Ukrainian troops on the Zaporizhzhia front in the south of the country

Wednesday’s Coverage: Zelenskiy’s Anti-Corruption Warning to Officials — “No Place for the Unworthy”

Map: Institute for Study of War

UPDATE 1944 GMT:

The UK Government has granted millions of pounds’ worth of exemptions for sanctioned Russian oligarchs, allowing them to maintain staffs of chefs, chauffeurs, and housekeepers.

Some oligarchs have been allowed more than $1 million a year in living expenses. Russian banking tycoon Mikhail Fridman was granted an exemption — worth £300,000 pounds (almost $400,000) over about 10 months — to pay for 19 members of staff, including drivers, chefs, housekeepers, and handymen. Fridman also received about £7,000 in a monthly allowance to cover his family’s basic needs.

Fridman’s former business partner, Petr Aven, received a monthly allowance of £60,000. The majority of the money went to a security company owned by Mr. Aven’s financial manager, who has been under investigation on suspicion of helping Aven evade sanctions,

UPDATE 1933 GMT:

US intelligence services say China entities are likely providing Moscow with military and dual-use technology for use in Ukraine.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s report said China is supplying the technology “despite an international cordon
of sanctions and export controls”.

It cited customs records which “show PRC [People’s Republic of China] state-owned defense companies shipping navigation equipment, jamming technology, and fighter jet parts to sanctioned Russian Government-owned defense companies”.

UPDATE 1918 GMT:

The southern front of Ukraine’s counter-offensive has liberated the village of Staromayorske.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy posted video of Ukrainian soldiers celebrating, “35th Brigade and the volunteer battalion Arei liberated the village Staromayorske. Glory to Ukraine! Glory to Heroes!”

Other footage showed Russian troops retreating from the village.

On Wednesday, the Ukrainian military claimed the capture of units, documents, and intelligence of Russia’s 247th Guards Air Assault Regiment near the village (see Original Entry).

Staromayske is in the southwest Donetsk region, near the border with the Zaporizhzhia region.

UPDATE 1110 GMT:

Having jeopardised food supplies to Africa by renewing Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, Vladimir Putin has promised free grain to six African nations.

Putin told the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg that Russia will ship for free to within three to four months to Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, Central African Republic and Eritrea.

On stage with Putin, Azali Assoumani, the Comoros President and chair of the African Union, appealed for “peaceful co-existence” between Russia and Ukraine, as this would save the lives of those who depend on food supplies from the two countries.

Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa gently rebuffed Putin’s gesture: “We are grateful. We are not in any grain deficit at all. We are food-secure, he is just adding to what we are already have.”

Russia also granted debt relief on more thn $684 million owed by Somalia.

“This step will play a big role in the completion of the country’s debt forgiveness process,” Somali Finance Minister Bihi Egeh said.

UPDATE 0834 GMT:

Ukraine Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov says Russian missile attacks over the past nine days have damaged and partially destroyed 26 port infrastructure facilities and five civilian vessels.

Kubrakov added that, following Vladimir Putin’s ripping up of the July 2022 grain deal last week, Russia’s naval forces are restricting shipping near Russian-occupied Crimea and the territorial waters of Bulgaria.

UPDATE 0807 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has visited Dnipro in south-central Ukraine for meetings with senior officials about situation on the frontline, supplies of munitions to troops, and air defenses.

Zelenskiy posted on Telegram, “We started the working day in Dnipro.”

UPDATE 0757 GMT:

US President Joe Biden, overruling the Pentagon, has ordered American officials to share evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine with the International Criminal Court.

A US official confirmed that the Administration has briefed legislators. Sens. Dick Durbin and Lindsey Graham, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee who support the evidence transfer, confirmed in a statement on Wednesday night, “We are pleased that the administration is finally supporting the ICC’s investigation.”

The Pentagon feared that the handover would set a precedent under which the ICC could investigate the actions of American troops in a war. The US is not a signatory to the Rome Statute which set up the court.

But the State and Justice Departments favored the transfer of the evidence to show the US stands for international law and human rights.

UPDATE 0645 GMT:

The latest Russian shelling on the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine has killed one civilian and injured nine.

An elderly woman has been killed in the Kharkiv region in the northeast.

UPDATE 0636 GMT:

Russia has again fired missiles on port infrastructure in the Odesa region in southern Ukraine, killing a security guard.

Governor Oleg Kiper posted that the Russians fired Kalibr cruise missiles from a submarine in the Black Sea. Equipment in one of the two cargo terminals was damaged, and the security building and two cars were destroyed.

See also Ukraine War, Day 516: Russia Damages Historic Cathedral, Destroys Grain Terminal in Odesa

Natalia Humeniuk, the spokesperson for the Southern Military Command, said Russia “took advantage” of an overnight thunderstorm: “The enemy…launched the missiles during the thunder and wind and at an extremely low height in order to make spotting them more difficult.”

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine’s seven-week counter-offensive has advanced farther on the southern front, with signs that it may have cracked Russia’s first line of fortified defense.

Deputy Deputy Minister Hanna Maliar said on Wednesday that Ukrainian forces have moved towards the Russian-occupied port cities of Melitopol and Berdyansk.

Maliar cited “successes” near Staromayorske, a village southwest of Donetsk city. The Ukrainian military claimed the capture of units, documents, and intelligence of Russia’s 247th Guards Air Assault Regiment.

The Russian Defense Ministry’s spokesperson, Col. Igor Konashenkov, acknowledged a “massive” Ukrainian attack with three battalions south of the village of Orikhiv, about 60 miles north of the Sea of Azov.

He also reported fighting a few miles near the Russian-held village of Robotyne, about 10 km (6.2 miles) south of Orikhiv. Footage of two disabled or abandoned Bradley fighting vehicles was geolocated 2.5 km (1.5 miles) east of Robotyne, beyond the first line of pre-prepared Russian fortifications.

Konashenkov said the assault had been repelled, but Russian military observers said the counter-offensive had penetrated Moscow’s defense lines “in three areas”. One of them, Rybar, described an “attack by more than 80 armored vehicles, including tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, armoured personnel carriers, and combat vehicles”. The Russian proxy governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, Vladimir Rogov, cited about 100 armored vehicles, including German-made Leopard tanks and US-made Bradley Fighting Vehicles.

Two US Defense Department officials said on Wednesday that the main thrust of the counteroffensive, which began last month, has begun. Thousands of troops, many of them trained and equipped by the West, have been put into the frontline.

“This is the big test,” said a “senior US official”.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly address to the nation, “Today our guys at the front had very good results. More details later.”

On the eastern front, Deputy Defense Minister Maliar said “fierce fighting” continued near the villages of Klishchiivka, Kurdyumivka, and Andriivka to the south of Bakhmut.

Ukrainian forces continued to repel Russian attempts to break through near Kupyansk and Lyman, which Ukraine liberated last autumn.