Fighting continues around Lyssytchansk, the last major city yet to be conquered by the Russians in the Donbass region. The separatists supported by the Russian army claimed, on Saturday July 2, to have “totally” surrounded the city. “Today, the Luhansk People’s Militia and the Russian armed forces occupied the last strategic heights, which allows us to affirm that the locality of Lysychansk is completely surrounded”, said a representative of the Luhansk separatist army, Andrei Marochko, quoted by the Russian news agency Tass. Follow our live.
Washington is sending $820 million in aid to Ukraine. The Pentagon on Friday announced new military aid to Ukraine, which includes missiles, shells and anti-aircraft defense tools, to deal with the Russian army in the south and east of the country at war.
At least 21 dead in strikes in the Odessa region. Bomber strikes on buildings in the Odessa region of southern Ukraine have killed at least 21 people, according to regional governor Maksym Marchenko. The Russian army, for its part, did not release a report. “This is deliberate Russian terror and not some mistake or accidental missile strike”denounced President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Kyiv accuses the Russians of having fired phosphorus bombs on Serpents’ Island. “Around 6 p.m., the Russian armed forces twice carried out an air attack with phosphorus bombs on Serpents’ Island”Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zaluzhniy wrote on Telegram on Friday. The day before, the Russian army had announced withdrawing from this symbolic Ukrainian island “as a sign of goodwill”after having “accomplished” them “targets set”.