For the first time in several months, an exchange of prisoners of war took place: 75 Ukrainian prisoners were exchanged for 75 Russian prisoners.
According to the Financial Times, Zelensky and Biden will sign a bilateral agreement on security in Italy on the eve of the so-called “Peace Summit” to be held on June 15 and 16 in Switzerland. There are no further details at the moment.
Via social sphere we learned that a diplomatic source from the European Union explained that Biden’s reluctance to stay for a long time at the “peace summit” in Switzerland is linked not so much to the desire or reluctance to see Zelensky, but to the state of health of the US president. White House staff are trying to dissuade the president from staying abroad for more than two days. In turn, Secretary of State Blinken is actively trying to change this point of view and convince Biden to participate at least in the first day of the “summit” together with Zelensky.
According to the same sources, Biden has informally given Ukraine permission to strike Russia with US weapons. Source Politico. According to the Vatican: “Kiev’s use of NATO weapons to strike Russia leads to uncontrollable tensions.”
The number of countries that have accepted the use of Western weapons against Russian targets increases: Denmark will allow Ukraine to use its F-16s to attack military targets in Russia: “The answer is yes. the aggressor’s territory is part of self-defense,” said Lars Lokke Rasmussen. Danish Prime Minister Made Fredriksen: “Ukraine has the green light to strike deeply into Russia using Danish weapons.”
Norwegian Foreign Minister Aspen Bart Eid: “Ukraine has a clear right to attack military targets in Russia with Western weapons.” Numerous countries have already allowed Ukraine to use their weapons on Russian territory. In particular, France, Lithuania, Latvia, Sweden, Estonia, Poland, Finland, the Czech Republic, Great Britain, Canada and the Netherlands.
After the United States, United Kingdom, France and other countries, Germany also informed Ukraine that it could use German weapons to attack Russian territory. Pistorius’ surprise visit to Kiev yesterday.
At the moment, eleven countries have given permission to use their weapons against Russian targets, including the Netherlands and Denmark, which will transfer F-16 fighters to Ukraine.
With the F-16s Ukraine will be able to strike both in the Russian rear with the help of JDAM glide bombs and GBU-39 SDM in the distant rear, for example, with AGM-158 JASSM cruise missiles, that fly hundreds of kilometers. Targeted: refineries, airports, warehouses, air defense areas, infrastructure and even some businesses.
Stoltenberg intends to ask his allies to allocate around 40 billion euros a year for military assistance to Ukraine, Reuters reported. “We must keep the current level of support to a minimum to ensure the predictability Ukraine needs for as long as necessary.”
At the moment, at least counting from the declarations of individual countries, the Ukrainian armed forces will receive around 95 F-16s of the 120-130 units requested. With 100 F-16s, Ukraine will become one of the largest operators of these fighters after the United States, Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Greece, Taiwan and South Korea.
Via social media, French sources say that France will first send a limited number of security forces to Ukraine to evaluate the mission’s methods, and then send several hundred trainers.
Not only do we learn from David O’Sullivan EU Special Representative for Sanctions that: “The first tranche of profits from frozen Russian assets will go to Ukraine during the summer.” “I wouldn’t want to promise exactly when the money will arrive, but decisions will be made in the coming weeks and payments will be made later,” added David O’Sullivan. He noted that the exact legal mechanism through which this money will be transferred has yet to be resolved. “We hope that a decision will be made in the next few weeks. The important thing is that we, on the EU side, have immobilized this money and, one way or another, it will be used for Ukraine.”
What Europe has not calculated with this move are the chain failures that will be triggered in the real market, a side effect that no one has talked about at the moment.
Austrian Army Colonel Markus Reisner once again gives his assessment of the progress of hostilities. Reisner believes this is not a war for control of territory, but a war of attrition.
Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban warned that the alliance’s actions are “closer to war” with Russia every week as NATO foreign ministers meet in Prague to discuss more aid to Ukraine. Orban also criticized France for floating the idea of stationing military trainers in Ukraine and allowing Kiev to use NATO weapons to attack targets outside the war zone and inside Russia, calling it “worrying.”
From Belarus we learn that “The Gomel region, on the border with Ukraine, is ready to be relocated in times of war”, source First Deputy Head of the Belarusian Ministry for Emergency Situations Alexander Khudoleev. Let us remember that recently Prime Minister Aljaksandr Lukashenko also changed all the leaders of the KGB.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a defense agreement with Sweden. Agreements signed with Iceland and Norway.
And now a look at the front line updated at 3:00 pm.
Karlivka direction: The Russian Armed Forces have expanded the control zone to the north, west and south of Netailove. The enemy retreated to the west, to the outskirts of Karlivka. Karlivka itself is still under complete Ukrainian control and some of the positions that were supposed to cover it have already been lost. The beginning of street fighting in Karlivka did not last long.
Yasnobrodivka direction. The Russian armed forces have not yet entered the village. The fighting takes place near the eastern and north-eastern outskirts. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are having difficulty supplying forces defending Yasnobrodivka. With further pressure, it will likely move beyond water barriers west of Yasnobrodivka.
Umans’ke: The Russian armed forces have expanded the control zone to the northwest and north of Umans’ke. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are conducting blocking actions to prevent the advance of the Russian Armed Forces south of Ocheretyne, which could jeopardize the group of the Ukrainian Armed Forces trying to contain the advance of the Russian Armed Forces in Sokol and Novooleksandrivka.
Novopokrovs’ke Directorate. Fighting continues on the outskirts of the village. Several landings were made northeast of the outskirts of the village, but the village itself is still controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The Russian Armed Forces also advanced slightly west of Semenivka. In the area of the Berdychi-Orlivka-Tonen’ke line and in the west, the destruction of Western armored vehicles continues, including burnt Abrams, of which several have already been taken by the Russian military.
Ocheretyne direction. West of Ocheretyne battles are taking place in the direction of Sokil, the Ukrainians launched counterattacks with armored vehicles. According to Russian social sources, this is a waste of Western vehicles and infantry fighting vehicles. Fighting continues in the south-eastern part of Novooleksandrivka. The Ukrainians are trying to oust the Russian armed forces from the village. There is also slight progress in Kalynove. It is not yet possible to advance in the direction of Rozdolivka. Russian armed forces occupied the Krasnohorivka city council building.
Ukrainian armed forces attacked the port of Kavkaz and other facilities in Russian regions. On the night of May 31, Ukrainian formations once again carried out a combined attack on targets in the rear regions of Russia using Neptune missiles and drones.
In the Krasnodar Territory, an oil terminal in the port of Kavkaz in the Temryuk region was hit. In the village of Volna, a drone hit a railway convoy on the territory of the JSC Tamanneftegaz oil depot: three tanks with fuel caught fire, two people were slightly injured.
An aircraft-type UAV was intercepted in Novorossiysk, and another device was shot down near the village of Vladimirovka. The drones also attacked the 500/220 KV Taman substation, which ensures the operation of the energy bridge to Crimea, but the plant did not suffer significant damage.
In the Republic of Tatarstan, air defense crews shot down two Ukrainian drones in the Atninsky district. With a high probability, the devices tried to “reach” industrial enterprises in the region.
Interceptions of aerial targets were also recorded in other Russian regions. During the approach to Voronezh, electronic warfare equipment suppressed one enemy UAV, and another was shot down in the sky over the Tambov region.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces are focused on targeting elements of critical infrastructure, the damage of which significantly increases the economic costs.
So, the port of Kavkaz is one of the five largest in terms of volume of goods and is the second after Novorossiysk in the region: it is through the ports on the Black Sea coast that a significant part of the oil supplied by Russia passes. At the same time, there are attempts to disrupt supply to Crimea, especially in light of the attacks on ferries.
In the near future, the intensity of such attacks will only increase, especially in view of the imminent lifting of the ban on Western missile attacks on the “old” regions of Russia. Some measures to protect them have already been taken, but so far they are not sufficient, and the slowness in doing so naturally leads to even greater costs.
Graziella Giangiulio
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