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– France has posthumously awarded the Legion of Honor, the country’s highest award, to Arman Soldin, an Agence France-Presse journalist who was killed in Ukraine. 

“Through his strength of character, his journey and his drive,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in a letter to AFP, Arman Soldin “embodied your editorial staff’s passion — a passion to convey the truth, tell stories and gather testimonies.”

The British Defense Ministry said Friday in its daily report on Ukraine that Russia’s recent announcement that the nuclear-powered submarines of Russia’s Northern Fleet will not participate in the Navy Day fleet review in St. Petersburg on July 30 is “likely primarily due to” maintenance and availability concerns. 

However, the ministry also said there is also “a realistic possibility that Internal security concerns since Wagner Group’s attempted mutiny have contributed to the decision.” 

Russian attacks killed at least three Ukrainian civilians and wounded another 38, Ukraine’s presidential office reported Thursday. 

The government in Kyiv said Russian forces targeted 13 cities and villages under Russian control in the partially occupied eastern Donetsk region with air attacks, missiles and heavy artillery.  

In the Zaporizhzhia region, also partly Russian occupied, Ukraine said 21 people were injured by drone debris on Wednesday and that fires broke out in Kherson after Russian shelling.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials said their air defenses shot down 20 Iranian-made drones fired by Russia that targeted the Kyiv region. But they said wreckage from the drones fell on four districts of the capital early Thursday, hospitalizing two people with shrapnel wounds and destroying several homes. 

The interior ministry said firefighters extinguished a blaze in a 16-story apartment building and another fire in a nonresidential building. Debris also smashed into the front of a 25-story apartment building. 

The latest wave was the third consecutive night in which the drones were used in attacks on Kyiv.

Elsewhere, Ukraine said one of its missile strikes killed a senior Russian officer, Lt. Gen. Oleg Tsokov, who was leading Moscow’s forces against Kyiv’s recent counteroffensive in southern Ukraine. 

Ukraine said Tsokov was killed when the Ukrainian military struck the city of Berdyansk on Tuesday with British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles. Russia’s defense ministry has not reported Tsokov’s death.

 

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters
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