UKRAINE WRAP | Putin says United States is main threat to Russia

July 31 2022 - 22:00

Putin Flaunts Naval Power; Chubais Hospitalized

President Vladimir Putin signed an expansive new naval doctrine and vowed to respond “with lightning speed to anyone who decides to encroach on our sovereignty and freedom.”

Anatoly Chubais, who quit as Russia’s climate envoy in opposition to the war in Ukraine, said he’s hospitalized in Europe with a diagnosis of Guillain-Barre syndrome.

Russian shelling killed a Ukrainian grain magnate and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged civilians in the Donetsk region to evacuate in the face of a lengthy ground battle.

Russia’s defense ministry said it had invited experts from the United Nations and the Red Cross to investigate the deaths of Ukrainian POWs in the Olenivka detention center in occupied Donetsk.

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

July 31 2022 - 19:00

WATCH | Ukraine attacks Russian Black Sea Fleet HQ: authorities

July 31 2022 - 18:00

Red Cross condemns attacks on Ukrainian POWs, has got no access to site

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has not yet received permission to visit the site of Friday's attack that killed dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war, it said on Sunday, condemning the incident at the Olenivka facility in eastern Ukraine.

"Families must receive urgent news of and answers on what happened to their loved ones. The parties must do everything in their power, including through impartial investigations, to help determine the facts behind the attack and bring clarity to this issue.

"However, it is not the role or mandate of the ICRC to carry out public investigations into alleged war crimes," it said in a statement.

Russia on Sunday invited United Nations and Red Cross experts to probe the deaths of dozens of prisoners held by Moscow-backed separatists.

Ukraine and Russia have traded accusations over the missile strike or explosion early on Friday that appeared to have killed dozens of Ukrainian prisoners in the front-line town of Olenivka.

The Russian Defence Ministry on Saturday published a list of 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war killed and 73 wounded in what it said was a Ukrainian military strike with a U.S.-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS).

Ukraine's armed forces have denied responsibility, saying Russian artillery attacked the prison to hide mistreatment there.

Reuters

July 31 2022 - 17:00

Founder of Ukraine Grain Shipper Nibulon Killed in Mykolaiv

The multi-millionaire owner of Nibulon, one of Ukraine’s largest agricultural companies, died during Russian shelling in the southern city of Mykolaiv on Sunday, according to the region’s governor.

Oleksiy Vadaturskyi and his wife Raisa Vadaturska were killed in their home during shelling that hit several targets, including schools, a sports complex and many residences, governor Vitaliy Kim said in a post on Telegram.

Vadaturskyi, 74, founded Nibulon in the 1990s, and helped it expand into one of the country’s largest grain storage and logistics companies.

He was once named “Man of the Year” for his contributions to Ukraine’s agricultural sector.

“His contribution to the development of the agricultural and shipbuilding industry, the development of the region, is invaluable,” Kim wrote.

Forbes in 2021 ranked him the 24th richest Ukrainian, with a net worth of $430 million. 

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

July 31 2022 - 16:00

Putin Says Navy to Get Hypersonic Missiles Soon

Vladimir Putin said Russia’s fleet would soon be fitted with powerful “Zircon” hypersonic cruise missiles, which can fly at five times the speed of sound.

He signed a new naval doctrine and vowed to respond “with lightning speed to anyone who decides to encroach on our sovereignty and freedom.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged civilians in the Donetsk region to evacuate to protect themselves from Russian attacks in what’s become a lengthy ground battle.

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

July 31 2022 - 15:00

First grain ship could leave Ukraine on Monday -Turkish presidential spokesperson

The possibility of the first grain-exporting ship leaving Ukraine's ports on Monday is high, a spokesperson for President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday.

"If all (details) are completed by tomorrow, it seems like there is a high possibility that the first ship will leave the port tomorrow...We will see ships leaving the ports the next day at the latest," Kalin said.

Speaking in an interview with broadcaster Kanal 7, Ibrahim Kalin said the joint coordination centre in Istanbul will probably complete the final work on the exporting routes very soon.

Russia and Ukraine are major global wheat suppliers, and the U.N.-brokered agreement they signed in Istanbul last week is intended both to ease the food crisis and reduce global grains prices that have risen since the Russian invasion.

The agreement aims to allow safe passage for grain shipments in and out of Chornomorsk, Odesa and the port of Pivdennyi.

Moscow blames Ukraine for stalling shipments by mining the port waters. 

Reuters

July 31 2022 - 14:00

On navy day, Putin says United States is main threat to Russia

President Vladimir Putin on Sunday signed a new naval doctrine which cast the United States as Russia's main rival and set out Russia's global maritime ambitions for crucial areas such as the Arctic and in the Black Sea.

Speaking on Russia's Navy Day in the former imperial capital of St Petersburg founded by Tsar Peter the Great, Putin praised Peter for making Russia a great sea power and increasing the global standing of the Russian state.

After inspecting the navy, Putin made a short speech in which he promised that what he touted as Russia's unique Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles, cautioning that Russia had the military clout to defeat any potential aggressors.

Shortly before the speech, he signed a new 55-page naval doctrine, which sets out the broad strategic aims of Russia's navy, including its ambitions as a "great maritime power" which extend over the entire world.

The main threat to Russia, the doctrine says, is "the strategic policy of the USA to dominate the world's oceans" and the movement of the NATO military alliance closer towards Russia's borders.

Reuters

July 31 2022 - 10:30

Ukraine's Zelenskiy announces mandatory evacuation of Donetsk region

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday his government was ordering the mandatory evacuation of people in the eastern Donetsk region, scene of fierce fighting with Russia.

In a late-night television address, Zelenskiy also said the hundreds of thousands of people still in combat zones in the larger Donbas region, which contains Donetsk as well as the neighboring Luhansk region, needed to leave.

"The more people leave (the) Donetsk region now, the fewer people the Russian army will have time to kill," he said, adding that residents who left would be given compensation.

Separately, domestic Ukrainian media outlets quoted Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk as saying the evacuation needed to take place before winter begins since the region's natural gas supplies had been destroyed.

Reuters

July 30 2022 - 09:35

UK says Russia looking to hold referendums in newly occupied areas of South Ukraine

Russian-installed authorities in newly occupied territories in southern Ukraine are under pressure and possibly preparing to hold referendums on joining Russia later this year, Britain military said on Saturday.

"Local authorities are likely coercing the population into disclosing personal details in order to compose voting registers," the Ministry of Defence said in an intelligence update on Twitter.

Russia classifies these occupied areas as being under interim "civil-military administration".

Ukraine has probably repelled small-scale Russian assaults from the long-established front line near Donetsk in the eastern region of Donbas, while in the Kherson area, Russia likely has established two pontoon bridges and a ferry system to compensate for nearby bridges damaged in recent strikes, the update said.

Reuters

July 30 2022 - 09:30

Ukraine says scores of Russians killed in Kherson fighting

The Ukrainian military said on Saturday it had killed scores of Russian soldiers and destroyed two ammunition dumps in fighting in the Kherson region, the focus of Kyiv's counter-offensive in the south and a key link in Moscow's supply lines.

Rail traffic to Kherson over the Dnipro River had been cut, the military's southern command said, potentially further isolating Russian forces west of the river from supplies in occupied Crimea and the east.

Ukraine has used Western-supplied long-range missile systems to badly damage three bridges across the Dnipro in recent weeks, cutting off Kherson city and - in the assessment of British defence officials - leaving Russia's 49th Army stationed on the west bank of the river highly vulnerable.

"As a result of fire establishing control over the main transport links in occupied territory, it has been established that traffic over the rail bridge crossing the Dnipro is not possible," Ukraine's southern command said in a statement.

It said more than 100 Russian soldiers and seven tanks had been destroyed in fighting on Friday in the Kherson region, the first major town captured by the Russians following their Februaryary 24 invasion.

Reuters