Military situation:
In eastern Ukraine, after the Ukrainian withdrawal from the city of Lysychansk, the focus of the fighting has shifted to the neighboring Donetsk region. At the border between the two regions, Russian attacks were successfully repelled near Bilohorivka and Verkhnjokamjanske, the Ukrainian general staff said on Facebook on Monday evening. The Wuhlehirsk thermal power plant to the west of Svitlodarsk, which has already been conquered by pro-Russian separatists, is also contested.
On the other hand, the Russian troops had gained territory north of Slowjansk near Masanivka. In addition, Ukrainian positions on large parts of the front were shelled with artillery, rocket launchers and mortars. The Russian air force also bombed positions of Ukrainian units.
After capturing the city of Lysychansk in eastern Ukraine, Russian troops continue to advance. “In the direction of Sloviansk, the Russians are trying to establish control over the towns of Bohorodychne, Dolyna and Masanivka,” the Ukrainian general staff said in Kyiv on Monday.
From the east, Russian troops crossed the river Siwerskyi Donets. There the enemy is trying to push back the Ukrainian forces to a new line of defense between Siwersk, Soledar and Bakhmut, according to the situation report from Kyiv. These three cities are about 30 to 40 kilometers east of the Sloviansk-Kramatorsk conurbation, which is considered the headquarters of the Ukrainian Defense Forces in Donbass.
On other front sections, both in the north around the city of Kharkiv and in the south in the Black Sea regions of Zaporizhia, Cherson and Mykolaiv, there were no significant troop movements, according to Ukrainian information, despite heavy artillery combat. The information cannot be verified independently.
Political situation:
The Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Andriy Melnyk is to leave Germany and go back to Kyiv. There he could switch to the foreign ministry and become deputy foreign minister. This is reported by “Bild” and refers to several sources in the Ukrainian capital.
A change from Melnyk would therefore explicitly not be understood as a dismissal, according to Ukrainian government circles. “This proposal was made by the Ministry to the President of Ukraine. Andriy Melnyk is highly valued in Kyiv for his work,” Bild quoted a Ukrainian government official as saying.
A move from Berlin to Kyiv could therefore take place in the fall, it said. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry did not comment on “Bild” request. Melnyk has also not been available for comment so far.
Russian President Vladimir Putin officially declared victory over Ukrainian troops in the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk via TV broadcast. At the same time he ordered the continuation of the Russian military offensive in Ukraine. “The military units, including the Eastern and Western Groups, must perform their tasks in accordance with the approved plans,” Putin’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu instructed on Monday.
The defense minister informed the head of state over the weekend that Russian troops now had complete control of the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk. Together with the neighboring province of Donetsk, this forms the Donbass.
After the withdrawal of the Ukrainian military from the city of Lysychansk, the operation was completed on Sunday, Shoigu said. Russian troops overran Lysychansk.
For the Kremlin, this is a major military victory, more than four months after it sent troops to Ukraine. Soldiers involved in the Luhansk campaign should “rest and rebuild their operational capabilities,” Putin said.
Russian national ice hockey player Ivan Fedotov, who was arrested for allegedly refusing to do military service, will probably be transferred to a military base on the Arctic island of Novaya Zemlya. The Tass news agency reported on Sunday evening, citing an informant in the Russian security organs. Fedotow wanted to leave his previous club CSKA Moscow to play in the North American ice hockey league NHL.
Fedotov was arrested by strangers in St. Petersburg on Friday after training and taken to a pickup truck. Later it became known that he was taken to a district military replacement office and held there. After staying there for several hours, the athlete became ill and had to be taken to a clinic by ambulance.
Fedotov was then taken to the Severomorsk naval base north of Murmansk on Sunday. “He will probably serve in one of the military units based on the island of Novaya Zemlya in the Arctic Ocean,” said an anonymous spokesman for the Russian security organs. Novaya Zemlya is also known as the former Soviet nuclear test site.
Fedotow wanted to play for the Philadelphia Flyers in the NHL from the coming season. Last season, the Russian international won the Gagarin Cup as a goalkeeper with CSKA Moscow. His contract expired at the end of June. Columnist Anton Orech suspects that Fedotov’s call-up has something to do with the CSKA leadership’s anger at the change. As a CSKA player, Fedotov, 25, was an official member of the Russian Armed Forces.
According to a Ukrainian mayor, the Russian occupiers tortured an employee of a nuclear power plant to death. Andrii Honcharuk worked as a diver in the hydraulic workshop of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, Energodar Mayor Dmytro Orlov writes on Telegram. Honcharuk, an “experienced and professional diver,” refused to dive into a pool at Russian request. He was then “beaten extremely brutally”.
Orlov continued: “He was taken to the Energodar hospital with numerous injuries and in a coma. On July 3, he died without regaining consciousness.” Orlov expressed his condolences to the relatives. “We will never forget or forgive the crimes committed by the occupiers and their accomplices-collaborators in Energodar on our Ukrainian land!” There is no independent evidence for the news.
military situation
After weeks of fighting, Ukrainian troops have given up defending the strategically important city of Lysychansk in eastern Ukraine. “In order to protect the lives of the Ukrainian defenders, the decision was made to withdraw,” the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a statement Sunday evening. The Russian Defense Ministry had previously stated that the entire Donbass region of Luhansk had been “liberated” with the capture of the city.
In its statement, the General Staff referred to the numerical and material superiority of the Russian army. “In the conditions of multiple superiority of Russian troops in terms of artillery, air force, missile launch systems, ammunition and personnel, continued defense of the city would have fatal consequences,” it said. With the retreat from Lyssychansk, an encirclement was anticipated. 95,000 people once lived in the city.
Lyssychansk’s neighboring town of Sievjerodonetsk had already been conquered by Russian troops a week ago. Both cities belong to the Luhansk region, one of the two sub-regions of the Donbass. After taking Lysychansk, Russian troops could now also target Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in Donetsk, the second Donbass sub-region.
Despite the withdrawal of the Ukrainian army, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy does not yet see the city of Lysychansk in the east of the country as lost. “If the command of our army withdraws people from certain points of the front where the enemy has the greatest fire advantage – Lysychansk in particular – it means only one thing: that thanks to our tactics, thanks to the increased supply of modern weapons, we will come back,” said him on Sunday.
The Ukrainian army is moving forward – both in the Kharkiv region in the east, and in the Kherson region in the south and on the Black Sea. The recently recovered Snake Island is a good example. “There will come a day when we will say the same thing about Donbass,” he said. “Ukraine gives up nothing.”
With a view to the Russian offensive, the chairman of the EU committee in the Bundestag, Anton Hofreiter (Greens), called on the federal government to deliver infantry fighting vehicles or at least armored vehicles to the war zone. In view of Russia’s massive action in eastern Ukraine, this is urgently needed, he told the “Bild” newspaper. Armored vehicles such as “Marder”, “Fuchs” or “Dingo” could save countless lives here.
Political situation
Russia accused the West of preventing peace negotiations with Ukraine and thus prolonging the war. “Now is the moment when Western countries are betting everything on continuing the war,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Under US leadership, the West is allowing Ukrainians “not to think about, talk about, or discuss peace.”
Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podoliak responded by saying that Russia was aware of the conditions for negotiations: a ceasefire, troop withdrawal, the return of kidnapped citizens, the extradition of war criminals, as well as a reparations mechanism and recognition of Ukraine’s sovereign rights. “The time will come and we will put it on paper,” said Podoliak.
At a meeting with IOC President Thomas Bach in Kyiv, President Zelenskyj welcomed the exclusion of Russian and Belarusian athletes from many tournaments. “One must not allow a terrorist state to use sport to promote its political interests and propaganda,” he said in a statement on Sunday. He is grateful to Bach for his “unshakeable position” on the subject. “While Russia is trying to destroy the Ukrainian people and conquer other countries in Europe, its representatives have no place in the world sports community,” Zelenskyy said.
Also read: The Ukraine update on July 3 – Ukraine gives up Lysychansk, dead in Russian attack on Sloviansk: What happened today
