Russia fired 19 missiles by land, air and sea at the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odessa, Kiev said on Sunday.
The Ukrainian Air Force said it destroyed nine of the weapons, “including Oniks cruise missiles, sea-launched Kalibrs and Iskander missiles.”
Russia’s attack killed one person and injured nearly 20 people, including four children, said Oleg Kiper, the region’s governor.
In his statement via Telegram, the governor said that Moscow’s “night terror attack” damaged the historic Transfiguration Cathedral, which is Odessa’s largest Orthodox church building and is located in the UNESCO-listed historic city center.
Ukraine had previously accused the cathedral of having ties to the pro-invasion Russian Orthodox Church, which used to be its mother church. However, the Odessa Cathedral said it cut ties last year.
The rocket attacks also destroyed six houses and apartment buildings.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced retaliatory measures against Moscow.
“Missiles against peaceful cities, against residential buildings, a cathedral,” said Zelenskyy. “For Odessa, there will definitely be retaliation against Russian terrorists.”
Ever since Moscow withdrew from the Black Sea Grains Agreement, which allowed Ukrainian grain to be safely transported to other countries, Moscow has intervened on Odessa and other Ukrainian food-exporting sites on an almost daily basis.
Zelenskyy demands that the grain agreement with Ukraine must be continued
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Here are some of the other developments from Russia’s war in Ukraine on Sunday July 23rd.
Russian forces attack north-east Ukraine – British intelligence
The British Ministry of Defense (MOD) said Russian forces were concentrating their efforts on north-eastern parts of Ukraine with artillery shelling and airstrikes.
The Defense Ministry said it was likely that Russia had made only “minor gains” in attacks on the northern part of eastern Ukraine’s frontline regions of Luhansk and Kharkiv.
The ministry said that the renewed focus on the area “underscores its importance for the Kremlin at a time when it is facing significant pressures in the southern Zaporizhia sector.”
British military intelligence believes that the Russian military may be trying to reach the Oskil River to create a buffer zone around the Luhansk region.
Blinking: Ukraine regained 50% of territory captured from Russia
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Ukraine has regained about 50% of the territory captured by Russia, although Kiev’s counteroffensive is likely to last several months.
“About 50% of the amounts originally seized have already been recovered,” Blinken told CNN on Sunday.
“The counteroffensive is still in its infancy. It’s difficult,” he said, adding, “It’s not going to happen in the next week or two. We still reckon, I think, with several months.”
Hopes that Ukraine could quickly oust Moscow forces from its territory after beginning a summer counteroffensive are fading as Kiev forces struggle to breach heavily entrenched Russian positions to the south and east.
Late last month Zelenskyy was quoted as saying that the advance against Russian forces was “slower than desired” but that Kiev would not be pressured to speed it up.
Putin says Ukraine’s counteroffensive ‘failed’
According to Russian news agencies, Russian President Vladimir Putin has informed Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko that Ukraine’s counter-offensive has failed.
“There is no counter-offensive,” Lukashenko said during the talks, according to the TASS news agency, before being interrupted by Putin: “There is one, but it failed.”
The meeting is the first the two have had since the Wagner Group uprising in June.
Lukashenko: Minsk has the Wagner fighters under control
Meanwhile, Lukashenko said he was “keeping” Russian Wagner mercenaries in central Belarus and that Minsk was “controlling” the situation with the notorious militants on its territory.
“They ask to go west, ask me for permission … for a trip to Warsaw, to Rzeszow,” Lukashenko said to Putin, who smiled. “But of course I’ll keep them in central Belarus, as we agreed.”
“We control what happens (with Wagner),” he said, adding, “They’re in a bad mood.”
Wagner troops, who played a key role in the battle for the Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, staged a mutiny last month and seized a Russian military base in the south of the country.
Some of the militants were even on their way to Moscow in protest against Putin before Lukashenko negotiated a deal between the Kremlin and the group’s leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
As part of the agreement to end the mutiny, the Wagner rebels and their leader would move to Belarusian territory, where they would be safe from prosecution.
Some analysts believe the move may have been a pretext for the mercenary group to play a new role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, possibly from Belarusian territory.
Poland puts main battle tank repair center into operation
Poland has launched a maintenance center for tanks damaged in Ukraine, Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said.
The repair center was commissioned by Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius to repair damaged German Leopard 2 battle tanks deployed in Ukraine.
German and Polish defense ministers met in July to discuss the opening of the repair center.Image: Kacper Pempel/Portal
Pistorius and Blaszczak agreed to set up the hub in April. Work, scheduled to begin in May, had been paused due to complex maintenance requirements.
During a visit to Poland in early July, Pistorius criticized the Polish side for being too slow in completing the center.
Pole Blaszczak tweeted on Saturday: “The repair center in Gliwice is operational! The first two Leopards have already arrived at the Bumar plant from Ukraine.”
NATO-Ukraine Council discusses grain deal
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has called a meeting of the new NATO-Ukraine Council for Wednesday.
The aim of the summit, which is being held at Ukraine’s request, is to “consult the latest developments and discuss the transport of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea,” said NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu.
Russia threatens to withdraw from the Black Sea Grains Agreement
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Before announcing the meeting, Stoltenberg spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about the grain deal that allowed Ukraine to ship 33 million tons of grain to other countries despite the conflict.
Russia not only pulled out of the deal, but also threatened to attack any ship in the Black Sea region.
“We strongly condemn Moscow’s attempt to weaponize food,” Stoltenberg tweeted after speaking to Zelenskyy.
Referring to July’s NATO summit in Lithuania, he said: “Allies stand by Ukraine for as long as it takes, and after the NATO summit, Ukraine is closer to NATO than ever before.”
mm, ns/jcg (Portal, dpa, AFP)