Ukraine's parliament accepted on Monday the resignation of prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko.

The move passed with 258 lawmakers voting in favor, with 226 needed for a majority.

President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Sunday that he planned to replace Svyrydenko after only a year in office, as he reshuffles his government.

Earlier, Taras Kachka, Ukraine's deputy prime minister for European integration, said the change of Ukraine's government will not impact the country's European Union integration.

"This is an unconditional priority for Ukrainian government so that the negotiations will go, and as well as a reform process," Kachka said in Brussels ahead of the formal opening of a second area of accession negotiations with Ukraine, covering external relations.

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that there could be no security guarantees for Ukraine without Russia's involvement.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also touched on Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's stance in support of Ukraine's territorial integrity

This stance is mistaken, Peskov said, adding that Azerbaijan is not the only country with which Russia maintains close relations and whose position on a number of issues differs from Russia's.

Vladimir Putin’s growing unpopularity in Russia means he cannot afford to end the war with Ukraine, as he will be lynched by his own people, one of the president’s greatest personal enemy in the West has warned.

Sir Bill Browder told The Independent’s World of Trouble podcast: “If he does a peace deal, he’ll lose power. If he loses power, then he’ll get strung up from a lamp post.”

The anti-corruption campaigner, who once ran the biggest investment fund in Russia, has fought against Putin for nearly two decades.

His latest intervention comes days after Nato leaders met in Turkey and agreed to allow Kyiv to produce its own Patriot air defence missiles, vital in withstanding the onslaught from Moscow.

Putin has variously claimed that he ordered the invasion of Ukraine in 2014 to see off a potential threat of Nato membership for Kyiv, to save Russian-speaking peoples in the east of the country, or as part of a patriotic duty to return Ukraine to Russia’s empire.

The Independent’s world affairs editor Sam Kiley writes:

Earlier, we reported that Russia’s transport ministry said it was taking all necessary measures to ensure safe passage of cargo vessels through the Sea of Azov after Ukraine has ramped up its attacks on the civilian fleet.

Now, the agricultural ministry has announced it is preparing to reroute grain shipments, raising concerns over disruption to a route that handles about a quarter of its grain exports.

Shipping in the Sea of Azov remained restricted on Tuesday, according to sources speaking to Reuters news agency, marking the biggest disruption to the Black Sea grain trade since the start of the war in Ukraine.

Russia's Agriculture Ministry said the situation would not affect export volumes or domestic food supplies because grain could be redirected through alternative ports.

"Given Russia's significant capacity for transshipping agricultural cargo in various regions, supply logistics will be redirected if necessary," the ministry said in a statement.

Some 500 soldiers from the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ backing Ukraine marched down Paris' Champs-Elysees on Tuesday in the annual Bastille Day parade, in what France said would be a symbol of Europe's strategic awakening.

France's traditional national day military parade fell one day after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky joined around 25 leaders in Paris for a summit of the coalition of Western allies supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia.

The allies announced an air-defence coalition asUkraine grapples with critical ammunition shortages and intensifying Russian strikes on its capital Kyiv and surrounding regions.

Zelensky, British prime minister Sir Keir Starmer and German chancellor Friedrich Merz were among about 30 leaders invited by Emmanuel Macron to watch Tuesday's parade, the French president's last before he leaves office in 2027.

It featured around 25 Ukrainian soldiers marching along the capital's most famous avenue.

We’re seeing reports from the Ukrainian military of fresh strikes on two Russian oil refineries.

Facilities in the Bashkortostan and Krasnodar regions were attacked overnight, the military said.

Ukraine's General Staff said on Telegram the strikes caused fires at the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat complex as well as near the Afipsky oil refinery.

We’re working to bring you more on the attack.

Sophie Clark reports:

Senator Lindsey Graham’s sudden death has removed a “vital diplomatic buffer between Washington and Kyiv”, experts have said, complicating support for Ukraine at a vital juncture of the war with Russia.

Jaroslava Barbieri, a Research Fellow at the Ukraine Forum at Chatham House, told the Independent that Graham has been a critical voice in US foreign policy when it comes to support for Ukraine.

The Republican senator for South Carolina was one of few vocally pro-Ukraine voices in the Republican Party. He used his leverage in the Senate to lobby for military aid to Ukraine dating back to Russia’s initial illegal invasion of Crimea in 2014, per CNN.

Since the invasion of Crimea, Graham, a prominent foreign policy hawk, has pushed for legislation that would prevent the U.S. from ever recognising seized Ukrainian land as Russian, maintaining NATO funding, and increasing sanctions on the Russian economy.

He even once called for someone in Vladimir Putin’s inner circle to assassinate the Russian president, saying they would be “doing your country – and the world – a great service,” per the Associated Press.

Ms Barbieri told the Independent: “Senator Lindsey Graham served as a crucial bridge between traditional Republican foreign policy hawks and Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ administration, using his direct personal access to champion robust support for Ukraine and secure recent White House backing for major secondary sanctions against Russia.

“His sudden passing removes a vital diplomatic buffer between Washington and Kyiv.”

Graham, 71, passed away suddenly from what a preliminary medical report has called an aortic dissection on Saturday.

Russian forces have attacked a civilian vessel near Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa, Ukrainian navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk has said.

No casualties have been reported in the attack, Pletenchuk added.

Odesa, Ukraine’s most important Black Sea port that is not under Russian occupation, has come under sustained Russian attack since it launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.