According to a Ukrainian mayor, the Russian occupiers tortured an employee of a nuclear power plant to death. Andrii Honcharuk worked as a diver in the hydraulic workshop of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, Energodar Mayor Dmytro Orlov writes on Telegram. Honcharuk, an “experienced and professional diver,” refused to dive into a pool at Russian request. He was then “beaten extremely brutally”.
Orlov continued: “He was taken to the Energodar hospital with numerous injuries and in a coma. On July 3, he died without regaining consciousness.” Orlov expressed his condolences to the relatives. “We will never forget or forgive the crimes committed by the occupiers and their accomplices-collaborators in Energodar on our Ukrainian land!” There is no independent evidence for the news.
military situation
After weeks of fighting, Ukrainian troops have given up defending the strategically important city of Lysychansk in eastern Ukraine. “In order to protect the lives of the Ukrainian defenders, the decision was made to withdraw,” the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a statement Sunday evening. The Russian Defense Ministry had previously stated that the entire Donbass region of Luhansk had been “liberated” with the capture of the city.
In its statement, the General Staff referred to the numerical and material superiority of the Russian army. “In the conditions of multiple superiority of Russian troops in terms of artillery, air force, missile launch systems, ammunition and personnel, continued defense of the city would have fatal consequences,” it said. With the retreat from Lyssychansk, an encirclement was anticipated. 95,000 people once lived in the city.
Lyssychansk’s neighboring town of Sievjerodonetsk had already been conquered by Russian troops a week ago. Both cities belong to the Luhansk region, one of the two sub-regions of the Donbass. After taking Lysychansk, Russian troops could now also target Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in Donetsk, the second Donbass sub-region.
Despite the withdrawal of the Ukrainian army, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy does not yet see the city of Lysychansk in the east of the country as lost. “If the command of our army withdraws people from certain points of the front where the enemy has the greatest fire advantage – Lysychansk in particular – it means only one thing: that thanks to our tactics, thanks to the increased supply of modern weapons, we will come back,” said him on Sunday.
The Ukrainian army is moving forward – both in the Kharkiv region in the east, and in the Kherson region in the south and on the Black Sea. The recently recovered Snake Island is a good example. “There will come a day when we will say the same thing about Donbass,” he said. “Ukraine gives up nothing.”
With a view to the Russian offensive, the chairman of the EU committee in the Bundestag, Anton Hofreiter (Greens), called on the federal government to deliver infantry fighting vehicles or at least armored vehicles to the war zone. In view of Russia’s massive action in eastern Ukraine, this is urgently needed, he told the “Bild” newspaper. Armored vehicles such as “Marder”, “Fuchs” or “Dingo” could save countless lives here.
Political situation
Russia accused the West of preventing peace negotiations with Ukraine and thus prolonging the war. “Now is the moment when Western countries are betting everything on continuing the war,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Under US leadership, the West is allowing Ukrainians “not to think about, talk about, or discuss peace.”
Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podoliak responded by saying that Russia was aware of the conditions for negotiations: a ceasefire, troop withdrawal, the return of kidnapped citizens, the extradition of war criminals, as well as a reparations mechanism and recognition of Ukraine’s sovereign rights. “The time will come and we will put it on paper,” said Podoliak.
At a meeting with IOC President Thomas Bach in Kyiv, President Zelenskyj welcomed the exclusion of Russian and Belarusian athletes from many tournaments. “One must not allow a terrorist state to use sport to promote its political interests and propaganda,” he said in a statement on Sunday. He is grateful to Bach for his “unshakeable position” on the subject. “While Russia is trying to destroy the Ukrainian people and conquer other countries in Europe, its representatives have no place in the world sports community,” Zelenskyy said.
Also read: The Ukraine update on July 3 – Ukraine gives up Lysychansk, dead in Russian attack on Sloviansk: What happened today
