Ukraine war – live: Top general in Putin’s forces ‘killed in missile strike’ as Moscow hits Kryvyi Rih

A Russian general leading troops in southern Ukraine has been killed in a missile strike, a pro-Russian military blogger has claimed.

One of the most prominent Russian bloggers, Voenkor Kotenok, said that the senior Russian officer was killed as troops of Russia’s Fifth Army were forced to leave Makarivka in southern Donetsk, where Ukraine has liberated a number of villages in their counteroffensive.

With 423,000 subscribers, the blogger said in a Telegram post that “as a result of an enemy missile attack, the Chief of Staff of the 35th Combined Arms Army, Major General Sergei Goryachev, was killed.”

Elizabeth Gilbert has announced that she is cancelling the planned publication of her new book, amid complaints over its use of a Siberian setting.

Titled The Snow Forest, the novel had been announced by Bloomsbury last week, with a publication date scheduled for February 2024.

Gilbert, the 53-year-old writer best known for her 2006 memoir Eat, Pray, Love, shared a video on social media addressing concerns over The Snow Forest’s subject matter in light of Russia’s ongoing war with Ukraine.

UK businesses continuing to operate in Russia are “complicit in the war crimes” committed against the Ukrainian people, MPs have heard.

Labour former minister Sir Chris Bryant said: “The Russian government introduced a new law last year which requires all businesses, including foreign businesses that have any footprint in the Russian Federation, to assist in the war in Ukraine.

“That means any British businesses who are still doing business now in Russia are complicit in the war crimes that Russia is perpetrating against the Ukrainian people. Would the minister now make it absolutely clear that all British businesses should completely and utterly desist from business in Russia immediately?”

Foreign Office minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said there has been a “positive attitude” from British businesses and a “willingness to take financial pain immediately in order to step away” from Russian markets and activity.

She said the government will continue to work with businesses.

Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed on Tuesday that Moscow was annulling a cooperation agreement with Ukraine on the use of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait, Russian state-owned news agency RIA reported.

Ukraine reported more gains in the early stages of its counteroffensive on Tuesday, but said Russian forces were “doing everything” they can to defend the territory they have occupied.

Deputy Defence Minister said Ukrainian troops had advanced 250 metres (275 yards) near the small eastern city of Bakhmut, 200 metres on the Toretsk front in east Ukraine, and 500 metres to 1 km in the direction of the port city of Berdyansk.

Maliar said Ukrainian forces had gained control of an area of up to 3 square km (1.16 square miles) but did not say over what period.

She said late on Monday that Ukrainian forces had advanced 6.5 km and taken control of an area of 90 square km. That was still only a fraction of the 40,000 square miles that remains under Russia’s occupation.

“The enemy is doing everything to hold on to the positions it has seized,” Maliar wrote on the Telegram messaging app on Tuesday morning.

She said Russian forces had air support and were showering Ukrainian troops with intense artillery fire, and that Ukrainian troops were encountering “continuous minefields which are combined with anti-tank ditches.”

“All this is combined with constant counterattacks by enemy units on armoured vehicles and the massive use of ATGMs (anti-tank guided missiles) and kamikaze drones,” she said.

Reuters could not verify the battlefield situation. Russia had not officially acknowledged the Ukrainian gains and has said it has repulsed Ukrainian attacks, inflicting heavy casualties since the counteroffensive began.

Russia’s defence ministry said on Tuesday its forces had repelled Ukrainian attacks near the villages of Makarivka, Rivnopil and Prechystivka in the southern part of Donetsk region, state-owned news agency RIA reported.

In its daily briefing, the defence ministry also said Ukraine was continuing to mount attacks in the south Donetsk and Bakhmut areas.

Ukraine has said its forces have recaptured a number of villages from Russian forces in the southeast since starting its long-anticipated counteroffensive last week.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday that Russian tactical nuclear weapons would be physically deployed on the territory of Belarus “in several days”, earlier than previously announced, the Belta state news agency reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia would start deploying such weapons in Belarus after special storage facilities were made ready on 7-8 July, Moscow’s first move of such warheads outside Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Lukashenko was cited as saying that Belarus was now ready to host the weapons.

“Everything is ready. I think we will have what we asked for in a few days, And even a little bit more,” Lukashenko was cited as saying.

Putin announced in March he had agreed to deploy such weapons in Belarus, pointing to U.S deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in a host of European countries over many decades.

Putin’s nuclear move is being watched closely by both the United States and its NATO allies in Europe and by China, which has repeatedly cautioned against the use of nuclear weapons in the Ukraine conflict.

The United States has criticised Putin’s nuclear deployment but has said it has no intention of altering its position on strategic nuclear weapons and also that it has not seen any signs Russia was preparing to use a nuclear weapon.

It is still unclear where the Russian nuclear warheads – which will remain under Russian control – will be kept in Belarus.

British training, equipment and advice assistance to Ukraine has “helped to speed up the pathway” to the point where Ukraine becomes a full member of Nato, foreign secretary James Cleverly has told MPs.

Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy called on Britain to “play a leading role in securing Ukraine‘s path to join Nato”.

He said: “As the Nato secretary general said last month, Ukraine‘s rightful place is in Nato, and over time our support will help make this possible.

“Does the foreign secretary agree with me that once – with our support – Ukraine has prevailed in its war against Russia’s invasion, there can be no Minsk 3.0 and that Britain should play a leading role in securing Ukraine‘s path to join Nato.”

Mr Cleverly replied: “I’ve very glad that (he) agrees with the government’s position on this that Ukraine‘s rightful place is within Nato.

“We have worked towards that aim and our support, the training that we provided, the equipment that we provided, the advice that we provide will all have helped to speed up the pathway from now to the point where Ukraine becomes a full member of Nato.”

Under the plaintive painted eyes of the holy, a volunteer team of two United Nations-backed engineers watched as a whirling laser took a million measurements a second inside Kyiv‘s All Saints Church.

The laser swept quickly across the church, part of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, while taking a series of incredibly high-resolution photographs.

Those images will be stitched together with navigational data to create a perfect three-dimensional rendering of the holy site, part of a project to protect and preserve historic places across Ukraine now in as much in danger as its people amid Russia’s war on the country.

Jon Gambrell has the full story:

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, said on Tuesday that he was “not sure” if Wagner would stay in Ukraine after having taken the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut after a months-long battle.

Wagner mercenaries have in the past been active in Africa and the Middle East too and still have some contracts there.