2023-07-24 16:44:20
Ukraine claimed responsibility on Monday July 24 for the drone attack that hit Moscow overnight. It was a “special operation of the GUR”, military intelligence, told AFP a source within the Ukrainian Defense. This rare claim from Kiev, which usually denies or does not comment, comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had promised retaliation for the Russian strikes on Odessa, carried out this weekend, which left two dead and ravaged a cathedral. Russia is considering “severe reprisals” after these attacks on Moscow and Crimea, for its part declared Russian diplomacy, accusing the West of being “behind the brazen acts” of kyiv.
The Moscow region had not been the target of drones for almost three weeks. The Russian army, which denounced a “terrorist act”, claimed that two Ukrainian drones had been neutralized and crashed without causing any casualties. One of the drones fell on Komsomolsky Prospekt, near the Russian Defense Ministry, while another hit a business center on Likhacheva Street, according to Russian news agency TASS.
A destroyed grain shed near Odessa
A Russian drone attack targeted Ukrainian port infrastructure in the Odessa region (south) and destroyed a grain shed. The attack lasted “nearly four hours”, overnight from Sunday to Monday, and was carried out “by Shahed-136 drones”, the Kiev army said on Facebook. “A grain shed was destroyed and storage tanks for other cargo were damaged,” she added.
Three drones were destroyed by the air defense forces”, added the operational command, according to which “the enemy continues to terrorize Odessa”. “According to initial information, some four port workers were injured, but the information still needs to be clarified”, he added.
Regularly targeted by Russian strikes, Odessa is a strategic city for maritime transit. Its historic center was listed as a World Heritage Site by Unesco earlier this year. During the night from Saturday to Sunday, it was the target of an attack which left two dead and 22 injured, including at least four children. The strike largely destroyed the Cathedral of the Transfiguration.
France accuses Russia of “deliberately” targeting Odessa’s heritage
France accused Russia on Monday of “deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure and the sites of a city classified as a world heritage site”, namely Odessa. This Ukrainian port city was the target of strikes that killed two people and damaged a historic cathedral. With these strikes targeting heritage and civilian infrastructure, “Russia is committing a double violation of international humanitarian law”, according to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which denounces “war crimes”. The historic center of Odessa was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in January.
Ukraine claims to have liberated more than 16km²
kyiv claimed on Monday July 24 to have taken over more than 16 km² from Russian forces last week in the east and south of the country. “In the Bakhmout sector, four square kilometers have been liberated and 12.6 square kilometers in the south,” Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar told television. This announcement comes nearly two months after the start of a counter-offensive supposed to push Moscow’s troops out of Ukraine.
Russia will replace cereals destined for Africa
Russian President Vladimir Putin guaranteed on July 24 that Moscow would replace Ukrainian cereals destined for Africa, after the Kremlin abandoned a crucial cereal agreement for world food. This announcement comes shortly before the start of a Russia-Africa summit in Saint Petersburg on July 27.
“I want to reassure that our country is able to replace Ukrainian cereals on a commercial basis and at no cost, especially as we expect another record harvest this year,” wrote the head of state in an article published on the Kremlin website, titled “Russia and Africa: Uniting efforts for peace, progress and a prosperous future”. Signed in July 2022 in Istanbul, the grain agreement, which allowed Ukrainian agricultural exports to be reopened by sea despite the Russian offensive, expired last week.
Putin says counter-offensive failed
Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko on Sunday that the Ukrainian counter-offensive, launched in early June to repel Russian forces, had “failed”. “There is no counter-offensive,” said Alexander Lukashenko first, according to the TASS news agency, before being interrupted by Vladimir Putin. “There is one but it failed,” he said.
The meeting between Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko, a staunch Kremlin ally, comes nearly a month after the aborted Wagner Rebellion in Russia, in which the Belarusian leader played a role in ending it. Vladimir Poutine affirmed that the two leaders “were going to devote a day and a half, two days” to these bilateral talks.
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