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Russia's war in Ukraine
By Kathleen Magramo, Lauren Said-Moorhouse and Megan Trimble, CNN
Updated 7:42 a.m. ET, August 1, 2022
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The first grain ship to leave the Ukrainian port of Odesa under a UN-brokered deal to help ease the global hunger crisis departed on Monday morning, according to Ukrainian and Turkish officials.
The southern region of Mykolaiv came under more intense shelling overnight, with Russian forces hitting civilian buildings including a hospital trauma center, Ukrainian officials said. It comes after Ukrainian grain mogul Oleksiy Vadaturskyy and his wife, Raisa, were killed in Russian attacks on the city on Sunday.
In a speech that made no mention of the war in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia's Navy would "respond with lightning speed" to anyone undermining his country's "sovereignty and freedom."
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German-donated MLRS arrive in Ukraine
From CNN’s Vasco Cotovio in London and Yulia Kesaieva
This file photo shows a MARS II standing in the Alb barracks in Germany on August 20, 2018.
This file photo shows a MARS II standing in the Alb barracks in Germany on August 20, 2018. (Sebastian Gollnow/picture alliance/Getty Images)
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Rezniko says that German-donated Multiple Launch Rocket System MARS II has arrived in the country.
“Third brother in the Long Hand family - MLRS MARS II from Germany - has arrived in Ukraine,” Reznikov wrote on Twitter on Monday. "Thank you to Germany and personally to my colleague #DefenceMinister Christine Lambrecht for these systems. Our artillerymen salute our German partners!”
The MARS II is a German upgrade of the M270 MLRS also used by the US military. It has a range similar to that of the HIMARS system donated by the United States to Ukraine, along with more rocket capacity (12 rockets instead of six), but slightly less maneuverability.
Germany had said it would donate three of these systems but it’s unclear how many have been handed over to Ukrainian forces