Live: Putin says Russia will resist ‘sanctions and provocations’

11:45pm: Putin reassures Asian allies of Russia’s stability after ‘attempted armed mutiny’

President Vladimir Putin reassured Asian leaders of Russia’s stability and unity on Tuesday in his first appearance at an international forum since the country was rocked by a brief armed mutiny last month.

“The Russian people are consolidated as never before,” Putin told a virtual meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a group that also includes China and India.

“Russian political circles and the whole of society clearly demonstrated their unity and elevated sense of responsibility for the fate of the Fatherland when they responded as a united front against an attempted armed mutiny,” Putin said.

11:18am: Ukraine says Georgia ‘torturing’ jailed ex-president Saakashvili

Ukraine on Tuesday accused Georgia of “torturing” jailed ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili, who is now a Ukrainian national, a day after he appeared extremely emaciated in a court hearing.

“Such treatment of Mikheil Saakashvili is absolutely unacceptable. The Georgian authorities must stop torturing this citizen of Ukraine,” the foreign ministry said.

11:00am: Putin says Russia will resist ‘sanctions and provocations’

President Vladimir Putin told Iranian, Chinese and other leaders on Tuesday that Russia would continue to counter sanctions imposed by Western countries over Moscow’s large-scale military operation in Ukraine.

“Russia is confidently resisting and will continue to resist external pressure, sanctions and provocations,” the Russian leader said during a televised address to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, during which he thanked the alliance for their support during a recent armed mutiny in Russia.

10:21am: Belarus opposition leader told husband died in jail

Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said on Tuesday she received an anonymous message saying her jailed husband Sergei Tikhanovsky, who she has not heard from since March, was dead.

“Today I received a very strange and horrifying message. An unknown person wrote that my husband, Siarhei, has died in Zhodino prison,” Tikhanovskaya said in English on Twitter.

“There is no evidence or proof for this claim. This isn’t the first time such rumours have circulated and I don’t know how to comment on this. I haven’t heard from Siarhei since March 9 and lawyers are denied access to him,” she wrote.

Belarus is an authoritarian state in which opposition voices and independent media have been stifled during President Alexander Lukashenko’s nearly three decades in power.

The Belarusian human rights organisation Viasna says there are now more than 1,500 political prisoners in Belarus.

Tikhanovsky planned to run against Lukashenko in the August 2020 presidential election but was arrested and detained before the vote.

9:05am: Journalist badly beaten in Russia’s Chechnya province

An award-winning Russian investigative journalist is in hospital after being badly beaten by armed assailants during a trip to Chechnya, the Memorial human rights group said on Tuesday.

“Elena Milashina’s fingers have been broken and she is sometimes losing consciousness. She has bruises all over her body,” the group said on social media.

The incident happened early on Tuesday as Milashina and Alexander Nemov, a lawyer, were travelling from the airport.

“They were savagely kicked, including in the face, received death threats and were threatened with a gun to the head. Their equipment was taken away and smashed,” Memorial said.

The Committee Against Torture, a human rights group, published photos of Milashina in hospital with her head shaved and covered in a green-coloured dye used on cuts and her hands bandaged.

The media rights group Reporters Without Borders said it was “horrified by the savage attack” on Milashina.

Milashina’s paper Novaya Gazeta, Russia’s top independent publication, confirmed the incident.

8:59am: Last few days ‘fruitful’ for military, says senior Ukrainian official 

A senior Ukrainian security official said on Tuesday that Kyiv’s troops are “fulfilling the number one task” in their counteroffensive against Russian forces and have had a “particularly fruitful” last few days.

“At this stage of active hostilities, Ukraine’s Defence Forces are fulfilling the number one task – the maximum destruction of manpower, equipment, fuel depots, military vehicles, command posts, artillery and air defence forces of the russian army,” Oleksiy Danilov, the head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, wrote on Twitter.

“The last few days have been particularly fruitful.”

8:20am: ‘We need a lot more’: Lack of firepower hampers Ukraine’s advance on Zaporizhzhia front line

As Ukraine’s top army general has put it, every metre of ground in the country’s counteroffensive is being won “with blood”. The Ukrainian soldiers’ progress is particularly gruelling in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region. FRANCE 24’s Gwendoline Debono reports from the front line, where Russian forces are giving Ukraine’s artillerymen no respite. 

7:42am: Russia says Ukraine attacked Moscow with drones

Russia said on Tuesday that Ukraine had launched a drone attack on Moscow and the surrounding region that disrupted flights at one of the capital’s main airports.

At least three drones were intercepted in the skies over the Moscow region – including two just 30 km (19 miles) southwest of the Kremlin, Russian news agencies said. One drone was detected in the neighbouring Kaluga region.

Landings and takeoffs at Moscow’s Vnukovo were restricted for several hours early on Tuesday before normal operations resumed after 05:00 GMT. A number of flights were diverted on their approach to other airports.

“The Kyiv regime’s attempt to attack an area where civilian infrastructure is located, including the airport, which incidentally also receives foreign flights, is yet another act of terrorism,” Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova said.

6:32am: Russian air defences down two drones near Moscow, state media report 

Russian air defences downed two drones in the Moscow region on Tuesday, state media reported, adding there were no casualties.

“Two drones were suppressed by means of electronic warfare” in the region of New Moscow, emergency services told the TASS news agency.

A third drone was “shot down” in the Kaluga region, around 190 kilometres (110 miles) from the capital, TASS said.

According to “preliminary reports”, the three drones were heading toward Moscow, TASS said.

4:34am: Moscow diplomats meet with Russian detained in US on cybercrime charges

Vladimir Dunaev, a Russian national who is in pre-trial detention in Ohio on cybercrime charges, has met for the first time with Russian embassy employees, the Russian embassy in the US told the TASS state news agency on Tuesday.

Dunaev was a member of a cybercriminal organization that deployed a computer banking trojan and ransomware suite of malware known as “Trickbot”, the Justice Department said after his 2021 extradition from South Korea to Ohio.

“The compatriot does not consider himself guilty,” Nadezhda Shumova, head of the consular section at the embassy, told TASS.

“He does not intend to sign an agreement with the prosecutor’s office. Will stand to the end and fight for justice,” she added.

Key developments from Monday, July 3:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for a major upgrade of anti-aircraft defences after Russian drones killed at least two people in the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy on Monday.

Zelensky made a joint call for the extension of the Black Sea grain deal with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Read yesterday’s liveblog to see how all the day’s events unfolded.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)