No sooner had Russian forces cleared Snake Island than Ukraine reported an attack on the island with phosphorus bombs. Kiev's associations are also under heavy fire in the south and east of the country. In addition, Moscow reports the capture of the contested refinery of Lysychansk. The 127th day of the war at a glance.
Ukraine accuses Russia of phosphorus attack on Snake Island
Ukraine has accused the Russian army of using phosphorus bombs to attack Snake Island in the Black Sea. Moscow's troops "twice carried out an air raid with phosphorus bombs" in the evening, wrote Ukrainian army chief Valeriy Zalushny on Telegram. The bombs were dropped by Russian Army SU-30 aircraft.
Snake Island is considered a strategically important post for monitoring sea routes in the north-western part of the Black Sea. Only on Thursday did the Russian army announce its withdrawal from the Ukrainian island, which it had previously occupied for four months.
Whole front line under heavy fire
In eastern and southern Ukraine, positions of the Ukrainian army were shelled with artillery along the entire front line. Dozens of locations in Kharkiv, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia, Mykolaiv and Kherson Oblasts were listed in the released report of the Ukrainian General Staff. There were also isolated attacks by airplanes and helicopters, it said.
Ukrainian units repelled a Russian attack on a gelatine plant near the industrial city of Lysychansk in the Luhansk region. However, details of what was happening around the last Ukrainian-controlled town in the area were not given.
Zelenskyy: Bombing of apartment building was a targeted attack
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a Russian rocket hit a residential building in the southern Ukrainian region of Odessa as not accidental. "This is a targeted rocket attack by Russia, Russia's terror against our towns and villages, against our people, adults and children," Zelenskyy said, according to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency. The missile used was actually designed to combat aircraft carriers and other warships.
On Friday night, three Russian rockets hit a residential building and a convalescent home almost 40 kilometers southwest of the port city of Odessa. According to civil defense, at least 21 people were killed and 39 injured. Presidential adviser Mikhail Podoljak took up the missile attack as an opportunity to once again request the delivery of modern missile defense systems from the West. Attacks on civilian targets are a "bloody terrorist tactic: intentional chaotic shelling and mass casualties."
Moscow says it has captured the Lysychansk refinery
Russia, on the other hand, reported the capture of the contested oil refinery in the city of Lysychansk. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Ukrainians suffered heavy losses in and around Lysychansk. Most recently, around 200 enemy soldiers were killed every day. "A disorganized withdrawal of individual units of the Ukrainian armed forces from Lysychansk can be observed," said a spokesman.
Lysychansk is the last major place in Luhansk Oblast still held by Ukrainian troops. Taking the city would allow the Russians to advance deeper into the Donbass, which has become the focus of their offensive since the failed capture of Kiev in February.
Kremlin considers breaking off diplomacy with Bulgaria
After the announced expulsion of 70 Russian diplomats from Bulgaria, Moscow is considering completely breaking off diplomatic relations. Russia's request to Bulgaria to revoke the largest ever diplomatic expulsion in the EU country was ignored, criticized Russia's ambassador in Sofia, Eleonora Mitrofanova, according to the Interfax agency. That is why the closure of the entire Russian embassy is now being discussed. That in turn would "inevitably" mean the end for the work of the Bulgarian embassy in Moscow, said Mitrofanova.
Russia's industry is recovering - despite sanctions
Pressured by Western sanctions, Russian industry stabilized in June. The purchasing managers' index rose minimally by 0.1 to 50.8 points, as the financial services provider S
Ukraine reports weak wheat harvest
According to the Baywa conglomerate, this year's wheat harvest in Ukraine will be weaker than in previous years. 22.48 million tons of bread wheat are currently ripening there for the harvest, which is a decrease of 17 percent compared to the average for the past four years, says Baywa boss Klaus Josef Lutz. The assessment is based on current satellite data. These showed "that a below-average harvest can no longer be avoided," he emphasizes.
The reason for the expected decline is not only the war, but above all the drought. Transport is also a problem, according to Lutz: "The grain won't get out of the country without opening the ports."
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