Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will address an EU summit via video link on June 29 as Kiev says it is making progress in “bitter” fighting in the east of the country.
EU states, which have given Ukraine billions in aid, are expected to reiterate their continued support for Kiev.
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“It is important that we consult and say that we are ready to persevere in the long term, with the financial and humanitarian support that Ukraine needs, but also in terms of arms,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on June 29 in front of reporters.
The dominant theme of the two-day meeting is the war in Ukraine, with leaders also discussing how the June 24 uprising by the Wagner mercenary group might have on Russia.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned that the mutiny had weakened Russian President Vladimir Putin, but that didn’t mean the West could relax.
“A weakened Putin is a greater danger,” Borrel said in the run-up to the summit, adding: “Now we have to view Russia as a risk because of internal instability.”
In Kiev, Ukrainian officials claim they have made slow but steady progress in fighting for the embattled town of Bakhmut in the country’s eastern Donetsk region.
“Our troops are gnawing away every meter of enemy land in this fierce battle,” Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Malyar said in a statement on June 29. “You’re making progress.”
WATCH: Artillerymen from the 30th Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces say fighting has intensified near the embattled town of Bakhmut. Current Time traveled with an artillery team preparing to fire on Russian positions.
“Movement saves lives”: Ukrainian artillery near Bakhmut on the offensive
Russian forces are “trying to hold their positions and counterattacking,” but they are “gradually retreating after taking casualties,” she said.
Separately, the commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, Oleksandr Syrskiy, claimed that the Ukrainian troops were making steady slow advances.
“We have advances near Bakhmut and we’re moving on. We’re moving,” Syrskiy said on his post Telegram channel.
Bakhmut was captured by Russian troops in May after bloody and protracted fighting that reduced the city to rubble.
Also, a Ukrainian commander said on June 29 that his forces had taken control of the village of Klishchiyivka, some 3.5 kilometers south of Bakhmut.
“This is a strategic point from which offensive actions will begin south of Bakhmut,” Denys Yaroslavskiy, commander of the reconnaissance company of the 57th Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, told RFE/RL.
Since launching a counter-offensive in early June, Ukraine says it has regained control of groups of villages in the south-east.
The claims could not be independently verified.
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The Ukrainian General Staff called Early on June 29, the AFP news agency said that 40 combat operations had taken place over the past 24 hours, mainly in the Lyman, Bakhmut and Maryinka areas of western Donetsk.
A 71-year-old woman was killed and two others wounded in Russian attacks in the southern city of Biloserka in the southern Kherson region on June 29, regional authorities said.
At least 12 homes were damaged in the attack, they added.
In the city of Kramatorsk, Ukrainian rescuers have recovered another body from the rubble of a restaurant and shopping mall that was targeted by a Russian missile attack. That brought the death toll in the June 27 attack to 12, officials said.
“In total, 12 people, including three children, were killed, 60 people were injured and 11 others were rescued,” the Ukrainian Emergency Medical Service said in a June 29 statement. The defense ministry claimed on June 29 that two Ukrainian generals and dozens of army officers were killed in the attack in Kramatorsk. However, the ministry did not provide any evidence to support its claim.
Rescuers and volunteers carry a woman rescued from the rubble June 27 to the site of a Russian missile attack in central Kramatorsk in Ukraine’s Donetsk region.
The area was popular with soldiers, journalists and locals in Kramatorsk, one of the largest cities in the east of the country still under Ukrainian control.
Ukrainian authorities on June 28 arrested a suspected Russian spy involved in the Kramatorsk attack.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) detained the person in cooperation with special police units, Zelenskiy told Telegram on June 28.
“Anyone who helps Russian terrorists destroy lives deserves the maximum penalty,” said Zelenskyy in his nightly speech.
He did not identify the person arrested in the attack, but the SBU previously said it was a local man who worked for a gas transport company and is suspected of filming the restaurant for the Russians and informing them of its popularity .
Kramatorsk was attacked by two Russian missiles, one hitting the city center restaurant and shopping center and a second hitting a village on the outskirts of the city in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
Responding to outcry over the attack, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed on June 28 that Russia only conducts attacks “that are somehow related to the military structure.”
Moscow has repeatedly denied shelling civilians in Ukraine, despite evidence and testimonies to the contrary.
With coverage by Portal, AP, AFP