For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.
The latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT:
11:25 p.m.: The biggest single pipeline carrying Russian gas to Germany starts annual maintenance on Monday, with flows expected to stop for 10 days, but governments, markets and companies are worried the shutdown might be extended due to war in Ukraine, Reuters reported.
The Nord Stream 1 pipeline transports 55 billion cubic meters a year of gas from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea. It will undergo maintenance from July 11 to 21.
Last month, Russia cut flows to 40% of the pipeline's total capacity, citing the delayed return of equipment being serviced by Germany's Siemens Energy in Canada.
Europe fears Russia may extend the scheduled maintenance to restrict European gas supply further, throwing plans to fill storage for winter into disarray and heightening a gas crisis that has prompted emergency measures from governments and painfully high bills for consumers.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissed claims that Russia was using oil and gas to exert political pressure, saying the maintenance shutdown was a regular, scheduled event, and that no one was "inventing" any repairs, according to Reuters.
8:46 p.m.: In his nighty video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, “Since the beginning of this invasion, Ukrainian law enforcement officers have been doing everything necessary to record the crimes of the occupiers and to collect evidence. Our partners from many countries are involved in this work. Russian terror has long crossed the line beyond which it became obvious to many in the civilized world that it is a matter of global security to punish Russia, a terrorist state, for everything it has done against Ukraine and the international legal order.
“My schedule for the coming weeks includes precisely such negotiations and appeals that will contribute to the restoration of justice, to the punishment of Russian war criminals. Moreover, this activity is aimed not only at Europe and other traditional regions for the work of Ukrainian diplomacy. We will do everything so that Latin America, Asia and Africa hear the truth about Russian terror on our land as well,” he said.
7:18 p.m.: The French government is preparing for a total cutoff of Russian gas supplies, which it sees as the most likely scenario in its forward planning, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said, according to Reuters.
With about 17% of its supply coming from Russia, France is less dependent on Russian gas than some of its neighbors, but the government has been preparing contingency plans.
A cutoff is particularly problematic now because France's nuclear power generation would struggle to pick up the slack as many reactors are currently down for maintenance.
"Let's prepare for a total cutoff of Russian gas -- that remains to be the most likely scenario. This requires us to accelerate our energy independence,” Le Maire told the Les Rencontres Economiques conference in the southern French town of Aix-en-Provence.
6:34 p.m.:
5:37 p.m.: Russia has restricted access to the website of Germany's Die Welt newspaper at the request of prosecutors, according to the country's communications regulator, Reuters reported.
Russian officials accuse the West of spreading false information about what Moscow describes as a "special military operation" in Ukraine. Since sending troops to the neighboring country on Feb. 24, Russia has blocked or limited access to BBC, Voice of America, Deutsche Welle and other media outlets.
It was not immediately clear why prosecutors asked for the restriction in respect of welt.de page. Roskomnadzor, the communications regulator, did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment, Reuters reported.
4:18 p.m.: Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has said he wants to maintain contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin despite pressure for him to break off their friendship because of Moscow's war in Ukraine, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
"I will not give up my opportunities for talks with President Putin," Schroeder told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper in comments published on July 10.
Schroeder, a Social Democrat, was Germany's chancellor from 1998 to 2005 and after leaving office was made chairman of the board of Russian state-owned oil giant Rosneft.
3:30 p.m.: Ukraine is massing a million-strong fighting force equipped with Western weapons to recover its southern territory from Russia, the nation’s defense minister has revealed to Britain's The Times.
2:45p.m.: Poland expects 200,000 more Ukrainian children to attend its schools in the next academic year, The Kyiv Independent reports. According to Przemyslaw Czarnek, Poland's minister of education and science, the country has already accepted 200,000 kids from Ukraine, including 40,000 preschoolers. The number of Ukrainian children in Polish schools may double in the following academic year. Czarnek added that some schools introduced Ukrainian-language classes to help kids integrate.
2 p.m.: Ukraine’s deputy prime minister urged civilians in the Russian-occupied southern region of Kherson to urgently evacuate as Ukraine’s armed forces were preparing a counter-attack there, Reuters reports.
"It's clear there will be fighting, there will be artillery shelling... and we therefore urge (people) to evacuate urgently," Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on national television. She said she could not say when exactly the counter-offensive would happen.
"I know for sure that there should not be women and children there, and that they should not become human shields," she said.
1:45 p.m.: WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said on Sunday that getting U.S. basketball player Brittney Griner home from Russia, where she faces up to 10 years in prison on a drug charge, remains a top priority for the league, Reuters reports.
Griner pleaded guilty to a drugs charge in a Russian court last week but denied she had intentionally broken the law. Her next court hearing was scheduled for July 14.
"Obviously we are thinking of Brittney Griner at this time," Engelbert said in her opening remarks to media ahead of Sunday's WNBA All-Star Game in Chicago.
"She remains a huge priority for us, continues to have our full support, fully focused on getting her home safely and as soon as possible of course."
The two-time Olympic gold medallist was detained in February at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport with vape cartridges containing hashish oil, which is illegal in Russia, and has been kept in custody since.
1:30 p.m.: U.S. President Joe Biden will meet with leaders of several Arab states during his July 13-16 trip to the region. According to the New York Times, Biden will ask several countries to provide Ukraine with the remaining stocks of Soviet-made weapons, with which “Ukrainians are more familiar.”
12:30 p.m.: Canada will return a repaired turbine to Germany that is needed for the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline and could help to ensure continued flows of energy until Europe can end its dependency on Russian gas, Canada's minister of natural resources said. Reuters reports Ukraine’s energy and foreign ministries said the decision amounted to adjusting sanctions imposed on Moscow "to the whims of Russia" and called for it to be reversed.
The Canadian government said shipping the equipment to Europe would support: "Europe’s ability to access reliable and affordable energy as they continue to transition away from Russian oil and gas."
Siemens Energy in a statement on Sunday said it was working to get the turbine to the Nord Stream pipeline as quickly as possible.
12 p.m.: Nine police officers in Luhansk Oblast are suspected of treason.
According to investigators, the officers met with representatives of Kremlin proxies in Luhansk Oblast and agreed to join the ranks of the Russian proxy administration in the occupied region, thus violating their oath to Ukraine and committing treason, the Kyiv Independent reports.
10:15 a.m.: Ukraine to receive a $1.7 billion grant from USAID, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association to pay for medical services, the Kyiv Independent reports.
10:10 a.m.: The U.K. Ministry of Defense says the first cohort of Ukrainian soldiers, many of whom have no previous military experience, have arrived in the U.K. for combat training as the eastern European nation races to replace troops killed and wounded in the war against Russia, the Associated Press reports. The first few hundred recruits are receiving instruction at sites across Britain. It's the first phase of program that aims to train up to 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers in weapons handling, battlefield first aid and patrol tactics. It is part of broader package of support for Ukraine that includes 2.3 billion pounds ($2.8 billion) of anti-tank weapons, rocket systems and other hardware.
9:20 a.m.: The Kyiv Independent reports estimates of Russia’s combat losses as of July 10.
9:25 a.m.: On Eid al-Adha, an important religious holiday in Islam, Ukrainian Mufti turned fighter Said Ismahilov asked fellow Ukrainian Muslims to pray for victory and for those still living in areas under Russian occupation. The Associated Press reports, Muslims make up almost 1 percent of the population in Ukraine, which is predominantly Orthodox Christian. In Kostiantynivka, in the last remaining operational mosque in Ukrainian-controlled territory in Donbas, dozens of Ukrainian Muslims gathered to mark the religious holiday.
8:45 a.m.: Russian movie theaters are empty after international sanctions have halted new U.S. film releases in the country. RFERL reports, Russian movie goers are boycotting Russian productions.
8:30 a.m.: Parents and educators in the Russian-occupied areas of southern Ukraine say the occupation authorities are using blackmail to compel them to cooperate with pro-Moscow schools being created for the coming academic year. Sources tell RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service that the occupation authorities are telling parents that they could lose their parental rights if they do not acquire Russian passports and send their children to the designated schools.
8:15 a.m.: An estimated 22 million tons of grain are blocked in Ukraine, and pressure is growing as the new harvest begins. The country usually delivers about 30% of its grain to Europe, 30% to North Africa and 40% to Asia. But with the ongoing Russian naval blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea ports, millions of tons of last year’s harvest still can’t reach their destinations. According to the Associated Press, one local expert says that without opening the Black Sea ports, he doesn't see any solution for Ukrainian farmers to survive. That would lead to disruptions of the world's food supply, especially for developing countries in Africa.
7:50 a.m.: According to Reuters the Russian defense ministry said its forces struck two Ukrainian army hangars storing U.S.-produced M777 howitzers, a type of artillery weapon, near Kostantinovka in the Donetsk region.
7:55 a.m.: The Associated Press reports that at least 15 people were killed when a Russian rocket hit an apartment building in the eastern Ukraine town of Chasiv Yar and more than 20 people may still be trapped in the rubble, officials say. The rocket assault Saturday night is the latest in a recent burst of high-casualty attacks on civilian structures. At least 19 people died when a Russian missile hit a shopping mall in the city of Kremenchuk in late June and 21 people were killed when an apartment building and recreation area came under rocket fire in the southern Odesa region this month. Russia has repeatedly claimed that it is hitting only targets of military value in the war.
5:21 a.m.: The first group of Ukrainian soldiers being trained in a new United Kingdom program have arrived, British officials said.
"Using the world-class expertise of the British Army we will help Ukraine to rebuild its forces and scale-up its resistance as they defend their country’s sovereignty and their right to choose their own future," Ben Wallace, U.K. defense secretary, said.
The program aims to train up to 10,000 Ukrainians in coming months, officials said.
4:25 a.m.: The latest intelligence update from the U.K. defense ministry said Russian artillery continues to hit the Sloviansk area of the Donbas. The update also noted that Russia has probably made small territorial advances around Popasna.
3:09 a.m.: The Associated Press reported that the Ukrainian government has urged people in occupied southern areas to evacuate so Russian forces can't use them as human shields. The deputy prime minister said “You need to search for a way to leave" because she expects a “massive” fight when Ukrainian forces try to push out the Russians.
2:14 a.m.: RFE/RL reports
1:10 a.m.: The U.S. think tank The Institute for the Study of War released its latest assessment, saying Russian troops continue to face personnel and equipment shortages.
Russia's launching unsuccessful assaults northwest of Slovyansk, the update said, and is attacking east of Siversk and northwest of Kharkiv City.
12:02 a.m.: Oleksandr Vilkul, mayor of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's hometown of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine, said Russia had attacked the city with cluster munitions, killing at least one person and injuring two, Agence France-Presse reported.
"The eyes of all aggressive political movements and regimes in the world are now focused on what Russia is doing against us, against Ukraine," Zelenskyy said in an Instagram post.
"Will the world be able to bring real war criminals to justice?" he asked, warning failure to do so would lead to "hundreds of other aggressions."
Some information in this report came from Agence France-Presse and The Associated Press.
