Here is how things stand on Thursday, July 3:
Fighting
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A woman in her 70s was killed and two people were injured when debris from a destroyed Ukrainian drone fell on a residential building in Russia’s southwestern region of Lipetsk, Regional Governor Igor Artamonov said on Thursday.
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Russia has made incursions near two towns, Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka, that are crucial to army supply routes in eastern Ukraine, Viktor Trehubov, a spokesperson for the Khortytsia group of forces, told the Reuters news agency. Trehubov said Russian forces are carrying out “constant attacks with the intent of breaking through” to the border of the Dnipropetrovsk region, according to Reuters.
- Russia’s air defence systems destroyed 69 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russia’s state-owned RIA Novosti reported early on Thursday.
Weapons
- Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had called in the acting US envoy to Kyiv, Keith Kellogg, to stress the importance of US military aid after the Pentagon decided to halt some shipments of critical weapons over concerns that stockpiles are running low.
- “The Ukrainian side emphasised that any delay or procrastination in supporting Ukraine’s defence capabilities will only encourage the aggressor to continue the war and terror, rather than seek peace,” the Foreign Ministry said.
- Deputy White House Press Secretary Anna Kelly said the halt to some shipments was made “to put America’s interests first” following a Department of Defense review of military support around the world.
Politics, diplomacy and media
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Russia is using an online media outlet to sow discord in Germany as part of disinformation efforts being carried out alongside its war in Ukraine, the German Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.
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The outlet, Red, portrays itself as a “revolutionary platform for independent journalists” but has “close links” with the Russian state media outlet RT, a ministry spokesperson told reporters in Berlin.
- The European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, warned that Chinese businesses’ support for Russia’s war posed a threat to European security, the EU’s diplomatic service said in a statement, following a meeting between Kallas and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
- Kallas urged China “to immediately cease all material support that sustains Russia’s military industrial complex” and support “a full and unconditional ceasefire” and a “just and lasting peace in Ukraine”, the statement said.
