July 5, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

By Jessie Yeung, Aditi Sangal, Adrienne Vogt, Hafsa Khalil and Sana Noor Haq, CNN

Updated 1:29 a.m. ET, July 6, 2022
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4:54 p.m. ET, July 5, 2022

Ukrainian official: One person injured after Russia fired rockets at Khmelnytskyi in western Ukraine

From Kostan Nechyporenko and Bex Wright

One person was injured after Russia fired rockets at the city of Khmelnytskyi in western Ukraine, Serhii Hamalii, head of Khmelnytskyi regional military administration, said on Tuesday.

Four rockets were fired over the area a few hours ago, and the air defense forces shot down one of them, he said.

Hamalii said three other rockets hit a district community, adding that the target was a water tower which supplies the local community.

 

4:23 p.m. ET, July 5, 2022

Russia is throwing "all the reserves they now have" at battles in Luhansk region, Ukrainian official says

From CNN's Bex Wright and Kostan Nechyporenko

An apartment building damaged in the Luhansk Region, on Tuesday.
An apartment building damaged in the Luhansk Region, on Tuesday. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)

Russian and Ukrainian forces are engaged in “heavy battles” in the outskirts of the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, according to Serhiy Hayday, the head of Luhansk region military administration.

“All the forces of the Russian army are now thrown there, all the reserves they now have,” Hayday said Tuesday.

Russian forces have suffered “huge number of losses and wounded,” because some troops are being tactically withdrawn to regroup, Hayday claimed. 

“The hospitals are overcrowded and the mortuaries are overcrowded,” he said.

CNN cannot independently confirm the number of casualties on either side.

Hayday added that “many warehouses behind enemy lines have been blown up” in the past few days, destroying “a huge amount” of Russia’s ammunition and fuel.

Hayday estimated that 10,000 to 15,000 residents remain in the city of Lysychansk.

Ukraine’s military announced Sunday that it had been “forced to withdraw” from the city, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky saying the retreat from was motivated to save the lives of Ukrainian troops.

“They are looking for the pro-Ukrainian population, negotiating with collaborators, showing apartments where military families lived, breaking down doors and pulling out clothes,” Hayday said.

In a separate update, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said Tuesday that Russian troops are concentrating their “main efforts” on taking control of the highway linking the cities of Lysychansk and Bakhmut and attempting to seize the nearby settlement of Bilohorivka.

4:22 p.m. ET, July 5, 2022

A child was killed by shelling on Tuesday, according to separatist-held Donetsk People's Republic

From Anastasia Graham-Yooll and Kostan Nechyporenko

A 10-year-old girl was killed after shelling hit the Donbas city of Donetsk on Tuesday, according to a Telegram post by the Territorial Defense Headquarters for the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).

CNN has not been able to independently verify the death.

Russian-appointed officials say the shelling was carried out by Ukrainian forces. Ukrainian officials have yet to comment.

1:48 p.m. ET, July 5, 2022

2 million tons of grain being harvested in Russian-controlled parts of Zaporizhzhia region, military head says

From CNN's Anastasia Graham-Yooll in London

About two million metric tons of grain are being harvested from the fields in the southern Zaporizhzhia region controlled by Russian forces, according to Yevgeniy Balitsky, military head of the Russian-occupied areas of Zaporizhzhia.

“A harvesting campaign is underway in the region,” Balitsky said on Tuesday on his Telegram channel, adding that this year’s harvest from the region is expected to overtake last year’s crop of 1.5 million tons.

Balitsky added that 70% of last year’s grain harvest from the Russian-controlled areas of Zaporizhzhia has already been sold.

“The grain supply is facilitated by close cooperation with the Crimean authorities, who ensured unimpeded passage through customs and border checkpoints,” Balitsky said, adding that grain producers “have no limitations” in choosing where to sell their grain.

However, Ivan Fedorov, the exiled mayor of Melitopol in the Zaporizhzhia region, has previously warned about severe restrictions imposed by the military on where producers can sell their grain and at what price. 

According to Fedorov, grain producers can only sell to “authorized” individuals, for half the usual price. 

“The authorized entrepreneur valued a ton of grain at just little over $50. This is half the cost of a ton of grain. In autumn, no one will sow the fields under such conditions,” Fedorov said on Friday.

Ukraine has accused Russia of appropriating last year’s grain supply from the occupied territories in the country’s south. In addition, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday he expects 60 million metric tons of Ukrainian grain to be "blocked” from reaching consumers in the autumn due to the ongoing was.

9:50 a.m. ET, July 5, 2022

At least 1 killed and 7 injured as Russia pummels Sloviansk, city's military administration says

From CNN's Vasco Cotovio

At least one person was killed and seven were injured when Russian forces shelled Sloviansk in the Donetsk region, the city’s military administration said Tuesday. 

“The central market caught fire. The central district of the city, as well as Varshava, Pivnichny, Slovkurort neighborhoods were also affected,” according to the local authority. “The extent of the damage is being ascertained.”

After Russian and separatist forces secured Lysychansk — effectively taking over nearly all the Luhansk region, barring a few pockets of resistance — they are now setting their sights on the Donetsk cities still under Ukrainian control, namely Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.

4:41 p.m. ET, July 5, 2022

Russian parliament passes an initial vote on economic measures to support Russian military

From CNN's Uliana Pavlova

The building of the State Duma, the lower chamber of Russia's parliament, in Moscow on March 23, 2021.
The building of the State Duma, the lower chamber of Russia's parliament, in Moscow on March 23, 2021. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images)

A new set of economic measures aimed at supporting the Russian military passed the first vote in the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament.

There are still several rounds of parliamentary procedure to go, but if the measures are adopted, legal entities in Russia will not be able to refuse contracts with the Russian Armed forces.

Although Russian officials continue to call the war in Ukraine "a special military operation," the new measures would effectively mean the country is re-shaping its industry in support of the ongoing invasion, placing the country on a war economy footing.

In his statement, Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov noted the "enormous sanction pressure" from the West.

“The bills introduce the obligation of organizations to conclude contracts in order to ensure counter-terrorism and other operations outside the territory of the Russian Federation, and also grant the rights to contractors to purchase products necessary to fulfill the State Defense Order from a single supplier," Borisov said as quoted by Russian state news agency RIA Novosti. 

The economic measures will still need to undergo second and third readings at the State Duma, be reviewed by the upper house of parliament and be signed by President Vladimir Putin to become law.

Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. While it has made gains in the eastern Ukrainian territory, it has also suffered heavy losses in terms of its army and equipment.

9:03 a.m. ET, July 5, 2022

UK Prime Minister Johnson tells Zelensky that Ukraine can retake territory captured by Russia

From CNN's Sarah Dean and Sharon Braithwaite in London

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson holds a press conference at the NATO Summit in Madrid, Spain, on June 30.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson holds a press conference at the NATO Summit in Madrid, Spain, on June 30. (Denis Doyle/Getty Images)

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a call on Tuesday that Ukraine can retake territory recently captured by Russia, a Downing Street spokesperson said.

“The Prime Minister said the world was behind Ukraine, and he believed President Zelensky’s military could retake territory recently captured by Putin’s forces," she added.

Johnson updated Zelensky on the latest UK military equipment being sent to Ukraine, "including 10 self-propelled artillery systems and loitering munitions, which would be arriving in the coming days and weeks," the spokesperson said. 

8:13 a.m. ET, July 5, 2022

Pro-Russian separatists say Ukraine shelled Donetsk

From CNN’s Vasco Cotovio, Katie Polglase, Gianluca Mezzofiore and Anna Chernova

Ukrainian forces shelled the city of Donetsk in Donbas on Tuesday, the representative from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) at the Joint Center for Control and Coordination on the ceasefire said, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti. 

RIA Novosti reports the representative said: "Ten shells of 155mm caliber artillery were fired."

The 155mm caliber is used by NATO countries, including the US, but not by Russia and other former Soviet countries, such as Ukraine, suggesting the shells were fired from equipment supplied by the West.  

Ukrainian officials have yet to comment on the alleged strikes but videos posted on social media and geolocated by CNN show smoke billowing from the Kamaz center, in Donetsk, in the same area the strikes were reported by the DPR official. 

The videos also show continuous explosions, suggesting ammunition could have been stored in the facility.