At least 20 people were injured in Russian strikes on the Ukrainian port cities of Mykolaiv and Odesa, Ukrainian officials said early on Thursday. In northwest Crimea, a Ukrainian drone attack killed a teenage girl, the Moscow-installed regional governor said on Thursday. Follow our liveblog for the latest updates on the war in Ukraine. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
10:27am: Ukrainian grain cannot be left to rot in silos, says German foreign minister
Germany is working with allies to ensure that Ukrainian grain is not left to rot in silos after Russia pulled out of an export deal, and will intensify work on getting the grain out by rail, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Thursday.
Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Brussels, Baerbock accused Russia of blackmail and trying to use the grain as a weapon at the expense of the world’s poorest.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Western countries of “perverting” the grain deal, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey.
“Hundreds of thousands of people, not to say millions, urgently need the grain from Ukraine, which is why we are working with all our international partners so that the grain in Ukraine does not rot in silos in the next few weeks, but reaches the people of the world who urgently need it,” Baerbock said.
9:12am: Ukraine sees third night of Russian attacks on Black Sea port cities
Wednesday evening marked the third consecutive night of Russian attacks on Ukrainian port cities on the Black Sea. Mykolaiv was targeted even though it was not part of the Black Sea Grain deal that Moscow pulled out of three days ago.
FRANCE 24’s Gulliver Cragg reports that Ukraine views these recent attacks as indicating that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to send a clear signal that Kyiv should not export grain via the Black Sea without Russian security guarantees.
FRANCE 24’s Gulliver Cragg reports from Kharkiv on the war in Ukraine. (C) France 24 screengrab
8:49am: Russia will cause a global food crisis with grain deal withdrawal, says EU’s Borrell
Russia is responsible for a coming global food supply crisis, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Thursday, three days after the Kremlin announced it would suspend an agreement for Ukrainian grain exports via the Black Sea.
“What we already know is that this is going to create a big and huge food crisis in the world,” Borrell told journalists before heading into a EU foreign ministers’ meeting.
Borrell also accused Russia of deliberately attacking grain storage facilities in the southern port city of Odesa, which he said would further deepen the crisis.
8:48am: Belarus military holding exercises with Wagner fighters near Poland border
Belarus’s defence ministry said in a statement on Thursday that the country’s military was continuing exercises with fighters from Russia’s Wagner Group at a military base near the city of Brest, on the border with Poland.
8:00am: Ukraine says it destroyed five missiles, 13 drones in Russian strikes on Mykolaiv, Odesa
Ukraine’s military shot down five cruise missiles and 13 attack drones launched by Russian forces overnight at the southern Mykolaiv and Odesa regions, Kyiv’s air force said on Thursday.
It said Russia fired 19 cruise missiles and 19 drones in total, but did not specify exactly where the others struck.
5:45am: Ukrainian attack in Crimea kills one, says governor
A Ukrainian drone attack on Crimea damaged administrative buildings and killed a teenage girl, the region’s Moscow-installed governor said on Thursday, days after Kyiv struck a strategic bridge linking it to Russia.
“As a result of an attack by an enemy UAV, four administrative buildings were damaged in one of the settlements in the northwest of Crimea,” Sergei Aksyonov said on Telegram.
“Unfortunately, it didn’t pass without victims – a teenage girl died.”
“All necessary support will be provided to the family,” he said, without providing further details of the attack or specifying where it happened.
The report comes a day after a fire at a military site in Crimea that forced authorities to evacuate thousands of civilians.
3:58am: At least 20 wounded in Russian attacks on Ukraine’s Mykolaiv and Odesa
Russia launched attacks on the Ukrainian port cities of Odesa and Mykolaiv that wounded 20 people, local governors said early Thursday.
“Russians hit the city centre. A garage and a three-storey residential building are on fire,” Mykolaiv Governor Vitaliy Kim wrote on Telegram.
Eighteen people had been wounded and nine of them had been hospitalised, including five children, he added, without specifying their condition or if they had been in the residential building.
He did not give details on the strike.
Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych posted pictures on Telegram that showed a fire engine working to douse flames in a multi-storey building with its facade partially destroyed.
“At least five residential high-rise buildings” and around 15 garages were damaged, he said, without giving details.
11:55am: EU to discuss up to EUR20 billion in military aid to Ukraine over four years
European Union foreign ministers are expected to discuss a proposal on Thursday to spend up to EUR20 billion ($22.4 billion) on weapons, ammunition and other military aid for Ukraine over four years.
The proposal by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell is part of an effort to put the bloc’s support for Kyiv on a longer-term footing, after more than a year of scrambling to respond to Ukraine’s immediate needs following Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
The move would also be part of an international drive to give Ukraine long-term security assurances, as announced by G7 nations on the sidelines of last week’s NATO summit in Vilnius.
Key developments from Wednesday, July 19:
A video purporting to show Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin welcoming his Wagner fighters to Belarus surfaced on Wednesday on one of his official Telegram channels. In the video, which was not yet verified, a man whose voice sounded like Prigozhin’s is heard welcoming his men, telling them to behave, and saying their training will make the Belarusian army the second best in the world.
Russia continued to launch air attacks on Odesa. Ukrainian officials said the key port will continue its work to export grain. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said an alternative to the Black Sea grain deal had to be found and “there are very active discussions now”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the August summit of the BRICS group of nations in South Africa “by mutual agreement”, South Africa’s presidency said on Wednesday. Russia will be represented by its Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov instead, the presidency said in a statement.
Read yesterday’s liveblog to see how the day’s events unfolded.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
(C) France M?dias Monde graphic studio
