A Ukrainian senior defence official has repeated that its troops are advancing in all directions of their counteroffensive against occupying Russian forces. “If we talk about the entire frontline, both east and south, we have seized the strategic initiative and are advancing in all directions,” deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar told Ukrainian television.
Russia is gradually reducing the number of personnel at the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in southern Ukraine, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said on Friday. The GUR said that among the first to leave the nuclear power station were three employees of Russian state nuclear firm Rosatom who had been “in charge of the Russians’ activities”. It said Ukrainian employees who have signed a contract with Rosatom had also been advised to depart. Employees should leave by 5 July, it said, and have been told to preferably head for the Crimea peninsula.
Overnight the Russian army attacked military infrastructure facilities in the Zaporizhzhia region. Ukraine’s air force claimed four S-300 missiles and 13 “Shahed” drones were fired, and air defence forces shot down ten drones.
Ukraine’s general staff has claimed that it struck the headquarters and storage depots of Russian troops in the suburbs of Berdiansk. Local Russian-imposed officials said that air defence had repelled the attack. Video distributed on social media appeared to show smoke rising over the occupied city.
In Kramatorsk, a makeshift memorial has been set up carrying pictures of some of the people killed in a missile strike on a restaurant earlier this week. Twelve people died and at least 56 people were injured, according to Ukrainian authorities. Russia claimed the strike was on a military target.
