What has happened in the last few hours?
Here is the top war news at 8:00 p.m. on the 485th day since the Russian invasion of Ukraine:
The occupation authorities in southern Ukraine admit that the damage to the bridge to Crimea is “much more serious” than initially assumed. The Russian-installed governor of the occupied Ukrainian province of Kherson (most of which Kremlin forces control but not the capital), Vladimir Saldo, pointed out on Friday that the damage caused by Thursday’s Ukrainian attack on the Chongar Bridge , which connects the province, the situation in occupied Crimea is much more serious than initially assumed, the Russian agency RIA Novosti said.
Zelenskyy launches an anti-corruption offensive in the army after firing the head of the supply department for the Odessa region. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced this Friday the formation of a commission under the responsibility of First Deputy Defense Minister Oleksandr Pavlyuk together with the military police and the National Anti-Corruption Agency “to review all military commissions in all regions”. of the country, so that they do not dishonor our state and the memory of the heroes fighting at the front.” In addition, the immediate dismissal of the head of the supply department of the Odessa military region was ordered.
At least three dead in separate Russian attacks in southern Ukraine. According to regional authorities, at least three people were killed in various Russian attacks in southern Ukraine this Friday, two of them at a trolleybus company in Kherson. Oleksandr Prokudin, the Ukrainian governor of that region, reported that two men, aged 55 and 43 respectively, were killed and four others injured in a “Russian terrorist attack” against the Kherson trolleybus company.
Wagner’s boss accuses the Russian military leadership of misleading the Russians about the reasons for the invasion of Ukraine. The head of the Russian mercenary company Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, this Friday, in a video published on his Telegram channel, denied Russia’s arguments for the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, in which he criticized the country’s military leadership with whom he confronts was months, because of “cheating” of the Russian society.
Russia’s nuclear agency is urging the United Nations nuclear verification agency to take “concrete steps” to prevent Ukrainian attacks on the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. The Russian nuclear agency Rosatom expects the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to take concrete steps to prevent “Ukrainian attacks” on the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, it said on Friday when reporting on the meeting with IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi that took place on the same day. At the meeting in Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave in the Baltic States, the parties discussed the five principles that must be followed to ensure the safety of the Zaporizhia power plant, which Grossi addressed to the UN Security Council on May 30.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Health urges the population not to get carried away by a nuclear panic and to avoid uncontrolled intake of iodine. Ukraine’s Health Ministry urged his compatriots not to panic and warned them not to take iodine tablets after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Moscow of preparing an “attack” on the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, which “would result in the release of radiation “. “, said the President. The Kremlin immediately rejected this accusation, calling it a “lie”.
Russia imposes travel bans on European officials in response to the 11th EU sanctions package. Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement this Friday that it will add new names to the list of people banned from visiting the country in response to a new European Union sanctions package officially approved this morning after an agreement between governments is the member country against which sanctions were imposed last Wednesday. In its statement, Moscow also threatened an “appropriate response” in due course.