Zelenskyy after rocket attack on Odessa: "Targeted attack against adults and children"
Created: 02/07/2022 05:59
By: Patrick Mayer
Shortly after Russia withdraws from Snake Island, rockets fly into a skyscraper.
There are several dead and dozens injured.
The news ticker on the military situation.
Rocket attack
on apartment building in Odessa: the death toll continues to rise.
Rescuers search for survivors under the rubble.
Fighting
in
Lysychansk
: Putin's troops apparently want to encircle Ukrainian soldiers.
Russia withdraws
from
Snake
Island : Vladimir Putin's troops withdraw from the island.
This
news ticker
has ended.
All further information
on the military situation in Ukraine
can be found here.
Update from July 1, 7:30 p.m .:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj has accused Russia of deliberately firing a rocket at a residential building in Odessa.
"This is a targeted rocket attack by Russia, Russia's terror against our towns and villages, against our people, adults and children," according to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency in Kyiv on Friday.
The missile used was actually designed to combat aircraft carriers and other warships.
On Friday night, three Russian rockets hit a residential building and a convalescent home almost 40 kilometers southwest of the port city of Odessa.
According to civil defense, at least 21 people were killed and 39 injured.
Odessa is the third largest city in Ukraine in terms of population and the country's most important port.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of deliberately attacking a residential building in Odessa.
© Nariman El-Mofty/dpa
Rocket attack on apartment building in Odessa: death toll continues to rise
Update from July 1, 3:35 p.m .:
The number of fatalities in the Russian rocket attack on a residential building in Odessa had to be corrected upwards again.
20 people were killed in two separate rocket attacks - including a child.
The number of injured rose to 38. This is reported by CNN with reference to the Ukrainian authorities.
A third missile probably missed its actual target and hit a field.
Rescue operations at the destroyed building were still ongoing on Friday afternoon.
However, hope of survivors is fading.
"We don't expect to find anyone alive, but there is a chance," Deputy Interior Minister Yevhenii Yenin said on Friday.
Rescue workers remove the injured from a residential building in Odessa that was destroyed in a Russian missile attack.
© OLEKSANDR GIMANOV/AFP
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War in Ukraine: Russian troops advance near Lysychansk
Update from July 1, 1:30 p.m .:
According to their own statements, the Russian military is advancing in the heavily contested city of Lysychansk in eastern Ukraine.
The oil refinery in the city in the Luhansk region is now under Russian and pro-Russian control, said Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov in Moscow.
The Ukrainian side, on the other hand, continued to describe the refinery site as contested in the morning.
The Ukrainians suffered heavy casualties in and around Lysychansk, Konashenkov said.
Most recently, around 200 enemy soldiers were killed every day.
"A disorganized withdrawal of individual units of the Ukrainian armed forces from Lysychansk can be observed." This information could not be verified independently.
Fighting in Lysychansk - Putin's troops want to encircle Ukrainian units
Update from July 1, 9:20 a.m .:
According to information from Kiev, the situation in eastern Ukraine around the city of Lysychansk besieged by Russian troops is coming to a head.
"The enemy is concentrating its main efforts on encircling the Ukrainian soldiers in Lysychansk from the south and west and establishing complete control over the Luhansk region," the Ukrainian General Staff said in its situation report.
There is also fighting in the suburbs of the big city.
The General Staff reported that the Russian attempt to bring a section of the Bakhmut-Lysychansk supply route under control had failed.
At the same time, according to Ukrainian sources, the Russian troops have stepped up their military activities in the direction of Kramatorsk.
So far, the Russian troops had tried to advance into the area mainly from the north.
Also on Friday artillery battles from several suburbs of Sloviansk were reported from this direction.
However, according to Ukrainian information, there was no Russian ground offensive here.
The information could not be verified independently.
Ukraine war: Attack on Odessa - Russian missile death toll rises to 17
Update from July 1, 7:53 a.m .:
The number of dead civilians in the Odessa region has increased.
According to the Ukrainian authorities, three more were added to the initially reported 14 people killed in a rocket attack on a high-rise building.
They are said to have died in another attack on another building nearby.
A child is said to be among the dead.
Update from July 1, 6:29 a.m .:
According to Ukrainian information, 14 people were killed in a rocket attack on a residential building in the Odessa area.
Dozens were injured.
The attack came shortly after Russia's withdrawal from Ukraine's Snake Island in the Black Sea.
Dead in rocket attack in Odessa region: 14 people rescued lifeless from rubble
In the Odessa region in southern Ukraine, Russian missiles have apparently hit a residential area.
Ukrainian rescue services spoke of at least 14 dead and 30 injured.
Three children are said to have been wounded.
The rocket hit a nine-story apartment building in the Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky area, about 80 kilometers south of the port city of Odessa, regional administration spokesman Serhiy Brachuk said.
The rocket was fired from a plane flying over the Black Sea.
The rescue work on the partially destroyed house continues.
Fire hinders the emergency services.
People are holding out in a protective bunker in Odessa after an air raid alarm.
© IMAGO/STR
Shelling by Russian army: situation in Lysychansk in eastern Ukraine "extremely difficult"
Update from June 30, 10:30 p.m.:
The Russian army is advancing in the Donbass.
According to a military expert, German self-propelled howitzers in eastern Ukraine are not safe from the Krasnopol shell.
The backgrounds.
Update from June 30, 8:55 p.m .:
According to regional governor Serhiy Hajdaj, the situation in the embattled eastern Ukrainian city of Lysychansk is “extremely difficult”.
The city is under constant fire, Russian troops are advancing on the city from several directions, Hajdaj reported on Thursday in the online service Telegram.
Russian soldiers are standing on the outskirts of the city, so far there have been no street fights in the city itself.
The governor rejected statements by pro-Russian fighters that they already controlled half the city area.
“One can easily say that the Russians are very numerous and come from all sides.
There is an incredible number of vehicles and artillery," said Hajdaj.
Lysychansk is the next key target for Russian troops, after taking the neighboring town of Sievarodonetsk after weeks of fighting over the weekend.
The Luhansk region, one of the two sub-regions of the Donbass, is almost completely under Russian control.
Should Russian troops also capture Lysychansk, they could then target Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in Donetsk, the second Donbass sub-region.
Sloviansk is also already the target of heavy Russian air raids.
To defend against Russian troops: France supplies Ukraine with more Caesar howitzers
Update from June 30, 6:55 p.m .:
France will deliver six more Caesar howitzers to Ukraine to defend against the Russian invasion troops, and “quickly”, as President Emmanuel Macron said at the end of the NATO summit in Madrid.
Several such 155mm caliber self-propelled howitzers are already in service with the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
On top of that.
France will deliver "six more Caesar howitzers and a significant number of armored vehicles" to Ukraine, Macron said.
The Ukraine war focuses on heavy artillery battles in the east of the country.
For weeks, Kyiv has been urging its western partners to supply more guns.
“Covered Mobilization” in Belarus?
Ukrainian General Staff warns of Russia's ally
Update from June 30, 4:30 p.m .:
More than four months after the start of the Ukraine war, according to reports from independent media, more draft notices are being sent out in Belarus.
The Ukrainian general staff spoke of a “covert mobilization” on Thursday.
The opposition Belarusian online newspaper
Zerkalo
wrote that for days readers from the Gomel region in the south of the country on the border with Ukraine have been reporting that conscription orders had been sent out many times.
The request to report to the troops was also sent to people who had previously been classified as unfit for military service, the portal continued.
Reasons for the order were not given.
However, penalties were threatened if the summons was ignored.
The Ukrainian General Staff said that "according to the available information", military exercises for conscripts are planned in Belarus until mid-July.
As a close ally of Russia, Belarus has made its territory and airspace available for Russia's war against its neighbor.
However, Ukraine does not rule out direct entry into the war by the neighboring country.
From there, Russian soldiers have already fired rockets at Ukraine.
Moscow reports: Allegedly more than 6,000 Ukrainian soldiers as prisoners of war
Update from June 30, 12:55 p.m .:
According to the Moscow Defense Ministry, Russia is currently holding more than 6,000 Ukrainian soldiers as prisoners of war.
Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the number of Ukrainian soldiers who had been captured or surrendered was "more than 6,000".
The number he gave could not initially be checked by an independent party.
Konashenkov also confirmed information from Kyiv that 144 Ukrainian soldiers had been handed over to Ukraine the day before as part of a prisoner exchange.
In return, Ukraine handed over an equal number of Russian and pro-Russian fighters to Russia, the Moscow ministry spokesman said.
It was the largest prisoner swap since the Russian military began operations in Ukraine on February 24.
All liberated Russian and pro-Russian soldiers were injured, some of them seriously, Konashenkov said.
They are currently receiving medical attention.
According to the Defense Ministry in Kyiv, most of the Ukrainian soldiers who were released on Wednesday are also seriously injured.
Russia withdrawal from Snake Island - Ukrainian army previously destroyed air defense system
Update from June 30, 11 a.m.:
According to its own statements, the Russian army has withdrawn from the Ukrainian island of snakes.
The soldiers stationed on the Black Sea island were withdrawn as a "goodwill gesture," Moscow said.
This should enable Ukraine to export grain.
According to the Ukrainian army, it had previously attacked Snake Island again.
A short-range air defense system of the type Pantsir-S1 was destroyed, said the South Command.
The information cannot be independently verified.
Clashes in Lysychansk - Ukraine speaks of a blockade of the city
Update from June 30, 9:39 a.m .: Lysychansk
remains the main battlefield of the heavy fighting in Donbass.
The strategically important city in eastern Ukraine is the last one still controlled by Ukrainian armed forces.
However, Russian soldiers have advanced to the outskirts of the city.
The report of the Ukrainian general staff spoke of a blockade of Lysychansk, which the enemy was attempting with artillery support.
Accordingly, attacks on settlements in the west and around the oil refinery are raging.
According to the representative of the Luhansk separatists in Moscow, the area around the plant should be “under their own control”.
Rodion Miroschnik wrote this on Telegram.
Ukraine has also accused Russian troops of shelling civilian infrastructure.
This cannot be verified independently.
Fighting was also reported northeast of Bakhmut, which is west of Lysychansk.
Here Russian troops continued to try to control an important road between the cities.
Ukraine-News: According to Selenskyj, the situation in eastern Ukraine is "extremely difficult"
Update from June 30, 9:10 a.m .:
Despite western arms deliveries, the situation of Ukrainian troops in the heavily contested areas in the east of the country remains extremely difficult, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
"We are doing everything we can to equip our military with modern artillery systems and to respond appropriately to the occupiers," said Zelenskyy in his daily video address.
The Russian military is relying on massive artillery fire in the Donbass industrial area to weaken Ukrainian positions.
Ukrainian artillery is outnumbered despite some modern guns arriving from the west.
Fighting is currently going on for the city of Lyssychansk, and Ukrainian troops have withdrawn from neighboring Sievjerodonetsk.
The previous pressure on Russia is not enough, said Zelenskyj, pointing out that ten Russian rockets were fired at the Ukrainian city of Mikolajiv on Wednesday alone.
"And all were aimed at civilian targets," he said.
Ukraine news: Putin says Russia's invasion is 'going according to plan'
Update from June 30, 6:59 a.m
.: More than four months after the start of the Russian war of aggression, Putin again claimed that the combat operations were going according to plan.
"The work is quiet, rhythmic, the troops are moving and reaching the lines that have been set for them as milestones," he told reporters in the Turkmen capital of Ashgabat.
"Everything is going according to plan." The war is officially described by Russia as a "special operation".
On February 24, Russian troops invaded Ukraine from several directions.
Having failed to reach the capital, Kyiv, they are concentrating on the Donbass industrial area in eastern Ukraine.
According to Western experts, the Russian military is advancing, but is suffering high casualties and is using up its artillery ammunition at a rapid pace.
Vladimir Putin during his visit to Tajikistan in June 2022 © Alexander Shcherbak/Imago
Ukraine News: More than six million people have fled since Russian invasion
Update from June 29, 9:30 p.m.:
According to the latest data, 6.3 million people had to flee to other areas of Ukraine during the war with Russia.
Another 5 million Ukrainians initially fled, but have now returned to their respective home regions.
Between Lysychansk and Bakhmut: Ukrainian troops are apparently holding the T1302 highway
Update from June 29, 8:55 p.m .:
The T1302 trunk road between Lysychansk and Bakhmut is apparently still fiercely contested.
That explains the Ukrainian general staff in a situation report.
Russian troops would therefore try to completely encircle Lysychansk.
In the village of Verkhnyokamyanka, west of the city with a population of almost 100,000, the attackers were successfully repulsed, sources in Kyiv say.
Russian units also tried unsuccessfully to advance through the village of Spirne in the direction of the town of Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast.
Lysychansk is the last position of the Ukrainian army in the Luhansk region.
Battles reported in north-eastern Ukraine: Fighting raging near Izyum and Kharkiv
Update from June 29, 7.50 p.m .:
As the
Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ)
reports, the Russian invasion troops are continuing their attacks, especially south and southwest of Lyssychansk.
The city, which used to have 100,000 inhabitants, is largely surrounded.
Ukraine war: Zelenskyj addresses the world via video
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According to pro-Russian separatists, Ukrainian forces are pulling out of the city.
Lysychansk is the last unoccupied city in Luhansk Oblast.
Just recently, the neighboring city of Severodonetsk fell after weeks of bitter fighting.
Clashes were also reported on Wednesday near Izyum and near Kharkiv in north-eastern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian army was recently able to repeatedly repulse the attackers here.
Soldiers from Azovstal among them: Ukraine and Russia exchange prisoners
Update from June 29, 6:50 p.m.:
According to their own statements, the Ukrainian army and the Russian side exchanged a total of almost 300 prisoners.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense in Kyiv reported on Wednesday evening that 144 Ukrainian soldiers were free again.
It is the largest exchange of prisoners since the beginning of the war more than four months ago.
The separatist leader Denis Puschilin, on the other hand, spoke of 144 pro-Russian and Russian fighters who had been released from Ukrainian captivity.
According to information from Kyiv, among the released Ukrainian soldiers are 95 fighters who, until a few weeks ago, were defending the hard-fought Azovstal steelworks in the port city of Mariupol, which has since been conquered by the Russians.
Another 43 of them are said to belong to the Azov regiment.
Allegations by the United Nations: UN accuses Russian army of illegal warfare
Update from June 29, 5:05 p.m.:
According to Russian reports, the Ukrainian defenders in the east of the country continue to suffer high losses (
see previous update
), the United Nations have accused the Russian army of illegal warfare.
Ukrainian forces appeared to have broken international humanitarian law "to a far lesser extent," Matilda Bogner, head of the UN human rights commission in Ukraine, said in Kyiv on Wednesday.
In violation of international law, densely populated areas are being shelled with heavy artillery and multiple rocket launchers and attacked from the air by aircraft and rockets.
"Cluster munitions were also used several times," said Bogner.
So-called extrajudicial killings by the Russian army in more than 30 locations in the Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Kharkiv regions in February and March are worrying, Bogner said.
At least 50 civilians were unlawfully killed in Bucha near Kyiv alone.
In addition, officials, journalists, activists and other civilians were arbitrarily arrested or disappeared by the Russian forces in 248 cases, she said.
Eight of them were found dead.
Twelve cases of disappearances previously targeted by Ukrainian security forces are also documented.
Ukraine may suffer significant casualties defending Lysychansk
Update from June 29, 12:48 p.m
.: Ukrainian troops loyal to the government suffered significant losses in the fighting at an oil refinery in Lyssychansk in eastern Ukraine: Of the 350 men in a mountain infantry brigade, only 30 soldiers remained alive.
This is what the Russian Ministry of Defense has now announced.
The information could not be checked independently.
In addition, 100 militants were killed and military equipment destroyed near Pytomnyk in the Kharkiv region.
In addition, a training base for foreign mercenaries near Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine and four command posts were destroyed.
Moscow did not report any major gains in land.
Putin missiles at shopping center: Even Western secret service suspects "accident"
First report from June 29
: Kiev/London - Volodymyr Zelenskyj sees the bloody attack on the shopping center in Kremenchuk as part of Moscow's overall strategy.
The target is civilian objects, the Ukrainian President said in his daily video address.
In the Kremenchuk case, however, the British secret service judged differently.
The missile attack, which killed at least 20 people, may have been an accident, the UK Defense Ministry said in an update.
It is quite realistic that the attack on June 27 was intended to hit a nearby infrastructure target.
Threat from Moscow: London fears further "high collateral damage"
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.
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.
Bombs on shopping center: Selenskyj demands punishment for "terror state" Russia
London usually uses sharp words against Russia under Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin.
In a surprising message to the UN Security Council, Zelenskyy accused Moscow of “terrorism” primarily against Ukrainian civilians.
Moscow had denied that the shopping center had been shelled.
Combat zone in eastern Ukraine: civilians die when car repair shops are shelled
Meanwhile, the fighting in eastern Ukraine continues with undiminished intensity.
Two bodies were found in the big city of Dnipro: under the rubble of a company destroyed by an enemy missile, rescuers found two dead - a man and a woman, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region said on Telegram.
The rockets hit a peaceful company that has nothing to do with the military.
Media reports spoke of an auto repair shop.
Representatives of Russia emphasize attacking only military targets.
Ukraine-News: Lysychansk in eastern Ukraine is heavily contested
An important supply route for Lysychansk is also heavily contested.
The city was constantly being shelled with mortars and other artillery, the general staff said.
Representatives of the pro-Russian separatists reported fighting already in the city area.
(AFP/dpa/frs)
