#siversk

Ukraine, the United Nations and Turkey all hailed progress at talks in Istanbul with Russia designed to resume Black Sea grain exports on Wednesday.

Officials said they have established a coordination centre in Istanbul to monitor grain exports.

The head of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenksiy’s office, Andriy Yermak, said:

“Its task will be to carry out general monitoring and coordination of safe navigation in the Black Sea.

This will ensure the export of Ukrainian grain and guarantee food security for millions of people around the world.”

Turkey’s defence minister Hulusi Akar said an agreement would be signed next week, adding that Ankara will ensure the safety of shipments in transit and the parties will jointly check grain cargoes in ports.

However, UN chief Antonio Guterres said more work was needed before a deal was signed. Guterres told reporters in New York:

“We have seen a critical step forward. We still need a lot of goodwill and commitments by all parties.”

-via The Guardian

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“Russian and proxy forces have entered the town of Siversk in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, according to Russian media reports.

State news agency Tass quoted Vitaly Kiselyov, an official from the self-appointed Luhansk People’s Republic, as saying the town could fall within a couple of days, but it was not clear what that claim was based on.

Ukraine’s armed forces said in their evening operational update that Russia had not conducted any new assaults on the frontline that includes Siversk, but that the town had been fired upon by artillery.

The Guardian has not been able to immediately verify the report.

In its latest intelligence report, the UK Ministry of Defence predicted that Russian forces will likely focus on taking several small towns during the coming week, including Siversk and Dolyna on the approaches to Slovyansk and Kramatorsk.”-via The Guardian

On Twitter, the UK Ministry of Defence says “In the Donbas, Russian forces will likely focus on taking several small towns during the coming week, including Siversk and Dolyna on the approaches to Slovyansk and Kramatorsk.” Twitter source.

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“Lithuania will allow sanctioned Russian goods to transit its territory on their way to Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave, its foreign ministry said on Wednesday, reversing its policy after new European Commission guidelines.

The new guidelines on Wednesday followed weeks of tension among Moscow, European Union member Lithuania and the European Union that tested Europe’s resolve to enforce sanctions on Russia.

Kaliningrad, which is bordered by EU states and relies on railways and roads through Lithuania for most goods, has had some freight transport from mainland Russia cut off since 17 June under sanctions imposed by Brussels.

The sanctions were designed to bar entry into the EU of certain Russian products, such as vodka and steel.

Moscow earlier said restricting overland transit of goods from Russia to Kaliningrad amounted to an illegal blockade; Lithuania said it had no choice but to enforce rules imposed by Brussels.”-via The Guardian

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“At least 14 civilians have been injured after Russian missiles struck an unnamed commercial enterprise in Zaporizhizhia on July 13, the Kyiv Independent reports.

Rescue workers are currently on scene where two Russian missiles severely damaged the enterprise’s facilities, local authorities said.”-via The Guardian

Here’s a link to the Telegram post they’re citing.

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“The European Union is preparing a seventh package of sanctions against Moscow but it is already clear that it will not curb imports of Russian gas as too many member states can't adjust quickly enough, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala told Reuters.

Fiala said the sanctions now being finalised by the EU's executive to ramp up pressure over Russia's invasion of Ukraine were expected to ban gold imports, widen a list of dual-use goods banned for export to Russia and target more individuals.

The European Commission should be ready to present the package in the coming days and member states could approve it immediately after, Fiala said in an interview.

"A seventh package is being prepared, and I think it is a good course," Fiala said, speaking from his office in Prague.

"What is definitely problematic is to include energy into the sanctions, because a rule must be observed that the sanctions must have a greater impact on Russia than on the countries imposing the sanctions."

Fiala said there was no chance that gas would be included.

"I think that it should not be there, because a number of countries depend on Russian gas," he said.

The Czech Republic, which took over the EU's rotating six-month presidency on July 1, is one of those countries, dependent on Russia for almost all of its gas needs.

“Civilians in the Russian-occupied southern region of Kherson were urged on Sunday to immediately evacuate because Ukraine’s armed forces were preparing a counter attack there, Reuters reports.

Ukraine lost control of most of the Black Sea region of Kherson, including its eponymous capital, in the first weeks following Russia’s 24 February invasion.

It’s clear there will be fighting, there will be artillery shelling... and we therefore urge [people] to evacuate urgently.

I know for sure that there should not be women and children there, and that they should not become human shields.

Vereshchuk said she could not say exactly when the counter-attack would take place.

The Kherson region includes the city of Kherson, which before the war had a population of nearly 300,000. It is not known how many of the city’s residents are still there.

Kherson’s Russian-installed authorities say they want to hold a referendum on seceding to Russia, but have not yet set a date. The Kremlin says the future of the region should be determined by its residents.”-via The Guardian

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“At least 15 people were killed and two dozen more are feared trapped after Russian Uragan rockets hit a five-story apartment block in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, local officials said on Sunday as rescuers picked their way through the rubble.

Ukraine also reported clashes with Russian troops on fronts in the east and south, while Moscow said its forces struck Ukrainian army hangars storing U.S.-produced M777 howitzers, a type of artillery, near Kostyantynivka in Donetsk region.

Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said the strike on the apartment building took place on Saturday evening in the town of Chasiv Yar. The regional emergency service gave the death toll at 15 on Sunday afternoon, adding that 24 more people could still be under the rubble.”-via CNBC

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“The Kyiv Independent, citing a Facebook post by Donetsk governor Pavlo Kyrylenko, is reporting the deaths of two Ukrainian civilians, and at least two injuries, from Russian missile attacks on the city of Siversk.

The governor’s update to the “operational situation” in the region also includes three injuries from shelling in the city of Soledar, and the burning down of seven houses and other property from Russian shelling of Bakhmut.

There is no information yet about any casualties in Bakhmut, Kyrylenko said.

Siversk is a smaller town close to where Ukraine is fighting Russian troops for control of Sievierodonetsk, a Luhansk region city Ukraine officials warned last week was facing a “humanitarian disaster”.”-via The Guardian

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“For more than a month, Germany has been blocking the € 9 billion aid package that should represent the main form of EU support for Ukraine . The stalemate, confirmed by various protagonists both in Kiev and in Brussels, could be one of the reasons that prompted Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday to suddenly and rather brutally remove the Ukrainian ambassador in Berlin Andryi Melnyk .

However, there is a further reason behind the Ukrainian president's nervousness of these hours: the suspicion that the Berlin government is preparing to violate some sanctions against Moscow in order to recover Russian gas supplies through the Nord Stream pipelines.

Both issues have been troubling the Ukrainian government and relations with Brussels for days, with no solution yet in sight. German opposition to the aid package seems unrelated to the gas crisis , so it probably does not reflect an attempt by Berlin to flatter Moscow just as the Kremlin maneuvers to cut off energy supplies to Europe. Yet Berlin's obstacles to lending to Ukraine remain formidable.”-via Corriere Della Sera (Italian source)

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“Canada will return a repaired turbine to Germany that is needed for the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline and could help to ensure continued flows of energy until Europe can end its dependency on Russian gas, Canada's minister of natural resources said.

Ukraine's energy and foreign ministries said the decision amounted to adjusting sanctions imposed on Moscow "to the whims of Russia" and called for it to be reversed.

The Canadian government said in a statement on Saturday it was issuing a "time-limited and revocable permit" to exempt the return of turbines from its Russian sanctions and also announced new measures against Moscow in response to its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.