This blog file is now closed. For the latest developments, head over here.
Near Bakhmut, Ukrainian soldiers have used Soviet-designed, North Korean-made rockets that they say were seized from a ship by a "friendly" country before being delivered to Ukraine. In St. Petersburg, Russian President Vladimir Putin says his country's navy will receive 30 new warships this year.
Read our latest updates here. For all our coverage, visit our Ukraine war page.
Maldives: Small island nation with big role shipping chips to Russia
Russian ex-oil tycoon expects new rebellion to follow Wagner
Russia's grain deal exit to gradually hit Asia food supplies
Special report: Russia buying civilian drones from China for war effort
China fears Russia chaos after Wagner uprising
Europe weighs using frozen Russian assets to rebuild Ukraine
Special report: How U.S.-made chips are flowing into Russia
Note: Nikkei Asia decided in March 2022 to suspend its reporting from Russia until further information becomes available regarding the scope of the revised criminal code. Entries include material from wire services and other sources.
Here are the latest developments:
Monday, July 31 (Tokyo time)
12:39 a.m. Ukraine begins negotiations with the U.S. this week on a bilateral agreement for security guarantees that will be valid until Ukraine joins NATO, the head of the Ukrainian presidential office announces.
The talks will follow up on Group of Seven members' recent pledge to "each work with Ukraine on specific, bilateral, long-term security commitments and arrangements."
Sunday, July 30
5:30 p.m. The Russian Navy will receive 30 new warships this year, President Vladimir Putin says in St. Petersburg in a speech for a naval parade on the Neva River to mark his country's annual Navy Day.
1:00 p.m. Ukraine tried to attack "Moscow facilities" via drone in the morning local time, Russia's Defense Ministry says.
"One Ukrainian drone was destroyed by air defense means over the territory of the Moscow Region's Odintsovo district," the Russian government's Tass news agency quotes the ministry as saying. "Two other drones were suppressed by electronic warfare and, having lost control, crashed on the territory of the Moscow City complex of non-residential buildings."
There is no immediate claim of responsibility from Ukraine, whose military intelligence service declines to comment on the Moscow City strikes, the Financial Times reports.
Tass quotes an emergency services source as saying a security guard was injured in a Moscow City building. Independent Russia-focused media outlet Meduza posts photos of blown-out skyscraper windows.
"Passers-by found documents on the street, which were presumably blown out of the buildings where the offices of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Economic Development, and the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media are located," Meduza says.
12:15 a.m. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki says a group of a hundred Russian Wagner mercenaries have moved closer to the Belarusian city of Grodno near the Polish border, raising fears that the troops will try to cross the border.
"The situation is getting increasingly dangerous ... Most likely they [the Wagner personnel] will be disguised as the Belarusian border guard and help illegal migrants get to the Polish territory [and] destabilize Poland," Morawiecki says. "They will most likely try to enter Poland pretending to be illegal migrants and this poses additional threats," he says.
Saturday, July 29
11:30 p.m. Ukrainian soldiers have used North Korean rockets that they said were seized by a "friendly" country before being delivered to Ukraine, the Financial Times reports.
The North Korean arms, were shown to the FT by troops operating Soviet-era Grad multiple-launch rocket systems (MLRS) near the devastated city of Bakhmut.
The Ukrainian soldiers say the rockets had been "seized" from a ship by a "friendly" country before being delivered to Ukraine.
3:50 p.m. Wagner mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, who remains active despite leading a failed mutiny against the Russian army's top brass last month, has hailed Niger's military coup as good news and offered his fighters' services to bring order. A voice message on Telegram app channels associated with Wagner that they said was Prigozhin did not claim involvement in the coup, but described it as a moment of long overdue liberation from Western colonisers and made what looked like a pitch for his fighters to help keep order.
1:00 p.m. The Japanese Defense Ministry says that five Chinese and five Russian warships sailed through the Soya Strait between Hokkaido and Sakhalin to the Sea of Okhotsk, possibly in connection with a joint patrol in the Pacific Ocean. Nine of the naval vessels were involved in a joint exercise in the Sea of Japan between July 18 and 23, the ministry said. The Chinese and Russian vessels -- destroyers, frigates and supply ships -- were located about 200 kilometers southwest of Rebun Island in Hokkaido around 3 p.m. Friday and had moved eastward through the strait by Saturday, according to the ministry.
3:05 a.m. African leaders press Russian President Vladimir Putin to move ahead with their peace plan to end the Ukraine conflict and to renew a deal on the safe wartime export of Ukrainian grain that Moscow tore up last week, reports Reuters.
"This war must end. And it can only end on the basis of justice and reason," African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat told Putin and African leaders at the Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg.
"The disruptions of energy and grain supplies must end immediately. The grain deal must be extended for the benefit of all the peoples of the world, Africans in particular."
12:32 a.m. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal says that Qatar will provide Ukraine with $100 million in humanitarian aid to support health, education and demining, reports Reuters.
Friday, July 28
2:08 a.m. China is helping Russia evade Western sanctions and likely providing Moscow with military and dual-use technology for use in Ukraine, according to an unclassified U.S. intelligence report.
"The customs records show PRC state-owned defense companies shipping navigation equipment, jamming technology, and fighter jet parts to sanctioned Russian Government-owned defense companies," the report said, using the acronym for the People's Republic of China.
Thursday, July 27
10:30 p.m. Russia has placed International Criminal Court Judge Tomoko Akane on its wanted list after the court issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin for war crimes, the state media Tass reports.
Akane is the second ICC judge to be placed on Russia's wanted list, with Judge Rosario Salvatore Aitala and ICC prosecutor Karim Khan being put on the list in May.
3:00 p.m. Russia hit port infrastructure in Ukraine's Odesa region in an overnight missile attack, killing a security guard and damaging a cargo terminal, the region's governor says. Odesa's ports have been regular targets for Russian attacks since Moscow last week withdrew from the Black Sea grain initiative, the Turkey and U.N.-brokered agreement that allowed Ukrainian grain to be exported from Odesa's ports for nearly a year. Odesa Gov. Oleh Kiper said Russia fired Kalibr missiles at an unspecified port from a submarine in the Black Sea. He said a security building had been destroyed and two cars damaged.
9:30 a.m. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday met with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who was on a rare visit to the isolated country during which both sides pledged to boost ties, state media KCNA reports. Shoigu handed Kim a letter from Russian President Vladimir Putin, the report said. Kim in turn thanked Putin for sending a military delegation led by Shoigu, adding the meeting deepened the "strategic and traditional DPRK [North Korea]-Russia relations."
The Russian delegation and a Chinese delegation including Chinese Communist Party Politburo member Li Hongzhongas arrived in North Korea this week for the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War celebrated in North Korea as "Victory Day."
4:06 a.m. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi held summit talks with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Wednesday in St. Petersburg, the African country's State Information Service reports.
The meeting was held ahead of the second Russia-Africa Summit, a two-day event ending Friday.
Sisi thanked Putin for Moscow's support in establishing projects including the Dabaa nuclear power plant, Egypt Today reports.
Wednesday, July 26
8:00 p.m. Russia has deployed the warship Sergey Kotov to the southern Black Sea, the British Defence Ministry says, warning of potential Russian actions against commercial vessels. The corvette is tasked with patrolling the shipping lane between the Bosphorus and Odesa, the ministry says in an intelligence update.
"There is a realistic possibility that it will form part of a task group to intercept commercial vessels Russia believes are heading to Ukraine," the ministry says.
A day earlier, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy talked by phone on the possibility of Russian forces adding merchant ships to their list of targets in the Black Sea, British Ambassador to the U.N. Barbara Woodward told reporters.
Russia has repeatedly attacked grain warehouses in the port of Odesa since suspending its participation in an agreement ensuring the flow of agricultural exports through the Black Sea. Moscow says other parties to the deal failed to hold up their end of the bargain.
2:00 p.m. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu is to visit North Korea, state media in Pyongyang report, part of the first travel by foreign dignitaries to the isolated East Asian nation since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shoigu flew into Pyongyang on a plane carrying a Chinese delegation including Li Hongzhong, a member of the Communist Party Politburo, Kyodo reports, citing aviation sources.
10:30 a.m. The U.S. has announced $400 million in additional military aid for Ukraine, including air defense missiles, armored vehicles and small drones. The new aid package will include, for the first time, U.S.-supplied Black Hornet surveillance drones made by Teledyne FLIR Defense, part of Teledyne Technologies. The Norwegian-built mini drone is being used in Ukraine through donations by the British and Norwegian governments. The U.S. will also supply additional munitions for Patriot air defense systems and National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS), as well as Stinger anti-aircraft systems.
Tuesday, July 25
10:45 p.m. Landmines have been found at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant by international inspectors, according to International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi.
"Having such explosives on the site is inconsistent with the IAEA safety standards and nuclear security guidance and creates additional psychological pressure on plant staff," Grossi says.
3:00 p.m. Operators performing maintenance at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant have switched the shutdown mode of two reactors, the Moscow-installed administration of the plant says. "In order to conduct a scheduled technical inspection of the equipment of power unit No. 5, the management of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant decided to transfer it to the 'cold shutdown' state," the administration said on its Telegram channel. It added: "And in order to provide steam for the station's own needs, the reactor plant of power unit No. 4 was transferred to the 'hot shutdown' state."
1:40 p.m. Russia and other nations taking part in this week's Russia-Africa summit will discuss Moscow's grain and fertilizers exports, says Oleg Ozerov, ambassador at large for the Russian foreign ministry, in comments to state news agency RIA.
1:10 p.m. Russia's finance ministry plans to cut the discount it uses to set taxes on the country's crude oil exports to $20 per barrel from $25, Reuters reports, citing Finance Minister Anton Siluanov's remarks published on the day.
10:10 a.m. U.S. wheat futures hit a five-month high, stretching gains following Russia's attacks on Ukrainian ports and grain infrastructure that sparked concerns about long-term global supplies and food security.
8:30 a.m. Russia launched an air attack on Kyiv early on Tuesday, the military administration of the Ukrainian capital says. "On the outskirts of Kyiv, air defence systems are being engaged [in repelling the attack]," said Serhiy Popko, head of the administration, on the Telegram messaging channel.
8:00 a.m. Belarus' Ministry of Emergency Situations is completing the arming and military training of personnel to be ready to aid defense and internal ministries in the event of an armed conflict, the ministry head says.
7:50 a.m. Brian Nelson, the U.S. Treasury's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, will highlight Washington's efforts to facilitate Russian grain and fertilizer exports during a visit to Kenya and Somalia, and stress that Moscow's exit from the Black Sea grain deal will hurt African states, a spokesperson says.
7:45 a.m. The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog says it had found antipersonnel mines in an area of the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power facility in Ukraine and complained for the second month running that this violated safety procedures. According to Reuters, Rafael Grossi, the IAEA's director general, agency inspectors stationed at the plant had noted mines in a buffer zone between the site's internal and external perimeter barriers and had also observed mines during previous checks. "But having such explosives on the site is inconsistent with the IAEA safety standards and nuclear security guidance and creates additional psychological pressure on plant staff," Grossi said in a statement on the agency's website.
Monday, July 24
11:40 p.m. Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law on creating a digital ruble and an electronic platform for transactions in the new currency format, Tass reports.
The digital ruble will be used as a means for payments and transfers, Tass reports, adding that the platform will be operated by the Bank of Russia.
3:30 p.m. The Russian Defense Ministry says Ukraine tried to attack Crimea overnight using 17 drones, but that the attack was foiled and that there were no casualties, Reuters reports. It said 11 of the drones crashed into the Black Sea after being suppressed by anti-drone equipment, three fell on Crimean territory and three were destroyed by air-defenses. Reuters was not able to independently verify the report.
2:00 p.m. Russia's overnight drone attack on the southern Ukrainian port of Odesa destroyed a grain depot and injured four port employees, Ukraine's southern military command says on social media. Based on preliminary information, three drones were destroyed in the attacks, the command said.
1:20 p.m. Russia's defense ministry accuses Ukraine of a "terrorist" drone attack on Moscow after the city's mayor said that two buildings were hit and media reported that debris was found not far from the ministry's buildings. The defense ministry said on its Telegram messaging app that two drones "were suppressed and crashed." Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on his Telegram messaging app that two non-residential buildings were struck at around 4 a.m. (0100 GMT), adding that there was no "serious damage or casualties."
10:45 a.m. Fragments of a drone were found in central Moscow some 2 kilometers away from the main building of the Ministry of Defence, Russia's state news agencies report, citing emergency services. Komsomolsky Avenue from the center of Moscow toward the outskirts of the city was closed, RIA news agency reported, citing Moscow's Department of Transport. A Reuters witness heard two loud explosions before the reports of the drone fragments were found. Preliminary information indicates that there were no casualties.
7:30 a.m. Russia's Investigative Committee says it has launched a criminal probe into the killing of a Russian war reporter. The committee said on its website that "armed Ukrainian formations targeted and deliberately fired at a group of Russian journalists" working near Pyatikhatka, in Ukraine's southeastern Zaporizhzhia region. It did not specify the type of weapons or munitions used, but said Rostislav Zhuravlev, a journalist for RIA state news agency, was killed.
5:40 a.m. A previously announced meeting of a new NATO-Ukraine Council, expected to address Black Sea security, has been scheduled for Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says in his nightly video address on Sunday.
NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu says on Saturday that the meeting, requested by Zelenskyy in a telephone conversation with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, would discuss the situation following Russia's withdrawal from a year-old deal overseeing grain exports from Ukrainian ports.
Sunday, July 23
11:30 p.m. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that while Ukraine has reconquered half the territory that Russia initially seized in its invasion, Kyiv faces a "a very hard fight" to win back more.
"It's already taken back about 50% of what was initially seized," Blinken says in an interview to CNN on Sunday. "These are still relatively early days of the counteroffensive. It is tough," he said, adding: "It will not play out over the next week or two. We're still looking I think at several months."
5:30 pm. Russian air attacks on Ukraine's southern port of Odesa kills one, injures nearly 20 and badly damages an Orthodox cathedral.
"Odesa: another night attack of the monsters," Oleh Kiper, governor of the Odesa region, said on the Telegram messaging app.
The Spaso-Preobrazhenskyi Cathedral, or the Transfiguration Cathedral, was severely damaged, Odesa's military administration said. Odesa's largest church building, it is located in the historic city center, which is a UNESCO world heritage site.
Saturday, July 22
5:40 p.m. Road traffic on the bridge linking Russia to the Crimean peninsula has resumed after being briefly suspended on Saturday, an official Telegram channel said. It did not state the reason for the road closure. On Monday, the road was put out of service after an attack that killed two people. The bridge had only recently returned to full operation after being damaged in a bomb blast last October.
3:10 p.m. Prominent Russian nationalist and former military commander Igor Girkin, who had publicly accused President Vladimir Putin and the army top brass of not pursuing the war in Ukraine harshly or effectively enough, was remanded in custody on Friday on charges of inciting extremism. His arrest earlier in the day by his ex-employer, the FSB state security service, suggests authorities have wearied of his criticism of the war in Ukraine, following an abortive mutiny last month led by another outspoken critic, Yevgeny Prigozhin, boss of the Wagner mercenary force, who is still free but has sharply curtailed his own verbal attacks.
Britain's defense ministry, in a regular intelligence update on Saturday, said the arrest was "likely to infuriate fellow members of the military blogger community, who largely see Girkin as an astute military analyst and patriot."
8:00 a.m. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the bridge linking the Crimean Peninsula to Russia, which was built by Moscow and brought into service in 2018, is a military target as it is "not just a logistical road" and brings "war, not peace." Speaking by video link to the Aspen security conference in the United States, he said, "For us, this is understandably an enemy facility built outside international laws and all applicable norms. So, understandably, this is a target for us. And a target that is bringing war, not peace, has to be neutralized." Ukraine welcomed Monday's attack on the bridge, which killed two civilians, but officials did not directly claim responsibility, while Moscow blamed Ukraine.
7:30 a.m. French President Emmanuel Macron's top diplomatic adviser says China is delivering items that could be used as military equipment to Russia, according to Reuters. Asked at the Aspen Security Forum late on Thursday if the West had seen any evidence that China has armed Russia in any way in the war in Ukraine, Emmanuel Bonne, the head of Macron's diplomatic team at the Elysee Palace, told the moderator: "Yes, there are indications that they are doing things we would prefer them not to do." When pressed on whether China is delivering weapons, Bonne said: "Well, kind of military equipment ... as far as we know they are not delivering massively military capacities to Russia but [we need that to be] no delivery."
Friday, July 21
11:30 p.m. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has dismissed Kyiv's ambassador to the U.K. and the International Maritime Organization, Vadym Prystaiko, under a presidential decree that does not state a reason.
Prystaiko had given Zelenskyy an apparent rebuke last week for the president's "sarcastic" response to British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace's comment that the U.K. is not an "Amazon" delivery service for weapons for Ukraine.
The dismissal comes the day after Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address that the state budget should prioritize defense and that he had asked the prime minister to consider replacing the culture minister. "Paving stones, city decorations and fountains can wait till after the victory," the president said. The culture minister in question, Oleksandr Tkachenko, says he submitted his resignation before Zelenskyy's address.
2:40 p.m. Poland's security committee decided in a meeting on Wednesday to move military units to the country's east due to the Wagner Group's presence in Belarus, state-run news agency PAP quotes its secretary as saying on Friday. On Thursday, the Belarusian defense ministry said Wagner mercenaries had started to train Belarusian special forces at a military range just a few miles from the border with NATO-member Poland. "Training or joint exercises of the Belarusian army and the Wagner Group is undoubtedly a provocation," Zbigniew Hoffmann told PAP. "The Committee analyzed possible threats, such as the dislocation of Wagner Group units. Therefore, the Minister of National Defense, chairman of the Committee, Mariusz Blaszczak, decided to move our military formations from the west to the east of Poland."
1:57 a.m. Russia is not preparing to attack civilian ships in the Black Sea, contrary to American claims, says Anatoly Antonov, the Russian ambassador to the U.S., in comments posted on social media by his embassy.
1:34 a.m. The U.S. announces sanctions on a total of 120-plus individuals and entities, including 14 vessels, to "constrain Russia's military capabilities, its access to battlefield supplies, and its economic bottom line." The Russian Embassy in Washington does not immediately respond to Reuters for comment.
For earlier updates, click here.
