From Yulia Kesaieva, CNN Kyiv and Lauren Kent in London
Heavy fighting continues in the eastern Donetsk region as Russian forces keep their focus in the areas of Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Mariinka, according to the latest update from the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
More than 30 combat engagements took place in those areas in the last day, the General Staff said, noting that Russia conducted several "unsuccessful offensives" in those directions.
Both Ukraine's General Staff and Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, a commander of joint forces in the country's south, said that Russian forces are on the defensive in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson directions, while the Armed Forces of Ukraine are advancing.
"In the Tavria sector, our army is systematically driving the enemy out of their positions and continues to advance. The successes of the Defense Forces are already noticeable," Tarnavskyi said in a Telegram post.
Within the last day in Tavria, a town in southern Ukraine, "enemy losses in killed and wounded amounted to almost three companies. Ukraine destroyed and damaged 68 units of enemy military equipment," Tarnavskyi claimed.
The General Staff said Russian forces were unsuccessful in offensives in the village of Piatykhatky in the Zaporizhzhia region, while they also conducted air strikes in the areas of Preobrazhenka and Stopnohirsk in the Donetsk region.
In Bakhmut, Ukraine's acting Commander of the 3rd Assault Brigade Maksym Zhorin claimed that Russian troops were unsuccessfully attempting to regain some of their lost positions on the battlefield.
"The result — dead and wounded Russians," he said.
What Russia says: The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed on Wednesday that its forces attacked units of the Ukrainian army in the southeast of the country near the border of the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions, destroying their equipment.
On Belarus: Ukraine's military also noted that "no signs of (the) formation of offensive groups were detected in Belarus" near the border with Ukraine.
"However, combat training and coordination of the Russian Armed Forces units before their deployment to the areas of combat operations in Ukraine are ongoing at the training grounds of the Republic of Belarus," the General Staff claimed.
Belarus, one of Russia's staunchest allies since the invasion of Ukraine, made changes to its constitution renouncing its neutrality on Wednesday.
Russia will continue improving its armed forces, Putin says
From CNN's Anna Chernova and Radina Gigova
Russia will continue improving its armed forces based on the "invaluable" experience gained in its "special military operation" — a term Russian officials and leaders use to refer to the invasion — in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday.
"The most important task here is the development of the nuclear triad, which is a key guarantee of Russia's military security and global stability. Already about half of the units and formations of the Strategic Missile Forces are equipped with the latest Yars complexes," he said during an address to graduates from Russia's military academies in the Kremlin.
"The troops are being re-equipped with modern missile systems with a hypersonic avant-garde warhead. In the near future, the first launchers of the Sarmat complex with a new heavy missile will take up combat duty," he added.
Putin met with graduates of universities and academies of the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Emergencies, the Federal Security Service, the Federal Protection Service, the Russian Guard, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Investigative Committee and the Federal Penitentiary Service, according to the Kremlin.
On Ukraine's counteroffensive: Putin told reporters that there is a "certain lull" in fighting, with no active offensive operations being carried out by Ukraine yet. He claimed Ukraine is suffering heavy losses on the battlefield.
CNN is not able to independently verify Putin's claims about Ukrainian loses or the course of the operations on the ground.
"But today we see that this (Ukraine's) offensive potential has not yet been exhausted, there are also reserves that the enemy is thinking about where and how to introduce," he said.
More than 400 global companies pledge support for rebuilding Ukraine's war-torn economy
From CNN's Hanna Ziady
More than 400 global companies pledged support Wednesday for rebuilding the war-torn economy at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London. Citi, Sanofi and Philips are among firms that have signed up to the Ukraine Business Compact, signaling their intent to boost investment in the country.
The UK government has also set out a package of support for Ukraine, including $3 billion of new guarantees to unlock World Bank loans and 240 million pounds ($305 million) of bilateral assistance.
The United States would send an additional $1.3 billion in financial assistance to Ukraine to “overhaul its energy grid” and modernize other critical infrastructure, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
Ukraine faces an enormous fundraising challenge, and it’s one that governments and development finance institutions won’t be able to meet without help from private investors. The World Bank estimated in March that the cost of rebuilding the country one year on from the start of the war amounted to $411 billion — a huge figure that is set to increase as the conflict drags on.
To help meet that need, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has enlisted BlackRock and JPMorgan to advise on the Ukraine Development Fund, a vehicle that seeks to mobilize capital from private and public sector investors toward rebuilding the Ukrainian economy.
The Ukraine Development Fund is still in the planning stages and is not expected to launch until the conflict ends.
CNN's Jo Shelley, Mariya Knight and Yulia Kesaieva contributed to the reporting.
Mines displaced by flooding after dam collapse could wash up near Black Sea, UN official says
From CNN’s Catherine Nicholls in London
Mines displaced by flooding after the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam could end up on beaches around the Black Sea, the head of a United Nations mine program said on Wednesday.
“I would not be surprised to see that those mines have either got down as far as the sea, or (will) over the coming months, as the water is continuing to flow, (and the mines) will be transported down there,” Paul Heslop of the Mine Action at the UN Development Programme in Ukraine told journalists at news conference in Geneva. “Unfortunately, we could see anti-personnel pressure mines washing up on beaches around the Black Sea.”
According to Heslop, "butterfly mines" – which are small, airtight and plastic – are filled with liquid explosives and able to float on water. Heslop said that he is certain these mines will have been "dispersed in different places." Other, heavier explosives, like anti-tank mines, would not be able to travel as far.
“Obviously, a 10-kilo anti-tank mine is not going to go the same distance as a 50-to-60-gram anti-personnel mine,” he said. “So, yes, there will be contamination. There will be some in the sea, there will be some in the rivers. How we deal with that? That's another one to add to the list of problems to solve.”
Heslop said that the collapse of the dam was "almost a biblical disaster — and that's before you throw in the mine equation."
“We don’t know what we don’t know,” he continued. “We do know that there was widespread use of mines on that south bank, obviously to prevent an attack across the river. ... I can only draw the conclusion that a number of explosive devices, be they UXO (unexploded ordnances) or mines and anti-personnel mines, will have been washed downriver.”
Remember: The city of Kherson, which sits on the west bank of the Dnipro river, was taken back by the Ukrainian military in November 2022 after eight months of Russian occupation. But much of the east bank of the river south of the Nova Kakhovka dam remains under Russian control.
Russia will increase mass production of drones, Putin says
From CNN's Radina Gigova and Anna Chernova
Russia will boost the mass production of drones and increase their deployment to the battlefield, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday, during an address to graduates from Russia's military academies in the Kremlin.
"The improvement and production of counter-battery systems will continue, as well as the deployment of unmanned aerial vehicles and robotic strike systems to the troops, which have shown themselves well in combat conditions," Putin said. "We will accelerate their mass production. It is necessary to provide this equipment to all military units, including squads, platoons, companies and battalions."
Putin said in the course of what Russia calls euphemistically its "special military operation" in Ukraine, "the latest models of armored vehicles, attack missile and aviation systems, air defense and electronic warfare systems make a huge contribution to the solution of combat missions" and that "their production and improvement will certainly continue."
Some context: Earlier this month, a White House official said they believe that an attack drone manufacturing plant Russia is building with Iran’s help could be fully operational by early 2024.
On Tuesday, Moscow launched “another massive air attack” on Kyiv using Iran-made drones, Ukraine’s military said, marking the second time this month that Russia has used those drones against the capital.
CNN's Natasha Bertrand contributed reporting to this post.
EU imposes 11th round of sanctions against Russia
From CNN's Sharon Braithwaite in London
European Union ambassadors have agreed on the 11th package of sanctions against Russia, the Swedish Presidency of the EU Council said Wednesday.
"The package includes measures aimed at countering sanctions circumvention and individual listings," it said on Twitter.
The President of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the sanctions package, saying "it will deal a further blow to Putin’s war machine with tightened export restrictions, targeting entities supporting the Kremlin."
"Our anti-circumvention tool will prevent Russia from getting its hands on sanctioned goods," she tweeted.
Analysis: Ukraine bids for risk-taking investors —even as the bombs fall
From CNN's Nic Robertson
Rebuilding Ukraine is as much a battle of logic as it is a potential Sisyphean challenge. In Vladimir Putin’s world, smash and dominate? Or Volodymyr Zelensky’s where you can invest and repair, at the risk of seeing every gain rolled back?
The Ukraine Recovery Conference in London is taking up the challenge to show the Russian president that Ukraine’s allies are as determined to win a post-war peace, as they are to help Ukraine vanquish his illegal, unprovoked invasion.
Not for nothing did US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warn Putin by saying, “So let’s be clear, Russia is causing Ukraine's destruction and Russia will eventually bear the cost of Ukraine's reconstruction.”
In the meantime, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak launched a war-risk insurance framework to boost investment from the private sector.
Against a background of ongoing war, stubborn inflation, governments can’t afford to foot the whole bill — either economically or politically — despite statements to stand by Ukraine “as long as it takes.”
Like US President Joe Biden, Sunak faces an election next year, and both need to signal to tax-paying voters that they are not alone in rebuilding Ukraine.
According to the World Bank, there is a $411 billion recovery and reconstruction hole. So how and why fill a potentially bottomless pit — which is assuredly what Ukraine will become if the war drags on, and not get greenbacks stuck to the side through corruption? For four of the previous five years, it was the Ukraine reform — not recovery — conference.
Ukraine’s president vowed reforms to government, and Blinken offered millions of dollars to help: $100 million alone for “digitizing customs” to combat corruption.
The European Union's Ursula von der Leyen, to whose institutions Ukraine is pledged to align, spoke about the importance of “clarity and transparency,” and everyone praised Zelensky’s reforms so far.
And why invest at all? Zelensky said “600 million people” worldwide depend on Ukraine’s agricultural products, adding that his country would become a net “clean energy” provider. Blinken announced $1.3 billion dollars of US aid, some earmarked to rebuild Ukraine’s power grid shattered by Russian attacks. It will be “clean, resilient, and integrated to Europe,” and one day able to export electricity.
Ultimately, the message to Putin is: Ukraine is gone. How loudly that’s heard in Moscow will depend in part on how many businesses want to put their money in harm's way.
Russia claims it repelled Ukrainian attacks in the southern Zaporizhzhia region
From CNN's Katharina Krebs in London
Russia claimed on Wednesday that its forces had attacked units of the Ukrainian army in the area of the Vremivka ledge – one of the epicenters of fighting, located in the southeast of the country near the border of the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions – and destroyed their equipment.
According to the daily statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense, "In the area of the Vremivka ledge, operational-tactical and army aviation inflicted strikes on units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the areas of the settlements of Novodonetske, Storozheve of the Donetsk People's Republic and Levadne in the Zaporizhzhia region.”
"As a result of the strike, one tank, an infantry fighting vehicle and three armored fighting vehicles were destroyed," it added.
According to the ministry, Russian troops repelled two attacks of the 65th Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the areas of Novodanilivka and Yablukove settlements in the Zaporizhzhia region.
The Russian defense ministry said it struck advancing columns and "the accumulation of manpower and equipment" in three Zaporizhzhia region towns.
The ministry also claimed that Russian forces stopped "the activities of three Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups" in the area of three other settlements in the region.
What Ukraine says: Earlier on Wednesday, a senior Ukrainian defense official claimed that Kyiv’s troops were “entrenching themselves” on the southern front, while continuing to conduct “offensive operations” in the direction of two Russian-held cities that lie deep into occupied territory.
CNN cannot independently verify battlefield reports.
Analysis: Ukraine has cards left to play in brutal, slow counteroffensive
Analysis from CNN's Nick Paton Walsh
The footage is grainy and disturbing. A Ukrainian soldier from the 73rd Naval Special Operations Center fights his way through a trench, apparently on the southern front, shooting Russian soldiers repeatedly at point-blank range. The dust kicked up adds to the sense of chaos, and the dense panic and brutality of this counteroffensive’s start.
It was never going to be simple, and would always involve the sort of ghastly, face-to-face combat shown in the special forces video. But the success of Ukraine’s onslaught still rests on whether it can surprise and outwit Moscow’s forces — not in grinding close combat, but on a larger strategic level. And this is likely why we are seeing a slow — and at times incremental — start to this first phase of open operations.
At present, Ukraine appears to be keeping its options open. The priority is progress along the expansive southern front, which marks the valuable land corridor between occupied Crimea and the Donbas, and the Russian mainland. Most observers agree it is the singular goal of this counteroffensive to break that land bridge.
A Crimean peninsula isolated from the Donbas is much harder to resupply and defend, leaving Russian President Vladimir Putin with a stark choice: expose his military assets in Crimea to a long standoff, or cut his losses and pull them back.
Few analysts contend he can stomach the latter, and so we may face a long siege of the peninsula over the winter months, as Kyiv returns Moscow to the boundaries it stole in 2014-15, or worse. It is arguably a symbolic defeat for Moscow (and a definable victory for Kyiv) to see Russia’s past 16 months of carnage and losses end in no strategic gain.
The question for July is how this is achieved.
Read the full analysis here.