Pro-Russian separatists introduce death penalty – Ukraine attacks arms caches

Created: 07/13/2022, 04:50

By: Tobias Utz, Lukas Zigo, Teresa Toth, Moritz Serif, Vincent Büssow, Nail Akkoyun, Lucas Maier

Ukraine launches counterattacks on Russian occupiers in Kherson Oblast.

In the Donbass, Russia is apparently bombing several cities: the news ticker on Tuesday, July 12.

• “Armed Conflict”:

  Russia threatens the United States

• Heavy Losses:

  Russian army probably recruits in prisons

• Editor's note on the

  Ukraine war

  :

  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.

+++ 9:31 p.m .:

The pro-Russian separatists in the Donetsk region have reintroduced the death penalty.

This was reported by the Russian news agency

.

Separatist leader Denis Puschilin signed a decree on Tuesday.

In June alone, the separatists sentenced three foreign men to death.

In addition, Russia has launched criminal proceedings against Ilya Yashin, a critic of the Kremlin.

The Kremlin accuses him of having allegedly spread discrediting false reports about the army's deployment.

"The investigator just called me - a search is beginning in his house," wrote Yashin's lawyer Vadim Prokhorov on his Facebook page.

Yashin faces up to ten years in prison if convicted.

News about the Ukraine war: Ukraine attacks weapons storage facility

+++ 19:44:

Ukraine attacked an arms depot in the city of Nowa Kakhovka in the Kherson region, the South Command said on Facebook.

A howitzer and military equipment were destroyed and 50 soldiers were killed.

Previously, Kyiv had announced that it would recapture lost areas and launched the counteroffensive.

+++ 16.45:

Denys Maljuska, Minister of Justice of Ukraine, is convinced that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will be arrested.

"It will undoubtedly happen, but the question is: when," Maljuska said in Prague on Tuesday.

He hopes that will be "sooner rather than later".

Aggressive states should not be protected from criminal prosecution.

In addition, it is clear who gave the order for the attack, emphasized the Ukrainian Foreign Minister.

The Ukraine War in Pictures - Destruction, Resistance and Hope

View photo gallery

+++ 3.45 p.m .:

The number of dead after a Russian rocket attack on the Donetsk region at the weekend has risen to 38.

Nine people have been rescued from the rubble in the city of Chasiv since then year.

In this context, Ukraine accuses the Russian army of attacking the civilian population.

Russia denies this and emphasizes that a military camp was destroyed.

The information cannot be independently verified.

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+++ 3:00 p.m .:

The Ukrainian army is apparently stepping up the attacks in the Cherson region.

The military reported on Tuesday afternoon that 52 soldiers had been killed during the night.

An ammunition depot was also destroyed.

The data of the pro-Russian administration of the Kherson region are to the contrary.

Those responsible said that Ukrainian rockets had hit numerous houses and civilian facilities.

Seven people died as a result.

The information provided by both warring parties cannot be independently verified.

+++ 2 p.m .:

The European Union has approved a loan of one billion euros for Ukraine.

This is intended for running costs, it said on Tuesday from Brussels.

+++ 1:00 p.m .:

According to an assessment by the pro-Russian separatists, the Russian army and its allies are currently encircling the eastern Ukrainian city of Siwersk (Donetsk region).

This is reported by the state news agency

with reference to the ambassador of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic in Moscow, Rodion Miroshnik.

The front in the region is currently running near Siwersk.

The information from Moscow cannot be independently verified.

News on the Ukraine war: Russia threatens US with "armed conflict"

+++ 12.00 p.m .:

There is a new threat from the Kremlin towards the USA.

The United States is "walking dangerously on the edge" of a military confrontation, State Department spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday.

America and other states had provoked "an aggravation of the Ukrainian crisis," she emphasized - and already dismissed any responsibility on the part of Russia.

"Washington and its allies are poised dangerously on the brink of an open military confrontation with our country - and that means: a direct armed conflict between nuclear powers." By "provocation" Zakharova probably meant arms supplies to Ukraine.

A soldier of the Russian Army.

(Iconic photo) © Alexey Maishev / Imago Images

+++ 11.15 a.m .:

Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to travel to Tehran on July 19.

According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov, he wants to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi at a summit meeting.

Bilateral talks are planned in Tehran.

News about the Ukraine war: Russia probably recruits in prisons

+++ 10.30 a.m.:

The British Ministry of Defense assumes that Russia is hiring fighters for the Wagner mercenary group in prisons.

"Personnel shortages in the Russian armed forces could force the Russian Defense Ministry to resort to unconventional recruitment methods," according to a situation report based on intelligence information.

This indicates a response by the Russian army to heavy casualties, the ministry said.

The Ukrainian secret service reported something similar a few days ago.

Accordingly, Russia is emphatically recruiting in the prisons to make up for the losses.

According to the secret service in Ukraine, the men are promised early release after fulfilling their contractual obligations.

The information cannot be independently verified.

+++ 9.30 a.m .:

Russian rocket attacks apparently hit the city of Mikolajiv on Tuesday morning.

Among other things, they hit residential buildings, two hospitals and a school, according to the city administration.

This is reported by the news portals

and

.

Photographs taken by the city administration show the extent of the damage, and several fires can be seen on it.

However, the information cannot be independently verified.

+++ 08.30 a.m .:

According to their own statements, the Ukrainian armed forces start attacks on the Russian-occupied Cherson region.

In the course of the counterattack on the southern Ukrainian region, an arms depot was destroyed.

Russian troops "lost" more than 50 soldiers.

Russian state-run news agency Ria Novosti on Tuesday morning (July 12), citing the pro-Russian administration deployed in the region, reported two dead, four missing and dozens wounded after the attack.

Many people were buried in rubble and hundreds of houses were damaged.

The information provided by both sides could not initially be checked independently.

Ukraine has been defending itself against the Russian war of aggression for four months now.

Recently, Kyiv had repeatedly announced that it would reconquer areas that had been lost since then – also with the help of Western weapons.

Civilians were called to flee.

According to Russian information, a Himars rocket launcher supplied by the USA was also used in the Ukrainian attack that has now taken place.

This information could not be verified at first.

Ukraine War: Russian troops near Kherson prepare for Ukrainian counteroffensive

Update from Tuesday, July 12, 7:30 a.m .:

The Cherson region is one of the most heavily contested areas in Ukraine.

As the US think tank "Institute for the Study of War" reported, the Russian armed forces there will initially concentrate on securing the occupied territory and will continue their air and artillery attacks around the towns of Siversk and Bakhmut.

Accordingly, Russian troops will “continue to concentrate on defensive operations along the entire southern axis” and will refrain from offensive operations in the region today.

The former adviser to the governor of the Kherson region said that Russian forces have increased security and filtering measures and are "preparing for an urban war in case a Ukrainian counter-offensive should reach Kherson".

Ukraine War: Pro-Russian mayor dies after car bomb explodes

+++ 10:25 p.m .:

Canada’s government has imposed sanctions on the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Cyril I for supporting the war of aggression against Ukraine.

reported on this, among other things

.

These are “Russian disinformation and propaganda actors”.

The British government had previously frozen assets in Great Britain and imposed an entry ban on the patriarch.

+++ 8.15 p.m .:

Yevgeny Yunakov, pro-Russian mayor from the village of Velikiy Burluk in northeastern Ukraine, died after a car bomb exploded, the Russian state news agency

reported on Monday.

However, since the Russian press has been brought into line, such statements should be treated with caution.

Apparently it was an attack.

According to

, the recently established pro-Russian “civilian military administration” in the region described the explosion as a “terrorist attack” perpetrated by Ukrainian authorities.

Russian troops are occupying parts of the Kharkiv region, and the city of the same name remains under Ukrainian control.

News about the Ukraine war: Former police chief to lead administration

According to Tass

, the pro-Russian authorities want to set up their administration in the occupied parts of the Kharkiv region in the city of Kupyansk.

A former police chief is said to be in charge.

Pro-Russian administrations have already been established in the occupied southern Kherson region and the partially occupied Zaporizhia region.

Attacks on pro-Russian authorities have increased in both regions in recent weeks.

Representatives of the Cherson government recently declared that they had foiled an attack on their head of administration.

News about the Ukraine war: more and more dead in Chasiv Yar

+++ 18:25: After a rocket attack on the town of Chasiw Yar

in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, the number of dead recovered from a destroyed house has risen to more than 30.

The Ukrainian civil defense spoke of a total of 31 bodies found.

Nine people have been rescued alive from the rubble since the weekend.

The clearance work continued.

It was not known how many people were still missing.

The Ukrainian side accuses Russia of targeting civilians.

In Moscow, on the other hand, it is claimed that only a military target was destroyed.

reports that the building was a dormitory used by the military

.

News about the Ukraine war: At least six people die in Kharkiv

+++ 4.30 p.m .:

According to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office, at least six people died in rocket attacks on Kharkiv.

"As a result of the massive shelling by the occupying forces of Kharkiv, six people died and 31 were injured," the agency said on its Telegram channel.

Among other things, a shopping center was damaged, as well as some houses and vehicles, said Serhii Bolvinov, head of the investigation department of the Kharkiv National Police.

As 

 reports, fragments of a Soviet Uragan multiple rocket system were found on site.

At the end of June there was a rocket attack on a shopping center in Kremenchuk.

+++ 3.15 p.m .:

A local official from the port city of Mariupol, which is occupied by Russian troops, reports that the civilian population should be forced into military service by autumn at the latest.

According to a report by the

news portal, Petro Andryushchenko said so .

Accordingly, the civilian population is planned as "cannon fodder".

His statements cannot be independently verified.

News about the Ukraine war: Putin makes an offer to the population

+++ 2.30 p.m .:

Russia makes it easier for all Ukrainian citizens to obtain Russian citizenship.

"All citizens of Ukraine have the right to apply for citizenship of the Russian Federation through a simplified procedure," said a decree issued by President Vladimir Putin on Monday.

So far, the simplified procedure has only applied to residents of the Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia.

News on the Ukraine war: Western weapons are already having an impact

+++ 2 p.m .:

According to Olkesiy Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, the new arms deliveries from the western partner states are already changing the course of the war.

In particular, the precision is impressive and "levels" the number of Russian troops, according to Danilov in a statement on Telegram.

In it he also provoked with the sentence "And we haven't even started yet".

A few days earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin used almost the same wording.

+++ 1:00 p.m .:

Russia’s army presented a devastating shelling of the Ukrainian town of Chasiv Yar over the weekend as an attack on purely military targets.

A base station of a Ukrainian brigade was destroyed with precision-guided weapons, Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Monday.

He did not comment on the Ukrainian accusation that it was a targeted attack on a residential area.

In Chasiv Yar, large parts of a block of flats collapsed over the weekend, according to the Ukrainian account, the bodies of 20 residents have been recovered so far.

People are still missing.

Since the war began four and a half months ago, Russia has repeatedly emphasized that it only hit military targets in the neighboring country - even if the many civilian casualties are now obvious.

Russia's Defense Ministry also reported attacks in other parts of eastern Ukraine.

In the Kharkiv region, a warehouse with military equipment supplied from abroad was destroyed, Konashenkov said.

In the Dnipro region ammunition for the US-supplied Himars multiple rocket launchers was destroyed.

This could not be verified independently.

News about the Ukraine war: Russia apparently blocks residential areas in Melitopol

+++ 12.30 p.m .:

According to a report by the

news portal , Russian troops are blocking a residential area in the occupied city of Melitopol.

"Tens of thousands of residents are cut off from the city," Mayor Ivan Fedorov said, according to the report.

According to him, Russian forces have said they found explosives in the neighborhood.

That is the reason for using it.

The information is not independently verifiable.

News about the Ukraine war: Odessa region probably under rocket fire

+++ 12:00 p.m .:

Russian troops also fired rockets at the Odessa region on Monday morning.

Among other things, a residential building was hit, as reported by the deputy head of the Presidential Office Kyrylo Tymoshenko.

This is reported by the news portal

.

The information cannot be independently verified.

+++ 11.15 a.m .:

The Russian Parliament is apparently planning an extraordinary session for Friday.

The House of Commons announced on Monday that they were coming together because of “issues that require urgent solutions”.

So far there is neither an agenda nor information on whether the meeting will be broadcast.

+++ 10.45 a.m .:

Lithuania has expanded trade restrictions with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

The goods sanctioned from Monday now also include wood, concrete and alcohol.

A spokesman for Lithuanian customs said that they were only following the EU sanctions plans.

+++ 10.00 a.m .:

According to an assessment by the US think tank “Institute for the Study of War”, Russian troops are trying to cut off supplies to the city of Bakhmut, north of Donetsk, as the next step.

The think tank reports in an analysis on Sunday that attempts are being made to cut communication lines in particular.

This is part of the next, larger offensive by the army.

The think tank had previously spoken of an “operational pause” by the Russian military.

Ukrainian President Selenskyj warned against this assessment and emphasized that Russia was continuing to attack (see update from 8 a.m.).

The information cannot be independently verified.

News about the Ukraine war: Russian troops attack cities in the Donbass

+++ 9:00 a.m .:

Again there are apparently massive bombing raids by the Russian army on cities in the Donbass, including Kharkiv.

This was reported by the Ukrainian general staff on Monday morning.

Rocket launchers and tanks are in use, the situation report said.

According to the General Staff, a veritable "wave of bombings" has already begun, which has already hit several cities in the east.

This is in preparation for a major offensive.

The information cannot be independently verified.

+++ 8:00 a.m .:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that Russian troops are not taking a “strategic break”.

This was reported, among other things, by the US think tank “Institute for the Study of War”.

Russia continues to attack, Zelenskyy said in a video that was distributed on Telegram.

On Saturday alone there were 34 airstrikes, the Ukrainian President stressed.

Update from Monday, July 11, 6:30 a.m.:

Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, Iryna Vereshchuk, asked residents of the Kherson region in a television speech on July 10 to leave the area.

Ukrainian forces would plan a counteroffensive in southern Ukraine.

"I am sure that women and children should not be there and that they should not become human shields," Vereshchuk said.

She did not say when the Ukrainian counter-offensive would take place.

Ukraine war: Selenskyj threatens "Russian murderers" with consequences - civilians should flee

+++ 10:28 p.m .:

After a devastating rocket attack with many deaths in the Donetsk region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj threatened Russian soldiers with consequences.

"Punishment is inevitable for every Russian murderer," said Zelenskyj in his video speech on Monday night.

The attack on the town of Chasiv Yar showed once again that Russia's troops also deliberately killed in residential areas.

In addition, the Ukrainian leadership has called on civilians in the occupied south of the country to flee because of planned army offensives.

Residents of the Cherson and Zaporizhia regions should urgently leave their homes - if necessary in the direction of the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which has been annexed by Russia since 2014, Deputy Prime Minister Irina Wereshchuk said on Sunday evening.

+++ 8.40 p.m .:

If the repaired gas turbine should return from Canada, Russia would like to start up its energy supplies again through the throttled Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea pipeline.

"If the turbine comes after the repair, it will allow for an increase in volume," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to the Interfax agency.

"We completely reject any hints or direct reports that the Russian side is using gas or oil as a weapon for political pressure," Peskov said.

Allegedly, the Kremlin does not want to use the gas as a means of exerting political pressure.

.

According to Ukrainian information, at least 15 people were killed in a Russian rocket attack on a residential building in Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine on Sunday.

24 people were still buried under the rubble of the four-story building, said the local rescue service on the online network Facebook.

The rescue workers have so far been able to contact three of them.

According to the information, five people were rescued alive.

Ukraine war: Russia probably wants to annex Kharkiv - increased mobilization

+++ 11.20 a.m .:

There were several rocket attacks in Kharkiv on the night of Sunday (July 10th).

As the rescue services of Ukraine in the region announced on Facebook, two houses were said to have been shot down by Russia.

There were seven injured.

A rocket attack by Russia on an educational facility in Kharkiv was also reported.

Kharkiv is at the front of the Ukraine war and was heavily fought over in February and March.

The recent establishment of a civilian administration in the region by the Russian occupiers, as well as other activities from Russia (see 7.20am update) indicate that the city remains one of Putin's targets.

First report from Sunday, July 10, 7:20 a.m.:

As the Institute for the Study of War is currently reporting, Russia has territorial ambitions beyond the Donbass.

Russia likely wants to annex Kharkiv Oblast after Russian officials in the region unveiled a new flag claiming it was an "inalienable part of Russian land."

The ISW also suspects that the Kremlin faces direct censorship of Russian war correspondents and milbloggers, and may seek to encourage self-censorship.

Meanwhile, Russia is continuing a covert mobilization campaign.

According to the Ukraine Center for Combating Disinformation, more than 22,000 positions for military personnel have been advertised in Russia, including snipers, gunners, drivers, medical instructors and other experts.

(lz/vbu/mse/tt/tu/lm/nak with dpa/AFP)