Ukraine War: Russia reports capture of Lysychansk  

Created: 07/03/2022Updated: 07/03/2022 12:05 p.m

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 Sunday, July 3rd.

• The situation in the east is coming to a head:

  Russian troops are moving into Lyssychansk

• 'Inhumane Attacks':

  Russia Changes Tactics

• Under fire:

  Russian troops are shelling positions of the Ukrainian army in eastern and southern Ukraine

• 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.

+++ 12.00 p.m .:

According to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Russia has taken the former city of Lyssychansk in eastern Ukraine.

According to a report by the Interfax agency, Shoigu reported to President Vladimir Putin that this means that they have complete control over the Luhansk region.

There was initially no confirmation from the Ukrainian side.

Lysychansk had been heavily fought over for days (p. update from 8.00 a.m.).

Russian forces are said to have taken the city of Lysychansk.

© -/(Military Administration of the Luhansk Region/AP/dpa

+++ 11:00 a.m .:

The city of Melitopol in southern Ukraine, occupied by Russian troops, was shaken by dozens of explosions on Sunday night.

More than 30 projectiles were fired at one of the four Russian military bases in the city, said the Ukrainian mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fyodorov, in a video address distributed on Telegram.

The base was thus put out of action.

The city's Russian military administration confirmed the attack on Melitopol in the morning.

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+++ 9.30 a.m .:

According to the Ukrainian general staff, Russia has also launched attacks in the regions around Kharkiv and Sloviansk.

Russian attacks were repulsed in both directions.

Fighting continues in the direction of Bakhmut, an important transport hub in the Donetsk region.

The same applies to Spartak, a suburb of Donetsk that Russian troops are trying to storm.

In the south of Ukraine, the settlement of Ivanivka, which Ukrainian troops captured the day before in the Kherson region, was exposed to heavy Russian air raids.

In addition, the Mykolaiv region would be fired upon by rockets.

The information cannot be verified independently.

News about the Ukraine war: the situation in the east is coming to a head

+++ 08.00 a.m .:

In the east of Ukraine the situation continues to deteriorate.

According to Ukrainian sources, Russian troops have entered Lysychansk.

"In the Donetsk region, the occupiers are concentrating on consolidating their positions in the cities of Lysychansk and Verkhnyokamyanka," the Ukrainian General Staff said.

The Ukrainian military governor of Luhansk, Serhiy Hayday, also confirmed on his Telegram channel that the Russians had advanced "and gained a foothold in the Lysychansk district".

It is still unclear whether Ukrainian units are in the city.

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The pro-Russian separatists had already announced the capture of Lysychansk on Saturday, and there were similar reports from the Russian news agency Ria Novosti and from the President of the Russian republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov.

Update from Sunday, July 3, 6 a.m.:

According to the regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, there were several explosions in the Russian city of Belgorod near the Ukrainian border.

At least three people were killed, he said on Telegram.

Several houses are said to have been destroyed or damaged.

He also reported a fire in a residential building.

"The reasons for the incident are currently being investigated," writes Gladkow.

"The air defense system probably worked." In the past, the authorities in southern Russian regions have repeatedly reported incidents that they claim were attacks from Ukraine.

Ukraine war: Lukashenko accuses Ukraine of rocket attacks on Belarus – and threatens the West

+++ 9.50 p.m .:

The ruler of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, who is loyal to Russia, threatens the West: If there is an attack on his country, Belarus will react immediately, said Lukashenko, according to the state news agency Belta, in a speech on the country’s upcoming Independence Day.

Shortly before, he had complained about alleged Ukrainian rocket attacks on Belarus.

"Less than a month ago, I gave orders to the armed forces units to target what can now be called decision centers in their capitals," said the 67-year-old.

He didn't explain exactly what he meant by that, but added: "Don't touch us - and we won't touch you."

Russia and its ally Belarus repeatedly present themselves as victims of the supposedly hostile policies of the West and NATO - despite the fact that Russia has attacked Ukraine.

There have long been fears that Belarus could officially join the war on Russia's side.

Lukashenko has admitted that in the first weeks of the war, Russian rockets were fired from Belarusian territory at Ukraine.

Ukraine war: Lukashenko accuses Ukraine of rocket attacks on Belarus

+++ 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.

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.

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 its 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.

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. 

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.

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 emergency 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.

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)