Latest developments:

• Senior Russian officials said Friday that the U.N.-brokered Black Sea grain deal could not be extended beyond July 17, when it expires, but that Moscow was working to ensure that poorer countries would not suffer food shortages when it ends.
• The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, is expected to visit Moscow next week, the Interfax news agency reported, citing the head of Russian nuclear state company Rosatom. Grossi visited the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine on Thursday, after last week’s collapse of the Kakhovka dam, whose reservoir feeds the nuclear facility’s cooling ponds.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin insulted Ukrainian President Zelenskyy’s Jewish identity Friday, saying without evidence that some Jews considered him a disgrace to their faith. “I have many Jewish friends. They say Zelenskyy is not a Jew, he is a disgrace to the Jewish people,” he said at an economic forum in St. Petersburg.

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The U.S. announced Friday additional humanitarian assistance of $205 million for Ukraine that will provide critical support such as food, safe water, accessible shelter and more.

“The U.S. response is advancing Ukraine’s overall security, economic recovery, energy security and capacity to cope with the humanitarian crisis created by Russia’s war. We welcome the contributions of other donors toward this crisis response and urge yet more donors to generously support the serious humanitarian needs in Ukraine and the region,” said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The U.S. aid package brings the total humanitarian assistance for Ukraine to more than $605 million during fiscal 2023. Since February 2022, the United States has provided more than $2.1 billion in humanitarian assistance for the people of Ukraine.

The European Commission will propose additional funding to support Ukraine in the coming years. This year, the EU is providing $19.8 billion but aims at a longer-term solution to provide Kyiv with financing certainty as it repels Russia’s invasion.

“The EU is ready to provide Ukraine with sustainable and predictable financial support beyond 2023 to maintain both macro financial stability and support reconstruction,” European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said Friday.

Ukraine-NATO

NATO allies may be ready to facilitate Ukraine’s path to the military alliance, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Friday during a news conference in Brussels. “There are increasing signs that everyone will be able to agree on this,” he said when asked about reports the U.S. is open to permitting Kyiv to forgo a formal candidacy process required of some other nations in the past. “I would be open for this,” Pistorius noted.

On Thursday, the European Parliament approved a resolution calling on NATO to accept Ukraine into the alliance when the war is over.

So far, there is no consensus on Ukraine’s NATO membership. U.S. President Joe Biden has supported NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg’s statement, however, that Ukraine does not need to implement a “membership action plan” to join NATO.

Putin warning

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Friday that there was a “serious danger” the NATO military alliance could be pulled further into Russia’s military action against Ukraine. He made the comment during a plenary session of Russia’s flagship St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, where he touted Russia’s economy despite heavy international sanctions imposed because of the war in Ukraine. Western journalists were banned from the event.

Putin also alleged that Ukraine was running out of its own military equipment, making it totally dependent on military hardware supplied by the West. “Everything on which they fight and everything that they use is brought in from the outside. Well, you can’t fight like that for long,” he said.

Additionally, he asserted that Ukraine had failed to make progress in its counteroffensive, adding its army had “no chance” against Russia’s.

Independent military analysts say Ukraine has outperformed Russia’s much larger army in the nearly 16 months of the war, though, forcing it to retreat around the cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv and Kherson.

Ukrainian Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi said Friday that advancing Ukrainian troops were facing “desperate resistance” from Russian forces around the city of Bakhmut, which Russia captured last month after the longest battle of the war.

“We continue to conduct offensive actions in separate directions, occupying dominant heights and strips of forest with the aim of forcing the enemy gradually out of the outskirts of Bakhmut. Realizing this, the enemy units put up desperate resistance,” Syrskyi said on the Telegram messaging app.

Ukraine says it has recaptured seven villages and 100 square kilometers (62 square miles) in the early stages of its counteroffensive.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Friday that its forces had repelled numerous attempted counterattacks by the Ukrainian army at different front-line locations in the last 24 hours, inflicting heavy losses on Kyiv’s forces.

Reuters said it could not verify the battlefield situation. Russia has not officially acknowledged the Ukrainian advances and has contended that Ukrainian troops have suffered heavy casualties, but Reuters has confirmed the liberation of at least two villages in the east.

African delegation

Air defense sirens blared Friday in Kyiv as a delegation of African heads of state met with government leaders in hopes of brokering a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko posted on social media that there was an explosion in the central Podil district. “Missiles are still flying towards Kyiv,” he said on Telegram.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is part of the African delegation set to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the first step in its mission to broker a peace deal.

The other members of the delegation are Senegalese President Macky Sall, Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema and Comoros President Azali Assoumani, who currently leads the African Union.

African presidents from Congo, Egypt and Uganda also were set to participate in the peace mission but instead sent their representatives.

The group was expected to meet with Zelenskyy on Friday and then travel to Russia to meet with Putin.

Reuters reported that it had seen a draft of the peace proposals and negotiation points the African peace mission crafted, which include a Russian troop pullback and suspension of the implementation of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against Putin.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.