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The UK Ministry of Defence has issued its daily intelligence briefing on how it sees the war progressing, and today the focus is on Odesa. The ministry writes that since 18 July 2023, Russia has conducted greater numbers of long-range strikes against Odesa, and puts this down to the end of the Black Sea grain deal.
It says:
Between August 2022 and June 2023, when the Black Sea Grain Initiative was still in force, Russia generally refrained from striking civil infrastructure in the southern ports.
Since Russia failed to renew the deal, the Kremlin likely feels less politically constrained, and is attempting to strike targets in Odesa because it believes Ukraine is storing military assets in these areas.
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
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