Summary
That’s all from our live coverage of the war in Ukraine for the day. In case you missed anything, here’s a quick run-down of all the day’s developments.
President Zelenskiy has announced the return of five military commanders who were previously expected to have to remain in Turkey until the end of the war. The men led the defence of the city of Mariupol until surrendering to Russian forces last year, and had been sent to Turkey under the terms of a prisoner exchange brokered by Ankara.
Russia has said the return of the men represents “nothing more than a direct violation of the terms of the existing agreements” by both Ukraine and Turkey. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Saturday that Vladimir Putin would visit Turkey in August.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has reiterated that Britain is signatory to a convention prohibits cluster munitions. “We will continue to do our part to support Ukraine against Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion,” he said. “But we’ve done that by providing heavy battle tanks and, most recently, long-range weapons.”
It comes after the United States announced that it would be providing the weapons to Ukraine. Ukraine has welcomed the decision and said it could help it to recapture territory.
Former prime minister Boris Johnson has also backed the move, describing it as “difficult but brave”. He said: “These are terrible weapons. But they have been used by Putin for over a year in his programme of indiscriminate slaughter of an entirely innocent people. The faster we help the Ukrainians to win, the more lives we will save all round.”
Zelenskiy also visited Snake island, which became a symbol of Ukrainian defiance early in the war after Ukrainian soldiers there refused to surrender to Russian forces, to mark 500 days since the invasion. In an undated clip released on Saturday, Zelenskiy was shown arriving by boat and laying flowers to honour those who defended the island.
Mercenary fighters of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner group are preparing to move to Belarus under the terms of a deal that defused their mutiny against Russia’s military leadership, a senior commander of the group was quoted as saying. Since the June mutiny, when Wagner fighters briefly seized a southern Russian city and marched towards Moscow, the exact whereabouts of Prigozhin and his mercenaries have been unclear.
The UN’s nuclear watchdog chief said it was “making progress” on inspecting several areas of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, after Ukraine claimed that “external objects similar to explosive devices” had been placed on rooftops at the site. UN officials said they had “not seen any indications of explosives or mines” while touring the cooling ponds and other areas, but have yet to visit the facility’s rooftops.
If Russia does not agree to extend a deal allowing the safe export of grain and fertiliser from Ukrainian ports, it is unlikely western states will continue cooperating with UN officials helping Moscow with its exports, the UN aid chief said. Russia has threatened to quit the deal, which expires on 17 July, because several demands to dispatch its own grain and fertiliser have not been met.
More than 9,000 Ukrainian civilians, including in excess of 500 children, are confirmed to have died since the beginning of Russia’s invasion, according to the latest United Nations data. It is thought the true figures are likely to be much higher.
Updated
Biden 'right' to provide cluster munitions, says Boris Johnson
The United States was right to agree to provide cluster munitions to Ukraine, Boris Johnson has said.
Posting on Twitter, the former prime minister wrote: “Joe Biden has taken a difficult but brave decision to supply cluster munitions to Ukraine. He is right.
“These are terrible weapons. But they have been used by Putin for over a year in his programme of indiscriminate slaughter of an entirely innocent people.
“The faster we help the Ukrainians to win, the more lives we will save all round. And never forget - it is the Ukrainians who will use these weapons on their own soil, and to protect themselves.”
The UK is party to a 2008 convention prohibiting cluster munitions, but none of the US, Ukraine, or Russia are signatories.
Joe Biden has taken a difficult but brave decision to supply cluster munitions to Ukraine. He is right. These are terrible weapons. But they have been used by Putin for over a year in his programme of indiscriminate slaughter of an entirely innocent people. The faster we help the…
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) July 8, 2023
Pictures show President Zelenskiy on board his presidential plane with the five commanders who have been repatriated to Ukraine from Turkey.
Updated
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas has sent a video message to the first summit for supporters of the North Atlantic Fellas Organisation, or Nafo, a social media movement which uses memes and humour to counter Russian disinformation.
The group, which began online after the invasion of Ukraine and has been widely cited as an example of successful information warfare, is meeting in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, ahead of a Nato summit set to take place in the same city next week.
Describing herself as an “honorary fella”, Kallas said that Russia “must be defeated on the battlefield”, but that democracies must also take steps to defend themselves from misinformation.
“You are all a living example of this, fighting Russian disinformation and bad takes with good humour, intelligence, and enthusiasm,” she said.
“Behind every Fella is a real person, volunteering your time and energy because you believe in Ukraine’s victory. Keep fighting the good fight, because Nafo expansion is non-negotiable.”
Greetings to #NAFOfellas at the first-ever #NAFOSummit in Vilnius.#NAFO is a living example of how to disarm Russian disinformation with humour, intelligence and enthusiasm. Behind every Fella is a real person who believes in #Ukraine’s victory.
— Kaja Kallas (@kajakallas) July 8, 2023
Thank you for your service. pic.twitter.com/VWOkAe3udr
Return of Ukrainian commanders 'direct violation' of agreement, says Moscow
The return of five Ukrainian commanders from Turkey is a “direct violation” of a prisoner exchange brokered by Ankara last year, Russia has said.
It comes after President Zelenskiy tweeted a video of the men, who led the defence of the city of Mariupol until surrendering in May last year, boarding a plane with him to return to Ukraine.
In a post, he said: “We are returning home from Turkey and bringing our heroes home. They will finally be with their relatives.”
Under the terms of a prisoner swap agreed after the surrender, some of the soldiers involved in the fighting were released, but their commanders were required to go to Turkey until the end of the war.
“The return of the leaders of the Azovites from Turkey to Ukraine is nothing more than a direct violation of the terms of the existing agreements”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told RIA Novosti.
“Moreover, in this case, the conditions were violated by both the Ukrainian side and the Turkish side.”
Turkish president Recep Erdoğan said on Saturday that Vladimir Putin would be visiting Turkey next month, although Peskov later said that no date had been agreed.
Updated
The graphic below shows how cluster bombs are designed and how they are able to spread hundreds of small explosives over a huge area.
The United States, which has never signed a 2008 convention prohibiting the cluster munitions, announced on Friday that it would begin providing the weapons to Ukraine.
Ukraine secures return of Mariupol commanders
Ukraine has secured the return of five military commanders who had been forced to live in Turkey under the terms of a prisoner exchange.
The men led the defence of the Ukrainian port town of Mariupol before having to surrender it to Russian forces in May last year.
Moscow freed some of the soldiers captured after the surrender as part of a prisoner swap brokered by Turkey, the terms of which required that the commanders remain in Turkey until the end of the war.
Their release comes after a visit to Turkey by President Zelenskiy.
In a post on Twitter, he said: “We are returning home from Turkey and bringing our heroes home. They will finally be with their relatives.”
Footage also showed Zelenskiy and his senior aides greeting and embracing each of the men in turn before ushering them onto a plane.
Повертаємося додому з Туреччини й повертаємо додому наших героїв.
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 8, 2023
Українські воїни Денис Прокопенко, Святослав Паламар, Сергій Волинський, Олег Хоменко, Денис Шлега нарешті будуть із рідними.
Слава Україні!
——
We are returning home from Türkiye and bringing our heroes home.… pic.twitter.com/SLX3RIWPiy
Updated
Canada has reiterated its opposition to the use of cluster munitions after the US announced it would be supplying the weapons to Ukraine.
In a statement on Saturday, the Canadian government said: “We do not support the use of cluster munitions and are committed to putting an end to the effects cluster munitions have on civilians, particularly children.”
Cluster munitions are a type of bomb that release a large number of other smaller explosives that can kill indiscriminately over a wide area.
They were prohibited under the convention on cluster munitions in 2008, although none of Russia, Ukraine, or the US are signatories to the convention.
The statement added: “Canada is fully compliant with the convention and we take seriously our obligation under the convention to encourage its universal adoption.”
Ukraine has welcomed the decision by the US to provide the weapons, saying they would help liberate Ukrainian territory.
Updated
Summary
Here is what you might have missed:
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has visited Snake island to mark 500 days since Russia’s invasion. The island became a symbol of Ukrainian defiance on the war’s first day after Ukrainian guards refused to surrender to Russian forces. In an undated clip, which was released on Saturday, Zelenskiy was shown arriving at the island by boat. Zelenskiy, wearing a black hoodie and a camouflage bullet-proof vest, laid flowers to honour those who defended the island, and thanked all the soldiers who have fought for Ukraine in the months since Russia’s invasion.
Ukraine‘s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, has welcomed the US decision to send the country cluster munitions. The US said on Friday it would supply Ukraine with the widely banned cluster munitions, a decision that has prompted condemnation from human rights groups. In a Twitter post, Reznikov said the new weapons “will significantly help us to de-occupy our territories while saving the lives of the Ukrainian soldiers.” He said the munitions “will not be used on the officially recognized territory of Russia”.
In response, Russia said that the decision to supply Ukraine with cluster munitions is an “act of desperation” and shows “weakness”. The ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a statement: “It is an act of desperation and shows weakness against the backdrop of the failure of the much-touted Ukrainian counteroffensive.The latest ‘miracle weapon’ which Washington and Kyiv are betting on, without thinking about the grave consequences, will have no effect on the special military operation.”
Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak said that Britain is signatory to a convention that prohibits the production or use of cluster munitions and discourages their use. “We will continue to do our part to support Ukraine against Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion,” Sunak told reporters.
Ukraine’s interior ministry said the death toll from a Russian missile attack on the city of Lyman, in eastern Ukraine, has increased to eight and 13 people have been injured. Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region where Lyman is located, said “at around 10.00am, the Russians struck the town with multiple rocket launchers”.
The United Nations has condemned the civilian cost inflicted as the war passes the 500th day mark. “Today we mark another grim milestone in the war that continues to exact a horrific toll on Ukraine’s civilians,” said Noel Calhoun, deputy head of the UN’s Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine. More than 9,000 civilians, including over 500 children, have been killed since Russia’s invasion, though experts have previously warned the real count is likely far higher.
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said on Saturday that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, would visit the country in August. Speaking at a joint news conference with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, he also urged Moscow to extend a Black Sea grain deal by at least three months.
Fighting in Bakhmut over the last seven days has been some of the most intense along the front as Ukraine continues its counteroffensive in the Russian-held city, according to the UK Ministry of Defence’s latest intelligence report. The MoD said: “Ukrainian forces have made steady gains to both the north and south of the Russian-held town. Russian defenders are highly likely struggling with poor morale, a mix of disparate units and a limited ability to find and strike Ukrainian artillery.”
Mercenary fighters of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner group are preparing to move to Belarus under the terms of a deal that defused their mutiny against Russia’s military leadership, a senior commander of the group was quoted as saying. Since the June mutiny, when Wagner fighters briefly seized a southern Russian city and marched towards Moscow, the exact whereabouts of Prigozhin and his mercenaries have been unclear, Reuters reported.
Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu has inspected troops and overseen training of newly formed units made up of contracted servicemen, his ministry said. The ministry released video footage on its Telegram channel on Saturday showing Shoigu in khaki military fatigues inspecting soldiers at a shooting range. It is his first public appearance with troops since last month’s aborted mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group.
US president Joe Biden has been condemned by human rights groups after agreeing to send widely banned cluster munitions to Ukraine, with one fellow Democrat labelling the decision “unnecessary and a terrible mistake”. Washington said it has received assurances from Kyiv that it would minimise risk to civilians, including by not using the munitions in populated areas. Biden said the decision was “very difficult”, but that Ukrainian forces were “running out of ammunition”.
The UN’s nuclear watchdog chief said it was “making progress” on inspecting several areas of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, after Ukraine claimed that “external objects similar to explosive devices” had been placed on rooftops at the site. UN officials said they had “not seen any indications of explosives or mines” while touring the cooling ponds and other areas, but have yet to visit the facility’s rooftops.
Nato leaders will publicly recommit to Ukraine becoming a member of the military alliance when they meet in Vilnius on Tuesday, according to the organisation’s secretary general. US president Joe Biden said he does not think there is “unanimity in Nato” to bring Ukraine into the military alliance. Zelenskiy has also criticised Nato over a lack of “unity” which he says explains the failure to provide a guarantee for Ukraine’s membership.
If Russia does not agree to extend a deal allowing the safe export of grain and fertiliser from Ukrainian ports, it is unlikely western states will continue cooperating with UN officials helping Moscow with its exports, the UN aid chief said. Russia has threatened to quit the deal, which expires on 17 July, because several demands to dispatch its own grain and fertiliser have not been met. The last three ships travelling under the deal are loading cargoes at the Ukrainian port of Odesa and are likely to depart on Monday.
More than 9,000 Ukrainian civilians, including in excess of 500 children, are confirmed to have died since the beginning of Russia’s invasion, according to the latest United Nations data. However, the true figures are probably much higher.
A report by the Kyiv School of Economics and B4Ukraine, a coalition of NGOs which lobbies international businesses to leave Russia, said 56% of foreign companies were still operating in the country last year despite the exodus of a significant minority. However, Russia’s earnings from oil and gas sales have fallen by half.
Rishi Sunak has said the UK was a signatory to a convention prohibiting the production or use of cluster bombs, after Joe Biden agreed to send the munitions to Ukraine.
The US government announced it would send cluster bombs as part of an $800m (£625m) security assistance package, in a move that Kyiv said would have an “extraordinary psycho-emotional impact” on the occupying Russian forces.
When cluster bombs detonate, they spread dozens of tiny bomblets over a wide area, with a large number burying themselves in the ground rather than exploding.
In effect, the weapons therefore leave a field of anti-personnel mines in their wake, posing a lethal danger to civilians, often children.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has visited Snake island to mark 500 days since Russia’s invasion.
The island became a symbol of Ukrainian defiance on the war’s first day after Ukrainian guards refused to surrender to Russian forces.
In an undated clip, which was released on Saturday, Zelenskiy was shown arriving at the island by boat.
Zelenskiy, wearing a black hoodie and a camouflage bullet-proof vest, laid flowers to honour those who defended the island, and thanked all the soldiers who have fought for Ukraine in the months since Russia’s invasion.
“Today we are on Snake Island, which will never be conquered by the occupiers, like the whole of Ukraine, because we are the country of the brave.
“I want to thank, from here, from this place of victory, each of our soldiers for these 500 days.”
Read more: Volodymyr Zelenskiy visits Snake Island on 500th day of Russian invasion
Updated
Michael Kofman, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment, has said that the United States providing Ukraine with cluster munitions could have a “significant impact beyond what other capabilities might achieve.”
In a Twitter thread, Kofman said that Ukraine’s counteroffensive is currently limited “by the artillery ammunition available” and that progress has been “slow” and “difficult”.
Kyiv’s limits are probably not manpower, but around ammunition, he said.
He added that providing the country with cluster munitions will “alleviate the time pressure” on Ukraine operations and also means the US is in “a much better position to sustain Ukraine’s war effort into next year.”
A few thoughts on DPICM. Providing cluster munitions to Ukraine, at this stage, could have a significant impact beyond what other capabilities might achieve. Despite the drawbacks, unlocking this stockpile has important implications for the course of Ukraine's offensive. 1/
— Michael Kofman (@KofmanMichael) July 7, 2023
US decision to supply Ukraine with cluster munitions is 'act of desperation', says Russia
The US decision to supply Ukraine with cluster munitions is an “act of desperation” and shows “weakness”, Russia’s foreign ministry said on Saturday.
The ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a statement:
It is an act of desperation and shows weakness against the backdrop of the failure of the much-touted Ukrainian counteroffensive.
The latest ‘miracle weapon’ which Washington and Kyiv are betting on, without thinking about the grave consequences, will have no effect on the special military operation.
Agence France-Presse reports that Zakharova said the decision showed the “aggressive anti-Russian course taken by the US, which is aimed at prolonging the conflict in Ukraine as much as possible”.
She also said Ukraine‘s promises to use the controversial ammunition responsibly “are not worth anything”.
Russia itself uses cluster bombs in Ukraine but they are banned in many parts of the world.
Updated
Death toll from Russian missile strike on Lyman rises to eight
In a post earlier today we reported that at least six people were killed after a Russian missile attack on the city of Lyman in eastern Ukraine.
Agence France-Presse reports that Ukraine’s interior ministry said the death toll has increased to eight and 13 people have been injured.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region where Lyman is located, said “at around 10.00am, the Russians struck the town with multiple rocket launchers”.
In an earlier post on Telegram he said at least six people had died after the attack.
Lyman, a major rail hub, was initially captured by Russian forces but then retaken by Ukraine’s army in October.
Updated
The commander of the Freedom of Russia Legion says his fighters are planning another cross-border raid into Russia and are seeking to capitalise on disarray inside the Kremlin following the mutiny by Yevgeny Prigozhin.
“There will be a further surprise in the next month or so,” Caesar, a spokesperson for the anti-Putin paramilitary group, said in an interview with the Observer in Kyiv. “It will be our third operation. After that there will be a fourth, and fifth. We have ambitious plans. We want to free all our territory.”
The legion, consisting of around 200 Russian military volunteers, carried out attacks in May and early June. It occupied border villages near the Russian city of Belgorod, skirmished with the Russian army, and captured 10 Russian soldiers. Two members of the anti-Kremlin militia were killed, Caesar said.
He described the recent incursion near the town of Shebekino as a “local raid and reconnaissance operation”. Caesar, who moved to Ukraine when Moscow’s full-scale invasion began, said he packed his Russian passport. “The border guards ran away. There was no one to show it to,” he joked.
Read more: ‘We have ambitious plans’: Anti-Putin forces plan fresh attacks inside Russia
Updated
Ukraine‘s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, has welcomed the US decision to send the country cluster munitions.
The US said on Friday it would supply Ukraine with the widely banned cluster munitions, a decision that has prompted condemnation from human rights groups.
In a Twitter post, Reznikov said the new weapons “will significantly help us to de-occupy our territories while saving the lives of the Ukrainian soldiers.”
He said the munitions “will not be used on the officially recognized territory of Russia”.
We welcome the decision of the US to provide Ukraine with the new liberation weapons that will significantly help us to de-occupy our territories while saving the lives of the Ukrainian soldiers.
— Oleksii Reznikov (@oleksiireznikov) July 7, 2023
Under Article 51 of the UN Charter Ukraine has a universal internationally…
Updated
These are some of the latest images to be sent to us over the newswires.
Updated
Our Washington bureau chief, David Smith, analyses US president Joe Biden’s decision to send cluster munitions to Ukraine.
On Friday, the US announced it will send Ukraine cluster munitions as part of an $800m security assistance package, a move Kyiv said would have an “extraordinary psycho-emotional impact” on occupying Russian forces.
When they detonate, cluster bombs spread dozens of tiny bomblets over a wide area, with a large number burying themselves in the ground rather than exploding. The weapons therefore effectively leave a field of anti-personnel mines in their wake, posing a lethal danger to civilians, often children.
By authorising their transfer, Joe Biden has arguably crossed a Rubicon, putting the political and military imperatives of the moment ahead of America’s already somewhat tattered moral reputation.
In an interview to be broadcast on CNN on Sunday, the president said: “It was a very difficult decision on my part. And, by the way, I discussed this with our allies, I discussed this with our friends up on the [Capitol] Hill. The Ukrainians are running out of ammunition.”
Read more: End justifies means for Biden in sending cluster bombs to Ukraine
Sunak says UK discourages use of cluster munitions
Britain is signatory to a convention that prohibits the production or use of cluster munitions and discourages their use, the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, said on Saturday after the US said it was planning to supply Ukraine with them.
“We will continue to do our part to support Ukraine against Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion,” Sunak told reporters.
Updated
Cluster bombs should not be sent to help Ukraine, the Spanish defence minister said on Saturday, a day after the US announced the weapons would be sent to Kyiv to help with its counteroffensive against Russian forces.
Cluster munitions are prohibited by more than 100 countries, including Spain, Reuters reported. They typically release large numbers of smaller bomblets that can kill indiscriminately over a wide area. Those that fail to explode pose a danger for decades.
“Spain, based on the firm commitment it has with Ukraine, also has a firm commitment that certain weapons and bombs cannot be delivered under any circumstances,” Margarita Robles told reporters during a rally in Madrid ahead of the 23 July national election.
“No to cluster bombs and yes to the legitimate defence of Ukraine, which we understand should not be carried out with cluster bombs.”
Robles said the decision to send cluster bombs was a decision taken by the US government, not by Nato, of which Spain is a member. There is broad support among Spanish parties for backing Ukraine and providing military aid for the war.
Russia, Ukraine and the US have not signed up to the convention on cluster munitions, which bans production, stockpiling, use and transfer of the weapons.
Updated
Mercenary fighters of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner group are preparing to move to Belarus under the terms of a deal that defused their mutiny against Russia’s military leadership, a senior commander of the group was quoted as saying.
Since the June mutiny, when Wagner fighters briefly seized a southern Russian city and marched towards Moscow, the exact whereabouts of Prigozhin and his mercenaries have been unclear, Reuters reported.
Under the deal that ended the mutiny, Prigozhin was meant to move to Belarus and his men – some of them ex-convicts freed early to fight in Ukraine – were given the option to move with him to Belarus, join Russia’s regular armed forces, or go home.
However, the Belarus president, Alexander Lukashenko, said on Thursday that Prigozhin and thousands of his fighters were still in Russia, raising questions about the deal’s implementation.
Updated
As we reported earlier, an undated clip published by Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday showed the Ukrainian president on a visit to Snake Island, in the Black Sea.
In the footage, Agence France-Presse reports that he said:
Today we are on Snake Island, which will never be conquered by the occupiers, like the whole of Ukraine, because we are the country of the brave.
I want to thank from here, from this place of victory, each of our soldiers for these 500 days.
The UN has documented 9,000 civilian deaths since the start of the war on 24 February 2022, including 500 children, although it estimates the real toll could be significantly higher.
That toll went up again on Saturday as authorities in the eastern Donetsk region said six people were killed by Russian rocket fire in the town of Lyman.
Updated
Russia has requested a new meeting of the UN security council for 11 July to discuss last September’s explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines, a senior Russian diplomat at the United Nations said on Saturday.
Russia has unsuccessfully demanded access to investigations by Sweden and other countries into the blasts, which severely damaged the pipelines connecting Russia and Germany under the Baltic Sea.
Reuters reports that Dmitry Polyansky, Russia’s deputy UN ambassador, said on Telegram:
We requested a new open meeting of the UN Security Council on the Nord Stream blasts for July 11.
He added that Russia would invite “a couple of interesting impartial speakers” to the meeting.
Russia failed in March to get the security council to ask for an independent inquiry.
Moscow has claimed the west was behind the blasts. Western governments have denied involvement, as has Ukraine, which is fighting Russian forces on its territory.
Updated
Summary
Here is what you might have missed:
The United Nations has condemned the civilian cost inflicted as the war passes the 500th day mark. “Today we mark another grim milestone in the war that continues to exact a horrific toll on Ukraine’s civilians,” said Noel Calhoun, deputy head of the UN’s Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine. More than 9,000 civilians, including over 500 children, have been killed since Russia’s invasion, though experts have previously warned the real count is likely far higher.
At least six people have been killed and another five injured in Lyman in Ukraine‘s eastern Donetsk region on Saturday, Pavlo Kyrylenko, the regional governor, said. In a Telegram message he said the city was struck by rockets at 10am and that a house and shop were also damaged.
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said on Saturday that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, would visit the country in August. Speaking at a joint news conference with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, he also urged Moscow to extend a Black Sea grain deal by at least three months.
Fighting in Bakhmut over the last seven days has been some of the most intense along the front as Ukraine continues its counteroffensive in the Russian-held city, according to the UK Ministry of Defence’s latest intelligence report. The MoD said: “Ukrainian forces have made steady gains to both the north and south of the Russian-held town. Russian defenders are highly likely struggling with poor morale, a mix of disparate units and a limited ability to find and strike Ukrainian artillery.”
Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu has inspected troops and overseen training of newly formed units made up of contracted servicemen, his ministry said. The ministry released video footage on its Telegram channel on Saturday showing Shoigu in khaki military fatigues inspecting soldiers at a shooting range. It is his first public appearance with troops since last month’s aborted mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group.
US president Joe Biden has been condemned by human rights groups after agreeing to send widely banned cluster munitions to Ukraine, with one fellow Democrat labelling the decision “unnecessary and a terrible mistake”. Washington said it has received assurances from Kyiv that it would minimise risk to civilians, including by not using the munitions in populated areas. Biden said the decision was “very difficult”, but that Ukrainian forces were “running out of ammunition”.
The UN’s nuclear watchdog chief said it was “making progress” on inspecting several areas of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, after Ukraine claimed that “external objects similar to explosive devices” had been placed on rooftops at the site. UN officials said they had “not seen any indications of explosives or mines” while touring the cooling ponds and other areas, but have yet to visit the facility’s rooftops.
Nato leaders will publicly recommit to Ukraine becoming a member of the military alliance when they meet in Vilnius on Tuesday, according to the organisation’s secretary general. US president Joe Biden said he does not think there is “unanimity in Nato” to bring Ukraine into the military alliance. Zelenskiy has also criticised Nato over a lack of “unity” which he says explains the failure to provide a guarantee for Ukraine’s membership.
If Russia does not agree to extend a deal allowing the safe export of grain and fertiliser from Ukrainian ports, it is unlikely western states will continue cooperating with UN officials helping Moscow with its exports, the UN aid chief said. Russia has threatened to quit the deal, which expires on 17 July, because several demands to dispatch its own grain and fertiliser have not been met. The last three ships travelling under the deal are loading cargoes at the Ukrainian port of Odesa and are likely to depart on Monday.
More than 9,000 Ukrainian civilians, including in excess of 500 children, are confirmed to have died since the beginning of Russia’s invasion, according to the latest United Nations data. However, the true figures are probably much higher.
A report by the Kyiv School of Economics and B4Ukraine, a coalition of NGOs which lobbies international businesses to leave Russia, said 56% of foreign companies were still operating in the country last year despite the exodus of a significant minority. However, Russia’s earnings from oil and gas sales have fallen by half.
Updated
At least six killed after Russian shelling in Lyman, says governor
At least six people have been killed and another five injured in Lyman in Ukraine‘s eastern Donetsk region on Saturday, Pavlo Kyrylenko, the regional governor, said.
In a Telegram message he said the city was struck by rockets at 10am and that a house and shop were also damaged. The police and paramedics are at the scene, he added.
Lyman is a key railway junction in eastern Donetsk.
The Ukrainian military said in its daily military update that it had repelled Russian troops’ assault attempts near Lyman.
Updated
Erdoğan announces Putin visit to Turkey and urges Moscow to extend Black Sea grain deal
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said on Saturday that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, would visit the country in August.
Speaking at a joint news conference with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, he also urged Moscow to extend a Black Sea grain deal by at least three months.
The grain deal, brokered last year by Turkey and the United Nations, allowed for the safe export of grain from Ukrainian ports via the Black Sea despite the war.
Reuters reports that Erdoğan said work was under way on extending the deal beyond its expiration date of 17 July and for longer periods beyond that.
The deal would be one of the most important issues on the agenda for his meeting with Putin in Turkey next month, he said.
In the news conference he said:
Our hope is that it will be extended at least once every three months, not every two months. We will make an effort in this regard and try to increase the duration of it to two years.
Asked on Saturday whether a visit by Putin to Turkey in August was being prepared, the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, was quoted by the Tass news agency as saying: “Contacts are possible. There are no exact dates yet.”
Updated
The US under secretary of defense for policy, Colin Kahl, has defended US plans to send cluster munitions to Ukraine.
At a press conference, Kahl said the US had received written assurances from Kyiv on responsible usage of the rounds.
He said this included promises the cluster munitions would not be used “in civilian populated urban environments”.
The US announced on Friday it would send Ukraine cluster munitions as part of an $800m (£625m) security package. The decision has been condemned by human rights groups.
“They will not use the rounds in civilian populated urban environments”
— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) July 8, 2023
Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl defends US plans to send cluster munitions to Ukrainehttps://t.co/CePBqIm44kpic.twitter.com/Xfqk8BYHQf
Updated
As we reported in a post below, a clip was released on Saturday that showed Volodymyr Zelenskiy visiting Snake Island.
Andriy Yermak, the head of the Office of the Ukrainian Presidency, has posted a number of pictures of the visit on his Twitter account.
The night is always darkest before the dawn. This dawn on the Snake Island was inspiring.
— Andriy Yermak (@AndriyYermak) July 8, 2023
Along with the President and the team, we visited the place of 🇺🇦 victory.
500 days... 9 years of war...
The Snake Island is a symbol of 🇺🇦's invincibility.
We will get everything back🌅 pic.twitter.com/kolgozulGk
Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu has inspected troops and overseen training of newly formed units made up of contracted servicemen, his ministry said.
The ministry released video footage on its Telegram channel on Saturday showing Shoigu in khaki military fatigues inspecting soldiers at a shooting range.
It is his first public appearance with troops since last month’s aborted mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group.
The ministry did not say when the video was filmed or when the inspection took place.
Reuters reports that the defence ministry said:
The Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation personally checked the training of contract servicemen in combat operations in various conditions, including urban combat.
From a distance of about 3 miles (5km) the drone camera zoomed in on a group of Russian soldiers. Three of them got out of a vehicle, strolled over to a cottage, and disappeared inside. “We won’t hit them yet.
“It’s better to observe,” the drone’s Ukrainian operator – call-sign “Garry” – said. “Once we’ve destroyed them, we’ll move on to the next target.”
The screen in front of him offered a panoramic view of the war in southern Ukraine. There were green fields, pitted with holes from artillery strikes. A destroyed armoured vehicle sat on a road.
The frontline village of Urozhaine, where the Russians had parked up, was a mazy ruin. A puff of grey smoke from a Ukrainian missile rose into an azure sky.
Since Ukraine’s counteroffensive began a month ago, Garry’s air reconnaissance unit has been spotting enemy targets. It is slow, painstaking work. The Russians deploy electronic countermeasures.
The drone goes “deaf”, Garry said, which means it has to be flown manually back to its starting point, a yellow field next to ash trees and a colony of buntings.
Read more: ‘We need Russia’s complete defeat’: Ukrainian forces upbeat on the frontline
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Zelenskiy hails 'brave' soldiers on visit to Snake Island
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has visited a Black Sea island whose defenders defied a Russian warship at the beginning of the invasion.
Agence France-Presse reports that he said in a video clip:
Today we are on Snake Island, which will never be conquered by the occupiers, like the whole of Ukraine, because we are the country of the brave.
I want to thank, from here, from this place of victory, each of our soldiers for these 500 days.
In the undated clip which was released on Saturday, he was shown arriving on the island by boat and leaving flowers at a memorial.
Moscow captured Snake Island shortly after launching its invasion on 24 February 2022.
A radio exchange went viral in which Ukrainian soldiers told the crew of Russia’s attacking warship, who were demanding their surrender, to “go fuck yourself”.
The Ukrainian soldiers were taken prisoner but later exchanged for Russian captives.
The recording of this verbal exchange has gone around the world and served as a theme for the Ukrainian resistance, even appearing on placards during support rallies abroad and on stamps.
The Russian ship involved, the Moskva, sank in the Black Sea in April following what Moscow said was an explosion on board. Ukraine said it had hit the warship with missiles.
Ukrainian forces recaptured the island in June last year.
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Here are the some of the latest images coming out of Ukraine:
The US president, Joe Biden, has been condemned by human rights groups after he approved sending widely banned cluster munitions to Ukraine, with one fellow Democrat branding the decision “unnecessary and a terrible mistake”.
The Pentagon announced an $800m military aid package to Ukraine that includes cluster munitions. The national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said: “We recognise that cluster munitions create a risk of civilian harm from unexploded ordnance.”
The White House defended the “very difficult” decision, saying Ukrainian forces were running out of artillery.
Cluster munitions are prohibited by more than 100 countries and typically scatter numerous smaller bomblets over a wide area, sometimes as big as a football pitch, and can kill indiscriminately. Those that fail to explode threaten civilians, especially children, for decades after a conflict ends.
For more on this story:
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Nato leaders will meet at a key summit in Vilnius, Lithuania next week to discuss how to bring Ukraine closer its goal of joining the military alliance.
However, US president Joe Biden says he does not think there is “unanimity in Nato” to speed up the membership process in the middle of Russia’s invasion.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that while Biden and Nato leaders will demonstrate “unity and resolve” for the war-torn country, “Ukraine will not be joining Nato coming out of this summit”.
Pressure is building from Kyiv as president Zelenskiy said this week he wanted a membership invitation “now” and that Biden is Nato’s “decision-maker”.
Fighting in Bakhmut over the last seven days has been some of the most intense along the front as Ukraine continues its counteroffensive in the Russian-held city, according to the UK Ministry of Defence’s latest intelligence report.
Ukrainian forces have made steady gains to both the north and south of the Russian-held town. Russian defenders are highly likely struggling with poor morale, a mix of disparate units and a limited ability to find and strike Ukrainian artillery.
The Russian leadership almost certainly see it as politically unacceptable to concede Bakhmut, which has a symbolic weight as one of the few Russian gains in the last 12 months. However, there are highly likely few additional reserves to commit to the sector.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 08 July 2023.
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) July 8, 2023
Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/mrD2u1RN26
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/9GFMcAlh7y
UN condemns civilian toll on 500th day of Ukraine war
The United Nations has condemned the civilian cost inflicted as the war passes the 500th day mark.
“Today we mark another grim milestone in the war that continues to exact a horrific toll on Ukraine’s civilians,” said Noel Calhoun, deputy head of the UN’s Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.
More than 9,000 civilians, including over 500 children, have been killed since Russia’s invasion, though experts have previously warned the real count is likely far higher.
While this year the casualty numbers have been lower on average than in 2022, the figure began to climb again in May and June, the monitoring mission said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has secured Turkey’s crucial backing for Ukraine’s Nato aspirations after meeting with president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Istanbul.
Erdoğan said “there is no doubt that Ukraine deserves membership of Nato”, but also reaffirmed his longstanding call for peace negotiations.
Turkey has been a key mediator in the war and talks with Zelenskiy were being watched closely by the Kremlin. Erdoğan said he would personally brief Vladimir Putin on the latest negotiations when the Russian president visits Turkey next month, his first trip there since the invasion.
For more on this story:
Ukrainian forces make 'tactically significant' gains in Bakhmut, says US thinktank
Ukraine’s counteroffensive has made “tactically significant” gains in the Bakhmut area and continued operations in at least three other sectors of the frontline, according to a US thinktank.
The Institute for the Study of War said geolocated footage showed Ukrainian forces made substantial ground near villages north and south Bakhmut, regaining control over previously lost positions in the area. Military officials confirmed continued offensive operations in western Zaporizhia and along the border between Zaporizhia and Donetsk oblasts.
The Russian Ministry of Defence and other Russian sources claimed that Ukrainian forces conducted offensive operations in the Kreminna direction along the Kharkiv-Luhansk border.
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Opening summary
Welcome back to our continuing coverage of the war in Ukraine, I’m Yang Tian bringing you the latest news, as the conflict enters its 500th day.
Ukraine made “tactically significant gains” on Friday in Bakhmut and in its counteroffensive more broadly, the US thinktank the Institute for the Study of War has said. It comes as president Volodymyr Zelenskiy also secured Turkey’s crucial backing for its pledge to join Nato during a meeting with president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Istanbul.
More details shortly, in other key developments:
US president Joe Biden has been condemned by human rights groups after agreeing to send widely banned cluster munitions to Ukraine, with one fellow Democrat labelling the decision “unnecessary and a terrible mistake”. Washington said it has received assurances from Kyiv that it would minimise risk to civilians, including by not using the munitions in populated areas. Biden said the decision was “very difficult”, but that Ukrainian forces were “running out of ammunition”.
The UN’s nuclear watchdog chief said it was “making progress” on inspecting several areas of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, after Ukraine claimed that “external objects similar to explosive devices” had been placed on rooftops at the site. UN officials said they had “not seen any indications of explosives or mines” while touring the cooling ponds and other areas, but have yet to visit the facility’s rooftops.
Nato leaders will publicly recommit to Ukraine becoming a member of the military alliance when they meet in Vilnius on Tuesday, according to the organisation’s secretary general. US president Joe Biden said he does not think there is “unanimity in Nato” to bring Ukraine into the military alliance. Zelenskiy has also criticised Nato over a lack of “unity” which he says explains the failure to provide a guarantee for Ukraine’s membership.
If Russia does not agree to extend a deal allowing the safe export of grain and fertiliser from Ukrainian ports, it is unlikely western states will continue cooperating with UN officials helping Moscow with its exports, the UN aid chief said. Russia has threatened to quit the deal, which expires on 17 July, because several demands to dispatch its own grain and fertiliser have not been met. The last three ships traveling under the deal are loading cargoes at the Ukrainian port of Odesa and are likely to depart on Monday.
More than 9,000 Ukrainian civilians, including in excess of 500 children, are confirmed to have died since the beginning of Russia’s invasion, according to the latest United Nations data. However, the true figures are likely much higher.
A report by the Kyiv School of Economics and B4Ukraine, a coalition of NGOs which lobbies international businesses to leave Russia, said that 56% of foreign companies were still operating in the country last year despite the exodus of a significant minority. However, Russia’s earnings from oil and gas sales have fallen by half.
