[ad_1]
Ukraine claims to have halted Russian offensive in the east, saying it has ‘stopped the enemy’ near Kupiansk and Lyman
Ukraine’s armed forces have stopped a Russian offensive in the east of the country towards the cities of Kupiansk and Lyman, a senior defence official has claimed.
The deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar told Ukrainian television: “We had very fierce battles in the Kupiansk and Lyman directions, but our soldiers stopped the enemy there.”
Ukraine is in the initial stages of its most ambitous counterattack to date since Russia’s 2022 invasion. It has retaken eight villages, it said, in what Reuters described as its most substantial gains on the battlefield for seven months.
But Russia still holds swathes of territory in eastern and southern Ukraine, and Ukrainian forces have yet to push to the main defensive lines that Russia has had months to prepare.
Maliar said: “We still have the main events ahead of us. And the main blow is still to come. Indeed, some of the reserves – these are staged things – will be activated later.”
Although minefields were slowing them down, she said Ukraine’s military operation in the south was “moving according to plan”. She added: “It is not necessary to expect the offensive to be something very fast.”
Key events
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy ordered the creation of a special commission on Friday to carry out an audit of heads of military draft offices in regions across Ukraine, Reuters reports.
After meeting his top military commanders, Zelenskiy said the commission would be headed by General Oleksandr Pavliuk, who is first deputy defence minister.
The decision follows Ukrainian media reports of corruption allegations against the head of a draft office.
Held the NSDC meeting. Three issues on the agenda. The key ones:
We reviewed the situation with shelters in the regions, districts and cities that the enemy is terrorizing most intensively. The results are bad. Almost all over the country. The situation is especially cynical and… pic.twitter.com/4lkgOB8ihr
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 23, 2023
Zelenskiy also said government was considering proposals to increase criminal liability for corruption offenses in the judiciary, with punishments including “10 to 15 years with confiscation of property”.
“This should apply to those who extort money, take money, maintain this system of corruption at all its levels. There should be integrity checks of judges, and not only before their appointment”, Zelenskiy said.
“Time can, unfortunately, change people about whom there was a positive conclusion at the beginning of their work in the courts. And I believe that it is worth checking, including with the use of a polygraph.”
Ukraine signalled on Friday that the main push in its counteroffensive against Russian forces was still to come, with some troops not yet deployed and the operation so far intended to “set up the battlefield.”
The country’s senior officials said it has retaken eight villages in the early stages of its most ambitious assault since Russia’s full-scale invasion 16 months ago, but President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said this week that gains had been “slower than desired.”
Addressing the pace of the Ukrainian advances, three senior officials on Friday sent the clearest signal so far that the main part of the counteroffensive has not yet begun.
“Offensive operations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine continue in a number of areas. Formation operations are underway to set up the battlefield,” presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter.
“The counteroffensive is not a new season of a Netflix show. There is no need to expect action and buy popcorn.”
Real war is not a Hollywood blockbuster. The counteroffensive is not a new season of a Netflix show. There is no need to expect action and buy popcorn. Offensive operations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine continue in a number of areas. Formation operations are underway to set up…
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) June 23, 2023
U.S. President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, is traveling to Denmark this weekend to participate in a meeting about Ukraine which may include some countries that have refused to condemn the invasion.
The talks in Copenhagen are being organized by Ukraine “to discuss basic principles of peace,” a U.S. official said on Friday.
India, South Africa and Brazil were among the countries invited but it was unclear yet whether they were attending, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. India and South Africa have not condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in April condemned the violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity by Russia and again called for mediation to end the war.
Western countries that back the war have also been invited. The U.S. official said Ukraine invited a variety of countries and Denmark agreed to host the meeting in Copenhagen. It will include national security advisers and political directors from various countries invited.
The session is considered an informal gathering and not a formal summit. No specific outcomes and joint communiques are expected to come out of it.
US sanctions Russian individuals who attempted to interfere in American election
The United States slapped sanctions on Friday on two Russian intelligence officers who attempted to interfere in a local American election as part of Moscow’s “global malign influence operations,” the Treasury Department told Reuters.
The two officers, Yegor Sergeyevich Popov, 31, and Aleksei Borisovich Sukhodolov, 49, both members of Russia’s Federal Security Service, have worked to undermine democratic processes in the U.S. and other countries through a network of co-conspirators, the department said in a statement.
The department said both have worked with Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, a Russian the U.S. Justice Department charged last year with conducting a multi-year effort to use political groups in Florida, Georgia and California to interfere in elections.
“The United States will not tolerate threats to our democracy, and today*s action builds on the whole of government approach to protect our system of representative government,” Treasury official Brian Nelson said.
The department did not say what specific election the two Russian men are accused of attempting to influence.
Ukraine’s financial results have improved this year, with budget revenues increasing by 45% in May compared to the same period a year ago, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said on Friday.
“In 2023, we have much better financial results than a year ago. Thanks to strong financial support and comprehensive measures implemented by the government, we ensure a balanced budget and financing of critical expenditures, primarily in the social sphere,” Marchenko, whose country was invaded by Russia in February 2022, said in a statement. “Monetary and fiscal policies are under control.”
It comes as Ukraine’s defence minister set out his expectations ahead of the NATIO summit in Vilnius.
Ukraine was seeking a clear signal and formula for Kyiv to become a NATO member, Reuters reported.
Zelenskiy pledges ‘personnel changes’ after bomb shelter investigation
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said there will be “personnel changes” after a bomb shelter investigation into the deaths of three people who were locked out during a missile strike.
The Ukrainian president said after a meeting of the National Security and Defence Council: “A quarter of bomb shelters in Ukraine and a third in Kyiv are unfit for use.”
His comments, shared on Telegram, come after an air raid shelters audit into the deaths of three people on 1 June.
“The decision of the National Security Council is to bring the guilty to justice, and to get all protective structures in the proper condition,” he said.
He provided no other details of the decision or who might be punished, but posted a video of top government and military officials raising their hands in a vote at a round table, reports Reuters.
Earlier today he called for “collective efforts and collective solidarity”:
The world has gone through different wars, and the more wars have destroyed lives, the greater was the understanding that defense against aggression and prevention of aggression require collective efforts and collective solidarity. pic.twitter.com/EA07JUMSsO
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 23, 2023
At least three people died in Russian attacks in southern Ukraine on Friday – including two who died at a trolleybus company in Kherson (see also 10:42 post), regional officials said.
Oleksandr Prokudin, the governor of the Kherson region, said two men aged 55 and 43 were killed by “targeted fire” on the Kherson trolleybus company in what he described as “another Russian terrorist attack”, reports Reuters.
The prosecutor’s office said the attack took place around 10.20 am (0820 BST) and that it had launched an investigation.
Yuriy Malashko, the governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, wrote on Telegram that a 35-year-old man had been killed in a Russian artillery barrage on the village of Mala Tokmachka and that four people had been wounded elsewhere in the region.
At a meeting of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his attention would be on three topics: security, courts and the country’s future in the EU.
The Kyiv Post reports:
⚡️Volodymyr #Zelensky held a meeting of the #NSDC
“Attention to three major topics. The first is people’s security. The second is the courts. The third is our future in the EU,” the President said. pic.twitter.com/qUhmtlQtfS
— KyivPost (@KyivPost) June 23, 2023
Russia bars entry to EU officials in response to new sanctions imposed on Moscow
Russia said on Friday it was barring entry to more European officials in response to the EU’s decision to impose new sanctions on Moscow over the conflict in Ukraine, AFP reports.
“In response to these unfriendly actions, the Russian side has significantly expanded the list of representatives of European institutions and EU member states who … are prohibited from entering the territory of our state,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
It did not specify the number of officials that were being sanctioned or give their names.
The EU this week agreed an 11th package of penalties against Russia over its large-scale military offensive in Ukraine, including measures aimed at clamping down on evasion of restrictions already in place.
“We confirm that any unfriendly actions taken by western countries will continue to receive a timely and adequate response,” Russia’s foreign ministry added.
Daniel Boffey
The commander of Ukraine’s ground forces has confirmed for the first time that the main force of his offensive reserve is yet to be committed into battle with Russia, saying: “Everything is still ahead.”
In an exclusive interview from a military base in east Ukraine, Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, spoke of the stresses and difficulties of the fight, with Moscow launching its own offensive efforts in recent days.
He said the Russian general staff had anticipated where Ukraine’s forces were at their most dangerous but issued a warning to the Kremlin that he was hunting down the lethal weakness in their lines.
‘Everything is still ahead’: inside a secret military base with top Ukraine general
Syrskyi, who led the Ukrainian defence of Kyiv last spring and shocked the world with a counteroffensive that liberated huge swathes of north-east Ukraine in the autumn, said the world had to be patient.
Here is a summary of today’s news:
-
At least two people were killed and several taken to hospital in a Russian attack on the Kherson region, the governor has said. Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram that a municipal transport company had been hit in the attack, reports Reuters.
-
The EU has agreed an 11th round of sanctions against Russia including export bans on third countries helping the Kremlin circumvent existing crackdowns. It will mean a crackdown on “deceptive practices” including the use of tankers from other countries to carry Russian crude oil into EU ports.
-
Ukraine’s armed forces have stopped a Russian offensive in the east of the country towards the cities of Kupiansk and Lyman, a senior defence official has claimed.
-
Russia has almost doubled its floating mammal pens in Sevastopol, according to British defence officials, and they are “highly likely” to contain trained bottlenose dolphins. In its latest intelligence briefing, the Ministry of Defence said it believed the animals were intended to counter enemy divers.
-
Ukrainian air defences shot down 13 Russian cruise missiles heading towards a military airfield in the western Khmelnitskyi region early on Friday, the Ukrainian air force said.
Ukraine’s air force has provided further details of an incident on Friday in which it downed an entire barrage of 13 cruise missiles fired by Russian forces overnight, targeting an airfield in the west of the country, AFP reports.
“Thirteen of the occupiers’ cruise missiles were destroyed on June 23… This time, the attack was aimed at a military airfield in the Khmelnytskyi region,” the Ukrainian air force said on social media.
Russia launched waves of aerial attacks with cruise missiles and attack drones over the winter, prompting Kyiv to appeal to its Western allies to bolster its air defence systems.
“The launches were carried out around midnight from the Caspian Sea from four Tu-95MS bombers,” the air force statement said.
The mayor of Khmelnytskyi Oleksandr Symchyshyn reported explosions in the town with a pre-war population of around 275,000 and praised Ukrainian air defence systems.
Russia will not disclose any details about the nuclear weapons it is deploying on the territory of Belarus, the Interfax news agency quoted the deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Friday, Reuters reports.
Ryabkov also said Russia had no plans to inform the US about tests of its nuclear-powered underwater drone Poseidon because they did not fall under existing verification agreements, according to the state news agency Tass.
The news comes as regional Ukrainian officials said at least three people were killed in Russian attacks in southern Ukraine on Tuesday, including two who died after a trolleybus company came under fire in the city of Kherson.
Oleksandr Prokudin, the governor of the Kherson region, said two men aged 55 and 43 had been killed by “targeted fire” on the Kherson trolleybus company in what he described as “another Russian terrorist attack”. Several other people were injured, he said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
Kyiv urged Ukrainians not to panic or stockpile iodine tablets after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy alleged that Russia had prepared a radiation leak at an occupied nuclear plant, AFP reports.
Zelenskiy said this week that Russian forces controlling Zaporizhzhia – Europe’s biggest nuclear plant – were planning a “terror attack” by orchestrating a radiation leak.
The Kremlin said it was a “lie” but the president’s warning put many Ukrainians on alert with demand for iodine at many pharmacies sky-rocketing.
“Read and share but don’t panic! Don’t play the enemy’s game. President Zelenskiy said nothing new. Russia is a terrorist country from which, like a monkey with a grenade, you can expect anything,” the Ukrainian health ministry said.
In a separate statement on Friday, it warned against the adverse implications of incorrectly administering iodine, warning it could be fatal.
[ad_2]
Source link
