July 26, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

The Russian military is deploying additional forces to its southern flank, bolstering its positions in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, according to Ukrainian officials and videos posted on social media that were geolocated by CNN. Analysts suggest the move is presumably to try and counter an eventual Ukrainian counteroffensive. 

Several posts on Ukrainian social media accounts reference the movement of heavy military equipment on top of trains or clogging up highways through the Crimean peninsula and into the Kherson region. CNN geolocated several videos, filmed in the past few days, which show convoys crossing from Crimea into Kherson. Other videos showed the convoys heading toward Crimea, across the Kerch straight, from Krasnodar in Russia. 

The spokespeople for the Ukrainian General Staff and the Ukrainian Operational Command South declined to comment, but the Office of the Ukrainian President in Crimea said the “movement of military equipment, ammunition, and personnel of the Russian army continues throughout the territory of the occupied Crimean peninsula.”

Analysts have suggested this movement of heavy equipment could be in anticipation of a Ukrainian counteroffensive to try and retake Russian-controlled areas in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia areas. In its daily assessment of the Russian campaign on Monday, the Institute for the Study of War said that “Russian forces continued to fortify their positions in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson Oblasts in preparations for Ukrainian counteroffensives.”

What Russia is saying: The Russian defense ministry denied Moscow is deploying additional forces to Ukraine.

“A number of foreign media outlets are spreading false information about alleged mobilization activities,” the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. “We draw your attention to the fact that only a part of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation is involved in the conduct of a special military operation, the number of which is quite sufficient to fulfil all the tasks set by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief.”

CNN's Zarah Ullah and Uliana Pavlova contributed reporting to this post.

Germany has delivered three MARS2 multiple launch rocket systems launchers from its army stocks, as well as five Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and three self-propelled howitzer 2000 to Ukraine, the German Minister of Defense Christine Lambrecht said on Tuesday.

“The promised MARS2 multiple rocket launchers and another three self-propelled howitzer 2000 have been delivered. We keep our word,” Lambrecht said.

The Ukrainian President’s Chief of Staff, Andriy Yermak, acknowledged the receipt of the weapons and said they would be deployed to the frontlines.

Lambrecht also said Germany would accelerate the pace at which heavy weapons will be delivered to Ukraine, a spokesperson for the German Ministry of Defense said. In total, Ukraine will receive 30 Gepard systems from the industry with about 60,000 rounds of ammunition mainly from the Bundeswehr according to the spokesman. Altogether ten self-propelled howitzers 2000 will also come from Bundeswehr stocks.

Ukrainian forces will also receive a Cobra artillery tracking radar, with the delivery expected in September.

“The contract has already been signed, now the training of Ukrainian soldiers on this highly complex system begins," Lambrecht said.

Russia will withdraw from the International Space Station project “after 2024” after fulfilling its obligations, according to the Kremlin readout of a meeting between the newly appointed head of Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.

“I think that by this time, we will begin to form the Russian orbital station,” Borisov said. 

Russia’s withdrawal would be a major blow to the ISS, a model of international cooperation for decades. The announcement comes as the war in Ukraine has deeply strained its relations with US and Europe.

Robyn Gatens, director of the International Space Station for NASA, said that NASA hadn't received any official word from Russia about the decision to quit the ISS.

This is not the first time that Russia has threatened to abandon the ISS amid crippling US and European sanctions over the war in Ukraine. Borisov's predecessor, Dmitry Rogozin, repeatedly threatened to do so before he was ousted earlier this month.

But this most recent threat has more teeth, and the apparent approval of Putin himself. According to the transcript of a meeting posted to the Kremlin's website, Putin said "good" after Borisov told him that Roscosmos will begin to build its own space station after 2024.

Russia's withdrawal would be a major blow to the ISS, a model of international cooperation for decades.

The news comes less than two weeks after NASA and Roscosmos announced a crew-exchange deal or "seat swap" that had been under negotiations for more than four years. Starting in September, two Russian cosmonauts will launch on US spacecrafts from Florida while two American astronauts will ride Russian rockets into space. It's unclear if Russia's decision to pull out of the ISS after 2024 will impact the crew-exchange agreement.

The ISS, which is a collaboration among the US, Russia, Japan, Canada and the European Space Agency, is divided into two sections — the Russian Orbital Segment and the US Orbital Segment. The Biden administration announced in December that it was committed to extending the ISS from 2024 to 2030. But Russia — NASA's number-one partner at the ISS — never signed onto it.

Since then, NASA has been exploring ways of moving the space station without the assistance of the Russian segment. In June, a Cygnus cargo spacecraft demonstrated its ability to raise the station's orbit. But whether the ISS would be able to survive without the Russians is still an open question.

NASA said in February it intends to keep operating the International Space Station — which was launched in 2000 — until the end of 2030, after which the ISS would be deorbited and crashed into a remote part of the Pacific Ocean. Commercially operated space platforms would replace the ISS as a venue for collaboration and scientific research, NASA said.

Hear the director general of the European Space Agency here:

The European Union’s Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson has said that “even if all the exemptions are used in full,” the deal reached by EU ministers on Tuesday to reduce natural gas demand by 15% would “help us [EU] safely through an average winter.”

Speaking after a meeting of the EU energy ministers in Brussels, Simson said that the agreement was “a blueprint to act together in a coordinated way if the situation worsens.”

Addressing the exemptions to the deal, Simson said that the European Council “has introduced more flexibility to reflect the specific situations of the member states.”

Simson said that countries like Ireland, Malta and the Baltic states “have strongly underlined their intention to reduce demand.”  

The EU earlier Tuesday agreed to a voluntary target to reduce gas usage by 15% between August and March 2023. 

The EU Commission first unveiled the 15% target in its "Save Gas for a Safe Winter" plan last week, which included a proposal for a new law that, if passed, would give it the power to force states to meet mandatory reduction targets in exceptional circumstances.

But objections from some countries over the past few days pushed the bloc to make key concessions, taking into account their varying levels of dependency on gas and levels of storage.

The EU will now exempt countries that are not interconnected to other members’ gas networks from the 15% mandatory demand reduction target, as “they would not be able to free up significant volumes of pipeline gas to the benefit of other member states,” the EU Council said in a press release.

Czech Minister of Industry and Trade Jozef Síkela told reporters at the same press conference that “we will share the pain.”

“We will not allow Russia to threaten our security by deliberately disrupting gas deliveries and using gas as a political weapon,” Síkela added.

The UK government has sanctioned additional people and entities in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the British Foreign Office said Tuesday.

Among the sanctioned are Vitaly Khotsenko and Vladislav Kuznetsov, the Russian-imposed Prime Minister and First Deputy Chair of the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, according to the Foreign Office statement.

“Khotsenko and Kuznetsov have been sent to implement Russia’s policies across the invaded region, supporting Putin’s plans to illegally annex more of Ukraine and use sham referendums to falsely legitimize their occupation,” the statement said. They have been hit with a travel ban and asset freeze.

Russia’s Minister of Justice Konstantin Chuychenko and Deputy Minister of Justice Oleg Sviridenko have also been sanctioned, the Foreign Office said.

“The pair are suppressing their own people by targeting those speaking out against the war,” the statement said.

The UK also targeted 29 Russian regional governors with sanctions.

Additionally, the UK sanctioned six Syrian individuals and companies for their links to Russia’s war in Ukraine, including for assisting in the recruitment of Syrian mercenaries to fight alongside Russian troops.

Two nephews of “major Russian oligarch” Alisher Usmanov were hit with asset freezes over their “association with Putin”, the statement said. One of the two, Sarvar Ismailov, was previously a director at the English soccer club, Everton.

Usmanov, who is already subject to UK sanctions, also has close ties to the Kremlin, according to the Foreign Office.

The Foreign Office also added five Syrian individuals and entities to the sanctions list over their links to the governing regime in Syria, including Issam Shammout, the owner of Cham Wings, a Syrian airline that was released from EU sanctions in mid-July.

To date, the UK has sanctioned “more than 1,100 individuals and more than 100 entities” over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Foreign Office said. 

The European Union has agreed to ration its natural gas this winter to prevent a severe supply shock. But the bloc has watered down its ambitions by offering countries some significant leeway.

On Tuesday, EU energy ministers agreed to a voluntary target to reduce gas usage by 15% between August and March 2023. That reduction is measured against each country's average gas consumption during the same months over the previous five years.

The EU Commission first unveiled the 15% target in its "Save Gas for a Safe Winter" plan last week, which included a proposal for a new law that, if passed, would give it the power to force states to meet mandatory reduction targets in exceptional circumstances.

But objections from some countries over the past few days have pushed the bloc to make key concessions, taking into account their varying levels of dependency on gas and levels of storage.

Read the full story here:

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Europe dials down its plans to ration gas this winter

An air raid siren sounds over Odesa an hour before daybreak Tuesday, cutting through a clear night.

Heavily armed soldiers patrol the moonlit streets of the historic center, blocks from Ukraine’s most crucial port.

Like all Ukrainian cities a curfew keeps Odesa still through the night, but the city’s air defense system has allowed a quality of life here in contrast to the all-out war just a short drive east.

Coffee shops and lunch spots continue their summer trade, despite a lack of tourists in what was one of the Soviet Union’s most popular holiday towns. 

Days earlier, at a skate park in view of the port, children ride scooters and skateboards.

Seven-year-old Max fled to Moldova with his mother at the beginning of the war. He’s returned to spend time with his father Roman Gainutdikov, a merchant seaman put out of work by the war.

"Of course people want to live normally," says Gainutdikov. "But in the worst case it will be the same story as Mykolaiv."

Each night, Mykolaiv is pummeled by Russian missiles and rockets. The city is emptying out, with many fleeing to the relative safety of Odesa three hours down the road. 

Now, Odesa is being hit too.

Fires have been put out at the port where two cruise missiles on Saturday hit what the Ukrainians say was a pumping station.

Global condemnation continues over the strikes that hit infrastructure needed for Ukraine’s effort to export its grain harvest to a hungry world. Russia says it hit a military target there. 

Tuesday’s air raid siren was no false alarm either. Just south of the city, fires burned in the coastal village of Zatoka — an "ordinary" place, according to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, who posted videos of the fiery aftermath of the strike. 

People here in Odesa expect more air raid sirens and know worse days could come. 

The Joint Coordination Center for Ukrainian grain exports is set to begin its work on Wednesday, according to the Turkish Ministry of Defense.

The defense ministry announced the opening in a press release Tuesday, saying the opening will take place at the National Defense University in Istanbul with the Turkish Minister for Defense Hulusi Akar scheduled to be in attendance. 

The center will oversee the system of maritime caravans transporting vital grain exports out of Ukraine. It was devised as part of the grain deal signed by Ukraine and Russia last Friday under the auspices of Turkey and the United Nations. 

A Russian delegation of experts headed by Rear Admiral Eduard Luik will arrive in Istanbul on Tuesday, according to a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense. 

Their main task will be to "promptly resolve all the necessary issues for the Initiative to enter the stage of practical implementation," according to the statement.

Russian forces have struck multiple targets in the east and south of Ukraine with missiles and artillery, while European Union officials have accused Russian state-owned gas company Gazprom of "politically motivated" reductions in gas flows to member countries.

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