After attacks on Sloviansk, all residents are called to flee. Russia reports the destruction of American Himar missiles. According to a Russian human rights activist, Russian prisoners will soon be fighting at the front. All news about the war in Ukraine can be found here in the ticker.
5:05 p.m .: After just one day, the Ukrainian military lifted domestic travel restrictions for conscripts. This was announced by the supreme commander Valeriy Saluschnyj on Wednesday in the Telegram news service after massive criticism.
The day before, the order for conscripts to obtain permission from the district military replacement office to leave the reporting point triggered a nationwide wave of outrage. Even President Volodymyr Zelenskyj had distanced himself from the military on the issue and called for the order to be withdrawn.
4:05 p.m .: Putin’s army is not only supported by the Wagner mercenary force in the war of aggression in Ukraine, but also by Russian prisoners, according to human rights activist Olga Romanov. In an interview with “Bild”, the activist explains: “We received information from three Russian prisons near St. Petersburg that uniformed officers showed up there and offered the prisoners to go to the front to fight against the to fight the Nazis.” Who are these uniformed men? According to Romanova, the Wagner mercenary group is currently trying to recruit soldiers in Russian prisons.
Romanov is the director of Russia Behind Bars. For years she has been taking care of the inmates in Russia’s prisons. A partner of a prisoner told Romanov that her husband had signed up for the troops and would soon be going to Ukraine. According to the partner, 40 men from the prison in question would soon be fighting in Ukraine.
First, the Wagner mercenaries tried to recruit prisoners who already had military experience. In the meantime, however, they are also supposed to address prisoners who do not have them. So far, inmates who have been convicted of assault, theft or drug-related crime have been addressed, Romanow told Springer-Medium. So far she has no knowledge of convicted murderers who are sent to Ukraine.
The occupants should be offered several advantages at the same time:
2:00 p.m.: The mayor of Mykolaiv reports heavy shelling of the city in southern Ukraine. “There are no safe zones in Mykolaiv,” says Olexander Senkevych. “I’m telling the people of the city to get out of here.” Russian troops used multiple missile systems to shell the port city. Before the war about 500,000 people lived in Mykolaiv, now there are only half as many.
12:46 p.m .: According to the Russian military, it has destroyed two US rocket launchers of the Himar type. “Near the village of Malotaranovi in the Donetsk People’s Republic, two launch pads of the US Himar multiple rocket launcher and two associated ammunition dumps were destroyed by high-precision air-launched missiles,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Wednesday. The information could not be verified independently. According to media reports, Ukraine has received four Himars systems so far.
In addition, Konashenkov reported on the destruction of a large artillery ammunition depot near the front-line town of Soledar. 1,500 artillery shells of various calibers and more than 100 “foreign-made” anti-tank missiles went up in the air, he said.
In a dogfight in southern Ukraine, a Russian Su-35 fighter shot down two Ukrainian Mi-24 attack helicopters and a Mi-25 fighter jet. The Russian Defense Ministry claims to have shot down 232 Ukrainian planes and 137 helicopters since the start of the war. According to media reports, however, Ukraine only had around 100 aircraft and 90 helicopters in its fleet before the war.
12:06 p.m .: Hungary will not participate in arms deliveries to Ukraine. This was stated by Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto in an interview with “CNN”. This was to protect Hungarian citizens from Russia. Budapest does not want to risk the lives of the 150,000 Hungarians who live in the west of the country. “When you have a war in the neighboring countries, you also face a security threat,” Szijjarto said. “The main goal is not to be drawn into this war.” In addition, the Ukrainian-Hungarian border crossing is the safest of all, and the International Red Cross also operates nearby.
Hungary was recently criticized for its Russia policy. The country had repeatedly initially blocked or delayed sanctions against Russia.
8.50 a.m .: In view of the massive Russian attacks on the city of Sloviansk in eastern Ukraine, the regional government has called on residents to flee. “My main advice is evacuation,” Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Tuesday evening. “There hasn’t been a day this week without shelling.” The city is now within range of Russian multiple rocket launchers. “The enemy is chaotically shelling the city, the attacks are aimed at destroying the local population,” the governor added.
AFP journalists in Sloviansk saw rockets hit the market square and surrounding streets and firefighters tried to put out the fires that had started.
Slovyansk’s mayor Vadym Liakh reported on Tuesday that the city had been shelled “massively” by the Russian army. According to Kyrylenko, two people were killed and seven others injured.
The city has been under rocket fire for days. After capturing the nearby city of Lysychansk, Russian forces are advancing in the Donbass toward Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, the two largest cities in the region still under Ukrainian control.
7:44 a.m .: According to their own statements, the Ukrainian troops have repulsed an attack by the Russian military in the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine. “Ukrainian militants inflicted significant casualties on the enemy during an attempted attack around the villages of Verkhnyokamkanka, Bilohorivka and Hryhorivka. The occupiers have retreated,” the general staff said in Kyiv on Wednesday. The villages are 10 to 15 kilometers west of the former city of Lyssychansk, which Russia’s troops conquered at the weekend.
Also south of it in the area of Bakhmut it was possible to stop the Russian advance and to ensure “losses” among the attackers, the report said. The information cannot be verified independently. After the fall of the Sievarodonetsk-Lysychansk conurbation, the Ukrainian army built a new defensive wall along the line of the three small towns of Siversk, Soledar and Bakhmut. This is intended to stop the Russian offensive on the Slovjansk-Kramatorsk industrial area, the headquarters of the Ukrainian military in Donbass, from the east. Fighting for the front lines of defense is currently underway.
Wednesday, July 6, 6:13 a.m.: Russian proxies seized two foreign ships in Mariupol. According to the Reuters agency, which refers to available letters, they appropriated the Panama-flagged ship “Blue Star I” and the Liberian-flagged ship “Smarta Shipping” without compensation and made them state property.
It is the first time commercial ships have been impounded. More than 80 foreign freighters are estimated to be blocked in Ukrainian ports due to the war of aggression.
10:40 p.m .: The governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, has asked the approximately 350,000 remaining residents to leave the province in order to better defend Donetsk against Russian troops. “As soon as there are fewer people, we can better focus on our enemy and carry out our main tasks,” said Kyrylenko.
Russian forces continued to advance in Donetsk on Tuesday, specifically targeting the city of Sloviansk. Before the war, around 100,000 people lived there, more than a million people lived in the Donetsk region. “The fate of the whole country will be decided in the Donetsk region,” Kyrylenko said.
5:17 p.m .: According to Ukrainian sources, at least two people were killed in rocket attacks on Sloviansk. Seven others were injured, the governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said on Telegram. According to AFP journalists, several rockets hit the market place and streets on site.
You can read more reports on the Ukraine conflict on the following pages.
