Heavy fighting rages in Lysychansk, a major city in eastern Ukraine at the heart of the battle for control of Donbas, while Belarus claims to have shot down missiles fired at its territory from Ukraine. Read our live blog below to see how the day's events unfolded. All times are Paris time, GMT+2.
6:46pm: Lukashenko says Belarus intercepted attempted missile strikes by Ukraine
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Saturday Ukraine had tried to strike military facilities on Belarusian territory three days ago, but all its missiles had been intercepted, the state-run Belta news agency reported.
Lukashenko, who did not provide evidence for the claim, said Belarus does not want war with Ukraine.
6:14pm: ‘Those were not human conditions’: Ukrainian soldiers return from front lines in Donbas
Artem Ruban, a Ukrainian soldier in Bakhmut who returned from the front lines in the Donbas region, said "those were not human conditions" about the fighting there, and Tetiana Khimion, a volunteer at a military hub, said that the soldiers she sees "have become different".
"It can go like this: For example, he comes in the first time, he smiles widely, he can even be shy. But the next time he comes, there is an emptiness in his eyes. He has been through something," Khimion said in this report.
3:39pm: Ukrainian army says eastern city of Lysychansk ‘not encircled’
Ukraine’s army said fighting was raging around the city of Lysychansk in the eastern Luhansk region, but that the city is ‘not encircled’, contradicting a spokesman for Russia-backed separatist forces who had earlier said it was.
"Today the Luhansk popular militia and Russian forces occupied the last strategic heights, which allows us to confirm that Lysychansk is completely encircled," Andrei Marotchko, a spokesman for the Moscow-backed separatist forces, told the Russian TASS news agency.
Should Russian forces capture the city, it would allow them to push deeper into the wider eastern region of the Donbas, which is now the focus of their offensive in Ukraine.
11:54am: Russia says it hit Ukrainian military sites in Donbas and Mykolaiv region
Russian forces destroyed five Ukrainian army command posts in Donbas and in the Mykolaiv region with high-precision weapons and also struck three storage sites in the Zaporizhzhia region, Moscow's defence ministry was quoted as saying on Saturday.
The ministry, cited by Russian news agencies, also said the Russian air force had struck a Ukrainian weapons and equipment base at a tractor factory in Kharkiv, northeast Ukraine.
6:35am: Blasts rock Ukraine's Mykolaiv, mayor says
Powerful explosions rocked the Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv early on Saturday, the mayor said, a day after authorities said at least 21 people were killed when Russian missiles struck an apartment building near the Black Sea port of Odesa.
Air raid sirens sounded across the Mykolaiv region, which borders the vital exporting port of Odesa, before the blasts.
“There are powerful explosions in the city! Stay in shelters!” Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevich wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
It was not immediately known what caused the explosions. Reuters could not independently verify the report.
July 1, 11:50pm: US sending Ukraine two surface-to-air missile systems
The United States is sending Ukraine two NASAMS surface-to-air missile systems, four additional counter-artillery radars and up to 150,000 rounds of 155mm artillery ammunition as part of its latest weapons packages for Ukraine, the Pentagon said on Friday.
The assistance package, worth about $820 million, was broadly announced by US President Joe Biden on Thursday in Madrid following a gathering of NATO leaders that was focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Ukrainians continue to face a brutality highlighted once again this week by an attack that struck a shopping mall filled with civilians. They continue to fight for their country, and the United States continues to stand by them and their just cause,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement about the assistance.
(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP and REUTERS)
