{"id":227963,"date":"2025-07-01T00:49:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T00:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/227963\/"},"modified":"2025-07-01T00:49:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T00:49:10","slug":"ukraine-war-briefing-russia-claims-to-have-seized-all-of-luhansk-region-kim-jong-un-mourns-war-dead-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/227963\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine war briefing: Russia claims to have seized all of Luhansk region; Kim Jong-un mourns war dead | Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"
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    Moscow\u2019s forces have seized all of Luhansk \u2013 one of four regions Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in September 2022 despite not fully controlling a single one \u2013 Leonid Pasechnik, a Russia-appointed official there, said on Monday.<\/strong> If confirmed, that would make Luhansk the first Ukrainian region to be fully occupied by Russia after more than three years of war. There was no immediate comment from Kyiv on Pasechnik\u2019s claim. In remarks to Russia\u2019s state TV Channel One that aired Monday evening, Pasechnik said he had received a report \u201cliterally two days ago\u201d saying that \u201c100%\u201d of the region was now under the control of Russian forces.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    Russian forces have captured a village in the Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk<\/a> for the first time in their three-year offensive, Russian state media and pro-war bloggers have claimed<\/strong>. Dnipropetrovsk, which lies to the west of the Donetsk region, is not among the five Ukrainian regions over which Russia has asserted a formal territorial claim. There was no immediate confirmation from Ukrainian officials or from the Russian defence ministry.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    North Korea\u2019s state media showed on Monday leader Kim Jong-un draping coffins with the national flag in what appeared to be the repatriation of soldiers killed fighting for Russia against Ukraine, as the countries marked a landmark military treaty<\/strong>. In a series of photographs displayed in the backdrop of a gala performance by North Korean and visiting Russian artists in Pyongyang, Kim is seen by rows of a half a dozen coffins, covering them with flags and pausing briefly with both hands resting on them.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    The European Union said Monday it had agreed a new long-term trade deal with Ukraine, covering imports of food products from the war-torn country that have angered EU farmers<\/a><\/strong>. Brussels and Kyiv have been wrangling over the deal after protests from farmers saw the EU slap quotas on tariff-free Ukrainian agricultural imports into the bloc. Brussels added certain restrictions in 2024, when it extended the agreement for one additional year, by introducing a maximum ceiling on certain tariff-free products such as cereals, poultry, eggs, sugar and corn. The European Commission said that under the new deal \u2013 which still needs to be finalised \u2013 quotas would remain for those sensitive agricultural areas. In return, Kyiv will cut its quotas for pork, poultry and sugar imported from the EU and push to align its food production standards with those of the 27-nation bloc by 2028, Brussels said.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    The International Monetary Fund said on Monday it has completed its eighth review of Ukraine\u2019s $15.5bn four-year support program, paving the way for a disbursement of an additional $500m to the war-torn country<\/strong>. That will bring total disbursements to $10.6bn, the IMF said in a statement, after its board\u2019s approval of the review of Ukraine\u2019s Extended Fund Facility. It warned of ongoing and \u201cexceptionally high\u201d risks to the country\u2019s outlook.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    Russian President Vladimir Putin \u201cwants to subjugate the whole of Ukraine and at the same time spread fear throughout Europe,\u201d German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on a visit to Kyiv on Monday, adding that Putin\u2019s \u201calleged willingness to negotiate is just a facade.\u201d<\/strong> Kyiv and its allies have accused Russia of sabotaging diplomatic efforts, which have stalled in recent weeks, despite Washington\u2019s desires to reach a quick peace deal.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    US President Donald Trump\u2019s senior envoy for Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellog also said on Monday that Russia cannot continue to stall for time \u201cwhile it bombs civilian targets in Ukraine.\u201d<\/strong> \u201cWe urge an immediate ceasefire and a move to trilateral talks to end the war,\u201d Kellogg wrote on X.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Moscow\u2019s forces have seized all of Luhansk \u2013 one of four regions Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[2000,299,657],"class_list":{"0":"post-227963","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}