Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

Russia and Ukraine signed a landmark deal on Friday to reopen Ukrainian Black Sea ports for grain exports, raising hopes that an international food crisis aggravated by the Russian invasion can be eased. ECONOMY * The United States will work to hold Russia accountable for implementing a U.N.-led deal agreed on Friday to resume Ukraine's Black Sea grain exports, said U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

Russia and Ukraine signed a landmark deal on Friday to reopen Ukrainian Black Sea ports for grain exports, raising hopes that an international food crisis aggravated by the Russian invasion can be eased. ECONOMY

* The United States will work to hold Russia accountable for implementing a U.N.-led deal agreed on Friday to resume Ukraine's Black Sea grain exports, said U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield. * The G7 will be watching closely to ensure a deal to resume Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea does not "put Ukraine further at risk of being further invaded and attacked by Russia," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.

* Russia has sent combine harvesters from Crimea to two Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine to cover a shortage of equipment needed to bring in the crop, a representative of a Russian-installed local administration said. * Japan warned on Friday of escalating national security threats, including repercussions from Russia's war with Ukraine, Chinese intimidation of Taiwan, and vulnerable technology supply chains, in its annual defence white paper.

* The Kremlin on Friday rejected a report that a turbine for the Nord Stream 1 pipeline taking gas from Russia to Germany was stuck in transit. Reuters reported on Thursday that Russia had not yet given the go-ahead to transport the turbine back to Russia, citing two people familiar with the matter. FIGHTING

* Any "provocations" by Russia over a deal to reopen Ukrainian ports for grain exports will meet a military response, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Friday. * Russia's defence ministry said on Friday its forces had destroyed four U.S.-supplied high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) between July 5-20.

* The United States believes that Russia's military is sustaining hundreds of casualties a day in its war in Ukraine, including having lost thousands of lieutenants and captains in total, a senior U.S. defense official said on Friday. * Russia has increased its use of air defence missiles in a secondary ground attack mode because of critical shortages of dedicated ground-attack missiles, British military intelligence said on Friday.

It was not immediately possible to verify the battlefield reports. QUOTE

"Today, there is a beacon on the Black Sea. A beacon of hope..., possibility ... and relief in a world that needs it more than ever," U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said of the grain exports deal. (Compiled by Nick Macfie)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)