- Vladimir Putin challenged Westerners on Thursdayasserting, in a speech delivered to the leaders of the parliamentary groups and broadcast on television, that Russia had no “not started the serious things yet” in Ukraine. “We hear that they want to defeat us on the battlefield. What to say ? Let them try! »launched the master of the Kremlin. “At the same time, we do not refuse peace negotiations. But those who refuse them should know that longer [ils refuseront]the more difficult it will be for them to negotiate with us”he added.
- Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov announced on July 7 that Russian forces in Ukraine were pausing to “regain their combat abilities”. Mr Konashenkov did not specify the expected duration of this operational pause which does not mean the cessation of fighting.
- On the ground, the time was not for negotiations on Thursday but for attacks on towns still in Ukrainian hands. In Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, a shelling in the city center killed one civilian and injured six. Ukraine denies that Russia controls 100% of Luhansk Oblastwhose governor, Serhi Haïdaï, accuses the Russians of enlisting by force and brutalizing the inhabitants of the towns of Sievierodonetsk and Lyssytchansk.
- In the north, in the Kharkiv region, Russian shelling killed three civilians and injured five, while a limited offensive failed at the city gates. In the South, the Russians are still bombarding the region of Mykolaiv and fighting rages around the town of Khersonwhich they have occupied since the first days of the war but must face, according to kyiv, Ukrainian counter-attacks.
- The Ukrainian army finally claimed on Thursday to have regained a foothold on Serpents’ Island in the Black Sea, after having handed over its flag there a few days earlier, following the withdrawal of Russian forces from this strategic island located opposite the mouth of the Danube. Moscow claimed to have carried out a strike there in the morning, killing Ukrainian soldiers and putting the survivors to flight. Statements impossible to verify from an independent source.
- In Indonesia, a meeting of G20 foreign ministers has started Thursday on the island of Bali, in the presence of Russia and Ukraine’s Western allies. Global food security and war-driven energy price volatility will be on the agenda. The European Union has warned that it refuses that Russia uses this G20 as a“a platform for its propaganda” on the conflict in Ukraine.
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Maintenance. “Russia has ceased to be a country that can be treated normally”
Chronic. “Vladimir Putin is betting on the inappetence and fatigue of Western societies”
