Russia-Ukraine war dwell: Moscow claims it has repelled main offensive as Ukraine armed service states it has ‘no information’ on declare

Ukraine’s deputy defence minister has claimed Russian reports that Ukraine has started a counteroffensive are intended to distract from losses Russia has sustained in the Bakhmut region.

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In a post on the Telegram messaging app, Hanna Maliar wrote:

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What is happening now? We are continuing the defence that began on 24 February, 2022.

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The defensive operation includes everything, including counteroffensive actions. Therefore, in some areas we are moving to offensive actions.

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In particular, the Bakhmut direction remains the epicenter of hostilities. There we are moving along a fairly wide front. We are successful. We occupy the dominant heights. The enemy is on the defensive and wants to hold his position.

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In the south – the enemy is on the defensive. Fighting of local importance continues.

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Why are the Russians actively releasing information about a counteroffensive?

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Because they need to divert attention from the defeat in the Bakhmut direction.

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Ukraine’s military said on Monday it had no information about a major offensive which Russia said Kyiv had launched in the Ukrainian region of Donetsk, Reuters reports.

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“We do not have such information and we do not comment on any kind of fake,” a spokesperson for the Ukrainian armed forces’ general staff said in response to a question from Reuters.

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• A significant escalation in fighting along the frontlines in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions has been reported overnight, but there was no confirmation from Ukrainian officials that it marked the start of their long-planned counteroffensive.

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• Russia claimed to have repelled a “major offensive” in the Donetsk region and to have killed hundreds of Ukrainian troops, but the claims could not be independently verified. The defence ministry in Moscow said Ukraine had attacked with six mechanised and two tank battalions from two brigades.

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• The ministry claimed 250 Ukrainian troops had been killed, and 16 tanks, three infantry fighting vehicles and 21 armoured personnel carriers destroyed. It also claimed that Valery Gerasimov, the Russian chief of general staff, had been near the frontlines when the attack was repelled. The Russian defence ministry has consistently made exaggerated claims about the casualties its forces have inflicted.

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• A Moscow-backed militia leader and Russian military bloggers admitted that Ukrainian forces had achieved a breakthrough in at least one point in south-western Donetsk. Ukrainian officials made no comment, and emphasised the need for secrecy about operations in recent days as anticipation grows for a major counteroffensive.

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• Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Monday that Ukrainian forces had retaken part of the settlement of Berkhivka, north of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, calling it a “disgrace”.

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• Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that a 55-year-old security guard has been killed by a Russian attack on a business in Kherson, citing the head of the region, Oleksandr Prokudin.

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• Pavlo Kyrylenko, Ukraine’s governor of Donetsk, said three people were killed in the region yesterday as a result of Russian attacks.

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• The governor of the Russian region of Belgorod has said an energy facility is on fire in the region, blaming a bomb dropped by a drone. Vyacheslav Gladkov said there were no casualties and that services had not been affected.

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• Two drones have fallen on the M3 Ukraine highway, in the Russian region of Kaluga, just south of Moscow, the region’s governor has said. There was no detonation and the sites have been cordoned off by investigators, said governor Vladislav Shapsha.

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• Poland’s agriculture minister has received a draft regulation from the European Commission extending a ban on Ukrainian grain imports until 15 September, he said on Monday.

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• Belgium will ask Ukraine for clarification on reports that rifles made in Belgium had been used by pro-Ukrainian forces to fight Russian troops inside Russia’s western border, Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo said on Monday.

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• Sky News has reported it has seen documents it believes are authentic that show Iran supplying arms to Russia.

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• Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, who has been tasked by Pope Francis to carry out a peace mission to try to help end the war in Ukraine, will visit Kyiv on 5-6 June.

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• Russia’s Baltic fleet started naval exercises in the Baltic Sea on Monday. About 3,500 soldiers and up to 40 ships and boats will take part in the drills, which are scheduled to last until 15 June, the military said.

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Belgium will ask Ukraine for clarification on reports that rifles made in Belgium had been used by pro-Ukrainian forces to fight Russian troops inside Russia’s western border, Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo said on Monday.

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“Our defence ministry and its intelligence agencies have started an investigation and are asking for information to determine what has happened exactly,” De Croo said on Belgium’s Radio 1, Reuters reports.

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“European weapons are delivered to Ukraine under the condition that they are used on Ukrainian territory with the purpose of defending that territory. And we have strict controls in place to see that this is the case,” he said.

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De Croo declined to comment on possible consequences if the reports were confirmed.

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“We must not get ahead of ourselves here,” the prime minister said. “But we are analysing the situation and we would take this very seriously.”

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The Washington Post on Saturday reported that anti-Kremlin fighters who launched a cross-border attack from Ukraine into the Russian Belgorod region last month used tactical vehicles originally given to Ukraine by the US and Poland and carried rifles made in Belgium and the Czech Republic.

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Julian Borger provides this latest update from Kyiv for the Guardian:

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Russia has claimed to have repelled a “major offensive” in the Donetsk region and to have killed hundreds of Ukrainian troops, but the claims could not be independently verified.

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Ukrainian officials made no comment, and have emphasised the need for secrecy about operations in recent days as anticipation grows for a major counteroffensive. Ukrainian military officers have predicted that any such counteroffensive would be preceded and accompanied by feints and diversionary attacks to “shape the battlefield” and cause as much confusion as possible in Russian ranks.

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The defence ministry in Moscow said Ukraine had attacked with six mechanised and two tank battalions.

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“On the morning of June 4, the enemy launched a large-scale offensive in five sectors of the front in the South Donetsk direction,” the ministry said in a statement posted on the Telegram messaging app at 1.30 am Moscow time.

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“The enemy’s goal was to break through our defences in the most vulnerable, in its opinion, sector of the front,” it said. “The enemy did not achieve its tasks, it had no success.”

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The ministry claimed that 250 Ukrainian troops had been killed, and 16 tanks, three infantry fighting vehicles and 21 armoured personnel carriers destroyed.

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Videos of combat posted online showed what were purported to be Ukrainian armoured cars blowing up in fields near Velyka Novosilka, 60 miles west of Donetsk city, but it was impossible to tell from the videos when they were taken and what the outcome of the battle was.

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The daily update from the Ukrainian general staff on Sunday made no mention of a major offensive in Donetsk but did report 29 clashes in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and 15 airstrikes on enemy troops across the country.

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Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, posted a message on Twitter on Sunday, quoting from a song by Depeche Mode, Enjoy the Silence.

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“Words are very unnecessary, they can only do harm,” the tweet said.

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Read more of Julian Borger’s report here: Russia claims to have fought off ‘major Ukrainian offensive’ in Donetsk

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If you are just joining us, here is a summary of the biggest and most recent developments:

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• Russia’s defence ministry has claimed that Kyiv has launched a “major” attack in the southern Donetsk region using tank and mechanical units. It claimed the six mechanised battalions and two tank battalions tried to break through its lines but were unsuccessful. It is not yet possible to verify the Russian defence ministry’s claim. On Sunday, Kyiv urged “silence” about any plans to reclaim territory that Russia has seized in the 15-month long war.

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• The governor of the Russian region of Belgorod has said an energy facility is on fire in the region, blaming a bomb dropped by a drone. Vyacheslav Gladkov said there were no casualties and that services had not been affected.

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• Two drones have fallen on the M3 Ukraine highway, in the Russian region of Kaluga, just south of Moscow, the region’s governor has said. There was no detonation and the sites have been cordoned off by investigators, said governor Vladislav Shapsha.

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• A two-year-old girl has been found dead under the rubble of a house after a missile attack that hit several buildings near the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, the regional governor said at the weekend. Another 22 people were injured, including five children, said Serhiy Lysak. Three boys – aged 15, 11 and six – were in intensive care after the strike.

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• The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, has said he is willing to meet a pro-Ukraine group of Russian fighters keeping Russian soldiers captive. The group said earlier it was willing to hand over the soldiers in exchange for a meeting with the governor but claims he did not show up. It shared a video clip showing what appeared to be about a dozen Russian soldiers being held captive, with two lying on hospital beds, and said they would be sent to Ukraine.

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• A Ukrainian minister has expressed “disbelief” after learning that nearly half of Kyiv bomb shelters inspected during an initial audit were closed or unfit for use. Oleksandr Kamyshin, Ukraine’s minister of strategic industries, said on Sunday that out of 1,078 shelters examined on the first day, 359 were unprepared and another 122 locked, while 597 were found to be usable.

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• Four people have been detained in a criminal investigation into the death of a Kyiv woman outside a locked air-raid shelter, the Kyiv regional prosecutor’s office has said. It said one person, a security guard who had failed to unlock the doors, remained under arrest, while three others, including a local official, had been put under house arrest.

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• The Kremlin has said any supply of long-range missiles to Kyiv by France and Germany would lead to a further round of “spiralling tension” in the Ukraine conflict. Britain last month became the first country to supply Ukraine with long-range cruise missiles.

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• Zelenskiy has said that Russia’s war, now in its 16th month, has killed at least 500 Ukrainian children. It was impossible to establish the exact number of children who have become casualties, however, because of the continuing fighting and because some areas are under Russian occupation, he said.

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• Five drones were shot down and four were jammed and did not hit their targets in Dzhankoi in Crimea, according to a Russian official. There were no casualties but windows were broken in several houses, said Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-backed head of Crimea’s administration.

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The governor of the Kaluga region, which lies south of Moscow, has said two drones have fallen on the M3 Ukrain e highway, in close proximity to the cities of Zhizdra and Duminichi.

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There was no detonation and the websites have been cordoned off by investigators, said governor Vladislav Shapsha.

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Russia’s defence ministry has claimed it has fought off a big-scale attack on its forces in the south-jap Donetsk location, a claim that has not been independently verified. It reported it killed 250 Ukrainian troops and destroyed 16 tanks, three infantry fighting cars and 21 armoured overcome autos in the method. You can read the most current report on the claimed assault right here.

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It was not immediately obvious whether or not or not the noted assault represented the start out of the Ukrainian counteroffensive that Kyiv has been promising for months. Ukrainian officials have urged silence ahead of any these campaign.

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Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the Russian area of Belgorod, claimed there have been no casualties and that companies experienced not been affected by the drone assault at an energy facility in the location that brought about a fire.

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Belgorod has been the target of repeated attacks not long ago, carried out by pro-Ukraine Russian partisans.

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You can browse extra about how Belgorod has come to be section of Vladimir Putin’s war right here.

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Welcome to our continuing reside protection of the war in Ukraine.

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Russia’s defence ministry has claimed that Kyiv has released a “major” attack in the southern Donetsk location using tank and mechanical units. It claimed the six mechanised battalions and two tank battalions experimented with to crack via its traces but had been unsuccessful.

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It is not but possible to confirm the Russian defence ministry’s claim. We will convey you more updates as they come.

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On Sunday, Kyiv urged “silence” about any plans to reclaim territory that Russia has seized in the fifteen-thirty day period prolonged war.

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Before, Volodymyr Zelenskiy claimed Ukraine was completely ready to start a counteroffensive to recapture Russian-occupied territory. In an job interview printed on Saturday, the Ukrainian president mentioned: “We strongly believe that we will be successful. I really don’t know how extended it will consider … but we are likely to do it and we are completely ready.”

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Independently, the governor of the Russian region of Belgorod has explained an energy facility is on hearth in the region, blaming a bomb dropped by a drone. Vyacheslav Gladkov reported there ended up no casualties and that companies experienced not been impacted.

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Down below is a summary of all the other newest developments:

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• A two-year-previous girl has been identified dead underneath the rubble of a home immediately after a missile assault that strike various properties around the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, the regional governor mentioned. A further 22 individuals have been injured, including 5 youngsters, stated Serhiy Lysak. Three boys – aged fifteen, eleven and 6 – were being in intensive treatment soon after the strike.

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• Russia introduced a wave of air assaults on Ukraine early on Sunday early morning but navy officials jn Kyiv mentioned air defence programs repelled all missiles and drones on their method to the money. All of Ukraine was underneath air raid alerts for nearly a few hours.

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• The Russian defence ministry mentioned its forces have used artillery to repel a cross-border incursion by Ukrainian saboteurs, Interfax information company claimed. The governor of Russia’s Belgorod location explained before on Sunday that preventing with a “Ukrainian saboteur group” was taking put in the town of Novaya Tavolzhanka, in the vicinity of the Ukrainian border.

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• A Ukrainian minister has expressed “disbelief” soon after discovering that practically 50 percent of Kyiv bomb shelters inspected for the duration of an initial audit were closed or unfit for use. Oleksandr Kamyshin, Ukraine’s minister of strategic industries, stated on Sunday that out of 1,078 shelters examined on the initially day, 359 were unprepared and an additional 122 locked, whilst 597 have been identified to be usable.

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• The governor of Russia’s Belgorod area, Vyacheslav Gladkov, has said he is inclined to meet up with a pro-Ukraine group of Russian fighters retaining two Russian soldiers captive. The group claimed earlier it was willing to hand over the soldiers in trade for a conference with the governor.

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• Ukrainian forces have shelled a sector area in the city of Shebekino, in the vicinity of the Ukrainian border, according to Gladkov. He mentioned no 1 was wounded but the attack had triggered fires to break out near the current market, a personal space and a grain depot.

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• The Kremlin has reported any offer of lengthy-assortment missiles to Kyiv by France and Germany would guide to a further spherical of “spiralling tension” in the Ukraine conflict. Britain last month turned the initial state to provide Ukraine with lengthy-assortment cruise missiles.

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• Zelenskiy has claimed that Russia’s war, now in its 16th month, has killed at the very least 500 Ukrainian small children. It was not possible to build the specific variety of young children who have develop into casualties, however, mainly because of the continuing battling and mainly because some spots are below Russian occupation, he reported.

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• Four people have been detained in a felony investigation into the dying of a Kyiv woman outside the house a locked air-raid shelter, the Kyiv regional prosecutor’s place of work has claimed. It stated one human being, a security guard who had failed to unlock the doorways, remained less than arrest, although a few other folks, such as a local official, experienced been set below property arrest.

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• 5 drones have been shot down and four ended up jammed and did not strike their targets in Dzhankoi in Crimea, according to a Russian official. There ended up no casualties but home windows were broken in several residences, mentioned Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-backed head of Crimea’s administration.

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Ukraine’s deputy defence minister has claimed Russian stories that Ukraine has begun a counteroffensive are intended to distract from losses Russia has sustained in the Bakhmut location.

In a publish on the Telegram messaging application, Hanna Maliar wrote:

What is going on now? We are continuing the defence that began on 24 February, 2022.

The defensive operation features every little thing, which include counteroffensive actions. Hence, in some spots we are moving to offensive steps.

In specific, the Bakhmut course remains the epicenter of hostilities. There we are going alongside a fairly huge front. We are productive. We occupy the dominant heights. The enemy is on the defensive and desires to hold his situation.

In the south – the enemy is on the defensive. Fighting of regional worth proceeds.

Why are the Russians actively releasing info about a counteroffensive?

For the reason that they will need to divert focus from the defeat in the Bakhmut direction.

Here are some of the most recent illustrations or photos despatched to us from the conflict in Ukraine above the information wires.

The information and facts war about releasing aspects of what is having location in Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia is liable to be fraught, and Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-set up leader in the occupied Zaporizhzhia oblast has rebuked all those sharing facts.

He wrote on Telegram “Friends, I talk to you not to rush to publish information about the mass use of Leopard [tanks] on the Zaporizhzhia entrance. Wait around for the official or at minimum movie confirmation of their use by the enemy in our route. Notice information cleanliness!”

Previously, Alexander Khodakovsky, the head of the pro-Moscow Vostok Battalion in the Donbas experienced posted to Telegram to say that “the predicament on Novodonetsk and to the still left in direction of Velykonovosilkivskyi is difficult” and that “for the first time we observed leopards [tanks] in our tactical place.”

Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov has reported on Telegram that two automobiles, such as an ambulance, ended up damaged by shrapnel after air defence intercepted a target approaching the town of Belgorod. He stated that there were no casualties.

The claims have not been independently verified.

My colleague Dan Sabbagh, our defence and security editor, presents this assessment of developments in the ground on Ukraine:

Ukraine may possibly not have formally declared its counteroffensive has started, but the assaults staying noted on Russian strains overnight and into Monday early morning look like the to start with methods of what is probable to be a hard army campaign.

Particular person reports ought to be seen sceptically but taken collectively they can create up a image. What is very clear is that there is not an all-out assault, but also that the degree of forces remaining committed are non-trivial. These are not exploratory raids, but most most likely probing attacks, seeking for neighborhood Russian weaknesses.

If the Russian Ministry of Defence is appropriate, and Ukraine has attacked with two brigades, that amounts to a force of quite a few thousand troops.

There is also proof of Ukraine enterprise attacks somewhere else on the one,000km front. The leader of the Wagner mercenary forces, Yevgeny Prigozhin, complained that Russian troops had fled from element of Berkhivka, a village north of the not long ago taken Bakhmut, on the japanese front, suggesting that exploratory attacks could not only be taking place in the south.

It is attainable, as well, that Ukraine does not even know wherever it wants to put its critical counter-attack forces, right up until a level of weak spot is identified. The purpose of the initial assaults would be to protected a breakthrough that a subsequent force, held in reserve, can exploit to then surround the defenders.

Read through extra of Dan Sabbagh’s investigation below: Ukraine counter-attack appears imminent as troops search for Russian weaknesses

A meant radio handle by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, listened to on Monday on Russian stations in locations bordering Ukraine was faux and the final result of a hack, the Kremlin claimed.

RIA, the point out-owned information agency, claimed a selection of radio stations experienced carried the hoax tackle.

Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, stated: “All of these messages are an utter pretend,” the RIA documented.

Unbiased Russian media reported that the announcement experienced advised inhabitants of the Rostov, Belgorod and Voronezh areas, all of which adjoin Ukraine, that Kyiv’s forces experienced crossed the border with Russia.

They cited the tackle as declaring, wrongly, that martial law had been declared in border locations and a nationwide navy mobilisation had begun for Russia’s war with Ukraine, and that inhabitants really should evacuate deeper into Russia.

On Sunday, Tv set broadcasts in Crimea had been reportedly hacked with a clip from a quick film introduced by the Ukrainian authorities showing customers of the military placing their fingers to their lips and declaring “Shh” adopted by the phrases: “Plans enjoy silence. There will be no announcement about the get started.”

Ukraine’s border force claimed in a Telegram publish: “Several cable operators in Crimea are turning off the signal thanks to the simple fact that excellent men and women hacked Television set broadcasts.”

Oleksii Reznikov, Ukraine’s defence minister, shared the clip on Twitter on Sunday with a estimate from the Depeche Manner track Love the Silence.

“Words are quite unwanted / They can only do damage,” he tweeted.

Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior aide to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has warned against trusting reports from Russia.

On Twitter, he said: “Russian news reports have long since become a separate virtual meta-universe.”

Reuters reports that two Russian strategic bomber planes have carried out routine flights over the Norwegian Sea and Barents Sea off the north coast of Nato member Norway, the defence ministry said on Monday.

Russia regularly flies its Tu-95 long-range bombers, which are capable of carrying nuclear missiles, over international waters.

The flight lasted five hours and was carried out “in strict compliance with international airspace regulations”, the ministry said.

Scholz, a trained lawyer, is usually known for his clipped and restrained manner of public speaking, though he has dialled up the volume at strategic moments at campaign events or Bundestag debates in the past. “Scholz is like a volcano,” Süddeutsche wrote on Monday. “He rarely erupts, but when he does sparks start flying.”

Russia’s defence ministry said on Monday that “more than 10” Ukrainian fighters had been killed by air and artillery strikes in Russia’s Belgorod region, repelling a Ukrainian attempt to cross into the region on Sunday, Russian news agencies reported.

These reports have not been independently verified.

The governor of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, reported fighting in the town of Novaya Tavolzhanka with what he called “Ukrainian saboteurs”. He said on Telegram that Ukrainian forces had launched 185 shells at the town.

On Sunday, two pro-Ukraine groups of Russian fighters said they had captured several soldiers during a cross-border raid into the region. They said they were willing to hand over the soldiers in exchange for a meeting with Gladkov but claim he did not show up. They shared a video clip showing what appeared to be about a dozen Russian soldiers being held captive, with two lying on hospital beds, and said they would be sent to Ukraine.

A two-day event has started in the European parliament that has brought together more than 200 Russian opposition and civil society activists to discuss how the EU can support Russian democratic forces.

Convened by four MEPs, the conference is entitled The Day After, and is meant to discuss strategy for a hypothetical post-Putin Russia.

“I would call this the first gathering of people who believe in the future of a democratic Russia,” said Andrius Kubilius, the Lithuanian MEP behind the forum.

Speaking in the opening session, the exiled opposition leader Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was the richest person in Russia until he was jailed for a decade in 2003, said the only hope for a future Russia that does not cause problems for the rest of the world was fundamental political change.

“This regime should be destroyed, there is no other road to a peaceful normal future for Russia and for Europe and the whole world. The simple change of Putin to another person with a different name but no move to a federalised parliamentary system with free elections wi ll not alter anything at all,” he reported.

How to get to that phase is a additional tough dilemma, of program. “The conditions in Russia are unquestionably not great for the increase of democracy,” mentioned Katarina Barley, vice-president of the European parliament, in what is perhaps the understatement of the working day.

Ukraine’s army stated on Monday it had no information and facts about a major offensive which Russia said Kyiv experienced introduced in the Ukrainian area of Donetsk, Reuters reviews.

“We do not have these types of info and we do not comment on any form of bogus,” a spokesperson for the Ukrainian armed forces’ common personnel mentioned in reaction to a concern from Reuters.