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 34. Emergency crews worked to pull people from the rubble. Zelenskiy accused Moscow of deliberately targeting civilians in the attack which destroyed three buildings in a residential quarter. The latest victim, a nine-year-old child, was retrieved from the wreckage on Monday evening, Ukraine’s state emergency services said.
At least seven people were reportedly killed by a Ukrainian missile strike on a large ammunition store in the town of Nova Kakhovka, in Russia-occupied Kherson. The claims of fatalities were made by the Russian-installed administration in the town and could not be immediately verified, though footage on social media showed a large explosion lighting up the night, burning ammunition and towering smoke. Pro-Russia officials and some Ukrainian commentators were quick to suggest that the explosion was the result of a strike by Ukraine’s newly supplied US Himars missile system. A number of recent strikes on ammunition warehouses and Russian command centres have been attributed to Himars.
Russia has claimed to have killed a significant number of foreign mercenaries fighting in Ukraine in the last three weeks, including 23 from Great Britain. It also claims to have killed at least 180 servicemen in Ukraine’s 30th mechanised brigade in the last 24 hours, and to have shot down seven Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles.
At least 12 people have been injured by shelling in Mykolaiv, according to regional governor Vitaly Kim.
An official at the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic says that the appeals over the death sentences of Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner and Saaudun Brahim will be dealt with within a month. UK foreign secretary Liz Truss has said she “utterly condemns” the sentencing, stating “They are prisoners of war. This is a sham judgement with absolutely no legitimacy.”
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.
Military delegations from Turkey, Russia and Ukraine will meet in Istanbul with a United Nations delegation on Wednesday 13 July to discuss the safe export of Ukrainian grain according to Turkish defence minister Hulusi Akar.
At least six people died after Russian rocket attacks on Monday morning on Kharkiv in north-east 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.
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 will visit Iran next week, the Kremlin said, a day after the US warned that Tehran could provide Moscow with drones for its action in Ukraine.
The Russian president 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 Ukraine, 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 be enough”.
The 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.
