July 26, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine has moved here.

A general view of the U.S. Army-operated Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany on August 27, 2021.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin approved the treatment of wounded Ukrainian soldiers at a US military hospital in Germany, according to a memo obtained by CNN and confirmed by two US defense officials. 

The plan allows for the treatment of up to 18 wounded soldiers at a time a Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, the massive hospital in Germany where the military has, for years, treated US service members who suffered injuries in combat. 

Austin offered verbal guidance on May 26 to begin offering treatment to wounded Ukraine soldiers, according to the memo. On June 29, Austin formalized the verbal guidance and in a memo entitled “Guidance for Medical Treatment of Wounded Ukrainian Service Members.” 

Despite the plan receiving final approval nearly one month ago, Landstuhl has not yet received Ukrainian service members for medical care.

The official said the purpose of the memo was to remove any red tape that would slow down the process of offering treatment if the need arose. The plan would permit treatment if there was no facility available in Ukraine or in a closer country. Landstuhl is approximately 700 miles (more than 1,000 kilometers) from the Ukrainian border. 

If Landstuhl were to receive wounded Ukrainian troops, the service members would have to leave Ukraine by train or car, which has no troops in Ukraine, before the US could evacuate them by air to Ramstein Air Base. 

On Monday, Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, posted a video on Twitter showing Ukrainian soldiers receiving prosthetic legs at a hospital in Chicago. A second video posted Tuesday showed the soldiers walking on the prosthetic limbs. 

But this would appear to be the first authorization for Ukrainian troops to receive treatment of military facilities instead of civilian hospitals.

More background: In late-April, a bipartisan group of lawmakers wrote a letter to Austin and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging the administration to do more to support the “struggling healthcare systems” in Ukraine and Poland.

One of the requests was to “scale-up” Landstuhl Regional Medical Center to treat sick and wounded Ukrainians. The authors said it would follow the US decision to offer treatment to Afghan refugees who transited through the adjacent Ramstein Air Base last year. The letter also urged the administration to send armored ambulances and establish a several military field hospitals along the Poland-Ukraine border.

“You have a unique opportunity to showcase American leadership by providing medical support to Ukrainians that will inspire other NATO states to follow suit,” the authors wrote.

John Kirby, then serving as the Pentagon press secretary, said Austin had received the letter dated April 22 and would “certainly take it seriously and respond appropriately.” Kirby said that any decision to provide field hospitals or US humanitarian support would be done in consultation with the host country. 

CNN has reached out to a number of the letter’s signatories for comment.

On the day Austin issued verbal guidance to begin offering treatment to Ukrainian soldiers, the top US general spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart. A readout of the conversation between Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Gen. Valery Zaluzhny makes no mention of opening up US military medical facilities to Ukrainian service members

One month later, Austin formalized the verbal guidance on a day he spoke with Ukrainian Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov. According to a readout of the call, Austin gave an update on US security assistance efforts, but there is no mention of offering treatment to Ukrainian soldiers.

A school is hit by shelling on July 25 as Russian attack continues in the Donetsk region in Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials admit Russian forces have made small advances in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine amid intense shelling along the front line, with Ukrainian officials saying the “entire territory is under fire.”

At the same time, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky is accusing Moscow of waging an “overt gas war” against Europe after Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom said it will reduce the flow through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany to repair another turbine.

Here are the other top headlines to know tonight:

Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó.

Hungary was the only European Union member state on Tuesday to vote against a deal to ration its natural gas this winter to prevent a severe supply shock, according to the Hungarian government.

“The EU gas savings regulation is unfounded, unenforceable and completely disregards the interests of the Hungarian people, which is why the Hungarian government was the only member state to vote against its adoption,” Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in Brussels according to the office of the international spokesperson for Hungary’s Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister.

On Tuesday, EU energy ministers agreed to a voluntary target to reduce gas usage by 15% between August and March 2023. The votes of each member state were not made public by the European Commission. 

Brussels “has made another step towards war economy,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Tuesday, according to Zoltan Kovacs.

An EU official told CNN that all member states but one voted in favor of the deal. The official did not specify which state voted against.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky honored with “Churchill Award” by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on July 26.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday presented Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with an award to honor his leadership at a ceremony in Downing Street, in which Zelensky appeared virtually. 

Deemed “The Sir Winston Churchill Award” in memory of Britain’s former wartime leader who led Europe to peace in World War II, the International Churchill Society honors it to people who have “demonstrated extraordinary leadership” in his spirit, according to the website of the National Churchill Museum.

“President Zelensky has faced a test of leadership just as severe as Churchill,” Johnson is quoted as saying in a news release from the International Churchill Society. 

“He has, with quintessentially Churchillian composure, showed the world what moral and physical courage really mean. His defiance, dignity and serenity under extreme pressure has moved millions. It has been a true honor to call him my friend and it is my immense privilege to present him with this award today,” Johnson said.

Also physically present at the Downing Street ceremony were members of the Churchill family and Vadym Prystaiko, Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK, the news release said. 

Two plumes of smoke from Soledar in the Donetsk region on July 25.

Ukrainian forces are fighting an assault from Russian troops near Pokrovske as Moscow continues to make a push in the eastern Donetsk region, the Ukrainian General Staff said in a daily update on Tuesday evening, 

“Our defenders successfully repelled enemy assault attempts in the districts of Berestove, Soledar and Semyhiria. Fighting with an assault group continues near Pokrovske,” it added. 

According to the General Staff, Russian shelling was reported across most of the frontline. Ukrainian forces also repelled assaults in other parts of the Donetsk region. 

“In the Sloviansk direction, the enemy shelled the areas of Nortsivka, Dolyna, Hrushuvakha, Krasnopillia, Mazanivka and other settlements with artillery and tanks. It tried to advance near Bohorodychne, was unsuccessful, and withdrew,” the Ukrainian military said. “Ukrainian soldiers successfully repelled the occupiers’ attempt to improve the tactical position in the Ivano-Dariivka area and forced the enemy to flee.”

The industrial plant of the Nord Stream 1 in Lubmin, northeastern Germany.

US President Joe Biden’s administration is working behind the scenes to keep European allies united against Russia as Moscow further cuts its energy supplies to the bloc, prompting panic on both sides of the Atlantic over potentially severe gas shortages heading into winter, US officials said.

On Monday, Russia’s state-owned gas company Gazprom said it would cut flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany in half, to just 20% of its capacity. A US official said the move was retaliation for Western sanctions, and that it put the West in “unchartered territory” when it comes to whether Europe will have enough gas to get through the winter.  

In response to the turmoil, the White House dispatched Amos Hochstein, presidential coordinator for global energy, to Europe on Tuesday, officials said. He will be traveling to Paris and Brussels to discuss contingency planning with the US-EU energy task force created in March, one month after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

The impact on Europe could boomerang back onto the US, spiking natural gas and electricity prices, the official said. It will also be a major test of European resilience and unity against Russia, as the Kremlin shows no signs of retreating from Ukraine.  

The US and Brussels have been pleading with EU members to save gas and store it for winter, and energy ministers agreed in principle on Tuesday to cut gas use by 15% from August to March — with some concessions.

There will also be discussions in the coming days about increasing nuclear power production across Europe to offset gas shortages, officials said. Germany was planning to completely phase out its use of nuclear power by the end of 2022, but US officials are hoping to convince Germany to extend the life of its three remaining nuclear power plants amid the energy crisis, an official said.

US officials, who have been in close touch in particular with German and French officials on this topic, are extremely concerned that Europe might face a serious gas shortage going into winter. That is because Europe will struggle to fill its reserves over the next few months with Nord Stream 1 providing only a fraction of its capacity.

Officials said a 15% cut, along with a surge of global liquefied natural gas exports to Europe, including from the US, is unlikely to be enough to offset the shortages. 

“This is an open gas war that Russia is waging against a united Europe,” Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky said on Tuesday.

The US official said it was clear the Russians are “lashing out” and trying to “destabilize Europe” because they are not achieving their goals in Ukraine. 

A National Security Council spokesperson called Russia’s moves just its latest attempts “to use natural gas as a political and economic weapon.”

The Russian military is deploying additional forces to its southern flank, bolstering its positions in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, according to Ukrainian officials and videos posted on social media that were geolocated by CNN. Analysts suggest the move is presumably to try and counter an eventual Ukrainian counteroffensive. 

Several posts on Ukrainian social media accounts reference the movement of heavy military equipment on top of trains or clogging up highways through the Crimean peninsula and into the Kherson region. CNN geolocated several videos, filmed in the past few days, which show convoys crossing from Crimea into Kherson. Other videos showed the convoys heading toward Crimea, across the Kerch straight, from Krasnodar in Russia. 

The spokespeople for the Ukrainian General Staff and the Ukrainian Operational Command South declined to comment, but the Office of the Ukrainian President in Crimea said the “movement of military equipment, ammunition, and personnel of the Russian army continues throughout the territory of the occupied Crimean peninsula.”

Analysts have suggested this movement of heavy equipment could be in anticipation of a Ukrainian counteroffensive to try and retake Russian-controlled areas in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia areas. In its daily assessment of the Russian campaign on Monday, the Institute for the Study of War said that “Russian forces continued to fortify their positions in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson Oblasts in preparations for Ukrainian counteroffensives.”

What Russia is saying: The Russian defense ministry denied Moscow is deploying additional forces to Ukraine.

“A number of foreign media outlets are spreading false information about alleged mobilization activities,” the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. “We draw your attention to the fact that only a part of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation is involved in the conduct of a special military operation, the number of which is quite sufficient to fulfil all the tasks set by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief.”

CNN’s Zarah Ullah and Uliana Pavlova contributed reporting to this post.

German Minister of Defense Christine Lambrecht addresses journalists on July 11 in Munster, northwestern Germany. 

Germany has delivered three MARS2 multiple launch rocket systems launchers from its army stocks, as well as five Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and three self-propelled howitzer 2000 to Ukraine, the German Minister of Defense Christine Lambrecht said on Tuesday.

“The promised MARS2 multiple rocket launchers and another three self-propelled howitzer 2000 have been delivered. We keep our word,” Lambrecht said.

The Ukrainian President’s Chief of Staff, Andriy Yermak, acknowledged the receipt of the weapons and said they would be deployed to the frontlines.

Lambrecht also said Germany would accelerate the pace at which heavy weapons will be delivered to Ukraine, a spokesperson for the German Ministry of Defense said. In total, Ukraine will receive 30 Gepard systems from the industry with about 60,000 rounds of ammunition mainly from the Bundeswehr according to the spokesman. Altogether ten self-propelled howitzers 2000 will also come from Bundeswehr stocks.

Ukrainian forces will also receive a Cobra artillery tracking radar, with the delivery expected in September.

“The contract has already been signed, now the training of Ukrainian soldiers on this highly complex system begins,” Lambrecht said.

In this frame grab from video provided by Roscosmos, Russian cosmonauts Sergey Korsakov, Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveyev are seen during a welcome ceremony after arriving at the International Space Station, on March 18, the first new faces in space since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine. The crew emerged from the Soyuz capsule wearing yellow flight suits with blue stripes, the colors of the Ukrainian flag.

Russia will withdraw from the International Space Station project “after 2024” after fulfilling its obligations, according to the Kremlin readout of a meeting between the newly appointed head of Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.

“I think that by this time, we will begin to form the Russian orbital station,” Borisov said. 

Russia’s withdrawal would be a major blow to the ISS, a model of international cooperation for decades. The announcement comes as the war in Ukraine has deeply strained its relations with US and Europe.

Robyn Gatens, director of the International Space Station for NASA, said that NASA hadn’t received any official word from Russia about the decision to quit the ISS.

This is not the first time that Russia has threatened to abandon the ISS amid crippling US and European sanctions over the war in Ukraine. Borisov’s predecessor, Dmitry Rogozin, repeatedly threatened to do so before he was ousted earlier this month.

But this most recent threat has more teeth, and the apparent approval of Putin himself. According to the transcript of a meeting posted to the Kremlin’s website, Putin said “good” after Borisov told him that Roscosmos will begin to build its own space station after 2024.

Russia’s withdrawal would be a major blow to the ISS, a model of international cooperation for decades.

The news comes less than two weeks after NASA and Roscosmos announced a crew-exchange deal or “seat swap” that had been under negotiations for more than four years. Starting in September, two Russian cosmonauts will launch on US spacecrafts from Florida while two American astronauts will ride Russian rockets into space. It’s unclear if Russia’s decision to pull out of the ISS after 2024 will impact the crew-exchange agreement.

The ISS, which is a collaboration among the US, Russia, Japan, Canada and the European Space Agency, is divided into two sections — the Russian Orbital Segment and the US Orbital Segment. The Biden administration announced in December that it was committed to extending the ISS from 2024 to 2030. But Russia — NASA’s number-one partner at the ISS — never signed onto it.

Since then, NASA has been exploring ways of moving the space station without the assistance of the Russian segment. In June, a Cygnus cargo spacecraft demonstrated its ability to raise the station’s orbit. But whether the ISS would be able to survive without the Russians is still an open question.

NASA said in February it intends to keep operating the International Space Station — which was launched in 2000 — until the end of 2030, after which the ISS would be deorbited and crashed into a remote part of the Pacific Ocean. Commercially operated space platforms would replace the ISS as a venue for collaboration and scientific research, NASA said.

Hear the director general of the European Space Agency here:

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European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson speaks as she arrives for an emergency meeting of EU energy ministers in Brussels, Belgium, on July 26.

The European Union’s Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson has said that “even if all the exemptions are used in full,” the deal reached by EU ministers on Tuesday to reduce natural gas demand by 15% would “help us [EU] safely through an average winter.”

Speaking after a meeting of the EU energy ministers in Brussels, Simson said that the agreement was “a blueprint to act together in a coordinated way if the situation worsens.”

Addressing the exemptions to the deal, Simson said that the European Council “has introduced more flexibility to reflect the specific situations of the member states.”

Simson said that countries like Ireland, Malta and the Baltic states “have strongly underlined their intention to reduce demand.”  

The EU earlier Tuesday agreed to a voluntary target to reduce gas usage by 15% between August and March 2023. 

The EU Commission first unveiled the 15% target in its “Save Gas for a Safe Winter” plan last week, which included a proposal for a new law that, if passed, would give it the power to force states to meet mandatory reduction targets in exceptional circumstances.

But objections from some countries over the past few days pushed the bloc to make key concessions, taking into account their varying levels of dependency on gas and levels of storage.

The EU will now exempt countries that are not interconnected to other members’ gas networks from the 15% mandatory demand reduction target, as “they would not be able to free up significant volumes of pipeline gas to the benefit of other member states,” the EU Council said in a press release.

Czech Minister of Industry and Trade Jozef Síkela told reporters at the same press conference that “we will share the pain.”

“We will not allow Russia to threaten our security by deliberately disrupting gas deliveries and using gas as a political weapon,” Síkela added.

The UK government has sanctioned additional people and entities in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the British Foreign Office said Tuesday.

Among the sanctioned are Vitaly Khotsenko and Vladislav Kuznetsov, the Russian-imposed Prime Minister and First Deputy Chair of the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, according to the Foreign Office statement.

“Khotsenko and Kuznetsov have been sent to implement Russia’s policies across the invaded region, supporting Putin’s plans to illegally annex more of Ukraine and use sham referendums to falsely legitimize their occupation,” the statement said. They have been hit with a travel ban and asset freeze.

Russia’s Minister of Justice Konstantin Chuychenko and Deputy Minister of Justice Oleg Sviridenko have also been sanctioned, the Foreign Office said.

“The pair are suppressing their own people by targeting those speaking out against the war,” the statement said.

The UK also targeted 29 Russian regional governors with sanctions.

Additionally, the UK sanctioned six Syrian individuals and companies for their links to Russia’s war in Ukraine, including for assisting in the recruitment of Syrian mercenaries to fight alongside Russian troops.

Two nephews of “major Russian oligarch” Alisher Usmanov were hit with asset freezes over their “association with Putin”, the statement said. One of the two, Sarvar Ismailov, was previously a director at the English soccer club, Everton.

Usmanov, who is already subject to UK sanctions, also has close ties to the Kremlin, according to the Foreign Office.

The Foreign Office also added five Syrian individuals and entities to the sanctions list over their links to the governing regime in Syria, including Issam Shammout, the owner of Cham Wings, a Syrian airline that was released from EU sanctions in mid-July.

To date, the UK has sanctioned “more than 1,100 individuals and more than 100 entities” over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Foreign Office said. 

The European Union has agreed to ration its natural gas this winter to prevent a severe supply shock. But the bloc has watered down its ambitions by offering countries some significant leeway.

On Tuesday, EU energy ministers agreed to a voluntary target to reduce gas usage by 15% between August and March 2023. That reduction is measured against each country’s average gas consumption during the same months over the previous five years.

The EU Commission first unveiled the 15% target in its “Save Gas for a Safe Winter” plan last week, which included a proposal for a new law that, if passed, would give it the power to force states to meet mandatory reduction targets in exceptional circumstances.

But objections from some countries over the past few days have pushed the bloc to make key concessions, taking into account their varying levels of dependency on gas and levels of storage.

Read the full story here:

25 July 2022, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lubmin: Pipe systems and shut-off devices at the gas receiving station of the Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea pipeline and the transfer station of the OPAL (Ostsee-Pipeline-Anbindungsleitung - Baltic Sea Pipeline Link) long-distance gas pipeline. (to dpa "Gazprom cuts supply through Nord Stream 1 to 20 percent") Photo: Stefan Sauer/dpa (Photo by Stefan Sauer/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Related article Europe dials down its plans to ration gas this winter

A firefighter works at site of a residential area damaged by a Russia missile strike in the settlement of Zatoka, Odesa region, Ukraine, on July 26.

An air raid siren sounds over Odesa an hour before daybreak Tuesday, cutting through a clear night.

Heavily armed soldiers patrol the moonlit streets of the historic center, blocks from Ukraine’s most crucial port.

Like all Ukrainian cities a curfew keeps Odesa still through the night, but the city’s air defense system has allowed a quality of life here in contrast to the all-out war just a short drive east.

Coffee shops and lunch spots continue their summer trade, despite a lack of tourists in what was one of the Soviet Union’s most popular holiday towns. 

Days earlier, at a skate park in view of the port, children ride scooters and skateboards.

Seven-year-old Max fled to Moldova with his mother at the beginning of the war. He’s returned to spend time with his father Roman Gainutdikov, a merchant seaman put out of work by the war.

“Of course people want to live normally,” says Gainutdikov. “But in the worst case it will be the same story as Mykolaiv.”

Each night, Mykolaiv is pummeled by Russian missiles and rockets. The city is emptying out, with many fleeing to the relative safety of Odesa three hours down the road. 

Now, Odesa is being hit too.

Fires have been put out at the port where two cruise missiles on Saturday hit what the Ukrainians say was a pumping station.

Global condemnation continues over the strikes that hit infrastructure needed for Ukraine’s effort to export its grain harvest to a hungry world. Russia says it hit a military target there. 

Tuesday’s air raid siren was no false alarm either. Just south of the city, fires burned in the coastal village of Zatoka — an “ordinary” place, according to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, who posted videos of the fiery aftermath of the strike. 

People here in Odesa expect more air raid sirens and know worse days could come. 

The Joint Coordination Center for Ukrainian grain exports is set to begin its work on Wednesday, according to the Turkish Ministry of Defense.

The defense ministry announced the opening in a press release Tuesday, saying the opening will take place at the National Defense University in Istanbul with the Turkish Minister for Defense Hulusi Akar scheduled to be in attendance. 

The center will oversee the system of maritime caravans transporting vital grain exports out of Ukraine. It was devised as part of the grain deal signed by Ukraine and Russia last Friday under the auspices of Turkey and the United Nations. 

A Russian delegation of experts headed by Rear Admiral Eduard Luik will arrive in Istanbul on Tuesday, according to a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense. 

Their main task will be to “promptly resolve all the necessary issues for the Initiative to enter the stage of practical implementation,” according to the statement.

Russian forces have struck multiple targets in the east and south of Ukraine with missiles and artillery, while European Union officials have accused Russian state-owned gas company Gazprom of “politically motivated” reductions in gas flows to member countries.

Here are the latest headlines:

European Commissioner for European Green Deal Frans Timmermans, left, speaks with from left, Luxembourg's Energy Minister Claude Turmes, Ireland's Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan and Denmark's Minister for Climate Dan Jorgensen during an emergency meeting of EU energy ministers in Brussels, Belgium, on July 26.

EU ministers have reached a “political agreement” on gas demand reduction, according to the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The Czech Presidency announced the agreement in a tweet on Tuesday, saying “this was not a Mission Impossible.”

EU energy ministers met in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss energy supply amid a reduction in flows of Russian gas.

Some background: Last week, the European Commission laid out its “Save Gas for a Safe Winter” plan which asked the 27 member states to reduce their gas demand by 15% between August and March next year. This reduction is based on countries’ average gas consumption during the same months over the past five years.

German Minister of Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock, left, and her Czech counterpart Jan Lipavsky speak during a press conference, on July 26, in Prague, Czech Republic.

Europe will not be divided by the Russian-imposed gas scarcity they face, Germany’s foreign minister said Tuesday.

Joining her Czech counterpart, Jan Lipavsky, in Prague for a joint press conference, Annalena Baerbock said: “We are underlining with this that we will not let ourselves be divided, where we as EU states could also act against each other because gas is so scarce, but that we are standing together and that is the most important signal to the Russian President.”

“In the long term, the path is clear: Europe will gain sovereignty through the expansion of renewable energies,” she said.

She added that, with every wind turbine and solar plant Europe erects, they will gain “freedom” and “become stronger together.”

“This also means that we need to rapidly expand the infrastructure in Europe with which we transport energy,” she said.

The challenge for all European countries is to maintain the security of supply, said Baerbock, noting that gas, not electricity, is the main source of heat supply in Germany.

A Russian checkpoint in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region has become the only relatively safe way for Ukrainians to try to leave southern occupied areas for Ukrainian-held territory. 

But recent videos from around the checkpoint show hundreds of vehicles lined up, unable to cross. 

Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of Melitopol, which lies in Russian-occupied territory, said on Ukrainian television on Tuesday that “evacuation from the occupied territories is the biggest problem. Evacuation is almost impossible today.”

He said people were attempting to leave the occupied territories of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk through the checkpoint at Vasylivka, with some having been on the road for seven days, sleeping in their cars.

“Today, more than 5,000 people, over 1,200 cars have gathered there,” he added.

Fedorov, who is not in Melitopol, reported the deaths of five people who were waiting to leave in recent days. He didn’t explain the circumstances of the deaths.

The videos show people sleeping in their cars and tents and crowded into a gas station in high summer temperatures. Some people are sleeping in the open.

One video shows a large grass fire burning adjacent to the highway near the checkpoint. Large amounts of garbage have also built up around the checkpoint. 

Fedorov said the Russians are using civilians as human shields in Melitopol, and have spent the last three days making large transfers of weaponry through the temporarily occupied territories.

“Yesterday, three convoys of equipment passed through the city of Melitopol in the direction of Kherson. These are a hundred units of heavy weapons, more than 20 tanks, landing vehicles and so on,” he said.

Fedorov added that the armor was traveling west to Kherson where a Ukrainian counter-attack against Russian defenses is developing.

French president Emmanuel Macron waves to the crowd after being welcomed by Cameroonese Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute upon his arrival at the Nsimalen international airport of Yaounde, Cameroon, on July 25.

French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to discuss the food shortages caused by the war in Ukraine during his four-day visit to Cameroon, Benin and Guinea-Bissau, an official from the Élysée Palace said.

“The trip will be an opportunity to strengthen our collective resilience to food crises and promote long-term investment in agriculture in vulnerable countries, particularly in Africa.”   

Macron will meet Cameroon’s 89-year-old President, Paul Biya, on Tuesday. This is the first trip by a French President to the country since 2015.

Some background: The United Nations has warned that up to 49 million people could be pushed into famine or famine-like conditions due to the war’s devastating impact on global food supply and prices.     

During his tour — which started on Monday — Macron will also speak about security and the terrorist threat that continues to spread throughout the Sahel and West Africa.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is also touring Africa, hoping to seek support amid global outrage at the food crisis following Moscow’s blockade of Ukrainian ports. He has visited Egypt — the world’s largest wheat importer — and the Republic of Congo.