On Sunday, June 5th, explosions rocked Kyiv and alerts were issued for air raids in other areas of Ukraine. As’street fighting’ unfolds in Severodonetsk (a strategically important eastern city that Moscow wants to control), there was also an explosion in Kyiv.
According to Ukrainian officials, several Russian bombings of railway infrastructure in Kiev shook the city at dawn on Sunday. This was the first such attack since April.
“Several explosions occurred in the Darnytsky, Dniprovsky neighborhoods,” Vitali Klitschko, Kyiv Mayor, wrote on Telegram. He did not specify which sites were affected.
According to AFP journalists, the army installed a security perimeter around a target that was not allowed access, a rail infrastructure. The windows of a pink 10-story building were broken. Firefighters arrived to stop operations at 9 AM local (0600 GMT) and extinguished the flames.
Initial information indicates that there were no casualties from the explosions. According to the mayor, one person was taken to hospital.
“The strikes targeted Ukrzaliznytsia’s infrastructure,” a Ukrainian railway company wrote on Telegram Serguiy Letchenko, who was a member of Ukrzaliznytsia’s supervisory board and advisor to the Ukrainian presidency.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force several cruise missiles were fired at dawn toward Kiev by Russian TU-95 aircrafts based in Caspian Sea. One of them was destroyed.
Energoatom in Ukraine, which is responsible for managing the country’s nuclear power stations, claimed that the missile flew at “extremely low levels above the Pivdenno–Ukrainska power station”, in the Mykolaiv (south), and denounced “an act nuclear terrorism”.
According to the same source, “This missile was likely fired in the direction kyiv.”
The Ukrainian army’s general staff posted on Facebook that “The aggressor continues launch missiles and conduct aerial strikes on our country’s military and civilian infrastructures, especially in Kyiv.”
On April 28, Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary General, visited the capital. The Russian noose around the capital was loosening in the late March/early April. Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine claims that “five missiles” were dropped on Kiev by then.
Street fighting is occurring in eastern Ukraine in Severodonetsk. This city is at the center of the Russian offensive within the Donbass mining area.
Since 2014, this eastern region has been partially under control by pro-Russian separatists. Moscow hopes to take it all.
“The situation at Severodonetsk where street fighting continues remains extremely difficult,” Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian President, stated in a video that was released from Saturday to Sunday. He deplored “air raids and artillery constants.”
Russia claimed Saturday that Ukrainian soldiers were leaving the city. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, “Units of Ukraine’s army have begun to retreat to Lysychansk after suffering critical losses in the fighting for Severodonetsk (upto 90% in some units),” the ministry said.
Kyiv says he is fighting for the city’s retake. Russian troops entered the city, seizing some of it and dividing it into two. Our soldiers were able to redeploy and build a line for defense. We are currently doing what is necessary in order to restore full control” Severodonetsk’s, stated Olexandre Stryuk the mayor of the city. He was referring to “street fighting”.
Sergei Gaidai, governor of Lugansk, stated earlier that initial information indicated that the Russians had taken control of most parts of the city. However, our forces are now pushing them back.”
The governor stated that the Russians “blowing up bridges so that we can’t send reinforcements our guys, which are in Severodonetsk,” he added.
Moscow, on the other hand, claims that it has destroyed six ammunition depots and two command centers in Ukraine’s Donetsk-Lugansk region.
The American Institute for the Study of War’s (ISW) believes that the dynamic has changed. Now, Ukrainian forces are “successfully slowing (…) Russian attacks in Severodonetsk with careful and effective local counterattacks”. .
Other fronts are also under attack. According to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, Russia continues to try to occupy our entire country. Oleksii Reznikov was assured by the Kremlin that it aims to “bring together all lands” it considers “its”, including Poland, the Baltic countries and Slovakia.
Crimea, Donbass and southern Ukraine: Russia’s influence over Ukraine has more than tripled since the invasion. According to Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine now controls 125,000 km2 or 20% of the country’s territory.
Moscow continues to bombard the occupied territories of Ukraine and the positions of its army on the Kherson front. This was announced by the Ukrainian presidency. It fears that there will be a humanitarian crisis.
According to the Russian army, they claimed to have destroyed a “foreign mercenary deployment site” in Odessa, near Dachnoe. They also claimed to have struck with missiles a training facility for Ukrainian gunners in Stetskovka in the Sumy region ( the north), where “foreign trainers” taught Ukrainian soldiers how to use the M777 howitzer.
According to kyiv, the missile also struck the port of Mykolaiv and an agricultural enterprise in Odessa. There, two people were killed and warehouses were damaged.
The war continues to impact cereal exports, which are vital for the survival of African countries. Macky Sall (the Senegalese head-of-state and the current chairman of African Union), announced Saturday that he would visit Ukraine to “contribute towards the return to peace” after meeting with Vladimir Putin, Russian President. “.
The Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs responded to French President Emmanuel Macron’s Saturday question. He had previously said that it was not necessary to humiliate Russia in order to keep diplomatic exit doors open.
“We should all be focusing on Russia getting back to its rightful place. This will bring peace, and save lives,” Dmytro Koreba replied, claiming that Emmanuel Macron’s position could only “humiliate France.”
The USS Kearsarge, meanwhile, was making Stockholm its home. It is the largest American warship to ever anchor in Stockholm’s port.
General Mark Milley, US Chief of Staff, stated that “It’s important for us, the United States as well as other NATO countries to show our solidarity avec Finland and Sweden.” This is ahead of NATO’s annual naval maneuvers at the Baltic Sea.
Sunday evening will see the Ukrainians attempt to win another victory on Cardiff’s lawn. This would be enough to qualify them for the World Cup.
“We all knew that the match against Wales would not be about tactics or fitness, but survival. Oleksandre Zinchenko, defender, said that everyone will fight for it and give everything. He was speaking as if to better unite the Ukrainian soldiers after they failed to fight alongside them.
