[Korrespondent] 22:06 The Pentagon has announced a new aid package for Ukraine, which will include cluster munitions. It will also include:
- 32 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and 32 Stryker armored personnel carriers;
- additional ammunition for the Patriot and HIMARS air defense systems;
- air defense missiles AIM-7;
- anti-aircraft systems Stinger, Javelin;
- 31 howitzers 155 mm;
- 105 mm and 155 mm artillery shells, including DPICM;
- tube-launched missiles, Penguin unmanned aerial systems;
- demining equipment, spare parts, small arms and 28 million rounds of ammunition;
- 27 tactical vehicles for lifting equipment;
- 10 tactical vehicles for towing and transporting equipment.
21:58 The United States will transfer cluster munitions to Ukraine , Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan said. At the same time, he acknowledged that the use of cluster shells carries risks for the civilian population, so Washington postponed the decision to transfer them to Ukraine. According to Sullivan, Ukraine has given written guarantees that it will use cluster munitions exclusively on its territory, minimizing the risks to its own population. The adviser noted that cluster munitions will be an intermediate option for the time of the increase in the production of artillery shells in the United States.
Sullivan also acknowledged that the Ukrainian offensive is going hard. However, according to him, the Ukrainians are determined to continue the offensive, and have not yet deployed the significant forces that they have. As for Ukraine's accession to NATO, Sullivan said Biden insists that Kyiv needs more reforms first.
20:41 Ukraine managed to return the bodies of those who died in Yelenovka, DNA testing is now underway, Ombudsman Dmitry Lubinets said. He also said that after the tragedy in Yelenovka, he first spoke with the Russian Commissioner for Human Rights Tatyana Moskalkova and offered to allow international experts to enter Yelenovka. According to Lubinets, the Russian side agreed, but then information appeared that the barracks where Ukrainian prisoners of war were kept and where the explosion had been urgently cleaned on the spot, something was being streamlined, and "repair work" was being carried out.
Lubinets also stressed that the UN mission for five months never agreed to get acquainted with the Ukrainian materials on the explosion in the colony, and then the mission was surprisingly closed.
20:29 The NATO summit will move away from the "formulations of Bucharest" on the issue of Ukraine's membership, said US Ambassador to the Alliance Julian Smith. According to her, Kyiv can expect from the summit "a set of concrete results, both in terms of long-term practical assistance in issues such as military modernization, and in matters of interoperability."
20:25 Zelensky announced that he was finishing the day in Turkey: "Negotiations with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Coordination of positions on the Peace Formula, NATO summit, security guarantees and the grain initiative. Restoration of Ukraine, defense contracts between our enterprises."
20:22 Russia is losing 5.3 times more troops in southern Ukraine than Ukraine, Deputy Defense Minister Anna Malyar said. The defense forces continue their offensive in the Melitopol and Berdyansk directions, and consolidate on the achieved lines. In addition, according to Malyar, the Ukrainian forces are "actually grinding the enemy's equipment and weapons there, destroying weapons depots, hitting the places of compact location of the Russian military, thus significantly reducing the offensive and defensive capabilities of the enemy." Due to significant losses, some enemy units refuse to participate in hostilities.
In the East, the enemy continues its offensive in the Avdeevka, Maryinsky, Kupyansky, Limansky, Svatovsky directions - it is trying to break through the defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but to no avail. Heavy fighting is going on everywhere without changing positions. On the Bakhmut direction, on the southern flank, there is advancement in several sectors for more than a kilometer. On the northern flank of the battle without changing positions. "In Bakhmut itself, the enemy is actually trapped. Our troops have made it as difficult as possible for the enemy to move and made it impossible to get out. There are shelling from both sides," Malyar added.
20:07 The White House is expected to announce soon the US decision to provide Ukraine with cluster munitions. About how they will help Ukraine - in the material Cluster shells .
19:44 At a meeting with Zelensky, Erdogan will offer him mediation in resolving the military conflict, Turkish newspaper Hürriyet writes. According to the publication, today's meeting in Istanbul will also discuss the exchange of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine and the extension of the grain deal.
19:06 Biden will make an important speech following the NATO summit in Vilnius, dedicated to supporting Ukraine and protecting the values ​​of democracy, the White House said.
18:23 Zelensky warned against a split in NATO due to the lack of a decision on the membership of Sweden and Ukraine, "because Russia really hopes that the world will show weakness and disunity in the Alliance. And this cannot be allowed."
17:42 Germany handed over to Ukraine another package of military assistance, which included, in particular, engineering equipment and anti-drone weapons.
17:14 Ukraine and Slovakia plan to jointly develop a new type of howitzers, President Zuzana Chaputova said at a briefing with Zelensky.
17:11 Stoltenberg said that each country independently decides whether to send cluster munitions to Ukraine: “A certain number of allies signed the Convention, but a certain number did not sign it. Therefore, each ally decides for itself what type of weapons to supply to Ukraine. Governments decide this, and not NATO as an alliance."
16:25 Ukraine will buy Zuzana 2 self-propelled guns from Slovakia, Zelensky said: "I am grateful for the defense support, for all these months, including for the support now. The day before, a contract was signed for the production of 16 Zuzana 2 self-propelled howitzers."
15:44 Austria also opposed the supply of American cluster munitions to Ukraine - Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said that this creates a "long-term threat to the civilian population."
15:40 The Russians placed machine gun nests on the power units of the Zaporizhzhya NPP - they are the ones that can be seen on satellite images that were recently released by the media, Energoatom director Petr Kotin said: “Machine gun nests were placed on some roofs of power units. And these images also indicate that there may be, in particular, explosives ... And in fact, there are explosives, and weapons, and all other things that do not need to be on such an object.
15:36 The Russians hit from the S-300 on an infrastructure facility in Zaporozhye, said the head of the OVA Yuriy Malashko. There was a fire in one of the buildings, people were not injured.
15:23 Stoltenberg confirmed that Zelensky will take part in a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council in Vilnius as part of the Alliance summit. The Secretary General also expressed confidence that the leaders of the Alliance countries would come to an agreement on the wording of Ukraine's future membership in NATO.
14:41 The Presidents of Lithuania, Latvia and Poland addressed a letter to the NATO Secretary General, in which they ask to strengthen the eastern flank of the Alliance in connection with the deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus.
14:12 The leaders of the NATO countries at the summit in Vilnius will approve a multi-year support package for Ukraine, which will bring it closer to the Alliance, Stoltenberg said.
14:00 Zelensky said that after the Czech Republic he was going to Slovakia: "Important meetings in Bratislava with President Zuzana Chaputova, Prime Minister Ludovit Odor, Chairman of the National Council Boris Kollar. Together with our reliable neighbor, we are talking about specific defense support and Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine, NATO summit and the Formula of Peace, bilateral cooperation, energy security".
13:57 Germany opposes the transfer of American cluster munitions to Ukraine, Foreign Minister Annalena Burbock said. "I've been following media reports. As a participating state, the Oslo agreement applies to us," she said, adding that Germany was among the 111 countries that signed the convention on the non-use of cluster munitions. At the same time, the United States, Ukraine and the Russian Federation did not sign this document.
13:28 The United States today will announce a new package of military assistance to Ukraine worth up to $800 million, AP writes, citing sources. The package will include the Bradley infantry fighting vehicle, the Stryker armored personnel carrier, as well as ammunition for howitzers and HIMARS systems. The weapons will come from the warehouses of the Pentagon. In addition, according to sources, Washington decided to provide Ukraine with cluster munitions with a lower "failure rate." This means that there will be far less ammunition in the package that could cause unintended civilian casualties.
13:22 The German Patriot complex has been deployed to protect the NATO summit in Vilnius, which will be held on July 11-12, DPA reports. The Patriot system will perform combat missions in Lithuania for the first time. It is stationed at Vilnius Airport, located about 160 km from Kaliningrad and 30 km from Belarus.
13:14 The Ministry of Strategic Industries of Ukraine has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Defense of the Czech Republic. Its goal is to support military-technical cooperation, develop projects for the production of weapons and ammunition, and other defense industry projects. Within the framework of such cooperation, a delegation of the Czech Republic will arrive in Ukraine in the near future.
12:43 Peskov said that the Kremlin is "very closely following" the negotiations between Erdogan and Zelensky, "it is interesting to know what will be discussed." He also did not rule out the possibility of an early meeting between Putin and the Turkish president.
12:27 In Borodyanka, Kiev region, during the occupation, the rector of the temple of the UOC-MP Viktor Talko helped the Russians. In particular, according to the preliminary version of the investigation, he suggested that the invaders use the basement of the church to torture Ukrainians. In addition, data on his possible assistance in the forced removal of almost 100 residents of the Kyiv region to Belarus are being checked, the SBU reports.
12:02 Even the worst-case scenario at the ZNPP will not pose a radiological hazard to the public, Energoatom reports with reference to the American Nuclear Society. Experts said they had carefully considered "worst-case scenarios" including bombing and the deliberate detonation of reactors and spent nuclear fuel storage containers, but they did not foresee a situation that could lead to public health consequences related to radiation, since the reactors were shut down more than ten months and no longer produce enough heat to cause a rapid radiative release.
In addition, the ZNPP is designed to withstand natural and man-made hazards. Thick reinforced concrete containment structures protect reactor cores and are designed to protect any radioactive materials from environmental influences. In the unlikely event that containment structures were compromised, any potential release of radiological material would be limited to the area that immediately surrounds the reactors. In this regard, any comparison between ZNPP and Chernobyl or Fukushima is inaccurate and misleading, experts say.
11:28 No more than 33.8 million people now live in Ukraine, OPOra calculated by the number of active SIM cards. So, last month there were 48.3 million active SIM cards. It is believed that there are 143 cards per 100 inhabitants. Since the end of 2021, the population of Ukraine has decreased by more than 7 million people.
| The question is how many will come back when the war ends, and how many children they’ll have afterward. |
10:35 IAEA experts got the opportunity to inspect several facilities of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, the agency's director general Rafael Grossi said: "We have progress. From Wednesday to today, we were able to get more access. Not yet on the roof, but we have submitted a request to the [occupation] authorities, to go up there."
Grossi expressed confidence that the IAEA experts would receive such permission. "We were able to conduct inspections of the cooling ponds and other places. As can be seen from my reports, we did not see any signs of explosives or mines in these places," he added.
10:04 The European Council and the European Parliament have concluded an agreement to increase the production of ammunition and missiles in the EU. 500 million euros will be allocated to increase the production of surface-to-surface and artillery ammunition in the European Union, as well as missiles, the European Council said. This will help ensure the long-term growth of ammunition production in Europe to the benefit of Ukraine and EU member states.
09:37 The House of Representatives of the Netherlands recognized the Holodomor as a genocide of the Ukrainian people.
09:08 Ukrainian troops have a partial success in the Kleshcheevka area in the Bakhmut direction, they are fixed on the achieved lines. There are heavy battles, said Andrei Kovalev, spokesman for the General Staff. To the north and south of the city of Bakhmut, the Defense Forces continue to put pressure on the enemy, knocking them out of the previously captured lines. At the same time, Ukrainian troops repel enemy attacks in the Limansky, Avdeevsky and Mariinsky directions.
08:56 In the Donetsk region over the past day, as a result of Russian shelling, one person died (in Toretsk), five more were injured. In the Zaporizhia region, one person died during the shelling of Hulyaypol. Ten people were injured in the Kherson region, and one in the Kharkiv region, according to the OVA.
08:52 The Biden administration is "actively considering" the issue of providing cluster munitions to Ukraine, White House Deputy Speaker Andrew Bates said: "This issue is being actively considered. I have no announcement at the moment about this."
Meanwhile, The Washington Post writes that the United States will transfer M864 cluster artillery shells, first produced in 1987, to Ukraine. They are suitable for firing American 155mm howitzers. The Pentagon estimates the share of unexploded submunitions in such projectiles at 6%.
08:45 In Lviv, search and rescue operations have been completed at the site of a missile attack on an apartment building. The death toll has risen to ten, 42 people were injured , 16 of them were hospitalized, said the head of the OVA Maxim Kozitsky.
08:39 At night, the Russians attacked the Dnipropetrovsk region with shock drones, six of them were shot down, said the head of the OVA Serhiy Lysak. The wreckage of one of the drones fell on a car driving along the highway, killing two people. Another UAV hit a private enterprise in the Krivoy Rog district - a fire broke out, people were not injured. Also, the enemy hit Nikopol from heavy artillery, there were no casualties.
08:31 The General Staff announced the approximate losses of the Russian Federation as of the morning of July 7.
- personnel - about 232,810 (+510) people liquidated,
- tanks - 4070 (+2),
- armored combat vehicles - 7944 (+12),
- artillery systems - 4330 (+20),
- MLRS - 658 (+1),
- air defense systems - 408 (+4),
- aircraft - 315 (+0),
- helicopters - 309 (+0),
- UAV operational-tactical level - 3652 (+17),
- cruise missiles - 1271 (+7),
- ships/boats - 18 (+0),
- automotive equipment and tankers - 6898 (+10),
- special equipment - 612 (+7).
08:27 The Russian army is concentrating its main efforts on the Limansky, Bakhmutsky, Avdeevsky and Maryinsky directions - over the past day there have been 30 military clashes, the General Staff said in the morning summary .
The General Staff also clarified that on July 6, Russia launched not ten, but 11 Caliber cruise missiles in Ukraine, air defense shot down seven of them. Three rockets hit Lvov, one hit a private house in the Cherkasy region.
08:23 In the occupied territory of the Kherson region, the death toll as a result of the explosion of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station has grown to 55, emergency services of the Russian Federation reported.
08:06 At night, the Russians fired 18 Shahed-136/131 drones from the southeast direction (Primorsko-Akhtarsk, Krasnodar Territory). Of these, 12 drones were destroyed, the Air Force command said.
07:01 In Lvov, the number of people killed as a result of a Russian missile strike has increased to nine people, 42 people were injured, including three children, the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported. Rescue and search work continues.
00:57 Zelensky confirmed that he would soon go on a visit to Turkey to meet with Erdogan. According to him, the visit to Turkey is dictated by the need to hold meetings with the largest number of members of the Alliance on the eve of the NATO summit: "We must accumulate all the leaders of the Alliance in order to put political pressure on the Russian Federation. Not only on the battlefield. We have several questions - the grain initiative, support Ukraine to NATO, the exchange of prisoners, etc. Many things that we will talk about."
00:44 The Ukrainian offensive is not going fast, but "we are moving forward," Zelensky said in Prague at a meeting with Czech President Petr Pavel: "We are advancing. We now have the initiative. The offensive is not fast, that's a fact. But, nevertheless, we are moving forward, not moving back like the Russians. So I see this as a positive."
Pavel, in turn, noted that Ukraine is unlikely to be able to launch another counter-offensive in a few weeks or months, "so we must do everything possible for Ukraine to succeed in this counter-offensive."