July 18, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

The US State Department is “aware” of the reports that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced he plans to suspend two of his top law enforcement officials over the weekend, citing instances of treason, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said at a briefing Monday.

The State Department is “leaning forward in terms of the information” they are sharing with Ukrainian partners to “help them build the case for accountability against those who may have perpetrated war crimes and other atrocities,” Price added. 

Most of the information that the US is passing to the Prosecutor General of Ukraine on a “routine basis” is “open-source information,” Price added.

“We do have an intelligence sharing relationship with our Ukrainian counterparts, that is we continue to proceed ahead with that,” Price said.

Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska will deliver remarks before the US Congress on Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office announced Monday.

All members of the House and Senate are invited to the speech, which is set for 11 a.m. ET in the Congressional Auditorium at the Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, DC.

Both the Ukrainian military and the leadership of Russian-backed separatist-held Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) have been talking about the ongoing Russian offensive in Donetsk.

Ukrainian forces are still defending the towns of Bakhmut and Siversk, which are in the pocket of the Donetsk territory.

"The enemy continues offensive attempts in the direction of the cities of Bakhmut and Siversk" but is meeting pushback from Ukrainian forces, the Ukrainian General Staff said Monday.

At the same time, Russians are intensifying hostilities towards the town of Avdiivka, trying to improve their "tactical position," but they were unsuccessful and had withdrawn, the General Staff added.

Avdiivka is immediately north of the city of Donetsk — but despite months of bombardment remains in Ukrainian hands. 

However, Eduard Basurin, a spokesperson for the DPR militia, claimed that preparations are underway "to carry out the tasks planned for the liberation of the republic's territory. The same thing is happening in Avdiivka and in the Horlivka area."

The goal of DPR forces was to surround Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut as well as ensure that territory held by the DPR is beyond the range of Ukrainian artillery, Basurin said, adding that advances by DPR forces along with Russian units and the Luhansk People's militia would "make it possible to force" Ukrainian forces to retreat deep into the Ukraine territory, thereby securing both Donetsk and Yasynуvata and Makiivka from shelling."

Here's a look at the areas under Russian control:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky put forward a resolution to the country’s parliament to dismiss the head of Ukraine’s intelligence agency SBU, Ivan Bakanov. 

Zelensky suspended Bakanov and the Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova on Sunday, as he announced an investigation into their departments, due to the alleged presence of Russian collaborators.

The resolution will be discussed at the next plenary session, which is expected to take place in the next 24 hours.

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova said she will not discuss the decision by President Volodymyr Zelensky's to suspend her while an investigation into her office is underway.

“As soon as the stage of "settlement" of the existing situation is completed, adequately and understandably for all parties, I will give a comprehensive comment," Venediktova wrote.

Zelensky suspended Venediktova and the head of the country’s intelligence service, SBU, Ivan Bakanov, on Sunday as he announced an investigation into their departments, due to the alleged presence of Russian collaborators.

In her comment, Venediktova added she would not argue the president’s decision or opinion, but said she was proud of her work. 

“I demonstrated good work results,” she wrote. “I managed to unite the legal, professional, and criminal procedural world elite around the problems of Ukraine in the interests of Ukraine.”

“If the corresponding resolution is registered in the walls of the Ukrainian Parliament, I will not hesitate for a second and will report to the people's representatives,” she concluded.

Ukrainian officials have given further details of targets struck in Russian-occupied Kherson in the south of the country.

Serhii Khlan, adviser to the head of the Kherson civil-military administration, said the third target to be hit in the last 24 hours was in the district of Beryslav on the north bank of the river Dnieper. 

"The base of the invaders was destroyed, where they also placed both equipment and ammunition depots," Khlan said.

Separately, Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Operational Command South, told CNN that "at 5 a.m., our units struck a concentration of enemy, weapons and equipment, as well as an ammunition warehouse in the Raiske district [near Nova Kakhovka on the south bank of the river] and an ammunition warehouse in the Beryslav district."

CNN has independently geolocated videos of a major explosion in Raiske at dawn Monday. 

Ukrainian forces have been targeting Russian ammunition sites and command posts in Kherson on an almost daily basis over the past two weeks in an effort to disrupt Russian supply lines. 

The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia has fired 3,000 missiles since the invasion of Ukraine started on Feb. 24. 

“As of today, the enemy has already fired about three thousand missiles of various types over Ukraine,” the Ukrainian Air Force said in a Facebook post Monday. “These are cruise missiles, air-to-surface missiles, operational-tactical missiles (Tochka-U, Iskander), as well as Onyx missiles of the Bastion coastal complex.”

CNN could not independently verify the Ukrainian Air Force's claim. 

The Ukrainian Air Force also noted that recently, Moscow had started using more Soviet-era projectiles. 

“Increasingly, the enemy is using old Soviet missiles, such as X-59, X-22, X-31 and others, against the positions of the Ukrainian army and civilian objects,” the post said. “And in recent weeks, the enemy began to hit ground targets with anti-aircraft missiles from the S-300 complex, the main purpose of which is to destroy air targets.”

Marina Ovsyannikova, a former editor at a Russian state TV channel who held up an anti-war poster during a live news broadcast in March, was briefly detained in Moscow on Sunday, her lawyer Dmitry Zakhvatov told CNN on Monday.

Police detained Ovsyannikova for “actions aimed at discrediting the Russian army” after she recorded a video statement on Wednesday, according to Zakhvatov.

Marina Ovsyannikova held a solo protest action opposite the Kremlin Sunday.

According to the photos she shared on her Telegram channel, she held a poster saying, “Putin is a killer. His soldiers are fascists. 352 children died. How many more children have to die for you to stop?”

Read here about her past protest with an anti-war poster during a live broadcast on Russian state TV.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has acknowledged Moscow faces “colossal” difficulties in accessing high-tech goods due to Western sanctions, but said it was impossible to cut off his country from the world economy. 

“They are trying to set up barriers to restrain our development. Clearly, this is a huge challenge for our country,” Putin told a cabinet meeting on Monday.

“Not only are we not going to give up or — as some of our 'well-wishers' predict — regress to a few decades ago," he said. “On the contrary, realizing the colossal amount of difficulties that we face, we will intensively and competently look for new solutions."

The Russian president went on to say attempts to cut off his country from the rest of the world were “impossible.”

“It is clear that we cannot develop in isolation from the whole world. But we won't,” he said. “In the modern world, it is impossible to ... put up a huge fence. It's just impossible!”