Ukraine-Russia struggle newest: US reveals plans to chop navy support to Kyiv and hours later Putin’s forces kill three in Kharkiv strike
At least three people were killed and 60 injured in a massive Russian drone attack on Kharkiv overnight, Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday.
According to Kharkiv mayor Igor Terekhov, “seventeen strikes by enemy UAVs were carried out in two districts of the city this night”.
A five-storey building caught fire, with over 15 apartments burning, and several houses were also affected.
Mr Terekhov warned that people could still be trapped under the rubble.
Separately, Russian forces launched a devastating five-hour drone assault on Kyiv on Tuesday in one of the largest attacks of the war on the capital so far.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Moscow’s forces fired over 315 drones at Ukraine overnight, killing seven people.
“Every night, instead of a ceasefire, there have been massive strikes with Shaheds, cruise missiles and ballistics. Today was one of the largest strikes on Kyiv. Odesa, the Dnipro region and Chernihiv region were also targeted,” he said.
The attacks came a day after Moscow launched almost 500 drones at Ukraine in the largest overnight bombardment of the war.
Kyiv had been anticipating a strong Russian response to its Operation Spiderweb, which targeted Russian airbases on 1 June.
Germany’s imports from Russia fall by 95% since start of Ukraine war
Germany’s imports of goods from Russia fell by 95 per cent in the 2021-2024 period while its exports of goods to Russia were cut by 72 per cent, the country’s statistics office Destatis reported on Wednesday.
The European Union as a whole cut its imports from Russia by 78 per cent and exports by 65 per cent over the same time frame, leading to a trade deficit of 4.5 billion euros ($5.1 billion) in 2024 compared with 147.5 billion euros in 2022, Destatis added.
Slovakia cannot support new EU sanctions against Russia without energy solutions, PM Fico says
Slovakia will not back the EU’s 18th package of sanctions against Russia unless the European Commission provides a solution to the situation the country faces if the bloc phases out Russian energy as planned, Prime Minister Robert Fico said.
The Commission proposed on Tuesday a new round of sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago, targeting Moscow’s energy revenues, its banks and its military industry.
Fico has criticised separate European Union plans to phase out Russian gas and other energy imports in the coming years, which the EU executive announced last month, calling them “economic suicide”.
Hungary, which like Slovakia, continues to rely on Russian gas and oil supplies, and like Slovakia has maintained warm ties with Moscow, has also rejected the plans.
EU countries will start debating the sanctions proposals this week, which require unanimity in the bloc for approval.
“Slovakia will not support the upcoming 18th sanctions package against Russia unless the European Commission provides it with a real solution to the crisis situation that Slovakia will find itself in after the complete cessation of gas, oil and nuclear fuel supplies from Russia,” Fico wrote in a Facebook post late on Tuesday.
Slovakia has not blocked any previous sanctions packages.
In pictures: Russia attacks southern Ukrainian region of Odesa
Russia says scale of damage from Ukrainian attacks on airfields has been exaggerated
Russia’s nuclear capability has not suffered significant damage due to Ukraine’s attacks on military airfields, and the scale of the damage has been exaggerated, deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted as saying by RIA on Wednesday
Donald Trump was wrong – Ukraine still holds some cards
Donald Trump has been shown to be wrong, wrong and wrong again about Vladimir Putin. He was wrong again when he was asked if Ukraine’s “Spiderweb” drone strikes against Russian bombers had changed his view of the cards the Ukrainians have: “They gave Putin a reason to go and bomb the hell out of them,” he said.
This is the same logic to which President Trump has cleaved from the start: that the Ukrainian people provoked the full-scale invasion of their country by wanting to be an independent nation facing to the west.
UPD: Kharkiv death toll rises to 3
We have just received news from Ukraine’s state emergency services that the death toll in Kharkiv has been revised from two to three, with 60 wounded.
In pictures: Russia fires drones at Kharkiv
Below we have some more of the latest pictures from the northeast Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
Russia fired multiple drones at the city, home to around 1.3 million people, overnight.
At least two people were killed and 57 more wounded, according to local officials.
The intense strikes with 17 drones sparked fires in 15 units of a five-storey apartment building and caused other damage in the city close to the Russian border, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.
“There are direct hits on multi-storey buildings, private homes, playgrounds, enterprises and public transport,” Terekhov said on the Telegram messaging app.
Russia fires 86 drones and missiles at Ukraine, says air force
Russia has fired 86 drones and missiles at Ukraine overnight, Kyiv’s air force has claimed.
Ukraine said it shot down 40 of the drones and used electronic warfare to bring down an additional nine.
The strikes hit 14 locations, mainly in the northeast Kharkiv region, the eastern Donetsk region and the southern area of Odesa.
A concentrated, nine-minute-long attack on Kharkiv overnight left two people dead and wounded an additional 57, according to local officials.
Russia has ramped up its aerial strikes on Ukraine in recent weeks, with some residents in the capital of Kyiv on Monday night into Tuesday morning describing that round of assaults as the most intense of the more than three-year war.
Vladimir Putin reportedly told Donald Trump they would ramp up attacks on Ukraine following Kyiv’s cross-border drone attacks on Russian military bases last month.
Kharkiv attack: In Pictures
US-Russian talks to take place in Moscow, Putin envoy says
Talks between the United States and Russia on resolving issues in their bilateral relations will move to Moscow from Istanbul, Russia’s new ambassador to Washington told the state Tass news agency.
“The recovery of Russian-American relations is still a long way off,” Ambassador Alexander Darchiev told TASS, adding that the so-called US “deep state”, including anti-Russia hawks, was slowing the rapprochement with Moscow.
“I can confirm that the next negotiations of the delegations will take place in the very near future in Moscow,” Darchiev was quoted as saying.
The Donald Trump administration has not commented on these claims but the president’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, has held multiple rounds of talks with Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
Source: independent.co.uk
