🔴Live: Zelensky, Duda pay tribute to victims of WW2 massacre ahead of NATO summit

4:08pm: Turkish foreign minister discusses Black Sea grain deal with Russia’s Lavrov

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan discussed the Black Sea grain deal and Ukraine with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov during a phone call, state broadcaster TRT Haber reported on Sunday.

1:39pm: Dynamo Kyiv criticise Fenerbahce for pre-season games in Russia

Ukrainian club Dynamo Kyiv said Saturday that Turkish club Fenerbahce were “without honour and conscience” in a strongly-worded statement after the side travelled to Russia to play in a pre-season tournament.

Fenerbahce are playing Zenit St Petersburg, Red Star Belgrade and Azerbaijan side Neftci in the Pari Premier Cup from Sunday, with matches being held at the Gazprom Arena in St Petersburg.

Russian teams were suspended from participation in FIFA and UEFA competitions after the country’s invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow describes as a “special military operation”.

“The bloody money of (Russian energy giant) Gazprom has eclipsed everything for you, left you without honour and conscience,” the statement read.

Fenerbahce is yet to respond. 

1:22pm: Russia shoots down missiles over Crimea and Rostov region, officials say

Russian air defence systems shot down two missiles on Sunday, Russian officials said, one over the annexed Crimean peninsula and another over Russia’s southern Rostov region that also borders Ukraine.

A cruise missile was shot down near the city of Kerch on the Crimean peninsula, without inflicting any damage or casualties, Russia-installed Governor Sergei Aksyonov wrote on the Telegram messaging app. He did not specify where the missile had been launched from.

Local officials said traffic movement on the Crimean Bridge that links the peninsula to the Russian mainland was restored after an apparent suspension. No reason for the traffic halt was given.

In another incident, air defence shot down a Ukrainian missile in Russia’s Rostov region, Governor Vasily Golubev said on Telegram.

“There were no casualties. The debris partially damaged the roofs of several buildings,” Golubev wrote.

12:25pm: ‘Stronger together,’ says Poland’s Duda on Ukraine visit ahead of NATO summit 

Poland’s president emphasised the need for unity with Ukraine on Sunday as he visited the country ahead of a NATO summit where Kyiv is hoping to get a clear signal that it could one day join the alliance.

“We are stronger together,” President Andrzej Duda said on social media, as he visited the western city of Lutsk with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.

Poland is one of Ukraine’s biggest supporters within NATO and has said it wants “security guarantees” for the country from other NATO members.

10:01am: Zelensky and Poland’s Duda pay tribute to victims of WW2 massacre

The Ukrainian and Polish presidents marked the anniversary of massacres of Poles by Ukrainian nationalists during WWII on Sunday, killings that have been a source of tension between the allies.

Warsaw has positioned itself as one of Kyiv’s staunchest supporters since Russia invaded the country in 2022.

However, the Volhynia massacre, in which historians say tens of thousands of Poles perished, has continued to hang over ties between the two nations and become more prominent ahead of the July 11 anniversary of one of the bloodiest days of a series of killings that took place from 1943 to 1945.

Television footage showed Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky and his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda in a church in the western Ukrainian city of Lutsk on Sunday during a service held in memory of the victims.

Polish historians say that up to 12,000 Ukrainians were also killed in Polish retaliatory operations.

“Together we pay tribute to all the innocent victims of Volhynia! Memory unites us!,” Duda’s office and Zelensky both wrote on Twitter. “Together we are stronger.”

8:45am: Russia calls on NATO to discuss Ukraine nuclear plant at summit

Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Sunday that the leaders of the NATO defence alliance should discuss Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant at their summit this week.

NATO leaders will meet in Vilnius on July 11-12 to tackle a wide range of topics, from divisions over Ukraine’s membership bid and Sweden’s accession to boosting ammunitions stockpiles and reviewing the first defence plans in decades.

Accusing Ukraine of “systematic infliction of damage” to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Zakharova said that “the NATO summit’s key attention should be devoted to it”.

“After all, the vast majority of the alliance members will be in the direct impact zone” (if something were to happen at the plant), Zakharova said on the Telegram messaging app.

In recent weeks, Ukraine has also accused Russia of threatening the nuclear plant. Kyiv’s military chief said the Russians have mined the site.

8:21am: ‘This is a major morale boost’: Zelensky brings home five soldiers from Turkey

The return of five former commanders of Ukraine’s garrison in Mariupol is “a major morale boost” to Ukrainian forces, said FRANCE 24’s Emmanuelle Chaze, reporting from the streets of Kyiv. 

“This is a success far from the battlefield but a success nonetheless for Ukraine,” said Chaze. 

1:08am: Zelensky brings home Azovstal commanders from Turkey, enrages Russia

President Volodymyr Zelensky brought home from Turkey on Saturday five former commanders of Ukraine’s garrison in Mariupol, a highly symbolic achievement that Russia said violated a prisoner exchange deal engineered last year.

Russia immediately denounced the release. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Ankara had promised under the exchange agreement to keep the men in Turkey and complained Moscow had not been informed.

The five commanders have been lionised in Ukraine after leading a fierce three-month defence of Mariupol from the Azovstal steel plant last year, the biggest city Russia has captured.

“We are returning home from Turkey and bringing our heroes home,” said Zelenskiy, who met Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan for talks in Istanbul on Friday.

• Key developments from Saturday, July 8:

Ukraine’s Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov welcomed a US decision to send cluster bombs to Kyiv Saturday, saying it would help to liberate Ukrainian territory but promised the munitions would not be used in Russia.

Mercenary fighters of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner group were preparing to move to Belarus Saturday under the terms of a deal that defused their mutiny against Russia’s military leadership, a senior commander of the group was quoted as saying.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday visited a tiny Black Sea island whose few defenders famously defied a Russian warship at the beginning of the invasion, as the conflict reaches its 500th day.

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

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)