Ukraine says it made advances in the south and east. Here's what you need to know
From CNN staff
Russian forces south of the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut have taken heavy losses and appear to have fallen back amid intense artillery fire from the Ukrainian side, according to official and unofficial Ukrainian accounts, and reports from Russian military bloggers.
Ukraine has been trying to break Russian resistance there for several weeks. Ukrainian advances near Andriivka are part of a plan to encircle Bakhmut and drive out Russian forces, the spokesperson for the eastern grouping of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Serhii Cherevatyi, said Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military said it has made slight progress on the southern front, in an area that has seen constant fighting for nearly two months. Valerii Shershen, the spokesperson for Ukrainian forces in the south, said troops had advanced by some 500 meters in an area near the town of Staromaiorske — a target of the Ukrainians since the beginning of their counteroffensive.
Here's what else you should know to get up to speed:
Grain deal: The UK believes Russia could target civilian ships in the Black Sea, following the Kremlin’s decision to leave the Black Sea Grain Initiative, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said Tuesday. The Kremlin said it is “impossible” for Russia to return to the expired initiative until all conditions are met, snubbing suggestions by UN Secretary General António Guterres to rejoin the crucial deal. A European Union official proposed on Tuesday that member states should cover the additional costs of exporting Ukrainian grain by land following the collapse of the deal. And five European Union member states bordering Ukraine are requesting that an existing ban on imports of four types of Ukrainian grain be extended beyond the scheduled expiry date of September 15, the EU Council said Tuesday.
Moscow moves: Russian lawmakers passed an amendment extending the military call-up from ages 18 to 30, raising the limit by three years. Also, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office has declared the TV channel Rain (Dozhd) as an “undesirable organization,” which means penalties — including jail time— for anyone in Russia who donates to or cooperates with the channel.
Military aid: US intelligence officials warned Russia is building a drone-manufacturing facility in the country with Iran's help that could have a significant impact on the war in Ukraine once it is completed. And on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a new $400 million tranche of security assistance for Ukraine, which includes air defense munitions and armored vehicles.
UN investigation: Russian accounts of a rocket attack on a camp holding Ukrainian prisoners of war in July 2022 are not supported by evidence, according to the United Nations. The findings by the UN Human Rights Commissioner (UN OHCHR) support the conclusions of an extensive CNN investigation published in August last year, which demonstrated that the Russian narrative that the camp had been hit by a Ukrainian HIMARS rocket did not stand up to scrutiny.
Trevor Reed update: Trevor Reed, a former US Marine who was wrongfully detained in Russia for nearly three years before being released last year, was injured while participating in fighting in Ukraine, US State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel confirmed Tuesday. Blinken said Reed's fighting in Ukraine "shouldn’t have any effect" on negotiations to free other Americans detained in Russia.
3 hr 27 min ago
Trevor Reed's fighting in Ukraine shouldn't affect negotiations to free other Americans, Blinken says
From CNN's Jennifer Hansler
Trevor Reed's fighting in Ukraine “shouldn’t have any effect” on negotiations to free other detained Americans, Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday.
Reed is a former US Marine who was wrongfully detained in Russia for nearly three years before being released in a prisoner swap. The State Department said earlier Tuesday that he was injured fighting in Ukraine.
“As I've noted before, even with countries where we have profound differences, and almost by definition, countries that are arbitrarily detaining or unlawfully detaining Americans are usually countries with which we have profound differences, we manage to find ways to bring Americans home,” Blinken said at a news conference in Tonga.
He touted the success of the administration so far, saying 29 Americans from at least 10 countries were brought back home.
“So my expectation is that even as we're dealing with all sorts of other challenges in our relationship with Russia, we will and we are determined to continue to work to bring both Evan and Paul home,” Blinken said.
Blinken said he had seen the reports that Reed was injured but didn’t have any additional information on his condition. The top US diplomat said it underscored why the US warns Americans against traveling to Ukraine.
Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, has been detained in Russia following his arrest on espionage charges that he, the WSJ, and the US government vehemently deny.
Whelan has been imprisoned for nearly five years, also on espionage charges that he and the US government have denied.
2 children killed in cluster shelling in eastern Ukraine, military official says
From CNN's Maria Kostenko in Kyiv and Amy Cassidy
Two children were among three people killed as a result of cluster shelling in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka on Monday, a local military official said Tuesday.
“Yet another tragedy happened yesterday,”Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk region military administration said in an interview on Ukrainian TV. “A Smerch MLRS cluster munition exploded over a water body,” he said.
The victims were an 11-year-old girl, a 10-year-old boy and a 28-year-old man, Kyrylenko said. Six people were also wounded, he said in a Telegram post with a link to his TV interview.
“The mother of the deceased boy is in serious condition, she was evacuated to the neighboring region," Kyrylenko said. “The enemy is using cluster munitions against civilians. I urge parents with children to evacuate.”
Some context: Cluster munitions indiscriminately scatter “bomblets” across large areas, posing such a threat to civilians that key US allies have outlawed its use in warfare. Russia is known to have deployed them throughout its invasion of Ukraine, and Ukrainian troops are now using US-provided cluster munitions.
3 hr 30 min ago
US officials raise alarm over Russia's drone partnership with Iran
From CNN's Natasha Bertrand
US intelligence officials have warned that Russia is building a drone-manufacturing facility in country with Iran’s help that could have a significant impact on the war in Ukraine once it is completed.
Analysts from the Defense Intelligence Agency told a small group of reporters during a briefing on Friday that the drone-manufacturing facility now under construction is expected to provide Russia with a new drone stockpile that is “orders of magnitude larger” than what it has been able to procure from Iran to date.
When the facility is completed, likely by early next year, the new drones could have a significant impact on the conflict, the analysts warned. In April, the US released a satellite image of the planned location of the purported drone manufacturing plant, inside Russia’s Alabuga Special Economic Zone about 600 miles east of Moscow. The analysts said Iran has regularly been ferrying equipment to Russia to help with the facility’s construction.
They added that to date, it is believed that Iran has provided Russia with over 400 Shahed 131, 136 and Mohajer drones — a stockpile that Russia has almost completely depleted, they said.
Russia is primarily using the drones to attack critical Ukrainian infrastructure and stretch Ukraine’s air defenses, a senior DIA official said. Iran has been using the Caspian Sea to move drones, bullets and mortar shells to Russia, often using vessels that are “dark,” or have turned off their tracking data to disguise their movements, CNN has reported.
The US obtained and analyzed several of the drones downed in Ukraine, and officials say there is “undeniable evidence” that the drones are Iranian, despite repeated denials from Tehran that it is providing the equipment to Russia for use in Ukraine.
US State Department announces new $400 million tranche of security assistance for Ukraine
From CNN's Jennifer Hansler
Antony Blinken attends a press conference in Washington, on July 17. Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday announced a new $400 million tranche of security assistance for Ukraine, which includes air defense munitions and armored vehicles.
The assistance includes “air defense munitions, artillery rounds, armored vehicles, and anti-armor capabilities, as well as other equipment essential to strengthening Ukraine’s brave forces on the battlefield, helping them retake Ukraine’s sovereign territory, and defend their fellow citizens,” according to a statement announcing the latest drawdown — the 43rd to date.
Blinken also slammed Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, noting that Moscow “continues to attack Ukrainian ports and grain infrastructure," including in the southern port city of Odesa.
The strikes — the latest in a wave of attacks on Odesa — killed at least one person and injured several others, Ukrainian officials said. At least 25 architectural monuments were destroyed and a historic Orthodox cathedral was badly damaged, a regional military official said.
“Russia could end this war at any time by withdrawing its forces from Ukraine and stopping its brutal attacks against Ukraine’s cities and people,” Blinken said. “Until it does, the United States and our allies and partners will stand united with Ukraine, for as long as it takes.”
According to a State Department spokesperson, some of the specific capabilities in this package are:
Additional munitions for Patriot air defense systems and National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS)
Stinger anti-aircraft systems
Additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS)
155mm and 105mm artillery rounds
Javelin and other anti-armor systems and rockets
Hornet unmanned aerial systems
Demolitions munitions for obstacle clearing
Over 28 million rounds of small arms ammunition and grenades
Night vision devices and thermal imagery systems
3 hr 38 min ago
UN rejects Russian account of attack that killed 50 Ukrainian prisoners, confirming CNN findings
From CNN's Tim Lister and Gianluca Mezzofiore
The United Nations has said that Russian accounts of a rocket attack on a camp holding Ukrainian prisoners of war in July 2022 are not supported by the evidence.
More than 50 Ukrainian prisoners were killed in the strike that year on a detention center in the town of Olenivka. An extensive CNN investigation published in August last year demonstrated that the Russian narrative that the camp had been hit by a Ukrainian HIMARS rocket did not stand up to scrutiny — a finding now supported by the findings by the UN Human Rights Commissioner (OHCHR).
Russian and local officials from the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic said the attack was carried out by the Ukrainian side, using one of the HIMARS rockets that had been recently supplied by the US.
The morning after the blast, Andrey Lazarev, who works for the Russian Defense Ministry’s Zvezda media channel, pointed to fragments, one of which included the serial number of a HIMARS rocket in remarkably good condition.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said the detention center was “hit by a missile attack from the American HIMARS.”
But CNN’s investigation, based on analysis of video and photographs from the scene, satellite imagery from before and after the attack and the work of forensic and weapons experts, concluded “the Russian version of events is very likely a fabrication. There is almost no chance that a HIMARS rocket caused the damage to the warehouse where the prisoners were being held.”
Experts consulted by CNN discounted a HIMARS strike on Olenivka — but could not say definitively what killed and wounded so many prisoners. The investigation noted that “experts say most signs point to an intense fire, and according to several witnesses there was no sound of an incoming rocket.”
Russian accounts of a rocket attack on a camp holding Ukrainian prisoners of war in July 2022 are not supported by evidence, according to the UN.
Russian lawmakers passed an amendment extending the military call-up from ages 18 to 30, raising the limit by three years.
Russian forces south of the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut have taken heavy losses and appear to have fallen back amid intense artillery fire from the Ukrainian side, according to official and unofficial Ukrainian accounts, and reports from Russian military bloggers.
Ukraine has been trying to break Russian resistance there for several weeks. Ukrainian advances near Andriivka are part of a plan to encircle Bakhmut and drive out Russian forces, the spokesperson for the eastern grouping of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Serhii Cherevatyi, said Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military said it has made slight progress on the southern front, in an area that has seen constant fighting for nearly two months. Valerii Shershen, the spokesperson for Ukrainian forces in the south, said troops had advanced by some 500 meters in an area near the town of Staromaiorske — a target of the Ukrainians since the beginning of their counteroffensive.
Here's what else you should know to get up to speed:
Grain deal: The UK believes Russia could target civilian ships in the Black Sea, following the Kremlin’s decision to leave the Black Sea Grain Initiative, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said Tuesday. The Kremlin said it is “impossible” for Russia to return to the expired initiative until all conditions are met, snubbing suggestions by UN Secretary General António Guterres to rejoin the crucial deal. A European Union official proposed on Tuesday that member states should cover the additional costs of exporting Ukrainian grain by land following the collapse of the deal. And five European Union member states bordering Ukraine are requesting that an existing ban on imports of four types of Ukrainian grain be extended beyond the scheduled expiry date of September 15, the EU Council said Tuesday.
Moscow moves: Russian lawmakers passed an amendment extending the military call-up from ages 18 to 30, raising the limit by three years. Also, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office has declared the TV channel Rain (Dozhd) as an “undesirable organization,” which means penalties — including jail time— for anyone in Russia who donates to or cooperates with the channel.
Military aid: US intelligence officials warned Russia is building a drone-manufacturing facility in the country with Iran's help that could have a significant impact on the war in Ukraine once it is completed. And on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a new $400 million tranche of security assistance for Ukraine, which includes air defense munitions and armored vehicles.
UN investigation: Russian accounts of a rocket attack on a camp holding Ukrainian prisoners of war in July 2022 are not supported by evidence, according to the United Nations. The findings by the UN Human Rights Commissioner (UN OHCHR) support the conclusions of an extensive CNN investigation published in August last year, which demonstrated that the Russian narrative that the camp had been hit by a Ukrainian HIMARS rocket did not stand up to scrutiny.
Trevor Reed update: Trevor Reed, a former US Marine who was wrongfully detained in Russia for nearly three years before being released last year, was injured while participating in fighting in Ukraine, US State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel confirmed Tuesday. Blinken said Reed's fighting in Ukraine "shouldn’t have any effect" on negotiations to free other Americans detained in Russia.
Trevor Reed's fighting in Ukraine “shouldn’t have any effect” on negotiations to free other detained Americans, Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday.
Reed is a former US Marine who was wrongfully detained in Russia for nearly three years before being released in a prisoner swap. The State Department said earlier Tuesday that he was injured fighting in Ukraine.
“As I've noted before, even with countries where we have profound differences, and almost by definition, countries that are arbitrarily detaining or unlawfully detaining Americans are usually countries with which we have profound differences, we manage to find ways to bring Americans home,” Blinken said at a news conference in Tonga.
He touted the success of the administration so far, saying 29 Americans from at least 10 countries were brought back home.
“So my expectation is that even as we're dealing with all sorts of other challenges in our relationship with Russia, we will and we are determined to continue to work to bring both Evan and Paul home,” Blinken said.
Blinken said he had seen the reports that Reed was injured but didn’t have any additional information on his condition. The top US diplomat said it underscored why the US warns Americans against traveling to Ukraine.
Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, has been detained in Russia following his arrest on espionage charges that he, the WSJ, and the US government vehemently deny.
Whelan has been imprisoned for nearly five years, also on espionage charges that he and the US government have denied.
Two children were among three people killed as a result of cluster shelling in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka on Monday, a local military official said Tuesday.
“Yet another tragedy happened yesterday,”Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk region military administration said in an interview on Ukrainian TV. “A Smerch MLRS cluster munition exploded over a water body,” he said.
The victims were an 11-year-old girl, a 10-year-old boy and a 28-year-old man, Kyrylenko said. Six people were also wounded, he said in a Telegram post with a link to his TV interview.
“The mother of the deceased boy is in serious condition, she was evacuated to the neighboring region," Kyrylenko said. “The enemy is using cluster munitions against civilians. I urge parents with children to evacuate.”
Some context: Cluster munitions indiscriminately scatter “bomblets” across large areas, posing such a threat to civilians that key US allies have outlawed its use in warfare. Russia is known to have deployed them throughout its invasion of Ukraine, and Ukrainian troops are now using US-provided cluster munitions.
US intelligence officials have warned that Russia is building a drone-manufacturing facility in country with Iran’s help that could have a significant impact on the war in Ukraine once it is completed.
Analysts from the Defense Intelligence Agency told a small group of reporters during a briefing on Friday that the drone-manufacturing facility now under construction is expected to provide Russia with a new drone stockpile that is “orders of magnitude larger” than what it has been able to procure from Iran to date.
When the facility is completed, likely by early next year, the new drones could have a significant impact on the conflict, the analysts warned. In April, the US released a satellite image of the planned location of the purported drone manufacturing plant, inside Russia’s Alabuga Special Economic Zone about 600 miles east of Moscow. The analysts said Iran has regularly been ferrying equipment to Russia to help with the facility’s construction.
They added that to date, it is believed that Iran has provided Russia with over 400 Shahed 131, 136 and Mohajer drones — a stockpile that Russia has almost completely depleted, they said.
Russia is primarily using the drones to attack critical Ukrainian infrastructure and stretch Ukraine’s air defenses, a senior DIA official said. Iran has been using the Caspian Sea to move drones, bullets and mortar shells to Russia, often using vessels that are “dark,” or have turned off their tracking data to disguise their movements, CNN has reported.
The US obtained and analyzed several of the drones downed in Ukraine, and officials say there is “undeniable evidence” that the drones are Iranian, despite repeated denials from Tehran that it is providing the equipment to Russia for use in Ukraine.
Antony Blinken attends a press conference in Washington, on July 17. Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday announced a new $400 million tranche of security assistance for Ukraine, which includes air defense munitions and armored vehicles.
The assistance includes “air defense munitions, artillery rounds, armored vehicles, and anti-armor capabilities, as well as other equipment essential to strengthening Ukraine’s brave forces on the battlefield, helping them retake Ukraine’s sovereign territory, and defend their fellow citizens,” according to a statement announcing the latest drawdown — the 43rd to date.
Blinken also slammed Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, noting that Moscow “continues to attack Ukrainian ports and grain infrastructure," including in the southern port city of Odesa.
The strikes — the latest in a wave of attacks on Odesa — killed at least one person and injured several others, Ukrainian officials said. At least 25 architectural monuments were destroyed and a historic Orthodox cathedral was badly damaged, a regional military official said.
“Russia could end this war at any time by withdrawing its forces from Ukraine and stopping its brutal attacks against Ukraine’s cities and people,” Blinken said. “Until it does, the United States and our allies and partners will stand united with Ukraine, for as long as it takes.”
According to a State Department spokesperson, some of the specific capabilities in this package are:
Additional munitions for Patriot air defense systems and National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS)
Stinger anti-aircraft systems
Additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS)
155mm and 105mm artillery rounds
Javelin and other anti-armor systems and rockets
Hornet unmanned aerial systems
Demolitions munitions for obstacle clearing
Over 28 million rounds of small arms ammunition and grenades
Night vision devices and thermal imagery systems
The United Nations has said that Russian accounts of a rocket attack on a camp holding Ukrainian prisoners of war in July 2022 are not supported by the evidence.
More than 50 Ukrainian prisoners were killed in the strike that year on a detention center in the town of Olenivka. An extensive CNN investigation published in August last year demonstrated that the Russian narrative that the camp had been hit by a Ukrainian HIMARS rocket did not stand up to scrutiny — a finding now supported by the findings by the UN Human Rights Commissioner (OHCHR).
Russian and local officials from the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic said the attack was carried out by the Ukrainian side, using one of the HIMARS rockets that had been recently supplied by the US.
The morning after the blast, Andrey Lazarev, who works for the Russian Defense Ministry’s Zvezda media channel, pointed to fragments, one of which included the serial number of a HIMARS rocket in remarkably good condition.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said the detention center was “hit by a missile attack from the American HIMARS.”
But CNN’s investigation, based on analysis of video and photographs from the scene, satellite imagery from before and after the attack and the work of forensic and weapons experts, concluded “the Russian version of events is very likely a fabrication. There is almost no chance that a HIMARS rocket caused the damage to the warehouse where the prisoners were being held.”
Experts consulted by CNN discounted a HIMARS strike on Olenivka — but could not say definitively what killed and wounded so many prisoners. The investigation noted that “experts say most signs point to an intense fire, and according to several witnesses there was no sound of an incoming rocket.”
