner’s strategy, Mykhalchuk said, appeared designed to undermine the Ukrainians’ values and to make them question how their countrymen would view them after release from captivity. “They tried to make us believe that we couldn’t trust each other, and that it was a kill-or-be-killed situation,” he said. “They were just playing with us, the way a cat plays with a mouse — when he catches it before he kills it.”
Kate Brady and Beatriz Rios contributed to this report.