Russia-Ukraine war: Zelenskiy adviser says war in deadlock; fatalities reported in attacks on Kharkiv and Mykolaiv – live | Ukraine

Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine, got hit hard over the past few hours, with at least seven people killed in a missile strike yesterday night and three more this morning. Many more were injured. The missiles hit a residential block, reducing it to debris, and a dormitory block.

Here is footage:

The 25th cargo ship carrying grain has departed Ukraine under a deal with Russia brokered by Turkey and the United Nations to unblock the country’s blockaded ports, Agence France-Presse is reporting. The ship, which is expected to reach Egypt in a few days, departed as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and UN chief Antonio Guterres, who key to the reaching of the accord, were convening in Lviv to meet with Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

“The cargo ship I Maria departed from the port of Chornomorsk. It is loaded with 33,000 tonnes of corn,” Ukraine’s ports authority said in a statement on social media.

It said that 600,000 tones of Ukrainian agricultural products had been shipped through a corridor agreed by Moscow and Kyiv in Istanbul last month. “So far, 25 ships with Ukrainian products left the ports of Odessa, Pivdennyi and Chornomorsk for the Bosphorus strait,” the ports authority added.

The grain agreement lifted a Russian blockade of Ukraine’s ports and established safe corridors through the naval mines laid by Kyiv, with the first commercial ship carrying grain leaving on 1 August.

With Ukraine and Russia as two of the world’s biggest grain exporters, the halt in exports saw grain prices soar, fuelling fears rise of global food shortages, particularly in poor countries already experiencing shortfalls.

With tensions continuing to rise around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant – the largest nuclear reactor in Europe – scientists with the Ukrainian Hydrometeorology Institute simulated the radiation spread of a nuclear disaster at the plant.

The scientists found that with the weather conditions of the past few days, radioactive contaminants could reach as far north as the Baltic Sea, hitting Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland along the way, as well as Belarus.

Heading west, radioactive contaminants would enter Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

One person killed in Russian attack on Mykolaiv

“What the fuck do we need this war for?” Pavel Filatyev, a Russian soldier who fought in Ukraine, has fled his homeland and is risking prison to speak out against the invasion.

The ex-paratrooper has published a 141-page bombshell breaking down the day-to-day activities of his unit after they were sent to mainland Ukraine from Crimea and eventually entered and captured Kherson. “I simply can’t stay quiet any longer, even though I know that I probably won’t change anything, and maybe I’ve acted foolishly to get myself in so much trouble,” said Filatyev, his fingers shaking from stress as he lit another cigarette.

His memoir, ZOV, detailed how his exhausted and poorly equipped unit stormed into mainland Ukraine with no idea why the war was taking place at all. “It took me weeks to understand there was no war on Russian territory at all, and that we had just attacked Ukraine,” he said.

At one point, Filatyev describes how the ravenous paratroopers, the elite of the Russian army, captured the Kherson seaport and immediately began grabbing “computers and whatever valuable goods we could find”. Then they ransacked the kitchens for food. “Like savages, we ate everything there: oats, porridge, jam, honey, coffee … We didn’t give a damn about anything, we’d already been pushed to the limit. Most had spent a month in the fields with no hint of comfort, a shower or normal food.

“What a wild state you can drive people to by not giving any thought to the fact that they need to sleep, eat and wash,” he wrote. “Everything around gave us a vile feeling; like wretches we were just trying to survive.”

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While Ukraine’s foreign ministry has the number of Russian casualties at about 44,300, Mediazona, an independent news organisation in Russia, has delved into the background of some of these deaths.

Based on social media confirmation by relatives, reports in local media, and statements by the local authorities, Mediazona was able to confirm 5,185 deaths (Russia’s defence ministry disclosed casualties only twice in March, acknowledging just 1,849 personnel killed).

Looking into these deaths, Mediazona found that the disproportionate majority of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine came from poor and minority regions of Russia.

The UK’s Ministry of Defence has provided an updated intelligence report on Russian troop locations and movement in Ukraine:

At least one person killed and 18 wounded in latest Kharkiv shelling

Ukraine’s foreign ministry has posted an update on Russia’s losses since the start of the invasion. According to the ministry, at least 44,300 Russian soldiers have been killed.

Estonia has been hit by extensive cyber-attacks after removing a Soviet-era tank monument from a region whose population is predominantly ethnic Russian, its government has said.

Russian hacker group Killnet claimed responsibility for the attack, which it said blocked access to more than 200 state and private Estonian institutions.

The Estonian government said the impact of the attack was limited and went “largely unnoticed”.

“Yesterday, Estonia was subject to the most extensive cyber-attacks it has faced since 2007,” its undersecretary for digital transformation said.

“With some brief and minor exceptions, websites remained fully available throughout the day. The attack has gone largely unnoticed in Estonia.”

Russia says it may shut Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant

Ukraine must “prepare for all scenarios” at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, its interior minister has warned.

Dozens of Ukraine’s emergency service workers wearing gas masks and hazmat suits took part in a disaster response drill amid fears of another Chernobyl-like disaster.

The exercises saw them practice evacuating the injured, carrying out radiation scans, and washing down contaminated vehicles.

“Nobody could have predicted that Russian troops would be firing on nuclear reactors with tanks. It is incredible,” Denys Monastyrsky said.

As long as the plant is controlled by Russia there are “major risks”, the minister added.

Russia has denied its forces had heavy weapons deployed at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, accusing Ukraine of stoking the fire ahead of a UN visit to the region.

Kyiv was preparing a “provocation” during secretary general António Guterres’ stop that would see Moscow “accused of creating a man-made disaster at the plane,” its defence ministry said.

“Russian troops have no heavy weapons either on the territory of the station or in the areas around it. There are only guard units,” a statement read.

The ministry claimed Ukraine was deploying forces in the area and planned to launch artillery strikes on the plant from the city of Nikopol on Friday, coinciding with Guterres’s visit to Odessa.

“The claim for the consequences [of the strikes] will be placed on the Russian armed forces,” the statement said.

One more ship loaded with corn has left Ukraine’s Chornomorsk port, Turkey’s Defence Ministry has said.

It is the first of four vessels to arrive at the country’s Black Sea port today, and marks the 25th to leave with grain under a UN-brokered export deal.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has accepted Ukraine’s invitation to lead a delegation into the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, the foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has said.

“I emphasised the mission’s urgency to address nuclear security threats caused by Russia’s hostilities,” he added.

The nuclear plant, which is Russian-occupied but run by Ukrainian staff, has faced intense shelling throughout the war, with both sides accusing one another of the attacks.

Summary

Military-ruled Myanmar plans to import Russian gasoline and fuel oil to ease supply concerns and rising prices, a junta spokesperson has said, the latest developing country to do so amid a global energy crisis.

The southeast Asian country has maintained friendly ties with Russia and Moscow is seeking new customers for its energy in the region as its biggest export destination, Europe, will impose an embargo on Russian oil in phases later this year.

“We have received permission to import petrol from Russia,” Reuters reports military spokesperson Zaw Min Tun as saying during a news conference on Wednesday, adding that it was favoured for its “quality and low cost”.