Latest news on Russia and the war in Ukraine

Russia’s state gas giant Gazprom has signed a memorandum of understanding for strategic cooperation with Iran’s national oil company, NIOC.

The preliminary deal comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Tehran on Tuesday, meeting Iranian officials as well as Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The memorandum envisages both sides assessing possible collaborative projects including “the development of Iranian oil and gas fields and oil fields, performance of swap transactions with natural gas and petroleum products, implementation of large-scale and small-scale LNG projects, construction of gas trunklines , and sci-tech and technology cooperation,” Gazprom said in a statement.

Gazprom is likely to be eager to forge new partnerships abroad during a period when its traditional customer base in Europe is quickly collapsing as the EU and UK look to curtail all Russian gas imports due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

—Holly Ellyatt

The center of Kramatorsk, a key target for Russian forces in Donetsk, has been attacked according to the city’s mayor, with the number of victims yet to be determined.

“An attack on the central part of Kramatorsk. There are victims. Specialists of explosive engineering services and rescuers are working on the spot,” Oleksandr Vasylovych, the mayor of Kramatorsk said in a Facebook post Tuesday.

Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of Donetsk also reported on Telegram that there had been loud explosions in the city, adding that Russian forces had hit the central part of the city. He said preliminary information suggested missiles had been launched by plane. One image he posted showed a dead civilian on the ground outside a burning building.

Fires broke out in the residential floors that were at the epicenter of the impact with emergency services working at the scene to extinguish them.

Ukraine’s emergency services posted on Facebook that, as a result of shelling in a five-story apartment building, a fire broke out in the balconies on the third and fourth floors. “As a result of the shelling, 10 people were injured, of which 5 people were hospitalized,” they said.

Separately on Tuesday, Kramatorsk’s neigbor Sloviansk was also attacked, according to the head of the local military administration Vadym Lyakh.

“Unfortunately, Sloviansk was shelled again,” Lyakh said, adding that there were four explosions. “Many households are damaged, people are trapped under the rubble, there are wounded. Fortunately, there’s no one confirmed as killed yet,” Lyakh said in a video address.

—Holly Ellyatt

The death toll from a devastating strike in a public area of ​​the city of Vinnytsia last week has now risen to 25, the head of the city’s Regional Military Administration said on Tuesday.

Russian forces struck central Vinnytsia last Thursday with three Kalibr missiles, according to Ukrainian officials, causing a large number of deaths and wounded. Among the fatalities was a 4 year old child.

“Three Kalibr missiles cost the lives of 25 people,” Serhii Borzov said on Telegram today, adding that the 25th victim from the strike was 45-year-old neurologist Natalya Falshtynska, who died in a military hospital today.

Borzov said 54 people who were injured in the attack are still in Vinnytsia hospitals with eight of those in a serious condition, including a 20-year-old girl with 98% burns, he said. Some of the most serious casualties have been transferred to a specialist burns center in Lviv.

Russia has said it does not target civilians but the attack last week was one of many in which there have been mass civilian casualties.

—Holly Ellyatt

Russia continues to commit what are nominally six separate armies to its Donbas offensive, according to the latest intelligence update from the British Ministry of Defence, that noted Tuesday that at full strength, before the invasion, these formations were established for around 150,000 personnel.

In recent weeks, Russia has often operated with company-sized groupings of around 100 personnel when undertaking offensive operations in any one sector at a time, the ministry noted.

Nevertheless, Russia has struggled to sustain effective offensive combat power since the start of the invasion and this problem is likely becoming increasingly acute, it added.

“As well as dealing with severe under-manning, Russian planners face a dilemma between deploying reserves to the Donbas or defending against Ukrainian counterattacks in the southwestern Kherson sector.”

Given that Russia’s stated immediate policy objective is to seize all of Donetsk in the Donbas, while Russia may still make further territorial gains, its operational tempo and rate of advance is likely to be very slow, the UK said, “without a significant operational pause for reorganization and refit.”

— Holly Ellyatt

Ukraine’s top military commander said that the “timely arrival of M142 Himars” from the US is helping Ukrainian forces to withstand Russian attacks on the frontline in the Donbas.

Himars are long-range multiple launch rocket systems and are seen as a potential game-changer in Ukraine’s resistance, and fightback, against Russia’s near-constant artillery, battering cities and towns in Donetsk, a region of the Donbas.

In a Telegram post on Monday, General Valery Zaluzhny said the weapons were allowing his forces to “stabilize the situation.”

“It is complex, intense, but completely controlled. An important factor contributing to our retention of defensive lines and positions is the timely arrival of M142 HIMARS, which deliver targeted strikes on enemy control points, ammunition and fuel storage depots,” he said.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to meet his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Iran later today with the resumption of Ukrainian grain exports one of the main talking points.

Kremlin aide Yuriy Ushakov said Putin and Erdogan will “discuss key issues of Russian-Turkish cooperation, the implementation of flagship projects in the trade and economic area, as well as give an in-depth consideration to some international issues, including the situation around Ukraine and the export of Ukrainian grain,” Russian state news agency Tass reported Tuesday.

The issue of creating a grain corridor from Ukraine, which has seen its ships blockaded and its grain exports unable to leave the country via the Black Sea, is a major one as global food prices rise.

Representatives from Turkey, Russia, Ukraine and the UN held talks last week that appeared to have gone in the right direction with a deal said by Ukraine to be in sight.

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar appeared confident that more progress could be made this week, saying Monday that the sides could sign a final document agreeing to the creation of a coordination center to manage and oversee the resumption of grain exports.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russia is seeking payment in United Arab Emirates dirhams for oil exports to some Indian customers, Reuters reported, citing three sources and a document.

Reuters said it has seen an invoice showing the bill for the supply of oil to one refiner in dollars while payment was requested in dirhams.

Russian oil major Rosneft is pushing crude through trading firms into India, according to the news agency.

That comes after the slew of Western sanctions prompted oil importers to shun Moscow, causing spot prices for Russian crude to fall to record discounts against other grades. Indian refiners bought exports at heavily discounted prices, and Russia replaced Saudi Arabia as the second-biggest oil supplier to India after Iraq for the second month in a row in June, said Reuters.

— Natalie Tham

A Ukrainian nuclear power plant company said that Russian forces abducted Ihor Kvashnin, the head of the environmental protection service of the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant in southeastern Ukraine.

“They took him to an unknown destination,” Energoatom stated on the Telegram messaging platform. “It is still impossible to locate Kvashnin,” the company added.

Russian forces took Kvashnin on July 17.

—Amanda Macias

Ukraine’s Air Force wrote on Facebook that Russia’s military has launched about 3,000 missiles over Ukraine.

“These are cruise missiles, aviation missiles of the air-to-surface class, missiles fired from operational-tactical complexes, like the Tochka-U and Iskander, as well as Onyx missiles,” Ukraine’s Air Force wrote on its Facebook page.

The group wrote that Russia is also using old Soviet missiles “against Ukrainian military positions and civilian objects.”

—Amanda Macias

Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska will address the US Congress this week, Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office said in a statement announcing the visit.

Zelenska is expected to deliver a speech on Wednesday at 11 am ET

Pelosi invited all members of the House and Senate to attend the address.

—Amanda Macias

Click here to read yesterday’s live blog.