Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

* There was no immediate response from Ukraine on the Russian claim, which, if confirmed, would mark a significant milestone for Moscow on day 130 of the war. * Six people were killed in Sloviansk after the eastern Ukrainian city was hit by powerful shelling from Russian multiple rocket launchers, local officials said.


Reuters | Updated: 03-07-2022 20:14 IST | Created: 03-07-2022 20:14 IST
Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

Russia said on Sunday its forces had taken control of Ukraine's eastern Luhansk region after capturing the final Ukrainian holdout of Lysychansk in heavy fighting, though Ukraine did not confirm the claim. FIGHTING

* Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu informed President Vladimir Putin of the "liberation" of the Luhansk region by Moscow and its allies, the ministry said. * There was no immediate response from Ukraine on the Russian claim, which, if confirmed, would mark a significant milestone for Moscow on day 130 of the war.

* Six people were killed in Sloviansk after the eastern Ukrainian city was hit by powerful shelling from Russian multiple rocket launchers, local officials said. * At least three people were killed and dozens of residential buildings damaged in the Russian city of Belgorod near the Ukraine border, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said, after reports of several blasts in the city.

* Ukrainian forces hit a Russian military logistics base with over 30 strikes in the occupied southern city of Melitopol, the city's exiled mayor said. A Russian-installed official confirmed that strikes had hit the city. * Far from the eastern fighting, Russia said it had hit army command posts in Mykolaiv near the Black Sea port of Odesa, where the mayor had reported powerful explosions. * Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield accounts.

DIPLOMACY AND ECONOMY * Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Germany was discussing security guarantees for Ukraine with its allies, in preparation for a time after the war. But these will not be the same as for a member of NATO, he told broadcaster ARD.

* Turkish customs authorities have detained a Russian cargo ship carrying grain which Ukraine says is stolen, Ukraine's ambassador to Turkey told Ukrainian national TV. * Russia may continue to suspend gas flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline beyond a planned maintenance shutdown this month, said German Economy Minister Robert Habeck.

* A sizable number of companies, executives and investors underpinning Russia's defence sector have yet to be affected by Western sanctions, a Reuters examination shows. QUOTES

* "The sound was so strong that I jumped up, I woke up, got very scared and started screaming ... All the windows in our house were shattered, the doors came out of alignment," a resident of Belgorod told Reuters about the 3 a.m. blasts. (Compiled by William Mallard and Catherine Evans; Editing by Edmund Blair and Toby Chopra)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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