Sunday, June 23
Russia’s war against Ukraine
Rescue workers respond at the site of a Russian aerial bombing of the city’s Osnovyanskyi district near the Kharkiv Bus Station on June 22. The Russian army dropped four UMPB D-30 glide bombs on the city, of which three bombs hit an enterprise in the Kholodnohirskyi district, and another hit a residential apartment building next to the Kharkiv Bus Station. (Taras Ibragimov/Suspilne Ukraine/JSC “UA:PBC”/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
Fighting ongoing in Toretsk sector amid reports of captured village in ‘gray zone.’ Ukrainian forces are holding back Russia’s assault in the Horlivka — Toretsk direction in Donetsk Oblast on June 22 amid ongoing fighting, Nazar Voloshyn, the spokesperson for the Khortytsia group of forces, told the Kyiv Independent.
Ukraine’s partisans claim infiltration of Russian air base, leave ‘surprises’ for pilots. ATESH said it had scouted the Baltimore airfield in Voronezh, around 220 kilometers north-east of the border with Kharkiv Oblast and home to Russia’s 47th Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment.
Negotiations needed to end war in Ukraine but Putin ‘cannot be trusted,’ says Mark Milley. Vladimir Putin on June 14 said Moscow would only cease fire and enter peace talks if Ukraine withdraws from the four Ukrainian regions claimed – but not fully controlled – by the Kremlin.
Ukrainian army says some Russian troops withdrawing from Vovchansk area. The withdrawal of Russian units was also seen near the villages of Lyptsi and Tykhe, where Russian armed forces suffered losses from Ukrainian troops.
Russian media: Ukrainian forces allegedly hit air defense system in Belgorod Oblast. As a result of the attack, grass was set on fire near the village of Dubovoe, according to Gladkov. The governor also claimed that the fire was promptly extinguished. The roofs of two houses and 17 cars were damaged in the village, he said.
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Satellite images show Russia’s Shahed warehouse destruction. Ukraine’s Naval Forces on June 23 published satellite images that confirm the destruction of storage and preparation sites for Shahed-136/Geranium-2 drones in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai.
Media: Official who gave Putin wrong intelligence on Ukraine war resigns. The 5th Service is in charge of the FSB’s relations with foreign partners and gathering intelligence in former Soviet countries, including Ukraine. The intelligence provided by the 5th Service turned out to be inaccurate in many ways when the all-out war started, Important Stories said.
Zelensky: Two more countries sign global peace summit communique. “We see growing global support for the Peace Formula, meaning the support for the UN Charter, which we want to restore to full force,” Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Twitter.
UK’s Nigel Farage doubles down on controversial Ukraine/Putin comments. Farage’s comments echo Kremlin disinformation lines used to justify the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, namely that Russia was forced to start the war to protect itself from the threat from NATO.
Military: Russia firing missiles from Azov Sea, Black Sea ‘not safe enough.’ Around 30% of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet had been destroyed as of December 2023, according to the Ukrainian military.
Human cost of war
Russian attack on Kharkiv kills 3, injures 54, including children. The sounds of explosions were reported as of around 3:15 p.m. local time. The attack was carried out with glide bombs, targeting a residential area.
Russian attacks against Ukraine kill 8, injure 19 over past day. Russia targeted a total of 14 Ukrainian oblasts — Chernihiv, Sumy, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Luhansk, Vinnytsia, Lviv, Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Kharkiv, and Donetsk. Casualties were reported in the latter four regions.
International response
Germany calls for EU-China trade discussions, criticizes Beijing’s exports to Russia. Germany’s vice-chancellor expressed readiness to discussions with Beijing regarding EU tariffs but adopted a more stringent stance on Chinese exports to Russia during the first visit to mainland China by a senior European politician since the tariffs were introduced.
FT: Around $855 million in Serbian ammunition reaches Ukraine. Serbian-Ukrainian relationships are complicated by Belgrade’s friendly attitude toward Russia, as Serbia has refused to join sanctions against Moscow.
Opinions and insights
Opinion: Having a child during wartime is terrifying, but it’s still worth it
“The worst feeling in the world is to look at your child and worry that a normal childhood will be a luxury for them. It’s the constant fear that you’ll never truly be able to protect them no matter what you do,” Kate Tsurkan writes in her latest op-ed.
Photo: Paula Bronstein /Getty Images
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Revisiting Battle of Kyiv with Illia Ponomarenko
In other news
Romanian village poised to become NATO’s largest airbase in Europe. Romania’s Mihai Kogalniceanu (MK) airbase, named after a nearby village honoring a 19th-century liberal politician, is set to become NATO’s largest base in Europe, surpassing Ramstein in Germany.
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Today’s Ukraine Daily was brought to you by Olga Rudenko, Kateryna Denisova, Oleg Sukhov, Kateryna Hodunova, Francis Farrell, Chris York, Olena Goncharova, and Brad LaFoy.
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