🔴 Live: Russia says border regions come under fire from Ukraine

Issued on: 05/07/2023 – 09:07

7:45am: Russia says border regions come under fire from Ukraine

Russia’s Kursk and Belgorod regions came under fire from Ukrainian forces across the border in the early hours of Wednesday, the regions’ governors have said, adding that no casualties were reported.

“The town of Valuyki is under fire from Ukraine’s armed forces,” Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on the Telegram messaging app at 07:36 am local time (0436 GMT).

He did not specify whether it was rocket fire, artillery shelling or some other form of attack.

“Air defence system worked, but there is destruction on the ground,” Gladkov said.

Separately, Roman Starovoyt, the governor of the Kursk region, north of Belgorod and also bordering Ukraine, said that a school and a private house were damaged when the village of Tyotkino came fire, again without specifying the form of attack.

5:35am: Ukrainian army says it destroyed ‘Russian formation’ in Donetsk

Ukraine’s military says it has destroyed a Russian “formation” in Makiivka in the frontline Donetsk region, where Moscow-installed officials and media say one civilian was killed and dozens wounded in attacks by Kyiv.

“As a result of the effective fire impact of the units of the defence forces, another formation of Russian terrorists in the temporarily occupied Makiivka ceased to exist,” Ukraine’s armed forces said in a statement.

A video accompanying the post showed a huge explosion lighting up the night sky and the silhouette of at least one building. It did not give further details.

The Russian-installed head of the Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, said Ukrainian forces had launched “fierce attacks” on residential areas and a hospital complex in Makiivka.

One man had died and 36 civilians “received injuries of varying degrees of severity” as a result of Ukrainian strikes, according to Russian state news agency Interfax.

• Key developments from Tuesday, July 4:

The NATO military alliance said Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg would remain in his post until October 2024, extending his tenure by another year amid a failure to agree on a replacement in the context of the war in Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials accused Russian forces of targeting a military funeral in the Kharkiv region in a missile strike that wounded 43 people, including 12 children.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky told his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron that Russia was planning “provocations” at the Moscow-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant – whereas Russia accused Kyiv of planning an attack at the facility.

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

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)