No evidence of Black Sea grain deal breakthrough; Russian general Surovikin resurfaces
Kim Jong-un will reportedly travel to Russia this month to meet Vladimir Putin and discuss the possibility of supplying weapons for Russia’s war on Ukraine.
The governor of Russia’s western Bryansk region said border guards and security forces had “thwarted” an attempt by a Ukrainian sabotage group that tried to cross into Russia. Russia has this year repeatedly reported Ukrainian sabotage attempts on its borders, and sent helicopters to put down a cross-border incursion in the Belgorod region in May.
Gen Sergei Surovikin, who had not been publicly seen since Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin’s abortive mutiny in June, has apparently resurfaced. Ostorozhno Media published a picture, reportedly taken on Monday in Moscow, of the former aerospace commander alongside his wife.
There was no evidence of a breakthrough in the Black Sea grain deal. The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, concluded face-to-face talks with Vladimir Putin by claiming a deal to export Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea could be revived, but Putin again accused the west of reneging on promises.
Ukraine said its troops had regained more territory on the eastern front and were advancing further south in their counteroffensive against Russian forces, Reuters reported.
US, British and EU officials are planning to jointly press the United Arab Emirates to halt shipments of goods to Russia that could help Moscow in its war against Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
Ukraine said on Monday that Russian drones had detonated on the territory of Nato member Romania during an overnight airstrike on a Ukrainian port across the Danube river. Romania’s government denied its territory had been hit. Reuters could not independently verify either account. It is a rare report of stray fire from the war in Ukraine hitting a neighbouring member of Nato.
Rustem Umerov is poised to become Ukraine’s new defence minister after Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s decision to replace Oleksii Reznikov.
Ukraine on Monday named a Russian helicopter pilot it said defected over his opposition to Moscow’s invasion after flying across the border in a “long-term special operation” led by Kyiv. The intelligence wing of Ukraine’s defence minisry identified him as 28-year-old Maxim Kuzminov from the 319th separate helicopter regiment based in Russia’s far eastern Primorye region.
