Ukraine strikes at heart of Russia’s Black Sea fleet

Odesa — Ukrainian forces struck the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet in Russian-held Sevastopol early on Sunday, the Crimean port city’s governor said, while Ukraine reported heavy Russian attacks against two southern cities.

Sevastopol governor Mikhail Razvozhayev was quoted by Russian media as saying five members of staff were wounded in the attack when what was presumed to be a drone flew into the courtyard at the headquarters.

The attack coincided with Russia’s Navy Day, which President Vladimir Putin marked by announcing that the Russian navy would receive what he called “formidable” hypersonic Zircon cruise missiles in the next few months. Hypersonic weapons can travel at nine times the speed of sound.

He did not mention Ukraine directly.

Ukrainian authorities said heavy Russian strikes hit the southern cities of Mykolaiv and Nikopol overnight and early on Sunday.

Two people were killed and three wounded when 12 missiles hit homes and educational facilities, Mykolaiv mayor Oleksandr Senkevych told Ukrainian television, earlier describing the strikes as “probably the most powerful” on the city of the entire war.

The founder and owner of one of the largest Ukrainian agriculture companies, Oleksiy Vadatursky, and his wife were the victims, local governor Vitaliy Kim said.

The governor said on Telegram that the couple were killed in their home in the city of Mykolaiv, which was shelled overnight and on Sunday morning.

The agricultural company, Nibulon, is headquartered in Mykolaiv. It specialises in the production and export of wheat, barley and maize, and has its own fleet and shipyard.

Up to 50 Grad rockets hit residential areas in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk governor Valentyn Reznichenko wrote on Telegram. One person was wounded.

Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield reports.

Putin sent tens of thousands of troops over the border on February 24, setting off a conflict that has killed thousands, uprooted millions and caused a deep strain in relations between Russia and the West. The biggest conflict in Europe since World War 2 has also stoked an energy and food crisis that is shaking the global economy. Both Ukraine and Russia are leading suppliers of grain.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday the country’s harvest could be half its usual amount this year due to the invasion.

“The Ukrainian harvest this year is under the threat to be twice less,” suggesting half as much as usual, Zelensky wrote in English on Twitter. “Our main goal — to prevent global food crisis caused by Russian invasion. Still grains find a way to be delivered alternatively,” he added.

Ukraine has struggled to get its product to buyers via its Black Sea ports because of the war. But an agreement signed under the stewardship of the UN and Turkey on July 22 provides for safe passage for ships carrying grain out of three southern Ukrainian ports.

There is a high possibility the first grain-exporting ship will leave Ukraine’s ports on Monday, a spokesperson for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

Donbas region

In a televised address late on Saturday, Zelensky said hundreds of thousands of people were still exposed to fierce fighting in the Donbas region, which contains Donetsk and Luhansk provinces and which Russia seeks to control completely. Swathes of the Donbas were held before the invasion by Russian-backed separatists.

“Many refuse to leave but it still needs to be done,” Zelensky said. “The more people leave the Donetsk region now, the fewer people the Russian army will have time to kill.”

Russia on Sunday invited UN and Red Cross experts to probe the deaths of dozens of Ukrainian prisoners held by Moscow-backed separatists. Ukraine and Russia have traded accusations over a missile strike or explosion early on Friday that appeared to have killed dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war in the front-line town of Olenivka in eastern Donetsk.

Russia invited a probe into the deaths “in the interests of conducting an objective investigation”, the defence ministry said.

The ministry had published a list of 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war killed and 73 wounded in what it said was a Ukrainian military strike with a US-made high-mobility artillery rocket system (Himar).

Ukraine’s armed forces denied responsibility, saying Russian artillery attacked the prison to hide mistreatment there.

Reuters journalists confirmed some of the deaths at the prison, but could not immediately verify the differing versions of events.

The UN had said it was prepared to send experts to investigate if it obtained consent from both parties. The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was seeking access and had offered to help evacuate the wounded.

Russia denies its forces have deliberately attacked civilians or committed war crimes in the invasion.

Ukraine’s military said more than 100 Russian soldiers had been killed and seven tanks destroyed in the south on Friday, including the Kherson region, which is the focus of Kyiv’s counteroffensive in that part of the country and a key link in Moscow’s supply lines.

Rail traffic to Kherson over the Dnipro River had been cut, the military’s southern command said, potentially further isolating Russian forces west of the river from supplies in occupied Crimea and the east.

Ukraine has used Western-supplied long-range missile systems to badly damage three bridges across the Dnipro in recent weeks, cutting off Kherson city and — in the assessment of British officials — leaving Russia’s 49th Army highly vulnerable on the river’s west bank.

Officials from the Russian-appointed administration running the Kherson region earlier last week rejected Western and Ukrainian assessments of the situation.

Reuters