Olena Zelenska, Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s wife, addresses Congress
Ukraine’s first lady thanked the U.S. Congress in her moving speech and asked for more weapons to protect the country.
Anastasiia Riddle, Associated Press
Amid a growing global food crisis, Russia and Ukraine signed separate agreements Friday with Turkey and the United Nations to allow Russia to export grain and fertilizer, officials said.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has been trying to free up Ukrainian grain that has been stuck in Black Sea ports for months. The Russian blockage of millions of tons of grain has led to food shortages in Africa and Asia.
“Today, there is a beacon on the Black Sea,” Guterres said Friday. “A beacon of hope, a beacon of possibility, a beacon of relief in a world that needs it more than ever.”
Ukraine is one of the world’s largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil. At least 22 million tons of grain are stuck there due to the war.
The deals were signed by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and Guterres.
“You have overcome obstacles and put aside differences to pave the way for an initiative that will serve the common interests of all,” Guterres said to Russian and Ukrainian representatives.
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Latest developments:
►Emergency workers recovered three bodies from a school destroyed by a Russian strike in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, officials said Friday. The shelling also damaged 85 residential buildings, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office.
►Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine said Friday they blocked Google in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, separatist leader Denis Pushilin posted to Telegram. Pushilin’s Telegram post claims Google is full of anti-Russian propaganda.
►A bipartisan group of senators introduced a resolution that recognizes Russia’s actions in Ukraine as genocide. The measure, introduced by Idaho Republican Sen. Jim Risch, says the Kremlin has committed “heinous crimes against humanity.”
►Ukrainian high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh, 20, won a silver medal at the world championships after clearing 2.02 meters. The win comes shortly after Mahuchikh’s escape from her hometown of Dnipro after it came under Russian attack.
In Kyiv, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba sounded a more somber note on the grain export agreements.
“I’m not opening a bottle of champagne because of this deal,” Kuleba told The Associated Press. “I will keep my fingers crossed that this will work, that ships will carry grain to world markets and prices will go down and people will have food to eat. But I’m very cautious because I have no trust in Russia.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy echoed Kuleba’s concerns in his nightly video address, saying, “It is clear to everyone that there may be some provocations on the part of Russia, some attempts to discredit Ukrainian and international efforts. But we trust the UN.”
White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the deal is “going to depend on Russia’s compliance with this arrangement and actually implementing its commitments, and of course ending its blockade of Ukrainian ports.”
The United States is sending another $270 million in security assistance to Ukraine, White House spokesman John Kirby said Friday. The latest package includes Phoenix Ghost drones, medium range rocket systems as well as ammunition and anti-armor systems. More help will likely be announced “in the not-too distant future,” Kirby said.
The package includes four High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems. The Ukrainians will have 16 of the systems with the latest shipment. The weapon can fire rockets that precisely target command posts and ammunition depots more than 40 miles away, and can drive away quickly to evade counterattacks.
The Russians have not been able to destroy any of the rocket systems despite HIMARS being the most hunted weapon in Ukraine, a senior military official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.
The Phoenix Ghost drones included in the package can loiter, locate enemy positions and dive onto the target.
The latest aid installment announced by the White House Friday comes on top of about $8 billion in security assistance provided since the war began in late February. It is being paid for through $40 billion in economic and security assistance for Ukraine Congress approved in May.
– Maureen Groppe and Tom Vanden Brook
Advanced rocket artillery systems supplied to Ukraine have been taking a toll on Russian command posts and supply depots in the eastern part of the country, helping to stall Russian progress amid signs of plummeting morale, Pentagon officials said Friday.
Russian troops have failed to make significant gains in the last week, according to a senior military official, who, along with a senior Defense Department official, briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.
Morale and discipline problems have been seen among Russian forces, the military official said. Russian troops are deserting and refusing to fight in the face of stiff Ukrainian resistance.
– Tom Vanden Brook
The chief of the United Kingdom’s intelligence service called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine an “epic fail,” adding that the country appears to be “about to run out of steam.”
Russian forces have likely lost about 15,000 troops, said Richard Moore, the chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, also known a MI6, during this week’s Aspen Security Forum in Colorado. He called the number a “conservative estimate” and said that is roughly the same number of troops Russia lost in 10 years during its war in Afghanistan.
Moore acknowledged Russian forces had made progress in recent weeks but called it incremental. He said Russia “has suffered a strategic failure in Ukraine” and will face difficulties in manpower and materials in the next few weeks.
“They will have to pause in some way and that will give the Ukrainians opportunities to strike back,” he said, adding that Ukrainian morale is still high and they’re receiving powerful weapons from other countries.
Russia also underestimated Ukrainian resistance, Moore said.
“They clearly completely misunderstood Ukrainian nationalism,” he said. “They completely underrated the degree of resistance the Russian military would face.”
Gen. Charles Brown, Air Force chief of staff, says the United States and its allies are considering providing Ukraine with fighter jets, a decision that would sharply escalate the level of weaponry being sent to Kyiv.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pleaded for fighter jets for months, saying Russia’s air supremacy has been a major stumbling block in his country’s efforts to repel the invasion. In March, the U.S. and NATO scuttled Poland’s proposal to send its Russian-built MiGs to Ukraine, with White House national security spokesman John Kirby saying at the time the proposal might be “mistaken as escalatory.”
Brown said Wednesday in an interview at the Aspen Security Forum that Russian MiGs won’t be sent to Ukraine, saying with a laugh that it will “be tougher to get parts” from the Russians.
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