More than 100 Azov fighters are awaiting trial, says Donetsk separatist leader
From CNN’s Josh Pennington and Alex Stambaugh
More than 100 of Ukraine’s Azov fighters will face trial, said Denis Pushilin, leader of the Russian-backed separatist Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).
“They have already been transferred from the places where they were kept as prisoners to the pre-trial detention center. All further steps are being prepared for them. A tribunal awaits them,” Pushilin said Wednesday on news channel Solovyov Live, broadcast on Telegram.
Last fighters: The Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol — the final holdout of Ukrainian resistance in the otherwise Russian-occupied southern city — fell to Russian forces in May when the final group of fighters at the steel plant surrendered.
At the time, Russian authorities said more than 1,700 fighters defending the steel plant had left and were either in detention or in hospital in the self-proclaimed DPR.
Western governments and human rights groups fear those convicted may face the death penalty.
Path cleared for executions: Last Friday, the Donetsk People’s Republic parliament abolished its ban on executions, Russian state news agency TASS reported.
Yelena Shishkina, who chairs the parliament’s committee on criminal and administrative law, said “the option to use capital punishment will serve as a deterrent against very grave crimes,” according to TASS.
It comes as Britons Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin, and Moroccan Brahim Saadoune, appeal death sentences after they were convicted of being “mercenaries” for Ukraine by a court in the DPR.
Previously, Shishkina has ruled out the possibility of releasing any Azov fighters as part of a prisoner exchange.
Ukraine, Russia and Turkey agree to set up joint coordination center to allow grain exports
Talks between Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations held in Istanbul Wednesday resulted in the parties agreeing to form “a Joint Coordination Centre under the UN auspices” to ensure that Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea can be secured, according to Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian President’s office.
The center will be located in Istanbul and the task will be to carry out “general monitoring and coordination of safe navigation in the Black Sea,” Yermak said Wednesday.
Some context: More than 20 million tons of grain remain stuck in Ukraine due to Russia’s blockade of Black Sea ports, according to Ukrainian officials.
Before the war, wheat supplies from Russia and Ukraine accounted for almost 30% of global trade, and Ukraine is the world’s fourth-largest exporter of corn and the fifth-largest exporter of wheat, according to the US State Department. The UN World Food Program — which helps combat global food insecurity — buys about half of its wheat from Ukraine each year and has warned of dire consequences if Ukrainian ports are not opened up.
About 80% of Ukraine’s grain exports were shipped from the country’s Black Sea ports before Russia’s invasion.
With those routes blocked, Ukraine hopes to speed up grain exports through reopened Danube River routes, made possible after Ukrainian troops recaptured Snake Island in June.
A line of barges waiting to sail up the Danube River and load up on grain at one of Ukraine’s river ports will take several weeks to clear, deputy minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotsky said in a televised address Wednesday.
Russian Air Force attacks Snake Island
From CNN’s Yulia Kesavia, in Kyiv
A pair of SU-27 Russian fighter jets tried to bomb Snake Island, known as Zmiinyi Ostriv in Ukrainian, according to the South Ukrainian Operational Command.
“The bombs fell into the sea, near the island,” said the Operational Command. They did not give any other details.
The targeting of Snake Island is significant, as Russian forces had abandoned the island on June 30 following a Ukrainian offensive. The island, located in the Black Sea off Ukraine’s southern coast, is widely seen as strategically important to the war as it grants access to the Danube River and its small inland ports to ships carrying Ukrainian grain.
There have been repeated airstrikes on the island since the Russians left, on July 2 and 7.
A pair of KA-52 helicopters also attacked the southern region of Kherson three times, with no casualties, the Operational Command said.
It added that the Russian Navy had regrouped its ranks, saying it had three missile ships and two submarines at sea that “pose a threat to the entire territory of Ukraine.”
Ukraine says nearly 350 children have been killed since Russia’s invasion began
From CNN’s Yulia Kesavia in Kyiv
A total of 349 children have been reported killed and more than 1,000 injured in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began in February, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office said Thursday.
The Donetsk region has seen the highest rates of children affected, followed by Kharkiv, Kyiv, Chernihiv, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Kherson and Zaporizhia.
Some context: Widespread fighting is continuing in the country, with Ukrainian forces on the offensive in the south. Meanwhile, Russian artillery is active in Donetsk and Kharkiv.
Mykolaiv hit by “massive missile attack,” says head of regional military
The southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv came under a “massive missile attack” on Thursday morning, according to Vitalii Kim, head of the region’s military administration.
Reports from officials on the ground said the city was shelled by “more than 10 missile strikes” from a S-300 surface-to-air missile system.
One person was reported injured.
The shelling targeted the Mykolaiv Hotel, two educational institutions and a trolleybus depot, according to 1st Capt. Natalia Humeniuk, head of the United Coordination Press Center of the Security and Defense Forces of the South of Ukraine.
Ukrainian military says Russian forces meet mixed success in push toward Donetsk
From CNN’s Yulia Kesavia, in Kyiv
Russian forces continued their advance toward the towns of Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region on Thursday, the Ukrainian military said.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said an attempted Russian assault in the direction of the village of Kurulka was “unsuccessful” and Moscow’s forces “retreated.”
Russian forces “fired from tanks, barrel and jet artillery” in the Bakhumt direction on a series of towns, including Soledar and New York on the northern outskirts of Donetsk.
Moscow’s forces also shelled Kramatorsk and were “leading an offensive” west of the city, the Ukrainian military said.
Russian troops were apparently running low on food supplies and their ranks were seeing a downward trend due to “significant losses and refusal to participate in hostilities,” the Ukrainian military added.
Ukraine severs diplomatic ties with North Korea over its recognition of breakaway regions
From CNN’s Josh Pennington, Paula Hancocks and Alex Stambaugh
The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it “strongly condemns” the decision by North Korea to officially recognize the “so-called” independence of the Russian-occupied Luhansk and Donetsk regions in Ukraine, according to a statement released Wednesday.
In response, Ukraine announced the severance of diplomatic relations with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), North Korea’s official name.
“We consider this decision as an attempt by Pyongyang to undermine the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, a gross violation of the Constitution of Ukraine, the UN Charter and the fundamental norms and principles of the international law,” the ministry’s statement said.
For almost eight years, the two breakaway enclaves of Luhansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine have been the site of a low-intensity war between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces, which has left more than 14,000 people dead.
War broke out in 2014 after Russian-backed rebels seized government buildings in towns and cities across eastern Ukraine. Intense fighting left portions of Luhansk and Donetsk, in the Donbas region, in the hands of Russian-backed separatists. Russia also annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 in a move that sparked global condemnation.
North Korea’s move Wednesday makes it the only country other than Russia and Syria to recognize the two breakaway enclaves.
“Russia’s appeal to the DPRK for support in legitimizing the forceful seizure of a part of the Ukrainian territory speaks more about Moscow’s toxicity than Pyongyang’s,” Ukrainian Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba said in the ministry’s statement.
“Russia has no more allies in the world, except for countries that depend on it financially and politically, and the level of isolation of the Russian Federation will soon reach the level of isolation of the DPRK.”
Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv rocked by “powerful explosions,” mayor says
From CNN’s From Josh Pennington and Alex Stambaugh
The southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv was rocked by “powerful explosions” early Thursday morning, the city’s mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych posted on his official Telegram account.
“Powerful explosions heard in Mykolaiv! The air alert is still in effect. I ask that everyone remain in their shelters,” Sienkevych wrote.
The mayor later wrote that rescue and emergency teams are on the scene, however he did not say how many areas were impacted.
Villages along the border between Mykolaiv and the Kherson region have become the front lines of fighting recently as Ukrainian forces try to penetrate Russian defenses in occupied areas of southern Ukraine.
Russian state energy giant Gazprom questions Nord Stream 1 operation
From CNN’s Chris Stern in Berlin
Russian state energy giant Gazprom is unable to give a forecast on the continued operation of the Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea pipeline, according to a statement released by the company and posted on Twitter on Wednesday.
The reason is that there are doubts about the return of a Siemens turbine from Canada, Gazprom explained in the statement.
“Gazprom does not possess any documents that would enable Siemens (the company responsible for the installation) to get the gas turbine engine for Portovaya CS out of Canada, where that engine is currently undergoing repairs,” the statement said.
“In these circumstances,” Gazprom could not guarantee the future operation of the pipeline, it added.
The German government had previously stated that with the delivery of the turbine serviced in Canada, there was no longer any reason for Russia to throttle gas supplies through Nord Stream 1.
Canada now wants to hand over the turbine to Germany.
Throttled supply: Long-planned regular maintenance work began on the pipeline Monday and should take about 10 days. However, there are doubts as to whether gas will actually flow again after that.
Since mid-June, Gazprom had significantly reduced its gas supplies to Germany through the Baltic Sea pipeline, initially to 60% and later to 40% of the usual gas volume.
The group justified the step by citing the missing turbine. However, the German government described the throttling of gas exports as politically motivated. Russia said it would restart energy supplies if the repaired turbine returned.
To avoid a gas shortage in winter, Germany is currently trying to fill its gas storage facilities as quickly as possible. The facilities are only 64.6% full, the Federal Network Agency reported earlier this month.
