In the Odesa region, buildings in coastal villages were hit and caught fire, the Southern Ukraine Operational Command said on Facebook. In the Mykolaiv region, port infrastructure was targeted despite agreements to allow grain shipments from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports to resume. Hours after the strikes, a Moscow-based official in southern Ukraine said the Odesa and Mykolayiv regions would soon be “liberated” from Russian forces, as would the already-occupied Kherson region further east. “The Kherson region and the city of Kherson have been liberated forever,” Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing Russian-appointed regional official Kirill Stremusov. On the diplomatic front, Russia’s top diplomat reiterated his insistence that Moscow was ready to hold talks with Ukraine to end the war, although he once again claimed that Kiev’s Western allies oppose a deal. “We have never refused to hold talks, because everyone knows that any hostilities end at the negotiating table,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday during a trip to Uganda. He said negotiations have not progressed further since the meeting between the two sides in Istanbul in late March. While Ukrainian officials spoke of a possible counterattack in the south, the British Ministry of Defense said on Tuesday there was no indication that a Ukrainian warship and a stockpile of anti-ship missiles were in the port of Odessa, as Moscow claimed when it struck the site at the weekend. . The British ministry said Russia sees Ukraine’s use of anti-ship missiles as a “key threat” limiting its fleet in the Black Sea. “This has significantly undermined the overall invasion plan, as Russia cannot realistically attempt an amphibious assault to capture Odessa,” the ministry said. “Russia will continue to prioritize efforts to degrade and destroy Ukraine’s anti-ship capability.” He added that “Russia’s targeting procedures are very likely to be systematically undermined by out-of-date intelligence, poor planning and a top-down approach to operations.” In other military developments, Russian shelling over the past 24 hours has killed at least three civilians and wounded eight others in Ukraine, the Ukrainian president’s office said on Tuesday. In the eastern Donetsk region, where fighting has been concentrated in recent months, shelling continued across the front line, with Russian forces targeting some of the region’s largest towns, Bakhmut, Avdiyevka and Toretsk, the presidential office said. Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kirilenko accused Russian troops of using cluster munitions and repeated his call for civilians to leave. “There is not a single safe place. Everything is being bombed,” Kirilenko said in televised comments. “But there are still evacuation routes for the civilian population.” The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said Moscow was using mercenaries from the shadowy Wagner group to seize the Vuhledar power plant on the northern outskirts of the village of Novoluhanske in the Bakhmut region. However, Russian forces have made “limited gains” there, according to Ukraine’s General Staff. Russia’s main focus for now is on capturing Bakhmut, which the Russian military needs to push its eastern offensive into the Ukrainian strongholds of Donetsk, the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. “Russian forces have made marginal gains south of Bakhmut, but it is unlikely that they will be able to effectively use these advances to take full control of Bakhmut itself,” the Institute for the Study of War said. Russian forces continued to strike civilian infrastructure in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, and the surrounding region in the country’s northeast. Kharkiv Governor Oleh Sinyekhubov said strikes in the city resumed early Tuesday and damaged a car dealership. “The Russians are deliberately targeting objects of civilian infrastructure – hospitals, schools, cinemas,” Syniehubov told Ukrainian television. “Everything is being shot at, even humanitarian aid queues, so we urge people to avoid mass gatherings.” Responding to Lavrov’s comment on Monday that Moscow’s primary goal in Ukraine is to liberate its people from its “unacceptable regime,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Moscow wants “the complete subjugation of Ukraine and its people ». “We have to be prepared for this war – which Russia is waging with absolute brutality and waging in a way that no one else will last for months,” Baerbock said during a visit to Prague. In other developments on Tuesday: — European Union governments have agreed to ration gas this winter to protect against Russian supply cuts. EU energy ministers approved a draft law aimed at reducing natural gas demand by 15% from August to March. The legislation entails voluntary national measures to reduce natural gas consumption and, if they yield insufficient savings, a trigger for mandatory action. Russian energy company Gazprom announced it will reduce natural gas flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany to 20% of capacity from Wednesday. — Russia’s space chief said the country will opt out of the International Space Station after 2024 and focus on building its own orbiting outpost. Yuri Borisov, who was appointed earlier this month to head the state-controlled space agency Roscosmos, said Russia would fulfill its obligations to the space station before withdrawing from the project. The move is part of a broader disengagement trend stemming from escalating tensions between Russia and the West over the Kremlin’s military action in Ukraine. — Britain has sanctioned two national Russian government officials who oversee justice and two top regional officials in Russian-held eastern Ukraine. Also facing sanctions are several Syrian military figures accused of recruiting Syrians to fight for Russia in Ukraine. — German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said her country has delivered previously announced Mars II multiple launch missile systems, along with three other howitzers, to Ukraine. Lambrecht said Germany has also handed over five of the pledged 30 self-propelled armored Gepard anti-aircraft guns, German news agency dpa reported. — The Russian military has announced plans to hold large-scale exercises in eastern Russia, noting that it is continuing regular troop training despite action in Ukraine. The Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that the Vostok 2022 (East 2022) exercise is scheduled for Aug. 30-Sept. 5. He added that airborne troops, long-range bombers and military cargo planes would be involved.
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