???? Live: Several injured in Russian attacks on Mykolaiv and Odesa

Issued on: 20/07/2023 – 06:00

3 min

5:45am: Ukrainian attack in Crimea kills one, says governor

A Ukrainian drone attack on Crimea damaged administrative buildings and killed a teenage girl, its Moscow-installed governor said on Thursday, days after Kyiv struck a strategic bridge linking the region to Russia.

“As a result of an attack by an enemy UAV, four administrative buildings were damaged in one of the settlements in the north-west of Crimea,” Sergei Aksyonov said on Telegram.

“Unfortunately, it didn’t pass without victims — a teenage girl died.”

“All necessary support will be provided to the family,” he said, without providing further details of the attack or specifying where it happened.

The report comes a day after a fire at a military site in Crimea that forced authorities to evacuate thousands of civilians.

3:58am: At least 18 wounded in Russian overnight strike on Mykolaiv, says governor

At least 18 people were wounded by a Russian strike on the Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv on Thursday, regional governor Vitaliy Kim said, while authorities in Odesa reported fresh strikes on the region.

Tensions around Ukraine’s Black Sea ports have escalated after Russia warned that ships sailing to them from Thursday would be seen as potential military targets, in the wake of Moscow’s withdrawal from a deal securing safe passage of Ukrainian grain shipments.

A three-storey residential building was hit in the Mykolaiv city centre, and emergency services rescued two people from the rubble, Kim wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

He had written earlier that some people had been killed but provided no further information in subsequent messages

11:55am: EU to discuss up to 20 billion euros in military aid to Ukraine over four years

European Union foreign ministers are expected to discuss a proposal on Thursday to spend up to 20 billion euros ($22.4 billion) on weapons, ammunition and other military aid for Ukraine over four years.

The proposal, by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, is part of an effort to put the bloc’s support for Kyiv on a longer-term footing, after more than a year of scrambling to respond to Ukraine’s immediate needs following Russia’s invasion.

The move would also be part of an international drive to give Ukraine long-term security assurances, as announced by G7 nations on the sidelines of last week’s NATO summit in Vilnius.

Key developments from Wednesday, July 19:

A video purporting to show Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin welcoming his Wagner fighters to Belarus surfaced on Wednesday on one of his official Telegram channels. In the video, which was not yet verified, a man whose voice sounded like Prigozhin’s is heard welcoming his men, telling them to behave, and saying their training will make the Belarusian army the second best in the world.

Russia continued to launch air attacks on Odesa. Ukrainian officials said the key port will continue its work to export grains. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said an alternative to the Black Sea grain deal had to be found and “there are very active discussions now.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the summit of the BRICS group of nations in South Africa in August “by mutual agreement”, South Africa’s presidency said on Wednesday. Russia will be represented by its Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov instead, the presidency said in a statement.

Read yesterday’s blog to see how the day’s events unfolded. 

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)