Russians "blocked"?; Ukrainians fight back fiercely; Kadyrov also spoke up

Russians "blocked"?; Ukrainians fight back fiercely; Kadyrov also spoke up

Russian forces continue their offensive on Donetsk.

Explosions in Kharkiv and other regions.

The Russian army has opened humanitarian corridors in the Black and Azov seas.

Claims by Ukrainian officials that a Russian-flagged cargo ship was detained in the Turkish port of Karasu on suspicion of transporting stolen Ukrainian wheat was denied by the Kremlin. As well as claims that the Russian army is shelling its own cities - to accuse Kyiv.

Images of war

The Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed the attack on Snake Island

Russian Ministry of Defense announced today that a Russian warplane attacked Ukraine's Snake Island in the Black Sea during the night.

On the other hand, the chief of staff of the Ukrainian president, Andriy Yermak, posted on Telegram a video of three soldiers raising a large Ukrainian flag on the island, from which Russian forces withdrew on June 30, reports Reuters. At a regular press conference, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that part of the Ukrainian detachment on the island was "destroyed." Previously, the spokesman of the Odessa military administration, Serhiy Bratchuk, announced that Russian forces fired rockets at Snake Island and the nearby city of Odessa this morning.

He stated on the Telegram channel that two rockets caused "significant damage" to the pier on the island, the Guardian reported.

Thousands of victims

The Ukrainian army near Soledarsk has already lost 2.500 people in Russian aviation attacks, the Ministry of Defense of Russia announced on Thursday.

"The adversary is suffering considerable losses in all directions. In the attack by the high-precision weapons of the Russian Aerospace Forces on the combat positions of the Ukrainian army in the joint direction, the total losses of the 24th mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are already about 2.500 people, which is more than 60 percent of its soldiers", the announcement states and adds that the 79th Airborne Assault Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was practically completely destroyed, which lost about 80 percent of its personnel.

Footage of the aftermath of the attack by the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the Petrovsky district of Donetsk

Russians "blocked"?

The Ukrainian army has announced that it has prevented a major advance of Russian troops towards the north of Donetsk, but that the pressure is increasing with heavy shelling of Slavyansk and nearby populated areas.

The announcement says that Russian forces are bombarding several Ukrainian cities with heavy weapons, in order to enable the infantry to advance southward and get closer to Slavyansk, the Guardian reports. Other Russian forces are said to have aimed to capture two towns on the road to Kramatorsk, south of Slavyansk, and to have tried to take control of the main highway linking Lugansk and Donetsk regions. "We are keeping the enemy at the border of Lugansk and Donetsk regions, said the governor of Lugansk, Serhiy Haidai.

He also claims that the Russian forces have not yet fully occupied the Lugansk region and that the Russian forces have suffered "colossal losses".

The latest report from the front

Kadyrov spoke up

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said that the next task as part of the special military operation in Ukraine will be the liquidation of the remaining terrorists who once escaped from Chechnya.

"This week we liberated the entire territory of the LNR. It is, without a doubt, a historic and fateful achievement for Lugansk, but for us Chechens the end of the operation is still far away. We hope that they will give us permission to, if necessary, reach Kyiv and deal with terrorists who once escaped from Chechnya," Kadyrov wrote on Telegram.

He added that a warrant has been issued for those terrorists and that they are now in Kyiv.