July 29, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

The Ukrainian Embassy in Lebanon has called on authorities to clarify the conditions under which a Syrian ship — which Ukraine claims is carrying stolen barley — was allowed to dock in Tripoli. 

The Syrian vessel, the Laodicea, belongs to state shipping company SYRIAMAR and was photographed passing through the Bosporus strait into the Mediterranean on July 23. 

Both the company and the vessel were sanctioned by the US Treasury in 2015. 

In a meeting with Lebanese President Michel Aoun on Thursday, Ukrainian Ambassador Ihor Ostash “drew the attention of the President of the Republic to the fact that a Syrian ship entered the sea port of Tripoli on July 27, 2022 carrying barley exported from the occupied territories in the port of Fyudosia,” the embassy said in a readout posted on Facebook on Thursday. 

The Laodicea was photographed transitioning through the Bosporus on July 23. 

Some background: Ukraine has repeatedly said that Russia has taken grain from the country to ports around the Middle East. In May, satellite images appeared to show two Russia-flagged bulk carrier ships docking and loading up with what was believed to be stolen Ukrainian grain in the Crimean port of Sevastopol.

Last week, Ukraine and Russia agreed a deal to allow the resumption of grain exports from Ukrainian Black Sea ports. Ministers from both countries signed the agreement brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in Istanbul.

The United Nations had been hoping for the first ship to leave Ukraine’s Odesa port with grain bound for global markets on Thursday, but procedural details for safe passage are still being worked out, the organization's chief aid coordinator said. 

Martin Griffiths, UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, helped broker a deal between Kyiv and Moscow — signed in Istanbul — to facilitate vital grain exports from Ukrainian Black Sea ports to avoid a global hunger crisis. 

He noted that the parties need to get the exact location of safe passage corridors “absolutely nailed down,” adding “I think we'll see this very quickly.”

“It has to do with what are the exact coordinates of the channels,” he continued. “There's a general reference in the agreement. We need exact coordinates of the channels.”

Even still, Griffiths hailed the agreement, which swiftly saw the opening of a Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul, as “the most rapid stand up of an operation that I can think of” in his experience at the UN. 

Russia’s attack on Odesa on Saturday, the day after the deal was signed, was “a reminder that we had no time to waste,” he said.

Also delaying the exports is the commercial side of the operation, as there is “a lot of detail that's necessary to share” with shipping and insurance companies, he added. 

The State Department on Thursday announced a reward of up to $10 million for knowledge on foreign attempts to interfere in US elections and sought information on the Internet Research Agency, a notorious Russian troll farm known for meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

The department singled out the IRA, its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin — who is a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin — "and linked Russian entities and associates for their engagement in U.S. election interference."

Both the IRA and Prigozhin — nicknamed "Putin's chef" — are sanctioned in the US. The troll farm used Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms to attempt to sow discord and interfere in the 2016 presidential election, according to the Justice Department.

Read the full story here.

The Ukrainian military has conceded that Russian forces have been able to make small gains near the Donetsk towns of Soledar and Vershyna in eastern Ukraine.

Russia has been making a push in that area of the Donbas for the past several weeks but with limited gains. 

According to Thursday evening's update from Ukraine's General Staff, other attempts by Russian forces to "carry out assaults" in the direction of Yakovlivka, Bakhmut and Semyhiria had "failed."

The Ukrainian military continued to report intense long-range attacks with artillery, missiles and airstrikes across most of the front line.