Kremlin says ‘no agreements’ made in U.S. offer to release Griner and Whelan
US Olympic champion basketball player Brittney Griner, accused of drug smuggling, is seen before being questioned at the Khimki City Court in Moscow, Russia on July 26, 2022.
Dmitry Korotaev | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
The Kremlin said “there are no agreements” on a U.S. request to release WNBA star Brittney Griner and former Marine Paul Whelan from Russian custody.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Moscow was aware of media reports of a U.S. proposal for the release of Griner and Whelan.
“Since there are no agreements that have been finalized now, I have nothing more to add,” Peskov said.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he will discuss the U.S. proposal to free Griner and Whelan with his Russian counterpart. The Kremlin said Wednesday that it has not yet received any requests for a phone call between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Blinken.
— Amanda Macias
Security Council can’t agree on statement lauding grain deal
This photograph taken on July 27, 2022 shows a computer screen displaying Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian and United Nations’s flags at the opening of the Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) for Ukrainian grain exports in Istanbul on July 27, 2022.
Ozan Kose | AFP | Getty Images
The U.N. Security Council has been unable to agree on a statement welcoming last week’s deal to get grain and fertilizer moving from Ukraine and Russia to millions of hungry people around the world, Norway’s U.N. ambassador said.
The statement also would have commended Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkey’s government for their key roles in arranging the agreement.
“Norway and Mexico have been working for days to unify the council in one message welcoming the significant deal to resume exports of grains, foodstuffs and fertilizers through the Black Sea,” Norwegian Ambassador Mona Juul told The Associated Press. “We regret that this was not possible.”
Russia and Ukraine signed separate agreements Friday with Turkey and the U.N. clearing the way for Ukraine — one of the world’s key breadbaskets — to export 22 million tons of grain and other agricultural goods that have been stuck in Black Sea ports because of Russia’s invasion.
— Associated Press
Russian TV presenter who protested on air charged with discrediting armed forces
Marina Ovsyannikova, the journalist who became known internationally after protesting against the Russian military action in Ukraine during a prime-time news broadcast on state television, appears in court accused of “discrediting” the Russian army fighting in Ukraine over her remarks outside a Moscow court earlier this month in support of opposition activist Ilya Yashin, in Moscow on July 28, 2022.
Alexander Nemenov | AFP | Getty Images
Marina Ovsyannikova, the Russian news presenter who protested her country’s war on live television in the invasion’s early days, was found guilty of discrediting Russia’s armed forces.
A judge in Moscow cited social media posts by Ovsyannikova criticizing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as evidence.
“The evidence confirms Ovsyannikova’s guilt. There is no reason to doubt its authenticity,” the judge said. Ovsyannikova had called the proceedings “absurd,” according to Archyde.com.
The evening news broadcast on the main Russian news channel, Channel 1 is seen on a laptop as it is interrupted by a woman protesting the war in Ukraine in this illustration photo on 15 March, 2022 in Warsaw, Poland. Marina Ovsyannikova, an employee of the network ran onto the stage with a sign reading ‘No War’ and ‘They’re lying to you here’.
STR | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Within days of the invasion starting, Russia issued a law forbidding the spreading of “fake news” regarding its armed forces or what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine, with a penalty of up to 15 years imprisonment.
— Natasha Turak
Turkish foreign minister stresses need for Russia-Ukraine cease-fire after grain deal
A view of damaged buildings caused by a rocket strike in Odesa region, Ukraine on 26 July 2022. Russia launched a massive missile attack on the Odesa region and Mykolaiv, as local media informed.
STR | Nurphoto | Getty Images
There must be focus on reaching a cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine following the grain export agreement brokered between the two last week, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said while at a press conference.
He added that the deal being carried out successfully could foster trust between the two sides, increasing the chances of a diplomatic solution to the war that’s been raging since Russia invaded its neighbor in late February.
So far there have been no signs that trust has materialized since Turkey brokered the deal, as shortly afterward Russia launched missiles at Ukraine’s port city of Odesa, as well as its second-largest city Kharkiv, and other areas.
Farmers harvest a wheat field in the Ukrainian Kharkiv region on July 19, 2022, amid Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Sergey Bobok | AFP | Getty Images
Russia’s blocking of Ukrainian ports has sent food prices soaring globally and raised international alarm, as Ukraine is one of the world’s top exporters of grain and its produce feeds millions, particularly in the Middle East and Africa.
— Natasha Turak
No place in Kharkiv is safe, city’s mayor says
No part of Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, is safe, its mayor said.
“The Russian aggressors are trying to turn Kharkiv into a pitiful city, like the ones they have in Russia,” Igor Terekhov told AFP. “But they won’t succeed. And, as you see, the people of Kharkiv are defending their city, weapons in hand.”
“We have nine districts in the city and they are all being bombed with varying intensity and at different times. So you can’t say anywhere in Kharkiv is safe,” he said.
Rescue teams dig through the rubble of buildings destroyed in overnight attacks in a search for survivors, in the city of Chuhuiv, Kharkiv region, on July 25, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Sergey Bobok | AFP | Getty Images
“Yes, it is safe in the shelters and it is safe in the metro. But there is no district, no place in the city, where you can claim it is totally safe.”
By the end of March, roughly half of the city’s population had fled, regional officials said at the time. Russian shelling restarted with force in recent weeks, and last week killed at least three people including a 13-year-old boy, the mayor said. The death toll in the city is estimated to be in the many hundreds.
— Natasha Turak
Nord Stream 1 flows to Europe steady
A container is decorated with a map showing the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which was expected to deliver Russian gas to European households, in Lubmin’s industrial park, northeastern Germany, on March 1, 2022.
John Macdougall | Afp | Getty Images
Natural gas flows from Russia to Germany remained steady Thursday, a day after a reduction to around 20% of their full capacity.
Gazprom said its supply was 42.1 million cubic meters, compared to 42.2 mcm on Wednesday, according to Archyde.com.
Gazprom has blamed the reduction on maintenance of a turbine along the pipeline, which has been greeted with incredulity and condemnation in Europe who say Russia is trying to blackmail nations like Germany. Natural gas prices have surged once again due to the supply squeeze.
“Higher gas prices drive up firms’ costs and squeeze consumers’ budgets, leaving them less money to spend on other goods and services. As a result, we expect the Eurozone to fall into recession this autumn at still high inflation,” Barenberg analysts said in a new research note Thursday.
—Matt Clinch
U.K. advisor warns of accidental nuclear escalation
Stephen Lovegrove, the U.K.’s national security advisor, warned of the accidental escalation of a nuclear war with Russia or China, saying that global communication channels from the Cold War are no longer available.
“The Cold War’s two monolithic blocks of the USSR and NATO – though not without alarming bumps – were able to reach a shared understanding of doctrine that is today absent,” he said Wednesday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in the U.S.
“Doctrine is opaque in Moscow and Beijing, let alone Pyongyang or Tehran.”
He added that during the Cold War, the world benefited from a “series of negotiations and dialogues that improved our understanding of Soviet doctrine and capabilities, and vice versa.”
“This gave us both a higher level of confidence that we would not miscalculate our way into nuclear war.”
Watch the full video here.
— Matt Clinch
Ukraine’s counter-offensive in Kherson ‘gathering momentum’
A U.K. intelligence update Thursday spoke of “gathering momentum” in Ukraine’s attempts to retake the southern city of Kherson from Russian troops.
The city, taken early on in the Russian invasion and the most politically significant area occupied by Moscow, is now “virtually cut off” from the other occupied Russian territories, Britain’s Defense Ministry said.
“Their [Ukraine] forces have highly likely established a bridgehead south of the Ingulets River, which forms the northern boundary of Russian-occupied Kherson,” it said.
On Wednesday, Ukraine confirmed that it had attacked the Antonivsky Bridge, a key supply route for Russian forces in Kherson.
— Matt Clinch
Ukraine says Russian forces seized second biggest power plant
A monument pictured on the Nikopol embankment in front of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant used by the Russian invaders as the place to bombard Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk Region, central Ukraine on 20 July 2022. Russian forces have seized Ukraine’s second biggest power plant and Moscow will be redeploying large numbers of troops to three southern regions, said a senior advisor to Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, according to NBC News.
Dmytro Smolyenko Ukrinform | Getty Images
A senior advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces have seized Ukraine’s second biggest power plant, according to NBC News.
In an interview uploaded to YouTube, presidential advisor Oleksiy Arestovych also said Moscow will be redeploying large numbers of troops to three southern regions.
Russian-backed forces had previously said they captured the plant. The U.K. Ministry of Defence said a private Russian military company “likely succeeded in making tactical advances in the Donbas around the Vuhlehirska Power Plant,” adding that some Ukrainian forces have “likely withdrawn from the area.”
Frontline developments are often difficult or impossible to confirm as the situation in Ukraine can change quickly.
— Natalie Tham
Blinken to speak with Russian counterpart about Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan release
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks about US policy towards China during an event hosted by the Asia Society Policy Institute at George Washington University in Washington, DC, on May 26, 2022.
Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he will discuss a U.S. proposal to release WNBA star Brittney Griner and former Marine Paul Whelan with his Russian counterpart.
Blinken said he would discuss in his phone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the first since Russia’s late February invasion of Ukraine, the immediate release of Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner who “have been wrongfully detained and must be allowed to come home.”
“When it comes to our efforts to secure the return home of Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner you understand that I can’t and won’t get into any of the details of what we proposed to the Russians over the course of so many weeks,” he said.
Blinken told reporters at the State Department that he will also discuss the U.N.-brokered plan to resume agricultural exports from Ukrainian ports.
— Amanda Macias
Ports begin operations to export grains and other agricultural products, Ukraine’s navy says
The vessel waits to be loaded at Reni river port on Danube river, in Odesa region, Ukraine, July 21, 2022.
Sergii Kharchenko | Nurphoto | Getty Images