There is absolutely no threat to navigation, tourism and tourists on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, Bulgaria’s outgoing Minister of Defense Dragomir Zakov said for the BNT. Bulgaria’s seacoast is safe for tourism. Sometimes pieces of military equipment float in the Black Sea because of the war in Ukraine, but we are closely monitoring the sea and react in a timely manner, Minister Zakov said.

Russian forces have not made significant advances in Donbas, although 60% of Russia's military troops are concentrated in this region. Ukrainian strikes have damages all three Russian controlled bridges leading into the city of Kherson.

Ukrainian partisans blew up a Russian-controlled railway in Zaporizhia Oblast, 30 km north of Melitopol, overnight on July 23-24. Geolocated images of the aftermath show splits in a rail juncture in Novobohdanivka that cuts off Vasylivka and Tokmak, Zaporizhia Oblast from the main rail line to Melitopol. Ukrainian officials reported that Russian forces use the rail line to transport equipment and personnel from Melitopol towards Vasylivka and Tokmak, the Institute for the Study of War reports.

In Egypt, Russia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov again blamed the West for the grain shortages tied to the war in Ukraine. Lavrov demanded that the West lift sanctions on Russian ships. He stressed that under the Instanbul Agreement, any Ukrainian ship sailing in the Black Sea would have to be accompanied by a Russian, Turkish and third-country vessel.