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.
- Ukrainian forces have retreated from Lysychansk as Russia claims it is now in control of Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region. The Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said Moscow’s forces had established “full control” over Lysychansk and several nearby settlements. Ukraine’s military command confirmed on Sunday evening that its troops had been forced to pull back from the city, saying there would otherwise be “fatal consequences”. Lysychansk was the last Ukrainian-controlled city in the Luhansk region.
- Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, vowed to regain Lysychansk with the help of long-range western weapons. “We will return thanks to our tactics, thanks to the increase in the supply of modern weapons. Ukraine does not give anything up,” he said in an evening address.
- The eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk in the Donetsk region was hit by powerful shelling from multiple rocket launchers on Sunday, killing six people and injuring 20 others, the city’s mayor Vadim Lyakh said. In the post-2014 regional capital of Kramatorsk, a missile destroyed a hotel, according to its mayor Oleksandr Goncharenko. He said three rockets hit the town on Sunday and that there were no reported victims so far.
- At least three people were killed and dozens of residential buildings damaged in the Russian city of Belgorod near the Ukrainian border on Sunday, the region’s governor said. Vyacheslav Gladkov said at least 11 apartment buildings and 39 private residential houses were damaged, including five houses destroyed.
- Australia will send more than $100m in new aid to Ukraine including military equipment, as well as levelling sanctions on 16 new Russian officials, following prime minister Anthony Albanese’s secret trip to Kyiv. Albanese visited Bucha, Hostomel and Irpin, three towns in the Kyiv region where evidence of mass killings and torture was uncovered after the withdrawal of Russian forces.
- Britain will host a 2023 recovery conference to help Ukraine rebuild from the damage caused by Russia’s invasion. The Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC2022) will begin on Monday in Lugano, Switzerland, to discuss how to rebuild Ukraine, bringing together a Ukrainian delegation with representatives of other countries, international organisations and civil society, the UK foreign office said.
- The UK may follow the example of Canada and seize the assets of Russians in Britain in order to give them to Ukraine. Foreign secretary, Liz Truss, told MPs she was supportive of the idea that the government could seize frozen Russian assets in the UK and redistribute them to victims of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
- A new New York Times investigation has revealed that Nazism references spiked to record-high levels the day Russia invaded Ukraine. The outlet surveyed eight million articles about Ukraine collected from over 8,000 Russian websites since 2014, and found that since 2014, references to Nazism were “relatively flat for eight years and then spiked to unprecedented levels on February 24” of this year.
- The president of Belarus and Vladimir Putin’s closest ally has said his ex-Soviet state stands fully behind Russia, adding that the country’s “have practically a unified army”. Alexander Lukashenko said he had thrown his weight behind Putin’s campaign against Ukraine “from the very first day” in late February. “We are being criticised for being the only country in the world to support Russia in its fight against Nazism,” a video on the state BelTA news agency showed Lukashenko telling a gathering. “We will remain together with fraternal Russia.”
- Turkish customs authorities have detained a Russian cargo ship carrying grain allegedly stolen from Ukraine, the Ukrainian ambassador to the country has said. “We have full co-operation. The ship is currently standing at the entrance to the port, it has been detained by the customs authorities of Turkey,” ambassador Vasyl Bodnar said on Ukrainian national television.
Updated
The president of Belarus and Vladimir Putin’s closest ally says his ex-Soviet state stands fully behind Russia in its military drive in Ukraine as part of its longstanding commitment to a “union state” with Moscow.
Addressing a ceremony marking the anniversary of the World War Two liberation of Minsk by Soviet troops, Alexander Lukashenko said he had thrown his weight behind Putin’s campaign against Ukraine “from the very first day” in late February.
Today, we are being criticised for being the only country in the world to support Russia in its fight against Nazism. We support and will continue to support Russia,” a video on the state BelTA news agency showed Lukashenko telling the gathering.
And those who criticise us, do they not know that we have such a close union with the Russian Federation?…That we have practically a unified army. But you knew all this. We will remain together with fraternal Russia.”
Lukashenko has allowed Russian troops to use his country’s territory in invading Ukraine. Some Ukrainian officials suggest Belarus could soon become directly involved in the conflict.
Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the Belarusian leader’s statement amounted to a “signal”, with his actions to be watched carefully.
Zelenskiy, quoted by Ukrainian media, told reporters in Kyiv that Lukashenko’s comments were a “dangerous” development.
Lukashenko’s statement about a unified army with Russia is, above all, dangerous for the Belarusian people.
He must not drag Belarus into a Russian war of invasion against Ukraine. I believe this is a dangerous signal. And I believe that we will all see the results of this signal.”
The UK wants to follow the example of Canada and seize the assets of Russians in the UK in order to give them to Ukraine, foreign secretary Liz Truss has said.
It comes as Truss is due to give a speech on Monday to a Ukraine reconstruction conference in Lugano, Switzerland, which will be attended either in person or virtually by most of Ukraine’s senior political leadership.
It is estimated that more than 120,000 homes in Ukraine have been destroyed during the Russian invasion, creating the need for billions in income to restore the country economically and make it a Europe-faced economy.
Truss told MPs last week she was supportive of the idea that the government could seize frozen Russian assets in the UK and redistribute them to victims of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
She said: “I am supportive of the concept. We are looking at it very closely. The Canadians have in fact just passed legislation This is an issue that we are working on jointly with the Home Office and the Treasury, but I certainly agree with the concept. We just need to get the specifics of it right.”
She said the initiative would “most probably” need legislation but not necessarily.
Australia will send more than $100m in new aid to Ukraine including military equipment, as well as levelling sanctions on 16 new Russian officials, following prime minister Anthony Albanese’s secret trip to Kyiv.
Albanese tacked on a day visit to Ukraine at the end of his European trip for the Nato summit, where he met the country’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy and toured parts of the country devastated by Russia’s aggression.
Albanese visited Bucha, Hostomel and Irpin, three towns in the Kyiv region that became synonymous with the brutality of Vladimir Putin’s invasion when evidence of mass killings and torture was uncovered after the withdrawal of Russian forces.
The PM said in a statement following his trip:
Russia’s brutal invasion is a gross violation of international law. I saw first-hand the devastation and trauma it has inflicted on the people of Ukraine ...
My visit to Kyiv and recent visits by other world leaders sends a clear message that democratic nations like Australia will stand side by side with the Ukrainian people in their time of need.
Albanese committed $99.5m in military assistance, including 14 armoured personnel carriers, 20 Bushmaster protected mobility vehicles and other military equipment; a contribution to Nato’s Ukraine Comprehensive Assistance Package Trust Fund; and $8.7m to assist Ukraine’s Border Guard Service to upgrade border management equipment, cybersecurity and border operations in the field.
Australia will also impose new financial sanctions and travel bans on 16 further Russian ministers and oligarchs, as well as plans to intervene at the international court of justice in support of Ukraine in its case against Russia.
The government will also allow duty-free access to Australia for Ukrainian imports, and prohibit the import of Russian gold.
Albanese said the new contributions bring Australia’s total military assistance to Ukraine to approximately A$388m.
Zelenskiy acknowledged Albanese’s visit as a “historical moment”.
Australia is one of the top countries in terms of its level of support. We have already received significant defence assistance from it.”
Zelenskiy vows to regain Lysychansk
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, earlier vowed to regain the eastern city of Lysychansk after Ukrainian troops were forced to withdraw.
In an address broadcast shortly before midnight, local time, he said:
And if the command of our army withdraws people from certain points of the front where the enemy has the greatest fire superiority, in particular this applies to Lysychansk, it means only one thing: we will return thanks to our tactics, thanks to the increase in the supply of modern weapons.
Ukraine does not give anything up. And when someone over there in Moscow reports something about the Luhansk region - let them remember their reports and promises before February 24, in the first days of this invasion, in the spring and now. Let them really evaluate what they got over this time and how much they paid for it. Because their current reports will turn into dust just as the previous ones.
We are gradually moving forward - in the Kharkiv region, in the Kherson region and at sea: Zmiinyi is a good example of this. There will be a day when we will say the same about Donbas.”
Summary
It’s 1am in Kyiv. Here’s where things stand:
- Britain will host a conference next year focused on helping Ukraine recover from the damage caused by Russia’s invasion, the foreign office said, as nations gather in Switzerland for this year’s event. The Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC2022) beginning on Monday in Lugano will discuss how to rebuild Ukraine, bringing together a Ukrainian delegation with representatives of other countries, international organisations and civil society.
- Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has met with the president of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach on Sunday. The meeting comes as at least 89 Ukrainian athletes and coaches have been killed and 13 have been captured since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
-
A new New York Times investigation has revealed that out of eight million articles about Ukraine collected from over 8,000 Russian websites since 2014, Nazism references spiked to record-high levels the day Russia invaded Ukraine. According to the outlet, since 2014, references to Nazism were “relatively flat for eight years and then spiked to unprecedented levels on February 24” of this year.
- President Volodymyr Zelenskiy acknowledged on Sunday that Ukrainian forces had withdrawn from Lysychansk in Donbas, but vowed to restore control over the area thanks to the army’s tactics and the prospect of new, improved weaponry. “If the commanders of our army withdraw people from certain points at the front, where the enemy has the greatest advantage in fire power, and this also applies to Lysychansk, it means only one thing,” Zelenskiy said in his evening video address.
- The French region of Île-de-France has offered to rebuild the destroyed Ukrainian city of Borodyanka as an ecological city, Euromaidan Press reports. “Borodyanka should become an ecological city with “systems working on modern energy-saving technologies,” said the president of the region.
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Ukraine received 17 border guards released during a prisoner exchange on 29 June, Euromaidan reports. In a video released by Ukraine’s State Border Service, the guards, said to have serious injuries, are shown leaving ambulances and entering hospitals.
- The Ukrainian army retreated from the strategic city of Lysychansk on Sunday as Russia claimed a major victory by seizing control of the entire eastern Luhansk region. The Ukrainian withdrawal followed weeks of fierce fighting and marked a decisive breakthrough for Moscow’s forces more than four months after their invasion and after turning their focus away from the capital, Kyiv.
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Germany is one of the countries that is doing the most to provide military aid to Ukraine, said the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, while defending his country’s delays in delivering weapons. The long delays for German weapons, compared with the speedy deliveries of American ones, are because of the need to train Ukrainian soldiers in Germany, Scholz told CBS News on Sunday.
- Volodymyr Zelenskiy has cast doubt on Russia’s claim that Russian forces have captured and taken over Lysychansk, a strategic eastern city in Ukraine. “We cannot say today that Lysychansk is under [Russian] control. There is fighting on the outskirts,” Zelenskiy said on Sunday at a press conference with the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese.
That’s it from me, Maya Yang, as I hand the blog over to my Australian colleagues who will bring you the latest updates. Thank you.
Britain will host a conference next year focused on helping Ukraine recover from the damage caused by Russia’s invasion, the foreign office said, as nations gather in Switzerland for this year’s event.
Reuters reports:
The Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC2022) beginning on Monday in Lugano will discuss how to rebuild Ukraine, bringing together a Ukrainian delegation with representatives of other countries, international organisations and civil society.
Britain said it was working with Ukraine and others to host next year’s conference, and it would sit on a supervisory board to help coordinate between Ukraine and its allies on recovery measures. An office will be set up in London.
“We have led on support for Ukraine during the war and will continue to lead in supporting the Ukrainian Government*s Reconstruction and Development Plan,” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement.
“Ukraine’s recovery from Russia*s war of aggression will be a symbol of the power of democracy over autocracy. It will show [Russian President Vladimir] Putin that his attempts to destroy Ukraine have only produced a stronger, more prosperous and more united nation.”
Russia says what it calls a “special military operation” aims to protect Ukraine’s Russian-speakers from nationalist or neo-Nazi persecution. Ukraine and its Western allies say this is a baseless pretext for a war of imperial conquest.
The Foreign Office said Britain had been asked by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to champion the recovery of Kyiv and the surrounding region. Britain pledged to use its financial sector expertise to help draw investment into Ukraine.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has met with the president of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach on Sunday.
The meeting comes as at least 89 Ukrainian athletes and coaches have been killed and 13 have been captured since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
“Many Ukrainian athletes joined the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to defend our country, to defend it on the battlefield. Some 89 athletes and coaches have been killed in hostilities. Thirteen were captured and are in Russian captivity,” Zelenskiy said.
He added that over 100,000 athletes have been unable to train and multiple sports facilities have been destroyed.
“Russia’s invasion has become a cruel blow to Ukrainian sports. More than 100,000 Ukrainian athletes do not have the opportunity to train today. Many infrastructure facilities have been destroyed. These are large objects of sports infrastructure and objects at our schools and Ukrainian universities, at sports clubs,” Zelenskiy said.
A new New York Times investigation has revealed that out of eight million articles about Ukraine collected from over 8,000 Russian websites since 2014, Nazism references spiked to record-high levels the day Russia invaded Ukraine.
According to the outlet, since 2014, references to Nazism were “relatively flat for eight years and then spiked to unprecedented levels on February 24” of this year.
“News stories have falsely claimed that Ukrainian Nazis are using noncombatants as human shields, killing Ukrainian civilians and planning a genocide of Russians,” the outlet said.
According to Larissa Doroshenko, a Northeastern University disinformation researcher who spoke to the New York Times, the strategy was most likely to intended to justify the Kremlin’s goal of a quick ouster of the Ukrainian government.
“It would help to explain why they’re establishing this new country in a sense...Because the previous government were Nazis, therefore they had to be replaced,” she said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy acknowledged on Sunday that Ukrainian forces had withdrawn from Lysychansk in Donbas, but vowed to restore control over the area thanks to the army’s tactics and the prospect of new, improved weaponry.
“If the commanders of our army withdraw people from certain points at the front, where the enemy has the greatest advantage in fire power, and this also applies to Lysychansk, it means only one thing,” Zelenskiy said in his evening video address.
“That we will return thanks to our tactics, thanks to the increase in the supply of modern weapons,” he added.
Updated
The French region of Île-de-France has offered to rebuild the destroyed Ukrainian city of Borodyanka as an ecological city, Euromaidan Press reports.
Borodyanka should become an ecological city with “systems working on modern energy-saving technologies,” said the president of the region.
Experts from France will conduct an official assessment of the area and participate in the development of the master plan, the president added.
The French region of Île-de-France offered to rebuild the destroyed Borodyanka as an ecological city
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) July 3, 2022
According to the President of the region, Borodyanka should become an ecological city with "systems working on modern energy-saving technologies" https://t.co/yIoTfavsHq pic.twitter.com/jctbtDh6hB
Ukraine received 17 border guards released during a prisoner exchange on 29 June, Euromaidan reports.
In a video released by Ukraine’s State Border Service, the guards, said to have serious injuries, are shown leaving ambulances and entering hospitals.
Ukraine met 17 border guards released during the largest exchange of prisoners on June 29th.
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) July 3, 2022
They all have serious injuries, currently under medical supervision.
🎥: 🇺🇦 State Border Service pic.twitter.com/rTU1ppTBvh
“There was hope. There was always hope, I knew that I had to return, I knew for whom, for my wife, for my daughter, that they are waiting for me and I need to return,” one border guard said.
Updated
Ukrainian forces withdraw from Lysychansk
The Ukrainian army retreated from the strategic city of Lysychansk on Sunday as Russia claimed a major victory by seizing control of the entire eastern Luhansk region.
Agence France-Presse reports:
The Ukrainian withdrawal followed weeks of fierce fighting and marked a decisive breakthrough for Moscow’s forces more than four months after their invasion and after turning their focus away from the capital, Kyiv.
Lysychansk had been the last major city in the Luhansk area of the eastern Donbas region still in Ukrainian hands and its capture frees up Moscow’s forces to advance on Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in neighbouring Donetsk.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had earlier denied Russian claims of Lysychansk’s fall before the Ukrainian army announced the retreat on Sunday evening.
“The continuation of the defence of the city would lead to fatal consequences” in the face of Russia’s superiority in numbers and equipment, the army said in a statement.
“In order to preserve the lives of Ukrainian defenders, a decision was made to withdraw.
“Unfortunately, steel will and patriotism are not enough for success – material and technical resources are needed.”
Russian forces seized Lysychansk’s twin city of Sievierodonetsk last week after weeks of intense fighting.
The latest blow to Ukrainian resistance came after the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, on Sunday pledged further military support including armoured vehicles and drones during a meeting with Zelenskiy in Kyiv.
Updated
Germany is one of the countries that is doing the most to provide military aid to Ukraine, said the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, while defending his country’s delays in delivering weapons.
The long delays for German weapons, compared with the speedy deliveries of American ones, are because of the need to train Ukrainian soldiers in Germany, Scholz told CBS News on Sunday.
“We will always see that Germany is one of the countries that is doing the most, because what we are sending now is the most sophisticated technology you can use,” Scholz said in the interview conducted Thursday on the sidelines of the Nato summit in Madrid.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, Germany has been accused of hesitating and being reluctant to send weapons to Ukraine out of concern for its relations with Russia.
Certain US weapons were delivered less than 48 hours after Joe Biden signed off on the transfer, the CBS journalist Margaret Brennan noted during her exchange with Scholz.
But the chancellor said comparing that timeframe to Germany’s weeks or months of delay is unreasonable.
You should understand that there is a difference of a country like the United States, which spends that much for defence, which is a very big investment, and you have a lot of weapons and stocks.
Scholz added that the rocket launchers provided by other countries were already in stock but were not necessarily the most modern, compared with the ones that Germany will send which will be “the most modern howitzer … on the world market.”
Updated
Fighting continuing in Lysychansk, says Zelenskiy
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has cast doubt on Russia’s claim that Russian forces have captured and taken over Lysychansk, a strategic eastern city in Ukraine.
“We cannot say today that Lysychansk is under [Russian] control. There is fighting on the outskirts,” Zelenskiy said on Sunday at a press conference with the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese.
Earlier on Sunday Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said Russian forces had taken full control of the Luhansk region after conquering Lysychansk, which has been at the centre of fierce fighting for weeks.
Nevertheless, Zelenskiy warned of “risks” that Lysychansk, the last major city under Ukrainian control in Luhansk, “will be completely occupied” by Russian forces.
Capturing Lysychansk would allow Russia to control all of Luhansk, and advance on Slovyansk and Kramatorsk further west as part of their campaign in the eastern Donbas region.
Zelenskiy added that Lysychansk was the “the most difficult and most dangerous situation” for Ukraine.
“We do not have the advantage there, it’s true. It’s our weak spot but in other areas, we’re advancing,” he said.
Updated
Australia will provide 34 additional armoured vehicles to Ukraine and prohibit Russian gold imports, Reuters reports.
Speaking at a press conference in Kyiv alongside Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Anthony Albanese, the Australian prime minister, said Australia would also impose sanctions and travel bans on 16 more Russian ministers and oligarchs, bringing the total number of Russian individuals sanctioned by Australia to 843.
Albanese said Australia would give Ukraine 14 more armoured personnel carriers and 20 Bushmaster vehicles and a number of drones.
Zelenskiy said Australia was giving Ukraine “considerable aid, in particular defence support” and that Ukrainian forces “highly valued” the Bushmaster vehicle.
Making the first visit to Ukraine by an Australian premier, Albanese said his country would give Ukraine “$100m of military support”, without specifying whether he meant Australian dollars.
“It is my great honour to be the first Australian prime minister to visit Ukraine,” he said, adding that his trip would “show very clearly to the world the solidarity that exists between the Australian people and the people of Ukraine”.
He paid tribute to the “courage, resilience, bravery and determination” of Ukraine’s president, defence forces and people, saying they were “determined to stand up to a bully which is breaching international law without any provocation or any excuse”.
Updated
The US is to supply Ukraine with National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) as part of an $820m military aid package, the BBC reports.
Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov tweeted thanks to US President Joe Biden and defence secretary Lloyd Austin.
He described the move as “another significant step in support of Ukraine”.
Thank you @POTUS and my colleague @SecDef for another significant step in support of 🇺🇦: decision to supply NASAMS for #UAarmy. This increases our capabilities to protect our land&sky. 🇺🇦 victory in the war against terrorist state will ensure global security for years to come!
— Oleksii Reznikov (@oleksiireznikov) July 3, 2022
Australia’s prime minister Anthony Albanese has said Russian attacks on Irpin’s residential areas are “war crimes”.
Albanese was given a tour of Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel, cities that were briefly under Russian occupation during the early days of the invasion.
More details about the assault on Ukraine’s eastern city of Slovyansk earlier today …
A child was among the six people who died during shelling from multiple rocket launchers, the area’s mayor has said.
“Provisional toll from today’s shelling: six dead, 15 injured. Among the dead, there is a child,” Vadim Lyakh said on Facebook.
A spokesperson for the Donetsk region earlier reported the same toll to Ukrainian media, AFP reports.
Lyakh had described the attack on Slovyansk as “the heaviest for a long time”, saying there were 15 fires and “many dead and wounded”.
Meanwhile, rocket strikes hit the city of Kramatorsk, also in Donetsk, for the second day in a row, mayor Oleksandr Goncharenko said.
The strikes, which hit a residential area and an unoccupied hotel, caused no casualties, he said.
Updated
Turkish customs authorities have detained a Russian cargo ship carrying grain allegedly stolen from Ukraine, the Ukrainian ambassador to the country has said.
“We have full co-operation. The ship is currently standing at the entrance to the port, it has been detained by the customs authorities of Turkey,” ambassador Vasyl Bodnar said on Ukrainian national television.
Bodnar said that the ship’s fate would be decided by a meeting of investigators on Monday.
It comes after Ukraine called for the ship, which had been lying off the Turkish coast en route from the Ukrainian port of Berdyansk to Karasu, to be seized.
Russia has denied allegations that it has stolen grain from the area of Ukraine under its control.
At least six people killed in Slovyansk attack, say officials
At least six people have died in the attack on Slovyansk, local officials have said.
Donetsk regional administration spokesperson Tetiana Ihnatchenko told Ukraine’s public news network that 15 people had also been wounded in the attack.
The city’s mayor, Vadym Lyakh, said on messaging app Telegram that the attack was the worst shelling to hit the city recently and caused nearly 15 fires.
Kramatorsk, another city in the Donetsk region that is not occupied by Russian forces, is understood to have also experienced shelling.
Updated
'Many killed' in attack on eastern Ukrainian city of Slovyansk
The eastern Ukrainian city of Slovyansk was hit by powerful shelling from multiple rocket launchers on Sunday, the city’s mayor Vadim Lyakh said.
“There are 15 fires. Many killed and wounded,” Lyakh wrote on Telegram, Reuters reports.
He added that it was the most powerful recent shelling of the city.
We’ll be bring you more on this event as it unfolds.
Updated
Summary
- Russia claims it has taken full control of Lysychansk, the eastern Ukraine city that had become Ukraine’s last major stronghold in the Luhansk region. The defence ministry reportedly made the announcement on Sunday, after initially stating the area had been encircled.
- Ukraine’s defence ministry has denied the claims, saying that the city was not under “full control” of Russia. But spokesperson Yuriy Sak added that if the entire Donbas region were to fall, it would not be “game over” for Ukraine.
- It comes after an adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the loss of Ukraine’s last large bastion in Luhansk was “indeed a threat”. Oleksiy Arestovych added: “I do not rule out any one of a number of outcomes here. Things will become much more clear within a day or two.”
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Former British army chief Lord Dannatt said “meaningful negotiations” could arise out of Russia potentially taking full control of Ukraine’s Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. His comments came before the Russian defence ministry reportedly claimed to have taken full control of Lysychansk, the last major Ukrainian stronghold in the region.
- At least three people were killed and dozens of residential buildings damaged in the Russian city of Belgorod on Sunday, the region’s governor said, after earlier reports of several blasts in the city near the Ukrainian border. Vyacheslav Gladkov said at least 11 apartment buildings and 39 private residential houses were damaged, including five houses destroyed. Reuters was not able to independently verify the reports and there was no immediate reaction from Ukraine. Gladkov said earlier on the Telegram messaging app: “Reasons for the incident are being investigated. Presumably, the air defence system worked.”
Updated
Photos have emerged showing the aftermath of the blasts in the Russian city of Belgorod, close to the Ukraine border.
The region’s governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said earlier that at least three people had been killed in the alleged Ukrainian missile attack, while dozens of residential buildings were damaged.
At least 11 apartment buildings and 39 private houses were affected, including five that were destroyed, Gladkov said on messaging app Telegram.
Ukraine is yet to comment on the claims.
Updated
A Ukrainian defence ministry spokesperson has denied Moscow’s claims that the southern city of Lysychansk is under “full control” of Russian forces.
Speaking to the BBC, Yuriy Sak admitted, however, that the situation in the area had been “very intense for quite a while now”, with Russian forces attacking “non-stop”.
Updated
Speaking to Sky News earlier, former British army chief Lord Dannatt said “meaningful negotiations” could arise out of Russia potentially taking full control of Ukraine’s Luhansk and Donetsk provinces.
His comments came before the Russian defence ministry reportedly claimed to have taken full control of Lysychansk, the last major Ukrainian stronghold in the region.
Following early defeats in its invasion, Russian troops have been focused on driving Ukrainian forces out of the regions in recent weeks.
“They’re relying on their huge superiority in artillery,” said Lord Dannatt. “Then once they’ve almost reduced everything to rubble, then sending their troops in to take possession of it.
Former British army chief Lord Dannatt says he believes Russia will take the Donbas and “at that point the war will go into a deep freeze”
— Sophy Ridge (@SophyRidgeSky) July 3, 2022
I genuinely learned a lot from this interview today #Ridge
pic.twitter.com/eIB1TdZCgz
“We’re going to see that slow grind continue. They’ve very nearly achieved taking Luhansk province and then they will turn their sights to trying to get the control of Donetsk.
“I think what we’ve seen over the last few weeks shows that over the next few days and weeks they will probably achieve that.”
He added that if Russia takes both provinces, it will have achieved some of what it wanted to achieve in its war on Ukraine but its troops will be exhausted
“The Ukrainians will also be exhausted. The Russians won’t have won, the Ukrainians won’t have lost,” he added.
“At that point I believe the war will effectively go into a deep freeze and that’s where meaningful negotiations are going to have to start.”
Updated
Russia claims it has taken full control of Lysychansk
Russian and separatist forces in eastern Ukraine have reportedly taken full control of the eastern Ukrainian city of Lysychansk.
Russian state news agency Tass reported the news, quoting the defence ministry, on Sunday.
It comes after Russia earlier said it had encircled Ukraine’s last major stronghold in the Luhansk region.
The defence ministry said its troops had captured the villages surrounding Lysychansk, encircling the area, and were fighting Ukrainian troops inside the town, Reuters reported.
“Russian troops and units of the Luhansk People’s Republic are fighting inside Lysychansk, completely defeating the encircled enemy,” the ministry said in a statement.
Calls to the Ukrainian general staff and defence ministry went unanswered. The ministry did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
The Russian defence ministry added that it had struck military infrastructure in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, as well as a base used by foreign fighters on the outskirts of Mykolaiv in the country’s south.
Russia has focused on driving Ukrainian forces out of Luhansk and Donetsk regions in the Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Kyiv since Russia’s first military intervention in Ukraine in 2014.
Updated
In Borodyanka, a town close to Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, that was bombarded and then occupied by Russian forces, psychologists face a battle to help locals cope with PTSD.
Those who lived through the Russian occupation are some of the worst affected, on what leading Ukrainian psychologists see as a spectrum of trauma experienced by the whole country, including those who have left.
Borodyanka’s centre of psychology was set up in 1994 to deal with the aftermath of Chernobyl. Later, it treated Ukrainian veterans from the war in eastern Ukraine.
After Russian troops rolled in from the Belarusian border, 200 miles north, the centre was destroyed by a Russian bomb in the first few days of the war. A volunteer was inside at the time.
The psychologists say every resident who stayed in the town is suffering from stress, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
“You can visually tell the difference between a person on the street who wasn’t here and a person who stayed [during the occupation],” said Ludmilla Boiko, a psychologist from the centre.
You can read the full report from my colleague Isobel Koshiw, on the ground in Borodyanka, here:
Updated
Ukrainian forces hit a military base with more than 30 strikes in the Russian-occupied southern Ukraine city of Melitopol, its exiled mayor said on Sunday morning.
In a Telegram video, Ivan Fedorov said the base had been taken out of action.
Russian-installed authorities in the city, which was among the first to fall to Russians during the invasion, said several houses near the airfield were damaged.
“There were no casualties,” Evgeny Balitsky, head of the Russia-installed council in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, wrote on Telegram.
Updated
Updated
Russian forces are strengthening their position in a fight to capture the last stronghold of resistance in Ukraine’s Luhansk province, according to the region’s governor.
Ukrainian fighters have been trying to defend the city of Lysychansk for weeks in a bid to prevent it falling to Russia, as neighbouring Sievierodonetsk did last week, AP reports.
“The occupiers threw all their forces on Lysychansk. They attacked the city with incomprehensibly cruel tactics,” Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai said on the Telegram messaging app.
“They suffer significant losses, but stubbornly advance. They are gaining a foothold in the city.”
A river separates Lysychansk from Sievierodonetsk. Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, said during an online interview late Saturday that Russian forces had managed for the first time to cross the river from the north, creating a “threatening” situation.
Arestovych said they had not reached the centre of the city but that the course of the fighting indicated the battle for Lysychansk would be decided by Monday.
If Lysychansk falls, the entire Luhansk region could come under Russian control. You can read more about the Russian assault on the city here:
A US-backed campaign is giving Russians access to anti-censor software to dodge Moscow’s crackdown on dissent against its invasion of Ukraine, involved groups told Agence France-Presse.
Russia has intensified its restrictions on independent media since its invasion in February, with journalists under threat of prosecution for criticising the invasion or for even referring to it as a war.
The US government-backed Open Technology Fund (OTF) is paying out money to a handful of American firms providing virtual private networks (VPNs) free of charge to millions of Russians, who can then use them to visit websites blocked by censors.
The use of VPN software to create what is effectively a private tunnel on the internet for data, typically encrypted, to flow safeguarded from snooping has boomed in Russia since the invasion
A spokesman for Lantern, one of the companies involved, said: “Our tool is primarily used by people trying to access independent media, so that funding by the OTF has been absolutely critical.”
Tech firms Psiphon and nthLink have also been providing anti-censorship applications to people in Russia, with OTF estimating that 4 million users in Russia have received VPNs from the firms.
You can read more about the use of VPNs to circumvent bans to some websites here:
Updated
Zelenskiy adviser concedes Lysychansk could fall
An adviser to the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has conceded Lysychansk could fall, as fighting intensified in the country’s last big bastion in the strategic eastern province of Luhansk.
Oleksiy Arestovych said Russian forces had crossed the Siverskiy Donets River and were approaching the key city from the north, Reuters reported.
“This is indeed a threat. We shall see,” he said. “I do not rule out any one of a number of outcomes here. Things will become much more clear within a day or two.”
Ukrainian troops on the eastern front lines describe intense artillery barrages on residential areas, while Kyiv says Moscow has intensified missile attacks on cities far from the main eastern battlefields.
Updated
Summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the war in Ukraine. It is approaching 10am in Kyiv. Here’s a summary of the latest developments.
- At least three people were killed and dozens of residential buildings damaged in the Russian city of Belgorod on Sunday, the region’s governor said, after earlier reports of several blasts in the city near the Ukrainian border. Vyacheslav Gladkov said at least 11 apartment buildings and 39 private residential houses were damaged, including five houses destroyed. Reuters was not able to independently verify the reports and there was no immediate reaction from Ukraine. Gladkov said earlier on the Telegram messaging app: “Reasons for the incident are being investigated. Presumably, the air defence system worked.”
- The Ukrainian army has rejected claims that Russian-backed separatists and Russian forces have surrounded the key eastern city of Lysychansk. A Ukrainian national guard spokesman, Ruslan Muzytchuk, said fighting was raging around the city but it remained under Ukrainian control. Russian media showed videos of Luhansk province militia parading in Lysychansk streets waving flags and cheering,
- British intelligence says Russian forces are continuing to achieve “minor advances” in Lysychansk amid the continuing air and artillery strikes. Ukrainian forces probably continue to block Russian forces in the city’s south-eastern outskirts, according to the latest UK Ministry of Defence report.
- Russia’s defence ministry has said its forces destroyed five Ukrainian army command posts in Donbas and in the Mykolaiv region, according to Russian state media. Three weapons storage sites were also destroyed in the Zaporizhzhia region in south-east Ukraine, the ministry was quoted as saying. The claims have not been independently verified.
- The president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, has claimed Ukraine attempted to strike military facilities on Belarusian territory. Reuters, citing the state-run Belta news agency, reported that Lukashenko said – without providing evidence – that Ukrainian armed forces tried to strike facilities in Belarus three days ago but the missiles were intercepted. He claimed Ukraine was attempting to provoke Belarus but his country did not plan to intervene in the conflict.
- Rescue workers have recovered as many as 29 body fragments amid the rubble of deadly Russian missile strikes on a shopping centre in the Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk, Ukraine’s state emergency service said. At least 19 people were killed on Monday after two Russian X-22 cruise missiles hit a crowded shopping centre in Kremenchuk, officials said.
- The British government has condemned the exploitation of prisoners of war as two more British men held by Russian proxies in east Ukraine and charged with “mercenary activities” could face the death penalty. Andrew Hill of Plymouth and Dylan Healy of Huntingdon were reported to have been charged with “forcible seizure of power” and undergoing “terrorist” training, according to a state news agency in Russian-controlled Donetsk.
- A Briton and a Moroccan man sentenced to death by pro-Russia officials in Russian-controlled east Ukraine have appealed against their sentences, Russian state media reported. The supreme court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic has received appeals from lawyers for Brahim Saadoun and Shaun Pinner, according to the Russian state-owned news agency Tass. Another Briton sentenced to death by the Russian proxy court, Aiden Aslin, had not yet submitted an appeal, Tass reports.
- A series of recent assassination attempts targeting pro-Russian officials suggests a growing resistance movement against Russian-backed authorities occupying parts of southern Ukraine, according to US officials. The resistance could grow into a wider counterinsurgency that would pose a significant challenge to Russia’s ability to control captured Ukrainian territories, CNN cited officials as saying.
Updated
