Ukraine-Russia live news: ‘Battle of Sloviansk’ next key contest | Russia-Ukraine war News
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says air alerts rang out across almost all of Ukraine Tuesday night, as he calls again for a modern, effective air-defence system.
- He also says there were attacks in the Khmelnytskyi region of western Ukraine, the central region of Dnipropetrovsk, the border region of Sumy, and the Black Sea port city of Mykolaiv and its region.
- Russian troops are engaged in heavy fighting and making their way into Ukraine’s Donetsk region, the governor of Luhansk has said, adding that a large quantity of equipment is being sent towards Donetsk.
- The United Kingdom’s defence ministry says the battle for the city of Sloviansk, in the Donetsk region, will be the next key contest in the struggle for the Donbas.
- Local officials say at least two people were killed and seven injured after Russian forces struck a market and residential area in Sloviansk.
- A two-day conference aimed at helping Ukraine recover from Russia’s war has wrapped up in Lugano, Switzerland, with a top US diplomat urging allies to help the war-battered country meet its “immediate and urgent” needs, not only longer-term rebuilding.
Here are the latest updates:
Battle for Sloviansk the next key contest in Donbas struggle: UK
Russian troops, from the eastern and western groups of forces, are likely around 16 kilometres north from the city of Sloviansk, in the Donetsk region, the United Kingdom’s defence ministry has said.
The city of Sloviansk has been bracing for an incoming battle as Russian forces advance into the Donetsk region after capturing Luhansk.
“With the town also under threat from the central and southern groups of forces, there is a realistic possibility that the battle for Sloviansk will be the next key contest in the struggle for the Donbas,” the ministry said in its latest intelligence briefing.
It also said that most of Russia’s remaining available units from the eastern and western groups of forces have been committed to the northern Izium axis.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 6 July 2022
Find out more about the UK government’s response: https://t.co/T09p9Rgd73
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— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) July 6, 2022
Russia’s Lavrov calls for efforts to protect international laws
Russia’s foreign minister has called on all parties in the world to make efforts to protect international laws as “the world is evolving in a complicated manner”.
Lavrov was speaking through a translator at a meeting with his Vietnamese counterpart Bui Thanh Son in Hanoi. His comments come as Western countries have accused Russia of breaching international law through its invasion of Ukraine.
“Vietnam is a key partner [of Russia] in ASEAN … and the two countries’ relations are based on history and their common fight for justice,” Lavrov said at the meeting, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Vietnam and Russia have close ties dating back to the Soviet era and Hanoi has not so far condemned Russia’s war in Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “special operation”. Lavrov’s visit to Hanoi comes as the two nations mark the 10th anniversary of their “comprehensive strategic partnership”.
Swiss leader cautions on using frozen Russian assets to help rebuild Ukraine
The president of Switzerland has cautioned Western allies about the legal complexities of using frozen Russian assets to help pay for Ukraine’s reconstruction, saying “the right of property is a fundamental right – is a human right”.
Ignazio Cassis made his comments to reporters at the end of the Ukraine Recovery Conference, after Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal voiced hopes to lock down and use an estimated $300-$500bn in Russian-owned assets that have been frozen in many Western banks to help pay for rebuilding Ukraine.
The Swiss leader said fundamental rights can at times be violated – as was done in some cases during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic – “but we have to create the legal base” for such moves first. “You have to ensure the citizen is protected against the power of the state,” Cassis said.
Switzerland has frozen 6.3 billion Swiss francs ($6.5bn) in Russian assets.
US seeks focus on ‘urgent’ needs of Ukraine at Swiss meeting
A top US diplomat has urged Ukraine’s allies to help the war-battered country meet its “immediate and urgent” needs – not only longer-term rebuilding – as scores of countries wrapped up a two-day conference aimed at helping Ukraine recover from Russia’s war, when it ends one day.
Scott Miller, the US ambassador to Switzerland, added a dose of urgency to the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Lugano, at which the Ukrainian prime minister a day earlier presented a $750bn plan to help his country both recover now – where possible – as well as in the immediate aftermath of the war and over the long term.
Many attendees pointed out that efforts were likely to take many years, and rebuilding would need to take place in several phases. Some called for support for Ukraine along the lines of the US Marshall Plan for Europe after World War II – hinting at a colossal long-term project.
“While we recognise the importance of preparing for Ukraine’s future, all of us must also deliver on our commitments to provide Ukraine its immediate and urgent needs,” said Miller, one of many government envoys who decried Russia’s war and detailed their support for Ukraine.
Many in Lysychansk still in basements after battle: Resident
Lysychansk, once a city of 100,000 people in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, was eerily quiet on Tuesday with scorched buildings, overturned vehicles and rubble, a testament to the ferocity of the battle it has endured.
Tatiana Glushenko, a 45-year-old Lysychansk resident, told the Reuters news agency there were people still in basements and bomb shelters, including children and the elderly.
Glushenko said she and her family had decided to stay in the city on worries about safety in other parts of Ukraine.
“All of Ukraine is being shelled: western Ukraine, central Ukraine, Dnipro, Kyiv, everywhere. So we decided not to risk our lives and stay here, at home at least,” she told Reuters.
Blinken to seek G20 pressure on Russia to open sea lanes, warn China on Ukraine: Diplomats
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will call on G20 nations this week to put pressure on Russia to support United Nations efforts to reopen sea lanes blocked by the Ukraine conflict, and repeat warnings to China not to support Moscow’s war effort, diplomats have said.
Blinken heads to Asia on Wednesday for a meeting of the Group of 20 foreign ministers in Bali, Indonesia, on Friday. His trip will include his first meeting with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi since October, but no meeting is expected with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Ramin Toloui, assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs, told reporters Blinken would raise energy security and a UN initiative to try to get Ukrainian and Russian foodstuffs and fertiliser back to global markets.
Meanwhile, top US diplomat for East Asia Daniel Kritenbrink said he expected a “candid” exchange on Ukraine in Blinken’s talks with China’s Wang, which are expected on Saturday. “This will be another opportunity … to convey our expectations about what we would expect China to do and not to do in the context of Ukraine,” he said.
West wants to turn Ukraine into neo-Nazi state: Lavrov
The West is seeking to turn Ukraine “into an openly Russophobic, neo-Nazi state, a military foothold” that would threaten Russia’s security, Moscow’s foreign minister was quoted by state news agency TASS as saying.
Tass said Lavrov had informed Mongolian leaders “in detail” about what the Kremlin calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine.
“We are interested in making the facts about how the representatives of the Kyiv regime behaved and continue to behave in Ukraine available to the broad world community,” Lavrov said.
“Unfortunately the West is doing everything to block the work of the media, which provide objective information about what is happening,” he said, without offering any evidence.
Russia foreign minister visits Mongolia in drive for support
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has met with leaders in Mongolia during a trip to Asia to seek support amid his country’s diplomatic isolation by the West and punishing sanctions.
Lavrov met with Mongolian Foreign Minister Battsetseg Batmunkh and paid a courtesy call on President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh on Tuesday, Mongolian state media reported.
Mongolia is a landlocked nation sandwiched between Russia and China, and has sought to maintain friendly relations with both neighbours while also cultivating close ties with the US, whose relations with Moscow and Beijing have become increasingly fraught.
Mongolian and Russian state media gave no details of any specific discussions about the Ukraine conflict, while emphasising strong bilateral relations. The two sides have signed a series of trade agreements, and a pipeline carrying Russian natural gas to China is being built through Mongolian territory.
Mitsui, Mitsubishi shares fall after Medvedev suggests loss of Russian oil, gas supply to Japan
Shares of Japanese trading firms Mitsui & Co and Mitsubishi Corp dropped more than 4 percent on Wednesday after former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev made comments threatening the loss of oil and gas supply to Japan.
Commenting on a reported proposal by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the weekend to cap the price of Russian oil at about half its current level, Medvedev said on social media that Japan “would have neither oil nor gas from Russia, as well as no participation in the Sakhalin-2 LNG project” as a result.
Mitsui and Mitsubishi hold stakes of 12.5 percent and 10 percent, respectively, in the Sakhalin-2 project.
Air alarms blared across almost all of Ukraine Tuesday: Zelenskyy
An air alert rang out across almost all of Ukraine on Tuesday night, Zelenskyy has said, as he again called for a modern modern anti-missile system.
“Before that, there has been no air alert in the capital and in some regions for some time, and some people even felt particularly anxious because of such unusual silence. They were overthinking, dreading, looking for some kind of explanation – as if the occupiers were preparing for something…,” he said in his nighttime address.
“You should not look for logic in the actions of terrorists. The Russian army does not take any breaks. It has one task – to take people’s lives, to intimidate people – so that even a few days without an air alarm already feel like part of the terror. And this evening, Kyiv and again almost the whole of Ukraine heard the air alarm,” he added.
Zelenskyy said there were raids in the Khmelnytskyi region of western Ukraine, the central region of Dnipropetrovsk, the border region of Sumy, and the Black Sea port city of Mykolaiv and its region. “Some of the missiles were shot down by our air defence forces. And we have not reduced and will not reduce our diplomatic activity for a single day to obtain modern anti-missile systems for Ukraine in sufficient quantity.”
Russians moving into Ukraine’s Donetsk: Governor
Russian troops are engaged in heavy fighting and making their way into Ukraine’s Donetsk region after taking control of the last two towns in neighbouring Luhansk, the regional governor of Luhansk has said.
Serhiy Haidai said the Russian troops had sustained heavy losses in the long process of capturing the twin towns of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, but were channelling their efforts into moving southward.
“Heavy fighting is going on at the edge of Luhansk region … All the forces of the Russian army and reserves have been redirected there … They are sustaining heavy losses,” Haidai told Ukrainian television.
“A large quantity of equipment is being sent towards Donetsk region. Of course, after Luhansk region, Donetsk is at the top of their list.”
Ukraine is a ‘terrorist’ state: Russia parliament speaker
The speaker of the lower house of Russia’s parliament has told members in a plenary session that Ukraine had become a “terrorist state”, according to remarks posted on the State Duma’s website.
Vyacheslav Volodin was quoted as saying that Zelenskyy was the head of a “criminal regime”.
Russian officials have since the beginning of Moscow’s “special military operation” in Ukraine sought to paint their neighbour as being controlled by anti-Russian fascists and “neo-Nazis”, but have not pushed the idea that it is a terrorist state.
Ukraine and the West say the claim is baseless propaganda, used to justify a land grab.
Two killed, seven injured in Sloviansk Tuesday: Officials
At least two people were killed and seven injured after Russian forces struck a market and a residential area in Sloviansk on Tuesday, local officials have said.
A Reuters news agency reporter on the scene saw yellow smoke billowing from an auto supplies shop, and flames engulfing rows of market stalls as firefighters tried to extinguish the blaze.
It was not immediately clear what munitions had been used in the attack on the front-line city in the Donetsk region, or how many people had been at the market when it was hit.
“Russians again deliberately target areas where civilians congregate,” Donetsk Regional Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko wrote in a Facebook post that detailed the toll of Tuesday’s attacks. “This is sheer terrorism.”
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