The British military must be ready to “fight again in Europe,” said its new commander, Patrick Saunders.
but warned this weekend that the country would have to show support for Kyiv “for a long time”. co.uk told the British soldiers:
“We are the generation that must prepare the army to fight again in Europe. There is now a urgent need to forge an army capable of fighting on the side of our allies and defeating Russia in battle.
I am the first Chief of the General Staff since 1941 to take command of the Army in the shadow of a land war in Europe with the participation of a continental power “.
“Russia's invasion of Ukraine underscores our main goal – to protect the United Kingdom by being ready to fight and win wars on land,” Saunders said. war in Ukraine
Russia's war in Ukraine could last “years”, warned the Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Jens Stoltenberg, in an interview with the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag and published in the newspaper Supply of advanced weapons to Ukrainian troops could increase the chances of Donbass being detached from Russian control.
“We have to prepare for the fact that it could take years. “We must not slow down Ukraine's support,” Stoltenberg told Bild on Sunday. “Even if the costs are high, not only those of military support, but also those of rising energy and food prices,” the Norwegian added.
Two officers of the forces fortified in the Azovstal steel plant, in the port of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine, were involved in Russia as part of an investigation, the Russian state news agency TASS reported. of hundreds of fighters captured by Russian forces in May, following the months-long siege of Mariupol. Moscow had announced when it captured them that they would be transferred to the territories of the breakaway People's Republics in eastern Ukraine.
Citing an unnamed Russian law enforcement source, TASS reported late Saturday night that Sviatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of the Azov Battalion, and Sergiy Volinsky, commander of the 36th Brigade of Riflemen with in Russia.
The special forces transferred them from Danieck, a region of eastern Ukraine that Moscow has recognized as an independent state entity, as part of an “investigation”, a TASS source said.
< p>“Other officers from various Ukrainian units have also joined Russia,” the source added. Reuters reports that it has not been able to verify this information independently. There has been no reaction from Kiev.
Earlier this month, the Ukrainian government assured that Ukraine's secret services were in contact with detainees arrested at the Azofstal steel plant.
The Azov Battalion was formed by the far right in 2014 to fight Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine before joining the Ukrainian army. Together with the 36th Navy Rifle Brigade, it was part of the factory defense.
Kyiv seeks to exchange all the soldiers captured in the steel industry with Russian soldiers it holds. But some politicians in Russia have called for at least some of them to stand trial.
Russian news agencies reported in early June that more than 1,000 of the fighters surrendered to Azovstal had been transferred to locations in Russia that had not been named as part of an investigation.
Russian Defense Ministry: Attack in eastern Russia is doing well
Russia, as reported by APE-MPE, announced today that its attack against Sheverodonetsk in eastern Ukraine continues successfully, after taking control of a nearby area of the city.
“The attack on Sheverodonetsk is progressing successfully,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a video. He said that the settlement of Metiolkine, on the eastern outskirts of the city, has been occupied. “The armed forces of the Russian Federation continue to hit military targets on the territory of Ukraine,” he said.
Konashenkov said the Kalibr long-range cruise missiles hit a command center in the Dnipropetrovsk region, killing Ukrainian generals and officers, including members of the General Staff. report of Russian strikes in Ukraine. Russia also said it had destroyed 10 M577 155 mm howitzers and up to 20 military vehicles in the Ukrainian city of Mykolayev, which had been supplied by Western countries to Ukraine for the past ten days.
Iskander missiles hit a tank repair unit in Kharkov, destroying two systems of multiple rocket launchers, Konashenkov said. Ukrainian troops said today that they had repulsed Russian attacks on villages near Sheverodonetsk, a key city in the east of the country where bloody battles between the two armies have been raging for weeks, the Kyiv Armed Forces said today. p>
“Our units repulsed the attack in the Toskivka area,” the Ukrainian military said on Facebook. “The army has retreated and is regrouping.”Yesterday, officials said that these fierce battles were taking place in areas outside Sheverodonetsk which, according to them, are mainly, but not completely, under Russian control.
“All the statements of the Russians according to which are controlled by Sheverodonetsk are lies. “They actually control most of the city but they do not fully control it,” local governor Serhiy Gaidai told the Telegram today.
in and around Sheverodonetsk.
“They are now using the so-called exploration tactics, trying to move step by step, step by step,” he added.
, he said.
Removals from Severodonetsk have not been possible for days, after the destruction of the last bridge over the river that connects it with Lisichansk.
Ukrainian authorities say hundreds of people have taken refuge in the Azot chemical plant in Severodonetsk to protect themselves from bombings.
The UN warned last week that civilians in Severodonetsk had no access to drinking water, food or sanitation. Russian forces will advance to Kharkov
The situation north of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, is quite difficult, as Russian forces are trying to get closer to bombing the city again, a Ukrainian Interior Ministry official said today. “Russia is trying to make Kharkiv a city on the front lines,” said Vadim Denishenko, an adviser to Ukraine's Interior Minister on Ukraine's national television network.
Zelensky does not doubt the victory
Meanwhile, returning from the southern front line in Ukraine, the president of Volodymyr Zelensky said today that the morale of his soldiers remains high and that they have no doubt about their victory over the Russians.
During this rare visit outside Kiev, where he was fortified at the beginning of the conflict when the Ukrainian capital was threatened by the Russian army, Zelensky went to the Black Sea town of Mykolayev, visiting Ukrainian forces near the border. .
“We will not give the South to anyone, we will take it all back and the sea will be Ukrainian, it will be safe,” Zelensky said in a Telegram video as he returned to Kyiv.
The Russians forces have focused their efforts on eastern and southern Ukraine in recent weeks after failing to occupy Kyiv following their February 24 invasion of Ukraine.
“The losses are significant. “Many houses have been destroyed, the supply chain of the citizens has been disrupted, there are many social problems,” Zelenski said.
“I asked for support for people who have lost loved ones in general. We will definitely rebuild everything that was destroyed. “Russia does not have enough missiles to bend the desire for the life of our people,” he said. annexed Crimea, for the “heroic service” they offer.
“Your life is important. “As long as you are alive, there is a strong Ukrainian wall that protects our country,” he told them.
facade of the regional administration building, which was hit by a Russian strike in March that killed 37 people.
This industrial port city with almost half a million inhabitants before the war is still standing under Ukrainian control, but located near the Kherson region, which has been almost completely occupied by the Russians. A Russian bomb blast near the northern city of Moscow on Friday killed at least two people and injured 20 others. Ukrainian control, and is the focus of discussions on the export of millions of tonnes of excluded Ukrainian cereals.
