Papal envoy Cardinal Matteo Zuppi said on July 2 that his mission to Moscow on the Ukraine war focused on humanitarian issues and had not involved any discussions of a peace plan. Pope Francis asked Zuppi, head of the Italian bishops' conference, to carry out a peace mission to try to help end the war in Ukraine. Zuppi met one of President Vladimir Putin's advisers, Yury Ushakov, and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, in Moscow last week. In June, he also visited Kyiv for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. To read the original story by Reuters, click here.

The former president of Serbia, Milan Milutinovic, died on July 2 at 81 years of age, his party colleague Ivica Dacic, leader of the Socialist Party (SPS), announced. Dacic is the current foreign minister and deputy prime minister of Serbia. Milutinovic held office as president of the-then constituent state of Serbia within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2002. He was considered a close associate of Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic, who was indicted for war crimes. Milutinovic was also indicted by the UN's International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague in 1999. In 2003, Milutinovic surrendered to the tribunal and was acquitted of all charges in 2009.

U.S. President Joe Biden will travel to Britain, the NATO summit in Lithuania, and to Finland, beginning on July 9, the White House said on July 2. Biden is scheduled to be in Vilnius for the important NATO gathering on July 11-12 -- where the Ukraine war will be high on the agenda for alliance members. The next day he will visit Helsinki for a U.S.-Nordic Leaders Summit.

Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik has reiterated his stance that the Republika Srpska entity of Bosnia-Herzegovina will not recognize rulings made by Christian Schmidt, the international community's high representative for the Western Balkan nation. The comments on July 2 came a day after Schmidt annulled laws adopted by the entity’s National Assembly that would suspend recognition of any decisions by Bosnia's multiethnic Constitutional Court. The vote was seen by many as part of the secessionist efforts of certain Republika Srpska officials. To read the original story by RFE/RL’s Balkan Service, click here.

The war in Ukraine has been "exceptionally challenging for Russia's aerospace community," the British Defense Ministry tweeted from London on July 2 in its daily update on the conflict. "The sector is struggling under international sanctions; highly trained specialists are being encouraged to serve as infantry in the Roskosmos space agency's own militia," it said referring to Russia's aerospace body. It noted that the head of the Russian Aerospace Forces, General Sergei Surovikin, had not been seen since the abortive mutiny by the Wagner Group of mercenaries, for which he had served as "point of contact with the Russian Ministry of Defense."

Poland is to deploy additional police officers to its border with Belarus to boost security in response to plans by the Wagner group of Russian mercenaries to set up base there, Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski said on July 2. The 500 extra police, including members of the anti-terrorism unit, will support 5,000 border guards and 2,000 soldiers already stationed along the border with the country's eastern neighbor. According to Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Poland has learned that up to 8,000 Wagner fighters could be accommodated in Belarus. Poland shares a 418-kilometer border with the Russian ally.

Iran will refrain from sending a new ambassador to Sweden in protest over the burning of a Koran outside a mosque in Stockholm, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on July 2. A man tore up and burned a Koran outside Stockholm's central mosque on June 28, the first day of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holidays. Swedish police charged the man who burned the holy book with agitation against an ethnic or national group. In a newspaper interview, he described himself as an Iraqi refugee seeking to ban it. To read the original story by Reuters, click here.

Pakistani officials said four security officials were killed in a shoot-out on July 2 in the southwestern Balochistan Province. They said the Tehrik-e Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, in which about a dozen militants attacked police and frontier officers at a highway checkpoint. One of the attackers was killed and three injured, a local police commissioner said. The Tehrik-e Taliban is distinct from the Taliban in Afghanistan, but espouses a similar ideology. Islamabad has charged that some of the attacks in Pakistan have been organized inside Afghanistan.

Ukraine has invited NATO countries to join it in a program to demine the Black Sea. Vice Admiral Oleksiy Neizhpapa, commander of Ukraine’s Navy, said in a July 2 interview with ArmiyaInform that Kyiv was “preparing to launch a countermining operation…in the Black Sea at the first opportunity.” He added that “there are certain agreements” with NATO countries and other partners to participate in the work. Neizhpapa added that, since the destruction of the Kakhovka dam last month, the number of mines has increased dramatically, as various Russian defenses in the Dnieper River were washed into the Black Sea. To read the original story by RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, click here.

The media group controlled by Yevgeny Prigozhin has been closed down in what appears to more retaliation against the tycoon following a brief mutiny staged on June 24 by him and his Wagner mercenary group.

Yevgeny Zubarev, the head of Prigozhin’s RIA FAN news site, announced late on July 1 that the company was closing down, without giving a reason for the decision.

RIA FAN is the most prominent outlet of Prigozhin’s Patriot Media group, which generally hews a strongly patriotic, pro-Kremlin line while also providing positive coverage of Prigozhin’s activities and attacking rivals such as St. Petersburg Governor Aleksandr Beglov.

The Prigozhin-controlled newspaper Nevskiye novosti in St. Petersburg also announced it was discontinuing publication.

The Kommersant newspaper reported on June 30 that Russia’s state media watchdog, Roskomnadzor, had blocked Prigozhin’s media websites without explaining the reason for its actions.

“Because we cannot continue working on the Russian Internet or fulfill our obligations to our partners and advertisers, I have made the decision in conjunction with the board of the Patriot group to stop publication as of June 30,” Nevskiye novosti chief editor Andrei Krasnobayev told RFE/RL.

SEE ALSO:

Live Briefing: Russia Invades Ukraine

Prigozhin and hundreds of his armed Wagner fighters led a brief uprising on June 24 that captured the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and threatened to carry out a march against Moscow. The crisis was defused after Prigozhin accepted a deal that would allow him to go into exile in Belarus and give his men the choice of joining him there or integrating into the Russian military.

Prigozhin has not appeared publicly since the uprising was quelled, but Belarusian strongman leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka has said he is in Belarus.

The Ostorozhno, Novosti Telegram channel reported on July 1 that Russia’s Defense Ministry had annulled a major contract with Prigozhin’s Concord catering company, which in turn was dismissing hundreds of workers. Under the contract, Concord had provided food to Russian troops fighting in Ukraine, as well as to hospitals and public organizations in the parts of Ukraine under Russian occupation.

Russia overnight launched its first drone attack in the area around Ukraine’s capital in nearly two weeks, officials said on July 2, one day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russia could be preparing an explosion at the massive Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensives, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.

“Another enemy attack on Kyiv,” wrote Serhiy Popko, the head of Kyiv's military administration, on Telegram. “At this moment there is no information about possible casualties or damage.”

Air-raid sirens were heard in the capital beginning about 2 a.m. local time, Reuters reported. One civilian was later reported slightly injured by falling debris in the Kyiv region.

Ukraine’s air-defense forces said on July 2 that eight drones and three Kalibr cruise missiles had been launched overnight across the country.

“All air targets…were destroyed,” the military wrote on Telegram.

In its daily briefing on July 2, the Ukrainian General Staff reported 46 clashes between Ukrainian and Russian forces during the previous 24 hours.

RFE/RL cannot confirm claims of battlefield developments by either side in areas of heavy fighting.

The main fighting was again reported in the area of Lyman, Bakhmut, and Maryinka in the Donetsk region.

During a news conference on July 1 with visiting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said there was “a serious threat” that Russia was prepared to set off “a local explosion” at the massive Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant “which could lead to a [radiation] release.”

SEE ALSO:

Spanish Prime Minister Visits Ukraine In Show Of EU Support

Zelenskiy met with security and nuclear-power officials on July 1 at the Rivne nuclear power plant to discuss “key issues,” he said in his nightly video address.

Ukraine’s military had earlier claimed that Russia had mined the Zaporizhzhya plant, which is Europe’s largest civilian nuclear facility.

On June 30, Enerhoatom, Ukraine’s nuclear authority, concluded two days of exercises simulating the effects of an explosion at the plant, which has been controlled by Russian occupying forces since shortly after Moscow launched its February 2022 invasion.

With reporting by Reuters

The leader of Germany's Christian Democrats, Friedrich Merz, said on July 1 that he has been told he cannot visit the German-Iranian Jamshid Sharmahd, who has been sentenced to death. "After several months of processing, my application to enter Iran was rejected. The regime denies me an insight into the prison conditions of the German citizen Jamshid Sharmahd," Merz wrote on Twitter. Iran's Supreme Court confirmed the controversial death sentence against the journalist at the end of April. In February, a revolutionary court found Sharmahd responsible for an alleged terrorist attack. He has denied the charges and his daughter said he has been tortured in prison.

In Serbia, 108,833 illegal weapons were handed in during an amnesty after 18 people were shot dead in two separate mass killings in May, a police spokeswoman said on July 1.

The amnesty expired at midnight after one extension. Police said 82,400 handguns, 26,500 mines, and other explosive devices were handed in.

The amnesty meant people were not charged for having obtained or owned the illegal weapons.

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Serbia was shaken by two deadly gun rampages just under two months ago. Since then, tens of thousands of Serbs have taken to the streets in weekly demonstrations against violence and the government.

Some 40 Russian diplomats, technical staff, and their family members on July 1 left Bucharest on a special flight arranged by the Kremlin following the June 8 order by Romania’s Foreign Ministry to reduce Moscow’s diplomatic presence in the country. Romanian authorities said 11 diplomats and 29 technical-administrative staff were on the plane. The plane departed after a six-hour delay, officials said. To read the original story by RFE/RL’s Romanian Service, click here.

U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns said on July 1 that the armed mutiny by mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin had shown the corrosive effect on Russia of President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine. "It is striking that Prigozhin preceded his actions with a scathing indictment of the Kremlin's mendacious rationale for the invasion of Ukraine and of the Russian military leadership's conduct of the war," Burns, a former U.S. ambassador to Moscow, told Britain's Ditchley Foundation in Oxfordshire. "The impact of those words and those actions will play out for some time -- a vivid reminder of the corrosive effect of Putin's war on his own society and his own regime." To read the original story by Reuters, click here.

SARAJEVO -- Christian Schmidt, the international community's high representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina, on July 1 annulled laws adopted by the Bosnian Serb entity’s National Assembly that his office had declared illegal, unacceptable, and detrimental to the Balkan nation’s unity.

Christian Schmidt also amended Bosnia's Criminal Code to declare that any illegal actions that undermine the country's constitutional order will be treated as criminal offenses.

Under the 1995 Dayton accords, Schmidt has the power to impose laws as the final interpreter of the state constitution, though his decisions can be reviewed and questioned by the Constitutional Court of Bosnia, if the Office of the High Representative (OHR) approves.

The Dayton accords, which ended the 1992-95 Bosnian War, established an administrative system under which the Bosnian state remains partitioned between Republika Srpska (RS) and the Muslim Bosniak-Croat Federation, connected by a weak central government.

Ethnic Serbs of Republika Srpska have for years resisted Bosnia's central authorities, with the entity’s assembly voting on June 27 to suspend recognition of any decisions by Bosnia's multi-ethnic Constitutional Court.

On June 1, the assembly adopted changes in the law that imply that decisions by the High Representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina would no longer be recognized.

The moves were seen as part of the secessionist efforts of certain Republika Srpska officials.

Some Serb leaders in Republika Srpska say they do not recognize Schmidt -- a German diplomat who was appointed in 2021 as the high representative -- because the UN Security Council did not endorse his nomination. China and Russia disputed his appointment because he was not confirmed by the Council, although other nations said it was not required.

Schmidt, in his decision, said that "entity assemblies do not have the authority to derogate from the provisions of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and they do not have the right to derogate from the jurisdiction of key Dayton institutions.”

Schmidt said he had ruled that the Republika Srpska assembly’s “law on the nonimplementation of decisions of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina in the territory of RS will not come into force. “

Schmidt stressed that those who attempt to overthrow the constitutional order must be prosecuted.

"They will bear the consequences for their actions -- all options are on the table," he said.

The U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo said it "strongly welcomed" Schmidt's decisions on the RS entity's "unconstitutional," "anti-Dayton laws."

The British Embassy also said it backed Schmidt's actions and expressed the joint support of the so-called Quint nations in Bosnia -- the United States, Britain, Germany, France, and Italy.

The Serb member of the tripartite Bosnian presidency, Zeljka Cvijanovic, said that the RS would not recognize Schmidt's latest rulings, claiming they "hinder the sovereign decision-making of institutions at all levels of government."

The assembly's June 27 vote on constitutional law was another in a series of steps orchestrated by Milorad Dodik, the president of the Republika Srpska entity -- and the pro-Russia leader of the Serbs in Bosnia -- and his Serb allies to reject the power-sharing structures established for Bosnia under the Dayton accords.

Belarusian authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka has signed a law that will allow the banning of media from “unfriendly countries,” his office said on July 1. “The law provides for the possibility of imposing a ban on the activities of foreign media...in the event that foreign states display unfriendly actions against Belarusian media,” a decree states. Lukashenka has stepped up his crackdown on dissent and media since an August 2020 presidential election in which he was officially announced as the winner but which opponents and most Western nations have refused to acknowledge, citing election fraud and the crackdown, and imposed sanctions on Minsk. To read the original story by RFE/RL’s Belarus Service, click here.

Ukraine's president has put sanctions into effect on 190 new individuals and 290 legal entities as part of its ongoing effort to punish Russia and its perceived enablers in the current war. The new targets include Georgian Airways and its chairman which resumed flights to Russian destinations in May in a snub to Western leaders pressing Tbilisi to join EU and other efforts to punish Moscow for its 16-month invasion of Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy also targeted Russian scientific and aerospace officials, as well as companies from Belarus and Kazakhstan. The move comes a week after the EU introduced its 11th package of sanctions against Russian aggression. To see the original story by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, click here.

Belarusian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka, the Kremlin's staunchest ally in its war in Ukraine, said on June 30 that he was certain Russian tactical nuclear weapons deployed in his country would never be used. Lukashenka and Russian President Vladimir Putin have said some tactical weapons arrived in Belarus with more to be in place by the end of the year. After saying he was" more and more convinced that they must be stationed" in Belarus, Lukashenka added, "I'm certain that we will never have to use them while they are here. And no enemy will ever set foot on our land." To see the original story by Reuters, click here.

Afghanistan's Taliban government has seized on an off-the-cuff remark by U.S. President Joe Biden to underscore its claim that there was no Al-Qaeda threat in the country. Biden had said "all the evidence is coming back" and quoted himself around the time of the pullout in mid-2021 as saying, "Al-Qaeda would not be there" and "I said we'd get help from the Taliban," before adding, "I was right." On July 1, the Taliban regime's Foreign Ministry said, "We consider remarks by U.S. President Joe Biden about the nonexistence of armed groups in Afghanistan as acknowledgement of reality." It added a criticism of a recent UN report alleging that more than 20 armed groups are in Afghanistan.

DUSHANBE -- Authorities in Tajikistan on July 1 said the man who allegedly opened fire and killed two security personnel at Moldova’s main international airport is a Tajik national who is suspected of being in an “organized criminal group” that is believed to have kidnapped a bank official a week ago.

Moldovan authorities said on June 30 that the 43-year-old Tajik man shot and killed a border police officer and an airport security employee with a pistol taken from a border officer at Chisinau International Airport after he was refused entry into the small southeastern European nation.

On July 1, Tajikistan’s Prosecutor-General's Office alleged that the detainee, identified as Rustam Ashurov, was a member of a crime group, which kidnapped the deputy chairman of a Tajik bank in Dushanbe on June 23.

Prosecutors charge that Ashurov, “after committing this crime, fled to the Republic of Moldova through the Republic of Turkey in order to subsequently hide in the countries of the European Union.”

After he was refused entry to Moldova, according to authorities in both countries, the suspect “grabbed a pistol from one of the law-enforcement officers of the Chisinau airport, shot two, and took several people hostage.”

Security personnel fired back at the man, wounding him before taking him under arrest.

Authorities said Ashurov had arrived in Moldova on a flight from Istanbul. It is not known how he left Tajikistan before arriving in Turkey.

Prior to the incident, Tajik authorities had not named the suspects in the abduction of bank official Shuhrat Ismatulloev, 49.

SEE ALSO:

Deputy Chairman Of Tajikistan's Oriyonbank Suspected Abducted

In Chisinau, the head of the General Police Inspectorate, Viorel Cernauteanu, told reporters that local authorities were unaware of the suspect's background before refusing him entry.

"Only after the incident at the airport...did we contact the authorities of Tajikistan," he said. "Only then were we told that he was the subject of interest in a case in Tajikistan."

Acting Prosecutor-General Ion Munteanu said Chisinau plans to charge and try the suspect in Moldova since the actions occurred in the country.

Following the incident, the airport was evacuated and flights delayed, but officials reported on July 1 that operations were back to normal.

The airport security officer who was killed was identified as Igor Ciofu, 40 years old and a father of three. He had been working at the airport since 2022 after retiring from the State Security and Protection Service.

Tensions are high in pro-West Moldova following Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine, with fears that Moscow could expand the war to Moldova, where up to 1,500 Russian troops are based in the breakaway pro-Moscow Transdniester region.

The Moldovan government has been critical of Russian aggression in Ukraine, with President Maia Sandu saying in May 2022 that Crimea, the Donbas, and Kyiv are all part of Ukraine.

Moldovan security forces have sought to block potential Russian fighters from arriving in the country, although there was no immediate indication of the suspect’s intentions in traveling to Moldova.

Following the incident, Sandu said that "state institutions are on heightened alert, police and law-enforcement bodies are mobilized throughout Moldova."

With reporting in Chisinau by RFE/RL's Moldovan Service

The Pakistani Army's press department says six suspected militants were killed in multiple shoot-outs in Tank and North Waziristan on June 29-30, although it was unclear what armed group the authorities were targeting. AP reported that the gun battles were sparked when security forces raided militant refuges in the areas, which are near the border with Afghanistan. A military statement said security troops were acting on credible intelligence on the militants' whereabouts, AP said. Authorities said a clear-out operation was conducted after the raids. To read the original Radio Mashaal story, click here. To read the original story by AP, click here.

KYIV -- Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said his July 1 visit to Kyiv demonstrates the European Union’s “clear and unequivocal political commitment” to Ukraine’s efforts to join the 27-member bloc, even as it battles against Russia's full-scale invasion.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensives, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.

"Speaking of the European Union's perspective on Ukraine's EU accession, my being here on the first day of [Spain’s] six-month presidency...demonstrates a clear and unequivocal political commitment on the part of the community institutions in this respect," Sanchez said in a joint news conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

"I would like to congratulate Ukraine for the positive trend and encourage it to continue its path of reforms," he added.

In an earlier address to the Ukrainian parliament, Sanchez said his country will provide an additional 55 million euro ($60 million) in financial aid to help Ukraine rebuild its economy in the face of the Russian invasion.

Sanchez is visiting Kyiv to meet with Zelenskiy and other officials and to demonstrate ongoing EU support for Ukraine on the first day of Spain's six-month stint as president of the Council of the European Union.

In a joint declaration, the two leaders stated: "Spain reiterates its support to the candidacy of Ukraine to join the EU, which will be among the priorities of its presidency. Spain supports strengthening NATO's partnership with Ukraine, including through the creation of a NATO-Ukraine Council."

The trip comes with Ukraine's civilian and military leaders urging more urgent supplies of advanced weaponry, including fighter jets, to boost a counteroffensive that Kyiv says is progressing slowly but steadily to push Russian forces out of the country following their full-scale invasion 16 months ago.

Sanchez was quoted as saying in Kyiv that "we are with you and we will be as long as necessary," adding, "I wanted to tell you that we will support Ukraine, regardless of the price."

Upon his arrival, Sanchez posted a video from the train station in Kyiv in which he was being met by a Ukrainian delegation.

"I wanted the first act of the Spanish presidency of the council of the European Union to be in Ukraine together with @ZelenskyyUa," Sanchez wrote alongside the clip, using the Ukrainian president's Twitter handle.

Sanchez added that he wanted to convey to the Ukrainian parliament and government "all of Europe's solidarity."

"We will maintain our support for the Ukrainian people until peace returns to Europe," he said.

Sanchez reportedly traveled via Poland.

The visit comes ahead of a NATO summit in Lithuania's capital later this month where transatlantic allies are expected to hash out a strategy and road map for relations with Ukraine, which has dramatically intensified its calls for EU and NATO membership since Russia's invasion began in February 2022.

NATO is not expected to offer membership at the Vilnius summit, although many Western military and other officials argue that the conflict with Russia, the resulting Western equipment and training, and Ukrainians' staunch defense of their country combine to make the Ukrainian military an elite European fighting force.

Spain has been in NATO since 1982 and a member of the European Union since 1986.

It was among the first European states to provide nonlethal support for the Ukrainian military with shipments of bulletproof jackets and helmets after the all-out Russian invasion began in February 2022.

It pivoted quickly to back Ukraine despite fears that it might cling to a "hope that Moscow might somehow form part of a future European security architecture," according to the Elcano Royal Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.

Polls cited on July 1 show Spain's conservative People's Party as the front-runner to win the most seats in Spain's national elections set for next month, ahead of Sanchez's ruling Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE).

With reporting by AFP

Belarus's internationally isolated leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka has urged Belarusians not to "worry" about the presumed arrival of Wagner mercenaries after their aborted mutiny in Russia, as satellite imagery emerged of a tent camp springing up in the east that RFE/RL's Belarus Service estimates could house around 15,000 soldiers.

Lukashenka was speaking on June 30 ahead of Independence Day on July 3, telling the country that he's run with an iron fist for three decades, "Calm down."

Wagner mercenaries had been essential to Russia's war effort up until their boss Yevgeny Prigozhin led thousands of them in an apparent mutiny and march toward Moscow, complaining of army incompetence.

Lukashenka reportedly mediated between Prigozhin and President Vladimir Putin's regime at the height of the crisis on June 24, including offering haven for Prigozhin and an untold number of his fighters.

SEE ALSO:

Live Briefing: Russia Invades Ukraine

In his speech, he said of the Wagner transfers to Belarus that "this problem has been inflated."

Prigozhin heavily recruited among hardened criminals and other prisoners to fill the Wagner ranks.

"These are the most prepared people," Lukashenka said. "They say, 'There are prisoners.' Listen, all the soldiers who were convicted [of crimes] there [in Russia], they have already died, unfortunately. And one more nuance that they don't want to explain: Convicts were released from prisons in Russia only for the Russian front. Not a single person [from among the inmates recruited to fight in Ukraine] goes abroad."

Details of the Kremlin's deal with Minsk are unclear, but Prigozhin was thought to have traveled there on a private jet.

RFE/RL's Belarusian Service has obtained satellite images that show the construction of what looks like a new military field camp near the village of Tsel, in the Asipouitsky district of the Mahilyow region of eastern Belarus, less than 100 kilometers from the Russian border.

SEE ALSO:

Belarus Is Reviving An Abandoned Garrison. For Whom?

It is larger than most of the other known field camps in Belarus.

Belarusian officials have not disclosed its intended purpose.

The tent site is more than 100 kilometers north of the border with Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on June 30 said after consulting with security and intelligence officials that he had ordered the bolstering of defenses in Ukraine's northern military sector, which abuts Belarus.

SEE ALSO:

Zelenskiy Girds Northern Ukraine As Kyiv Claims New Hold On 'Strategic Initiative'

Local residents said repair and construction work at Tsel began in June.

But as late as June 17, according to satellite imagery provided by Planet.com and published by RFE/RL's Belarusian Service, there were no traces of any future deployment there. No camp is visible in the satellite photo from June 24.

But images taken on June 27 show field tents and excavation pits, new facilities, and other signs of construction.

RFE/RL's Belarusian Service counted at least 303 tents that weren't at the site on June 24.

Dozens of rectangular objects that appear to be field tents for housing are visible, including on platforms next to older buildings.

There is no weaponry or other military equipment visible in the photos.

Since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Lukashenka has allowed Russia's military to stage operations from Belarusian territory and recently permitted Russian tactical nuclear missiles to be stationed there.

On June 30, he said he was certain Russian tactical nuclear weapons deployed in his country would never be used. After saying he was" more and more convinced that they must be stationed" in Belarus, Lukashenka added, "I'm certain that we will never have to use them while they are here. And no enemy will ever set foot on our land."

Lukashenka increased his reliance on Putin and his international isolation when he unleashed a crackdown following a flawed presidential election in 2020 in which he asserted a victory to give him a sixth presidential term.

Thousands of Belarusians were detained and the opposition's leaders forced into exile or arrested alongside other strictures on the press, speech, and assembly.

With reporting by Reuters

Japan's Defense Ministry said late on June 30 that it had spotted two Russian Navy ships in the waters near Taiwan and Japan's Okinawa islands in the previous four days, following a similar announcement this week from Taiwan. Taiwan's Defense Ministry said on June 27 that it had spotted two Russian frigates off its eastern coast and send aircraft and ships to keep watch. Tokyo said last month that repeated Russian military activity near Japanese territory, including joint drills with Chinese forces, posed "serious concern" for Japan's national security. To see the original story by Reuters, click here.