• Ukraine grain shipments will offer hope, but won't fix the food crisis, according to senior analysts at data and analytics firm Gro Intelligence. Their warning comes as grain shipments arriving in Lebanon sparked huge crowds in the northern port of Tripoli, attempting to access the food. Lebanon has the world's highest rate of food inflation - 122 per cent - and is highly dependent on the Black Sea region for nearly all of its wheat. READ MORE BELOW

• Head of Ukraine's Amnesty office, Oksana Pokalchuk, has resigned, after the group accused Ukraine's armed forces of endangering civilians.  In a statement posted Friday night on Facebook, Oksana accused the human rights organisation for disregarding her opposition to publishing a report that claimed Ukrainian forces were exposing civilians to Russian attacks by basing themselves in populated areas. READ MORE BELOW

• Russian missiles hit an industrial compound in Kharkiv early Saturday morning, according to the Kharkiv regional governor. Kyiv says Russia is targeting Kharkiv in a bid to force Ukraine to pull resources from the main battlefield in Donbas to protect civilians from attack.

• Residential area hit by Russian shelling in Ukraine's Kostiantynivka, an industrial town in the eastern Donetsk region. On Saturday morning, residents were cleaning debris at the site of shelling that damaged dozens of apartments, with one person being left wounded from the shelling according to local police.

• Russia has banned investors from so-called 'unfriendly' countries from selling shares in energy projects and banks until the end of the year, part of the stand-off with the West over sanctions imposed after the conflict began. Western countries and allies, including Japan, have piled financial restrictions on Russia since it sent troops into Ukraine in late February. The decree, signed by President Vladimir Putin and published Friday evening, immediately banned investors from countries which supported sanctions on Russia from selling their assets in production sharing agreements (PSA), banks, strategic entities, companies producing energy equipment, as well as in other projects, from oil and gas production to coal and nickel.

• Mykolaiv emergency crews are blaming Russian shelling, after fighting to extinguish burning buildings and bushfires. 

• U.S. President Biden said his administration was working hard to secure the release of basketball star Brittney Griner, whose arrest in Moscow a week before Russia launched its offensive against Ukraine in February plunged her into the geopolitical storm that followed. Griner's sentence - which Biden called "unacceptable" - could pave the way for a prisoner swap that would include the 31-year-old athlete and a prolific Russian arms dealer serving a 25-year prison term in the United States. Russia said it was ready to discuss a prisoner swap with the United States in private.

FOOD CRISIS WILL CONTINUE DESPITE GRAIN EXPORTS FROM UKRAINE

The fighting in Ukraine has trapped more than 20 million tons of grains inside the country, with grain ship The Razoni's departure from Odesa on Monday marking a first major step toward extracting those food supplies and getting them to farms and bakeries to feed millions of impoverished people who are going hungry around the world. 

Against the backdrop of an energy crisis, climate change and the pandemic, the conflict in Ukraine has exacerbated global food supply issues.

On August 5, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said Russia's conflict in Ukraine had resulted in 40 million people becoming "food insecure" with Sub-Saharan African nations being the most affected. But she warned it's likely to extend further to European countries also.

"Russia has systematically captured some of Ukraine's most productive farmland, spoiling fields with mines and bombs," Thomas-Greenfield said.

"Regardless of how you feel about Russia, we all have a powerful common interest in mitigating the impact of the war in Ukraine on food security," she added.

French President Emmanuel Macron used similar language last week, when he described the global food crisis as one of Russia's "weapons of war" during a visit to Cameroon.

Moscow continues to deny responsibility for the food crisis and has instead blamed Western sanctions for the slowing down of its food and fertiliser exports.

AMNESTY ANGERS KYIV TRIGGERING RESIGNATION

On Thursday Amnesty International accused Ukrainian officials of endangering civilians by basing troops in residential areas during Russia's conflict - a report that Kyiv likened to Russian propaganda and disinformation.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy led fierce Ukrainian denunciations of Amnesty's allegations, accusing the group of abetting what he called Russia's "unprovoked" attacks on Ukraine. The rights group, he said, was "trying to shift the responsibility from the aggressor to the victim."

Amnesty workers witnessed Ukrainian forces "establishing bases and operating weapons systems" in some populated residential areas during visits to several frontline areas in Ukraine's east and south from April to July, the report said.

"We have documented a pattern of Ukrainian forces putting civilians at risk and violating the laws of war when they operate in populated areas," the report quoted Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International's secretary general, as saying.

Oksana Pokalchuk, Amnesty's leader in Ukraine, said on Facebook late on Friday that the Ukrainian office has consistently noted that the information that Amnesty issued on Thursday should take into account the position of the Ukrainian Defence Ministry.

"As a result of this, unwittingly, the organization created material that sounded like support for Russian narratives. In an effort to protect civilians, this study became a tool of Russian propaganda," Pokalchuk said.

"It pains me to admit it, but we disagreed with the leadership of Amnesty International on values. That's why I decided to leave the organization," she explained.

Ukrainian officials have said they take every possible measure to evacuate civilians from frontline areas. Russia denies targeting civilians in what it describes as a "special military operation".