Photo: The Canadian Press
A Ukrainian soldier pauses before returning to the front line in the Donetsk Oblast region of eastern Ukraine on Sunday, June 5, 2022. (Photo AP / Bernat Armangue)
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s new warning to the West against sending long-range rocket systems to Ukraine came when his forces claimed to have destroyed Western military supplies in their first such airstrikes in the capital. of Ukraine in more than a month.
The attack showed that Russia still had the capacity and the will to strike at the heart of Ukraine, despite reorienting its efforts to capture territory in the east.
Putin’s comments in a televised interview on Sunday came days after the United States announced plans to deliver $ 700 million in security assistance to Ukraine, including four medium-range rocket systems and accurately guided, as well as helicopters and Javelin anti-tank systems. , radars, tactical vehicles and more.
“All this fuss over additional arms deliveries, in my view, has only one goal: to prolong the armed conflict as much as possible,” Putin said. He insisted that such supplies were unlikely to change the military situation of the Ukrainian government, which said it would only compensate for similar rocket losses.
If Kyiv achieves more powerful rockets, Putin added, Moscow “will draw the right conclusions and use our means of destruction, many of which we have, to strike those objects that we have not yet struck.”
The US has stopped before offering Ukraine long-range weapons that could shoot deep into Russia.
Military analysts say Russia expects to invade Ukraine’s eastern industrial region of Donbas before the arrival of any U.S. weapons that could change course. The Pentagon said last week that it would take at least three weeks to bring U.S. weapons to the battlefield. Russia-backed separatists have been fighting the Ukrainian government in the Donbas since 2014.
Moscow also accused the West of shutting down communications by forcing the plane of Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to cancel a trip to Serbia on Monday for talks.
Residents of Serbia closed their airspace on Lavrov’s plane, ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Italian television in comments to Russian news agencies. Earlier in the day, the Serbian newspaper Vecernje Novosti had said that Bulgaria, northern Macedonia and Montenegro would not allow Lavrov’s plane to pass.
“This is another closed channel of communication,” Zakharova said.
The missiles that hit the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on Sunday destroyed T-72 tanks supplied by Eastern European countries and other armored vehicles, the Russian Defense Ministry told Telegram.
Ukraine, however, said the missiles hit a train repair shop. The Ukrainian railway authority directed journalists on a guided tour of the repair plant in eastern Kyiv, which it said was hit by four missiles. Authorities said no military equipment had been stored and that the Associated Press did not see any remains in the destroyed building.
“There were no tanks, and you can only witness that.” said Serhiy Leshchenko, an adviser to the office of the Ukrainian president.
However, a government adviser told national television that military infrastructure was also the target. AP reporters saw a building burning in an area near the destroyed freeway floor. Two residents of this district said the smoke-inspired warehouse-type structure was part of a tank repair facility. Police blocking access to the site told an AP reporter that military authorities had banned imaging there.
The Russian Defense Ministry also said that air-fired precision missiles were used to destroy workshops in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, including Druzhkivka, which were repairing damaged Ukrainian military equipment.
And the Ukrainian General Staff said that Russian forces fired five X-22 cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea towards Kyiv, and one was destroyed by air defenses. Four more missiles hit “infrastructure facilities”, but Ukraine said there were no casualties.
Prior to Sunday morning’s attack, Kyiv had not faced any Russian airstrikes since the April 28 visit of UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
Russian forces remained focused on capturing the eastern Ukrainian cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk. To the west of these cities, in the cities of Sloviansk and Bakhmut, military cars and vehicles were seen speeding into the city from the direction of the front line. Dozens of military doctors and paramedics worked to evacuate Ukrainian civilians and military, many of whom had been wounded by artillery shelling.
The UK military said in its daily intelligence update that Ukraine’s counterattacks in Sieverodonetsk were “probably diminishing the operational momentum that Russian forces had previously gained by concentrating combat units and of firepower “. Russian forces had made a number of advances in the city, but Ukrainian fighters have retreated in recent days.
The statement also said that the Russian army was partly dependent on the reserve forces of the Lugansk separatists.
“These troops are poorly equipped and trained and have no heavy equipment compared to regular Russian units,” the intelligence update said, adding that the measure “indicates a desire to limit casualties. regular Russian forces “.
In other developments:
– At the port of Mariupol in the Sea of Azov, which Russia claimed to have captured in May after a long-month siege, an aide to the mayor said water supplies contaminated by rotting corpses and rubbish were causing dysentery and posed a threat of cholera and other diseases. In a statement to the Ukrainian news agency Unian, Petro Andriushchenko said that the Russian authorities who control the city have imposed a quarantine. His report could not be confirmed independently.
– Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, which is partly under Russian control. He received a battle report, thanked the troops, and met with refugees in what was only his second public visit outside the Kyiv area since the war began.
– The Spanish newspaper El País reported that Spain planned to supply anti-aircraft missiles and up to 40 Leopard 2 A4 fighter tanks to Ukraine. The Spanish Ministry of Defense has not commented on the report.
– And away from the battlefield, Ukraine’s national footballers lost their place in the World Cup qualifiers, losing 1-0 to Wales in a thrilling match in Cardiff. Back home, some Ukrainians gathered at the bars to watch the match.