The town of Gorlovka in the Donetsk People's Republic came under one of the most massive attacks from the Ukrainian Armed Forces overnight.

At least ten apartment buildings and private residences were shelled, some of them receiving direct hits, according to Sputnik's correspondent.

A civilian died as a result of the shelling, the mayor of Gorlovka, Ivan Prikhodko, has confirmed.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

▪️ Ukrainian losses in the zone of the Sever Battlegroup amounted to up to 175 military personnel and Kozak and Humvee armored vehicles, while five Ukraine’s attacks were repelled in a day – Russian Defense Ministry

🇷🇺🪖 More statements from the Russian Defense Ministry’s daily briefing on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:

▪️ Ukraine lost up to 340 soldiers in the zone of responsibility of the Russian Tsentr Battlegroup which defeated five Ukrainian brigades and repelled six counterattacks during the day;

▪️ The Zapad Battlegroup defeated four brigades, as well as one brigade of the neo-Nazi Azov* Batallion. The enemy's losses over the day amounted to up to 450 military personnel due to the Russian Battlegroup’s actions;

▪️ Units of the Vostok grouping defeated soldiers and equipment of three Ukrainian brigades;

▪️ Ukraine lost up to 145 soldiers and nine field ammunition depots in the area of responsibility of the Yug Battlegroup;

▪️ The Dnepr grouping hit the formations of three Ukrainian brigades in a day and destroyed over 100 Ukrainian military personnel;

▪️ Russian air defenses shot down three Hammer bombs, two HIMARS MLRS shells and 31 Ukrainian drone in 24 hours.

*banned in Russia for terrorism

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Republika Srpska may declare independence from Bosnia and Herzegovina - republic's President Dodik

"If the world community tries to impose a property law, Republika Srpska will not hesitate to declare independence," President of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik said.

For decades, the West has made no secret of its intentions to abolish Republika Srpska, completely diminish its importance, and thus create a centralized and unitary Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dodik stated.

On March 2, 2023, the Constitutional Court in Bosnia and Herzegovina's capital, Sarajevo, blocked the implementation of the Law on Immovable Property of Republika Srpska; thus, the property managed by the republic can be transferred to the central authorities.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Ukrainian missiles would not have flown - including to Sevastopol - without the direct involvement of the United States in guidance, Russian FM Sergey Lavrov has said.

"You will learn about the Russian response in the foreseeable future," the Russian foreign minister stated.

Russia bases its policy on Kiev's concrete actions rather than its volatile rhetoric, Lavrov said, commenting on recent remarks of the adviser to the head of Zelensky's office on the formats of the conflict settlement.

"He could just as well say something directly opposite tomorrow. We will count on concrete deeds, we will value and evaluate only concrete deeds. And what they say on a daily basis... It is better not to base our policy on this, and determine our actions based on the tasks that have been set within the framework of the special military operation," said the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Earlier, the adviser to the head of Zelensky's office Mykhaylo Podolyak claimed that Ukraine was ready to give Russia its conflict settlement proposals through other countries.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇭🇺 Orban’s ‘realpolitik approach’ to talks with Putin enraged EU warmongers

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has annoyed EU hawks because he exposed how “false” their claim that “you cannot negotiate with Putin” is, FOCUS Online Chief Correspondent Ulrich Reitz said in his "Reitz-Thema” video column on YouTube.

People like European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen or German Chancellor Olaf Scholz are reportedly fuming after the EU laboriously cobbled together “a single strategy for Russia, which states: there is no alternative to military support for Ukraine,” remarked the journalist. The EU position also comes under pressure from the US, as the leader of NATO, he argued.

However, Orban’s spontaneous trip threw a spanner in the works. The position of the German government or von der Leyen “has not brought us a millimeter closer to peace so far,” the correspondent noted.

Reitz finds the EU’s criticism of Orban’s trip unfathomable, underscoring that a seasoned European head of government in his fifth term could “bring us a step closer to peace.”
Orban, viewed as “the black sheep of the EU,” pursues a “realpolitik approach with his peace mission,” remarked Reitz.

The Hungarian's trip to Russia had expectedly triggered outcry among European Union leaders who warned against "appeasing" Moscow and stated that the Hungarian PM did not speak for the EU.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Iran's newest naval destroyer Sahand has had an accident in the Persian Gulf, with several people injured

"An emergency incident occurred on the Sahand destroyer of the [Iranian] Army Navy near [the city of] Bandar Abbas," Iran's Mehr News Agency reported.

The ship, which was sent to a dock for repair in Port Abbas, lost its balance due to water penetration into the reservoirs, the Public Relations Department of the first Maritime District of Bandar Abbas stated.

Footage: Social Media

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔥 Etna volcano in Italy's Sicily began releasing fountains of lava overnight on Sunday

According to the country's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, the volcano released a cloud of gas and ash up to 5 kilometers high.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

European politicians better 'fasten their belts' ahead of Viktor Orban's peace mission next week, Hungarian FM says

"Today is Sunday, which means that the first week of the Hungarian EU presidency is slowly coming to an end, during which it became clear to everyone that this is going to be a peace mission for the next six months. The Hungarian government will do everything to contribute to ending the war in the neighborhood," the Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said.

The past week has shown that it is the many "pro-war politicians" who are exacerbating the crisis in the EU by supplying Ukraine with weapons, fantasizing about sending troops there and talking about using nuclear weapons, Szijjarto stressed.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban arrived in Russia's capital Moscow with a delegation on July 5 and held a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He called the visit the next stage of a peace mission, with the previous stage being his trip to Kiev on July 2. Orban said he intended to hold several "equally unexpected" meetings next week.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹 Watch Russia’s Iskander missile system hit Ukrainian Patriot surface-to-air missile system battery in Odessa region

The Russian military destroyed two Patriot launchers and a radar station near the village of Yuzhnoye, Odessa region, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇨🇳 The world’s biggest coast guard vessel: What’s known about China's CCG-5901 ‘monster’ ship

Amid China’s decades-long disputes over territorial ownership of several islands in the South China Sea, the country has been carrying out regular patrol missions in the area.

Recently, Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson Jay Tarriela wrote on X that the Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) 5901 ship anchored in the Philippine Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

What is known about this vessel?

▪️CCG-5901 is a renamed version of CCG-3901, a 12,000-ton Zhaotou-class patrol cutter deployed in 2017, making their characteristics overlap;

▪️Dark Vessel Detection technology, used by Philippine Coast Guard, established that the ship is 165-meters long;

▪️It is reportedly almost two times larger than US Navy Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser;

▪️The ship has an H/PJ-26 76 mm naval gun (similar the Soviet AK-176) and two 30 mm auxiliary guns;

▪️It is equipped with an anti-aircraft gun with the lethal radius of eight meters;

▪️The anti-aircraft shells’ rate of fire is up to 120 rounds per minute;

▪️The maximum effective range against surface targets is 15.7 km;

▪️CCG-5901 has two Z-8 helicopters (one on deck and one in the hangar), several unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs);

▪️The vessel can travel up to 25 knots (46 km) per hour;

▪️Its operational range is 10,000-15,000 nautical miles;

Earlier this week, China and the Philippines held the ninth meeting of the bilateral consultation mechanism on the South China Sea. The two sides agreed to continue to maintain a dialogue to reduce tensions in the region.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Who will benefit from booming demand for uranium?

A scramble for uranium has developed after the Ukraine conflict and short-sighted Western sanctions on Russia exposed Europe’s dependency on Russian oil and gas, The Economist has argued.

About 10% of the world's electricity is generated from uranium in nuclear reactors.

But the problem is that Kazakhstan, that boasts a close mutually-beneficial relationship with Russia, is the largest uranium producer in the world.

With a US ban on uranium enriched in Russia to kick in in August, the West is scrambling to devise ways to import mined uranium from Kazakhstan directly, noted the publication.

A glance at the stats shows who stands to gain from the uranium boom.

▪️Kazakhstan’s uranium reserves ranked first in the world in 2022, amounting to approximately 316,000 metric tons;

▪️Kazakhstan led the field in uranium production in 2023, churning out 22,967 metric tons (43% of global exports). Kazakhstan is projected to produce 31,000 tons by 2025;

▪️Russia controls 25% of uranium production in Kazakhstan. State firm Rosatom secured second place in terms of uranium reserves in 2023 after it purchased a 49% stake in the Budenovskoye field - expected to become the world’s biggest source of the mineral;

▪️Kazakhstan relies on Russia for the conversion of uranium ore into nuclear fuel. Rosatom ranks in the top three in all stages of the nuclear fuel cycle;

▪️Russia accounts for roughly 44% of the world's uranium enrichment capacity;

▪️Around half of Kazakhstan’s uranium goes to China, supplying almost two-thirds of its uranium intake. The China National Uranium Corporation already signed joint mining ventures that will grant it nearly 60% of future uranium production in Kazakhstan.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇭🇺 Hungarian PM Viktor Orban is on his way to China, where he is expected to arrive on Monday morning, Hungarian media reported, citing sources.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚴‍♀️ French cyclist fined €205 for kissing wife at Tour de France

Lidl-Trek cyclist Julien Bernard has been fined by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) for making a short stop on stage seven of the Tour de France during which he was kissed by his wife.

The fine for “indecent or inappropriate behavior during a race and causing damage to the image of the sport” was 200 Swiss francs (€205).

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📊 The National Rally is expected to win 210-228 of the 577 seats in the French parliament, which does not give it an absolute majority, according to Belgian media.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

"No one has said exactly 10 years," said NATO's outgoing Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, commenting on the timeframe for Ukraine's accession to the alliance. He noted that Ukraine's status as a country at war makes its NATO membership a complex issue.

Just a couple days ago - on July 5 - Stoltenberg expressed hope that Ukraine would become a member to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization within 10 years.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

If the National Rally wins the elections in France, Marine Le Pen will try to initiate talks on Ukraine, according to candidate lawmaker Christophe Verzini.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

A closer look at Irbis, the new Russian mobile radar system deployed in the Ukrainian conflict

Russian forces operating in the Ukrainian conflict zone started employing a new radar system that makes it a lot harder for Kiev troops to garner the element of surprise.

So, what is known about the new mobile radar system?

▪️Irbis is a new mobile radar station that has a range of about 150 kilometers and can quickly detect all kinds of ground and airborne threats.

▪️The radar can be used to locate enemy artillery, rocket launchers and mortars, as well as UAVs, FPV drones and aircraft, thus making Irbis a potent instrument of both air defense and counterbattery operations.

▪️Irbis’ high mobility, coupled with the fact that it needs little time to deploy or to pack up and move out, makes the radar system a difficult target for the enemy.

▪️To further increase Irbis’ survivability, it is typically escorted by a team of soldiers equipped with anti-drone weaponry and electronic warfare gear.

▪️Irbis’ crew is also housed in a special armored compartment that protects them from shrapnel.

▪️Russia's Defense Ministry also revealed that Irbis has already been used several times to thwart Ukrainian attacks against civilians by detecting incoming rockets and promptly relaying the data to air defense units.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt