Russian drone strike on Sumy kills 2, injures 19
Key Developments on July 3:
- Russian drone strike on Sumy kills 2 and injures 19
- After Wagner’s armed uprising, Prigozhin and Shoigu break their silence
- According to the Defense Ministry, Ukraine has liberated over 37 square kilometers in the past week
- Writer Victoria Amelina dies after being injured during a strike in Kramatorsk
- New body investigating Russian aggression crimes opens office in The Hague
- Ukraine calls Unilever an “international war sponsor”.
The military administration of Sumy Oblast reported on July 3 that two people were killed and 19 others injured in a Russian drone strike on the northern city of Sumy.
Four of the injured are still being treated in hospital. According to the military administration, two of them are in intensive care and the other two are in moderate condition.
Fifteen other victims, including a five-year-old child, have returned home after receiving medical treatment for less serious injuries.
Russia launched four Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones in downtown Sumy at around 10:49 a.m. local time. The military administration announced that two residential buildings and an administration building were damaged in the attack.
Sumy is about 40 kilometers from the Russian border. Russian forces regularly target Sumy Oblast, resulting in civilian casualties and damage to infrastructure.
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Prigozhin, Shoigu break their silence following Wagner's armed rebellion
In his first voice message since June 26, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner Group, expressed his expectation of “further victories at the front”. However, he did not go into the details and gave no further information.
The message was published on a Telegram channel connected to the Wagner group, and not that of the Concord group, the Prigozhin press service.
It is not clear when and where the message was recorded. Speculation and rumors about Prigozhin’s whereabouts have circulated since the June 24 end of the short-lived Wagner Uprising.
In early June, the Russian Ministry of Defense issued a decree designed to coerce Wagner mercenaries under its influence.
This led to an armed uprising, with Prigozhin and his troops stopping short of Moscow before agreeing to resettle in Belarus under a deal apparently brokered by Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu also broke his silence for the first time since the Wagner uprising, claiming that such “provocations” and “attempts at destabilization” have had no impact on Russian military loyalty.
The Russian state news agency RIA Novosti quoted Shoigu as saying that “the provocation did not affect the activities of the military units”.
There has been a public dispute between Prigozhin and Shoigu for months. Prigozhin claimed that the Russian Ministry of Defense failed to provide Wagner forces with sufficient ammunition during the ten-month Battle of Bakhmut, resulting in increased casualties.
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Defense Ministry says Ukraine liberated over 37 square kilometers in past week
Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar reported on July 3 that Ukrainian forces liberated 28.4 square kilometers in the south and nine square kilometers in the east in the past week.
According to Maliar, the Ukrainian armed forces are actively pursuing successful offensive operations aimed at reaching Melitopol and Berdyansk in Zaporizhia Oblast.
These operations are specifically focused on advancing through the Novodarivka-Pryiutne, Novodanylivka-Robotyne and Novosilka-Staromaiorske directions, Maliar added.
The liberated area in southern Ukraine now totals 158.4 square kilometers.
Both offensive and defensive operations were observed along the Eastern Front. According to Maliar, Russian forces are attempting to advance toward Lyman, Avdiivka and Marinka, while Ukrainian defenses are resisting in those regions.
Ukrainian troops are also advancing towards Bakhmut, Maliar added.
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Writer Victoria Amelina dies after being injured in Kramatorsk strike
Writers’ Union PEN Ukraine confirmed that Ukrainian writer and war crimes researcher Victoria Amelina died from injuries sustained in the June 27 missile attack on Kramatorsk.
Amelina was in Kramatorsk with a delegation of Colombian writers and journalists when Russian forces were there fired Two Iskander missiles are aimed at the city, hitting a popular downtown restaurant.
Kramatorsk is about 55 kilometers from the frontline in Donetsk Oblast, and many foreign journalists and Ukrainian soldiers on vacation traveled there to regroup. The city was a frequent target of Russian missiles.
“Doctors and paramedics in Kramatorsk and Dnipro did everything they could to save her life, but the injuries were fatal,” the statement said.
“Victoria’s closest people and friends were with her in the final days of her life.”
After the full-scale invasion began, Amelina decided to train as a war crimes researcher and joined the human rights organization Truth Hounds. She had documented Russian war crimes in liberated areas in eastern, southern and northern Ukraine.
Amelina was working on completing her first non-fiction book in English entitled War and Justice Diary: Looking at Women Looking at War, about women documenting Russian war crimes and living through the war.
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New body for investigating Russian crime of aggression opens office in The Hague
The European Commission announced on July 3 that the International Center for the Prosecution of Aggressive Crimes Against Ukraine (ICPA) has opened an office in The Hague.
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues to bring unspeakable horrors every day. Deeply worrying news of premeditated attacks on civilians, including children, has become a grim daily reminder of the bloodshed that has brought Putin back to our continent,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
According to von der Leyen, the ICPA “will play a key role in ensuring that the (Russian) perpetrators are brought to justice, including for the crime of aggression.”
The ICPA has been supported by the EU since March and consists of prosecutors from Ukraine, the EU, the USA and the International Criminal Court (ICC). Its main goal is to gather evidence as a first step in establishing a tribunal to hold the Russian leadership accountable for its war against Ukraine.
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Ukraine’s National Corruption Prevention Agency (NACP) on July 3 included British company Unilever in its list of “international war sponsors” for continuing to do business in Russia.
Unilever previously promised to shut down operations in Russia, but has not done so.
According to the NACP, Unilever paid around $50 million in taxes to the Russian state budget in 2022. Unilever’s profit in Russia jumped from $61 million in 2021 to over $117 million last year.
More than 3,000 people work for Unilever in Russia, the anti-corruption agency wrote. In 2022, the Russian business accounted for 1.4% of the group’s sales and 2% of its net profit, which increased by 24.9% compared to 2021 to eight billion euros.
“We included this company in the list of international war sponsors because it helps finance the war against Ukraine with its hundreds of millions of tax contributions to the Russian budget, and in this way may even indirectly fund some Russian mercenary groups,” he said NACP chief Oleksandr Novikov.
“Unilever must leave Russia now or history will remember its complicity in this war.”
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