A 72-year-old priest was killed in Russian shelling of the Ukrainian settlement of Bilozerka in southern Kherson region, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office said on Tuesday.

Artillery fire struck the courtyard of a church and also injured a 76-year-old woman, Andriy Yermak said on Telegram messenger, Reuters reported.

The shelling damaged four residential buildings, the post office, administrative buildings, the central square as well as critical infrastructure, he added.

The death toll from flooding in two Russian-controlled towns in southern Ukraine has risen to 17 one week after a massive dam holding back a reservoir was breached, a Russian-installed official said on Tuesday.

Andrei Alekseyenko, chairman of the Russian-installed administration in the Kherson region, said 12 people were confirmed dead in Hola Prystan and five in Oleshky, two small towns downstream from the breached Kakhovka dam.

Reuters could not independently verify the figures. Hundreds of people were rescued by boat from the roofs of flooded houses in the wake of the disaster, but volunteers told Russian independent media outlet iStories last week that they estimated the death toll in the hundreds.

Russia controls the south bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson region, while Ukraine holds Kherson city on the opposite bank, as well as Mykolaiv region farther north.

At least 10 people killed in a Russian missile strike in Kryvyi Rih, says mayor

The Belarusian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, said on Tuesday that the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus would serve as a deterrent against a potential aggressor and that there should be no hesitation in using them if required.

Reuters reports his comments were carried by the Belta news agency.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said on Friday that Russia would start deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus on 7-8 July after special storage facilities were made ready.

It will be the first time that Russian nuclear weapons have been stationed outside the country’s borders since weapons on the territories of Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan were returned to Russia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The US has tactical nuclear weapons at six bases in five Nato member countries: Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey.

Russia’s FSB security service said on Tuesday it had arrested a group of former defence industry workers it suspects of supplying Ukraine with sensitive military information and of planning sabotage attacks.

Reuters reports the FSB accused the unnamed ex-workers of spying for Ukrainian military intelligence and of handing over technical documents and models used in the manufacture of weapons systems and equipment for Russia’s air force.

It said in a statement that the same group was also involved in plans to blow up transport infrastructure such as railway lines used to supply Russian forces fighting in Ukraine

Summary of the day so far …

The US ambassador to Ukraine has commented on the overnight attacks. Bridget Brink tweeted:

Another night of Russian missiles, another morning of shattered homes. No matter the lies Russia’s mouthpieces emit about its war on Ukraine, its attacks on civilians, and the devastation it leaves behind, this morning’s images make the awful truth perfectly clear.

Ukraine’s deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar has reported small incremental advances for Ukrainian forces on Telegram. She posted to say:

In the course of the offensive operation, during the past day, our troops advanced 250m in the direction of Bakhmut in the area of ​​the Berkhiv reservoir. In the Toretsk direction – 200m. In the Berdiansk direction, between 0.5km to 1km, the area of ​​the territory taken under control was up to 3 sq km.

She added that the situation was difficult, saying:

The enemy is doing everything to keep the positions captured by him. Actively uses assault and army aviation, conducts intense artillery fire. During the offensive, our troops encounter continuous minefields, which are combined with anti-tank ditches. All this is combined with constant counterattacks by enemy units on armored vehicles and the massive use of anti-tank guided missile and kamikaze drones.

The claims have not been independently verified.

My colleague Dan Sabbagh notes that Russian military bloggers appear to be claiming that one of the villages that Ukraine said it had liberated in the last couple of days is back in Russian hands.

Here are some of the latest images to be sent to us from the flooded areas of Kherson over the news wires.

Russia’s defence ministry has released video footage of what it claims were German-made Leopard tanks and US-made Bradley fighting vehicles captured by Russian forces in a battle with Ukrainian forces.

The location and timing of the video footage has not been independently verified.

In a message on Telegram, the ministry said:

Servicemen of the subdivisions of the Vostok group inspect enemy tanks and infantry fighting vehicles captured in battle.

All captured western-made equipment: German Leopard tanks and US-made BMP Bradley.

Some combat vehicles with running engines, which indicates the transience of the battle and the flight of the crews of combat vehicles of the armed forces of Ukraine from combat-ready equipment.

Russian media reports senior Russian general killed in Zaporizhzhia

Here are some of the images from Kryvyi Rih sent to us over the news wires.

The UN humanitarian coordinator in Ukraine, Denise Brown, has strongly condemned this morning’s attack on Kryvyi Rih.

In a statement she said:

Russia’s invasion has, once again, claimed lives and brought suffering to the people of Ukraine. This morning, an attack on Kryvyi Rih has hit a residential building, killing and injuring many civilians. International humanitarian law is clear: civilians and civilian infrastructure are not a target!

Yesterday the Russian Federation president, Vladimir Putin, in comments carried by Tass, accused Ukraine of targeting civilians, saying it made no military sense. He said:

Why, frankly, is the enemy hitting residential areas? No logic. For what, why, what’s the point? And obviously humanitarian targets – it’s amazing. And there is no military sense, it’s zero.

Here is a video report from Kryvyi Rih, where at least six people are now known to have died.

Kryvyi Rih death toll rises to six

Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the office of the president of Ukraine, has cautioned that “key decisions” still have to be taken by the international community, highlighting the overnight deaths in Kryvyi Rih. He posted to Twitter to say:

Kryvyi Rih. An apartment building was hit. 3 dead, 25 wounded, unknown number of people under the rubble. And this kind of thing happens every night. Because the Russian Federation is blatantly destroying Ukraine.

I understand that sitting thousands of kilometers away from Ukraine you can talk about “geopolitics”, “settlement” and the undesirability of escalation for months. And allow the rampage of the “Russian world”. But the key decisions will still have to be made – Russia is bound to lose and sit in the dock …

Early morning shelling by Ukraine on two villages in Russia’s Kursk region damaged several houses and disrupted gas and electricity supply, according to the governor of the local region.

Roman Starovoyt claimed nine houses were damaged and gas and power supplies disrupted in the village of Tyorkino, while several houses were damaged in the village of Glushkovo. Both sit close to the border with Ukraine.

The claims have not been independently verified.