Our air force struck Russian positions, sites where equipment and personnel are concentrated and depots around five localities of the Kherson region
said the general staff of the Ukrainian army on Friday on Facebook.
For several days, the Ukrainians have reported fighting in this region, almost all of which has been occupied by Russian troops since the first days of the Russian invasion launched on February 24.
The local authorities put in place by Moscow are loudly calling for annexation. One of the Russian negotiators on the conflict in Ukraine mentioned on June 1 the forthcoming organization of a referendum in the territories occupied by the Russians on this question, which might take place in July.
A project qualified asillegal
by kyiv, and which recalls the referendum that Russia organized in Crimea in 2014, before annexing the peninsula in the process.
Information regarding what is happening in this region – connected to Crimea by a strip of land – is scarce.
kyiv on Tuesday accused the Russian military of imprisoning nearly 600 people there, mostly journalists and pro-kyiv activists, and subjecting them to tortures
. During a press trip organized in Kherson by the Russian Ministry of Defense at the end of May, the inhabitants met by AFP were walled in silence for the most part.
Russian President Vladimir Putin compared his policy to that of Tsar Peter the Great, who invaded part of Sweden as well as Finland, part of Estonia and Latvia.
It feels like in fighting Sweden he was grabbing something. He didn’t grab anything, he took over
said Mr. Putin during a meeting with young entrepreneurs in Moscow. Apparently, it is also incumbent on us to resume and strengthen
added the Russian president, seeming to allude to the Russian offensive in Ukraine.
Fire and fury in the Donbass
In the Donbass, the battle for the key city of Sievierodonetsk and its twin city Lyssytchansk continues and is increasingly deadly.
Sievierodonetsk, Lysychansk, and other towns in Donbass, which the occupiers now see as their targets, are holding their ground
Mr. Zelensky said in remarks on Thursday evening.
The fighting continues in the city and the shelling is constant, said Friday Serguiï Gaïdaï, governor of the region. He pointed out in particular that the Ice Palace, one of the symbols of the city, had been destroyed in a fire resulting from a Russian bombardment.
Whoever said three days ago that Moscow had set itself the goal of taking the city by June 10 also welcomed the fact that they did not not completed
on his Telegram messenger.
Taking Sievierodonetsk would open up Moscow’s route to another major Donbass city, Kramatorsk, an important step in conquering the entire Donbass basin, a predominantly Russian-speaking region in eastern Ukraine partly held by pro-Russian separatists since then. 2014.
The battle, which has lasted for several weeks, is particularly deadly. kyiv laments every day up to 100 soldiers
killed and 500 injured
in the fighting, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said Thursday. The Russians say nothing regarding their losses.
Ukraine might, however, retake Sievierodonetsk in two, three days
as soon as it has western artillery long range
had assured Thursday Mr. Gaïdaï.
Empty arsenals
The Ukrainians, who in 107 days of war have exhausted their Russian and Soviet-made armaments according to American military sources, are constantly clamoring for their Western allies new more powerful weapons.
The delivery of multiple rocket launcher systems, including Himars with a range of regarding 80 km, slightly longer than Russian systems, has been announced by Washington and London, but it is unclear when the Ukrainians will be able to start using them.
If Western weaponry seems to be trickling into Ukraine, it’s because the allies want to ensure that kyiv is able to absorb it safely and limit the risk of bombing its ammunition stockpiles, explain these US military sources.
We try to maintain a constant flow
said a US military official.
Mr. Zelensky said he discussed France’s military aid to Ukraine with Emmanuel Macron in a telephone conversation on Thursday. The French president, who also chairs the European Union until June 30, questioned the Ukrainian president regarding his needs
in military equipment, including in heavy weapons
confirmed Paris.
The two leaders also discussed kyiv’s candidacy for entry into the EU. Ukraine hopes that the Twenty-Seven will grant it, following a summit on June 23-24, the official status of a candidate for membership, the start of a process that might last for years.
Death penalty for pro-kyiv fighters
In this context, the pro-Russian separatist authorities announced Thursday the death sentence of two Britons and a Moroccan.
Britons Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner and Moroccan Brahim Saadoun, who will appeal, are accused of having participated in the fighting as mercenaries
alongside the Ukrainians, the official Russian news agency TASS reported.
After London on Thursday, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed its concern on Friday.
Since 2015, we have observed that the so-called judicial system of these self-declared republics does not meet the essential guarantees of a fair trial. […] Such trials once morest prisoners of war constitute a war crime
said a spokeswoman, Ravina Shamdasani, from Geneva.
At the same time, the heads of state of nine Central and Eastern European countries (Romania, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Slovakia) are meeting in Bucharest on Friday to plead for a strengthening eastern flank of NATO, less than three weeks before the Alliance summit, scheduled for June 28-30 in Madrid.
Sick, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will only participate by videoconference.
The war has also caused a spike in cereal and fertilizer prices, which should result in 2022 a dramatic increase in the bill for importing countriesaccording to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Ukrainian grain exports are paralyzed by the blocking of its ports by the Russian Black Sea Fleet, and African and Middle Eastern countries are the first to be threatened by a food crisis.
The Senegalese head of state Macky Sall, current president of the African Union, is to meet Emmanuel Macron in France on Friday, and he intends to ask him for the lifting of European sanctions once morest Russia, in particular the exclusion of Russian banks from the SWIFT system, an essential cog in international money transfers, he said.
Mr. Zelensky called on Thursday for the exclusion of Russia from the FAO. The organization did not immediately react to this call.
