Russia says it carried out ‘revenge’ strikes on Odesa and Mykolayiv after Crimea bridge was attacked; Kremlin warns it will be a risk for Ukraine to ship grain without Russian security guarantees

Russia’s defence ministry said on Tuesday it had carried out overnight strikes on two Ukrainian port cities in what it called “a mass revenge strike” a day after an attack on the Crimean bridge, which it blamed on Kyiv. The ministry claiming that it hit “facilities where terrorist acts against the Russian Federation were being prepared using crewless boats, as well as at the place of their manufacture at a shipyard near the city of Odesa”, and fuel depots in Mykolayiv.

Russia pulled out of the Black Sea grain deal on Monday, brokered by the UN and Turkey a year ago to alleviate a global food crisis by allowing Ukrainian grain to be exported safely. Moscow said the decision was final. Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said Russia’s decision was “unconscionable” while UN secretary general António Guterres said he did not accept its explanations for why it had terminated the agreement, including the loss of Russian food markets.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the grain deal must continue and could operate without Russian participation. “Africa has the right to stability. Asia has the right to stability,” he said in his nightly video address.

Continuing to ship grain out of Ukrainian Black Sea ports without security guarantees from Russia would carry risks, because Ukraine uses those waters for military activities, the Kremlin said on Tuesday. Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told his regular daily briefing that Moscow rejected US criticism of its withdrawal from the grain deal, and would continue supplying grain to poor countries.

Poland’s agriculture minister, Robert Telus said Russia is using grain as ammunition.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Andriy Yermak ommented on Russia’s overnight attacks, saying: “The Russian night attack on Odesa and Mykolaiv with the use of rockets and kamikaze drones is more proof that the terrorist country wants to endanger the lives of 400 million people in various countries that depend on Ukrainian food exports.”

Kyiv reported a “complicated” situation in fighting in eastern Ukraine and success in parts of the south on Tuesday as it pressed on with its counteroffensive against occupying Russian forces. “The situation is complicated but under control [in the east],” Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukrainian ground forces, said on Telegram. He said Russia had concentrated forces in the direction of Kupiansk in the north-eastern region of Kharkiv, but Ukrainian troops were holding them back.

Both sides have achieved “marginal advances” in different areas over the past week, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said in its latest intelligence update on the conflict.

Russian air defences and electronic countermeasure systems downed 28 Ukrainian drones over Crimea in the early hours of Tuesday, the RIA news agency has cited the Russian defence ministry as saying. The drone attacks caused no casualties or damages, the ministry said

Russian state-owned media is reporting that Russian Federation security services claim to have detained a woman on suspicion of preparing “a terrorist attack” in the Yaroslavl region, to the north of Moscow.

Germany’s military has ordered several hundred thousand artillery shells in a deal with Rheinmetall as it works to replenish stocks dented by the war in Ukraine.

More mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner military contractor arrived in Belarus on Monday, a monitoring group said, continuing their relocation to the ex-Soviet nation after last month’s short-lived mutiny. Belaruski Hajun, a Belarusian activist group, said a convoy of more than 100 vehicles carrying Russian flags and Wagner insignia entered the country, heading toward a field camp that Belarusian authorities have offered to the company.

US president Joe Biden will meet with Pope Francis’ peace envoy on Tuesday as part of the Holy See’s peace and humanitarian initiatives for Ukraine. Cardinal Matteo Zuppi’s two-day visit to Washington follows his recent mission to Moscow and an earlier stop in Kyiv, where he met with Zelenskiy.

Latest missile strike part of series of attacks that began at 2am on Sunday, with one dead and four wounded reported

Russia has continued its assault on Kharkiv, with loud explosions heard in the central district on Sunday evening, just hours after one person was killed and four wounded in an earlier attack.

The governor, Oleh Synyehubov, urged people to take to shelters. Russia had began bombarding the north-eastern Ukrainian city at 2am on Sunday, firing four S-300 anti-aircraft missiles. No one was injured as two were intercepted and the other two landed in a courtyard.

Russia says air defence forces intercepted attacks over port city of Sevastopol; Putin says Russia will take ‘reciprocal’ action if devices used on his troops

• What we know on day 508 of the invasion

Former UK prime minister Tony Blair has said Ukraine has done an “extraordinary” job in defending their country but when asked what endgame looked like he said the path will be “extremely difficult”.

He told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday:

I think there are two issues … it’s extremely difficult to see how you get a solution to this unless it’s very clear that Ukraine has a clear path to European Union membership, and a clear path to Nato membership.

I think probably people will wait and see what happens after this Ukrainian counter offensive. The Ukrainians have done an extraordinary job in defending their country and by the way, defending us by defending their country, but I think it will be how you deal with those two issues together. This is going to be extremely difficult, but I do think once we take stock after the counteroffensive, we’ve got to see if there was a way to bring it to an end with a negotiated end to it.

Territory is going to be the most difficult thing because Ukrainians will never accept the territory that, from an international community point of view has being taken wrongly from them, should be left with with Russia.

Of course, if they are used against us, we reserve the right to take reciprocal action.

Kyiv reports fighting has intensified on eastern front, with its forces on defensive near Kupiansk

• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates

Ukraine said fighting had intensified on the eastern front as further details emerged about the number of Wagner troops who had relocated to Belarus.

“The situation has somewhat intensified in the east,” the Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said. She added that Ukrainian forces were on the defensive near the eastern city of Kupiansk but making advances near Bakhmut.

Ukraine and Russia accuse each other of shelling civilians; Moscow issues criminal charges against seven in alleged plot to kill top Russian journalists

• See all our Russia-Ukraine war coverage

Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of shelling civilians in a village in Zaporizhzhia after three people were wounded in attacks. The head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, Andriy Yermak, said Russian forces bombed the village of Stepnohirske using multiple rocket launchers, hitting an administrative building. Moscow-backed officials claimed it was Kyiv’s forces that shelled a school in the village of Stulneve and air defence forces intercepted a drone over the city of Tokmak. Both sides have denied targeting civilians.

Russia has issued criminal charges against seven people who planned to kill two prominent Russian journalists in an alleged Ukrainian-backed plot, according to the state-owned Tass news agency. Russia’s FSB security service detained an unspecified number of people who conducted reconnaissance near the homes and workplaces of journalists Margarita Simonyan, head of state media outlet RT, and Ksenia Sobchak, who ran against President Vladimir Putin in 2018. The FSB said detainees had admitted preparing attacks on the two women on behalf of Ukraine and had been promised a reward of 1.5m roubles for each one.

South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk-yeol, has pledged to increase his country’s humanitarian and non-lethal military assistance to Ukraine after a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv. Yoon said Seoul would “expand the scale of supplies from last year, when we provided materials such as helmets and bullet-proof vests”, adding that humanitarian aid would be increased to $150m in 2023, from $100m last year.

Vladimir Putin has said the main objective of the deal that allowed Ukrainian grain exports to resume was not achieved, in a call with his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa. The Black Sea grain deal that eased fears of a global food crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine is due to expire late Monday unless Russia agrees to renew it. “The main goal of the deal, namely the supply of grain to countries in need, including on the African continent, has not been implemented,” Putin said according to a Kremlin release.

Ukraine has criticised Bulgaria’s president over his remarks that Kyiv is to blame for Russia’s ongoing war and that supplying arms to Ukraine only prolongs the conflict. President Rumen Radev spoke about the recent Nato summit and said that he wanted “to make it clear that Ukraine insists on fighting this war … But it should also be clear that the bill is paid by the whole of Europe.” The embassy of Ukraine in Sofia rejected Radev’s stance that supplying arms to Ukraine fuels and prolongs the war, saying Kyiv was making all possible efforts to restore peace.

Ukrainians have reacted with bemusement, mild irritation and irony to UK defence secretary Ben Wallace’s comments that the country should be more grateful for the help it is receiving from the UK and other allies as it fights off Russian aggression. Kyiv previously regarded Wallace as a staunch supporter and friend. His remarks – on the second day of the Nato summit in Lithuania last week – mystified officials. “Whether we like it or not, people want to see a bit of gratitude,” Wallace said, asked about President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s frustration at not being given a formal invitation to join Nato.

A large convoy carrying fighters from the Wagner private army was spotted entering Belarus from Russia early on Saturday, according to independent monitoring group Belaruski Hajun. At least 60 trucks, buses and other large vehicles crossed into the eastern European country accompanied by Belarusian police. Belarus’s defence ministry said it planned for the mercenaries and Minsk’s own armed forces to conduct joint military drills.

FSB says it has detained people carrying out reconnaissance near the homes of Margarita Simonyan and Ksenia Sobchak

• What we know on day 507 of the invasion

Russian president Vladimir Putin held a phone call with South African president Cyril Ramaphosa in which the two leaders discussed the Black Sea grain deal and an African peace initiative on Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Saturday.

On the grain deal, which expires on Monday, Putin reiterated to Ramaphosa that commitments to remove obstacles to Russian food and fertiliser exports had not yet been fulfilled, the Kremlin said.

Zelenskiy says Russia doing everything it can to stop Ukrainian troop advance; Putin says he tried and failed to have Prigozhin replaced as Wagner leader in Ukraine

• See all our Russia-Ukraine war coverage

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Ukrainians must understand that Russia is deploying all possible resources to stop Kyiv’s forces from advancing in the east and south of Ukraine. It comes after reports of the counteroffensive advancing slowly. The Ukrainian president said on Friday: “We must all understand very clearly, as clearly as possible, that Russian forces in our southern and eastern lands are doing everything they can in order to stop our soldiers.”

The head of the Ukrainian president’s office said battles were difficult but that western allies were not putting pressure on Kyiv to advance faster. Andriy Yermak said: “Today it’s advancing not so quickly. If we are going to see that something is going wrong, we’ll say so. No one is going to embellish.”

Vladimir Putin has said he sought and failed to have Yevgeny Prigozhin replaced as the leader of Wagner’s fighters in Ukraine. Putin’s version of events, which appeared in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper, was a surprise admission that the Russian president was still negotiating a takeover of the Wagner mercenary group.

Boris Johnson has criticised Nato’s “mealy mouthed procrastination” and called for a timetable to be drawn up for Ukraine to join, after this week’s difficult summit in Lithuania. Writing in the Daily Mail, the former British prime minister said it was “no wonder” that Volodymyr Zelenskiy “found it hard” to conceal his frustration at the joint declaration released on Tuesday that stopped short of outlining a roadmap to Nato membership.

Vladimir Putin has agreed to extend the Black Sea grain deal, which expires next week, according to the Turkish president. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Friday that he had spoken with his Russian counterpart about the crucial deal allowing for the export of Ukrainian grain to ease a global food crisis. Moscow played down Erdoğan’s comments, saying an agreement had not yet been reached.

A Kyiv court has ordered pre-trial detention for a senior cleric of a branch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church with historic links to Moscow on suspicion of sympathising with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian news reports said a Kyiv district court set bail at more than 33 million hryvnias (about $900,000). The church denies the allegations and says it severed all ties with Moscow last year. Metropolitan Pavlo had been under house arrest since April on suspicion of inflaming religious hatred and justifying the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

An alleged Russian intelligence officer has pleaded not guilty to US charges of smuggling American-origin electronics and ammunition to Russia to help its war against Ukraine. Vadim Konoschenok, who was extradited on Thursday from Estonia, entered the plea in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, on Friday. Magistrate judge Ramon Reyes ordered Konoschenok, 48, be detained pending trial, after prosecutors called him a flight risk.

Russian air defence systems shot down two UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles that Ukraine had fired at Melitopol and Berdiansk on Thursday, the Russian-imposed leader of occupied Zaporizhzhia, Yevhen Balitsky, has claimed.

Mercenary fighters from Russia’s Wagner group are training Belarusian soldiers in Belarus, the country’s defence ministry has said. “[Wagner] fighters acted as instructors in a number of military disciplines,” it said on Friday.

A Ukrainian court has jailed a man for 10 years after finding him guilty of plotting with Russia to blow up transport infrastructure to disrupt foreign arms supplies. Ukraine’s domestic security agency said it detained the man in February before he had been able to carry out his mission.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy held a meeting with Ukraine’s intelligence chief and said on Telegram that according to intelligence data, there was no threat of invasion from Belarus.

Russia has accused the west of sponsoring “nuclear terrorism” after authorities said a Ukrainian drone struck the western Russian town of Kurchatov, where a nuclear power station similar to the Chornobyl plant is located. Roman Starovoit, the Kursk oblast governor, said on Telegram that no residents were injured. “Critical facilities were not damaged as a result of the drone crash and its subsequent detonation.”

Andriy Yermak says West are not pressuring Ukraine to go faster ; Kremlin denies Turkish claim deal will be renewed. This live blog is closed

• Putin says he tried but failed to oust Prigozhin after Wagner mutiny

Oleg Kiper, governor of Odesa region, reports on Telegram this morning that several settlements within the region are currently without power. However, he states this is due to adverse weather conditions overnight, rather than action by Russian Federation forces, who struck the port city earlier this week with drones causing a fire in a grain facility.

In Russia the Interfax news agency reports that three Ukrainian drones (UAVs) were intercepted in the Voronezh region.

Biden doesn’t see ‘any real prospect’ Putin will use nuclear weapons; three people killed in Russian shelling

• See all our Russia-Ukraine war coverage

US president plays down worries during Finland visit when asked about whether Russian president could escalate action in Ukraine. This live blog is now closed

• Biden ‘serious’ on prisoner swap for US reporter Evan Gershkovich

Pavlo Kyrylenko, Ukraine’s governor of Donetsk, has posted an operational update listing a number of settlements that suffered bombardment and “massive artillery shelling” damaging houses and residential buildings. He stated that “In total, the Russians wounded 8 residents of Donetsk region in one day.”

The claims have not been independently verified. Donetsk is one of the partially occupied regions of Ukraine which the Russian Federation claims to have annexed.

In the Darnytskyi district of Kyiv, during a night attack, a fragment of a downed drone hit the 25th floor of a building, destroying one of the apartments.

The man whose apartment was hit was at home – he was wounded by shrapnel, he was given help, now he is in a stable condition, reports our correspondent, who managed to talk to him.

Biden labels Putin ‘craven’ as Nato summit ends; G7 signs declaration outlining support for Ukraine

• See all our Russia-Ukraine war coverage

US president Joe Biden concluded a Nato summit on Wednesday denouncing Russian president Vladimir Putin as “craven” and promising Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy full support even without membership in the military alliance. Biden, who has made unifying Nato countries a foreign policy priority, said Putin had badly underestimated their resolve.

“This is very important. For the first time since our independence, we have established a foundation of security for Ukraine on its path to Nato,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address. “These are concrete security guarantees confirmed by the world’s top seven democracies. Never before have we had such a security base and it is at the level of the G7.” Zelenskiy reaffirmed statements he made at the summit in Lithuania that “we have removed any doubts or ambiguity about whether Ukraine will be in Nato. It will be.”

Ben Wallace, the British defence secretary said “people want to see a bit of gratitude” and Ukraine needed to put more emphasis on saying thank you for western help when he was asked about president Zelenskiy’s complaints on Tuesday that the country had not been issued a firm timetable or set of conditions for joining Nato. Wallace said Ukrainians’ haste to get all the help they could meant they did not always say they were grateful for the help received.

UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, distanced himself from Wallace’s comments, saying Zelenskiy has expressed gratitude for UK support. He highlighted that president Zelenskiy had expressed gratitude on multiple occasions, including his address to parliament earlier this year. “I know he and his people are grateful to the UK,” said Sunak.

Zelenskiy said he “didn’t understand” Wallace’s comments. He also said “we could express our words of gratitude personally to the minister”.

The G7 signed a declaration outlining support for Ukraine and help towards governance reforms needed for ‘Euro-Atlantic aspirations’. The member nations said they would provide security and economic support, including modern military equipment, across land, air, and sea, intelligence sharing and the training of Ukrainian forces in exchange for Ukraine committing to reforms “to underscore its commitments to democracy, the rule of law, respect for human rights and media freedoms”, “put its economy on a sustainable path” and strengthen “democratic civilian control of the military”.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Sweden’s Nato accession will not be put to Turkish parliament until autumn when it reopens. Speaking at a news conference after the Nato summit in Vilnius, Erdogan said that Sweden would provide a roadmap for Turkey regarding the steps to take against purported terrorism before the ratification.

UN secretary-general António Guterres has proposed to Russian President Vladimir Putin that he extend a deal allowing the safe Black Sea export of grain from Ukraine in return for connecting a subsidiary of Russia’s agricultural bank to the SWIFT international payment system, sources told Reuters. The last two ships traveling under the Black Sea agreement are currently loading cargoes at the Ukrainian port of Odesa ahead of the deadline.

An 81-year-old man was killed after shelling in Kherson. His 82-year-old wife was wounded in shelling of the southern city of Kherson, the region’s governor, Oleksandr Prokudin, said on Telegram on Wednesday.