???? Live: International office investigating Russian invasion of Ukraine opens in The Hague

7:26am International office investigating Russian invasion of Ukraine opens in The Hague

An international office to probe Russia over its invasion of Ukraine opens on Monday in The Hague, in the first step towards a possible tribunal for Moscow’s leadership.

The International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression (ICPA) features prosecutors from Kyiv, the European Union, the United States and the International Criminal Court (ICC).

It will investigate and gather evidence in a move seen as an interim step before the creation of a special tribunal that could bring Kremlin officials to justice for starting the Ukraine war.

6:15am: EU considers Russian bank concession to safeguard Black Sea grain deal

The European Union is considering a proposal to allow a Russian bank under sanctions to carve out a subsidiary that would reconnect to the global financial network as a sop to Moscow, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

This will be aimed at safeguarding the Black Sea grain deal that allows Ukraine to export food to global markets, FT said.

The plan, which was proposed by Moscow through negotiations brokered by the UN, would allow the bank to create a subsidiary to handle payments related to grain exports, FT said, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

The new entity would be permitted to use the global SWIFT financial messaging system, which was closed to the largest Russian banks following the Ukraine invasion last year.

5:23am: Wagner’s departure does not impact Moscow’s combat potential, says Russian lawmaker

The Wagner Group’s departure from Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine does not impact Russia’s combat potential, state-owned media agency TASS cited Colonel General Andrei Kartapolov, who chairs Russia’s lower house of parliament’s defence committee, as saying on Monday.

The influential lawmaker told TASS that the Russian regular army has been able to repulse Ukraine’s new offensive without Wagner fighters.

“No new wave of mobilisation will be required,” Kartapolov said.

5:10am: Ukraine says Russian troops advancing in ‘fierce fighting’

Ukraine said on Sunday that Russian troops were advancing in four areas in the east of the country amid “fierce fighting” but reported its forces moving forward in the south.

Deputy Defence Minister Ganna Maliar said that Russian troops were advancing near Avdiivka, Mariinka, Lyman and Svatove.

“Fierce fighting is going on everywhere,” Maliar wrote on social media, adding: “The situation is quite complicated”.

Ukrainian forces have made gradual progress in their counteroffensive launched last month but have so far failed to produce a major breakthrough and have urged Western allies to escalate pledges of military support

4:14am: Moscow says 700,000 children from Ukraine conflict zones now in Russia

Russia has brought some 700,000 children from the conflict zones in Ukraine into Russian territory, Grigory Karasin, head of the international committee in the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament, said late on Sunday.

“In recent years, 700,000 children have found refuge with us, fleeing the bombing and shelling from the conflict areas in Ukraine,” Karasin wrote on his Telegram messaging channel.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion on its western neighbour Ukraine in February 2022. Moscow says its programme of bring children from Ukraine into Russian territory is to protect orphans and children abandoned in the conflict zone.

However, Ukraine says many children have been illegally deported and the United States says thousands of children have been forcibly removed from their homes.

Most of the movement of people and children occurred in the first few months of the war and before Ukraine started its major counter offensive to regain occupied territories in the east and south in late August.

In July 2022, the United States estimated that Russia “forcibly deported” 260,000 children, while Ukraine’s Ministry of Integration of Occupied Territories, says 19,492 Ukrainian children are currently considered illegally deported.

2:14am: No grounds to maintain Black Sea grain deal status quo, says Russian UN envoy

Russia’s envoy to the United Nations in Geneva said there were no grounds to maintain the “status quo” of the Black Sea grain deal that is set to expire on July 18, the Russian news outlet Izvestia reported on Monday.

In a wide ranging interview, envoy Gennady Gatilov told the outlet that the implementation of Russia’s conditions for the extensions of the agreement was “stalling.” Those conditions included, among others, the reconnection of the Russian Agricultural Bank (Rosselkhozbank) to the SWIFT banking payment system.

“Russia has repeatedly extended the deal in the hope of positive changes,” Gatilov told Izvestia. “However, what we are seeing now does not give us grounds to agree to maintaining the status quo.”

Gatilov said he hopes “common sense” will prevail in the United States and there will not be the need to consider the option to denounce the New Start nuclear weapons treat, the last remaining US-Russia arms control treaty that caps the countries’ strategic nuclear arsenals.

Key developments from Sunday, July 2:

Russian forces advanced in four sectors on the eastern front as Ukrainian troops inched forward south of Bakhmut, Ukraine’s Deputy Defence Minister Ganna Maliar said on Sunday.

The White House also announced that US President Joe Biden had scheduled a trip to Europe with stops in the United Kingdom, the NATO summit in Lithuania and meetings in Finland. 

Read yesterday’s liveblog to see how all the day’s events unfolded.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)