Ukraine’s armed forces have claimed to have liberated several frontline villages in western Donetsk, almost a week after the launch of counteroffensive operations. Soldiers were shown in video footage raising the Ukrainian flag over the village of Blahodatne, south of the town of Velyka Novosilka, one of the main axes of the counteroffensive so far. Troops from another brigade filmed themselves with their unit’s banner in Neskuchne. Later on Sunday, Kyiv said a third village, Makarivka, had been taken. Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, announced the liberation of Storozheve by Ukrainian marines on Monday morning.
Ukraine’s top military command said on Monday that its forces were engaged in heavy battles in frontline hotspots. Twenty-five battles had taken place over the past day near the eastern town of Bakhmut and further south near Avdiivka and Maryinka, all in the Donetsk region, and also near Bilohorivka in the Luhansk region, Ukraine’s armed forces general staff said.
US thinktank The Institute for the Study of War said Ukrainian forces had made “visually verified advances” in the Donetsk and Zaporizhia regions and that Russian sources “confirmed but sought to downplay” those advances.
The water level at the ponds used to cool the reactors at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant remain stable and sufficient despite the falling water level of the Kakhovka reservoir nearby, Ukraine’s environment minister said on Monday.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, Ukraine’s governor of Donetsk, reported that Avdiivka was struck twice by rockets on Monday morning.
A 50-year-old woman was injured as a result of shelling by the Russian military in the village of Novoselivka, in Zaporizhzhia region.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Monday it had signed a contract with the Akhmat group of Chechen special forces, a day after mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin refused to do so. The signing followed an order that all “volunteer units” should sign contracts by 1 July bringing them under the control of defence minister Sergei Shoigu, as Moscow tries to assert its control over private armies fighting on its behalf in Ukraine. Prigozhin, who has waged a running feud with the defence ministry and accused it of failing to provide adequate ammunition supplies to his Wagner mercenaries in Ukraine, said on Sunday he would refuse to sign any such contract.
Former Russian president and prime minister Dmitry Medvedev has celebrated Russia day by posting a photoshopped image to Telegram which shows Kyiv’s central Maidan square with the Russian flag flying on it and the message “Independence Square. Coming soon – Russia Square”.
Work has already started in an investigation by the international criminal court over the breach of the Kakhovka dam in Ukraine and the vast flood it triggered, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said. Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reported that the flood water level in Kherson had dropped by 64cm.
Three civilians were killed Sunday and 10 others wounded after Russian forces opened fire on a boat carrying flood evacuees to the Ukrainian-controlled city of Kherson. A 74-year-old man used his body to shield a woman from Russian fire and was hit in the back, Reuters reported. Two of the 10 people wounded were law enforcement officers.
Russia’s defence ministry said Ukraine had made an unsuccessful attempt at the weekend to attack a vessel of its Black Sea fleet which was protecting natural gas pipelines. The ship was monitoring the situation along the TurkStream and Blue Stream pipelines route in the Black Sea, it said.
