Ukraine’s three ports intended for the export of grain resumed work on Wednesday, according to the Navy. The federal government approves the sale of 100 modern self-propelled howitzers to Kyiv. All voices and developments on the Ukraine war here in the ticker.
06:45: The British military expert Ed Arnold explained in an interview why Russia’s offensive in Ukraine is currently making little progress. “The Russian armed forces are running out of breath,” the expert from the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) told the “Spiegel”.
One of the reasons: Ukraine’s new forward defense, which claimed many victims on the Russian side, especially in Sievjerodonetsk. Currently, Putin’s troops could still be moving, “but in the east it’s at best one kilometer a day.”
Because the Ukrainians have started shelling the ammunition stocks of the Russian artillery, it can fire less. This further slows down Russia’s offensive. Arnold believes that Putin’s troops could not go on like this “for much longer”.
Ukraine is preparing for a counter-offensive in autumn with the shelling, which hit ammunition depots, command and control centers and Russian formations. However, this also increases the expectations of Volodymyr Zelenskyj. “This is politically important, because Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has to prove that he is capable of using the systems supplied by the West and actually regaining ground,” says Arnold.
Ukraine must act differently than Russia, which does not mind “hitting population centers with a hammer and then moving on”. Therefore, Ukraine began targeting infrastructure and bridges around Kherson to deprive Russia of easy retreat options. “Then they can try to catch and destroy the Russian units west of the Dnieper.”
It will also be difficult, “because the Russians switched to defensive operations some time ago. They have realized that they cannot break out of Cherson and advance as far as Transnistria.” Nevertheless, Arnold considers a reconquest of Cherson by September to be “plausible”.
Thursday, July 28, 2:15 a.m .: Given fears of energy shortages in Europe, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi has announced increased electricity supplies to the EU. “We are preparing to increase our electricity exports to consumers in the European Union,” Zelenskyy said in his daily televised address on Wednesday.
“Our exports not only allow us to increase our foreign exchange earnings, but also help our partners to withstand the Russian energy pressure.” Ukraine should gradually become “a guarantor of European energy security”, said the President. Fears of energy bottlenecks in the coming months due to reduced Russian gas supplies are growing in Germany and other EU countries.
Ukraine was connected to the European power grid in mid-March. Before the Russian war of aggression against the country began on February 24, the Ukrainian grid was synchronized with the Russian grid. At the beginning of July, Ukraine then began exporting electricity to the EU via Romania. In Ukraine, more than half of the electricity comes from nuclear power.
10:55 p.m .: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken wants to speak to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for the first time since the beginning of the Ukraine war. The goal is the release of US citizens Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner imprisoned in Russia, Blinken said in Washington on Wednesday. Former US soldier Whelan, who was sentenced to 16 years in prison for espionage, and the basketball player who is currently on trial for possession of cannabis oil are being wrongfully detained.
“We made a comprehensive proposal weeks ago to secure their release,” Blinken said. Blinken did not confirm reports that the two would be exchanged for US-imprisoned Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
Regarding the planned talks with Lavrov, the US Secretary of State emphasized: “There will be no negotiations about Ukraine.” The two foreign ministers last spoke to each other in mid-February, a few days before the start of the war. At the recent G20 meeting in Indonesia, Blinken avoided meeting Lavrov.
9:01 p.m .: The journalist Marina Ovsjannikova, who became known through her live protest action on Russian television against the military operation in Ukraine, has to answer in court from Thursday (12:00 p.m. CEST). The 44-year-old is accused of “discrediting” the Russian army. At the trial in Moscow, she faces a long prison sentence.
Ovzyannikova became internationally known when she appeared behind the news anchor during a live broadcast on March 14, holding a sign that read “No War” for the camera. The journalist then spent several months abroad and worked briefly for the German newspaper “Die Welt”, among other things. The 44-year-old is now back in Russia. She recently demonstrated again near the Kremlin against the military operation in Ukraine.
8:44 p.m.: France could provide Germany with 20 terawatt-hours of gas over the winter months, officials at France’s Energy Ministry told Reuters on Wednesday. This corresponds to around two percent of Germany’s annual consumption.
“130 gigawatt hours per day would be possible. In winter, that would add up to a total of 20 terawatt hours,” said a representative. That would be about five percent of France’s annual consumption.
However, delivering French gas to Germany would still pose some technical challenges and could take some time due to different regulations in the two countries, officials said. The main problem is that France adds odors to its gas for safety reasons, while Germany does not. Setting up a deodorizer to remove odors from the gas streams could take up to 18 months.
France is not so dependent on gas in winter because electric heaters are predominantly in use. For this, the country could in turn need electricity imports from Germany.
8:26 p.m .: In the course of its war in Ukraine, Russia is showing interest in the Turkish Bayraktar TB2 combat drone, which was also successfully used there by Kyiv. The issue of military-technical cooperation will also be discussed at a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Sochi on the Black Sea on August 5, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.
Russia had previously denied speculation that it would buy drones from Iran. Putin and Erdogan met in the Iranian capital Tehran last week. Now Peskow said that both sides also talked about such sensitive issues, showing how close the cooperation between the two countries is.
Russia had previously sold its S-400 missile defense system to Turkey, which is a NATO member, to the annoyance of the United States. According to reports, there should now be a return service from the Turkish side.
Erdogan had previously reported on Putin’s interest. Erdogan said on Tuesday that Putin had suggested working with Turkey on the Baykar drones, according to the broadcaster CNN Türk. A corresponding factory could be founded in the United Arab Emirates. The Emirates would have offered that, said Erdogan.
The Turkish combat drone Bayraktar TB2 is considered an export hit. The drones have already been used in several conflicts, for example on the side of Azerbaijan in the conflict with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. It is also considered accurate and effective and can stay in the air for up to 27 hours.
The Ukraine also uses Bayraktar drones. At the beginning of Putin’s war of aggression, videos of Russian tanks allegedly being destroyed by these drones circulated on the Internet. Should Russia develop the drones together with Turkey, Moscow would also have access to the technology of a NATO member state.
7:14 p.m .: After the ban on broadcasting of its state television station RT in France, Russia has threatened pressure against Western media. Moscow’s reaction to the European court’s upheld RT France EU ban will be “rather negative,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday. “The attack on the freedom of speech, on the freedom of the mass media in European countries, including France, is a process that causes our concern and regret,” Peskov said.
The Kremlin spokesman did not go into the large number of banned media in Russia. “Of course we take equal measures of pressure against Western mass media that work in our country,” Peskov said. “We will not let them work in our country either, and there will be no soft attitude here.” He also did not mention that Russian correspondents can work freely in the EU. In contrast, Western correspondents can only work in Russia with accreditation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The judges in Luxembourg had previously dismissed an action brought by RT France against an EU broadcasting ban on allegations of war propaganda (Case T-125/22). The sanction was issued in early March, shortly after the start of the Russian war against Ukraine. It affects all distribution channels of RT and Sputnik in the EU, such as cable, satellite or the Internet. This also affects RT offshoots such as RT in German or French. The EU has meanwhile canceled the transmission frequencies of three other stations.
6.49 p.m .: According to the armaments company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW), the federal government has approved the sale of 100 new self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine. A company spokesman confirmed a corresponding report by the news magazine “Der Spiegel” on Wednesday. Accordingly, on July 13, the Ministry of Economic Affairs granted the Munich armaments company approval for the construction of the 2000 self-propelled howitzers. The spokesman said that the export was thus also approved. The contract with Ukraine is now being made. However, KMW is willing to make advance payments so that no time is lost.
Germany has so far delivered ten Panzerhaubitz 2000 from its own stocks to the Ukraine. The Panzerhaubitze is the Bundeswehr’s most modern artillery piece with a range of 40 kilometers. The armed forces of eight states have more than 360 of these howitzers at their disposal.
When the Ukraine will get the first howitzers newly manufactured by KMW is a secret. According to the information, the production of all 100 howitzers should take several years. They cost a total of around 1.7 billion euros.
According to “Spiegel”, the Ukraine had already asked KMW in April whether the howitzers could be bought directly from the manufacturer. KMW submitted the official application to the ministry on July 11 and received approval two days later.
4:15 p.m .: The port city of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine, which was occupied by Russian troops and badly damaged, is to be more closely connected to the Russian heartland with a ferry. “The route will be used for the delivery of various goods necessary for the reconstruction of the infrastructure of Mariupol and other places in the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics,” the Russian Defense Ministry announced on its Telegram channel on Wednesday.
Shortly after the war began in February, Mariupol was surrounded by troops loyal to Moscow, but was not fully taken until the end of May after months of heavy fighting. During that time, the city, which was home to more than 400,000 people before the war, was almost completely destroyed. The pro-Russian separatists, who now control Mariupol, have promised to rebuild the city.
The ferry with a payload of 700 tons will deliver the necessary goods. One tour per day is planned, as the Ministry of Defense announced. The port has since been cleared of mines. It had previously become known that the administration, which is loyal to Moscow, intends to export grain from the region via the port in Mariupol. Ukraine accuses Russia of stealing grain in this regard.
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