LIVE – War in Ukraine: Russia claims new capture in the vicinity of Bakhmut

Two people were killed and four injured following drone attacks and Ukrainian gunfire in Russia’s Belgorod region and Lysychansk, a town occupied by Russian forces in eastern Ukraine, local authorities said . A drone also hit a commuter train which was traveling without passengers in the region and the railway track was damaged between the villages of Naoumovka and Oktyabrskoye, in the Belgorod region, said the local governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov.

Russia claimed on Wednesday to have captured Klichtchiïvka, a village in the Donetsk region that kyiv had reconquered in September 2023, during its summer offensive which ultimately failed. “The units of the Southern group, after active operations, liberated the locality of Klichtchiïvka,” indicated the Russian Ministry of Defense, at a time when the Russian army has the initiative and has been leading a push on the front for several months. East. This village is located just south of Bakhmout, a town destroyed by fighting and conquered by the Russian army last May after 10 months of fierce battle between Moscow and kyiv.

Russian authorities on Wednesday handed over to their relatives six Ukrainian children held in Russia after mediation by Qatar, the Russian state agency Tass announced, with the Kremlin accused of having orchestrated the deportation of thousands of minors from Ukraine. The six boys aged 6 to 17, including two brothers, were returned to their families on the grounds of the Qatari embassy in Moscow in the presence of representatives of the Kremlin Children’s Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova , who is being prosecuted, like Russian President Vladimir Putin, for deportation of children by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Ukraine is demanding the return of nearly 20,000 minors “deported or forcibly displaced” in Russia since the start of its assault on February 24, 2022. The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant more than a year ago against Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova for deportation of children.

A man was killed and two people injured on Wednesday by shrapnel from Ukrainian drones shot down by Russian forces in the Belgorod region, bordering Ukraine, the local governor said. “To our great misfortune, a civilian was killed, hit by shrapnel” near the village of Belenkoye, in the west of the Belgorod region, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on Telegram.

The Belgorod region is targeted almost daily by strikes by Ukrainian forces. Russian troops launched an offensive on the other side of the border, in the Ukrainian region of Kharkiv, on May 10, in particular to put an end, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin, to these attacks.

• “Tangible results” in the Kharkiv area. Ukraine is obtaining “tangible results” in the face of the Russian offensive in the Kharkiv region, its President Volodymyr Zelensky assured Tuesday evening, shortly after his head of diplomacy requested that his allies shoot down the Russian missiles targeting it. Faced with a large-scale Russian offensive on this front since May 10, “our forces are destroying the occupier,” said the Ukrainian head of state.

• kyiv calls on its allies to shoot down Russian missiles. During a press conference in kyiv with her German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, the head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmytro Kouleba, also proposed that Kiev’s allies shoot down Russian missiles targeting it from their territories. He dismissed the argument, saying that shooting down missiles does not endanger Russia or Russian soldiers. These are “pieces of metal that carry death from Russia to Ukraine,” he insisted. “If you don’t want to do this, provide us with all the necessary means. We will deploy them on the territory of Ukraine and we will intercept these missiles ourselves,” he concluded.

• Berlin is pushing for the delivery of more anti-aircraft assets to Ukraine. On a surprise visit to kyiv, the head of German diplomacy, Annalena Baerbock, insisted on the need to deliver more anti-aircraft assets to Ukraine as quickly as possible. “Every hesitation and delay in supporting Ukraine costs innocent lives. And every hesitation to support Ukraine also jeopardizes our own security,” she said. “The best protection against Russian missile terror is to strengthen Ukraine’s air defenses.” “This will not allow the Ukrainian armed forces to somehow change the dynamics on the fronts,” the Kremlin retorted.

• Russian exercises in response to Western “threats”. The Russian army announced on Tuesday that it had started military exercises near Ukraine on the use of tactical nuclear weapons, ordered in early May by President Vladimir Putin, assuring that it was a response to ” Western threats. “The first stage of exercises (…) on the preparation and use of non-strategic nuclear weapons has begun,” the Russian Defense Ministry said. “The current exercise aims to maintain the readiness of personnel and equipment … for the employment of non-strategic nuclear weapons to respond and ensure the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Russian state in response ( …) to threats from certain Western officials,” he concluded.

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