Southern Ukraine is becoming a major focus of the war, which entered its sixth month on Sunday July 24. In the aftermath of the bombings on the port of Odessa, Russia said on Sunday that it had targeted military targets in this strategic place for the export of grain, while it had denied on Saturday that it was at the initiative of these attacks. For its part, kyiv hopes soon to liberate the Kherson region.
Moscow claims to have destroyed military targets in Odessa
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that “High-precision, long-range missiles launched from the sea destroyed a docked Ukrainian military ship and a stockpile of Harpoon anti-ship missiles delivered by the United States to the kyiv regime.” “A factory for the repair and modernization of Ukrainian army ships has also been put out of use”, the ministry continued, in a statement posted on its Telegram account. Earlier in the day, the spokeswoman for Russian diplomacy, Maria Zakharova, had affirmed that a “military star” Ukrainian had been destroyed during this strike. Neither the Russian army, nor Maria Zakharova, provided any evidence to prove these statements.
On Saturday, Russia had however denied to Turkey that it had been involved in these strikes: “The Russians told us they had absolutely nothing to do with this attack and were looking into the matter very closely”, had assured the Turkish Minister of Defense, Hulusi Akar. After these shootings on Odessa, Ukraine accused Vladimir Putin of having “spit in the face” of the UN and Turkey and jeopardize the application of the agreement signed on Friday on the resumption of grain exports blocked by the conflict.
Kherson region “definitely liberated” by September
The Kherson region in the south of the country will be “definitely released by September”said on Sunday the adviser to the head of the Kherson regional military administration loyal to kyiv, in an interview on Ukrainian television. “All the occupiers’ plans will fail”he added as the Ukrainian military began to regain ground from Russian forces, aided by Western arms shipments.
“We can talk about a turnaround on the ground. In recent operations, it was the Ukrainian armed forces that had the advantage, explained the local managerour army is advancing frankly, we are moving from a defensive phase to a counter-offensive.” The Russians took control of the region’s main city, Kherson, on March 3.
The German president denounces “a war against the unity of Europe”
The war that Russian President Vladimir Putin is waging against Ukraine is also “a war against the unity of Europe”lambasted German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Sunday. “We must not allow ourselves to be divided, we must not allow the great work of a united Europe which we have begun so promising to be destroyed”he said during a speech in Paderborn (west). “This war is not only about the territory of Ukraine, it is about the doubly common foundation of our values and our peace order”he added.
But defending these values and standing up for them also means being ready to “to accept sensible inconvenience”underlined the German president, without giving more details on the disadvantages in question. “Are we ready for this?he wonderedwe all face this question, today and in the days, weeks and months to come.”