Summary
Thank you for joining us for today’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
We will be pausing our live reporting overnight and returning in the morning.
In the meantime, you can read our comprehensive summary of the day’s events below.
- The death toll from a Russian missile attack on a five-storey apartment building in the town of Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine has risen to at least 33. Emergency crews worked to pull people trapped in the rubble as the clearance of debris continues. Zelenskiy accused Moscow of purposely targeting civilians in the attack which destroyed three buildings in a residential quarter of the town. The latest victim, a 9-year-old child, was retrieved from the wreckage on Monday evening, Ukraine’s state emergency services said.
- Ukraine plans to gather a “million-strong” fighting force equipped with western weapons to recapture its southern territory from Russia. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, ordered the military to recover occupied areas around the Black Sea coast that are vital to the country’s economy, defence minister Oleksii Reznikov said.
- At least six people died after Russian rocket attacks on Monday morning on Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office. Among those killed were a father and his 17-year-old son, who were driving on their way to pick up a certificate for his university admission, Ukrainian regional police official Serhiy Bolvinov said. Mayor Ihor Terekhov said shelling struck civilian infrastructure including a commercial property and a tyre repair shop. These are “places which had no military significance”, he added.
- About 80% of residents in Ukraine’s eastern region of Donetsk have fled, its governor said. Pavlo Kyrylenko said about 340,000 people, or 20% of the local population before Russia’s full-scale invasion began on 24 February, remain.
- Germany and the Czech Republic have signed a joint declaration, pledging to overcome Russian fossil fuel dependency and to accelerate the transition to low carbon energy. “We are going to finalise the agreement on solidarity measures to safeguard the security of gas supply between our countries prior to the start of the upcoming winter season,” the declaration read.
- Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a decree making it easier for citizens of Ukraine to acquire Russian citizenship. Previously, a simplified procedure applied only to residents of the self-proclaimed breakaway territories of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) in eastern Ukraine, as well as the Russian-occupied regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
- Putin plans to meet with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, after the pair discussed efforts to facilitate grain exports from Ukraine, according to the Kremlin. Erdoğan told Putin that it was time to act on a UN plan to set up a sea corridor for Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea during a phone call on Monday, the Turkish state-owned Anadolu news agency said.
- Lithuania expanded restrictions on trade through its territory to Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave, as phase-ins on earlier announced EU sanctions begin. Goods sanctioned from Monday morning include concrete, wood, alcohol and alcohol-based industrial chemicals. The governor of Kaliningrad, Anton Alikhanov, has proposed a total ban on the movement of goods between the three Baltic states and Russia, in response to what authorities in the exclave have called a “blockade”.
- Canada’s ambassador to Kyiv, Larisa Galadza, has been summoned to Kyiv explain Ottawa’s decision to return to Germany gas turbines needed to maintain the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. Canada agreed to send back the repaired turbines at the weekend, angering Ukraine officials who insisted the move breached energy sanctions in place against Russia.
- Eight foreign-flagged ships have been able to reach ports along the Danube-Black Sea Canal to help Ukraine break a Russia-imposed blockade on grain exports, according to local media reports. The Kyiv Independent newspaper said the vessels were escorted by the Ukraine navy.
- Latvia may increase its defence spending and introduce compulsory military service regardless of gender to contain security risks arising from Russia. President Egils Levits , 67, told Reuters that security is the “priority of our politics today” and plans to raise the defence budget to 2.5% of GDP “may not not be enough”.
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Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte met Zelenskiy in Kyiv to reiterate his country’s support for Ukraine “now and in the years to come”.
The war in Ukraine may last longer than anyone had hoped, Rutte warned during a visit to the capital. After their meeting, Zelenskiy welcomed the “constructive” talks with the Dutch leader and the decision to supply weapons to Ukraine.
- Iran is planning to supply Russia with hundreds of weapons-capable drones for use in Ukraine, according to a top US official. Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, said: “The Iranian government is preparing to provide Russia with up to several hundred UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles], including weapons-capable UAVs, on an expedited timeline.” Sullivan said information suggested that Iran is preparing to train Russian forces to use the UAVs as soon as early July.
- The lower house of the Russian parliament will gather on 15 July for an extraordinary session where more than 80 draft laws will be discussed. “We plan to consider a little [more] than 60 issues,” Vladimir Vasilyev, the head of the United Russia party, said but did not disclose what the issues were.
- The United Nations says it will monitor the war in Ukraine for violations against children, including killings, injuries, recruitment, rape and other forms of sexual violence.
Chasiv Yar death toll rises to 33
The death toll from a missile strike on an apartment block in eastern Ukraine has reached 33, according to Ukraine’s state emergency services (SES).
The SES reported that they have retrieved a body of another victim, approximately a 9-year-old child, around 11.30pm on Monday evening.
In total, since the beginning of the work, the bodies of 33 dead people, including 1 child (born approximately in 2013), have been found at the scene, and 9 people have been rescued from the rubble. Works are ongoing,” Ukraine’s ministry of internal affairs said in an update.
Rescuers have continued to pull survivors from the rubble of the destroyed block of flats in Chasiv Yar, although hopes are beginning to fade of finding more still alive.
Updated
Russia is facing a ban from the Paris Olympics as a consequence of the invasion of Ukraine, Sir Craig Reedie has warned.
Reedie, an influential International Olympic Committee figure for nearly 30 years, believes there is little chance of Russia and Belarus being allowed back soon into international sport
Reedie says most Russian and Belarusian athletes and teams now face a second problem – being unable to compete in those events where qualifying places are on offer for the 2024 Games.
I’m afraid a decision is going to have to be taken on what happens to each of these two countries. And my guess is that the general feeling would be that they should not qualify.
I think most people are struggling with how we could achieve some degree of representation. At the moment, there is no clear way to do it. Therefore, you maintain the status quo.”
Germany and the Czech Republic have signed a joint declaration, pledging to overcome Russian fossil fuel dependency and to accelerate the transition to low carbon energy.
According to Reuters, the declaration read:
We are going to finalise the agreement on solidarity measures to safeguard the security of gas supply between our countries prior to the start of the upcoming winter season.”
German Economy Minister Robert Habeck, on a visit to Prague, and Czech Industry Minister Jozef Sikela said it was necessary to prepare for various options, including that deliveries through the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline would not resume when scheduled maintenance is due to finish on 21 July.
Also on Monday, the biggest single pipeline carrying Russian gas to Germany began annual maintenance, with flows expected to stop for 10 days, but governments, markets and companies are worried the shutdown might be extended because of the war in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has provided a battlefield update confirming the death toll has risen to 31 in Chasiv Yar while another Russian rocket hit a residential building in Kharkiv.
Debris clearance continues all day in the city of Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region. The day before yesterday, Russian terrorists hit two high-rise buildings, and as of now 31 people are known to be killed. Nine were saved.
Kharkiv faced new brutal attacks by the Russian army. Another rocket hit a residential building - one block was completely destroyed. In the morning, the occupiers shelled the Saltivka and Kyiv districts with rocket artillery – five people were killed.
The Odesa region was hit by missiles, extremely violent hostilities continued in the Donetsk region and on the territory of the Luhansk region.”
Latvia may increase its defence spending and introduce compulsory military service regardless of gender to contain any possible security risks arising from Russia.
Nato and European Union member Latvia plans to gradually raise its defence budget to 2.5% of gross domestic product by 2025 from around 2% now, as it boosts security in the country.
President Egils Levits , 67, told Reuters on Monday that the existing spending plans covered the building of more military bases to accommodate more troops from Nato allies - an increase agreed at the Nato summit in Madrid last month - but that Latvia, a former Soviet nation like Ukraine, may need to spend more.
Security is priority of our politics today. 2.5% (of GDP) is already committed now but maybe it would not be enough and we should be prepared for that.”
The president of neighbouring Lithuania has called on defence spending to increase to 3%, after Poland introduced the same target.
Meanwhile, the country’s defence minister, Artis Pabriks, has also raised the prospect of reintroducing compulsory military service abandoned in the mid-2000s.
Levits suggested that the service should cover all citizens irrespective of their gender.
I think we should have equality in this respect and I support this idea for all Latvian citizens of specific age. This should be done independently of their sex,” he said, as it would allow for a rise in the number of people with military skills in reserve.
Both proposed changes - to military service and any increase in spending - will be reviewed by parliament before taking effect. The defence ministry wants the military service to start voluntarily next year before becoming mandatory from 2028.
The families of US basketball star Brittney Griner and former marine Paul Whelan have asked veteran hostage negotiator Bill Richardson to seek their release from Russia.
According to reports, the former US governor and ambassador - who has negotiated the freedom of several Americans held prisoner by other countries - will travel to Russia in the coming weeks for talks, according to Agence France-Presse.
Mickey Bergman, vice president of the Richardson Center for Global Engagement, would not confirm the reports.
“What I can say is that both the Whelan and Griner families have asked us to help with the release of their loved ones,” he told AFP.
Asked about Richardson’s role, White House national Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the administration had been in contact with him.
“President Biden is laser-focused on a government-to-government solution to this issue,” Sullivan told reporters.
“We are working directly with the Russian government through appropriate channels to try to bring a speedy resolution not just to her case, but to Paul Whelan’s case as well.”
Griner, a two-time Olympic basketball gold medalist and WNBA champion who had played in Russia, was detained in February, just one week before Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine.
The 31-year-old was charged with drug smuggling for possessing vape cartridges with cannabis oil.
On July 7, she pleaded guilty and now faces up to 10 years in a Russian prison.
Whelan, a security official at an auto parts company and a former US Marine, was arrested in Moscow in December 2018 for allegedly holding classified materials.
He was convicted of espionage in June 2020 and sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Ships reach Danube ports in effort to beat grain blockade
The Kyiv Independent reports that eight foreign-flagged ships have been able to reach ports along the Danube-Black Sea Canal to help the country break a Russia-imposed blockade on grain exports.
A tweet from the newspaper posted on Monday evening said the vessels were escorted by the Ukraine navy.
⚡️8 foreign ships enter Ukrainian ports to export grain.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) July 11, 2022
Ukraine's Navy reported that with its help, the foreign ships were able to arrive at Ukrainian ports at the Danube-Black Sea Canal to allow for the transport of agricultural products by civilian vessels.
The Guardian reported on Saturday that Ukraine was restoring and expanding some of its long-decommissioned river ports on the Danube to facilitate the exportation of grain due to Russia’s Black Sea blockade.
Before the war, Ukrainian river ports on the Danube were seldom used, with some of them in complete disrepair.
But following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its control of exit routes to the Black Sea, Kyiv is resuscitating its old river harbours in order to avoid the sea blockade and accelerate the exportation of the country’s wheat.
White House: Russia receiving 'weapons-capable' Iranian drones
Iran is preparing to provide Russia with “hundreds” of unmanned aerial vehicles, including weapons-capable drones, for use in its ongoing invasion of Ukraine, the White House said on Monday.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said it was unclear whether Iran had already provided any of the unmanned systems to Russia, but said the US had “information” that indicates Iran is preparing to train Russian forces to use them as soon as this month, the Associated Press reports.
Sullivan told reporters:
Our information indicates that the Iranian government is preparing to provide Russia with up to several hundred UAVs, including weapons-capable UAVs on an expedited timeline.
He said the development was proof that Russia’s overwhelming bombardments in Ukraine, which have led it to consolidate gains in the country’s east in recent weeks, was “coming at a cost to the sustainment of its own weapons”.
Sullivan’s assertion came one day before Joe Biden’s trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia, where Iran’s nuclear program and malign activities in the region will be a key subject of discussion.
Sullivan noted that Iran has provided similar unmanned aerial vehicles to Yemen’s Houthi rebels to attack Saudi Arabia before a ceasefire was reached earlier this year.
Another development to emerge from Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s nightly address on Monday: Canada’s ambassador to Kyiv, Larisa Galadza, was summoned to explain Ottawa’s decision to return to Germany gas turbines needed to maintain the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.
Canada agreed to send back the repaired turbines at the weekend, angering Ukraine officials who insisted the move breached energy sanctions in place against Russia.
The turbines were undergoing maintenance at a Canadian site owned by German industrial giant Siemens, and Russia blamed their absence for cuts to deliveries via the pipeline.
In his address, according to AFP, Zelenskiy accused Canada of caving to pressure:
The ministry of foreign affairs had to summon Canada’s envoy due to an absolutely unacceptable exception to the sanctions regime against Russia. [The decision] will be perceived in Moscow exclusively as a manifestation of weakness.
There can be no doubt that Russia will try not only to limit as much as possible, but also to completely stop the supply of gas to Europe at the most acute moment.
Russian energy giant Gazprom began 10 days of maintenance on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline on Monday, with Germany and other European countries watching anxiously to see if the gas comes back on.
Read more:
Zelenskiy: Chasiv Yar death toll at 31
The death toll from a missile strike on an apartment block in eastern Ukraine reached 31 on Monday night, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.
Rescuers continued to pull survivors from the rubble of the destroyed block of flats in Chasiv Yar, although hopes were beginning to fade of finding more still alive.
Rescue workers made voice contact with two people in the wreckage of the five-storey building demolished by a Russian missile on Saturday, Reuters reported, with video showing them pulling survivors from the debris where up to two dozen people had been trapped.
In his nightly address, Zelenskiy said 31 people had been killed, and nine saved from the rubble.
One survivor, who gave her name as Venera, said she had wanted to save her two kittens:
I was thrown into the bathroom, it was all chaos, I was in shock, all covered in blood. By the time I left the bathroom, the room was full up of rubble, three floors fell down.
I never found the kittens.”
The United Nations says it will monitor the war in Ukraine for violations against children, including killings, injuries, recruitment, rape and other forms of sexual violence, the Associated Press reports.
UN secretary-general António Guterres said Monday in his annual report to the security council on children and armed conflict that Ukraine, and conflicts in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Africa’s central Sahel region, have been added to 21 others already being monitored for violations of the rights of children. He said the latter conflicts saw “a high number of grave violations” in 2021.
Guterres said the protection of children was severely affected by escalating conflicts, the multiplication of armed groups, land mines and improvised explosive devices, explosive weapons in populated areas, intensified humanitarian crises, and violations of humanitarian and human rights law.
Virginia Gamba, UN special envoy for children and armed conflict, said at a news conference that “forays of extremely violent armed groups, military coups and instability, and violent electoral processes in fragile states, left 19,100 child victims of grave violations during 2021 in the 21 country and regional situations we monitored”.
80% of Donetsk residents have fled, governor says
The governor of eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, which has been the focus of intensive Russian attacks in recent weeks, says about 80% of its pre-war population has now evacuated, the Kyiv Independent reported Monday.
Pavlo Kyrylenko said about 340,000 people, or 20% of the local population before Russia’s full-scale invasion began on 24 February, remain.
Kyrylenko urged the region’s remaining population to flee last week, after Russia stepped up its offensive. Recent missile attacks on Donetsk have resulted in numerous civilian deaths, with Ukraine accusing Moscow of deliberately targeting residential areas.
Donetsk is the last remaining eastern province of Ukraine partially under Kyiv’s control, and its military has been fighting to hold ground.
“The destiny of the whole country will be decided by the Donetsk region,” Kyrylenko said last week “Once there are less people, we will be able to concentrate more on our enemy and perform our main tasks.”
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s 10pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
- The death toll from a Russian missile attack on a five-storey apartment building in the town of Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine on Saturday night rose to at least 26 . Emergency crews worked to pull people trapped in the rubble. The strike destroyed three buildings in a residential quarter of the town, inhabited mostly by people who work in nearby factories.
- Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Moscow of purposely targeting civilians in the attack and promised “punishment is inevitable for every Russian murderer”. “Anyone who gives orders for such strikes, anyone who carries them out in ordinary cities, in residential areas, kills absolutely deliberately,” Zelenskiy said in a national address.
- Zelenskiy asked military chiefs to draw up plans to gather a “million-strong” fighting force equipped with western weapons to recapture its southern territory from Russia, the country’s defence minister said. Ukraine’s military has been ordered to recover occupied areas around the Black Sea coast that are vital to the country’s economy, Oleksii Reznikov said.
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At least six people died after Russian rocket attacks on Monday morning on Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office. Among those killed were a father and his 17-year-old son, who were driving on their way to pick up a certificate for his university admission, Ukrainian regional police official Serhiy Bolvinov said.
- Residents in southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia were urged to evacuate as Ukraine prepares to launch a counter-offensive to retake the area. The Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions were occupied by Russian troops in late February after they crossed the bridge from Russia-annexed Crimea.
- Serhai Haidai, Ukraine’s governor of Luhansk, said “a small part of the Luhansk region is still holding on, fierce battles are going on”. He accused Russian forces of sending out new recruits from the occupied areas of Ukraine as “cannon fodder”, who “are guaranteed not to survive even the first battle”, to draw fire so that Russians can see where Ukrainian forces are based.
- Ukraine’s heavy artillery is outnumbered roughly eight to one by Russian guns, putting its armed forces at a significant disadvantage, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s International Legion has said. M142 Himars multiple rocket launch systems supplied by the US were having an impact on the battlefield, the spokesperson said, but more arms from Ukraine’s western partners were needed to close the gap.
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Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte met Zelenskiy in Kyiv today to reiterate his country’s support for Ukraine “now and in the years to come”.
The war in Ukraine may last longer than anyone had hoped, Rutte warned during a visit to the capital. After their meeting, Zelenskiy welcomed the “constructive” talks with the Dutch leader and the decision to supply weapons to Ukraine.
- Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a decree making it easier for citizens of Ukraine to acquire Russian citizenship. Previously, a simplified procedure applied only to residents of the self-proclaimed breakaway territories of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) in eastern Ukraine, as well as the Russian-occupied regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
- Putin plans to meet with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in the near future after the pair discussed efforts to facilitate grain exports from Ukraine, according to the Kremlin. Erdoğan told Putin that it was time to act on a UN plan to set up a sea corridor for Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea during a phone call on Monday, the Turkish state-owned Anadolu news agency said.
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Russian lawmakers proposed extending a ban on “gay propaganda”, broadening a law that human rights activists say has put LGBTQ people at risk and led to increased discrimination and violence. The ban on the promotion of “non-traditional” sexual relationships to minors could be broadened to include adults, a senior legislator said.
- Lithuania expanded restrictions on trade through its territory to Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave, as phase-ins on earlier announced European Union sanctions begin. Goods sanctioned from Monday morning include concrete, wood, alcohol and alcohol-based industrial chemicals. The governor of Kaliningrad, Anton Alikhanov, has proposed a total ban on the movement of goods between the three Baltic states and Russia, in response to what authorities in the exclave have called a “blockade”.
Updated
Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, said on Monday he is leaving the media business to conform with a law designed to curb the influence of oligarchs, Reuters reports.
In a statement to the news agency, Akhmetov said Media Group Ukraine would hand over licences for its television channels and print media to the Ukrainian state, and cease online media
The statement described the move as “involuntary”.
Ukraine passed a law last year ordering oligarchs to register and stay out of politics, and proposed identifying them with criteria such as those with “significant impact on the media”.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hailed the legislation as a historic chance to reform Ukraine, even as some foreign diplomats in Kyiv called it largely cosmetic.
Akhmetov cited the law in his statement:
I made an involuntary decision that my investment company SCM will exit its media business.
Being the largest private investor in the Ukrainian economy, I have repeatedly stated that I have never been and am not going to be an oligarch.
He added that his investment company was unable to sell its media business on market terms because of Russia’s war in Ukraine and a six-month deadline given by the anti-oligarch legislation for the sale of media assets.
It’s Richard Luscombe in the US taking over the blog from my colleagues in London. I’ll be guiding you through the next few hours. Thanks for joining me.
The pro-Moscow head of a village occupied by Russian troops in northeast Ukraine died after his car was blown up, Russian media reported on Monday, according to AFP.
State news agency Tass said Yevgeny Yunakov, head of Velikiy Burluk, in the Kharkiv region, died after an explosion.
The “military civilian administration” – which Tass said had been recently formed in the region – called the explosion a “terror attack” organised by Ukrainian authorities.
The claims could not immediately be verified.
Russian forces have partially occupied the region of Kharkiv but the eponymous city – Ukraine’s second biggest – remains under the control of Kyiv.
Updated
The jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has launched an international anti-corruption organisation he has promised will be “completely transparent and understandable”.
Former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt, political scientist Francis Fukuyama, Pulitzer prize-winning journalist and historian Anne Applebaum and Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, are among those who will sit on the fund’s advisory board, Navalny’s Telegram channel said.
The announcement comes a year after the Russian opposition leader’s Russian Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF) was outlawed as extremist.
Navalny appeared by video link last month in his first court session since he was transferred to a high-security prison in June.
It was a rare appearance for the Russian opposition leader, who has been sentenced to more than a decade in prison in a series of cases that appear designed to keep him behind bars indefinitely.
Updated
Ukraine’s foreign ministry has condemned a decree from Vladimir Putin that makes it easier for Ukrainian citizens to acquire Russian citizenship.
In a statement, the ministry called on its partners to impose new sanctions on Russia and step up supplies of heavy weapons to Kyiv to punish Moscow for the move.
The ministry described the decree as an encroachment on Ukrainian sovereignty and said it was inconsistent with principles of international law.
Previously, a simplified procedure for acquiring Russian citizenship applied only to residents of the self-proclaimed breakaway territories of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) in eastern Ukraine, as well as the Russian-occupied regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, according to the Russian state-owned news agency Tass.
Updated
Russia may extend ‘gay propaganda’ ban to include adults
Russian lawmakers have proposed extending a ban on “gay propaganda”, broadening a law that human rights activists say has put LGBTQ people at risk and led to increased discrimination and violence.
The ban on the promotion of “non-traditional” sexual relationships to minors could be broadened to include adults, a senior legislator said.
Russia’s existing “gay propaganda” law, passed in 2013, has been used to stop gay pride marches and detain LGBTQ rights activists.
Under the proposed changes, any event or act regarded as an attempt to promote homosexuality could incur a fine, Reuters reported.
The head of the State Duma’s information committee, Alexander Khinshtein, said on Telegram:
We propose to generally extend the ban on such propaganda regardless of the age of the audience (offline, in the media, on the internet, social networks and online cinemas).
The existing law envisages fines of up to 1m roubles (£13,400) or up to 15 days in jail for propagating “non-traditional sexual relations among minors”.
Updated
Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, met Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv today to reiterate his country’s support for Ukraine “now and in the years to come”.
The war in Ukraine may last longer than anyone had hoped, Rutte warned during a visit to the capital.
In his first trip to Kyiv since the Russian invasion, Rutte said his country would supply Ukraine with more long-range artillery and an aid package for €200m.
Rutte said:
This war may last longer than we all hoped or expected. But that does not mean we can sit back and passively watch how it unfolds.
We have to stay focused and continue to support Ukraine every day politically, by frequently and openly stating our support, by keeping the pressure on Putin’s Russia, and by strengthening political cooperation with Ukraine bilaterally and multilaterally.
After their meeting, Zelenskiy welcomed the “constructive” talks with the Dutch leader and the decision to supply weapons to Ukraine.
Updated
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said he spoke with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, about the importance of unblocking Ukraine’s Black Sea ports and resuming grain exports.
Zelenskiy’s tweet came after the Kremlin said Erdoğan had also spoken with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, earlier today.
Held talks with 🇹🇷 President @RTErdogan. Thanked for condolences over new civilian victims of the Russian aggression. We appreciate 🇹🇷 support. Discussed the importance of unblocking 🇺🇦 ports and resuming grain exports. We must also prevent Russia from taking our grain from TOT.
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 11, 2022
Updated
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, plans to meet with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in the near future after the pair discussed efforts to facilitate grain exports from Ukraine, according to the Kremlin.
Erdoğan told Putin that it was time to act on a UN plan to set up a sea corridor for Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea during a phone call today, the Turkish state-owned Anadolu news agency said.
In a statement, the Kremlin said:
An exchange of views on the situation around Ukraine continued, including in the context of coordinating efforts to ensure the safety of navigation in the Black Sea and grain exports to global markets.
It also said the two leaders discussed Syria, where both countries have deployed armed forces.
Summary of the day so far
It’s 6pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
- At least 24 people have died and dozens more were injured after a Russian missile attack hit a five-storey apartment building in the town of Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine. Emergency crews worked to pull people trapped in the rubble. The strike destroyed three buildings in a residential quarter of the town, inhabited mostly by people who work in nearby factories.
- Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, accused Moscow of purposely targeting civilians in the Chasiv Yar attack and promised “punishment is inevitable for every Russian murderer”. “Anyone who gives orders for such strikes, anyone who carries them out in ordinary cities, in residential areas, kills absolutely deliberately,” Zelenskiy said in his latest national address.
- Zelenskiy has asked military chiefs to draw up plans to gather a “million-strong” fighting force equipped with western weapons to recapture its southern territory from Russia, the country’s defence minister said. Ukraine’s military has been ordered to recover occupied areas around the Black Sea coast that are vital to the country’s economy, Oleksii Reznikov said.
-
At least six people have died after Russian rocket attacks on Monday morning on Kharkiv in north-east Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s prosecutor general office. Among those killed were a father and his 17-year-old son, who were driving on their way to pick up a certificate for his university admission, Ukrainian regional police official, Serhiy Bolvinov, said.
- Residents in southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia have been urged to evacuate as Ukraine prepares to launch a counter-offensive to retake the area. The Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions were occupied by Russian troops in late February after they crossed the bridge from Russia-annexed Crimea.
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Serhai Haidai, Ukraine’s governor of Luhansk, has said “a small part of the Luhansk region is still holding on, fierce battles are going on”. He accused Russian forces of sending out new recruits from the occupied areas of Ukraine as “cannon fodder”, who “are guaranteed not to survive even the first battle”, draw fire so that Russians can see where Ukrainian forces are based.
- Neither Ukraine nor Russia made any territorial gains in Ukraine over the weekend, British intelligence suggests. In its latest briefing, the Ministry of Defence also identified long service stretches and possible combat fatigue as a risk for Russian forces deployed into Ukraine.
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Ukraine’s heavy artillery is outnumbered roughly eight to one by Russian guns, putting Ukraine at a significant disadvantage, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s International Legion has said. M142 Himars multiple rocket launch systems supplied by the US were having an impact on the battlefield, the spokesperson said, but more arms from Ukraine’s western partners were needed to close the gap.
- The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has signed a decree making it easier for citizens of Ukraine to acquire Russian citizenship. Previously, a simplified procedure for acquiring Russian citizenship applied only to residents of the self-proclaimed breakaway territories of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) in eastern Ukraine, as well as the Russian-occupied regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
- Lithuania has expanded restrictions on trade through its territory to Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave, as phase-ins on earlier announced European Union sanctions begin. Goods sanctioned from Monday morning include concrete, wood, alcohol and alcohol-based industrial chemicals. The governor of Kaliningrad, Anton Alikhanov, has proposed a total ban on the movement of goods between the three Baltic states and Russia, in response to what authorities in the exclave have called a “blockade”.
Updated
Scotland is to pause its Ukrainian refugee sponsorship scheme for three months as it faces a lack of suitable accommodation, the government has announced.
Pausing the scheme would “ensure that those displaced people who are already here, and those who will arrive in the coming months, will be safe, secure and supported for as long as they need, after the dangers they have faced at home”, a government statement said.
So far, 4,666 of a total of 7,000 Ukrainians who have arrived in Scotland have done so under the “super-sponsor scheme”, which was launched on 18 March. The country expects to welcome an additional 18,000 people in the coming months, meaning it will have issued more visas than England, Wales and Northern Ireland per head of the population.
Should numbers continue at this pace, local authorities may have to resort to emergency accommodation, which the government said was “not a sustainable solution” and would fall short of the “warm Scottish welcome” they were seeking to offer traumatised and vulnerable people.
The Scottish government has called for the UK government to waive all visa requirements. Under the scheme – which is set to be shelved on Wednesday – people applying for a UK visa can select the Scottish government as a sponsor. Only once the UK Home Office approves the application can the refugee travel to Scotland.
As of 5 July, government figures show visa applications listing Scotland as the sponsor were up 21% from the previous week, with visas issued up 27% and arrivals under the sponsor scheme up 20%.
With figures expected to rise, the Scottish government has secured additional accommodation in hotels and university campuses, and recently chartered a passenger ship to provide additional temporary housing with 739 rooms for six months from July.
Six people killed in Kharkiv shelling, says Ukraine’s prosecutor general
At least six people have died after Russian rocket attacks this morning on Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s prosecutor general office.
Writing on Telegram, it said 31 people, including two children aged four and 16, had been injured in the attack.
Ukrainian regional police official, Serhiy Bolvinov, said a shopping centre, vehicles and houses had been damaged.
Among those who were killed were a father and his 17-year-old son, who were driving on their way to pick up a certificate for his university admission, Bolvinov said. He added:
There is almost nothing left of the car and the people.
It has not been possible to independently verify this claim.
Ukraine’s heavy artillery is outnumbered roughly eight to one by Russian guns, putting Ukraine at a significant disadvantage, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s International Legion has said.
Damien Magrou, spokesperson for the unit comprising foreign nationals, told a briefing in Kyiv that more arms from Ukraine’s western partners were needed to close the gap.
“We’re entering a phase of the war where our disadvantage to the Russian forces in terms of heavy weaponry and artillery is very much being felt,” Reuters reports Magrou said.
He went on to say that the M142 Himars multiple rocket launch systems supplied by the US were having an impact on the battlefield. “We can see the results already,” he said.
Magrou also voiced concern about the fate of international fighters held captive in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic that Russia backs in eastern Ukraine.
“It is a great worry for us to see the instrumentalisation of captives,” Magrou said, referring to the three foreign nationals serving in Ukraine’s armed forces who have been sentence to death. The men, Britons Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin and Moroccan Brahim Saadoun, were tried by a court in a hearing described as a “sham” by British lawmakers.
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Here are some of the latest images to be sent to us from Ukraine over the newswires.
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Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told Russia’s Vladimir Putin that it was time to act on a United Nations plan to set up a sea corridor for Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea during a phone call today, Reuters reports via the state-owned Anadolu news agency.
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The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has signed a decree making it easier for citizens of Ukraine to acquire Russian citizenship.
A document published on the Russian government’s website shows Putin has signed a decree extending a simplified Russian naturalisation process to “all citizens of Ukraine”, Reuters reports.
Previously, a simplified procedure for acquiring Russian citizenship applied only to residents of the self-proclaimed breakaway territories of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) in eastern Ukraine, as well as the Russian-occupied regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, according to the Russian state-owned news agency Tass.
Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, has said his government is close to a deal to buy cheaper diesel from Russia.
The Brazilian leader, who enjoys friendly relations with the Russian leader Vladimir Putin, gave no further details in his announcement, Reuters reports.
Bolsonaro’s re-election hopes have been hampered as he struggles to contain inflation and high fuel prices ahead of the October vote.
Here’s more from Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK, Vadym Prystaiko, who described Boris Johnson as a “very popular” figure and suggested Ukrainians would raise money to get the PM to visit.
Johnson was praised for being able to “bring Ukraine what we needed at the time the most” in an interview with Prystaiko on Sky News.
Prystaiko said:
I have to say that he was very popular. This just to give you how popular he was: Ukrainians just successfully committed enough money to buy a couple of drones, the Turkish-made drones, through crowdfunding. The next idea is to crowdfund Prime Minister Johnson to (come to) us.
As Britain’s foreign secretary, Johnson “knew the nation, he understood the gravity of the situation and he managed to accumulate on it, to get together with this effort and bring Ukraine what we needed at the time the most”, Prystaiko said.
He added:
He was the first leader to come when it was really, really hot in Ukraine, in Kyiv especially. So, he added this personality to the whole deal. And Ukrainians just loved his appearance and the way he was talking to our parliament, that was appreciated. I hope the next prime minister will be the same.
On the UK’s defence secretary, Ben Wallace, Prystaiko said Ukraine would like him “to be where he is” after Wallace decided not to stand in the Conservative party leadership contest.
Asked what Kyiv would want in the next UK leader, Prystaiko said Ukrainians “fear that there will be a change in the policy towards Ukraine”.
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Death toll in Russian rocket attack on housing block rises to 24
The death toll from a Russian rocket attack on an apartment block in the town of Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine over the weekend has risen to 24, Ukraine’s state emergency service said.
Rescuers are still combing the rubble for survivors after a series of rockets fired by Russian forces hit the five-storey building, it said.
Nine people have been rescued and 24 people have been confirmed killed, the agency said, updating an earlier death count of 20.
The emergency services said 55 people were helping the rescue effort.
Our Lorenzo Tondo reports on the deadly danger lurking in Ukraine’s waters – sea mines.
On 11 June, a 50-year-old man entered the calm waters from a beach in the Ukrainian city of Odesa. Every weekend in the summer, he took a dip in the shallow sea and searched for sea snails, a local delicacy.
But on this occasion, he was not to return. A mine exploded, killing him instantly, as his family watched on in horror.
The Black Sea is infested with hundreds of mines dropped by both sides in Russia’s war on Ukraine, posing a serious threat to people and the reopening of the grain shipping routes halted by Moscow’s sea blockade.
“It’s truly a big problem,” said Vladlen Tobak, a former Ukrainian navy diving instructor and the founder of a diving school in Odesa. “These mines are there with other unexploded devices from the second world war, which we continue to find. The main concern is that we don’t know how many mines were dropped during the naval blockade. It will take a long time to clear the waters of these devices.”
Kyiv and Moscow have blamed each other for dropping mines in the Black Sea. The extent of the mining operations remains unknown, but Sergey Bratchuk, a spokesperson for the Odesa regional military administration, says between 400 and 600 mines were thrown into Ukraine’s sea zone by Russia.
In March, Russia’s defence ministry and state security agency, the FSB, warned against “floating Ukrainian mines off the coast of Odesa”, which had reportedly come adrift after a storm. According to Moscow, the Russian military has mapped out about 370 Ukrainian sea mines.
Sea mines, designed to explode when the hull of a vessel comes into contact with them, are anchored to a steel cable to keep them under water. However, they can come loose in storms and drift long distances in sea currents.
Read the full story by Lorenzo Tondo: Sea mines: the deadly danger lurking in Ukraine’s waters
20 confirmed dead in Chasiv Yar apartment block strike
The death toll from a Russian rocket attack on an apartment block in the town of Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine over the weekend has risen to 20.
Eight people were also injured after a series of rockets fired by Russian forces hit the five-storey building, officials said. Ukrainian emergency services initially gave a death toll of 10.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of the Donetsk region, said on Telegram that 20 people were now confirmed dead and eight injured.
Rescuers earlier said they were in voice contact with people trapped in the ruins of the block.
Ukraine said it has recaptured the village of Ivanivka in the southern Russian-occupied region of Kherson.
A Ukrainian infantry brigade wrote on Facebook:
The only thing left of the Russian occupiers in Ivanivka are horrible memories and ‘dead’ military equipment.
It has not been possible to independently verify this claim.
Ukraine building 1m strong army to recapture south, says minister
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has asked military chiefs to draw up plans to gather a “million-strong” fighting force equipped with western weapons to recapture its southern territory from Russia, the country’s defence minister said.
Zelenskiy has ordered his military to recover occupied areas around the Black Sea coast that are vital to the country’s economy, Oleksii Reznikov said in an interview with the Times.
Reznikov said:
We understand that, politically, it’s very necessary for our country. The president has given the order to the supreme military chief to draw up plans. After that the general staff are doing their homework and say to achieve this goal we need XYZ.
Reznikov said he was writing letters to his counterparts in partner countries to talk about “why we need this kind of weaponry and then we get the political decisions”.
His British counterpart, Ben Wallace, was “key” to helping shift the approach to providing Nato standard artillery, guided multiple launch rocket systems and hi-tech drones, he said.
Reznikov said he had a “great relationship” with Wallace and the UK’s armed forces minister, James Heappey, adding that he saw “a lot of Ukrainian flags” while in London.
He said he was satisfied with the support Ukraine was receiving from Nato partners but said it needed “more, quickly, to save the lives of our soldiers”.
Hello everyone. It’s Léonie Chao-Fong here taking over from Martin Belam to bring you all the latest developments from the war in Ukraine. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.
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Summary of the day so far
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At least 18 people have died and dozens more were injured after a Russian missile attack hit a five-storey apartment building in the town of Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine. Emergency crews worked to pull people trapped in the rubble. Rescuers say they were in voice contact with two people trapped in the ruins. The strike destroyed three buildings in a residential quarter of town, inhabited mostly by people who work in nearby factories.
- Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, accused Moscow of purposely targeting civilians in the Chasiv Yar attack and promised “punishment is inevitable for every Russian murderer”.
- Serhai Haidai, Ukraine’s governor of Luhansk, has said “a small part of the Luhansk region is still holding on, fierce battles are going on”. He accused Russian forces of using new recruits from the occupied areas of Ukraine as “cannon fodder”, who “are guaranteed not to survive even the first battle”.
- Russia has claimed in the last 24 hours to have killed more than 500 Ukrainian troops and to have destroyed large amounts of foreign-supplied weaponry and ammunition, including “ammunition depots for HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems, M777 howitzers, and 2S7 Pion self-propelled guns supplied by the United States to Ukraine”.
- The UK’s Ministry of Defence suggests that neither side has made any territorial gains in Ukraine over the weekend. Its latest briefing states “Russian artillery bombardments continued in the northern Donbas sector, but probably without any major territorial advances. Ukrainian forces continued to apply localised pressure to the Russian defensive line in north-east Kherson oblast, also probably without achieving territorial gain.”
- Ukraine has warned residents in southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia to evacuate as it prepares to launch a counter-offensive to retake the area. The Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions were occupied by Russian troops in late February after they crossed the bridge from Russia-annexed Crimea. Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said: “It’s clear there will be fighting, there will be artillery shelling … and we therefore urge [people] to evacuate urgently.”
- Lithuania has expanded restrictions on trade through its territory to Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave, as phase-ins on earlier announced European Union sanctions begin. Goods sanctioned from Monday morning include concrete, wood, alcohol and alcohol-based industrial chemicals. The governor of Kaliningrad, Anton Alikhanov, has proposed a total ban on the movement of goods between the three Baltic states and Russia, in response to what authorities in the exclave have called a “blockade”.
- Russian gas giant Gazprom will begin 10 days of routine maintenance on its Nord Stream 1 pipeline today as Europe waits to see if the gas comes back on. The annual work on the two pipelines was scheduled long in advance, however many fear Gazprom might take the opportunity to simply shut off the valves.
- Two Ukrainian civilians were killed and at least two others injured in Russian missile attacks on the town of Siversk, near Sievierodonetsk, officials said. Donetsk governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said three people were hurt by shelling in Soledar, and seven houses and other property burned down in Bakhmut with no details of casualties. Ukraine officials warned last week the city in the Luhansk region was facing a “humanitarian disaster”.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later. Léonie Chao-Fong will be along shortly to continue our live coverage.
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Serhai Haidai, Ukraine’s governor of Luhansk, has said in his daily briefing that “a small part of the Luhansk region is still holding on, fierce battles are going on”.
He accused Russian forces of using new recruits from the occupied areas of Ukraine as “cannon fodder”, who “are guaranteed not to survive even the first battle”.
Haidai said they are sent out to draw fire so that Russians can see where Ukrainian forces are based.
He also said that the focus of activity of the Ukrainian Luhansk authorities was “helping our displaced persons”, and that the pro-Russian forces that have occupied the majority of the Luhansk region “not be able to provide normal life activities to the settlements”.
The claims have not been independently verified.
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The latest daily operational briefing from Russia’s ministry of defence includes claims of Russian forces having killed over 500 Ukrainian troops, and of destroying large amounts of foreign-supplied weaponry and ammunition, including “ammunition depots for HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems, M777 howitzers, and 2S7 Pion self-propelled guns supplied by the United States to Ukraine”.
The report also claims that Russia has shot down an Su-25 plane, and “destroyed the temporary deployment point of the 118th Territorial Defence Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine”, killing 300 in the process.
Russia’s ministry of defence also claims that “the enemy suffers significant losses in all directions” and that Ukrainian armed forces are deliberately misleading the families of soldiers, by telling them that casualties are missing or deserted rather than dead.
None of the claims have been independently verified. The Russian ministry of defence provides no evidence to back up its allegations.
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The governor of Russia’s Kaliningrad region, Anton Alikhanov, has proposed a total ban on the movement of goods between the three Baltic states and Russia, in response to what authorities in the exclave have called a “blockade” by Lithuania.
“As a reciprocal measure we propose to completely prohibit the movement of goods – including those in transit from third countries– between the three Baltic States and Russia,” Reuters reports the governor said.
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Oleh Synyehubov, governor of Kharkiv, has posted to Telegram to say that 28 people, including a 16-year-old, were injured as a result of the daytime shelling of Kharkiv. Three people were killed. The claims have not been independently verified.
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Ukraine’s ambassador to London, Vadym Prystaiko, has been interviewed in the UK, saying that the grain situation in Ukraine is very serious. He told Sky News viewers:
The grain is difficult because it is time-sensitive. We’re feeding these 400 million people around the world, not just us. At the same time, we don’t want to be seen as somebody who is producing something very valuable, commodity, which can be taken out of us. It is still part of our economy. It is still part of our survival. We ask for assistance, but we also want people to buy our future in a decent way, like everybody in the world.
He said that the offers of help to Ukraine were very kind, but the logistics were daunting:
I had a very nice lady, businesswoman, came to us and told us she had 18 trucks to help Ukraine with the effort. And I told you we need four or 5 million trucks to have the job done. So it was a very good attempt, but it’s not helping. We have to have ships.
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Death toll in Chasiv Yar apartment block strike rises to 18
The death toll from a Russian rocket attack that hit an apartment block in eastern Ukraine over the weekend rose to 18 this morning, and rescuers were still trying to reach survivors in the rubble, the emergency services said.
Rescuers were in voice contact with two people trapped in the ruins of the five-storey block in the town of Chasiv Yar in Donetsk region that was struck late on Saturday, the service said.
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In a move almost certain to provoke further diplomatic action from Russia, Lithuania has today expanded restrictions on trade through its territory to Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave, as phase-ins on earlier announced European Union sanctions begin, a Lithuanian customs spokesperson has told Reuters.
Goods sanctioned from Monday morning include concrete, wood, alcohol and alcohol-based industrial chemicals, the spokesperson said.
Reports by the Russian RIA Novosti news agency claim that there has been an assassination attempt on the head of the Russian-imposed administration of Melitopol in occupied Zaporizhzhia, Andriy Siguta.
The agency quotes Alexei Selivanov, who claims to be the head of internal affairs in occupied Zaporizhzhia saying:
Tonight, the Ukrainian regime made an assassination attempt on the head of the administration of the Melitopol district, Andriy Siguta. Fortunately, he was not injured and continues to work, despite threats from the Ukrainian side.
The details of the terrorist attack will be discussed later. I remind you that civilians are the first to suffer from sabotage. Everyone who tries to destabilize civilian life in the liberated territories will suffer inevitable punishment.
No evidence was offered to back up the claims.
A Russian-imposed official in occupied Kherson was killed in an apparent car bomb attack at the end of June.
Maksym Kozytskyi, governor of Lviv in western Ukraine, has reported that overnight there were no air raid warnings in his region, and that 215 internally displaced people arrived via evacuation trains yesterday.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence suggests that neither side has made any territorial gains in Ukraine over the weekend, issuing its latest intelligence briefing, which says:
As of Sunday 10 July, Russian artillery bombardments continued in the northern Donbas sector, but probably without any major territorial advances.
Ukrainian forces continued to apply localised pressure to the Russian defensive line in north-east Kherson oblast, also probably without achieving territorial gain.
They also identify long service stretches and possible combat fatigue as a risk for Russian forces deployed into Ukraine.
The lack of scheduled breaks from intense combat conditions is highly likely one of the most damaging of the many personnel issues the Russian MoD is struggling to rectify amongst the deployed force.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 11 July 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) July 11, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/SnhtVoG5js
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/V620iZfEP7
- This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com
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Russian gas giant Gazprom will begin ten days of routine maintenance on its Nord Stream 1 pipeline today as Europe waits to see if the gas comes back on.
The annual work on the two pipelines was scheduled long in advance, however many fear Gazprom might take the opportunity to simply shut off the valves.
“Putin is going to turn off the gas tap... but will he turn it back on one day?” German news outlet Bild asked on Sunday.
German vice-chancellor, Robert Habeck, also told public radio over the weekend:
We are confronted by an unprecedented situation - anything is possible.
It is possible that the gas will flow once more, even at a higher volume level than before.”
But, he warned, “it is possible that nothing comes through, and we still have to prepare for the worst” as Europe scrambles to transition away from Russia for energy supplies.
Canada recently agreed to return to Germany turbines needed to maintain the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, despite the objections of Ukraine.
Russia has insisted it needed the machine’s return and blamed reduced supplies on the repairs and the absence of the turbine, not market conditions caused by the Ukraine war.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has denied reports Russia is taking an operational pause in Donbas.
Addressing recent reports from western analysts, he said:
In the past week, many talked about the alleged ‘operational pause’ in the actions of the occupiers in Donbas and other parts of Ukraine. 34 airstrikes by Russian aircraft over the past day is an answer to all those who came up with this ‘pause’.
The Ukrainian army is holding on firmly, repelling attacks in various directions. But, of course, a lot still needs to be done so that Russian losses really cause such pause. Moreover, the pause not before new offensives of the occupiers, but before their retreat from our Ukrainian land.”
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Zelenskiy accuses Russia of purposely targeting civilians
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has accused Moscow of purposely targeting civilians in a missile strike that killed 15 in Chasiv Yar and promised “punishment is inevitable for every Russian murderer”.
Zelenskiy referenced the attack on the Donetsk region city in eastern Ukraine during his latest national address, saying a rescue operation continues to find “dozens of people” trapped under the rubble after two high-rise buildings were destroyed.
Anyone who gives orders for such strikes, anyone who carries them out in ordinary cities, in residential areas, kills absolutely deliberately. After such blows, they will not be able to say that they did not know or did not understand something.
Punishment is inevitable for every Russian murderer. Absolutely for everyone. The same as for the Nazis. And let them not expect that their state will protect them. Russia will be the first to abandon them when the political circumstances change.
Andriy Yermak, Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, said in his own Telegram post that the strike was “another terrorist attack”, and that Russia should be designated as a state sponsor of terrorism as a result.
Rescuers search for dozens trapped after Russian strike
Ukrainian emergency services are continuing to comb through the rubble of an apartment building in eastern Ukraine searching for two dozen people, including a child, feared trapped after a Russian rocket strike killed 15 people.
At least 15 people died and dozens were injured after a series of rockets fired by Russian forces hit a five-storey apartment building in the town of Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine on Saturday night.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of the Donetsk region, said more than 24 people could be trapped under the rubble of the apartment block, as rescue operations were still under way.
According to Kyiv, the building was hit by Russian Uragan rockets fired from truck-borne systems.
The Ukrainian emergency services initially gave a death toll of 10, but later revised the figure to 15.
Six people have been recovered from the rubble, while the emergency services said rescuers were in verbal contact with three other people under the ruins.
We ran to the basement, there were three hits, the first somewhere in the kitchen,” a resident, Ludmila, 24, told Reuters. “The second, I do not even remember, there was lightning, we ran towards the second entrance and then straight into the basement. We sat there all night until this morning.”
Chasiv Yar, population 12,000, is about 12 miles south-east of Kramatorsk, a city that is expected to be the next focus of the fighting.
Hello, it’s Samantha Lock back with you as we unpack all the latest news from Ukraine this morning.
Ukrainian rescue teams are combing through the rubble of an apartment building in eastern Ukraine searching for two dozen people, including a child, feared trapped after a Russian rocket strike killed 15 people.
Here are all the latest lines as of 8am in Kyiv.
- At least 15 people have died and dozens were injured after a Russian missile attack hit a five-storey apartment building in the town of Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine. Emergency crews worked to pull people trapped in the rubble. The strike destroyed three buildings in a residential quarter of town, inhabited mostly by people who work in nearby factories.
- Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, accused Moscow of purposely targeting civilians in the Chasiv Yar attack and promised “punishment is inevitable for every Russian murderer”.
- Ukraine has warned residents in southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia to evacuate as it prepares to launch a counteroffensive to retake the area. The Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions were occupied by Russian troops in late February after they crossed the bridge from Russia-annexed Crimea. Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said: “It’s clear there will be fighting, there will be artillery shelling... and we therefore urge [people] to evacuate urgently.”
- Two Ukrainian civilians were killed and at least two others injured in Russian missile attacks on the town of Siversk, near Sievierodonetsk, officials said. Donetsk governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said three people were hurt by shelling in Soledar, and seven houses and other property burned down in Bakhmut with no details of any casualties. Ukraine officials warned last week the city in the Luhansk region was facing a “humanitarian disaster”.
- The number of Ukrainian children enrolled in Poland’s schools is expected to double to at least 400,000 for the upcoming school year, the country’s education department has said. A report in European Pravda, an online media outlet published by Ukrainian journalists, quoted Przemysław Czarnek, Poland’s education minister, as saying those enrolled will take part in lessons both online from Ukraine and in-person.
- Germany has reportedly blocked €9bn of EU aid to Ukraine for more than a month. The Kyiv Independent, citing the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, said Germany’s finance minister, Christian Lindner, was against the planned aid because of concerns over European debt.
- The Russian Tennis Federation has claimed Elena Rybakina as “our product” on her run to the women’s title at Wimbledon. They praised her training programme in the country after she became Wimbledon champion on Saturday while representing Kazakhstan.
- Russia has restricted access to the website of Germany’s Die Welt newspaper, Reuters reports. This came at the request of prosecutors, according to Roskomnadzor, Russia’s communications regulator. It was not immediately clear why prosecutors asked for the restriction.
- Russian forces have likely made some small territorial advances around Popasna, according to British intelligence. The Russian military continues to strike the Slovyansk area of the Donbas from around Izium to the north and near Lysychansk to the east, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said. The report added that the E40 – which links Donetsk and Kharkiv – is likely to be an important objective for Russian forces.
- Canada will return a repaired Russian turbine to Germany that it needs for the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, despite objections from Ukraine. Canada’s minister of natural resources, Jonathan Wilkinson, said the government was issuing a “time-limited and revocable permit” to exempt the return of turbines from its Russian sanctions, to support “Europe’s ability to access reliable and affordable energy as they continue to transition away from Russian oil and gas”. Ukraine responded saying it is “deeply disappointed” by the decision.
- A Scottish council has announced plans to bring up to 200 empty homes back into use to house refugees fleeing Ukraine. North Lanarkshire Council said it would use £5m of Scottish government funding to reinstate the homes in high rise towers in Coatbridge and Wishaw “to a high standard”, according to a report from PA Media.
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