The Ukrainian national flag flies above the liberated village of Neskuchne in southwestern Donetsk, Ukraine, June 13, 2023 (Oleksandr Ratushniak/Reuters)
Tuesday’s Coverage: 11+ Killed in Russian Strike on Apartment Building in Kryvyi Rih
Map: Institute for Study of War
UPDATE 1129 GMT:
Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has challenged Vladimir Putin, saying Wagner’s mercenaries will not sign contracts with the Defense Ministry.
“None of Wagner’s fighters is ready to go down the path of shame again,” Prigozhin said. “That’s why they will not sign the contracts.”
Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu decreed last week that all private forces must sign up with the Ministry. Prigozhin immediately responded, “Shoygu cannot properly manage military formations.”
In his televised meeting on Tuesday with war correspondents, Putin said contracts with the Defense Ministry are necessary to allow all combatants in his invasion to receive the social support payments, including compensation to wounded fighters and to their families if they are slain.
Prigozhin said a “compromise solution” must be found between Putin and Parliament to enable Wagner fighters to receive the social guarantees and certified status as combatants.
UPDATE 1121 GMT:
The second-in-command to Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov has been wounded in Ukraine.
Adam Delimkhanov is a member of the Duma and commander of the Chechen division of the Russian National Guard.
Kadyrov posted on Telegram:
I myself can’t find Adam Delimkhanov in any way. He doesn’t get in touch. I ask Ukrainian intelligence to provide information on exactly what place and what positions were hit, so that I can still find my dear BROTHER. I promise a generous reward and I ask you to help.
Delimkhanov commanded Chechen forces during the 12-week Russian assault and siege of the port city of Mariupol in spring 2022.
Ukrainian military observer Kyrylo Sazonov claimed Delimkhanov was killed in an attack near the city of Prymorsk, west of Mariupol, after Ukrainian intelligence spotted a motorcade of SUVs.
UPDATE 1115 GMT:
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, has delayed his visit the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant until it is safer to travel.
Grossi met Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday to discuss safety issues, including the effect of the June 6 demolition of the Nova Kakhovka Dam on the waters that cool the plant.
UPDATE 1104 GMT:
A Russian court has sentenced prominent activist Liliya Chanysheva to 7 1/2 years in prison for “creating an extremist organisation”.
Chanyseva is a former campaign leader for imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who has survived assassination attempts but is serving more than 11 years in a penal colony.
UPDATE 1047 GMT:
A Russian missile attack has killed three civilians and injured 13 in Odesa in southern Ukraine.
Air defenses downed two Kalibr cruise missiles, but the Russians were able to damage a business center, an educational institution, a residential complex, restaurants, and shops.
Presidential Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak said the mass killing highlighted the need for tougher sanctions on Moscow.
The Russians shelled the city with Kalibr cruise missiles. Civilians died.
Each of these missiles has at least 40 foreign components. Without microelectronics, Russia will not be able to produce them.
Sanctions must be strengthened, in particular, against those who help the terrorist country to obtain components for weapons.
Russian shelling at 5 a.m. on Wednesday killed three people and injured three in Kramatorsk and Kostyantynivka in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.
At least five houses were destroyed and about 20 more were damaged in Kramatorsk. Two houses were destroyed and 55 were damaged in Kostyantynivka.
The death toll has risen to 12 from Russia’s strike on Kryvyi Rih in south-central Ukraine on Tuesday, with a 67-year-old wounded man passing away overnight.
ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine’s forces have made further, limited gains in their counter-offensive to liberate territory from Russian occupiers.
Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on Tuesday that troops advanced near Bakhmut in the Donetsk region on the eastern front, moving by 250 meters to the northeast and to the south.
The offensive moved 500-1,000 meters on the southern front, liberating about 3 square km, on the Zaporizhzhia-Donetsk border. The advance consolidated the liberation of seven villages along the Mokri Yaly River.
A spokesperson for the Ukraine General Staff, Andriy Kovalev, said forces have taken control of more than 100 square kilometers (38.6 miles) since the counter-offensive began last week. The head of Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, echoed Kovalev’s statement.
Map: Institute for the Study of War
In his nightly address to the nation, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy praised troops — “Thank you for your strength” — highlighting the units near Bakhmut.
“There is forward movement in various areas,” Zelenskiy said.
Meeting war correspondents and military bloggers, Vladimir Putin made sweeping, unsupported claims about “catastrophic” Ukrainian losses during his invasion, insisting that the counter-offensive had not succeeded anywhere.
Putin again called on the international community to stop military assistance to Ukraine. Trying to play down the seriousness of the situation on the battlefield, he said he will not announce a second wave of mass mobilization or declare martial law.
Wars always have a finishing time date,So we ask ourselves what is the likely outcome of the Ukraine situation.In reality Ukraine will never regain what they as a country have lost,it simply does not have the fighting capacity and troops and weapons to achieve this goal,this statement itself brings us to the belief that right from the start Ukraine Government must have been aware of its impossible task and therefore it is true to say that the US and Nato countries have right from the start backed the losing side for many reasons.
A stalemate does not benefit Ukraine and continued fighting is not going to be their winning line,perhaps the best solution for Ukraine would be to call a quick ceasefire and upon so be “expressed” into Nato with immediate effect and military protection causing a world stalemate for both sides as it is more unlikely in this situation as Putin will likely to get Nuke happy whereas continued agitation in the Russians mind will ultimately lead to a more severe and rapid use of tactics.At the end of the day in terms of world peace and security Ukraine is seemingly becoming a threat itself perhaps in not completely understanding its own futile attempts to regain losses and therefore world nations must act swiftly.