Summary
The time in Kyiv is 9pm. Here is a round-up of the day’s top stories:
- The United States will provide an additional $4.5 billion (£3.7 bn) to Ukraine’s government, bringing its total budgetary support since Russia’s February invasion to $8.5 billion (£7 bn), the US Agency for International Development has announced. The funding, coordinated with the US Treasury Department through the World Bank, will go to the Ukraine government in tranches, beginning with a $3 billion (£2.5 bn) disbursement in August, USAid, the Agency for International Development, said.
- Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has accused Ukraine of taking “Europe hostage” over the situation at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine. The plant is occupied by Russian forces, and each side has claimed the other has caused damage to the complex by shelling it. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been seeking to inspect it. Zakharova said: “The leaders of the United Nations and the IAEA, over and over again, do not dare to directly name the source of the threat. They are demonstrating their unwillingness to point the finger at Kyiv.”
- Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy called for new international sanctions on Moscow for “nuclear terror”. The UN nuclear watchdog has called for an immediate end to all military action near the plant after it was hit by shelling on Saturday night, causing one of the reactors to shut down and creating a “very real risk of a nuclear disaster”.
- The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station is operating normally according to reports from Yevgeniy Balitsky, head of the Russian-installed administration of the occupied Zaporizhzhia region. The head of Ukraine’s state nuclear power company Energoatom called for the plant to be made a military-free zone, and said there should be a team of peacekeepers present at the site.
- Ukraine conducted long-range strikes on Russian troop bases and two key bridges across the Dnieper River overnight. The strikes hit the only two crossings Russia has to the pocket of southern Ukrainian territory it has occupied on the western bank of the river, said Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern military command. “The results are rather respectable, hits on the Antonivskyi and Kakhovskyi bridges,” she said on television. Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the pro-Russian administration imposed on occupied Kherson told Interfax “The equipment of the builders who are repairing the Antonivskiy Bridge burned down, there are no critical damages. But the opening of the bridge is slightly delayed.”
- A Ukrainian court has sentenced a Russian soldier to 10 years in jail after finding him guilty of violating the laws and customs of war by firing a tank at a multi-story apartment block, an interior ministry official said.
- Ukraine has received its first three Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft systems from Germany and will use them to defend important infrastructure facilities, the southern military command has said.
- The Russian-installed head of southern Ukraine’s occupied Zaporizhzhia region signed on Monday a decree providing for a referendum on joining Russia.
That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, and indeed the Ukraine live blog for today. I’ll be back tomorrow morning. Thanks for following along.
The Pentagon has unveiled the latest billion dollar slice of US military aid to Ukraine.
The main items are more ammunition for the 16 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) the US has sent, as well as new missiles for the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS), a thousand Javelin anti-tank missiles, and hundreds of Swedish made AT4 shoulder launched anti-tank systems.
Colin Kahl, the Pentagon policy chief, noted it was the 18th drawdown on US military stocks sent to Ukraine, making a total of $9.8bn in security assistance so far under the Biden administration.
“This is the largest single drawdown of US arms and equipment utilizing this authority to date,” Kahl said. “The package provides a significant amount of additional ammunition, weapons and equipment, the types of which the Ukrainian people are using so effectively to defend their country.”
Kahl said the rockets (Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems or GMLRS) the US has been sending to Ukraine to fire from the Himars mobile launch vehicles, are “having a very profound effect”.
“This is a 200 pound warhead. It’s kind of the equivalent of an airstrike, frankly, a precision guided airstrike,” he said. “These are GPS-guided munitions. They’ve been very effective in hitting things that previously the Ukrainians had difficulty hitting reliably - so command-and-control nodes, sustainment and logistics hubs, key radar systems and other things. And what it’s done is it’s made it more difficult for the Russians to move forces around the battlefield.
“They’ve had to move certain assets back away from the Himars. It slowed them down. It’s made it harder for them to resupply other forces. So I think it’s having real operational effects.”
He estimated Russian casualties as 70,000 to 80,000 dead and wounded.
Updated
