Ukrainian service members fire a shell from a M777 Howitzer at a front line
in Kharkiv as Russia's war on Ukraine continues. Photograph: Gleb Garanich/Reuters

Russia-Ukraine war: what we know on day 149 of the invasion

Russia and Ukraine expected to sign deal on Friday to resume Black Sea grain exports; Moscow’s forces ‘about to run out of steam’, UK intelligence chief claims

• Samantha Lock
• Friday 22 July 2022
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• A deal to resume Ukraine’s Black Sea grain exports is expected to be signed by Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations on Friday. The agreement will be put in writing by the parties and signed at the Dolmabahce Palace offices at 1.30pm GMT, the office of the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said. Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Oleg Nikolenko, added: “In summary, a document may be signed which will bind the sides to [ensure] safe functioning of export routes in the Black Sea.”

• The United States said it would hold Russia accountable for implementing the deal. A state department spokesperson, Ned Price, accused Russia of weaponising food, saying: “What will really matter is the implementation of this agreement. We will, of course, continue to work with our partners to hold Russia accountable for its implementation.”

• Russia is “about to run out of steam” and take an operational pause, offering Ukraine the chance to strike back, the head of UK intelligence said. “I think our assessment is that the Russians will increasingly find it difficult to supply manpower material over the next few weeks,” said Richard Moore, the MI6 chief. “They will have to pause in some way, and that will give the Ukrainians opportunities to strike back.” Moore also said half of all the Russian spies operating under diplomatic cover around Europe, totalling about 400, had been expelled since the start of the war in Ukraine.

• Germany’s economics minister announced a new wave of emergency measures to cut the country’s consumption of gas after flows from Russia through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline resumed at reduced levels following a scheduled shutdown.

• An EU proposal that member countries cut gas use by 15% to prepare for possible supply cuts from Russia is facing resistance from governments, throwing into doubt whether they will approve the emergency plan.

• Britain will send scores of artillery guns and more than 1,600 anti-tank weapons to Ukraine, the UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, said on Thursday. He said Britain would also provide counter-battery radar systems, hundreds of drones and more than 50,000 rounds of ammunition.
  

• Ukraine has called for an international tribunal to bring Vladimir Putin to justice more quickly. Trying Russia separately for the act of aggression, with international participation, would speed up its quest to hold the Russian president and his inner circle accountable, officials said. “We hope to have the indictment within three months,” Andriy Smyrnov, Ukraine’s deputy head of the presidential administration, said.

• The Belarus president, Alexander Lukashenko, said the war must be stopped in order to avoid the “abyss of nuclear war” and insisted Ukraine accept Russia’s demands. “There’s no need to go further. Further lies the abyss of nuclear war,” he told AFP. Lukashenko also accused the west of seeking a conflict with Russia and of provoking the war. “If Russia had not got ahead of you, members of Nato, you would have organised and struck a blow against it,” he said.

• Russian proxies in the Russian-occupied territory of Donbas have been confiscating documents from forcibly mobilised troops, according to Ukrainian military chiefs. Russian proxies have reportedly been stripping personal documents from residents in attempts to force them to fight against Ukraine and making it impossible for forcibly mobilised troops to desert or identify those who have been killed, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said.

• The UK National Crime Agency has called for more funding to tackle Russian kleptocracy. The NCA said the UK had been slower to seize sanctioned Russian oligarchs’ assets than the US because it could not rely on the same “substantial level of investment” that Washington had poured into tackling international corruption and sanctions-busting.

• What could be a priceless Fabergé egg has been found onboard a Russian oligarch’s superyacht seized by US authorities. US deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco told the Aspen security forum on Wednesday it was one of the more “interesting” finds her team had made.

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• THE GUARDIAN

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