Russia Ukraine war: ‘We are preparing for nuclear explosion at Zaporizhzhia,’ MP warns

Ukrainian writer and war crimes researcher Victoria Amelina has died after succumbing to her injuries from the missile attack on a Ukrainian pizzeria in Kramatorsk.

The 37-year-old, among the dozens struck in the Russian missile attack, was admitted to a hospital in Dnipro on Tuesday. The doctors “did everything they could to save her life but unfortunately the wound was fatal,” writers’ association PEN Ukraine said in a statement.

“It is with great pain that we inform you that the heart of the writer Victoria Amelina stopped beating on 1 July,” the association said.

“In the last days of Victoria’s life, her family and friends were by her side.”

The death toll in the attack has now risen to 13 after the award-winning writer’s death.

She was dining with a team of Colombian journalists and writers in the city’s Ria lounge when the attack took place. The attack was carried out by S-300 missiles, Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier.

More than 60 civilians were injured in the attack, which has been called a war crime by human rights groups.

Ukrainian general Oleksander Tarnavskiy said his country’s forces were “systematically destroying the enemy” and reported the deaths of several hundred Russian soldiers over the last 24 hours.

General Tarnavskiy is handling the offensive and counteroffensive actions on Ukraine’s southern front.

Ukraine‘s commander-in-chief, General Valery Zaluzhniy, has also reported steady, if slow, advances in the campaign.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has also called the progress limited but says the drive is “not a Hollywood movie” with expectations of instant success.

The fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces is mostly flaring in Ukraine’s east and south, where the deputy defence minister reported fierce clashes.

“Everywhere things are hot” in the east, with Russian forces advancing near the beleaguered cities of Avdiivka and Maryinka in Donetsk region, deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said.

“In addition, the enemy has started an attack in the Svatove area,” she said, referring to a region of northeastern Ukraine where Russian forces have been active.

“Fierce fighting is taking place…The situation is quite complicated.”

The minister reported “partial success” south of Bakhmut, taken in late May by Russian forces after many months of battles.

On the southern front, where Ukrainian forces have recaptured several villages, the minister said there had been “gradual advances” in two areas.

“Our troops are facing intense enemy resistance, remote mining and the redeployment of enemy reserves, but are tirelessly creating the conditions for the fastest possible advance,” she wrote on Telegram.

Russia has brought some 700,000 children from the conflict zones in Ukraine into Russian territory, a top Russian official said.

“In recent years, 700,000 children have found refuge with us, fleeing the bombing and shelling from the conflict areas in Ukraine,” Grigory Karasin, head of the international committee in the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament, said yesterday.

Moscow claims its programme of bring children from Ukraine into Russian territory is to protect orphans and children abandoned in the conflict zone but officials in the Volodymyr Zelensky administration have alleged illegal deportation of tens of thousands of children.

UN investigators have said that Russia’s forced deportation of Ukrainian children to areas under its control amounts to a war crime.

Most of the movement of people and children occurred in the first few months of the war and before Ukraine started its major counteroffensive to regain occupied territories in the east and south.

Satellite images analyzed by the Associated Press on Saturday showed what appeared to be a newly built military-style camp in Belarus, with statements from a Belarusian guerrilla group and officials suggesting it may be used to house fighters from the Wagner mercenary group.

The images provided by Planet Labs PLC suggest that dozens of tents have been erected within the past two weeks at a former military base outside Osipovichi, a town 230 kilometers (142 miles) north of the Ukrainian border. A satellite photo taken on Jun. 15 shows no sign of the rows of white and green structures that are clearly visible in a later image, dated Jun. 30.

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and his fighters escaped prosecution and were offered refuge in Belarus last week after Minsk helped broker a deal to end what appeared to be an armed insurrection by the mercenary group. The abortive revolt saw Wagner troops capture a military headquarters in southern Russia and march hundreds of kilometers (miles) towards Moscow, seemingly unimpeded.

A Ukrainian resident is reconstructing his home using war debris after it was destroyed.

Igor Knyazev is from Dovhenke, a village around 20km (12 miles) from Izium where mass graves were found after Russian forces withdrew last year.

The father-of-three fled after Russia’s invasion, but has now returned to try and rebuild his life after Kharkiv was de-occupied in September 2022.

Not a single building has remained intact following the fighting.

Knyazev, with his father and friends, have been using leftover crates from “Grad” rockets to build the walls of his house.

The number of military patrols around the site of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and in the nearby city of Enerhodar have gradually been decreasing, according to the Main Directorate of Intelligence at the Ministry of Defence (GUR). Meanwhile, personnel remaining at the plant – which is occupied by Moscow’s forces – have been told to blame Ukraine “in case of any emergency situations”, says Kyiv.

“According to the latest data, the occupation contingent is gradually leaving the territory of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant,” GUR said on the Telegram messaging app.

President Joe Biden will head to Europe at week’s end for a three-country trip intended to bolster the international coalition against Russian aggression as the war in Ukraine extends well into its second year.

The main focus of Biden’s five-day visit will be the annual NATO summit, held this year in Vilnius, Lithuania. Also planned are stops in Helsinki, Finland, to commemorate the Nordic country’s entrance into the 31-nation military alliance in April, and Britain, the White House announced Sunday.

Biden will begin his trip next Sunday in London, meeting with King Charles III. The president did not attend Charles’s coronation in May, sending first lady Jill Biden to represent the United States. In June, Biden hosted British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at the White House, where the two leaders pledged continued cooperation in defending Ukraine.