According to Moscow, a fire broke out at a Russian military base on the Crimean peninsula and ammunition then exploded.

The fire broke out around 5:15 a.m. (CEST) in a temporary ammunition depot at the base in the Dzhankoy district in the north of the peninsula annexed by Russia, according to a statement by the Ministry of Defense in Moscow published by the Russian news agencies. According to the Crimean governor, two civilians were injured. (AFP)

According to Britain, Russia has trouble controlling the Black Sea from the sea. Patrols are limited to the waters around Crimea, the British Ministry of Defense announced, citing the secret services. The Black Sea Fleet uses long-range missiles to support ground offensives, but behaves rather defensively. The restrictions on the fleet undermined Russia’s strategy, the bulletin said. (Reuters)

According to Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, Norway currently has no way of expanding its gas supplies to Germany and Europe. “Norway delivers at most what we can deliver,” Store said on Monday in Oslo after a meeting with Chancellor Olaf Scholz. This means that after Qatar, another country’s hope of quickly finding additional suppliers to replace Russian gas has been dashed. Scholz thanked Store for Norway being a very reliable supplier.

The Norwegian Prime Minister emphasized that production had already been increased by almost ten percent after the Russian attack on Ukraine. It is also not up to the Norwegian government to decide whether production can be safely expanded. “We can’t decide politically, we just do more.” This is a company decision. For higher production, new gas deposits would have to be developed. (Reuters)

For the first time since the beginning of the war, a freighter with grain is on its way to Africa. The “Brave Commander” with 23,000 tons of wheat left the port of Pivdennyj in Ukraine, as data from Refinitiv Eikon show. Their destination is the port of Djibouti, the wheat is destined for Ethiopia, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure.

Since the agreement to resume grain exports by ship, 17 ships have left Ukrainian ports with a total of 475,000 tons of agricultural goods. (Reuters)

As the American military think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) writes, pro-Russian separatists from the Luhansk region apparently refuse to continue fighting for Russia in the neighboring Donetsk region. The ISW refers to a video of a corresponding military battalion. There, the soldiers call their work done, as they had already completely conquered their region on July 3rd.

Although the authenticity of the video could not be proven, it follows the recent trend, according to which fighters from Luhansk in particular are showing ever lower morale and combat readiness, the analysts write. This development is particularly dangerous for Russia’s plans to continue recruiting soldiers from Luhansk. (tsp)

This is Putin’s war, not the Russians’ war.