Domestic intelligence agency claims responsibility for first time for sabotage operation that damaged Kerch Bridge in October 2022
Ukraine’s domestic intelligence agency claimed responsibility for the first time on Wednesday for a sabotage operation that badly damaged the Russian-made Kerch Bridge linking occupied Crimea with Russia last October, Reuters reports.
Vasyl Malyuk, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), said his agency was behind the attack, speaking in comments shown on television as he presented a commemorative postage stamp marking wartime special forces operations.
“There were many different operations, special operations. We’ll be able to speak about some of them publicly and aloud after the victory, we will not talk at all about others,” Malyuk said.
“It is one of our actions, namely the destruction of the Crimean bridge on Oct. 8 last year.”
The bridge was badly damaged in October in a powerful blast, with Russian officials saying the explosion was caused by a truck that blew up while crossing the bridge, killing three people.
The bridge was hit by a fresh attack this month, but Malyuk made no mention of who was behind that one.
The 19km (12 mile) Crimean Bridge over the Kerch Strait is the only direct link between the transport network of Russia and the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine and occupied in 2014.
The bridge was a flagship project for Russian president, Vladimir Putin, who opened it for road traffic with great fanfare by driving a truck across in 2018.
It served as a crucial supply route for Russian forces after Moscow invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, sending forces from Crimea to seize parts of southern Ukraine’s Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.
The blog is now closing. Below is a roundup of today’s stories:
The Ukrainian security service has claimed responsibly for the Crimea Bridge blast that happened last October. Vasyl Malyuk, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), said his agency was behind the attack, speaking in comments shown on television as he presented a commemorative postage stamp marking wartime special forces operations.
The EU announced a ban on battlefield equipment and aviation part exports to Belarus. Spain, the current holder of the EU’s rotating chair, said in a post on social media that the new sanctions were a response to “the situation in Belarus and the involvement of Belarus in the Russian aggression against Ukraine”.
A criminal case was opened against a Ukrainian lawmaker suspected of taking a luxury Maldives holiday. Private trips abroad by officials have been banned since January. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy appeared to allude directly to the case in his nightly speech on Tuesday, in which he railed against corruption and officials who shirk their responsibilities during the war.
Ukraine will spend $1bn on domestic drone manufacturing this year. Prime minister, Denys Shmyhal announced 40bn hryvnia ($1.08b) would be invested into domestic drone manufacturing.
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.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday he would tolerate no corruption or treachery in affairs of state while his country is struggling to find the means to defend itself against Russian invaders.
Zelenskiy made anti-corruption appeals in his nightly video address as two landmark cases came to light – the arrests of a military recruitment official accused of mass embezzlement and of a parliamentarian accused of collaborating with Russia.
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.
Interfax in Russia is reporting that overnight Russian armed forces claim to have struck at a Ukrainian fuel warehouse and training centre in Donetsk.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that “during the night and morning of 26 July, the Russian army shelled six communities of Sumy oblast”
A decade-long failure by the British government has allowed the Wagner network to grow, spread its tentacles deep into Africa and exploit vulnerable countries, according to a highly critical report from the UK’s foreign affairs select committee. It called on the government to proscribe the Wagner group in the UK and to make a far more concerted effort to stop it using the City of London as a financial centre.
Russia’s state-owned Tass news agency is reporting that Moldova has announced it will reduce the number of diplomatic staff Russia has in the country. The head of the Russian diplomatic mission in Moldova said the decision undermines the possibility of dialogue between the countries. Moldova summoned Russian diplomats on Tuesday after media reports that the Russian embassy in Chișinău had installed a large amount of satellite equipment on its roof which reports said could be used for espionage.
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.
Russia attacked the Ukrainian regions of Kyiv, Khmelnytskiy and Kyrovohrad with missiles on Wednesday, Ukraine’s air force spokesperson said in televised comments after air raid sirens were sounded across the country, Reuters reports.
“We have registered high-speed targets, probably also ballistic missiles, the enemy is using different weapons types,” Yuriy Ihnat said.
The UK’s ambassador to Ukraine, Melinda Simmons, said three air raid sirens have been let off in Kyiv on Wednesday.
Third air raid siren today for #Kyiv and most of 🇺🇦It’s exhausting for everyone and everyone is still carrying on.
Nato said on Wednesday it was stepping up surveillance of the Black Sea region as it condemned Russia’s exit from a deal assuring the safe passage of ships carrying Ukrainian grain, Reuters reports.
The announcement came after a meeting of the Nato-Ukraine Council, a body established earlier this month to coordinate cooperation between the western military alliance and Kyiv.
“Allies and Ukraine strongly condemned Russia’s decision to withdraw from the Black Sea grain deal and its deliberate attempts to stop Ukraine’s agricultural exports on which hundreds of millions of people worldwide depend,” Nato said in a statement.
“Nato and allies are stepping up surveillance and reconnaissance in the Black Sea region, including with maritime patrol aircraft and drones,” the statement said.
The deal that has allowed the safe Black Sea export of Ukraine’s grain for the past year expired on 17 July after Russia quit, a move the UN said would “strike a blow to people in need everywhere”.
Moscow suggested it would consider reviving the deal if demands to improve exports of its own grain and fertiliser were met. The Nato statement criticised a Russian warning that parts of the Black Sea’s international waters were temporarily unsafe for navigation.
As part of that warning, Russia also said any ships travelling to Ukraine’s Black Sea ports would be seen as possibly carrying military cargo.
“Allies noted that Russia’s new warning area in the Black Sea, within Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone, has created new risks for miscalculation and escalation, as well as serious impediments to freedom of navigation,” the Nato statement said.
Bulgaria is a member of Nato.
Ukraine’s domestic intelligence agency claimed responsibility for the first time on Wednesday for a sabotage operation that badly damaged the Russian-made Kerch Bridge linking occupied Crimea with Russia last October, Reuters reports.
Vasyl Malyuk, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), said his agency was behind the attack, speaking in comments shown on television as he presented a commemorative postage stamp marking wartime special forces operations.
“There were many different operations, special operations. We’ll be able to speak about some of them publicly and aloud after the victory, we will not talk at all about others,” Malyuk said.
“It is one of our actions, namely the destruction of the Crimean bridge on Oct. 8 last year.”
The bridge was badly damaged in October in a powerful blast, with Russian officials saying the explosion was caused by a truck that blew up while crossing the bridge, killing three people.
The bridge was hit by a fresh attack this month, but Malyuk made no mention of who was behind that one.
The 19km (12 mile) Crimean Bridge over the Kerch Strait is the only direct link between the transport network of Russia and the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine and occupied in 2014.
The bridge was a flagship project for Russian president, Vladimir Putin, who opened it for road traffic with great fanfare by driving a truck across in 2018.
It served as a crucial supply route for Russian forces after Moscow invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, sending forces from Crimea to seize parts of southern Ukraine’s Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.
Reuters reports that Ukrainian troops are gradually advancing in the south and the military is about to receive a consignment of 1,700 strike and reconnaissance drones to help with the counteroffensive, officials said on Wednesday.
Hanna Maliar, the deputy defence minister, reported advances towards the southern, occupied cities of Melitopol and Berdiansk which is on the Sea of Azov and said Kyiv’s troops were also successfully attacking in the east on the flanks of occupied Bakhmut.
Russia holds swathes of territory in the south and east. Ukraine launched a big push to recapture land this summer, but progress has been slow against entrenched Russian positions.
Maliar reported Ukrainian “successes” in the south-east, including near Staromayorske, a village near a cluster of hamlets that Ukraine recaptured in the Donetsk region this summer.
“Battles continue near Staromayorske, our defenders have successes, they were gaining a foothold on the reached frontiers,” she said.
In the east, Maliar said Ukrainian forces continued to repel Russian advances in the direction of Kupiansk and Lyman, which Ukraine liberated last year.
Fierce fighting raged, she said, near the villages of Klishchiivka, Kurdyumivka and Andriivka on the southern flank of Bakhmut, a small city reduced to ruins in a bloody, months-long battle that gave Russian forces control of the area for now.
Despite steady western military aid, Ukrainian military officials have said Russia still has an advantage in artillery, tanks and manpower.
Mykhailo Fedorov, a deputy prime minister, said 1,700 drones were on their way to the frontlines to help the offensive.
“All of them are now going to the front to protect the lives of our soldiers, to make our artillery even more accurate, to destroy the enemy,” Fedorov said in a video that showed hundreds of drones laid out in rows on a field.
Ukrainian producers have sharply increased domestic drone production and more than 10,000 drone operators have been already trained with another 10,000 currently receiving training, Fedorov said.
Kaja Kallas, the prime minister of Estonia, has said Russian and Belarussian athletes should be banned from all international sporting events while Russia’s aggression against Ukraine continues.
Important to keep ban on Russian and Belarussian athletes from international sports events – not even under the pretext of a neutral flag at #Paris2024. Such ban must last until Russia's aggression against Ukraine continues. https://t.co/hoilmIvCjv
The US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget A. Brink, has met the Ukrainian energy minister, German Galushchenko.
In a tweet, Brink said private investment and investment through US support could help Ukraine build “a more resilient energy grid”.
We continue our work helping Ukraine prepare for the next heating season — my team and I met with Minister of Energy @G_Galushchenko. We look forward to exploring all options for building a more resilient energy grid, including by taking steps to enable private investment and… pic.twitter.com/wd0qdKw49o
Interfax in Russia reports that residents in Belgorod will be exempt from paying taxes on land and property lost as a result of the cross-border shelling of the armed forces of Ukraine.
Ukraine is still considering whether to stick with its decision to bar its athletes from competing against Russians or Belarusians, the sports minister said on Wednesday, a year before the start of the Paris Olympics.
The comment by Vadym Huttsait in an interview with Reuters suggests Kyiv could be open to reversing a controversial policy that would likely rule Ukrainian athletes out of competing at the Paris Olympics in 2024.
Ukraine in April barred its national sports teams from competing in Olympic, non-Olympic and Paralympic events that have competitors from Russia and Belarus regardless of whether they are competing under a neutral flag.
“We have started discussions with the presidents of federations, the federations themselves, the sportspeople: if this will happen, will we participate or not? The decision has not been made yet, and therefore there is no softening yet,” Reuters reports Huttsait said.
The EU on Wednesday agreed to ban exports of battlefield equipment and aviation parts to Belarus, expanding sanctions on the Russian ally for its involvement in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Spain, the current holder of the EU’s rotating chair, said in a post on social media that the new sanctions were a response to “the situation in Belarus and the involvement of Belarus in the Russian aggression against Ukraine”.
Lithuania’s EU ambassador, Arnoldas Pranckevicius, posted that the embargo covered “dual use battlefield and aviation goods”, as well as a blacklist of individuals.
Reuters reports the decision must still be finalised and will take effect if none of the bloc’s 27 member states raise last-minute objections by Friday.
Tass is reporting that Russian forces are claiming to have made an advance near Serhiivka in Luhansk oblast, which is close to the border with Kharkiv oblast.
It quotes Lt Gen Igor Konashenkov claiming “The advance amounted to 3 km along the front and 2.7km in the depth of the enemy’s defence”.
Surrogacy clinics continue to operate in Ukraine, with foreign nationals travelling to Kyiv to use their services despite the war, Lorenzo Tondo and Artem Mazhulin report.
In March last year, just weeks after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Remo and Amalia received an unexpected phone call from Kyiv. One of the largest surrogacy clinics in Europe was responding to the Italian couple by inviting them to the war-ravaged country for medical checks to begin the procedure to have a baby.
At the time, Moscow’s troops were withdrawing from the territories north of the capital oblast that they had occupied for more than a month. A few days later, the mass graves of Bucha would reveal the true horror of the invasion as Russian missiles continued to fall by the dozens into Ukraine’s oblasts. Yet, the continuing conflict was not going to stop the couple.
“We’ve been trying to make the dream of having our own child come true for 10 years,” said Remo, 55, for whom the surrogacy process is continuing. “It won’t be the bombs or the war that will stop us.”
Surrogacy clinics, which have thrived in Ukraine thanks to a liberal legal framework, are still doing brisk business, with hundreds of foreigners coming to Kyiv despite the war, mostly from Italy, Romania, Germany and Britain.
Couples who wish to have a child have to undergo a series of clinical examinations. Once these have been done, and if a doctor has diagnosed infertility, the couple starts the surrogacy process. After choosing a surrogate mother, appropriate agreements are reached between the parties.
Reuters reports that a military court in Moscow has sentenced a dual Russian-Ukrainian citizen to 22 years in jail for blowing up rail track in Russia’s Bryansk region last summer at the behest of Ukraine, citing a report from the state Tass news agency on Wednesday.
It said Sergei Belavin, who it said had confessed to his crimes, had been convicted of terrorism and other charges.
State prosecutors said Belavin, whom they accused of working for Ukrainian military intelligence, had entered Russia last summer and placed an explosive device on a stretch of railway near Russia’s border with Ukraine and Belarus.
He had detonated the device on 9 July last year, damaging a passing freight train and the track below, according to investigators. Nobody was injured, but service on the line was disrupted for 10 hours.
There was no immediate reaction to the verdict from Ukraine, which rarely comments on attacks inside Russia or on Russian-controlled territory but makes no secret of its desire to disrupt or destroy infrastructure used by the Russian military.
Olena Zelenska, the Ukrainian first lady, has shared photos from her visit to the west-central city of Vinnytsia, where 29 people died from shelling in a single day last July.
Begun my visit to Vinnytsia with the Memorial to the victims of a shelling that happened on 14.07.2022. Among the memorials to 29 victims — a small dove and a sakura of 4-year-old Liza who I knew personally. Like every person killed by ru-aggression, she is forever in our hearts. pic.twitter.com/m4NtlUebTd
Reuters reports that Ukrainian prosecutors have opened a criminal case into a lawmaker suspected of taking a luxury holiday in the Maldives in breach of a wartime ban on private travel abroad, the general prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday.
Private trips abroad by officials have been banned since January, while most Ukrainian men aged 18-60 are also barred from leaving Ukraine martial law that was brought in when Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The investigation found the lawmaker had travelled to Poland for three days on a business trip and later taken sick leave, during which he was in the Maldives with his family, the general prosecutor’s office said.
The lawmaker stayed in a hotel on the private island of Ithaafushi in Maldives in mid-July, said the State Bureau of Investigation, which is running the investigation with the Security Service of Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy appeared to allude directly to the case in his nightly speech on Tuesday, in which he railed against corruption and officials who shirk their responsibilities during the war.
“Any internal betrayal, any ‘beach’ (holiday) or any personal enrichment instead of Ukraine’s interests triggers fury at the very least. Fury. Remember that,” he said.
Neither he, nor the prosecutors, named the lawmaker.
No charges have yet been brought in the case, which is investigating the possibility of forgery in official documents about the duration, purpose and destination of a business trip. Such forgery is punishable by up to three years in jail.