"The cleansing is ongoing": Russia probably takes Sviatohirsk - Moscow after orthodox sanctuaries?

Created: 06/07/2022, 09:07

By: Stephanie Munk

Putin's army has apparently reported success in the Ukraine war.

The city of Sviatohirsk is said to have been taken.

The news ticker.

• Loss for Putin in the Ukraine war:

  Apparently another Russian major general was killed

• Zelenskyy visits army at the front:

  Ukrainian President praises his soldiers as "true heroes"

• Cholera in Mariupol: The Ukrainian Ministry of Health warns of the outbreak of the disease.

• This

  news ticker on the military situation in Ukraine

  is continuously updated.

Update from June 7, 8:01 a.m .:

According to its own statements, the Ukrainian military has flown several airstrikes on Russian positions in the south of the country.

"Ukrainian helicopters struck against accumulations of enemy troops in the Kherson region - and planes against ammunition depots in the Mykolaiv region," the general staff said on Tuesday.

The Ukrainian air force has only been used sparingly in the Ukraine war due to Russian air superiority.

The Ukrainian troops recently recaptured several towns on the border of the Black Sea regions of Mykolaiv and Cherson.

A counter-offensive by Russia in the direction of Losowe - Bila Krynytsia was unsuccessful despite artillery and air force support, according to the General Staff report.

The information could not be independently verified.

Ukraine War: Important Ukrainian city captured by separatists

Update from June 7, 6:11 a.m .:

In the Ukraine conflict, the Russian military and the separatists supported by Moscow claim to have taken the Ukrainian city of Svyatohirsk (Swjatogorsk).

“Svyatogorsk is practically liberated.

And the purge is underway," said the leader of the Donetsk separatist region, Denis Puschilin, on Russian city television on Monday evening.

There is the arch monastery of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, which was also recently shot at, which is one of the most important sanctuaries of Russian Orthodoxy.

Moscow Patriarch Kirill, who supports the war of aggression against Ukraine, has long had a reputation for wanting to keep Ukraine's ancient religious sites for the Russian Orthodox Church under his influence.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov previously said the city's capture was in its final stages.

Initially, there was no confirmation from the Ukrainian side that Sviatohirsk had been abandoned.

However, the Ukrainian general staff reported heavy fighting in the Donetsk region around the city in the morning.

Militiamen of the Lugansk People's Republic fire a D-20 howitzer at positions of the Ukrainian army near Popasna (photo of June 6, 2022) © Viktor Antonyuk/imago

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Ukraine war: warning of cholera outbreak in Mariupol

Update from June 6, 6:19 p.m .:

The Ukrainian Ministry of Health is now warning of a cholera outbreak in Mariupol.

This is reported by the

, among others .

Deputy Minister of Health Ilhor Kuzin spoke of a "critical situation" in Russian-occupied Mariupol and blamed limited access to fresh water on the one hand and mass burials on the other.

Locals gather to receive drinking water distributed by Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations in Mariupol, an area under the government of the Donetsk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine.

(Photo from May 27) © Alexei Alexandrov/dpa

Update from June 6, 11:55 a.m .:

In the embattled city of Sievjerodonetsk in eastern Ukraine, the situation for Ukrainian troops has deteriorated again.

"Fighting is proceeding quite dynamically," military governor of the Luhansk region Serhiy Hajday told Ukrainian television.

After recapturing about half of the city, the Ukrainian units should have retreated back to the industrial area.

"They have a tactic: just raze everything to the ground so that nothing is left to take hold," Hajdaj described the actions of the Russian troops.

About 15,000 civilians are said to remain in Sievjerodonetsk.

During the night it became known that President Zelenskyj had personally awarded medals to soldiers in neighboring Lyssychansk.

According to the Ukrainian military, around a dozen towns in the Luhansk region are under heavy artillery and mortar fire.

The Ukrainian General Staff also reported heavy fighting in the Donetsk region around Svyatohirsk.

Airstrikes were flown near the town of Bakhmut.

Ukraine war: missiles on Kyiv again - what is Putin's aim?

Update from June 6, 10:27 a.m .:

Russian bombs fell on Kiev again on Sunday (June 5) - after Putin's army had focused primarily on conquering eastern Ukraine in the previous weeks.

Why the renewed attack on the capital city?

British intelligence published a theory on Monday (June 6) in its Ukraine war situation report.

Accordingly, Putin's aim with his airstrikes on Kyiv was to interrupt the supply of Western weapons to Ukraine.

The bombs were aimed at the railway infrastructure of Kyiv, which is why this attempt is obvious.

War in Ukraine: Russian town near Ukrainian border apparently shelled

Update from June 6, 9:28 a.m .:

According to Russian information, a village in western Russia near the border with Ukraine has been shot at again.

"There were no dead or injured," Governor Roman Starovoit said on Monday (June 6) on his vkontakte social network account.

According to him, a bridge was fired on in Tjotkino in the Kursk region.

But it also hit a residential building and the local sugar factory.

A car burned out.

Judging by the pictures, a railway bridge was destroyed by the impacts.

The Russian military uses the railways in the border regions to resupply their own troops in Ukraine.

It's not the first time Tjotkino has come under fire.

One civilian was killed in one such attack in mid-May.

The Russian leadership, which itself started the Ukraine war on February 24, has been complaining about Ukrainian attacks on its own territory for weeks.

Ukraine War: Russian general apparently falls at the front

Kyiv - The Ukrainian military has said it has killed another high-ranking Russian officer with the rank of general.

The commander of the 1st Army Corps of the separatist Donetsk People's Republic, Major General Roman Kutuzov, had been "officially denazified and demilitarized," the administration for strategic communications of the Ukrainian armed forces said

on Monday night, according to the online portal

A correspondent for Russian state television first reported on Kutuzov's death.

General Roman Kutuzov was apparently killed in the Ukraine War.

© Yuri Smityuk/Itar Tass/Imago

Kutuzov is said to have fallen while leading a Russian attack on a town near Popasna.

The place is in the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine.

The Ukrainian side had previously reported that the Russian attack had been repelled and that the enemy had been forced to withdraw with "significant casualties".

Since the start of the Ukraine war on February 24, several Moscow generals have been killed.

Official Russian sources have confirmed the deaths of four generals.

Ukraine even spoke of at least seven Russian generals killed - although two of them turned up alive after the Ukrainian death report.

Just a few weeks ago, the Ukrainian army shot down senior Russian air force officer Kanamat Botashov in his plane with a Stinger missile.

Ukraine War: Zelenskyj visits army in Donbass

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited his army in the east of the country on Sunday (June 5).

In a video released during the night, Zelenskyy said that he made a tour of the contested regions of Donetsk and Luhansk together with his chief of staff Andriy Yermak, visiting the frontline cities of Lysychansk and Soledar.

Lysychansk is located on the river opposite the currently highly contested city of Severodonetsk.

Sieverodonetsk is the last major city in the Luhansk region that Russia has not yet conquered.

The declared goal of the Russian armed forces is to take over the entire Donbass region, which also includes the Donetsk region.

Ukraine war: Selenskyj thanks soldiers - "True heroes are among us"

The Office of the President said Zelenskyy had spoken to residents and soldiers in the region.

"I would like to thank you for your great work, for your service, for protecting us all, our state," Zelenskyy said in front of the soldiers, according to the presidential office.

"I'm grateful to everyone," he added.

"Take care of yourself."

The Office of the President in Kyiv said that during his working visit to Donbass, Zelenskyi "acquainted himself with the operational situation on the front line of defense".

"I'm proud of everyone I met, shook hands with, exchanged ideas with, supported," said Zelenskyy in his evening speech after the visit.

Ukraine War: Zelenskyy visits Zaporizhia and speaks with Mariupol refugees

According to the President, he also visited the city of Zaporizhia in south-eastern Ukraine and spoke to refugees from the badly damaged city of Mariupol.

Most of them are women and children without their husbands and fathers. "The husband of one went to war, one was taken prisoner, one died unfortunately," said Zelenskyj.

“But we have to go on living for the children.

True heroes - they are among us.”

Selenskyj was last on the front line at the end of May.

The Russian head of state Vladimir Putin, on the other hand, has not yet visited his troops in the Ukraine war.

On Sunday (June 5), rockets hit Kyiv again after weeks - it was the most severe attack in weeks.