Belarus leader accuses Ukraine of attempted missile attack
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko stated on Saturday Ukraine had tried to strike navy services on Belarusian territory three days in the past, however all its missiles had been intercepted, the state-run Belta information company reported.
Lukashenko, who didn’t present proof for the declare, stated Belarus didn’t need warfare with Ukraine, however would battle if its personal territory was invaded.
The Ukrainian navy didn’t instantly remark.
“They’re scary us. I’ve to inform you, three days in the past, perhaps a bit extra, an try to strike navy services on Belarusian territory was created from the territory of Ukraine,” Belta quoted Lukashenko as saying.
“However, thank God, the Pantsir anti-aircraft methods managed to intercept all of the missiles launched by Ukrainian armed forces.”
Greater than a dozen civilians have been killed in a Russian missile strike on a crowded shopping center, whereas Russia and Ukraine made the biggest prisoner swap of the warfare. NATO additionally prolonged an invite for membership to Sweden and Finland. Right here’s a recap of the warfare in Ukraine from June 25 to July 1.
Lukashenko stated there have been no troops from Belarus preventing in what Moscow calls its “particular navy operation” in Ukraine.
Belarus is an in depth ally of Russia and allowed Moscow to make use of Belarusian territory to ship troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Final week, simply hours earlier than Lukashenko was to satisfy with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian long-range bombers fired missiles on Ukraine from Belarusian airspace for the primary time.
Lukashenko has up to now resisted efforts to attract his military into the warfare. However throughout their assembly, Putin introduced that Russia deliberate to provide Belarus with the Iskander-M missile system and reminded Lukashenko of how dependent his authorities is on financial help from Russia.
Huge blasts in Odesa
In a separate growth, blasts shook Ukraine’s southern metropolis of Mykolaiv on Saturday as Russia’s artillery helped grind out positive factors within the east, after every week when the civilian dying toll from Russian missile strikes climbed in city centres nicely behind the frontline.
“There are highly effective explosions within the metropolis! Keep in shelters!” Oleksandr Senkevych, mayor of the Mykolaiv area which borders the very important Black Sea port of Odesa, wrote on the Telegram messaging app as air raid sirens sounded.
The reason for the blasts was not instantly clear, though Russia later stated it had hit military command posts within the space. Reuters couldn’t independently confirm the experiences.
The blasts come a day after a Russian airstrike struck an condo constructing within the small coastal city of Serhiivka, situated about 50 kilometres southwest of Odesa, killing 21 folks.
Ukrainian prosecutor-general Iryna Venediktova stated investigators have been recovering fragments and have been taking measurements to find out the trajectory of the weapons and “the precise folks responsible of this horrible warfare crime.”
Kyiv says Moscow has intensified missile assaults on cities removed from the principle battlefields in Ukraine’s East and that it intentionally hit civilian websites. Ukrainian troops on the japanese frontlines in the meantime describe intense artillery barrages which have pummeled residential areas.
Russia says it has focused navy websites and denies aiming at civilians. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated “Russian Armed Forces don’t work with civilian targets.”
Separatists declare Lysychansk encircled
Moscow has narrowed its focus in Ukraine to capturing the japanese Donbas area after its broader warfare targets of taking Kyiv and toppling the federal government was thwarted by stiff resistance.
Russia is searching for to drive Ukrainian forces out of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces, which make up the Donbas and the place Moscow-backed separatists have been preventing Kyiv since 2014.
In Luhansk, Russian forces pounded town of Lysychansk and its environment in an all-out try to seize the province’s final stronghold of Ukrainian resistance.
Andrei Marochko, an officer of the pro-Russian Luhansk Individuals’s Militia, was quoted by Russia’s TASS information company as saying that the militia’s crimson hammer-and-sickle flag was now flying over the executive constructing in Lysychansk, though Ukraine’s navy rejected claims that town was encircled.
Russian-backed separatists declare that the Ukrainian metropolis of Lysychansk is surrounded regardless of denials from Ukrainian officers.
Ukrainian media quoted Vadym Denysenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s Inside Ministry, as saying that the Russian claims to have surrounded Lysychansk have been a lie aimed toward demoralizing Ukrainians and inspiring pro-Russian forces.
Russian media confirmed movies of Luhansk militia members parading within the streets of Lysychansk waving flags and cheering, however Ukraine Nationwide Guard spokesperson Ruslan Muzychuk instructed Ukrainian nationwide tv town remained in Ukrainian palms.
In Slovyansk, a serious Donetsk metropolis nonetheless below Ukrainian management, 4 folks died when Russian forces fired cluster munitions late Friday, Mayor Vadym Lyakh stated on Fb. He stated the neighbourhoods that have been hit did not include any potential navy targets.
Regardless of being battered within the east, Ukrainian forces have made some advances elsewhere, together with forcing Russia to withdraw from Snake Island, a Black Sea outcrop southeast of Odesa that Moscow captured at first of the warfare.
Russia had used Snake Island to impose a blockade on Ukraine, one of many world’s greatest grain exporters and a serious producer of seed for vegetable oils. The disruptions have helped gasoline a surge in international grain and meals costs.
Ukraine has appealed for extra weapons from the West, saying its forces are closely outgunned by the Russian navy.
