Ukrainian forces reportedly take control of PiatykhatkyUkrainian forces have taken control of the settlement of Piatykhatky on the Zaporizhzhia battle front, according a Russian-installed official, Reuters reports.
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That’s all from me, Tom Ambrose, and indeed the Ukraine live blog for this evening.
Thanks for following along.
In case you missed it earlier, Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday that its forces had repelled a series of Ukrainian attacks across three sections of the frontline, where it said Ukraine was pressing most actively in the Zaporizhzhia region.
Reuters could not independently verify battlefield reports.
The statement did not mention the settlement of Piatykhatky in Zaporizhzhia region, which a Russian-installed official said earlier had been taken by Ukraine.
Russia and Ukraine are taking high numbers of military casualties as Ukraine fights to dislodge the Kremlin’s forces from occupied areas in the early stages of its counteroffensive, British officials said on Sunday.
Russian losses are probably at their highest level since the peak of the battle for Bakhmut in March, UK military officials said in their regular assessment, AP reports.
According to British intelligence, the most intense fighting has centred on the south-eastern Zaporizhzhia province, around Bakhmut and farther west in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk province. While the update reported that Ukraine was on the offensive in these areas and had made “small advances”, it said Russian forces were conducting “relatively effective defensive operations” in Ukraine’s south.
The Ukrainian military said in a regular update on Sunday morning that over the previous 24 hours Russia had carried out 43 airstrikes, four missile strikes and 51 attacks from multiple rocket launchers.
According to the statement by the general staff, Russia continues to concentrate its efforts on offensive operations in Ukraine’s industrial east, focusing attacks around Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Marinka and Lyman in Donetsk province, with 26 combat clashes taking place.
The Donetsk regional governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said two civilians were killed and three wounded in the past day. Ukrainian officials said Russian forces also launched airstrikes on other regions of the east and south of the country.
One civilian was killed and four more wounded in Kherson province as a result of Russia’s attacks, said that region’s governor, Oleksandr Prokudin, while the Zaporizhzhia regional governor, Yurii Malashko, said one person was wounded in Russian attacks that hit 20 settlements in the province.
Vladimir Rogov, an official with the Moscow-appointed administration in the partially occupied Zaporizhzhia region, said on Sunday that Ukrainian forces had taken control of the village of Piatykhatky on the Zaporizhzhia battlefront.
Evening summaryIt is 6pm in Kyiv. These have been the key developments today:
Ukraine has recaptured the village of Piatykhatky, in the southern Zapororizhzhia region, reports suggest. It would be the second gain in the area since it launched its counteroffensive earlier this month. A Russian-installed official said Ukrainian forces had taken the settlement and were entrenching themselves there while coming under fire from Russian artillery, Reuters reports. If confirmed, this is Ukraine’s first village gain for nearly a week, and marks an apparent escalation of the offensive on the most direct route to Crimea.
Russia’s defence ministry claimed on Sunday that its forces had repelled a series of Ukrainian attacks across three sections of the frontline where it said Ukraine was pressing most actively in the Zaporizhzhia region, Reuters reports. The battlefield reports could not be independently verified.
The EU is speeding up arms deliveries to Ukraine to support the counteroffensive against Russian forces, the EU industry chief Thierry Breton told the French daily Le Parisien. He said the EU would be stepping up its efforts, pledging that 1m high-caliber weapons must be provided within the next year.
The UK Ministry of Defence says heavy fighting continues to be focused in Zaporizhzhia oblast, western Donetsk oblast and around Bakhmut. It says both sides are taking high casualties, with Russian losses likely to be the highest since the peak of the battle for Bakhmut in March.
The death toll from flooding caused by the destruction of the Kakhovka dam has risen to 16 in Ukraine and 29 in territories controlled by Russia, according to briefings by Kyiv and Moscow. Flood water poured across a huge area of southern Ukraine and Russian-occupied areas when the dam was breached on 6 June.
Ukrainian forces have destroyed an ammunition depot near the Russian-occupied port city of Henichesk, in the southern region of Kherson, a spokesperson for the Odesa military administration said on Sunday.
The capture by Ukrainian forces of the village of Piatykhatky in the southern Zaporizhzhia region would actually be the second gain on that front since the start of the counteroffensive, Reuters is now reporting.
The Ukrainian authorities have still not officially confirmed the capture, which came to light after a Russian-installed official, Vladimir Rogov, posted on Telegram that Ukrainian forces had taken the village and were entrenching themselves there while coming under fire from Russian artillery.
It was previously reported that this would be the first gain in the area but Ukraine said on 12 June it had taken control of Lobkove, a village adjacent to Piatykhatky.
My colleague Miles Brignall has the astonishing story of a retired social worker from Lancashire whose bank account was shut by Lloyds Banking Group while she has been dodging missiles volunteering at the frontline in Ukraine. The bank’s actions – possibly a result of fears that she was a sanctions risk – left her with no access to her pension or life savings.
Here’s an extract from Miles’s report:
Fiona Hancock and her partner, Robert Paliwoda, have been working as volunteers helping women and children across various parts of the country since June last year.
She says Kherson, where they are now, has been under shelling and missile attacks for most of the time, and is facing serious flooding after the attack on the Nova Kakhovka dam this month.
During their year in Ukraine, the pair from Trawden in Lancashire have mostly been using Robert’s account, accessing money through local ATMs “as and when there has been enough electricity to power them, and when local curfews allowed”.
It was about only six weeks ago when Hancock tried to access her bank account that she discovered Lloyds had shut it down without her knowledge.
You can read the full story here.
The photographer Anatolii Stepanov was with the Ukrainian army in Donetsk and Luhansk for AFP yesterday. His images give an insight into Ukrainian soldiers’ life on the frontline.
Ukrainian soldiers of the 28th Separate Mechanised Brigade fire a grenade launcher at the frontline near Bakhmut, Donetsk region. Photograph: Anatolii Stepanov/AFP/Getty ImagesUkrainian soldiers rest at the frontline near Kreminna, Luhansk region. Photograph: Anatolii Stepanov/AFP/Getty ImagesUkrainian soldiers of the 28th Separate Mechanised Brigade fire a Maxim machine gun towards Russian positions at the frontline near Bakhmut. Photograph: Anatolii Stepanov/AFP/Getty ImagesA Ukrainian soldier digs a trench at the frontline near Kreminna. Photograph: Anatolii Stepanov/AFP/Getty ImagesMy colleagues Dan Sabbagh and Artem Mazhulin have filed a fascinating – if harrowing – interview with a woman from Zaporizhzhia who was kidnapped and tortured by Russian intelligence officers.
“They tied my hands to my ankles,” she begins, demonstrating by bending forward, before she describes being hit around the head with a full plastic bottle. Strangulation was regular – “one guy holding your neck, another pinching your nose” – while they demanded unsuccessfully that she reveal her husband’s location or inform on others with military connections in the town.
A wire flex was wrapped around her neck, a gun was placed against her forehead – “Imagine the condition I was in,” she says, speaking quickly – and she says she was also given electric shocks.
Read the piece in full here.
Hi, it’s Helen Pidd here, tending the blog while Emily has a break. I was just catching up with an interview given by the Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko to Sky’s Sophy Ridge this morning. One particular exchange really caught my eye, when Ridge asked: “What would you say to people who may be experiencing Ukraine fatigue?”
Vasylenko’s reply:
First of all, it’s normal. This escalation has been going on for one and a half years and to say we’re not tired in Ukraine would be a lie because we are.
But the fact is we don’t have any other choice but to wake up every day, get over this tiredness and continue fighting and continue standing, and as Ukraine stands that means that Poland stands, that means that Romania, Slovakia, all those other countries surrounding Ukraine stand.
Because if Ukraine falls this will be a green flag for Putin to carry on with his aggression and his imperialistic expansion, and essentially the UK and any other country helping Ukraine, they are helping fight off these imperialist absolutely sick dreams of a power-crazed dictator. That’s something to remember and something to fight that fatigue off with.
Afternoon summaryIt is coming up to 3pm in Ukraine. Here are the key developments so far today:
Ukraine has recaptured the village of Piatykhatky, in the southern Zapororizhzhia region, reports suggest. It would be its first gain in the area since it launched its counteroffensive earlier this month. A Russian-installed official said Ukrainian forces had taken the settlement and were entrenching themselves there while coming under fire from Russian artillery, Reuters reports. If confirmed, it would be Ukraine’s first village gain for nearly a week, and marks an apparent escalation of the offensive on the most direct route to Crimea.
Russia’s defence ministry claimed on Sunday that its forces had repelled a series of Ukrainian attacks across three sections of the frontline where it said Ukraine was pressing most actively in the Zaporizhzhia region, Reuters reports. The battlefield reports could not be independently verified.
The EU is speeding up arms deliveries to Ukraine to support the counteroffensive against Russian forces, the EU industry chief Thierry Breton told the French daily Le Parisien. He said the EU would be stepping up its efforts, pledging that 1m high-caliber weapons must be provided within the next year.
The UK Ministry of Defence says heavy fighting continues to be focused in Zaporizhzhia oblast, western Donetsk oblast and around Bakhmut. It says both sides are taking high casualties, with Russian losses likely to be the highest since the peak of the battle for Bakhmut in March.
The death toll from flooding caused by the destruction of the Kakhovka dam has risen to 16 in Ukraine and 29 in territories controlled by Russia, according to briefings by Kyiv and Moscow. Flood water poured across a huge area of southern Ukraine and Russian-occupied areas when the dam was breached on 6 June.
Ukrainian forces have destroyed an ammunition depot near the Russian-occupied port city of Henichesk, in the southern region of Kherson, a spokesperson for the Odesa military administration said on Sunday.
Russia’s defence ministry claimed on Sunday that its forces had repelled a series of Ukrainian attacks across three sections of the frontline where it said Ukraine was pressing most actively in the Zaporizhzhia region, Reuters reports.
The battlefield reports could not be independently verified.
The statement did not mention the village of Piatykhatky in Zaporizhzhia, which a Russian-installed official said earlier had been taken by Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy used Father’s Day to promote the war effort, thanking all “strong and brave” soldiers fighting Russia’s invasion.
“Thank you to every Ukrainian father, every Ukrainian family for our strong and brave warriors who have defended Ukraine’s independence and are fighting for life for Ukraine!” Zelensky posted on social media.
He added: “I wish for our fathers to live long and healthy lives. And for every father who is on the frontline to come home.”
The post included a video by United24, a government-run platform to raise fund for the war effort. Images of Ukrainian soldiers returning from home, hugging children, were shown to cinematic music, while a woman thanked dads for “for being our heroes this Father’s Day”.
Thierry Breton at Berlaymont, the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, on 15 June Photograph: Thierry Monasse/Getty ImagesThe EU is speeding up arms deliveries to Ukraine to support the counteroffensive against Russian forces, the EU industry chief Thierry Breton told the French daily Le Parisien.
“We are going to step up our efforts to deliver arms and ammunition – this is a war of high intensity in which they play a crucial role,” Breton said, pledging that 1m high-caliber weapons must be provided within the next year.
“We are preparing for the war to last several more months, or even longer,” he added.