9:50 a.m.: The president of Belarus says the Wagner chief has returned to Russia
Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin He is no longer in Belarus, the country’s powerful ruler Alexander Lukashenko he told reporters.
Lukashenko, who last month brokered a deal to end the Wagner Group’s armed insurgency in Russia, said on June 27 that Prigozhin had arrived in Belarus as part of the deal.
But today he told reporters: “As for Prigozhin, he’s in St. Petersburg. He’s not on Belarusian soil.”
Lukashenko said an offer for Wagner to deploy some of its fighters to Belarus — a prospect that has alarmed neighboring NATO countries — still stands.
9:15 am: Türkiye and Sweden discuss the membership crisis at NATO headquarters
Senior officials from Sweden And turkey meet at NATO Today’s headquarters for the examination of the Turkish president Recep Tayyip ErdoganObjections to the accession of the Scandinavian country to the military alliance.
Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg He will preside over the meeting, which will include the foreign ministers of the two countries, intelligence chiefs and national security advisers.
Senior officials from Finland, which joined NATO in April after addressing Turkish concerns, will also participate.
The talks come a day after the US president Joe Biden They welcomed the Prime Minister of Sweden to the White House in a show of support for the country’s accession bid.
7:35 a.m.: ‘Civilians are bearing the brunt of this war’
Russian missiles hit apartment blocks in Lviv in the early hours of Thursday when most residents were asleep, giving them little chance of finding shelter, according to France 24 correspondent Emmanuel Chase. Kyiv.
“Once again, civilian infrastructure has been bombed by Russian forces – this happens on a daily basis in Ukraine,” she explains.
6:45 a.m.: Zelensky vows concrete response after four killed in Lviv strike
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky He pledged a “concrete response” in the wake of a Russian missile attack on an apartment building that killed at least four people in the western city of Lviv.
“The consequences of the night attack by Russian terrorists,” he wrote, alongside a video post on Telegram showing a destroyed building. “Unfortunately, there are wounded and dead. There will certainly be a response to the enemy. A tangible response,” he added.
5:15 a.m.: One death toll was reported after a rocket hit a residential complex in Lviv
The mayor of the western Ukrainian city said that at least three people were killed in a Russian missile attack on an apartment building in Lviv on Thursday night.
“Three people were killed,” Andrei Sadovyiyi said in a post on his Telegram channel, adding that about 60 apartments and 50 cars were damaged.
He had said in a previous post that eight people were injured. It was not clear if the three people whose deaths were confirmed were included in this number.
3:06 am: Russian missiles hit the city of Lviv, western Ukraine
Ukrainian authorities said strikes in the western city of Lviv destroyed “critical infrastructure” and injured at least four people early Thursday.
Russia Waves of drone strikes and missiles fired across Ukraine Since its invasion in February 2022.
The Lviv region – hundreds of kilometers from the front lines – escaped the brunt of the attacks.
“An important infrastructure facility in Lviv has been damaged, according to preliminary reports, there are injured people,” Lviv Governor Maksim Kozitsky wrote on Telegram.
He did not give other details and did not specify whether the raids were by drones or missiles.
He had earlier warned that “several” missiles were “moving in the direction of the western regions,” citing the Ukrainian Air Force Command.
1:30 am: Zelensky says he sought weapons for a counterattack to begin sooner
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky he told CNN He wanted to begin a counteroffensive against the occupying Russian forces sooner than in June, and he urged Western allies to speed up the supply of weapons for that mission, according to excerpts via a translator released Wednesday.
“I wanted our counterattack to happen much earlier, because everyone understood that if the counterattack unfolded later, a larger part of our territory would be demined,” Zelensky said. “We are giving our enemy time and the ability to plant more mines and prepare its defense lines,” he added.
He said difficulties on the battlefield had caused Ukrainian forces to slow down their counter-offensive, which aims to recapture territory in eastern and southern Ukraine that Russia has occupied since the start of its invasion in February 2022.
The Ukrainian leader has consistently pushed the United States and other Western allies to supply his armed forces with more advanced weaponry, such as American F-16 fighter jets and long-range missiles.
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Key developments from Wednesday 5 July:
The International Atomic Energy Agency called on Wednesday for additional access to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhye nuclear power plant in Ukraine to “confirm there are no mines or explosives at the site”.
Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of planning to sabotage the site, raising concern about the risks of a radioactive disaster at Europe’s largest nuclear plant.
The Kremlin A spokesman for Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Moscow had not yet decided whether to renew Black Sea The grain deal, which allows for the safe export of grain from Ukraine, is set to expire on July 18.
Russia has opened a criminal case in the brutal attack by masked men in Chechnya on a prominent Russian journalist and lawyer, as the seriousness of the injuries she sustained in the assault became clear.
Read Yesterday’s Live Blog to see how it all unfolded today.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
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