Live, war in Ukraine: Donald Trump says he will send more 'defensive' weapons to kyiv

The US president said Monday that the United States would send additional weapons to Ukraine, after the White House announced it was suspending some deliveries last week.

"We're going to have to send more weapons, primarily defensive weapons," said Donald Trump, who said he was "unhappy" with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. "They're being hit very, very hard," he added.

Russian drone strikes this morning killed a 34-year-old woman and injured 82 people, including eight children, in Kharkiv, according to a new report from the regional prosecutor's office . According to the prosecutor's office, around ten drones fell on the city between 5:20 and 5:40 a.m., and again between 10:20 and 10:30 a.m.

Pokrovsk remains the focal point of the Russian offensive in Donetsk Oblast. Of the 97 clashes recorded on Monday, 40 took place in this sector, according to the Ukrainian army's general staff .

At the end of last month, Oleksandr Syrsky, commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian forces, announced that 110,000 Russian troops were deployed in this sector. According to the Ukrainian website DeepState , which tracks developments on the front, Russian forces are located a few kilometers south of the city, which had a population of 60,000 before the war. Just under 2,000 remained in May.

The capture of this important logistical hub, which the Russian army has been struggling to secure for a year, could open the way to Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, the last two major urban centers in the oblast under Ukrainian control.

As for Bakhmut, which fell in May 2023 into the hands of the Russian army supported by mercenaries from the Wagner Group after several months of an extremely deadly siege, Denis Pushilin, head of the pro-Russian administration of the self-proclaimed republic of Donetsk, announced in May his intention to turn it into a "museum city" , just like Avdiivka and Vouhledar.

The body of a woman has been pulled from the rubble of a building in Kostiantynivka ( 🚩 ) hit by Russian military fire, and another person may still be inside, reports Vadym Filashkin , head of the Donetsk Oblast military administration. Other Russian shelling has injured seven people in the region, including three in Kramatorsk, he adds.

The Ukrainian army confirmed that it had used drones to target a factory in Krasnozavodsk ( 🚩 ), in the Moscow region, where munitions are manufactured, last night.

"The company produces pyrotechnics and ammunition, including thermobaric warheads for Shahed-type drones," the army said on Telegram , adding that the damage was being assessed.

The attack was announced in the morning by Andriy Kovalenko, head of the center for combating disinformation at the National Defense and National Security Council of Ukraine.

Roman Starovoit, the Russian transport minister dismissed on Monday by President Vladimir Putin, committed suicide a few hours later, the Russian Investigative Committee announced in a statement.

"The body of the former Russian Minister of Transport, Roman Vladimirovich Starovoit, was found in his car with a gunshot wound," the investigative committee said, adding that "the main theory [of his death] is suicide."

According to Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov, the bombings that targeted Kharkiv and its surrounding area this morning left at least 66 people injured, including seven children. The number is expected to rise further, he said. Eight of the injured are hospitalized, including two children, while one woman died of her injuries.

On X, Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans reiterated the importance of defending the "eastern flank" of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). He therefore announced that, starting in September , "Dutch F-35s will monitor NATO airspace in Poland, in collaboration with Norway." " This way, we keep Russia at bay and protect supply lines to Ukraine," he wrote.

Several Ukrainian media outlets are reporting that fighting is currently underway in Dachne ( 📍 ) in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, despite the Russian military earlier claiming to have captured the town. The operational and tactical group operating in the area has denied this to several media outlets, claiming that the town is "still fully under the control of Ukrainian troops," but that the Russian military is storming it.

The head of the Zaporizhia Oblast Military Administration, Ivan Fedorov, reported on Telegram that a Russian morning attack had injured at least 17 people, a figure revised upwards. Four people were hospitalized, while 11 others were treated by emergency services, the same source reported.

Earlier in the day , Mr. Fedorov said that the Russian bombing had targeted a university building.

On this subject, I refer you to the article by our journalist Benjamin Quénelle, where he discusses Vladimir Putin's choice of the "long war."

After five months of negotiations and a sixth phone call with Vladimir Putin on Thursday, July 3, Donald Trump acknowledged that he had achieved "no progress" on Ukraine beyond prisoner exchanges. The American president wanted a rapid ceasefire, but the Kremlin leader, who is demanding a more comprehensive peace agreement, actually wants neither.

Mr. Putin and his regime, who initially did not anticipate such a long and massive war, now have an interest in ensuring it lasts a long time. Politically, the elites are behind him, more dependent than ever on the Kremlin, linked to its military successes. For many Russians, the conflict has also become a social elevator because it partially rebalances the wealth gap between large cities and peripheral Russia.

By boosting the military-industrial complex and indirectly boosting regional industrial centers, but also by lavishly financing hundreds of thousands of men on the front lines and their families behind the lines, in the poorest regions, the war has been beneficial to both the elites and the Russian heartland. A halt to the fighting could jeopardize this new "stability," the watchword of Mr. Putin, who has been in power for a quarter of a century.

You can find the full article below.

According to Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov, Russian attacks on Sunday night and into the morning left at least 47 people injured.

On Telegram , the Russian Defense Ministry claimed to have captured the town of Bezssalivka ( 📍 ) in Sumy Oblast.

The Russian army announced the capture of a town in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, a first since the start of the war. This information has not yet been confirmed by the Ukrainian army.

Already, since mid-June, Russia had announced that it had succeeded in gaining a foothold in this oblast, a claim that Kiev immediately denied. For several weeks, Russian forces have continued their advance into the neighboring Donetsk Oblast. The Russian Defense Ministry had stated, as early as June 8, that some of its units had reached the border and that they would continue their offensive further west. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov assured, the following day, that this offensive would aim to create a "buffer zone" with the partially occupied Donetsk Oblast, over which the Kremlin claims full sovereignty and which Russia has annexed.

Adrien Vautier/Le Pictorium for “Le Monde”

It's been almost three months since Anna's friends began leaving the small town of Mejove, which had a pre-war population of around 7,000. Today, only she remains, aged 17, who prefers not to give her last name, on Thursday, June 12, as she serves drinks to her new clientele: soldiers returning from the front for a break at the rear, or about to be deployed. The atmosphere in town reflects the café, a mix of civilians and soldiers, on roads crossed by unmarked khaki cars. The Russian armed forces are getting closer. " Of course it's scary," says young Anna, her face nonetheless serene, who is keen to do her internship in this small café in the Dnipropetrovsk region, located about fifteen kilometers west of the border with Donetsk, the epicenter of the fighting in Donbass.

" The town of Dachne [ 📍 ] in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast has been liberated," the Russian military announced in a statement . This is the first time since the start of the full-scale invasion that the Russian army has crossed the border into this region, which borders Donetsk Oblast, annexed by the Russian Federation under the name "Donetsk People's Republic."

Following a Russian attack on the night of Sunday to Monday in the Kharkiv region which left at least 29 people injured , according to the latest report from the head of the military administration of the region, Oleh Synehoubov, a new bombardment targeted the city of Kharkiv in the morning.

According to him, 16 people were injured, one of them in serious condition, while one person could be trapped under the rubble.

The Krasnozavodsk chemical plant in Russia's Moscow region has been attacked. The plant produces explosives, gunpowder, components for ammunition and missile weapons, Andriy Kovalenko, head of the center for countering disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, wrote on Telegram .