WAR IN UKRAINE: JULY 30, 2022
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 157
Ukrainian grain which has been stuck in silos along the Black Sea coast was filmed being loaded onto a Turkish-flagged cargo ship Friday. The movement was overseen by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, accompanied by G7 ambassadors. Zelensky said other ships that had already been loaded during the war were set to sail according to the terms of a complicated agreement brokered by the UN and Turkey. Many threats are ahead of the actual movements, including marine mines, difficulties with insurance and lack of Russian adherence.
Both Russia and Ukraine say dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed in a prison camp in occupied eastern Ukraine. But that is about the only thing they agree on. Russia claims the prison was hit by Ukrainian rockets supplied by the US and that eight of its prison staff were injured. But Ukraine says that the prison was destroyed by Russia to destroy evidence of torture of prisoners of war. It says the footage was not the aftermath of a strike, but rather arson following a mass murder - BBC
Russian forces have taken over Ukraine’s second-biggest power plant and are conducting a “massive redeployment” of troops to three southern regions, a Ukrainian presidential adviser has said, amid expectations of a Ukrainian counter-offensive. Russian-backed forces said they had captured intact the Soviet-era coal-fired Vuhlehirska power plant, in what is Moscow’s first significant gain in more than three weeks. An adviser to the Ukrainian president confirmed the capture of the plant in the eastern Donetsk region, but said it was only a “tiny tactical advantage” for Russia - The Guardian
The Parliament of Moldova by a majority supported the proposal of the government to extend the state of emergency in connection with the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis and the need to further resolve the refugee problem.
U.S. Secretary of State Blinken is resistant to pressure to label Russia a terrorist state. The Biden administration is wary of making the designation despite strong calls from Congress and pleas from Ukraine. Amid outrage over Russia’s brutal military campaign in Ukraine, the U.S. Senate on Wednesday unanimously approved a nonbinding resolution calling on Mr. Blinken to designate Russia as a terrorism sponsor for its attacks in Ukraine, as well as in Chechnya, Georgia and Syria, that resulted “in the deaths of countless innocent men, women and children” - NYT
Nearly three months after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a surprise visit to Kyiv to officially reopen his embassy there, Canada’s diplomatic presence in the war-torn nation’s capital remains shuttered. Global News reporter Ashleigh Stewart first reported the closure on Thursday, tweeting photos of Canada’s Kostelna Street chancery with a laminated sign taped to its iron gates informing visitors — in both English and French — that the embassy has “suspended its operations due to the security situation.”
Oxford Analytica: Western arms can shape course of Ukraine war…
Ukraine's Western allies will increase arms and munitions supplies. The immediate need for Soviet-era ammunition and equipment remains as these are still central to Ukraine's military needs. Advanced Western technologies, deployed more swiftly than many commentators expected, will sustain Ukraine's defensive capacity and may even tilt the balance more in the country's favour, assuming current levels of Russian military strength.
Required reading…
I’m Ukraine’s Foreign Minister. Putin Must Be Stopped. Now is not the time to accept unfavorable cease-fire proposals. Read Dmytro Kuleba’s OpEd in the New York Times here