Ukraine’s military hit three Russian surface-to-air missile systems in occupied Crimea overnight, its second reported strike on air defenses on the peninsula this week. Strikes targeted an S-300 system and two more advanced S-400 systems near Belbek and Sevastopol, Ukraine’s general staff said on Thursday.
“As a result of the strikes, two radars of the S-300 and S-400 complexes were destroyed. Information about the third radar is being clarified,” it said on Telegram.
In a report on Monday, Washington DC-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War said Ukraine likely used ATACMS in the attack.
If true, this would be one of the first ATACMS strikes Ukraine has launched against Crimea since the US secretly sent the country about 100 ATACMS in April.
Ukraine has already reportedly used one of the missiles to take out more than 100 Russian soldiers stationed 50 miles from the front line in the occupied Luhansk Oblast, showcasing the missile’s range and power.
Philip Karber, a military analyst with expertise on Ukraine, told Radio Free Europe in April that the weapons “could basically make Crimea militarily worthless.”
Zelensky is participating in several diplomatic events over the next few days aimed at discussing how to help Ukraine fend off the Russian invasion or how to bring about an end to the war.
Meanwhile, At least nine people have been killed and 29 injured in Russian airstrikes on Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown Kryvyi Rih.
The deadly strike came just a day before the leaders of countries that are some of Ukraine’s biggest backers are set to discuss how to slow Moscow’s offensive.
Those killed in Kryvyi Rih include five children, officials said, after Russian missiles hit an apartment block in the town.
Ukraine troops say firing US weapons into Russia could ‘turn Russian lives into a nightmare’
Ukrainian colonel says Joe Biden’s decision to partially lift restrictions on using American-supplied weapons inside Russia has already yielded dramatic results in helping halt an advance by Vladimir Putin’s forces around the northeastern region of Kharkiv, and has made Moscow’s troops think twice about a widespread assault on the neighboring area of Sumy.
Russian forces ‘deliberately starved’ Ukrainians in Mariupol, new report claims
Russian forces deliberately starved Ukrainians in Mariupol as a tactic of war by targeting their water, food and medical facilities before taking the strategic port city in 2022, based on an investigation by an international human rights group.
Satellite imagery showing evidence of targeted attacks on civilian infrastructure in the city, including food distribution centers, was collected by Global Rights Compliance’s Starvation Mobile Justice Team, and relate to the first 85 days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine before the fall of Mariupol.
In a report on “Russia’s siege, starvation, and capture of Mariupol city”, the rights group said its investigators analyzed reams of satellite imagery as well as pictures, videos, public statements and digital data to make the assessment. The investigation took about a year to complete.
Civilians who couldn’t escape “died silent deaths inside Mariupol,” Olha Matskiv, a Ukrainian legal advisor on the Starvation Mobile Justice Team, told The Independent.
Blasts over Kyiv as Ukraine stops major Russian missile attack
Russian forces fired missiles and drones at the Kyiv region and five other areas of Ukraine in a nighttime attack, officials said Wednesday, ahead of several days of intense diplomatic activity around the war that is now in its third year.
Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 29 out of 30 air targets, including four cruise missiles, one Kinzhal ballistic missile, and 24 Shahed drones. Several people were injured, authorities said.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky praised the air force’s response, calling it a “daily achievement.” He has repeatedly appealed to Ukraine’s Western partners to provide more air defense systems, and the United States has agreed to send another Patriot missile system, two US officials said late Tuesday.
Biden heads back to Europe for G7 summit to talk Ukraine support
President Joe Biden headed to Italy on Wednesday for a summit of the world’s leading democracies with an urgency to get big things done, including turning frozen Russian assets into billions of dollars to help Ukraine as it fights off Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war machine.
Biden and his counterparts from Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan will use the summit to discuss challenges related to the spread of artificial intelligence, migration, the Russian military’s resurgence, and China’s economic might, among other topics. Pope Francis, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are joining the gathering at the Borgo Egnazia resort in the Puglia region of southern Italy.
The summit, which opened Thursday, will play out after far-right parties across the continent racked up gains of surprising scale in just-concluded European Union elections. Those victories, coupled with upcoming elections in the United Kingdom, France and the United States, have rattled the global political establishment and added weightiness to this year’s summit.
Compiled by Ana Dumbadze
