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A five-year-old child was among the 19 injured in the Sumy drone attack, the region’s military administration said on Telegram.
Four of the injured are in hospital, two of whom are in intensive care.
Key events
Reuters reports that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy and German chancellor Olaf Scholz have called for the extension of the Black Sea grain deal.
The two made the call during a phone conversation on Monday, Scholz’s spokesperson said.
The deal, which allows the safe export of grain and fertilisers from three Ukrainian Black Sea ports, will expire on 18 July.
Earlier on Monday, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said there were “not too many hopes” the Black Sea grain deal would be extended.
A five-year-old child was among the 19 injured in the Sumy drone attack, the region’s military administration said on Telegram.
Four of the injured are in hospital, two of whom are in intensive care.
Uilleam Blacker has translated a poem by Victoria Amelina, the Ukrainian writer killed by a Russian missile strike in Kramatorsk, titled Poem About a Crow, which is inspired by her work interviewing women who lived through Russian occupation.
Below are the opening lines:
Poem About a Crow
In a barren springtime field
Stands a woman dressed in black
Crying her sisters’ names
Like a bird in the empty sky
She’ll cry them all out of herself
Read the full poem here
Sarah Butler
Unilever has been named as an international sponsor of war by the Ukrainian government after the Marmite, Dove and Domestos owner became subject to a law in Russia obliging all large companies operating in the country to contribute directly to its war effort.
The move came as campaigners called on Unilever’s new boss, Hein Schumacher, who started work this weekend, to withdraw from Russia, where its local business continues to sell “essential” products from tea to ice-cream, after evidence emerged that it paid Moscow $331m in taxes last year.
The Ukraine Solidarity Project (USP) on Monday erected a giant billboard outside the Anglo-Dutch consumer group’s London headquarters featuring pictures of wounded Ukrainian soldiers – posing in the style of the Dove beauty brand’s advertisements – and the slogan: “Helping to fund Russia’s war in Ukraine.”
Unilever was placed on the sponsors of war list on Monday alongside companies including Procter & Gamble (P&G), the world’s largest manufacturer of household chemicals and personal care products, and the French supermarket group Leroy Merlin.
It is thought that a new law in Russia could lead to the conscription of Unilever’s 3,000-strong workforce in Russia across its four manufacturing sites and head office.
Read the full story here
Sumy drone attack death toll rises to two
Reuters reports that at least two people have been killed and 19 others wounded in a Russian drone attack on the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy on Monday.
An official building and two residential buildings were damaged in an attack carried out with four drones, the Sumy regional administration said on Telegram.
Zelenskiy: war not over ‘while Crimea is under Russian occupation’
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the war would not be over while Crimea was under Russian occupation.
Speaking to CNN on Monday, Zelenskiy said: “We cannot imagine Ukraine without Crimea. And while Crimea is under the Russian occupation, it means only one thing: the war is not over yet,” he said.
Asked whether there was any scenario under which there could be peace without Crimea, Zelensky said: “It will not be victory then.”
US ambassador meets with jailed WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich in Moscow
The US ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy, met with jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on Monday after being granted access, her second visit since his detention in March.
Tracy visited Gershkovich at Moscow’s Lefortovo prison on Monday. On 22 June, a court upheld a request from Russia’s FSB security service to extend the reporter’s detention to at least 30 August while he awaits trial. Gershkovich’s lawyers appealed against the FSB’s request.
Russia has said Gershkovich was caught trying to obtain military secrets while on a trip to the Russian city of Ekaterinburg, but has provided no evidence to support this claim.
Tracy last met with Gershkovich in April, after his 29 March arrest. She has accused Russia of conducting “hostage diplomacy.”
On Thursday, Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, told reporters that the the country has tried to get consular access to Gershkovich “virtually every day.”
Moscow has said no exchange could take place in Gershkovich’s case until a verdict has been reached. No date has been set for his trial.
Family of Alexei Navalny file lawsuit against penal colony over its refusal to let them visit
The family of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny have filed a class-action lawsuit against the penal colony where he is being held over its refusal to let them visit him, Reuters reports.
“The whole Navalny family, including my parents, Yulia, Dasha and Zakhar, filed a class action lawsuit today and are determined to go all the way to the constitutional court,” Navalny said on Monday in a post on his official Twitter page, which is run by his lawyers and allies.
“I am a convict. And they never cease to remind me that I am like everyone else. But I’ve had zero visits in the last year. Zero long visits, zero short visits and two phone calls 11 months ago,” Navalny said.
“The general rule here is that I am entitled to three long visits, [lasting] three days and three short visits [lasting] 4 hours through the glass, per year, as well as a minimum of six phone calls,” he added.
Navalny, 47, is serving sentences totalling about 11 years in the IK-6 penal colony in Melekhovo, about 145 miles east of Moscow, on fraud and other charges that he says were trumped up to silence his criticism of Russian president Vladimir Putin.
A new trial for alleged “extremist” activity began against Navalny last month, which could extend his prison term by decades. Acquittals of opposition figures are practically unheard of in Russia.
1/12 Who do you think is in this picture?
These are the plaintiffs. The whole Navalny family, including my parents, Yulia, Dasha and Zakhar, filed a class action lawsuit today and are determined to go all the way to the Constitutional Court. pic.twitter.com/Qpyc5yZdKG
— Alexey Navalny (@navalny) July 3, 2023
The US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget A Brink, said “Russia must be held to account for its actions”, referencing the death of celebrated Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina, who was killed by a Russian missile strike on a restaurant in Kramatorsk.
Quote tweeting a statement from the US embassy in Colombia about Amelina, Brink said: “More heartbreaking loss due to Russia’s strikes on civilians.
“Russia must be held to account for its actions.”
More heartbreaking loss due to Russia’s strikes on civilians.
Russia must be held to account for its actions.
Ще більше жахливих втрат через російські удари по мирному населенню.
Росія має відповісти за свої дії. https://t.co/xcAzNmexnv
— Ambassador Bridget A. Brink (@USAmbKyiv) July 3, 2023
The head of Russia’s navy, Nikolai Yevmenov, met Chinese defence minister Li Shangfu in Beijing on Monday, Tass reports.
The two men discussed strengthening cooperation in the Pacific.
On Friday, Japan’s defence ministry said it had spotted two Russian navy ships in the waters near Taiwan and Japan’s Okinawa islands in the previous four days. This followed on from a similar announcement that week from Taiwan.
Here are two images that have come through on the news wires showing the aftermath of the shelling of a residential building in Zaporizhzhia region.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports there will be two services for the celebrated Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina who was killed by a Russian missile strike on a restaurant in Kramatorsk.
On its Telegram channel for Lviv it posted:
Farewell to the deceased Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina will take place on 4 July in Kyiv in the St Michael’s Cathedral and on 5 July in Lviv, in the Garrison Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul.
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