Thursday’s Coverage: Russia’s “Terrorist Attacks” on Odesa and Mykolaiv

Map: Institute for Study of War

UPDATE 1818 GMT:

Russian shelling of the Chernihiv region in northern Ukraine has killed an employee of a cultural center.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks about the Russian murder of two women and two children in the Donetsk region in the east of the country:

UPDATE 1814 GMT:

Video of Igor Girkin — the former commander of Russian proxy forces in Ukraine and a leading critic of the Kremlin’s management of Vladimir Putin’s invasion — in court after his arrest by security forces today (see 1107 and 1249 GMT):

UPDATE 1757 GMT:

In its first delivery of heavy military equipment to Ukraine, Bulgaria is sending about 100 armored personnel carriers.

Sofia is historically close to Russia, but legislators voted 148-52 to approve the proposal of the pro-European government to send the vehicles, armaments, and spare parts.

UPDATE 1735 GMT:

The UN political affairs chief, Rosemary DiCarlo, has told an urgent meeting of the Security Council that the July 2022 deal lifting Russia’s blockade on three Ukrainian Black Sea ports — ripped up by Vladimir Putin on Monday —-helped people in poorer countries by reducing food prices more than 23%.

DiCarlo noted, “The new wave of attacks on Ukrainian ports risks having far-reaching impacts on global food security, in particular, in developing countries.”

The Russian delegate made the unsupported claim that less than 3% of grain exports from Ukraine’s ports went to “the poorest [countries], specifically Ethiopia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Sudan and Somalia.

In fact, the UN World Food Programme shipped some 725,000 metric tons of Ukraine grain to aid operations in Afghanistan, Djibouti Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

The US representative noted:

Let’s be clear, Russia has zero legitimate reason to suspend its participation in this arrangement. They would have us believe that sanctions has blocked its exports … They were exporting more grains than ever before and at higher prices. It is using the Black Sea as blackmail.

Ukraine’s envoy noted Russia’s missile and drone attacks on the ports, destroying terminals, reservoirs, and berths, adding, “Russia’s intentions to consider foreign vessels as military targets…violates its obligations under international law.”

UPDATE 1454 GMT:

France has called out China for sending non-lethal military aid to Russia.

Emmanuel Bonne, the diplomatic advisor to French President Emmanuel Macron, told the Aspen Security Forum.

Yes, there are indications that [the Chinese] are doing things we would prefer them not to do….As far as we know they are not delivering massive military capacities to Russia but [there should be] no delivery.

What we need most is Chinese abstention. We need them to understand that Ukraine is a conflict of global magnitude and that we cannot afford Ukraine to lose for reasons of principle, but also for reasons which are very operational.

French officials said Bonne was referring both to dual-use technologies and to assistance such as helmets and body armor.

UPDATE 1249 GMT:

Russia State media is loudly denouncing Col. Igor Girkin, arrested by security forces on Friday.

Having denied Russia’s involvement in the July 2014 downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 for nine years, State TV is now pinning the killing of the 298 passengers and crew on Girkin, who commanded Russian proxy forces in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.

Prominent host Dmitry Kiselyov said in a “special news release”: “The main topic of the day is Igor Strelkov-Girkin, who shot down a Malaysian Boeing [passenger jet]. What a scoundrel. How long he led us all by the nose.”

UPDATE 1107 GMT:

Russian authorities have arrested Col. Igor Girkin, the former commander of Moscow’s proxy forces in eastern Ukraine and a leading critic of the management of Vladimir Putin’s invasion.

Girkin’s wife Myroslava Renginskaya posted on Telegram:

Today, at about 11:30, representatives of the Investigative Committee came to us. I was not at home at that time.

Soon, according to the concierge, they dragged my husband by his arms and took him away in an unknown direction.

From friends, I managed to find out that my husband was charged under Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (extremism). I don’t know where my husband is, he has not been in touch.

Russian officials said the arrest was made because of a complaint by a “former employee” of the Wagner Group mercenaries, reportedly an ex-deputy in the Yaroslavl legislature named Dmitry Petrovsky.

Under Article 282 — “inciting hatred or enmity, as well as humiliation of human dignity” — a defendant can be imprisoned for 3 to 6 years.

Girkin, also known as Strelkov, oversaw Russian proxy forces as they tried to seize control of the Donbas in eastern Ukraine in 2014. In November 2022, he was convicted, in absentia, by a Dutch court of 298 counts of murder over his role in the shootdown of the Malaysian Airlines flight MH 17 in July 2014 over the Donetsk region.

The colonel has loudly chided the Russian military leadership over its conduct of the invasion. On April 1, he co-founded the Angry Club of Patriots with fellow ex-commanders to put pressure on the Kremlin.

Earlier this week, authorities opened a criminal case against Girkin’s associate Col. Vladimir Kvachkov, a former senior official in GRU military intelligence. The Angry Club of Patriots formally denounced the case and demanded that Russian authorities end their “persecution” of Kvachkov.

Undeterred, Girkin posted on Telegram on Tuesday:

The enemy will receive every month more and more powerful long-range modern weapon systems. Gradually and in quantities not too large — just enough so that the war lasts as long as possible, is as exhausting as possible, and ends not at all with a “military victory of independent Ukraine” (its masters do not need that), but with the collapse of the Russian Federation due to internal problems.

To accomplish this, “the frog has to be boiled slowly” (although the heat will be turned up every month). There will be new strikes, terrorist attacks, sabotage. There will be more and more of them.

Girkin reportedly called for the resignation of Vladimir Putin:

For 23 years, a non-entity was at the head of the country, who managed to throw dust in the eyes of a significant part of the population….

The country will not survive another 6 years in power of this cowardly mediocrity.

UPDATE 0914 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has dismissed Kyiv’s Ambassador to the UK, Vadym Prystaiko.

Zelenskiy’s order gave no reason for the dismissal. However, Prystaiko recently criticized the President’s “sarcasm” over the remarks of UK Defence Minister Ben Wallace that Ukrainians should express some gratitude for assistance.

The ambassador has also been fired as Ukraine’s representative to the International Maritime Organization.

UPDATE 0757 GMT:

Cut off from other markets because of sanctions, Russia has raised its oil exports to China to an all-time high — but Moscow’s revenues are still declining.

Russia exported 10.5 million tons of crude oil to China in June, breaking the previous record of 9.71 million tons set in May. The volume is up 44% from June 2022.

Russia is China’s top supplier, accounting for 1/5 of Chinese oil imports from January to June 2023. The 52.6 million tons are a 27% increase from the same period last year.

Despite the surge, Russia’s oil revenues fell from $29 billion in January-June 2022 to $28 billion in January-June 2023.

UPDATE 0750 GMT:

Bolstering its threat to intercept and possibly attack ships travelling to or from Ukraine’s ports, Russia’s navy has carried out a live fire exercise in the northwest Black Sea.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said the Black Sea Fleet fired anti-ship cruise missiles at a target ship, which “was destroyed”.

On Monday, Vladimir Putin ripped up the July 2022 deal lifting Russia’s blockade of three Ukrainian ports, threatening the movement of grain, foodstuffs, and other goods to areas such as Africa.

The Defense Ministry asid in its statement, “During the joint exercise, the ships and fleet aviation undertook measures to isolate the area temporarily closed to navigation, and also carried out a set of measures to detain the offending ship.”

The Turkish Defense Ministry confirmed that a Russian delegation, stationed in Istanbul since July 2022 for implementation of the Black Sea grain deal, has left.

The Defense Ministry said Turkey will keep the joint center operational.

UPDATE 0734 GMT:

The International Federation of Red Cross has disassociated itself from the head of the Belarus Red Cross, Dzmitry Shevtsov, after he confirmed his organization’s involvement in the deportations of Ukrainian children.

The IFRC said in a statement that it was unaware of Shevtsov’s visit to the Russian-occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine, and that it is not “involved in any of its activities, including with children”.

An investigation has been launched.

Shautsou said during his tour of eastern Ukraine that the Belarus Red Cross “”has been, is and will be actively involved” in the deportations, bringing Ukrainian children to Belarus for “health improvement”.

Ukrainian officials say they have confirmed the forcible transfer of almost 20,000 children to Russia or to Russia-occupied territory. They called on the International Criminal Court to charge Shautsou and Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko with war crimes.

The IFRC said:

Actions by any of our member Red Cross or Red Crescent Societies in contradiction with our humanitarian mission, Fundamental Principles and policies are taken extremely seriously by IFRC.

The visit and the activities associated with it were not coordinated with the other components of the Movement.

We have contacted the Belarus Red Cross to express our grave concern and to stop any similar activity in the future.

UPDATE 0721 GMT:

Ukrainian journalist Dmytro Khyliuk has been held for 16 months as a political prisoner by Russian authorities.

Reporters Without Borders finally tracked down Khyliuk, a reporter for the Ukrainian news agency UNIAN. He was abducted by Russian forces in the garden of his family’s home, north of Kyiv, less than two weeks after the start of Russia’s February 2022 invasion.

Russian officials deny Khyliuk is imprisoned. However, RSF established that, for more than a year, the journalist was held in a pre-trial detention center in a small town in the far southeast of Russia. He was moved from the facility about May 13 to a prison a few hundred kilometers east of Moscow.

Sources told RSF that they saw Khyliuk twice in his new prison at the end of May.

In early June, Khyliuk sent a message to his family, “I am OK. I love you. Tell UNIAN that I am in prison in Russia.”

Arnaud Froger, the head of RSF’s Investigation Desk, noted:

By holding this Ukrainian journalist who has committed no crime, Russia continues to flout the Geneva Convention. The use of civilians as spoils of war to extract information or brainwash them is yet another of the long list of atrocities Russia has committed since the start of the war.

Dmytro Khyliuk is now a state hostage. He should be released unconditionally.

UPDATE 0709 GMT:

The latest Russian attacks on the Zaporizhzhia region in southern Ukraine have killed four workers and wounded two people.

An infrastructure facility was struck in the Polohivskyi district.

In the Donetsk region in the east, two people were killed in Kostyantynivka and two were injured elsewhere.

In the Kharkiv region in the northeast, a 56-year-old woman was injured by shelling.

Four locations were shelled in the Kherson region in southern Ukraine. No injuries were reported.

UPDATE 0610 GMT:

Russia has fired missiles on the Odesa region for the fourth consecutive night, hoping to destroy facilities for the storage and transport of grain and other foodstuffs.

Governor Oleh Kiper said another grain terminal was hit by a Kalibr cruise missile, destroying 100 tons of peas and 20 tons of barley. Two people were injured.

Early Thursday, Russia killed three civilians, including a married couple, in Odesa and Mykolaiv. At least 27 people were injured.

On Wednesday, the Russian strikes destroyed about 60,000 tons of grain stores and knocked out a port in the Odesa region.

UPDATE 0604 GMT:

Ukraine has begun using US-supplied cluster munitions on the battlefield.

US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Thursday, “We have gotten some initial feedback from the Ukrainians, and they’re using them quite effectively.”

Kirby said the munitions are having a significant effect on Russian defensive formations and maneuvers.

On Wednesday, Ukrainian officials said the munitions were deployed against entrenched Russian positions on the southern front in the Zaporizhzhia region.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: The US has sanctioned about 120 individuals and firms, from Russia to Kyrgyzstan to the UAE, to restrict Moscow’s access to goods, money, and financial channels enabling Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Dozens of Russian mining, technology and munitions firms, and commercial banks are listed as is former Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin.

Kyrgyzstan-based electronics firms and their leaders are cited for exports of components and other technology to Russia, helping Moscow circumvent international sanctions. A UAE-based engineering company is named for dozens of shipments of electronics.

The Biden Administration said the sanctions are part of coordination with international partners, notably the European Union and the UK. In May, the G7 nations — the US, France, Germany, Italy, the UK, Japan, and Canada — made alignment a priority.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken explained:

Since Russia launched its full scale invasion of Ukraine, the United States, working with our allies and partners, has taken unprecedented steps to impose costs on Russia and promote accountability for the individuals and entities who support its illegal war. We will continue to stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters, “As long as the war continues, we’ll continue to take these kinds of actions. This won’t be the end of it. And we’ll continue to explore additional sections as appropriate going forward.”