Ukraine says it expects to start exporting grain from its ports this week with the first ships potentially moving from its Black Sea ports within days. Details of the procedures will be released soon by a joint coordination center that is in contact with the shipping industry, said UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey expects Kyiv and Moscow to fulfill their responsibilities under the recently signed grain export agreement.
Russia’s Gazprom is poised to cut gas supplies further after announcing a drastic cut in gas deliveries through its main pipeline to Europe from Wednesday. The company said it was halting the operation of one of the last two turbines in operation due to the “technical condition of the engine”, reducing daily gas deliveries through the Nord Stream pipeline to 33 million cubic meters in day, around 20% of the pipeline’s capacity. .
German group Siemens Energy disputed Gazprom’s reasoning, saying it “did not see any link between the turbine and the gas cuts that have been implemented or announced” in a statement to Agence France-Presse. Siemens Energy has been responsible for the maintenance of the turbine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on Europe to replicate Russia’s “gas war”. “This is an open gas war that Russia is waging against a united Europe… And that is why we need to react,” he said, adding that Europe should increase its sanctions against Moscow.
Russia’s top diplomat said Moscow’s overall goal is to topple Zelenskiy’s government. Speaking to envoys at an Arab League summit in Cairo on Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow was determined to help Ukrainians “free themselves from the burden of this absolutely unacceptable regime “.
Lavrov arrived in Uganda on the third stop of a four-day tour of African countries. According to the Russian news agency Tass, Lavrov is due to hold talks on Tuesday with the President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni.
Ukraine said on Monday it destroyed 50 Russian ammunition depots using US-supplied high-mobility artillery rocket systems (Himars). The systems, delivered late last month, have turned the war in Ukraine’s favor by dismantling Russia’s logistics and slowing its offensive, Ukrainian officials say. “This cuts [Russian] logistics chains and deprives them of the ability to conduct active combat and hit our armed forces with heavy bombardment,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said.
The appeal of Ukraine’s first war crimes conviction was adjourned on Monday as prosecutors continue to push to hold Russia legally responsible for the atrocities. Vadim Shishimarin, a 21-year-old captured Russian soldier who pleaded guilty to killing a civilian and was sentenced in May by a Ukrainian court to life in prison, sits in a glass case in the courtroom as he faces to the news cameras.
Two Americans who were killed while defending Ukraine earlier this month have been identified. Luke Lucyszyn and Bryan Young were the American citizens killed during an ambush by a Russian tank on July 18, their Ukrainian commander Ruslan Miroshnichenko said on Facebook. According to Miroshnichenko, Lucyszyn was knocked unconscious by artillery fire and fatally shot by a Russian tank.
Russian authorities briefly detained a 72-year-old liberal politician and Kremlin critic on Monday who recently returned to Moscow from abroad. Leonid Gozman was detained after the Russian Interior Ministry issued an arrest warrant alleging that he failed to notify authorities of his Israeli citizenship within the required time frame, according to the Associated Press.
The Eurovision Song Contest will be staged in the UK next year after Ukraine’s public broadcaster dropped its objections and agreed to work with the BBC on the event. Ukraine won this year’s Eurovision Song Contest with Kalush Orchestra’s Stefania, earning the right to host the 2023 edition. However, organizers concluded that this could not be done safely while the country was in war The UK will produce a program which, in the words of the BBC, has “glorious Ukraine at its heart”.