🔴 Live: Russia violated international law in warning-shots incident in Black Sea, says Ukraine

Issued on: 14/08/2023 – 10:04

4 min

9:43am: Poland detains two Russian citizens for distributing Wagner Group ‘propaganda’

Poland has detained two Russian citizens who were “distributing propaganda materials of the Wagner Group” in Warsaw and Krakow, the two biggest Polish cities, the interior minister said Monday.

“Both were charged with … espionage and arrested,” Mariusz Kaminski said on X, the former Twitter, without providing further details about the detained men.

Poland has recently warned of possible provocations coming from the mercenary group currently based in neighbouring Belarus, and said it would increase troop levels at the border between the two countries to 10,000.

Polish media last week reported about the appearance of stickers with the Wagner logo and inscriptions in English reading “We are here – join us”, as well as QR codes redirecting to a Russian website about the mercenary group.

The interior ministry did not specify if the arrests were made in connection with the distribution of the stickers.

8:57am: Ukraine says its forces recaptured 3 square kilometres around Bakhmut

Ukraine said Monday that its forces recaptured a small clutch of territory around the war-battered town of Bakhmut in the east of the country last week, wresting back land taken by Russian forces this summer.

“In the Bakhmut sector, three square kilometres were liberated last week. In total, 40 square kilometres have been liberated on the southern flank of the Bakhmut sector,” Deputy Defence Minister Ganna Malyar told state television, referring to the start of Ukraine’s counteroffensive in June.

8:35am: Ukraine says Russian navy violated international law a day after ship fired warning shots at cargo vessel

Ukraine on Monday condemned what it called “provocative” Russian actions a day after a Russian warship fired warning shots at a cargo vessel in the Black Sea.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine strongly condemns the provocative actions carried out by the Russian Federation on August 13 in the Black Sea in relation to the Turkish dry cargo vessel ‘Sukru Okan,’ which was en route to the port of Izmail,” the ministry said in a statement.

“The Russian Navy grossly violated the UN Charter, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and other norms of international law. These actions exemplified Russia’s deliberate policy of endangering the freedom of navigation and safety of commercial shipping in the Black Sea.”

Russia yesterday said its Vasily Bykov patrol ship fired with automatic weapons on the vessel after the captain did not respond to a request to halt for an inspection.

“To forcibly stop the vessel, warning fire was opened from automatic weapons,” the Russian defence ministy said.

The Russian military boarded the vessel with the help of a Ka-29 helicopter.

“After the inspection group completed its work on board, the Sukru Okan continued on its way to the port of Izmail,” the defence ministry said.

Shipping databases list the Sukru Okan as a Palau-flagged vessel whose home port is Istanbul.

8:16am: Chinese defence minister to visit Russia and Belarus

Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu will visit Russia and Belarus this week, his ministry said in an online statement on Monday.

“At the invitation of Russian Defence Minister (Sergei) Shoigu and Belarusian Defence Minister (Viktor) Khrenin, from August 14 to 19, State Councillor and Defence Minister Li Shangfu will go to Russia to attend the 11th Moscow Conference on International Security, and visit Belarus,” a spokesperson said.

5:32am: Russia to equip new nuclear submarines with hypersonic missiles

Russia is in the process of equipping its new nuclear submarines with hypersonic Zircon missiles, the head of Russia’s largest shipbuilder told the RIA state news agency in an interview published on Monday.

“Multipurpose nuclear submarines of the Yasen-M project will … be equipped with the Zircon missile system on a regular basis,” Alexei Rakhmanov, chief executive officer of the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), told RIA. “Work in this direction is already under way.”

Yasen-class submarines, also known as Project 885M, are nuclear-powered cruise missile submarines, built to replace Soviet-era nuclear attack submarines as part of a programme to modernise the army and fleet.

4:40am: Three wounded in Russian attack on Ukraine’s Odesa, says governor

At least three people were wounded in an overnight Russian attack on the port city of Odesa, the governor of the Ukrainian region on the Black Sea said early on Monday.

“As a result of the enemy attack in Odesa, several fires broke out from falling rocket fragments,” the governor, Oleh Kiper, said on the Telegram messaging app.

“Windows in buildings were blown out by the blast wave.”

Key developments from Sunday, August 13:

Seven people, including an infant, were killed on Sunday by Russian shelling in Ukraine’s southern region of Kherson. One of the victims, a 12-year-old boy, was left in critical condition and later died in hospital, Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said.

Russian air defence systems shot down Ukrainian drones over Russia’s Belgorod and Kursk regions, the Kremlin claimed.

Read yesterday’s live blog to see how the day’s events unfolded.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)