Russia was China's main oil supplier for the second month running in June as buyers shunned Saudi Arabian crude to take advantage of lower-priced supplies offered by Moscow.
Market data, according to Reuters on July 20, showed Chinese imports of Russian oil totaled 7.29 million tonnes in June, up nearly 10 percent from a year ago. That was over 2 million tonnes more than China received from Saudi Arabia, its traditional main supplier.
With Western customers shunning oil from Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has turned to markets in Asia and elsewhere to pick up the slack.
Bloomberg reported on July 19 that India has gone from importing almost no Russian oil to almost 1 million barrels a day in June.
The news agency also noted that flows of Russian crude to China have stalled in recent weeks, a possible sign that Asia may not be equipped to fully absorb as much Russian oil as expected.
Separately, data also showed China's imports of Russian liquefied natural gas totaled 520,530 tonnes, the second-highest monthly volume since at least the start of 2021.
Russia has cut supplies to several European countries because they have refused to use a mechanism created by Moscow that allows for the purchases to be made in rubles.
Sanctions by the West on Russia over its war against Ukraine. launched on February 24 have cut off the country and its financial institutions from global transaction systems used for international payments.
The United States has signed off on another $270 million in military aid to Ukraine, including four more high-mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS), bringing the number sent to 20.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby announced the aid on July 22, saying Russia has "launched deadly strikes across the country, striking malls, apartment buildings, killing innocent Ukrainian civilians."
He said in the face of these “atrocities,” U.S. President Joe Biden “has made clear that we're going to continue to support the government of Ukraine and its people for as long as it takes."
Ukraine has said the HIMARS sent thus far have made a major difference for Ukrainian troops in countering Russian forces.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov earlier this week voiced hope that the United States would provide as many as 100 HIMARS, saying they could turn the tide against Russia.
The systems can precisely strike targets from as far away as 80 kilometers.
Kirby said the fresh aid will also include 500 portable drones that detonate on their targets and 36,000 rounds of artillery ammunition.
Much of the aid comes from a $40 billion package for Ukraine approved by Congress in May.
Kirby also said the U.S. government is considering supplying Ukraine with fighter jets. These are "preliminary explorations" into the feasibility of providing such weapons, he said, adding that it would not be something the United States could execute immediately or even in the short term.
Outgoing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a phone call on July 22 that British support for Ukraine will “not waver” regardless of who becomes the next prime minister.
Johnson “stressed the U.K.’s ongoing determination to support the Ukrainian people and said that resolve will not waver” after the Conservative Party chooses his replacement.
RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's ongoing invasion, how Kyiv is fighting back, Western military aid, worldwide reaction, and the plight of civilians and refugees. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.
Johnson announced his resignation on July 7 amid a wave of scandals and defections by his Cabinet ministers. He said he would remain in his post until the party elects a new leader in September.
The two candidates vying to replace him -- former Finance Minister Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss -- have both said they will maintain strong diplomatic and military support to Kyiv.
Johnson has been one of the West's most active and vocal supporters of Ukraine, visiting Kyiv twice since the war began and spearheading billions of pounds of U.K. military aid.
In Johnson's final appearance at weekly prime minister's questions in the House of Commons on July 20, the British leader said he wanted to give "some words of advice" to his successor.
"No. 1: Stay close to the Americans; stick up for the Ukrainians; stick up for freedom and democracy everywhere," he said to cheers from Conservative Party colleagues.
A Downing Street spokeswoman said in their latest call that Zelenskiy thanked Johnson again for his staunch support for Ukraine.
The spokeswoman said the prime minister outlined the recent steps that Britain has taken to bolster Ukraine’s resistance, including training thousands of Ukrainian troops in the United Kingdom.
The United Kingdom is working to expand the training effort, including through the involvement of international partners, she said. Zelenskiy said the military support being provided by the United Kingdom and others is making a real difference in the conflict, she added.
Johnson also welcomed the announcement in Turkey of a UN-brokered deal to get grain out of Ukraine through Ukraine’s Black Sea ports. The move ends a standoff that had threatened food security around the world.
“Both the prime minister and President Zelenskiy stressed the need for the deal to be implemented in full by all parties,” she said.
Johnson also spoke with Zelenskiy about the treatment of British prisoners being held by Russian-backed forces, thanking Zelenskiy for his government’s efforts to secure detainees’ freedom, the spokeswoman said.
Russia's central bank has cut its key interest rate from 9.5 percent to 8 percent, citing a slowdown in the annual inflation rate.
The 1.5 percentage point drop announced on July 22 brings the key interest rate to a level lower than before President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in February.
The bank said consumer prices are easing partly because demand has been falling and inflation expectations have “significantly decreased."
Russia’s interest-rate cut is the opposite of recent steps by Western banks, which have raised rates to combat inflation fueled by the war in Ukraine. The European Central Bank on July 21 hiked rates by half a percentage point. The United States raised its key rate last month by three-quarters of a point.
Days after Moscow launched the invasion, the Russian central bank hiked its key rate to 20 percent to prop up the ruble amid Western sanctions that restrict dealings with Russian banks, individuals, and companies.
Since then, the Russian central bank has managed to stabilize the ruble and financial system by preventing money from leaving Russia and by forcing exporters to exchange most of their foreign earnings into rubles.
The ruble traded at 58.8 to the dollar on July 22, making the Russian currency worth more than the day before the invasion when it took 78.8 rubles to buy $1.
The central bank said in a statement that it expected annual inflation to edge down to 12 percent to 15 percent this year, then drop to 5 percent to 7 percent in 2023 and return to 4 percent in 2024.
The statement said companies were still facing difficulties with production and logistics and warned that "the external environment for the Russian economy remains challenging."
The mothers of several children who were scheduled to participate in a karate competition in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad have been barred from watching the event in person as security officials enforced a government ban on women entering stadiums in the country.
Video of a security officer stopping the mothers from entering a sports hall where the event was taking place was published on social media on July 22.
The women begin to protest against being barred from the premises but the security officer tells them he is enforcing a "national directive" that was sent to all sports halls across the country by the deputy minister of sports.
Women have been barred from attending stadiums since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Iran's clerical establishment has long opposed the idea of women being allowed in stadiums with male fans and enforcement of the ban on women entering stadiums in Iran, especially in religious cities like Mashhad, has been stepped up recently. Iran's notorious Guidance Patrols, or morality police, have become increasingly active and violent in recent months, with videos emerging on social media appearing to show officers detaining women, forcing them into vans, and whisking them away.
On March 29, police blocked female supporters who had arrived outside the Imam Reza stadium in Mashhad from going inside, even though they had valid tickets. When they began protesting, the women were pepper-sprayed.
Well-known Russian journalist Sergei Brilyov, a dual Russian-British citizen currently under British sanctions over his role in distributing anti-Ukraine propaganda, has quit the post of deputy director of Russia's State Television and Radio Corporation.
Brilyov wrote on Facebook on July 21 that he also stopped anchoring his News On Saturdays weekly television program, emphasizing that the last time he hosted it was on February 26, which is two days after Russia launched its ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Brilyov also wrote that he returned from a business trip in South America in April and said he issued 33 special reports and documentaries from there, some in Spanish and some in Russian. It’s not clear whether any were broadcast, but he said he would start issuing some of the programs on Telegram. It’s also unclear whether he still works for Russian TV.
According to Brilyov, he underwent surgery for an unspecified health problem when he returned to Russia in April.
Brilyov is known as one of Russia's noted journalists loyal to the Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In 2018, Brilyov confirmed a report by now-jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny saying that he and his wife are British citizens, raising questions about legality of his membership on public councils at the Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry of Russia.
In 2011, Putin signed a law barring foreign-passport holders from membership on such councils.
The British government in March slapped Brilyov with personal sanctions, saying he was part of Russia's propaganda machine justifying Russia's aggression against Ukraine.
The European Union has approved another 500 million euros ($512 million) for the supply of weapons and equipment to Ukraine, the European Council said on July 22.
European Council President Charles Michel earlier this week announced the EU's intention to provide the funds.
Nearly all the money -- 490 million euros -- is to be spent on weapons and ammunition. The remaining 10 million euros will go toward protective equipment, fuel, and medical supplies.
The council approved its first package of 500 million euros at the end of February and followed that with three more in March, April, and May. The tranche approved on July 22 is the fifth, bringing the total amount to 2.5 billion euros.
The funds come from the European Peace Facility, a new EU financing instrument that can be used to strengthen armed forces in partner countries.
According to German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht, Germany is financing about one-quarter of the expenditure.
Russian and Ukrainian officials have signed a UN-backed deal aimed at allowing grain exports to leave Ukraine to help ease a global food crisis caused in part by Moscow's unprovoked invasion of it neighbor.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov signed separate mirror agreements with the United Nations and Turkey on July 22 that UN chief Antonio Guterres said will benefit developing countries "on the edge of bankruptcy and the most vulnerable people on the edge of famine."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan added at a signing ceremony in Istanbul that the agreement will help ease global food inflation by unlocking the export of some 22 million tons of grain and other agricultural products that have been stuck in Black Sea ports due to the war.
He added that the implementation of the deal should start in the coming days and will be run by a joint coordination center in Istanbul.
"Today, there is a beacon on the Black Sea. A beacon of hope...possibility...and relief in a world that needs it more than ever," Guterres told the gathering.
"You have overcome obstacles and put aside differences to pave the way for an initiative that will serve the common interests of all," he added.
The United States called on Russia to let Ukrainian grain begin to move out quickly and voiced hope that the deal was well-structured enough to monitor compliance.
"We fully expect the implementation of today's arrangement to commence swiftly to prevent the world's most vulnerable from sliding into deeper insecurity and malnutrition," White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
"We're hopeful that this is going to make a difference. But we're clear-eyed about it," he said.
Mykhaylo Podolyak, a top Ukrainian presidential adviser, had earlier outlined details of the accord, which states that there will be "no escorting of grain transport by Russian ships, nor will there be any presence of Russian representatives in our ports."
"In case of provocations, there will be an immediate military response," he wrote, adding all inspections of transport ships will be carried out by joint teams in Turkish waters "should the need arise."
Guterres said that the country's biggest export hub, Odesa, would be reopened along with ports in Chernomorsk and Yuzhny.
The European Union's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said the bloc welcomed the deal, calling it in a tweet "a critical step in overcoming the global food insecurity caused by Russia‘s aggression against Ukraine."
Speaking separately at the Aspen Security Forum in the U.S. state of Colorado, senior U.S. diplomat Victoria Nuland praised the level of detail of the agreement.
"It's now incumbent on Russia to actually implement this deal. But it is very well-structured in terms of monitoring and in terms of channels that the grain ought to be able to get out of," said Nuland, undersecretary of state for political affairs.
Russia is obliged to act after the blockade sent food prices soaring in developing countries, particularly in Africa, where it had banked on support, she said, adding that the deal came together because Russia felt it was losing support in the global south, where many countries had become convinced that the blockade was really NATO's fault.
A whistle-blower has been sentenced to two years in prison and banned from media-related activities after he revealed details of a controversial shopping trip by the family of Iranian parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.
Activist Vahid Ashtari, who published the report on the extravagant shopping spree that triggered sharp criticism since it came at a time when many Iranians are failing to make ends meet, tweeted an image of the court verdict regarding his case on July 21.
According to the verdict, Ashtari must also shut down all of his social-media pages. Ashtari said the case was filed at the same time as the indictment, while the investigator issued an indictment without accepting any documents or a final defense.
The affair stems from an April social-media post in which Ashtari published photos that showed some members of Qalibaf's family returning from a trip to Turkey with around 20 large pieces of luggage, including a high-end baby carriage.
After the post, another journalist in Turkey reported that during the trip, Qalibaf's wife bought two apartments in Istanbul for some $1.6 million.
Qalibaf’s supporters claimed the uproar over the trip was orchestrated by hard-liners who wanted to push him out of the powerful post he holds. Ashtari is reported to have ties with Saeed Jalili, an ultra-conservative hard-liner who was Iran's top nuclear negotiator under former President Mahmud Ahmadinejad. In response to the criticism, Qalibaf claimed in a closed session of parliament on April 30 that he had been "against" the family trip to Turkey from the beginning.
His family has claimed a "security clique" was behind the reports and an attempt to portray Qalibaf in a bad light. Hard-liners have gained a foothold in Iranian politics during the past year, taking control of the presidency and parliament. But there has been mounting evidence of divisions within their ranks and some Iran watchers say the arrest of Ashtari and other social media administrators could be a sign of an internal power struggle. Iranian authorities have blocked most social-media sites and apps, including Telegram. But many Iranians continue to use the banned platforms.
A deputy rector at Russia's presidential Academy of National Economy and State Service (RANKHiGS), Ivan Fedotov, has been placed under house arrest on financial-fraud charges.
The Tver district court announced the decision on July 22, less than one month after the institution’s rector, Vladimir Mau, was put under house arrest.
The Interior Ministry's Main Directorate for Moscow said on June 30 that Mau's arrest was linked to a high-profile fraud case launched last year against former Deputy Education Minister Marina Rakova and the director of the RANKHiGS's Institute of Social Studies, Sergei Zuyev. Rakova and Zuyev are currently being held at a detention center.
According to investigators, Mau and his subordinates are suspected of pretending to hire staff members, which caused damages of 21 million rubles ($369,000) to the school.
Russian authorities said earlier that Rakova was suspected of embezzling 50 million rubles ($878,000) from the ministry.
A senior U.S. defense official said on July 22 that Washington believes Russia is sustaining hundreds of casualties every day in its war in Ukraine and has lost thousands of lieutenants and captains since the start of the invasion.
In addition to the lieutenants and captains killed, hundreds of colonels and many Russian generals had been killed as well, Reuters quoted the officials as saying on condition of anonymity.
"The chain of command is still struggling," the official said.
CIA Director William Burns on July 20 said the United States estimates that Russian casualties in Ukraine after almost five months of war have reached around 15,000 killed and likely 45,000 wounded, adding that Ukrainian armed forces have also endured significant casualties.
Russia classifies military deaths as state secrets and has not updated its official casualty figures frequently during the war. On March 25 it said 1,351 Russian soldiers had been killed. The Ukrainian government last month said that 100 to 200 Ukrainian troops were being killed daily.
The official also said Washington believed Ukraine had destroyed more than 100 "high-value" Russian targets inside Ukraine, including command posts, ammunition depots, and air-defense sites.
The United States has provided $8 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the war began, including $2.2 billion in the last month.
Earlier this week, the Pentagon said it would provide Ukraine with four additional high-mobility artillery rocket systems in the latest weapons package.
KOMSOMOLSK-ON-AMUR, Russia -- Prosecutors in Siberia have appealed the acquittal of LGBT activist and artist Yulia Tsvetkova in a high-profile case over drawings and other artwork depicting women's bodies that she posted online.
A group of Tsvetkova's supporters reported the prosecutors' move on July 22, exactly one week after she was acquitted by a court in the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Tsvetkova’s mother, Anna Khodyreva, wrote on Facebook that the prosecutors' move may prolong her daughter’s ordeal for years.
"It is horrifying even to imagine how many more years of life and energy this senseless accusation can steal from Yulia," the activist's mother wrote, as the appeal means a new investigation into the case, as well as another trial, which could take two to three years to complete. On July 15, the central district court found Tsvetkova innocent in a trial that was held behind closed doors because prosecutors said they needed to show the images as evidence. The acquittal was to take force after 10 days unless authorities appealed the ruling. Last month, prosecutors said they were seeking a conviction and a 38-month prison sentence in the case. The 29-year-old Tsvetkova was charged with producing and distributing pornographic material for administering a social media page called The Vagina Monologues that showed abstract art resembling female genitalia. The artist, an activist who draws women's bodies, is known for her advocacy of LGBT issues. Tsvetkova’s trial began in April 2021 after a nearly 1 1/2-year investigation during which she was fined for spreading LGBT "propaganda" and put under house arrest. In May of last year, she launched a hunger strike to protest the case against her. Amnesty International has said the case against Tsvetkova amounts to political repression and “Kafkaesque absurdity.”
A court in Tallinn has sentenced a man with dual Russian-Estonian citizenship for publicly raising funds and buying drones for the Russian armed forces invading Ukraine.
The Harju district court on July 21 sentenced 43-year-old Vladimir Shilov to four months in prison, with another eight months suspended and a four-year probation period after finding him guilty of supporting the aggression of a foreign country. The court also found Shilov's two co-defendants, Ilya and Ruslan Golembovsky, guilty of funding the drones' purchase, and handed each of them a suspended five-month prison term with a 20-month probation period. Estonian authorities arrested Shilov on May 28 when he was crossing the Estonian-Russian border with three drones he had purchased in Estonia for the Russian armed forces in Ukraine. After Russia launched its ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Shilov openly supported President Vladimir Putin and started a fundraising campaign online to buy drones for Russian troops, calling it "an act of support of our troops." Ukraine and many countries of the European Union have criminalized support of Russian aggression against Ukraine since the beginning of the war.
Two women -- one from Pakistan and another from Iran -- appear to be the first female climbers from their countries to reach the summit of K2, the world's second-highest and arguably most dangerous peak.
Samina Baig, 32, hoisted Pakistan's flag atop the 8,611-meter-high peak, located on the Chinese-Pakistani border, on July 22. Baig hails from the remote northern Pakistani village of Shimshal in the Gilgit–Baltistan region. She was among several women to successfully reach K2's peak on July 22, according to Karrar Haidri, chief officer of the Pakistan Alpine Club, which helps coordinate between climbers and the government in the event of an emergency. Haidri said a second Pakistani female climber, Naila Kiyani, was also among the teams to reach the top of the mountain, but it appeared that Baig had arrived at the peak a few minutes earlier. Baig was also the first Pakistani woman to climb the Himalaya's 8,848-meter Mount Everest, the world's highest peak, in 2013. Pakistani media said several other mountaineers, including female climbers from Iran, Oman, Lebanon, and Taiwan, also summited the peak on July 22. Farsi-language posts on social media identified the Iranian climber in the same party as Afsaneh Hesamifard. According to Iranian media, Hesamifard became only the third woman to reach the top of Mount Everest during an expedition in May. Haidri said Afghan climber Ali Akbar Sakki died on July 21 due to a heart attack while attempting to scale K2 as part of the team of climbers who reached its summit on July 22. K2 has one of the deadliest records, with most fatalities occurring to climbers on their descent. Only a few hundred have successfully reached its summit. By comparison, Mount Everest has been summited more than 9,000 times.
Winds on K2's peak can blow at more than 200 kilometers per hour and temperatures can drop to minus 60 degrees Celsius.
NOVBOSIBIRSK, Russia -- An independent lawmaker in the Russian city of Novosibirsk has been detained over a tweet she posted about Russia's ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
A witness told RFE/RL that Khelga Pirogova was detained by three men in civilian clothings after a fundraising event on July 21. According to the witness, the men did not present an arrest warrant, nor did they provide any explanation as to why they were detaining the lawmaker. Pirogova told RFE/RL later that she was charged with "discrediting Russia's armed forces." Media reports said earlier that several lawmakers in the Siberian city had reported Pirogova over her post on Twitter about Russian troops killed in Ukraine. In her tweet, which has since been deleted, Pirogova commented on volunteers from Russia's lower economic classes dying on the battlefield in Ukraine. The Investigative Committee said earlier this month that its chief, Aleksandr Bastrykin, had ordered that the tweet be investigated. In early March, President Vladimir Putin signed a law that calls for lengthy prison terms for distributing "deliberately false information" about Russian military operations as the Kremlin seeks to control the narrative about its war in Ukraine. The law envisages sentences of up to 10 years in prison for individuals convicted of an offense, while the penalty for the distribution of "deliberately false information" about the Russian Army that leads to "serious consequences" is 15 years in prison. It also makes it illegal "to make calls against the use of Russian troops to protect the interests of Russia" or "for discrediting such use," with a penalty of up to three years in prison. The same provision applies to calls for sanctions against Russia.
Russia has added Croatia, Denmark, Greece, Slovakia, and Slovenia to its list of nations that "carry out unfriendly actions towards Russian companies and citizens."
A statement from the Russian government said Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed the order on July 22. According to the government press service, the embassies of the mentioned countries will now have to limit staff levels. "Greece cannot have more than 34 staff members, Denmark -- 20, and Slovakia -- 16. Slovenia and Croatia will not be allowed to hire [Russian citizens as] employees at their diplomatic missions and consulates," the press service said. Earlier in March, just days after Russia launched its ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine that was condemned by the West and many other countries, President Vladimir Putin ordered the government create a registry of "unfriendly nations." The list includes the United States, Canada, Britain, Ukraine, Australia, Singapore, Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan, Micronesia, Montenegro, Albania, Switzerland, Andorra, South Korea, Lichtenstein, Monaco, Norway, San Marino, Czech Republic, and North Macedonia.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused Russia of perpetrating torture, unlawful detentions, and forcible disappearances of civilians in southern Ukraine's occupied Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions.
In a report published on July 22, the New York-based rights watchdog said the alleged violations committed by Russian forces, which also included the torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) held in the area under their control, amounted to war crimes.
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“Russian forces have turned occupied areas of southern Ukraine into an abyss of fear and wild lawlessness,” said HRW's Yulia Gorbunova. “Torture, inhumane treatment, as well as arbitrary detention and unlawful confinement of civilians, are among the apparent war crimes we have documented, and Russian authorities need to end such abuses immediately and understand that they can, and will, be held accountable.” HRW said that, in compiling the report, it spoke with 71 people from Kherson, Melitopol, Berdyansk, Skadovsk, and 10 other cities and towns in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions. The witnesses described 42 cases in which Russian troops held civilians arbitrarily, in some cases incommunicado, tortured many of them, and disappeared some of the detained. Three members of the Territorial Defense Forces who had the status of prisoners of war were also tortured. Two of them died, HRW said. Among the methods of torture described by those interviewed were extended beatings, sometimes with baseball bats and electric shocks, which often resulted in injuries including broken ribs and other bones and teeth, severe burns, concussions, broken blood vessels in the eye, cuts, and bruises. Victims of the Russian troops' brutality who were eventually released spent extended periods of time in the hospital and some could "barely walk" anymore. The rights group said that the abuses were apparently aimed not only at obtaining information but also at instilling fear so that people will accept Russia's occupation. In all but one of the cases, Russian forces did not inform families on the whereabouts of their loved ones and even refused to provide such information when asked by the victims' relatives. Tamila Tasheva, permanent representative of the Ukrainian president in Crimea, told HRW that human rights monitors estimated that at least 600 people had been forcibly disappeared there since the beginning of Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February. Arbitrary detention, unlawful confinement, and enforced disappearances are all prohibited under international humanitarian law and may amount to or involve multiple war crimes. “Ukrainians in occupied areas are living through a hellish ordeal,” HRW's Gorbunova said. “Russian authorities should immediately investigate war crimes and other abuses by their forces in these areas, as should international investigative bodies with a view to pursuing prosecutions.”
Ukrainian forces have been successfully repelling repeated Russian assaults on the Vuhlehirsk power plant while Moscow continued to relentlessly shell the cities of Kramatorsk and Siversk, British military intelligence said on July 22, as Kyiv said that it has for the first time acquired a “significant potential” to advance its forces on the battlefield.
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Vuhlehirsk, located some 50 kilometers northeast of Donetsk, is Ukraine's second-largest power plant and a strategic infrastructure objective that Russian forces are keen to capture. In its daily intelligence bulletin, Britain's Ministry of Defense quoted Vitaly Kim, the governor of Ukraine’s Mykolayiv region, as saying that Russian forces had used seven air-defense missiles to strike infrastructure, energy facilities, and storage depots in the area. British intelligence noted that Russia has stepped up the use of air-defense missile systems to attack ground targets -- a fact that betrays a critical shortages of dedicated ground-attack missiles. It said that Russia has "almost certainly" deployed S-300 and S-400 strategic air-defense systems -- meant to shoot down aircraft and missiles at long ranges -- near Ukraine from the start of invasion. The Ukrainian military said on July 22 that the main efforts of the Russian Army in the eastern Donetsk region are concentrated in the Kramatorsk and Bakhmut directions. Meanwhile, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly address that a meeting of Ukraine’s military command on July 21 has established that Ukrainian forces “have a significant potential to advance our forces at the front and to inflict new significant losses on the occupiers," and that Kyiv needs to increase the intensity of its attacks on Russian forces. Zelenskiy also noted that several members of the U.S. Senate have proposed a resolution recognizing Russia's aggression against Ukraine as genocide. He said it was the first result of the visit of his wife, Olena Zelenska, to Washington this week. A bipartisan group of seven senators introduced the resolution on July 20 shortly after Zelenska spoke to members of Congress about the war, highlighting the suffering of Ukrainian civilians.
The resolution recognizes that Russia’s actions, including forced deportations to Russia and the killing of Ukrainian civilians in mass atrocities, constituted genocide against the people of Ukraine. The resolution calls on the United States, along with NATO and European Union allies, to support the government of Ukraine to prevent further acts of Russian genocide against the Ukrainian people and supports tribunals and international criminal investigations to hold Russian political leaders and military personnel accountable. Russia's military has kept up its relentless artillery bombardment of civilian-populated areas, including Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, where at least two people had been killed and 19 wounded. Russia denies targeting civilians. Russian forces also bombarded a residential area of Nikopol, a city south of Zaporizhzhya, killing at least two civilians and wounding at nine others overnight, including several children. The mayor of the southern city of Mykolayiv said the city had been targeted again on the evening of July 21 after being shelled earlier in the day, injuring one person and damaging infrastructure, energy facilities, and storage areas. He said 13 residential buildings in the city center were damaged by the shock wave and debris.
Russia's military is likely to start an operational pause in the coming weeks after making only incremental progress recently on the battlefield, the chief of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service said on July 21.
Richard Moore, head of the service known as MI6, told the Aspen Security Forum in the U.S. state of Colorado that the progress that Russian forces have made in Ukraine in recent months is relatively small.
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"We are talking about a small number of miles of advance. When they take a town, there is nothing left. It is obliterated,” he said. He added that MI6 assesses that the Russians will increasingly find it difficult to supply manpower over the next few weeks. "I think they are about to run out of steam,” he said. The operational pause will give Ukrainian forces, whose morale he said is still high, opportunities to strike back with the “increasing amounts of good weaponry" they have received. Moore said the war "is obviously not over” and with winter coming and the pressure on gas supplies, "we are in for a tough time." But it is important that the Ukrainian forces demonstrate their ability to strike back and it is important that Europe continues to back Ukraine militarily. Moore also provided an estimate on the number of Russians killed in the war thus far -- 15,000. He said that’s "probably a conservative estimate" and marked a "very bloody nose" for President Vladimir Putin, who expected a quick victory. He noted that it is about the same number that Russia lost in 10 years in Afghanistan in the 1980s. "And these are not middle-class kids from St. Petersburg or Moscow," he said. "These are poor kids from rural parts of Russia. They're from blue-collar towns in Siberia. They are disproportionately from ethnic minorities. These are his cannon fodder." CIA Director William Burns, speaking a day earlier at the same conference, said that U.S. intelligence estimated Russian losses "in the vicinity of 15,000 killed and maybe three times that wounded." The head of Britain's armed forces said on July 17 in an interview with the BBC that the number of Russians killed and wounded in Ukraine was about 50,000. Russia last updated the number of war dead in March, saying 1,351 troops had died.
Ukraine has a “significant potential” to advance its forces on the battlefield and needs to increase the intensity of its attacks on Russian forces, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly address on July 21.
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Zelenskiy said a meeting of Ukraine’s military command on July 21 defined tasks in tactical areas that must be carried out to strengthen positions and worked out supply issues related to delivering the latest weapons arriving from Western allies to the troops in the field.
The participants of the meeting agreed that Ukrainian forces “have a significant potential to advance our forces at the front and to inflict new significant losses on the occupiers," he said. Zelenskiy also noted that that several members of the U.S. Senate have proposed a resolution recognizing Russia's aggression against Ukraine as genocide. He said it was the first result of the visit of his wife, Olena Zelenska, to Washington this week. A bipartisan group of seven senators introduced the resolution on July 20 shortly after Zelenska spoke to members of Congress about the war, highlighting the suffering of Ukrainian civilians.
The resolution recognizes that Russia’s actions, including forced deportations to Russia and the killing of Ukrainian civilians in mass atrocities, constituted genocide against the people of Ukraine. The resolution calls on the United States, along with NATO and European Union allies, to support the government of Ukraine to prevent further acts of Russian genocide against the Ukrainian people and supports tribunals and international criminal investigations to hold Russian political leaders and military personnel accountable. Russia's military kept up its relentless artillery bombardment of civilian-populated areas earlier on July 21 amid what Kyiv said were failed attempts by Russian forces to gain ground. Ihor Terekhov, the mayor of Kharkiv, said one of the most densely populated areas of Ukraine's second-largest city was being shelled, while the regional governor said two people had been killed and 19 wounded. Russia denies targeting civilians.
Russian forces also bombarded a residential area of Nikopol, a city south of Zaporizhzhya, killing at least two civilians and wounding at nine others overnight, including several children. The head of the military administration of the eastern Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, urged people to evacuate, saying Russian forces had destroyed schools in Kramatorsk and Kostyantynivka and shelled the industrial part of Kramatorsk and central Bakhmut. The mayor of the southern city of Mykolayiv said the city had been targeted again on the evening of July 21 after being shelled earlier in the day, injuring one person and damaging infrastructure, energy facilities, and storage areas. He said 13 residential buildings in the city center were damaged by the shock wave and debris caused by the evening shelling. Ukraine's armed forces said earlier that they engaged Russian troops in the south and east of the country, killing more than 100 enemy combatants. That figure could not be confirmed. The Ukrainian military also reported heavy Russian shelling on the front line in the east amid what they said were largely failed attempts by Russian ground forces to advance.
WATCH: Kyiv has urged Ukrainians living in the Zaporizhzhya region to evacuate. While many have fled, some residents, including pensioners and farmers, remain in hotly contested frontline villages. They face daily attacks by the Russian Army.
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The Russian-installed administration in the partially occupied Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhya said Ukraine had conducted a drone strike on a nuclear power station there, but the reactor was not damaged. The reports could not be independently verified.
Meanwhile, British military intelligence said on July 21 that Russian forces and Moscow-backed separatists continue to attempt small-scale assaults along the front line in the east. Russian forces are likely closing in on Ukraine’s second-biggest power plant at Vuhlehyrska, some 50 kilometers northeast of Donetsk, as Moscow appears to be prioritizing the capture of critical national infrastructure, British intelligence said in its daily bulletin.
WATCH: Shells rained down as our team visited a frontline town in eastern Ukraine where volunteers were trying to evacuate civilians. Current Time reporter Borys Sachalko and cameraman Serhiy Dykun ran for cover, but nearby civilians were not fast enough. Two were injured and immediately taken for medical treatment in a safer location.
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In Kyiv, the Prosecutor-General's Office reported that law enforcement officers uncovered an illegal scheme to help Ukrainian citizens of military age get out of the country. A 34-year-old resident of the Kyiv region was behind the scheme, which offered to organize unimpeded crossings for a price of 1,600 euros, the press service of the Prosecutor-General's Office said. The man was arrested while meeting with a "client," who paid him $800. He planned to cross the border based on documents about studies at institutions in Poland. Zelenskiy barred men aged 18 to 60 from leaving the country shortly after the war began.
Prominent Iranian lawyer and human rights activist Mohammad Ali Dadkhah has been arrested and sent to prison to serve a sentence he received more than a decade ago for allegedly attempting to overthrow the ruling Islamic system.
Lawyer Mustafa Nili wrote on Twitter on July 20 that Dadkhah had been transferred to the notorious Evin prison to serve the eight-year sentence he received in 2011. Dadkhah has been out on parole since 2013. Nili quoted lawyer Iman Pirouzkhah as saying that Dadkhah was rearrested under "illegal pretexts." He did not elaborate. Dadkhah, who has defended a number of political prisoners in Iran, including a Christian pastor on death row for apostasy, is a founding member of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC) along with Nobel Peace Prize-winner Shirin Ebadi. Since a disputed June 2009 presidential election, several co-founders and members of the DHRC have been imprisoned, including lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani and journalist Abdolreza Tajik.
Pensioners and retired government employees have again taken to the streets in several cities across Iran shouting anti-government slogans and demanding a full 38 percent increase in their pensions, which was promised by the Supreme Labor Council.
The recent wave of protests by pensioners and retirees comes after the government announced on June 6 that it would increase the monthly incomes of non-minimum-wage retirees by 10 percent, far below a previous pledge to raise them by 38 percent plus 5.15 million Iranian rials ($16). On July 20, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf sent a letter to President Ebrahim Raisi noting that the 10 percent increase was against the law, and that the full hike should be granted in accordance with a decision by the Supreme Labor Council. Videos posted on social media showed retirees gathering in at least four southern cities, Ahvaz, Shushtar, Behbahan, and Shush, chanting slogans against Raisi's government. According to the law, after receiving the official letter from parliament, the government has one week to amend the resolution on wages or it will be canceled completely. Pensioners and associated groups blame the government for spiraling inflation, high unemployment, and failing to deliver on pledges to significantly increase wages and improve living conditions. Labor protests in Iran have been on the rise in response to declining living standards, wage arrears, and a lack of insurance support. The labor law in Iran does not recognize the right of workers to form independent unions. The government has cracked down on the protesters, arresting many.
Russia's Justice Ministry has demanded the closure of the Russian branch of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Sohnut, which processes the immigration of Jews to Israel.
Moscow’s Basmanny district court said on July 21 that it will start a hearing on the ministry's request on July 28. According to the court, the ministry's request was based on alleged violations of unspecified Russian laws. The Jerusalem Post cited a top Israeli diplomatic official as saying that the ministry’s request is based on allegations that Sohnut "illegally collected info about Russian citizens." Following the court's statement, Israel said it would send a delegation to Russia next week "to ensure the continuation of the Jewish Agency's activity in Russia," according to a statement from Prime Minister Yair Lapid's office. The delegation was to include representatives of the prime minister's office as well as the foreign, justice, and absorption ministries, the statement said. "The Jewish community in Russia is deeply connected with Israel. Its importance arises in every diplomatic discussion with the Russian leadership," Lapid said in the statement. "We will continue to act through diplomatic channels so that the Jewish Agency's important activity will not cease." Russian authorities earlier this month sent an official notice to Sohnut's office in Moscow demanding its closure. Sohnut's branch in Russia has been functioning since 1989. The agency established in 1929 helps Jews from other countries settle in Israel. Last month, the chief rabbi of Moscow, Pinchas Goldschmidt, left Russia after he refused a request from state officials to publicly support Moscow's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. Israel's Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai said on July 21 that “Russian Jews will not be held hostage by the war in Ukraine." "The attempt to punish the Jewish Agency for Israel’s stance on the war [in Ukraine] is deplorable and offensive,” he added. Immigration and Absorptions Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata said diplomatic efforts are under way “to clarify the situation and resolve the matter accordingly."
SAMARA, Russia -- A Russian court has rejected an appeal filed by a prominent Islamic scholar from Tatarstan who was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison in November for running a branch of a banned religious group.
The Sixth Court of Cassations in the city of Samara pronounced its ruling rejecting the appeal filed by Gabdrakhman Naumov on July 21, his lawyer, Ruslan Nagiyev, told RFE/RL. Earlier in February, Naumov's appeal against his verdict and sentence was rejected by the Supreme Court of Tatarstan. Naumov is well-known in Tatarstan as a teacher at the Russian Islamic University and is the former imam of a mosque in the regional capital, Kazan. He was arrested in March 2020 and charged with being the leader of the Nurcular movement in Tatarstan. Naumov has rejected the charges, saying that he never promoted, shared, or supported any extremist or radical teachings or ideas. Nurcular was founded in Turkey by Said Nursi, who died in 1960. The Nurcular movement, which has millions of followers around the globe -- especially in Turkey -- has been banned in Russia since 2008. Russian authorities have said the group promotes the creation of an Islamic state that encompasses all Turkic-speaking areas and countries in the Middle East, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Russia's Turkic-speaking regions in the North Caucasus and Volga regions.
German Bundesliga club 1. FC Koln has urged UEFA, European soccer's governing body, to remove Belarusian football clubs from all European competitions over Minsk's support of Russia's ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
The club said in a letter made public on July 21 that it was "simply not sufficient" to have clubs from Belarus play their home games on neutral ground and that they should be removed from competitions, just as Russian clubs had been. The letter called for "decisive action" from UEFA, saying 1. FC Koln could face a club from Belarus in the Europa Conference League playoffs in August given that there are four football clubs from Belarus -- FC BATE Barysau, FC Homel, FC Shakhtsyor Salihorsk, and FC Dinamo Minsk -- in the qualifying round. "The massive support of the Russian invasion war on Ukraine by Belarus is not only against the values and norms of 1. FC Koln, but against those of the entire sport," the club said in the letter. "For this reason, we ask you to follow the recommendation of the [International Olympic Committee] and to not only exclude the Russian teams, but also the teams from Belarus, from all European competitions with immediate effect." The letter also emphasized that a recent verdict by the Court of Arbitration for Sport confirmed the legitimacy of the exclusion of Russian clubs and added that the European Union has also imposed sanctions on Belarus over its support of Moscow in its war against Ukraine by providing communications and territory for Russia to launch its wide-scale aggression against Ukraine.
Leaders from five Central Asian nations have ended a summit in the Kyrgyz resort town of Cholpon-Ata with a pledge to increase cooperation to strengthen the region as Russia -- the main strategic and trade partner of the region -- is being weakened by its war in Ukraine.
The meeting ended on July 21 with the signing of the Agreement on Friendship, Neighborliness, and Cooperation for Development of Central Asia in the 21st Century by the leaders of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan. Tajik and Turkmen leaders did not sign the document, citing domestic proceedings. The summit was the first gathering of heads of state in the region since Russia -- which was not a participant in the meeting -- launched its invasion of Ukraine five months ago. Despite Moscow's waning influence in the region, none of the five presidents in attendance mentioned the war in Ukraine. The meeting came just weeks after several dozens of people were killed in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan after security forces brutally clamped down on anti-government protests in their respective autonomous regions, Gorno-Badakhshan and Karakalpakstan. Meanwhile, more than 200 people were killed in unrest in Kazakhstan in January, prompting Nur-Sultan to invite Russian-led security forces to swoop in and help restore order.
This year's summit was held as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan have seen social unrest in the past two years while the cost of living has been on the rise in the region, with the situation exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, severe droughts, supply issues, and the war in Ukraine. "There is a necessity to prevent security crises created by those who use social, economic, inter-ethnic, religious issues as excuses and I call for joint efforts for that," Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov said. Another focus of the meeting was the situation in Afghanistan, where Taliban militants are nearing the first anniversary of their takeover of the country following the withdrawal of international forces in August 2021. Tajik President Rahmon said the five nations should keep the developments in the war-torn nation under "permanent focus" as they may affect geopolitical situation in Eurasia in general. "According to our prognosis, the situation in Afghanistan may go from bad to worse. Since taking over the country, Taliban leaders have failed to provide assurances to the international community, Afghan citizens with security, or solve social and economic challenges," Rahmon said. Talking about disputed border issues in the region, especially border-related problems between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan that have caused deadly shootouts in recent years, Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev offered to assist the Tajik and Kyrgyz governments in finding a peaceful solution to ward off further violent clashes. Toqaev's offer appeared to be an attempt to sideline Russia from its usual role of ironing out differences between former Soviet republics.
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