War in Ukraine: Recent Developments

Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine:

Russian authorities in the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea – seized from Ukraine by Moscow in 2014 – say a small explosive device from a commercial drone likely launched nearby has hit the naval command in Sevastopol.

The local mayor blames “Ukrainian nationalists” for the attack, which forced the cancellation of celebrations in the city to mark Russia’s annual Navy Day holiday.

But a spokesman for Ukraine’s military administration in the Odessa region denies that Kyiv – whose nearest positions are some 200 kilometers away – is responsible, calling the incident “a mere provocation”.

“Our liberation of Crimea from the occupiers will be carried out in a different way and much more effectively,” spokesman Sergiy Bratchuk writes on Telegram.

Authorities in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolayiv say widespread Russian bombing has killed at least two civilians overnight, including a grain magnate, as Moscow continues to smash the sprawling front line.

“Today Mykolayiv was subjected to a mass shelling. Probably the strongest so far,” writes the city’s mayor Oleksandr Senkevych on Telegram.

Authorities say leading Ukrainian agricultural tycoon Oleksiy Vadatursky, 74, and his wife Raisa were killed when a rocket hit their home

Vadatursky, ranked Ukraine’s 24th richest man by Forbes with a fortune of $430 million, owned major grain exporter Nibulon and was previously awarded the prestigious Hero of Ukraine award.

A spokesman for the Turkish Presidency said there was a “high probability” that a first ship carrying Ukrainian grain could leave the Ukrainian port of Odessa on Monday.

And this despite the fact that Russian missiles hit the city after the July 22 agreement on the transport of grain between Russia, Turkey, the United Nations and Ukraine.

“It is very likely that a first ship could leave tomorrow morning if everything is settled by this evening,” Ibrahim Kalin said in an interview with Channel 7 on Sunday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is calling for the evacuation of the eastern Donetsk region, which has been the scene of fierce clashes between his country’s armed forces and the Russian military.

“There is already a government decision on mandatory evacuation from Donetsk region. Please follow the evacuation. At this stage of the war, terror is a main weapon of Russia,” he says.

Official Ukrainian estimates put the number of civilians still living in the unoccupied territory of Donetsk at between 200,000 and 220,000.

“The decision to withdraw should be made at some point. The more people are now leaving the Donetsk region, the fewer people the Russian army will kill,” says Zelenskyj.

Kyiv and Moscow are swapping blame for strikes for a prison holding Ukrainian prisoners of war in Kremlin-controlled Olenivka.

According to the Russian military, 50 Ukrainian soldiers died, including troops who surrendered after weeks of fighting Russia’s brutal bombardment of the sprawling Azovstal Steel Plant in the port city of Mariupol.

Ukraine says Russia was behind the attack and Zelenskyy accused Moscow of “premeditated mass murder of Ukrainian prisoners of war”.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it had invited the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations to visit the site “in the interest of an objective investigation”.