Photo: Dobra Kobra/Shutterstock

Tuesday’s Coverage: 3 Killed, Scores Wounded in Russia’s Strikes in the West

Map: Institute for Study of War

UPDATE 1712 GMT:

Stian Jenssen, the Chief of staff to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, has apologized for his public suggestion that Ukraine could cede territory to Russia in exchange for membership of the 31-nation bloc (see Original Entry).

Jenssen told a Norwegian newspaper that he should not have spoken so simplistically: “My statement about this was part of a larger discussion about possible future scenarios in Ukraine, and I shouldn’t have said it that way. It was a mistake”.

Still, Jenssen did not rule out the possibility that a land-for-NATO-membership deal could eventually be made. He said that in the event of serious peace negotiations, then the military situation — including who controls what territory — “will necessarily have a decisive influence”.

UPDATE 1704 GMT:

The US has sanctioned three companies, claiming they are supporting arms deals between Russia and North Korea.

The companies are all linked to Slovakian national Ashot Mkrtychev, sanctioned in March for “attempting to facilitate arms deals between Russia and the DPRK [North Korea]”.

The US Treasury said in a statement, “Through his negotiations with DPRK and Russian officials, he organized potential plans to transfer over two dozen kinds of weapons and munitions to Russia in exchange for a range of goods, including raw materials and commodities, to the DPRK.”

The Treasury continued:

This action is part of the continuing US strategy to identify, expose, and disrupt third-country actors seeking to support Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine.

As Russia has continued to expend munitions and lose heavy equipment on the battlefield, it has been increasingly forced to turn to its few allies, including the DPRK [North Korea], to sustain its unprovoked war in Ukraine.

Last month Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu visited Pyongyang and met his North Korean counterpart Kang Sun Nam. US officials believe the trip was to secure supplies of weapons for frontlines in Ukraine.

UPDATE 1449 GMT:

The European Commission has allocated €135 million ($147.2 million) to Ukraine and Moldova that was originally earmarked for Russia and Belarus.

The funds had been earmarked for 2021-2027 Interreg (Inter-Regional) NEXT programs with Moscow and Minsk.

UPDATE 1025 GMT:

Kevin Rothrock of the independent Russian outlet Meduza shares one of the many stories of convicts pardoned over brutal homicides after they served on the frontline in Ukraine.

Francis Scarr of BBC Monitoring notes that some of the pardoned men are already reoffending:

UPDATE 1016 GMT:

Defying Russian attacks and threats, a cargo ship has used Ukraine’s new Black Sea shipping corridor for the first time to defy Moscow’s blockade.

Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said the Hong Kong-flagged Joseph Schulte left the port of Odesa in southern Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin ripped up the July 2022 Black Sea deal on July 17, renewing Russia’s blockade of three Ukrainian ports including Odesa. Moscow has stepped up missile and drone assaults on the Black Sea and Danube River port facility and grain terminals, including strikes with Iranian-made “kamikaze” drones on Tuesday.

Last weekend, the Russian Defense Ministry said its forces had fired warning shots and boarded a Palau-flagged cargo ship in the southwestern Black Sea, forcing the crew to kneel with their hands on top of their heads.

UPDATE 0650 GMT:

Russia has carried out another drone attack on the Ukrainian port of Izmail on the Danube River, damaging warehouses and granaries.

The head of the Odesa region, Oleh Kiper, head of the Odesa regional military administration, said there were no casualties.

Ukraine’s Air Force said it destroyed 13 Iranian-made Shahed “kamikaze” drones over Odesa and the neighboring Mykolaiv region.

UPDATE 0623 GMT: Ukraine’s security service SBU has given CNN footage of the July 17 attack on the Kerch Bridge, between Russia’s Krasnodar region and Russian-occupied Crimea, with an experimental sea drone.

See also Ukraine War, Day 509: Russia’s Kerch Bridge To Crimea Is Damaged Again

SBU head Vasyl Maliuk said development of the Sea Baby drone began just after Vladimir Putin’s invasion in February 2022. He said the drone was also used in attacks on the landing ship Olengorskiy Gornyak in the Russian port of Novorossiysk on August 3, and on the oil tanker SIG the following day.

Ukraine War, Day 527: Explosions at Naval Base Inside Russia

See also Ukraine War, Day 528: Drone Strike on A Russian Tanker

Maliuk said, “We are working on a number of new interesting operations, including in the Black Sea waters. I promise you, it’ll be exciting, especially for our enemies.”

UPDATE 0607 GMT:

Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar says Ukraine’s counter-offensive has advanced on the southern front near the border between the Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions.

Urozhaine liberated. Our defenders are solidifying newly taken positions. Offensive operations continue.

Last week Ukrainian troops moved into Urozhaine, 9 km (5.6 miles) south of Velyka Novosilka in the direction of the port city of Berdyansk. Russian officials maintained that their forces were holding out in the south of the village.

See also Ukraine War, Day 536: Counter-Offensive’s “Tactically Significant” Advance of 10 to 12 Miles

UPDATE 0537 GMT:

UK authorities say they have broken up a Russian “sleeper cells”, arresting three Bulgarian nationals accusing of spying for Moscow.

Orlin Roussev, 45, from Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, and Biser Dzhambazov, 41, and Katrin Ivanova, 31, of Harrow, north-west London, were among five people detained in February after a counter-terrorism investigation by London’s Metropolitan Police. They were charged then with possession of false identity documents.

Roussev moved to the UK in 2009 and spent three years working in a technical role in financial services. An industry report said he was an “accomplished network engineer and software developer” who had been responsible for “delivering a wide variety of technology projects across eastern Europe”.

His LinkedIn profile says he is the owner of a now-dissolved company, NewGenTech Ltd, which dealt with “artificial intelligence, advanced indexing systems and algorithms, advanced communication systems…and high-frequency technologies and signals processing”. He described himself as a former advisor to Bulgaria’s Energy Ministry.

Dzhambazov portrayed himself as a driver for hospitals, and Ivanova described herself as a laboratory assistant for a private health business.

The couple moved to the UK about a decade ago and ran a community organization providing services to Bulgarian people, including introduction to the “culture and norms of British society” and advice on how to obtain citizenship and employment.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine has rejected the proposal, made by a senior NATO official, that it cede territory to Russia in return for membership in the 31-nation alliance.

Stian Jenssen, the Chief of Staff to Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, said in a panel discussion in Norway this week that Russia is “struggling enormously militarily” and it appears “unrealistic that [it] can take new territories”. The challenge is how much territory Ukraine “manages to take back”, so the swap of land for NATO membership is a “possible solution”.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko responded on Facebook:

Talking about Ukraine joining NATO in exchange for giving up part of Ukrainian territories is absolutely unacceptable. We have always proceeded from the fact that the Alliance, like Ukraine, does not trade in territories.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, explained that “murderers” like Vladimir Putin “should not be encouraged by appalling indulgences”:

A NATO official, commenting to the Ukrainian outlet European Pravda, walked back Jenssen’s comments: “We will continue to support Ukraine for as long as it takes, and we are committed to achieving a just and lasting peace.”

He said Kyiv must decide when and under what conditions to achieve peace.

Deputy Prime Minister to Ukrainians: Prepare For A Long War

Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk told Ukrainians that the country must prepare for a long and difficult war to win it. She wrote on Telegram:

We must be honest. In this war, the path to victory will be long and difficult. “Two or three weeks”, “until the end of the year”, “next spring”: all this is not true.

She urged officials and citizens to be ready “for a marathon, not a sprint; for a fight of 12 rounds, not 3”.

We don’t think about later. We do our best here and now. Calmly. Day after day. And we support each other. This is also important. That is why we persevered last year. That is why we will finally win.