Ukraine war: Lukashenko accuses Ukraine of rocket attacks on Belarus
Created: 07/02/2022Updated: 07/02/2022 19:53
By: Tobias Utz, Tanja Banner, Marvin Ziegele, Christian Stör
The situation in the Ukraine war continues to deteriorate - militarily, diplomatically and humanitarianly: the news ticker on Saturday, July 2nd.
'Inhumane Attacks':
Russia Changes Tactics
Under fire:
Russian troops are shelling positions of the Ukrainian army in eastern and southern Ukraine
“Targeted Russian terror”:
Selenskyj raises serious allegations
Russian missile attacks:
number of dead rises
Editor
's note: You can read all the news about the Ukraine conflict in this news ticker.
Some of the information comes from warring factions and cannot be directly checked independently.
+++ 19.40:
Alexander Lukashenko, the ruler in Belarus, has accused Ukraine of rocket attacks on his country.
"About three days ago, maybe more, an attempt was made from Ukraine to attack military targets in Belarus," Lukashenko said, according to the state news agency Belta.
"Thank God our anti-aircraft systems intercepted all missiles fired by Ukrainian troops," he said.
Lukashenko's allegations come amid speculation that Belarus is becoming more involved in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
However, according to the Belta agency, Lukashenko emphasized that Belarus has no intention of fighting in Ukraine.
Lukashenko's information cannot be independently verified.
Belarus' ruler Alexander Lukashenko meets Vladimir Putin.
(Archive image) © Mikhail Metzel/dpa
News about the Ukraine war: Lysychansk completely surrounded?
UKraine disagrees
+++ 4.40 p.m .:
According to pro-Russian separatists, the embattled city of Lyssychansk in eastern Ukraine was completely surrounded.
With the help of the Russian army, "the last strategically important heights" were occupied on Saturday, a representative of the separatists told the Russian agency Interfax.
The President of the Russian republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, said that Russian troops had already advanced to the center of Lysychansk.
This information could not be independently verified.
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The Ukrainian side also speaks of fierce fighting, but according to information from this side, the city is still considered "contested".
The governor of the Luhansk region Serhiy Hayday said the Russians were trying to storm the city from different directions.
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Lysychansk is the last large town in the Luhansk region that the Ukrainian troops have recently held.
The conquest of the area is one of Moscow's declared goals in the war that has been going on for more than four months.
Last week, the Ukrainian military had to give up the city of Sievjerodonetsk, which is only across the river from Lyssychansk.
Ukraine war: "Inhuman attacks" - Russia changes tactics
+++ 2:00 p.m .:
The Ukrainian presidential advisor Mychajlo Podoljak sees a change in the Russian army’s warfare.
"It's a new tactic by Russia: attacking neighborhoods and putting pressure on Western political elites to force Ukraine to sit at the negotiating table," Podoliak said, according to reports from various media outlets in Kyiv.
Moscow has no regard for how the world reacts to "inhumane attacks" with cruise missiles on residential areas.
Russia is not fighting to gain territorial gains, but to destroy Ukraine and create a new security architecture in Europe, said Presidential Advisor Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Russia had to change tactics because the military "doesn't know how to fight well on the battlefield."
Now Moscow's tactic is to scare the world into turning its back on the war in Ukraine, saying: "Do whatever they want.
The main thing is that this horror does not continue, lest we see it in the pages of our newspapers or on television every day.”
News about the Ukraine war: Russia is allegedly using cluster munitions
+++ 12.30 p.m .:
According to Ukrainian information, Russia is said to have used banned cluster munitions in rocket attacks on the city of Sloviansk in eastern Ukraine.
During the night of Saturday, civilian areas where there were no military installations were hit, Mayor Wadym Lyach reported on Telegram.
Four people were killed and seven people were injured.
Cluster munitions are rockets and bombs that burst in mid-air over the target, releasing many small explosive devices.
Their use is outlawed under international law.
+++ 12.00 p.m .:
Apparently, Russian troops around the embattled city of Lyssychansk in eastern Ukraine were able to achieve smaller gains in terrain thanks to ongoing air and artillery attacks.
This was announced by the British Ministry of Defense, citing British intelligence.
However, Ukrainian units would apparently block the advance in the south-eastern suburbs of the city.
Since the beginning of the war, Great Britain has been publishing its intelligence services' assessments of the course of the war on a daily basis in unprecedented form.
Ukraine War: Ukrainian positions under heavy fire
+++ 10.00 a.m .:
In eastern and southern Ukraine, positions of the Ukrainian army along the entire front line have been shelled by Russian troops with artillery.
Dozens of locations in Kharkiv, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia, Mykolayiv and Kherson Oblasts were listed in the Ukrainian General Staff report published on Facebook on Friday.
There were also isolated attacks by airplanes and helicopters, it said.
Ukrainian units repelled a Russian attack on a gelatine plant near the industrial city of Lysychansk in the Luhansk region.
In a July 2 update, the General Staff reports that Russian forces have gone on the defensive in Sloviansk and are trying to repel Ukrainian advances near Kharkiv.
The reports cannot be independently verified.
+++ 08.00 a.m .:
There are reports of detonations in the early morning from the Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv.
“There are powerful explosions in the city!
Stay in the shelters!” Mayor Oleksandr Senkevich wrote on Telegram.
The cause is not yet known.
Ukraine War: Attack on Odessa – “Targeted Russian Terror”
Update from Saturday, July 2, 6:00
a.m.: Ukraine has sharply condemned a Russian rocket attack on a residential building in the southern Ukrainian region of Odessa that killed at least 21 people and injured 39 (see update from Friday, 6:42 p.m.).
President Volodymyr Zelenskyj spoke of "deliberate, targeted Russian terror".
Neither weapons nor military equipment were hidden in the house - "as Russian propagandists and officials always tell about such attacks," he said in a video message.
At the same time, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba accused Russia of a war against civilians in connection with the missile attack.
“I urge our partners to provide Ukraine with modern missile defense systems as soon as possible.
Help us save lives and put an end to this war," Kuleba said on Twitter.
Ukraine War: Russia apparently attacks Snake Island with phosphorus bombs
+++ 8.44 p.m .:
Ukraine has accused the Russian army of having attacked the snake island in the Black Sea with phosphorus bombs.
Moscow's troops "twice carried out airstrikes with phosphorus bombs" on Friday evening, Ukrainian army chief Valeriy Zalushny wrote on Telegram.
Only on Thursday did the Russian army announce its withdrawal from the Ukrainian island, which it had previously occupied for four months.
Ukraine: Death toll rises after rocket attack
+++ 18:42:
After the Russian rocket attacks in the southern Ukrainian region of Odessa, the number of dead has risen to 21, according to Ukrainian information.
At least one child, a 12-year-old boy, was among the dead, spokesman for the Odessa regional administration, Serhiy Brachuk, told Ukrainian television on Friday.
According to Ukrainian rescue workers, 39 people, including six children, were injured in the attacks in the village of Serhiyivka, around 80 kilometers south of the port city of Odessa.
According to Brachuk, the missiles were fired from fighter jets flying over the Black Sea.
The projectiles hit a residential building and a leisure center.
According to the rescue workers, 16 people died in the apartment building.
Five people were killed at the recreation center, including a child.
Moscow denied that the Russian army had targeted attacks on civilians in Ukraine.
The Russian armed forces "did not act against civilian targets" during their operations, assured Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
News about the Ukraine war: number of dead after rocket attack increases
+++ 3.30 p.m.:
The number of dead as a result of Russian rocket attacks near Bilhorod-Dnistrowskyj in southern Ukraine near the city of Odessa has risen to at least 20, according to Ukrainian sources.
Civil protection announced this on Friday.
Initially, there was talk of ten fatalities.
At least 38 people continued to be treated in hospitals.
According to the military administration, a total of three Russian missiles hit.
An apartment building and a recreation center were hit.
The X-22 missiles were fired by Russian Tu-22 bombers over the Black Sea.
Information from the combat zones can hardly be checked by an independent party.
Since the Russian invasion began in late February, the United Nations has recorded more than 4,700 civilian deaths.
News about the Ukraine war: Russian rocket attacks hit residential areas near Odessa
+++ 8:00
a.m.: At least 17 people were killed in rocket attacks on the city of Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky in the Odessa region.
The spokesman for the Odessa regional military administration, Serhiy Brachuk, said on Telegram that three shells fell in a housing estate.
Among other things, a leisure center was hit.
The situation on the ground is chaotic and the information cannot be checked independently.
A video published by the
Nexta
news portal shows the extent of the damage.
The residential area is like a rubble field.
First report from Friday, July 1, 2022, 6:15 a.m.:
According to Ukrainian information, at least 14 people were killed in a Russian rocket attack on a residential building in the southern Ukrainian region of Odessa.
The Ukrainian rescue services spoke of 14 dead and 30 injured on Friday.
Three children were among the injured.
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 number of dead later rose to ten and then to 14. (marv/tu with AFP/dpa)