Ukraine has recaptured Snake Island. According to Ukrainian authorities, 40 tons of grain were destroyed in an attack. 17 people were killed in a Russian rocket attack on a residential building in Odessa. You can find all the news about the war in Ukraine in the ticker.
Friday, July 1, 5 a.m.: At least 17 people were killed in a Russian rocket attack on a residential building in the southern Ukrainian region of Odessa, according to Ukrainian sources. The Ukrainian rescue services also spoke of at least 30 injuries. Among them are three children. The rescue work would continue, but they would be complicated by a fire.
The spokesman for the Odessa regional administration, Serhiy Brachuk, had previously said that the rocket hit a nine-story apartment building in the Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky area, about 80 kilometers south of the port city of Odessa. The rocket was fired from a plane flying over the Black Sea.
According to Ukrainian sources, the residential building was partially destroyed by the attack. The rescue workers had initially spoken of six dead and seven injured. The death toll later rose from 10 to 14 and then to 17.
10.38 a.m .: According to the General Staff, Ukraine has recaptured the famous Snake Island. “There are no more Russians on Snake Island. The Ukrainian Armed Forces conducted a brilliant operation,” said Chief of General Staff Andrei Yermak.
The Russian agency “ria” reports that Russia has withdrawn from the island. “Today, as a show of goodwill, the Russian military completed its duties and withdrew the garrison stationed there,” the report reads. Also to make grain exports possible.
Ukrainian media had already reported in the morning that the Ukrainian military had carried out attacks on the island (see below).
9:11 a.m .: According to the authorities, large quantities of grain were destroyed in an attack in eastern Ukraine. A fire broke out in the affected warehouse in the city of Zelenodolsk, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Valentyn Resnichenko, wrote on Thursday in the Telegram news service. 40 tons of grain were destroyed. The governor blamed Russia for this. Information from the war zone can only be verified with difficulty or not at all independently.
Along with Russia, the Ukraine is the most important supplier of grain and fertilizers for a number of poor countries, especially in Africa. However, because Russia is blocking Ukrainian ports, a lot of grain cannot be exported. In some areas of the world there is therefore a risk of the hunger crisis escalating further.
Thursday, June 30, 7:44 a.m.: The “Kiev Indipendent” reports that the Ukrainian military has destroyed Russian military material on Snake Island. A “Panzir-S1” missile defense system was destroyed in the attack and 40 Russian soldiers were killed.
1:27 p.m .: Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin empire, has visited Hostomel in Kyiv Oblast. According to local authorities, the billionaire was interested in the Antonov airfield, where the An-225 Mriya is based. The machine was the largest cargo plane in the world and was destroyed in an attack by Russian troops in the first weeks of the Ukraine war. The British entrepreneur is said to have found ways to repair the aircraft on site.
12.05 p.m .: According to the “Institute for War (ISW)”, the Ukrainian armed forces may withdraw from Lysychansk and Luhansk Oblast in the near future in order to prematurely end the Russian offensive. For example, Rodion Miroshnik, a Russian ambassador from the Luhansk “People’s Republic”, announced that on June 28 Ukrainian troops began a large-scale retreat towards the Ukrainian strongholds of Siversk, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk. Although the ISW was not able to independently confirm this information, the institute believes that the withdrawal could be continued.
Meanwhile, how quickly and successfully Russian troops can complete the next phase of the ongoing offensive, such as capturing Lysychansk, will depend in part on Russia’s ability to restore the fighting strength of the troops that fought for Sieryerodonetsk.
The remaining forces still in the Ukrainian city must first cross the Severskyi-Donetsk River to get to Lysychansk and take part in the Russian offensive there. This may take time as the Russians have destroyed three important bridges crossing the river near Lysychansk. According to Miroshnik, Russian troops have already crossed the river from Kreminna and are now building bridgeheads to attack Lysychansk from the north.
If the ambassador’s statements turn out to be true and Russia actually encircles the city from the north and south-west, Ukrainian troops are likely to withdraw from Lysychansk. In that case, they will station themselves in more defensible positions along a straight line with towns and villages safely held by Ukraine.
9:02 a.m .: The Russian rocket attack on a shopping center in the Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk with at least 20 dead could have been a mistake, according to British secret services. It is quite realistic that the attack on Monday should have hit a nearby infrastructure target, according to an update published by the British Ministry of Defense on Wednesday.
Moscow’s long-range missile attacks have also been inaccurate in the past, leading to a high number of civilian casualties – such as the shelling of the train station in the city of Kramatorsk in April, it said. Moscow is ready to accept “high collateral damage”. Since Russia has a lack of modern precision weapons and significant weaknesses in planning its targets, further attacks must be expected to result in more civilian casualties, it said.
London usually uses sharp words against Russia. This time, the British assessment contrasts with that of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In his daily video message, he accused Russia of terrorism and emphasized that the attack on the shopping center was aimed at killing as many people as possible.
8:22 a.m .: According to Ukrainian sources, at least three people were killed and five injured in a Russian attack on the city of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine on Wednesday morning. This is what the military governor of the Mykolayiv region Vitaly Kim wrote in the Telegram news service. “The Russian occupiers flew a rocket attack on Mykolaiv.” A rocket hit a high-rise building.
Local authorities called on people to stay in a safe place during the air raid and not to post pictures of the attack site. Information from the war zone is difficult or impossible to independently verify.
Wednesday, June 29, 7:35 a.m.: According to the Ukrainian military, Russian troops are trying to encircle the strategically important city of Lysychansk in eastern Ukraine. This is one of the enemy’s main efforts, the Ukrainian General Staff said in its situation report on Wednesday morning. The offensive towards the city will continue. Details were not given. Russian troops are already on the southern outskirts of the city. Representatives of pro-Russian separatists had also reported that fighting was already taking place in the city.
There are also attacks by Russia in the direction of the city of Bakhmut, west of Lysychansk. In order to keep up the pace, the occupiers had strengthened their battalion group, it was said. This information could not be independently verified.
There is little movement in the Russian advance on the Slovjansk-Kramatorsk conurbation. There the enemy is concentrating on creating conditions for further attacks.
You can read more reports on the Ukraine conflict on the following pages.
