President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said so on Saturday Counter-offensive and defensive operations took place in Ukraine, a day after Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin said Kiev’s long-vaunted effort to retake territory was well underway. Zelenskyy did not want to say what stage they were at, but he did tell Putin that his generals were optimistic and in “positive spirits.”
Ukrainian counterattack forces have advanced up to 1,400 meters in several sections of the front line near the eastern city of Bakhmut last day, a Ukrainian military spokesman said on Saturday.
The UK Ministry of Defense said “significant” Ukrainian operations had taken place in several sectors of eastern and southern Ukraine over the past 48 hours. Ukrainian forces “probably made good progress” and “penetrated the first line of Russian defences,” the defense ministry added. In other areas, however, progress in Ukraine had been slower.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Saturday that Ukrainian forces had continued to make “unsuccessful” attempts In the last 24 hours, attacks have been launched south of Donetsk and in the Zaporizhia regions and in the area of the eastern city of Bakhmut.
A drone attack by Russian forces killed three people and injured 27 people, including three children, in the Odessa region of Ukraine according to the Southern Command of Ukraine in the early hours of Saturday. According to the rescue workers, however, the fire was quickly extinguished and twelve people were rescued from the building.
The UN’s top humanitarian, Martin Griffiths, has warned that the humanitarian situation in Ukraine is “enormously worse”. after the rupture of the Kakhova Dam.
Canada’s Minister Justin Trudeau landed in Kiev on Saturday and said Canada will be part of a multinational initiative to train Ukrainian fighter pilots. He also announced CAD500 million (US$375 million) worth of military aid to Kiev and said the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka Dam was a “direct result of the Russian war.”
Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Saturday he plans to speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin. soon on the phone to urge him to withdraw troops from Ukraine.
Russian activists and dissidents say Russian authorities in the Kherson region are preventing 1,842 Left Bank residents, including 338 urgent cases in the Olekshy area and nearby, from leaving the country. The number includes 148 children and 243 elderly people, the Anti-War Human Rights Coalition said.
Russia fired missiles and attack drones at central Ukraine’s Poltava region overnight. According to the regional governor, it caused “certain damage to infrastructure and equipment” at the Myrhorod military airfield.
A The UK government has announced a £150m fund to help Ukrainians get into their own homes. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, more than 124,000 people have arrived in the UK under the Homes for Ukraine programme. The UK will provide an additional £16m in humanitarian aid to Ukraine following the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that Iceland’s decision to suspend operations of its embassy in Moscow was “destroying” bilateral cooperation. Adding the action would evoke an “appropriate” response.
The The southern part of the Dnipro River is expected to return to its banks by June 16 after the rupture of the Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine this week, a Russian-installed official said on Saturday. As Portal reported, Vladimir Saldo said that the water level in Nowa Kakhovka, the town adjacent to the dam downstream, has now dropped three meters (10 feet) from Tuesday’s peak.
German investigators are examining evidence that a sabotage team used Poland as a base of operations to damage the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea in September, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Ukraine’s Atomic Energy Agency says it has put the last operational reactor at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant into a “cold shutdown”. as a safety precaution in the face of flooding from the collapse of the Kachowka Dam.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has briefed his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on an upcoming peace mediation mission sent to Russia and Ukraine by African leaders to try to broker peace, Pretoria said on Saturday.
The United Nations has helped boost Russia’s food and fertilizer exports by allowing a steady flow of ships to its ports ahead of the deadline for a key grain deal. Senior UN Trade Representative Rebeca Grynspan was meeting with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin on July 17 when Moscow threatened to back out of a deal allowing safe exports of food and fertilizer from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports if obstacles to his own supplies are not eliminated.