July 27, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

By Kathleen Magramo, Jack Guy and Adrienne Vogt, CNN

Updated 2:40 a.m. ET, July 28, 2022

What we covered here

Ukrainian officials confirmed another attack on a key bridge used to reinforce and resupply occupying Russian forces in the southern Kherson region as Moscow deploys more forces to bolster its southern flank, according to Ukraine and videos geolocated by CNN.
In the east of the country, the Ukrainian military said it was able to repel Russian offensives toward the Donetsk city of Bakhmut and inflict losses on Moscow's forces looking to advance in that area.
Russian energy giant Gazprom has made another cut on gas to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to 20% of maximum capacity. Officials say the US is working to keep European allies united against Russia as fears mount over possible shortages.
The US has offered to exchange a convicted Russian arms dealer, sources tell CNN, as part of a potential deal to secure the release of two Americans held by Russia, including WNBA star Brittney Griner. Griner, who has been detained since February, testified Wednesday as part of her ongoing trial on drug charges.

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8:13 p.m. ET, July 26, 2022

Russia is deploying more forces to bolster southern flank, according to Ukraine and geolocated videos

From CNN’s Vasco Cotovio, Gianluca Mezzofiore, Celine Alkhaldi, Benjamin Brown and Petro Zadorozhnyy

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.”

“Every day, about 50 wagons with echelons of Russian military equipment move towards Dzhankoi, queues of military equipment are also noticed at the administrative border with occupied Crimea, near the settlements of Armiansk and Krasnoperekopsk,” the office said in a statement on Facebook on Monday.

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.

12:33 a.m. ET, July 27, 2022

Russia says it will quit the International Space Station after 2024

From CNN's Uliana Pavlova and Kristin Fisher

In this frame grab from video provided by Roscosmos, Russian cosmonauts Sergey Korsakov, Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveyev are seen during a welcome ceremony after arriving at the International Space Station, on March 18, the first new faces in space since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine. The crew emerged from the Soyuz capsule wearing yellow flight suits with blue stripes, the colors of the Ukrainian flag. (Roscosmos/AP)

Russia says it is planning to pull out of the International Space Station and end its decades-long partnership with NASA at the orbiting outpost, according to the newly appointed head of Russia's space agency.

Roscosmos chief Yury Borisov told Russian President Vladimir Putin that "the decision to leave this station after 2024 has been made."

"You know that we are working within the framework of international cooperation at the International Space Station. Undoubtedly, we will fulfil all our obligations to our partners, but the decision to leave the station after 2024 has been made," Borisov told Putin in the Kremlin-issued readout.

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