Live blog: 33,000 more Ukrainians arrive in Poland, bringing total to 13.8M

Sunday, July 23, 2023

Some 33,700 more Ukrainians have crossed into Poland in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of people fleeing war in their country to over 13 million, Polish authorities said.

More than 13.8 million people have crossed into Poland from Ukraine since Feb. 24, 2022, when Russia launched its attack on Ukraine, according to Polish Border Guard figures.

Approximately 4 million non-EU Ukrainians currently have temporary protection status in the bloc countries, according to data.

The ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict has killed over 9,000 civilians and wounded more than 15,700, according to the latest UN figures.

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1644 GMT - Wagner Group 'mood is bad' as its fighters want to move into Poland: Belarus' president

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that the Russian paramilitary Wagner Group is putting pressure on his country with the intention of pushing across the border into neighbouring Poland.

“Maybe I shouldn't say it, but I will. The Wagnerites began to strain us: ‘We want to go to the West. Allow us.’ I said, why do you need to go to the West? ‘Well, to go on an excursion to Warsaw, to Rzeszow'," Lukashenko said during a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg.

Lukashenko said he is keeping Wagner Group forces in the country’s centre, as per the agreement reached during the paramilitary group's short-lived mutiny in late June.

Belarus does not want to relocate them near the Polish border because "their mood is bad," he added.

Russia and Belarus are allies and are linked in a partnership known as the "union state."

1638 GMT - UNESCO condemns 'brazen' Russia strike on Ukraine's Odessa

UNESCO condemned Russia's "brazen" attack on Ukraine's Odessa, which hit several sites in the port city's World Heritage Centre.

"UNESCO is deeply dismayed and condemns in the strongest terms the brazen attack carried out by the Russian forces, which hit several cultural sites in the city centre of Odessa, home to the World Heritage property 'The Historic Centre of Odessa'", the Paris-based body said in a statement.

The strike, Russia's latest attack on the Black Sea city and one of Ukraine's most important ports following Moscow's pulling out of a grain deal that allowed Kiev to export its grain, killed at least two people.

UNESCO chief Audrey Azoulay said it marked "an escalation of violence against (the) cultural heritage of Ukraine".

1400 GMT - Blinken says Ukraine has taken back 50% of land Russia seized

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Ukraine has taken back about 50 percent of the territory that Russia seized, although Kiev's counteroffensive will extend several months.

"It’s already taken back about 50 percent of what was initially seized," Blinken said in an interview with CNN.

"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."

1008 GMT - Putin hosts Lukashenko, claims Ukraine's offensive has failed

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine's counteroffensive "has failed" as he hosted Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, his close ally, for talks in St Petersburg.

"There is no counteroffensive," Russian news agencies quoted Lukashenko as saying.

Putin replied: "It exists, but it has failed."

Ukraine began its long-anticipated counter-offensive last month but has so far made only small gains against well-entrenched Russian forces who control more than a sixth of its territory after nearly 17 months of war.

US General Mark Milley, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Tuesday the Ukrainian drive was "far from a failure" but would be long, hard and bloody.

0804 GMT — Toll in Odessa strike rises to two killed, 22 wounded: Ukraine

Ukraine has said the death toll from overnight strikes by Russia on the port of Odessa rose to two, with 22 people wounded, including four children.

"A man born in 1974 was killed in the nighttime shelling," Igor Klymenko, Ukraine's minister of internal affairs, said on Telegram, bringing the toll to two.

"Twenty-two people were injured. Among them are four children: 11, 12, and two 17-year-olds."

0707 GMT — Ukraine says Russia launched 19 missiles on Odessa overnight

Ukraine has said Moscow launched 19 missiles from land, air and sea on its Black Sea port of Odessa at night, in another wave of attacks on the historic city after Russia exited the grain deal.

"In total, the enemy used 19 missiles of various types," Ukraine's air force said on Telegram, saying nine of the weapons were destroyed.

It said these included Oniks cruise missiles, sea-launched Kalibrs and Iskander ballistic missiles.

0337 GMT — Deadly Russian strike on Odessa damages city's largest cathedral

A Russian air attack on Ukraine's Odessa city has killed one, injured nearly 20 and badly damaged a Russian-linked Orthodox cathedral, with officials saying they retrieved the icon of the patroness of the port city from under the rubble.

According to the governor of southern Ukraine's Odessa region Oleh Kiper, one person was killed and 19 were injured, including four children, in the missile attacks that also destroyed six houses and apartment buildings. Fourteen people were hospitalised.

Russia has been pounding Odessa and other Ukrainian food export facilities nearly daily over the past week after it withdrew from a sea corridor agreement, brokered Türkiye and the UN, that allowed for the safe shipment of Ukrainian grain.

Odessa's military administration said that the Spaso-Preobrazhenskyi Cathedral of the Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), was severely damaged.

The Spaso-Preobrazhenskyi Cathedral, or the Transfiguration Cathedral, is Odessa's largest Orthodox church building. It was consecrated in 1809.

2216 GMT — Putin, Lukashenko to meet after Russia warns about aggression against Belarus

Russian President Putin and Belarusian leader Lukashenko will meet on Sunday, the Kremlin has said, two days after Moscow warned that any aggression against its neighbour and staunchest ally would be considered an attack on Russia.

After Poland decided earlier this week to move military units closer to its border with Belarus in response to the arrival in Belarus of forces from Russia's Wagner Group, Putin said Moscow would use all means it has to react to any hostility towards Minsk.

The Kremlin said Lukashenko is paying a working visit to Russia and will talk to Putin about further development of the countries' "strategic partnership."

2213 GMT — Ukraine's Odessa under attack

Air defence systems have been deployed early on Sunday in repelling another Russian attack on Ukraine's southern port of Odessa, Oleh Kiper, governor of the Odessa region, said on the Telegram channel.

Kiper warned people not to film the air combat.

2035 GMT — NATO, Ukraine to discuss Black Sea grain issue at Kiev's request

NATO and Ukraine are to discuss security in the Black Sea next week, particularly the operation of a corridor for grain exports, at the request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Western alliance has said.

NATO spokesperson Oanu Lungescu said the NATO-Ukraine Council, set up at this month's alliance summit, would discuss the situation following Russia's withdrawal from the year-old grain deal.

Zelenskyy said he had requested the meeting in a telephone conversation with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg.

Lungescu said the two men discussed Russia's pullout from the deal and its "continued attempts to weaponise food, which are affecting millions of vulnerable people around the world".

2000 GMT — Poland says hub to fix tanks damaged in Ukraine opens

Poland has said that a maintenance hub for tanks damaged in Ukraine during the conflict with Russia had begun operating in its southern city of Gliwice.

Poland, one of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy's biggest allies since Russia's invasion last year, had been negotiating with Germany to create a joint workshop for Leopard tanks, but no common position has been announced.

"The maintenance hub in Gliwice has started operating! The first two Leopards have already arrived from Ukraine to the Bumar plant," Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak wrote on Twitter.

It was not immediately clear if that hub was the mooted joint initiative with Germany.

For our live updates from Saturday (July 22), click here.