The United Nations Human Rights monitoring mission in Ukraine said that June saw the highest monthly civilian casualties in three years, with 232 people killed and 1,343 injured. In Russia, a man was killed in the Belgorod region after a shell struck a private house, according to Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.

Ukraine and Russia have escalated their shadow war of espionage, sabotage, and assassinations, with both countries claiming a growing list of captured agents, intercepted plots, and cross-border attacks.

Late on July 3 and into the early hours of July 4, Russia battered Ukraine with more than 500 drones and missiles in the most intense aerial attack of the war, surpassing the previous record set just days earlier on June 29.