Live blog: Russian troops advancing in 'fierce fighting' — Ukraine

Sunday, July 2, 2023

Russian troops are advancing in four areas of the front line in eastern Ukraine amid "fierce fighting", Ukraine's Deputy Defence Minister has said.

"Fierce fighting is going on everywhere," Ganna Maliar wrote on social media, adding: "The situation is quite complicated".

"The enemy is advancing in Avdiivka, Mariinka, Lyman sectors. The enemy is also moving forward in the Svatove sector," she said.

Maliar said Ukrainian troops were advancing with "partial success" on the southern flank of Bakhmut, as well as near Berdyansk and Melitopol in southern Ukraine.

In the south, she said Ukrainian forces faced "intense enemy resistance, remote mining, deploying of reserves" and were only advancing "gradually".

"They are persistently and unceasingly creating conditions for as fast an advance as possible," she said.

More updates 👇

1104 GMT — 'Thin-armoured' French tanks impractical for attacks: Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has thanked French leader Emmanuel Macron for sending light combat tanks to Kiev, and Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov was filmed riding in one.

But a Ukrainian commander says the highly mobile AMX-10 RC infantry fighting vehicles -- sometimes described as light tanks -- are "impractical" for front-line attacks, claiming one four-man crew has already died because of the vehicle's thin armour.

Kiev said in April that the French vehicles -- designed for armed reconnaissance and attacks on enemy tanks -- were already in service.

But a 34-year-old battalion commander within the 37th Marine Brigade, who uses the call sign Spartanets, said the tanks' "thin armour" means they can be used as fire support, but not in front-line assaults.

"Unfortunately, there was one case when the crew died in the vehicle," the major told AFP.

0918 GMT — Prigozhin-controlled Russian media group shuts down

Yevgeny Prigozhin's media holding group is to shut down, the director of one of its outlets has said, highlighting the mercenary chief's worsening fortunes a week after the collapse of a brief mutiny staged by his Wagner Group fighters.

Under a deal that halted the mutiny, Prigozhin, a former ally of President Vladimir Putin, was allowed to go into exile in Belarus and his men given the choice of joining him, being integrated into Russia's armed forces or returning home.

Patriot Media, whose most prominent outlet was the RIA FAN news site, had taken a strongly nationalist, pro-Kremlin editorial line, while also providing positive coverage of Prigozhin and his Wagner Group.

"I am announcing our decision to close down and to leave the country's information space," RIA FAN director Yevgeny Zubarev said in a video clip posted late on Saturday on the holding's social media accounts.

Zubarev gave no reason for the decision.

0910 GMT — Ukraine shoots down Russian missiles, drones in Kiev attack

Ukraine's air force has said it had shot down three cruise missiles and eight attack drones deployed by Moscow's forces overnight, in Russia's first attack on Kiev in 12 days.

Ukraine's air force said that it had destroyed "all air targets" -- eight Iranian drones and three Kalibr cruise missiles.

"Eight Shaheds were launched from the southeast and three Kalibr missiles were launched from the Black Sea," the air force said in a statement.

Ruslan Kravchenko, head of the Kiev regional military administration, said that three private houses were damaged by falling debris in the Kiev region.

A man sustained a leg injury, Kravchenko added.

0645 GMT - Russia launches overnight drone attack on Kiev: Ukraine

Russia launched an overnight drone attack on Kiev after a 12-day break, a Ukrainian military official has said, with air defence systems preliminarily destroying all targets on their approach.

"Another enemy attack on Kiev," Serhiy Popko, a colonel general who heads Kiev's military administration, said in a post on the Telegram channel.

"At this moment, there is no information about possible casualties or damage."

Witnesses heard blasts resembling the sound of air defence systems hitting targets.

There was no immediate information about the scale of the attack.

Kiev, its region and a number of central and eastern Ukraine's regions were under air raid alerts for about an hour after 2 am local time (2300 GMT).

0141 GMT — Ukraine conflict 'corrosive' for Putin, 'opportunity' for CIA: spy chief

Russia's offensive against Ukraine has had a "corrosive" effect on Russian President Vladimir Putin, CIA Director William Burns said, with discontent over the conflict creating a "once-in-a-generation opportunity" for the spy agency.

Speaking at the Ditchley Foundation in the UK, Burns called Russia's offensive against Ukraine "the most immediate and acute geopolitical challenge to international order today."

He accused Russia of targeting his forces with deadly missile strikes in Ukraine and launched broadsides against Moscow's narrative of the conflict: saying it was started "for the self-promotion of a bunch of bastards" and that Russia's troops were retreating in Ukraine's east and south.

"The impact of those words and those actions will play out for some time, a vivid reminder of the corrosive effect of Putin's war on his own society and his own regime," Burns said.

He called the war a "strategic failure" for Moscow that has exposed military weaknesses, hurt the economy and spurred a bigger and stronger NATO.

"Disaffection with the war will continue to gnaw away at the Russian leadership ... That disaffection creates a once-in-a-generation opportunity for us at CIA," he said.

0157 GMT — Ultra-nationalists aim to restrict travel for Russian officials' families

The ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia [LDPR] is working on a bill that would temporarily ban the travel of close relatives of high-ranking officials to "unfriendly countries," the RIA state news agency reported.

Russia considers all countries that have hit it with sanctions over its military campaign in Ukraine to be "unfriendly."

Citing a member of the Russian Duma, Sergei Karginov, RIA reported that restrictions may also affect, among others, law enforcement officers, judges, top managers of state corporations, and the board of directors of the Central Bank.

"Now, when Russia is forced to confront a group of Western countries led by the United States that provoked a conflict in Ukraine, such journeys ... are not only inadmissible, but also dangerous," RIA cited Karginov as saying.

2131 GMT — Biden to host Swedish PM for talks on NATO, Ukraine

US President Joe Biden will host Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson next week to talk about transatlantic security cooperation and the war in Ukraine, the White House said.

The two leaders "will review our growing security cooperation and reaffirm their view that Sweden should join NATO as soon as possible," the White House said in a statement about the Wednesday meeting.

"I am delighted that President Biden is inviting us to a meeting next week, before the NATO summit in Vilnius the following week," Kristersson said in a statement. "The focus of the visit will be on Sweden's NATO accession."

The White House said Biden and Kristersson will also "discuss our shared commitment to supporting Ukraine in the face of Russia's brutal war of aggression."

For our live updates from Saturday (July 1), click here.