Local residents walks across debris at a site of a residential building damaged during Russian missile strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Odesa, Ukraine July 23, 2023. REUTERS/Nina Liashonok
TOP HEADLINES
• A Russian air attack on Ukraine's Odesa killed two, injured 22 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.
• Moscow said it hit all intended targets in Odesa, claiming the sites were being used to prepare "terrorist acts" against Russia. "At night the armed forces of the Russian Federation carried out a strike... on facilities where terrorist acts against the Russian Federation using unmanned boats were prepared," the Russian army said.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed to retaliate after the Odesa missile attack. "Missiles against peaceful cities, against residential buildings, a cathedral," Zelenskyy said. "There will definitely be a retaliation against Russian terrorists for Odesa. They will feel this retaliation."
• Russian President Vladimir Putin has met his closest ally, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, for the first time since the latter helped broker a deal to end a mutiny by Wagner fighters inside Russia last month. A video posted on Sunday by the Lukashenko's press service showed the two longtime leaders arriving at Saint Petersburg's Konstantinovsky palace together ahead of scheduled talks. READ MORE BELOW
• A drone attack on an ammunition depot in the district of Oktiabrske, Crimea, prompted authorities to evacuate a three mile radius and briefly suspend road traffic on the bridge linking the peninsula to Russia, the region's Moscow-installed governor said.
• Russian-installed governor Sergei Aksyonov said there was no damage with state media showing thick cloud of grey smoke at the site while Russian news agencies quoted the Health Ministry as saying 12 people required medical assistance and four were taken to hospital.
• NATO and Ukraine are to discuss security in the Black Sea this week, particularly the operation of a corridor for grain exports, at the request of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Western alliance said.
• Poland 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's foreign ministry issued an "urgent" summons to the Russian ambassador to protest what Warsaw termed "provocative declarations" by the Russian president. Putin had accused Warsaw of harboring territorial ambitions in western Ukraine, an oft-repeated Russian claim.
Images of the Odesa cathedral damaged during a Russian missile strike. Nina Liashonok/ Reuters
IN DETAIL
Putin meets with Belarus leader to discuss 'strategic partnership'
The Ukrainian port city of Odesa came under renewed Russian missile attack early Sunday, just hours before President Vladimir Putin was due to hold a summit with his Belarus ally Alexander Lukashenko. At the meeting in Saint Petersburg, the pair are discussing the "strategic partnership and alliance" between their countries, according to the Kremlin.
It will be the first time they have met since Lukashenko helped end a dramatic mutiny by Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group. Hours before their meeting, Russian strikes targeted Odesa, which has been bombed several times since the start of the conflict.
Ukraine's Southern Operational Command said Odesa was targeted with at least five types of missile, including Kalibr cruise missiles.
"Air defense forces destroyed a significant amount of the missiles," it said. "The rest caused damage to port infrastructure," and several buildings, adding that a missile had hit the Orthodox cathedral in the city center.
The strategic port has come under repeated attack since Moscow pulled out of a grain export deal last week. The head of Ukraine's presidential office, Andriy Yermak, repeated Kyiv's call for more missiles and defense systems after the latest attack on Odesa.
"The enemy must be deprived of the ability to hit civilians and infrastructure. More missile defense systems, as well as ATACMS - this will help Ukraine," he said on Telegram, referring to the long-range tactical missiles that Kyiv wants Washington to supply.
Kyiv has accused Russia of targeting grain supplies and infrastructure vital to any resumption of Ukrainian grain exports. Moscow has claimed it only targeted military sites.
The attack on Odesa comes a day after a Ukrainian drone strike blew up an ammunition depot in Crimea, forcing the evacuation of the surrounding population and temporary suspension of rail traffic on the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.