LIVE UPDATES: Border Areas of Russian Kursk Region Shelled Again by Ukrainian Forces - Governor

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the operation aims to "protect people subjected to genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years." As of March 25, the Russian Armed Forces completed the main tasks of the first stage, significantly reducing the combat potential of Ukraine. Western nations have imposed numerous sanctions on Russia and have been supplying weapons to Ukraine.

According to the LPR representative office at the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of the ceasefire regime (JCCC), Ukrainian armed units fired a missile from a Tochka-U tactical missile system on the city of Stakhanov on Monday evening.

An American mercenary, who fought for Ukraine and was captured by Russian troops last month, has said that he witnessed corruption in the Ukrainian military.

The 3-mile-wide Black Sea route from the ports of Kherson, Mykolaiv, Chornomorsk, Ochakiv, Odesa and Yuzhne will extend southwest for 139 miles and will be open from 8 a.m. Moscow time (5:00GMT) to 7 p.m.

"We warn the 'civilized West' in advance of an impending provocation, where Ukrainian authorities will once again accuse the Russian military of indiscriminate strikes on chemically hazardous facilities," the MoD said, adding that the "fabricated material" will be widely spread in the Ukrainian and Western media.

Lugano is hosting the international Ukraine Recovery Conference on July 4-5. This high-level political event is dedicated to discussing Ukraine's next reform priorities.

Following the start of Moscow's special military operation in Ukraine, the OECD terminated Russia's accession process, which was postponed in 2014.

Putin allowed the government commission to impose restrictions on the crediting of foreign currency by Russian residents to their accounts in foreign banks, according to the decree.

France will deliver a mobile DNA laboratory to Ukraine this week to facilitate the investigation of alleged war crimes, Francois Delattre, the Secretary General of the French foreign ministry, said on Tuesday.

On June 16, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that Paris would provide Kiev with the DNA laboratory, without specifying the timeframe. Macron also said that France had sent police and investigators to Ukraine to help Ukrainian and the international investigators probe accusations of war crimes against Russia and identify those responsible.

"France has deployed a team of forensic experts to gather evidence of crimes and conduct DNA and ballistic testing. A mobile DNA laboratory will be delivered to Ukraine this week, so that Ukrainians can fully document these crimes," Delattre said during a plenary session of an international conference on Ukraine.

The Swiss city of Lugano is hosting the Ukraine Recovery Conference from Monday to Tuesday. This high-level political event is dedicated to discussing Ukraine's recovery and reform priorities.

On April 11, a technical team of the French Interior Ministry arrived in Ukraine to assist Ukrainian experts in identifying and collecting evidence of war crimes.

On March 3, the ICC launched a probe aimed at determining if there were any war crimes committed during Russia's special military operation in Ukraine. ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan said shortly later that the court started collecting evidence.

In March, social activists in the breakaway Donetsk People's Republic said that they filed multiple lawsuits with the ICC seeking redress for the thousands of war crimes committed by Ukrainian forces in the region, but their pleas were ignored. Not a single appeal has ever been investigated.

The Zaporozhye nuclear power plant (NPP) is forced to continue to supply electricity to Kiev, as required under the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) supervision, Yevhen Balytskyi, the head of Zaporozhye’s new military-civilian administration, said on Tuesday.

"Today, unfortunately, we supply electricity to the Ukrainian regime, and this does not sit well with us. However, since the station is under IAEA control, we cannot make independent decisions and Rosatom [Russian state nuclear agency] cannot enter either — because this procedure is quite complicated and we cannot violate it, since this is nuclear energy," Balytskyi told the Rossiya 24 broadcaster.

The Russian military, during a special operation to demilitarize Ukraine, took control of the Kherson Region in the south of the country and part of the Zaporizhzhia Region. Military-civilian administrations have been formed in the regions, residents can pay in Russian rubles, broadcasting of Russian TV channels and radio stations has begun, and trade ties with Crimea are being restored. The regions announced plans for the territories to become part of Russia.

Yevhen Balytskyi, the head of the Zaporozhye Region's new military-civilian administration, denied on Tuesday that Russian-flagged cargo ship Zhibek Zholy had been detained in Turkey on the suspicion of smuggling Ukrainian grain.

The detention was first reported by Ukrainian Ambassador to Turkey Vasyl Bodnar late last week. A source in the Turkish customs told Sputnik on Sunday that a Russian cargo ship had been detained. According to reports, it was transporting 7,000 tonnes of grain.

"The cargo ship was not arrested. We, our grain company, did not have an injunction on this cargo ship. Our company was only a transiter, the contract was concluded between the Tallinn and Turkish companies in this case. It is unlikely that anything negative will happen to this vessel in terms of law," Balytskyi told the Rossiya 24 broadcaster.

A Russian-flagged cargo ship transporting grain left the Black Sea port of Berdyansk on Thursday. Its detention by Turkey was requested by the ambassador, under the pretense that the grain on board is Ukrainian, according to reports. Earlier on Tuesday, the Turkish newspaper Aydinlik reported that there was no seizure of the contents of the Russian ship and the investigation is continuing.

World leaders and international organizations have been raising concerns over an imminent and large-scale food crisis since the start of Russia's military operation in Ukraine in February, citing disruptions to supply chains, soaring prices, and derailed crops production in one of the largest grain-producing regions in the world.

Western countries have accused Russia of blocking grain shipments in Ukraine's Black Sea ports. Moscow insists that the ports were mined by Ukraine, making shipments impossible. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia does not prevent the export of grain from Ukraine, and if Kiev demines the ports, ships with grain will be able to leave without difficulty.

The Zasyadko mine in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) has been de-energized as a result of shelling by Ukrainian troops, leaving 66 miners stuck underground, the DPR Territorial Defense Headquarters said on Tuesday.

"As a result of the shelling by the Ukrainian armed formations in Donetsk, the Zasyadko mine has been de-energized, 66 miners are underground," the defense headquarters said on Telegram.

Meanwhile, the DPR Ministry of Coal and Energy said there were no casualties.

The Russian armed forces have destroyed a temporary deployment station of foreign mercenaries near the village of Limany in the Nikolaev region, two Ukrainian command posts in the Donetsk People's Republic and four ammunition depots in the Kharkiv region, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.

"During the past 24 hours, high-precision weapons hit two command posts in the areas of the villages of Zvanevka and Ivano-Darevka of the Donetsk People's Republic, four warehouses with ammunition, and rocket and artillery weapons in the Krasnoe district of the Kharkov region, as well as manpower and military equipment of the Ukrainian armed formations in 18 districts, including a point of temporary deployment of foreign mercenaries in the area of ​​the Limany village in the Nikolaev region," the ministry said.