Selenskyj speaks of an advance in the south - but there is nothing about it in the situation report of his general staff
Created: 06/22/2022, 09:33 am
By: Kathrin Reikowski, Bedrettin Bölükbasi
During the Ukraine war, Russian troops conquered other towns.
Several people were killed in the shelling of the Kharkiv region.
The news ticker.
Ukraine conflict
: According to Kiev, Putin troops are advancing in Sievjerodonetsk.
Kiev
reports progress in
Cherson
: According to Ukrainian information, Russian troops have been repulsed.
In an AFP interview, a woman reports that her husband was murdered by Russian occupiers - not an isolated case.
Siegerodonetsk battle
: According to experts, Russia lacks sufficient artillery strength.
This
news ticker on military developments
in the Ukraine war is constantly updated.
You can read the background to the Ukraine crisis here.
Update from June 22, 8:11 a.m
.: Situation report from the Ukrainian general staff on Wednesday: In the battle for the administrative center Sievjerodonetsk in eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian troops are threatened with another setback.
"The enemy is trying to take full control of Sieverodonetsk and to block Defense Forces units in the villages of Borivske and Voronove, hostilities are continuing," the Ukrainian General Staff said.
Borivske and Voronowe are two suburbs of Sievjerodonetsk on the east bank of the Severskyi Donets.
In the same area, the Russians took the village of Metyolkine just over the weekend.
According to the situation report, the Russian troops are concentrating their offensive efforts in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the area between Sieverodonetsk and Bakhmut.
According to earlier reports, Ukrainian units in the conurbation south of the city of Lyssychansk are also threatened with encirclement.
This map shows where the Ukraine War is raging
.
Situation in the Ukraine war: The report says nothing about the advance in the south, which Zelenskyj had spoken about
The second main target of the Russian attack, the Slovjansk - Kramatorsk conurbation with around half a million inhabitants (before the war), however, remains out of the reach of ground troops loyal to Moscow for the time being.
The General Staff said that Ukrainian positions north of Sloviansk were under artillery fire in preparation for the attack.
Nothing can be found in the situation report about the advance of Ukrainian forces in the south of the country, which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke about in his nightly video message.
It only says that the Russian military is directing its efforts to prevent an attack by the Ukrainians, and has carried out airstrikes on positions near the village of Bila Krynytsia.
Bila Krynytsia is located in the Kherson region west of the Inhulets river.
This is consistent with the US Institute for the Study of the War (ISW), which said the Russians may have managed to eliminate the Ukrainian bridgehead on the east bank of the Inhulet and to consolidate their positions in the region.
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Volodymyr Zelenskyj spoke of an advance of his troops in the south during the Ukraine war.
© dpa/Ukrainian Presidential Press Office/AP |
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Situation in Russian-occupied Cherson: woman reports that her husband was kidnapped and murdered
Update from June 22, 8:02 a.m
.: AFP reports from the port city of Cherson in southern Ukraine, which has been occupied by Russia for months.
On the phone, a woman reported that her husband had been abducted and murdered, and that her story was not an isolated case.
When Russia invaded Ukraine, her husband rushed home from Kyiv to help defend Kherson, the woman said.
A few weeks later, contact with her husband was lost.
At the end of March, cars belonging to the Russian occupiers stopped in front of her house and dragged her blood-smeared husband out of one of the cars.
The men entered the home at gunpoint and took away laptops and cell phones.
They had promised him "not to harm the family," said her husband - those were his only words.
"Then they pulled bags over my head, my husband and my eldest son," she says.
"I will never forget the look Vitali gave me at that moment.
It was the last time we saw each other,” Lapchuk recalls with sadness.
After an interrogation, mother and son were dropped off under a bridge - without the father.
For more than two months, the family did not know what had happened to him.
On June 9, she learned that fishermen had found Vitali's body at the bottom of a river, his feet weighted with a stone.
The woman now lives in western Ukraine.
International media reports that television has now been switched to Russian state TV.
Resistance against the occupation continues to stir - among other things, people should let Ukrainian flags hang out of their windows.
According to international observations, more than half of the residents have now left the city.
Only recently did the Ukrainian army report progress in Cherson.
The Ukraine War in Pictures - Destruction, Resistance and Hope
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Ukrainian presidential adviser to Maischberger: "We can win the war"
Update from June 22, 6:16 a.m
.: "We can win the war," said the economic adviser to the Ukrainian President, Alexander Rodnyansky, on Tuesday evening on the ARD program "Maischberger".
He is therefore firmly assuming that his country will win against the Russian aggressor.
"I hope that the counter-offensive can start at the end of August or in August," he said.
Aid from abroad would help a lot, would also arrive, but it would take a while before the weapons could be used.
A lasting peace cannot be concluded with Russia anyway, said adviser to the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
"One must not give in to this illusion." Russia under President Vladimir Putin is not interested in peace with Europe, it is about revanchism, about imperialism - "and it will stay that way".
Rodnyansky said that Ukraine defends the European peace order and needs maximum support, otherwise there will be war somewhere else in Europe.
"You shouldn't be more afraid of a Ukrainian victory than of a Russian defeat, so that's absolutely out of place." After almost four months, his country is certainly not war-weary.
However, there are massive problems with supplies, one has become even more dependent on the West.
Alexander Rodnyansky, Ukrainian Presidential Advisor, as a guest on the ARD program "Maischberger".
© Oliver Ziebe/WDR/dpa
Russia's Defense Ministry accuses Ukraine of blocking ships
Update from June 21, 10:41 p.m .:
According to Russian information, 70 ships from 16 countries are currently blocked in six ports in Ukraine.
The Russian Defense Ministry accused Ukraine on Tuesday evening of not being able to sail unhindered due to Ukrainian shelling and the high risk of mines.
On the other hand, Ukraine, one of the world's largest grain exporters, has criticized the fact that Russia is preventing grain exports by blockading Ukrainian ports, thereby causing a food crisis.
Several dead and wounded near Kharkiv after Russian attacks
Update from June 21, 9:38 p.m .:
In the eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv, 15 people were killed by Russian attacks.
16 others were injured, as the governor of the region Oleh Synyehubov announced on Tuesday in the news service Telegram.
Accordingly, there were four dead and eleven injured in the metropolis of Kharkiv by Russian rocket fire.
Three civilians were reportedly killed near the Russian border in Udy and an eight-year-old girl in Besruky near Derhachi.
In Chuhuiv, southeast of Kharkiv, six people died in the evening from Russian shelling and three were injured.
The information cannot be independently verified.
Ukrainian soldiers look at a destroyed building in the Kharkiv region on June 21, 2022.
© IMAGO/Orlando Barria
Ukrainian troops threatened by encirclement: Russian troops capture more towns
Update from June 21, 9:20 p.m .:
In the heavily contested Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian units around the towns of Solote and Hirske are threatened with being surrounded by Russian troops.
"In the Toshkivka-Pidlisne direction, the enemy captured the villages of Pidlisne and Myrna Dolyna," the Ukrainian General Staff said in a Facebook report on Tuesday.
The Russian troops had also achieved success with Hirske.
This would have cut off the northern road connection to the other Ukrainian units around Lyssychansk southwest of Sievjerodonetsk for the Ukrainian grouping around the towns of Solote and Hirske.
The connection via Wrubiwka, west of Hirske, had already come under Russian control last week.
Russian border guards are violating Estonia's airspace for the second time this year
Update from June 21, 1:48 p.m
.: The Russian border guards have violated Estonia’s airspace – for the second time this year.
This is reported by the Estonian army.
The Mi-8 helicopter entered the airspace of the Baltic EU and NATO member for almost two minutes on June 18 without permission.
The foreign office in Tallinn summoned the Russian ambassador because of the incident.
"Estonia considers this to be an extremely serious and regrettable incident, which will undoubtedly create additional tensions and is totally unacceptable," the statement said.
The helicopter had neither transmitted a flight plan nor activated its electronic identification.
The pilot also had no radio contact with Estonia's air traffic control, it said.
Fighting in Donbass: Moscow reports "unresisting surrender" in Syrotyne
Update from June 21,
12:14 p.m .: From Syrotyne - a village west of Metjolkine in the Donbass - Kiev reported at the weekend: The Russian storm attempts are unsuccessful.
According to the other side, that has now changed.
Nine Ukrainian reservists laid down their arms and surrendered "without resistance" in the town near Sievjerodonetsk.
This is reported by the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
The information could not initially be independently verified.
Secret service Great Britain: Zelenskyj fighters undermine Putin plan
Update from June 21, 11:02 a.m
.: Since the beginning of the Russian invasion in February, the British government has regularly published intelligence information on the course of the war - and according to a current assessment, the Ukrainian side has so far successfully undermined one of Moscow's key plans: that Putin's troops take control of the adjacent sea area take over.
Originally, Moscow intended to attack the port of Odessa from the Black Sea.
On June 17, Ukrainian forces succeeded for the first time in using anti-ship missiles to attack a Russian tugboat that most likely wanted to bring weapons and personnel to the strategically important Snake Island.
Snake Island is occupied by Russian troops.
The destruction of the tug shows how difficult it is for Moscow to bring supplies to the island.
Moscow accuses London of a targeted disinformation campaign.
Ukraine-News: Russia pushes into Kiev's Sieverodonetsk bastion
Update from June 21, 9:09 a.m
.: According to Ukrainian information, Russian troops are penetrating the industrial area in the heavily contested city of Sievjerodonetsk, where their own military only controls the Azot chemical plant.
Now the Institute for the Study of War made a forecast.
According to the experts, the coming week will be crucial in the battle for the area.
Putin's troops are planning a "last concerted attempt," the institute reports, citing information from the Ukrainian side.
This is reported by the
Kyiv Independent
.
In Sieverodonetsk in the Luhansk region, "the Russians control most of the residential areas," Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk said on June 20.
But "more than a third of the city remains controlled by our armed forces".
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) is a US think tank dealing with defense and foreign policy issues.
Ukraine-News: Kyiv accuses Moscow of capturing civilians
Update from June 21, 7.40 a.m .:
Ukraine accuses Russia of holding more than 1,500 civilians captive.
This is reported by the
Kyiv Independent
, citing Deputy Ukrainian Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.
"They are in prisons in Rostov, in Kursk, being held as prisoners of war when they shouldn't be." Rostov and Kursk are cities in Russia near the Ukrainian border.
Ukraine-News: Apparently civilians killed in Kharkiv and Donetsk
Update from June 21, 6:55 a.m .:
Three civilians died in the Kharkiv region.
The governor of the Kharkov region, Oleh Syniehubov, spoke of a Russian attack on the village of Kutuzivka and the town of Balakliya.
Two other civilians were injured in the industrial district of the city of Kharkiv.
Update from June 20, 10:15 p.m.:
Civilian victims in Ukraine.
In the Donetsk region, three people were killed by Russian shelling, said Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the region, on Telegram, two others were injured.
Ukraine-News: Russian troops enter industrial area of Sievjerodonetsk
Update from June 20, 8:26 p.m .:
In the Ukraine conflict, according to Ukrainian information, Russian troops have penetrated into the industrial area of the heavily contested city of Sievjerodonetsk.
Fighting is already going on there, wrote the governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Hajday, on his Telegram channel on Monday evening.
According to this, Ukrainian troops only control the territory of the Azot chemical plant.
Surrounding towns are also under constant fire.
According to Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Wereshchuk, around 300 civilians were still in the chemical plant.
However, the situation is constantly changing, she said on Monday, according to the Ukrainian agency Ukrinform.
For some time now, Russian troops have been concentrating on capturing the administrative center of Sievarodonetsk in the Luhansk region.
On Monday morning, Ukrainian authorities admitted the loss of the village of Metyolkine, southeast of the city (see update of June 20, 9:45 a.m.)
Ukraine-News: Ukrainian attack on oil platform off Crimea - first reported attack
Update from June 20, 2 p.m.:
Russia has accused the Ukrainian armed forces of having shelled oil platforms off Crimea.
"This morning the enemy attacked the Chernomorneftegaz drilling platforms," Moscow-appointed governor of the peninsula Sergei Aksionov told Telegram.
Accordingly, five out of twelve people were saved, three were injured.
The others are still being sought.
The information cannot be independently confirmed.
Aksionow did not provide any more specific information about which platforms were affected.
The Chernomorneftegaz company exploits several gas and oil fields in the Black and Azov Seas off the Crimean coast.
It is the first reported attack on Crimea's offshore oil infrastructure since Russian military operations in Ukraine began in late February.
Ukraine-News: Kyiv reports progress in Cherson - apparently also successes in Zaporizhia
Update from June 20, 11 a.m.:
According to Ukrainian information, Kiev’s military is making initial progress in the Cherson region in southern Ukraine, which is currently occupied by Russian troops.
According to this, Ukrainian troops managed to drive Russian soldiers out of their first line of defense in front of Kherson, Serhiy Khlan, adviser to the head of the Ukrainian military administration in Kherson, told the Ukrainian broadcaster Espreso TV.
Previously, the Ukrainian head of state Volodymyr Zelenskyy promised to recapture southern Ukraine.
According to Khlan, Russian soldiers have retreated to the second and third lines of defense.
Apparently, Russian troops are also struggling in the Zaporizhia region, while the Ukrainian side says they are now launching attacks.
For example, Rodion Kudryashov, a commander of the Azov Brigade, told Espreso TV that Ukrainian troops were shifting from "active defense to offensive actions."
In doing so, one pushes “the enemy” back as far as possible, who find it difficult to break through the Ukrainian positions.
In the coming weeks they want to "break" the Russian units in the Zaporizhia region, said Kudryashov.
Ukraine-News: London sees weak Russian air force - Ukraine admits loss of Metyolkine
Update from June 20, 9.45 a.m .:
According to British assessments, Russia's difficulties with its advance in Ukraine are also due to the weaknesses of its air force.
It is very likely that this is one of the most important factors behind the very limited Russian successes, the British Ministry of Defense said.
So far, the air forces have tended to avoid risks in their maneuvers and have not been able to achieve air supremacy.
This has increased the pressure on the Russian ground forces, which are now increasingly exhausted.
According to British estimates, the Russians have combat-capable aircraft, but are not properly trained for modern air force operations.
For years, Russian air force training was said to have focused more on impressing high-ranking military officials than on training dynamic deployment scenarios for different troops.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities have acknowledged the loss of the village of Metyolkine, southeast of the administrative center of Sievarodonetsk in the east of the country.
"Control of Metyolkine near Sieverodonetsk has been lost," said the military governor of the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk, Serhiy Haiday, on his Telegram channel.
Ukraine-News: Heavy fighting in the Donbass - artillery is increasingly used
First report from June 20:
Moscow/Munich - In the Ukraine conflict, the fighting between the troops of Russian ruler Vladimir Putin and the Ukrainian military for control of the Luhansk city of Sievjerodonetsk in the Donbass is escalating.
Artillery is mainly used on both sides.
However, according to military experts, Russia's artillery superiority is not enough to capture the administrative center of Sieverodonetsk.
In addition, the experts see a crucial mistake on the part of Moscow, which prevents it from attacking Ukraine more vigorously.
Ukraine-News: Battle for Sieverodonetsk - Putin's artillery strength probably "insufficient" for capture
"Russia's concentrated artillery capability, coupled with arguably weakened infantry units, remains insufficient to make Russian advances in Sieverodonetsk," read the latest analysis by the US think tank Institute for the Study of the War (ISW) on Sunday evening.
Russian troops continued to fight for control of Sieverodonetsk but made little progress on Sunday.
According to the experts, Russia is likely to continue trying to encircle the former city and to cut off supplies for the remaining Ukrainian forces, who are largely holed up in the Azot chemical plant.
However, there is currently little progress on this project.
In addition, Moscow is preparing an offensive on Sloviansk.
The Slovjansk-Kramatorsk area is considered the center of the Ukrainian defense forces in the Donbass region.
Ukraine-News: Russia hinders its own success - problems because of designation as "special operations"
According to the ISW, Moscow is also hindering the success of its invasion by continuing to speak of a "special military operation" instead of a war.
This prevents Russia from mobilizing to generate more forces.
In addition, the Kremlin lacks the legal means to punish soldiers who refuse to be deployed.
In making this assessment, the ISW also refers to the British Ministry of Defence.
The US think tank also spoke of successful Ukrainian counterattacks in the Zaporizhia region.
Because of Ukraine's successes, Russia was forced to "send reinforcements to this weakened sector of the front line."
(bb with dpa)