Ukraine news – live: Dozens of ‘body fragments’ found in wreckage of bombed shopping centre
Putin denies the busy mall was targeted by Russian missile
Dozens of “body fragments” have been found in the wreckage of a bombed shopping centre in Kremenchuk, according to Ukraine’s state emergency service.
In a Facebook post, they said: “As a result of shelling, 21 people died and 66 people were injured, of which 26 people were hospitalised.
“A total of 29 body fragments have been discovered since the beginning of the work.”
The shopping mall was struck by a missile on Monday 27 June. Russian president Vladimir Putin has claimed that troops intended to hit a weapons depot nearby, denying that the mall was a target.
Meanwhile, war crime investigators in Ukraine are sifting through the wreckage of a nine-storey apartment block near Odesa destroyed by a Russian strike reported to have killed 21 people.
Ukraine’s prosecutor-general Iryna Venediktova said investigators were recovering fragments from missiles and taking measurements to determine the trajectory of the weapons, believed to have been Soviet-era anti-ship missiles.
‘Very difficult path’ to victory, says Zelensky
In his nightly television address late on Saturday, president Volodymyr Zelensky said it would be a “very difficult path” to victory but Ukrainians must maintain their resolve and inflict losses on the “aggressor ... so that every Russian remembers that Ukraine cannot be broken”.
Kyiv says Moscow has intensified missile attacks on cities far from the main eastern battlefields and that it deliberately hit civilian sites.
This photograph taken on 1 July 2022 shows a market destroyed during battles of early April 2022 in Irpin, Kyiv region, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Ukrainian troops on the eastern front lines, meanwhile, describe intense artillery barrages on residential areas.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov repeated Russia’s denials that it targets civilians.
Ukraine requests more weaponry support from the west
Urging the west to supply more artillery support, president Volodymyr Zelensky’s adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said: “The more western weapons come to the front, the more the picture changes in favour of Ukraine.”
The request comes amid reports of Russian forces closing in on Lysychansk, the last bastion in Luhansk.
Lysychansk ‘under control’ but not yet liberated, says separatist leader as Ukraine disputes the claim
Rodion Miroshnik, ambassador to Russia of the pro-Moscow self-styled Luhansk People’s Republic, told Russian television “Lysychansk has been brought under control,” but added: “Unfortunately, it is not yet liberated.”
Russian media showed videos of Luhansk militia parading in Lysychansk streets waving flags and cheering, but Ukraine National Guard spokesman Ruslan Muzychuk told Ukrainian television the city remained in Ukrainian hands.
Smoke billows over the oil refinery outside the town of Lysychansk on 23 June 2022
“Now there are fierce battles near Lysychansk, however, fortunately, the city is not surrounded and is under the control of the Ukrainian army,” Mr Muzychuk said.
Zelensky’s adviser acknowledges Lysychansk could fall
With the fighting intensifying in Lysychansk, Ukraine’s last big bastion in the strategic eastern province of Luhansk, an adviser to president Volodymyr Zelensky has conceded that the city could fall.
Oleksiy Arestovych said Russian forces had finally crossed the Siverskiy Donets river and were approaching the city from the north.
This is indeed a threat. We shall see. I do not rule out any one of a number of outcomes here. Things will become much more clear within a day or two.
“If Lysychansk is taken, strategically it becomes more difficult for the Russians to continue their offensive. The front lines will be flatter and there will be a frontal attack rather than from the flanks,” he said.
Ukrainian soldiers ride an armoured vehicle on the main road to Lysychansk in Ukraines eastern region of Donbas on 26 June 2022
Two children among 21 people killed after missile strikes on Odesa
At least 21 people, including two children, have been killed after Russian missiles struck an apartment building and two holiday camps near Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa on Friday morning, Ukrainian authorities have said.
Ukrainian officials told The Independent that at least 18 people perished in the strike on a nine-storey apartment block in the village of Serhiivka, and another three died in a hit on the resort.
A member of Odesa’s military administration said that two children at the resort were in critical condition and the hunt for those who were still missing continued.
In total nearly 40 had been injured, according to Lyubov Hordievska, a spokesperson for Odesa’s regional police force.
Bel Trew and Shweta Sharma report:
Two children among 21 people killed after missile strikes on Odesa
One rocket hit a nine-storey residential building and another struck a recreation centre, Ukrainian officials say
Ukraine's Zelensky talks to Argentina, Chile presidents
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pressed on with his campaign to obtain support from Latin America with calls Friday to the leaders of Argentina and Chile.
“I continue to establish relations with an important region — Latin America,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media.
The conversations with Alberto Fernández of Argentina and Gabriel Boric of Chile came a little more than two weeks after Zelenskyy spoke with Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso and Guatemalans President Alejandro Giammattei.
Read more here:
Ukraine's Zelenskyy talks to Argentina, Chile presidents
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is pressing on with with his campaign to obtain support from Latin America
Shaun Pinner: Briton condemned to death in breakaway Donetsk region appeals sentence
A British man condemned to death by a separatist court in east Ukraine has appealed against his sentence, Russian state news agency TASS has reported.
Shaun Pinner, 48, has formally lodged papers in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), the Russian-backed separatist region, said TASS on Friday. Another Briton also sentenced to death, Aiden Aslin, had not yet submitted an appeal, added the agency.
A third man condemned with the Britons, Brahim Saadoun from Morocco, had also lodged an appeal against his death sentence.
Shaun Pinner: Briton condemned to death in Donetsk appeals sentence
No appeal has yet been received from the other Briton, Aiden Aslin, held in the Russian-backed Donetsk People’s Republic
Captured Brit accused of being mercenary has ‘connection to Ukrainian or British military'
The director of a charity helping the family of a British man captured in eastern Ukraine said Dylan Healy was detained on April 25 at a Russian checkpoint in the south of the Zaporizhzhia region.
Dominik Byrne, director of operations at Presidium Network, told The Associated Press that Healy is an aid worker and has no connection either to the Ukrainian or the British military. Healy is among at least five foreigners, including four Britons, being held by separatists, who accuse them of being mercenaries fighting for Ukraine. Three have been sentenced to death. The charges against Healy were announced Friday.
Investigators find missile fragments in apartment wreckage
Investigators have combed through the wreckage from a Russian airstrike early Friday on residential areas near the Ukrainian port of Odesa that killed 21 people.
Ukrainian Prosecutor-General Iryna Venediktova said the investigators were recovering fragments from missiles that struck an apartment building in the small coastal town of Serhiivka.
They also were taking measurements to determine the trajectory of the weapons and “the specific people guilty of this terrible war crime,” she said.
Larissa Andruchenko said she was in the kitchen making tea at about 1 a.m. when a blast blew the doors open. At first she thought the propane gas tank had exploded, and called her husband to the kitchen
.“And right then the lights went off and it was nightmare. The two of us are in the kitchen with glass flying, everything was flying,” she said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said three anti-ship missiles struck “an ordinary residential building, a nine-story building” housing about 160 people.
The victims of Friday’s attack also included four members of a family staying at a seaside campsite, he said.‘I emphasise: This is deliberate direct Russian terror, and not some mistake or an accidental missile strike,” Zelensky said.
Fighting intensifies for Ukraine's last bastion in eastern Luhansk province
Fighting intensified on Saturday for Lysychansk, Ukraine‘s last bastion in the strategic eastern province of Luhansk, while blasts shook a southern city after the civilian toll from Russian strikes climbed in towns well behind the frontlines.
Andrei Marochko, an officer of the pro-Russian Luhansk People’s Militia, was quoted by Russia‘s TASS news agency as saying that the militia’s red hammer-and-sickle flag was now flying over the administrative building in Lysychansk, although Ukraine‘s military rejected claims that the city was encircled.
Russian media showed videos of Luhansk militia parading in the streets of Lysychansk waving flags and cheering, but Ukraine National Guard spokesman Ruslan Muzychuk told Ukrainian national television the city remained in Ukrainian hands.
“Now there are fierce battles near Lysychansk, however, fortunately, the city is not surrounded and is under the control of the Ukrainian army,” Muzychuk said.
He said the situations in the Lysychansk and Bakhmut areas, as well as in Kharkiv region, were the most difficult on the entire front line.
“The goal of the enemy here remains access to the administrative border of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Also, in the Sloviansk direction, the enemy is attempting assault actions,” he said.
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