These are the major developments as the war enters its 481st day.
This is the situation as on Monday, June 19, 2023.
fight
Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-based official in Ukraine, said Ukrainian forces had captured the village of Piatikhatki in the Zaporizhia region, Kiev’s second gain since launching a counteroffensive earlier this month. Rogov said the Ukrainians had launched a wave of attacks and that “hundreds” of Ukrainian troops had been killed.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces repelled a series of Ukrainian offensives across three parts of the front line. The ministry said Kiev was pressing most actively in the Zaporizhia region but did not mention Pyatikhatki.
Ukraine’s military said its air force had carried out 14 raids on Russian positions and destroyed two anti-aircraft missile systems.
Ukraine destroyed a “significant” ammunition depot near the Russian-held port city of Henichesk in the southern region of Kherson, Odessa military administration spokesman Serhii Brachuk said.
The United Kingdom says Russia and Ukraine are suffering high military casualties as Kiev fights to oust Kremlin forces from occupied territory. The UK said the heaviest fighting was in the southeastern Zaporizhia region, around Bakhmut and further west in the eastern Donetsk region.
Russia’s Wagner Group boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said 32,000 men recruited from Russian prisons had returned home after their contracts with Ukrainian mercenaries ended.
diplomacy
According to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, an African peacekeeping mission in the Ukraine conflict that failed to attract encouragement from Moscow or Kiev was still effective. He said the Africans will discuss their proposals with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will ask businesses to step up investment to help Ukraine rebuild at the Ukraine Recovery Conference starting in London on Wednesday. Zelensky is expected to make a virtual appearance at the two-day event, organizers said.
weapons
The EU’s industry chief, Thierry Breton, said the bloc had stepped up arms deliveries to Ukraine in support of the country’s counteroffensive against Russian forces. Breton told French daily Le Parisien that the EU was preparing for war “for a few more months or more”.
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