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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.
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.
A map showing the location of Kaliningrad
Updated at 04.40 EDT
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.
Updated at 04.41 EDT
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.
Updated at 04.41 EDT
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.
Updated at 04.41 EDT
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.
Updated at 02.23 EDT
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.”
Updated at 02.00 EDT
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.
Ukraine: rescue efforts under way after Russian rockets hit apartment block – video
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.
- 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.
Rescue workers stand on the rubble in the aftermath of a Russian rocket that hit an apartment block in Chasiv Yar, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine on Sunday. Photograph: Nariman El-Mofty/AP
Rescuers extract a body from a residential building damaged by a Russian military strike in the town of Chasiv Yar, 10 July. Photograph: Gleb Garanich/Reuters
Updated at 02.25 EDT
Source by www.theguardian.com
