July 5, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine has moved here.

One person was injured after Russia fired rockets at the city of Khmelnytskyi in western Ukraine, Serhii Hamalii, head of Khmelnytskyi regional military administration, said on Tuesday.

Four rockets were fired over the area a few hours ago, and the air defense forces shot down one of them, he said.

Hamalii said three other rockets hit a district community, adding that the target was a water tower which supplies the local community.

An apartment building damaged in the?Luhansk?Region, on Tuesday.

Russian and Ukrainian forces are engaged in “heavy battles” in the outskirts of the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, according to Serhiy Hayday, the head of Luhansk region military administration.

“All the forces of the Russian army are now thrown there, all the reserves they now have,” Hayday said Tuesday.

Russian forces have suffered “huge number of losses and wounded,” because some troops are being tactically withdrawn to regroup, Hayday claimed.?

“The hospitals are overcrowded and the mortuaries are overcrowded,” he said.

CNN cannot independently confirm the number of casualties on either side.

Hayday added that “many warehouses behind enemy lines have been blown up” in the past few days, destroying “a huge amount” of Russia’s ammunition and fuel.

Hayday estimated that 10,000 to 15,000 residents remain in the city of Lysychansk.

Ukraine’s military announced Sunday that it had been “forced to withdraw” from the city, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky saying the retreat from was motivated to save the lives of Ukrainian troops.

“They are looking for the pro-Ukrainian population, negotiating with collaborators, showing apartments where military families lived, breaking down doors and pulling out clothes,” Hayday said.

In a separate update,?the?General?Staff?of?the Armed?Forces?of?Ukraine?said Tuesday that Russian troops are concentrating their “main efforts” on?taking control of the highway linking the cities of Lysychansk and Bakhmut and attempting to seize the nearby settlement of Bilohorivka.

A 10-year-old girl was killed after shelling hit the Donbas city of Donetsk on Tuesday, according to a Telegram post by the Territorial Defense Headquarters for the?self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).

CNN has not been able to independently verify the death.

Russian-appointed officials say the shelling was carried out by Ukrainian forces. Ukrainian officials have yet to comment.

About two million metric tons of grain are being harvested from the fields in the southern Zaporizhzhia region controlled by Russian forces, according to Yevgeniy Balitsky, military head of the Russian-occupied areas of Zaporizhzhia.

“A harvesting campaign is underway in the region,” Balitsky said on Tuesday on his Telegram channel, adding that this year’s harvest from the region is expected to overtake last year’s crop of 1.5 million tons.

Balitsky added that 70% of last year’s grain harvest from the Russian-controlled areas of Zaporizhzhia has already been sold.

However, Ivan Fedorov, the exiled mayor of Melitopol in the Zaporizhzhia region, has previously warned about severe restrictions imposed by the military on where producers can sell their grain and at what price.?

According to Fedorov, grain producers can only sell to “authorized” individuals, for half the usual price.?

“The authorized entrepreneur valued a ton of grain at just little over $50. This is half the cost of a ton of grain. In autumn, no one will sow the fields under such conditions,” Fedorov said on Friday.

Ukraine has accused Russia of appropriating last year’s grain supply from the occupied territories in the country’s south. In addition, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday he expects 60 million metric tons of Ukrainian grain to be “blocked” from reaching consumers in the autumn due to the ongoing was.

At least one person was killed and seven were injured when Russian forces shelled Sloviansk in the Donetsk region, the city’s military administration said Tuesday.?

“The central market caught fire. The central district of the city, as well as Varshava, Pivnichny, Slovkurort neighborhoods were also affected,” according to the local authority. “The extent of the damage is being ascertained.”

After Russian and separatist forces secured Lysychansk — effectively taking over nearly all the Luhansk region, barring a few pockets of resistance — they are now setting their sights on the Donetsk cities still under Ukrainian control, namely Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.

The building of the State Duma, the lower chamber of Russia's parliament, in Moscow on March 23, 2021.

A new set of economic measures aimed at supporting the Russian military passed the first vote in the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament.

There are still several rounds of parliamentary procedure to go, but if the measures are adopted, legal entities in Russia will not be able to refuse contracts with the Russian Armed forces.

Although Russian officials continue to call the war in Ukraine “a special military operation,” the new measures would effectively mean the country is re-shaping its industry in support of the ongoing invasion, placing the country on a war economy footing.

In his statement, Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov noted the “enormous sanction pressure” from the West.

“The bills introduce the obligation of organizations to conclude contracts in order to ensure counter-terrorism and other operations outside the territory of the Russian Federation, and also grant the rights to contractors to purchase products necessary to fulfill the State Defense Order from a single supplier,” Borisov said as quoted by Russian state news agency?RIA Novosti.?

The economic measures will still need to undergo second and third readings at the State Duma, be reviewed by the upper house of parliament and be signed by President Vladimir Putin to become law.

Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. While it has made gains in the eastern Ukrainian territory, it has also suffered heavy losses in terms of its army and equipment.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson holds a press conference at the NATO Summit in Madrid, Spain, on June 30.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a call on Tuesday that Ukraine can retake territory recently captured by Russia, a Downing Street spokesperson said.

“The Prime Minister said the world was behind Ukraine, and he believed President Zelensky’s military could retake territory recently captured by Putin’s forces,” she added.

Johnson updated Zelensky on the latest UK military equipment being sent to Ukraine, “including 10 self-propelled artillery systems and loitering munitions, which would be arriving in the coming days and weeks,” the spokesperson said.?

Ukrainian forces shelled the city of Donetsk in Donbas on Tuesday, the representative from?the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR)?at the Joint Center for Control and Coordination on the ceasefire?said, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.?

RIA Novosti reports the representative said: “Ten shells of 155mm caliber artillery were fired.”

The 155mm caliber is used by NATO countries, including the US, but not by Russia and other former Soviet countries, such as Ukraine, suggesting the shells were fired from equipment supplied by the West.??

Ukrainian officials have yet to comment on the alleged strikes but videos posted on social media and geolocated by CNN show smoke billowing from the Kamaz center, in Donetsk, in the same area the strikes were reported by the DPR official.?

The videos also show continuous explosions, suggesting ammunition could have been stored in the facility.?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that up to?60 million tons of grain could be stuck in Ukraine by the fall if the country continues to face blocked exports.

And NATO has formally begun the process of ratifying membership of Sweden and Finland’s accession to the alliance. Both countries ended their decades of neutrality when they applied to join NATO following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Here are the latest developments:

Swiss President Ignazio Cassis, center left, and Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, center right, attend the round of national statements, during the Ukraine Recovery Conference URC, in Lugano, Switzerland, on July 5.

An international conference in Lugano, Switzerland adopted?a series of principles that would support Ukraine long-term as it tries to rebuild and recover from the war with Russia.?

It came as the two-day Ukraine Recovery Conference, which was attended by leaders from more than 40 countries and international organizations, drew to a close.

The declaration commits to long-term economic and technological assistance “that will prepare Ukraine for the time after the war while the war is still raging,” said?Ignazio Cassis, president of the Swiss Confederation and head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.

“Here in Lugano we have launched the process of Ukraine’s recovery at international level and set out the principles underpinning the recovery,”?Cassis said. The principles would?“link recovery to reform” and focus on?transparency, partnership and equality.?

On Monday,?Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said at the conference that?Ukraine’s recovery plan will cost an estimated $750 billion and that confiscated Russian assets should be a key source of funding.

WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner is escorted to a courtroom for a hearing, in Khimki just outside Moscow, Russia, on July 1.

WNBA star?Brittney Griner,?in a handwritten letter to?President Joe Biden, said she fears she will be detained in Russia indefinitely and pleaded with the President not to forget about her and other American detainees.

Griner, 31, who has played in Russia during the WNBA’s offseason,?was arrested February 17?at a Moscow airport, a week before?Russia invaded Ukraine. Russian authorities claimed she had cannabis oil in her luggage and accused her of smuggling significant amounts of a narcotic substance, an offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison. She?went on trial?at a court near Moscow on Friday on drug smuggling charges.

Griner’s supporters and US officials say she has been wrongfully detained and have called for her release as fears mount that she is being used as a political pawn amid rising tensions between Russia and the US.

Read the full story:

U.S. basketball player Brittney Griner, who was detained in March at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport and later charged with illegal possession of cannabis, is escorted before a court hearing in Khimki outside Moscow, Russia July 1, 2022. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina

Related article 'I'm terrified I might be here forever': Brittney Griner pens handwritten letter to Biden

Pro-Russian troops ride an infantry fighting vehicle in the city of Lysychansk in the?Luhansk?Region, Ukraine, on July 4.

Ukrainian forces have repelled a Russian assault on the village of Bilohorivka, one of the few pockets inside the Luhansk region still controlled by Kyiv, the head of Luhansk region military administration said on Tuesday.

“The main efforts of the [Russians] are focused on establishing control over the territory of the Luhansk region within its administrative borders,” Serhiy Hayday said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin seemed to have announced an operational pause for the Russian forces that had taken over most of Luhansk, with him congratulating them on Monday. But Ukrainian reports from the frontline suggest otherwise. According to an update from the General Staff of the Ukraine military, fighting on the administrative borders of the region continues.?

In the neighboring region of Donetsk, also in the Donbas, several cities were shelled, including Avdiivka, Marinka and Bakhmut, with residential buildings and civil infrastructure damaged, the Ukrainian military said.

A house burns during shelling in Verkhniokamianske, Ukraine, on July 4th.

According to the military, at least two people were killed and six were wounded in the last 24 hours.

Meanwhile, the situation in the Donetsk region “remains difficult,” the head of Donetsk regional military administration Pavlo Kyrylenko said in a televised address Tuesday.

“There is not a single safe city in Donetsk region where there is no shelling,” Kyrylenko added.

Kyrylenko said that “in cities that are relatively far from the front line, cruise missiles are used” while “all types of artillery, tanks, missiles, aerial bombs” target the front line.

In the areas already under Russian control, Ukrainian officials say Moscow’s focus is on establishing a control structure.?

“In Severodonetsk, a commandant’s office was created, which, according to their plan, should replace the local government, and they are looking for housing and communal services specialists,” the Ukrainian military said.

Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, left, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, center, and Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs Anne Linde, right, give a press conference after the signing of the accession protocols of Finland and Sweden at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on July 5.

NATO has formally begun the process of Sweden and Finland joining the alliance, its secretary general has said.

NATO members signed the protocols of accession on Tuesday, in what Jens Stoltenberg labeled an “historic moment.”

It comes after the NATO summit in Madrid last week where allied leaders agreed to invite Finland and Sweden to join the alliance.

“This is truly an historic moment. For Finland, for Sweden, for NATO and for our shared security,” Stoltenberg said.

He said that NATO’s door remains open to democracies in European that are “ready and willing to contribute to our shared security.”

Some background: Finland and Sweden ended their decades of neutrality when they applied to join NATO following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which was met by some opposition from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who accused them of housing Kurdish “terrorist organizations.”

Last week, Turkey dropped its opposition after a joint memorandum was signed between the three countries, underscoring their commitment to fully support each other against threats to their security.

A truck driver unloads barley grains after harvest at a grain storage facility in the Odesa region, Ukraine, on 22 June.

Up to 60 million tons of grain could be stuck in Ukraine by the fall if the country continues to face blocked exports, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv Monday.

The President also said he was working with the United Nations to try to open a safe corridor that would allow Ukraine to export grain from its Black Sea ports.?

“We are interested in this as exporters. We are interested in this, so that our farmers continue to work for the next year, for the next harvest. To do this, we need to export all this grain — barley, wheat, corn, etc,” Zelensky said.

“From our side, the Ukrainian state is not wasting time and we are working on various ways of railway and river ports for the export of our grain, and we are increasing this export every day.”

Ukrainian officials reported Russian missile attacks on the east-central Dnipropetrovsk region on Tuesday.

The Russian military launched seven missiles on Dnipropetrovsk Tuesday, the Dnipropetrovsk State Administration said in a Telegram post.

Ukrainian forces shot down six of them, while one hit the city of Pokrov, damaging several houses. No casualties were reported.

Three people were killed and another 27 injured on Monday in a Ukrainian artillery attack on Donetsk’s railway station in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, according to the pro-Russian Defense Forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.

Telegram posts from the Defense Forces of DPR on Monday told residents of the city, “Don’t leave the house unnecessarily,” and “During the shelling do not leave the shelter.”

The pro-Russian forces in Donetsk said Ukraine fired “about 740 rounds of ammunition on the territory of the DPR,” on Monday, “including from multiple rocket launchers,” according to the separatist-run Donetsk News Agency (DNA).

Several unverified videos posted on social media Monday appeared to show dozens of buildings damaged by the shelling, with fires burning in and around the wreckage of a deserted market, near to the station.

DNA said “At least 32 private housing buildings, 9 apartment buildings, 4 kindergartens, 2 schools, 2 shops, 10 shopping pavilions, and a recreation center,” were destroyed Monday.

To the north of Donetsk in Yasynuvata, “A large fire broke out in the surrounding area of railway station yard” according to DNA.

“17 passenger train carriages and a building caught fire,” DNA said, adding “there were no casualties.”

Also on Monday, the separatists reported that 47,500 Donetsk citizens were left without electricity and 251 transformer substations were disconnected.

CNN cannot independently verify casualty figures and damage reports from Ukraine’s Donbas.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr?Zelensky?delivers his nightly televised address to the nation from his office in Kyiv, Ukraine, on July 4.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr?Zelensky?in his nightly televised address to the nation hailed Monday as a “very important day” as a conference devoted to the recovery of his country commenced in Lugano, Switzerland.

But he said the reconstruction of Ukraine should go beyond “the restoration of the walls that we had and that were destroyed by shelling.”

Zelensky?warned that efforts on the recovery should not only focus on the next years but also on the present.?

“That is why the recovery of Ukraine is not only about what needs to be done later, after our victory, but also about what needs to be done at this time. And we have to do it together with our partners, with the entire democratic world. Do now,” he said.

Zelensky?concluded his address by congratulating US President Joe Biden and the American people on Independence Day saying that responding to the daily Russian offensive requires “superhuman efforts.”

“But we have no alternative — this is about our independence, about our future, about the fate of the entire Ukrainian people,” he said.

British citizen Aiden Aslin stands behind bars in a courtroom in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, on June 9.

The defense team of British citizen Aiden Aslin, who was sentenced to death by a court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) last month, has filed an appeal, asking to exclude several articles from the DPR criminal code, Russian state news agency TASS reported Monday, citing lawyer Pavel Kosovan.

On June 9, Aslin and fellow Briton Shaun Pinner, along with Moroccan national Brahim Saadoune,?were sentenced to death?after they were found guilty of being “mercenaries” for Ukraine by a court in DPR, Russian state media reported at the time.

According to state news agency RIA, the three men were captured in Mariupol in mid-April, while “training in order to carry out terrorist activities.”

Last week, appeals were also lodged on behalf of Pinner and Saadoune, according to Russian state media.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that he received a proposal from the Russian army generals on the development of the “offensive operations” in Ukraine.?

The Ministry of Defense “keeps in view” all the proposals of the commanders in the field, Putin added, saying that while military units that participated in the operation in the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) should rest, other formations, including the East and West groups, must proceed with tasks according to plans.

This comes as Putin congratulated Russian troops for “achieving victory” in Ukraine’s Luhansk region.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has congratulated Russian troops for “achieving victory” in Ukraine’s Luhansk region.

In a meeting televised by Russian state media on Monday, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to Putin the Russian advances in the area.

Shoigu added that the “Gorsky cauldron” area, Lysychansk and Severodonetsk were surrounded within two weeks, and the Ukrainian army allegedly lost 5,469 soldiers in the battles.?

Putin told Shoigu that the military personnel who contributed to fighting in LPR, will be rewarded for their “bravery,” and that they should now “rest.”

Putin also praised the LPR’s militia for showing “heroism.”?“My?congratulations?and my words of gratitude,” Putin said.?“I congratulate you all and wish you all the best.”