Rescuers dig through the rubble of a residential building struck in a Russian attack on Dnipro, Ukraine, June 3, 2023 (Sky)

Saturday’s Coverage: Air Defenses Again Down All Russian Missiles Over Kyiv — But Injuries in Dnipro

Map: Institute for Study of War

UPDATE 1431 GMT:

Two anti-Kremlin militias say they captured two Russian troops in their incursions into Russia’s Belgorod region.

The Freedom of Russia Legion and the Russian Volunteer Corps offered to exchange the men if they were granted a personal meeting with regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.

Gladkov said he is willing to meet the militiamen: “If they [the Russian troops] are alive, from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. — Shebekino checkpoint. I guarantee safety.”

The governor also said on Sunday that shelling continued on the town of Shebekino, the stated target of the militias about 4 miles from the Ukrainian border.

He said fires had broken out near the market, a private area, and a grain depot. There were no casualties.

UPDATE 1026 GMT:

Extracts from Ukraine President Voldoymyr Zelenskiy’s interview with the Wall Street Journal, in which he said a Ukrainian counter-offensive is imminent….

UPDATE 1013 GMT:

Kyiv regional prosecutors have detained four people in a criminal investigation into the deaths of two women and a 9-year-old girl outside a locked air raid shelter early Thursday.

The victims were killed by debris from a downed Russian drone outside a polyclinic.

Prosecutors said a security guard who failed to unlock the doors remains under arrest. Three more people, including a local official, are under house arrest.

Carrying out the instructions of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Interior Ministry carried out a comprehensive review of shelters in the country. It found that, of more than 4,800 shelters, 252 were closed and 893 were unusable.

UPDATE 0651 GMT:

The Ukraine Air Force says Russia launched six cruise missiles and five Iranian-made attack drones overnight — the smallest aerial assault in more than 20 waves since May 1.

Four missiles and three drones were shot down.

UPDATE 0642 GMT:

In Dnipro, the body of a 2-year-old girl has been pulled from the rubble of a residential block destroyed by a Russian airstrike.

The number of injured has risen to 22.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine’s air defenses have again downed all Russian missiles and drones fired on Kyiv.

However, there have been multiple injuries from a Russian attack on Dnipro in south-central Ukraine.

Russia has launched more than 20 waves of aerial attacks on Kyiv and across Ukraine since May 1. However, with international assistance bolstering air defenses, not a single Russian missile or drone has hit a significant target in the capital.

There have been a few cases where missiles have landed, including in Dnipro, and civilians killed and wounded by debris from the downed Russian munitions.

Serhiy Popko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration, posted on Telegram early Sunday, “According to preliminary information, not a single air target reached the capital. Air defence destroyed everything that was heading towards the city already at their distant approaches.”

Witnesses heard blasts in the Kyiv region, but not in the city, from air defenses intercepting the Russian attack.

On Saturday in Dnipro, a blast in a two-story residential block injured 20 people, including five children.

Seventeen people are in hospital, with three children in serious condition. Four people were pulled from under rubble, and a child was still trapped.

Reports on social media said a missile hit the block, and an emergency services building was also struck.

Ukrainian authorities did not confirm the claims, but President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said:

Unfortunately, there are people under the rubble. Once again, Russia proves it is a terrorist state.