Ukraine Update….145 days into the Russian move on the Ukraine…Grain Deal?

• European energy ministers reached a deal Tuesday to preemptively reduce the bloc’s natural gas consumption, as Russia cultivates uncertainty around its gas deliveries to Europe ahead of winter. E.U. countries agreed to reduce their gas demand by 15 percent from August through March to allow for stockpiles to be buttressed — but the deal contains exemptions.
• The latest strikes on the Odessa province left buildings and village blocks destroyed and smoldering, video of the aftermath shared by local Ukrainian military officials showed. More than a dozen missiles hit the resort town of Zatoka, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force said Tuesday. “Today, the occupiers hit the Odessa region again, firing missiles at ordinary houses again,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address.
• Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recently approved the use of a U.S. military hospital in Germany for the treatment of injured Ukrainian soldiers, a defense official familiar with the arrangement told The Post. The Army facility in Landstuhl is the largest American military hospital outside of the continental United States and is roughly 800 miles west of Ukraine. It has not yet served Ukrainian troops, the official said.
• Russia on Tuesday announced it would withdrawfrom the International Space Station (ISS) project after 2024. While Russian officials have discussed leaving the project since at least 2021, the announcement signaled the looming end of an era in one of the last remaining areas of cooperation between Russia and the United States. The U.S. State Department was “taken by surprise” by the decision, according to a statement.

• Brittney Griner appeared in court Tuesday and is set to testify this week in her Moscow trial on drug charges. Her defense team argued Tuesday that she used marijuana for medical reasons. The WNBA star is expected to testify and be cross-examined by the prosecution on Wednesday. Griner has pleaded guilty and is likely to be convicted, though it remains to be seen how severe her punishment will be.
• Paul Whelan, a former marine whose 2020 conviction for espionage was called “a mockery of justice,” also remains detained. He did not appeal the decision, hoping instead to be included in a prisoner swap between the United States and Russia. One Russian who experts say could be involved in a swap for Griner and Whelan is notorious gunrunner Viktor Bout, who is serving a 25-year sentence in Illinois.
• Trevor Reed, the American released from Russian prison in April, said on Tuesday that the White House is “not doing enough” to free Griner and Whelan. Reed, who was released in a prisoner swap, told NBC News that the Biden administration “has the ability to get them out extremely fast” — by negotiating another swap — “and they’ve clearly chosen not to do that.”

• Russia struck civilian targets and critical infrastructure in Kharkiv and its surrounding region Tuesday, officials there said. Regional governor Oleh Synyehubov said the shelling caused the roof of a car showroom to catch fire, and he cited preliminary reports from emergency services that said there were no casualties.
• A barrage of missile strikes hit port infrastructure in Mykolaiv, west of Odessa, Ukrainian authorities said Tuesday. The missiles were launched from the direction of the Black Sea, Mykolaiv Mayor Alexander Senkevich told the Ukrainian state broadcaster Suspilne.
• Sophisticated air defense systems donated by Britain have arrived at the front in Ukraine, military authorities said Monday. Six Stormer HVM air defense systems made it to the front in Ukraine, the country’s southern military command said. The high-velocity missiles can spot enemy aircraft at a distance of up to 11 miles, it added. Ukraine also received antiaircraft weapons systems from Germany and ammunition from the United States, authorities said Monday.
• Russian authorities defended Saturday’s strike on the southern port, saying it destroyed a Ukrainian warship and a storage facility for Harpoon anti-ship missiles. But the British Defense Ministry said Tuesday that “there is no indication that such targets were at the location the missiles hit.” The attack came less than a day after a U.N.-brokered grain deal in which Russia promised not to attack Odessa and two other ports involved in grain shipments.

• Russia’s economy appears to be faring better than expected….

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