RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
Military aid to Ukraine makes World War III more likely – ex-Russian president
The continuing Western military aid to Kiev only increases the risk of escalating the standoff with Russia, etching the world closer to a global war, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has warned after NATO members gathered for a summit in Vilnius, Lithuania on Tuesday.
In a post on his Telegram channel, Medvedev blasted the new defense packages announced by Ukraine’s supporters.
“The completely crazed West could not come up with anything else,”Medvedev, who is currently the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, wrote. “In fact, it is a dead end. World War III is getting closer.” He added that the aid decisions were “highly predictable, to the point of idiocy.”
“What does it all mean to us? Everything is obvious. The special military operation will be continued, with the goals remaining the same,”Medvedev wrote, referring to the military action launched by Russia in Ukraine in February 2022.
Medvedev’s comments came as experts on both sides have been voicing concerns that current tensions between Russia and the West can lead to a new global war and even trigger the use of nuclear weapons.
Although Ukraine was denied an immediate NATO membership out of fear that it would spiral into an open war between Russia and the US-led alliance, Kiev’s major supporters pledged additional aid.
Last week, US President Joe Biden authorized the transfer of cluster munitions to Ukraine, despite the White House having previously condemned the use of such weapons as war crimes. France plans to provide Kiev with SCALP long-range cruise missiles, while Germany pledged 25 additional Leopard 1 A5 main battle tanks and 40 Marder armored vehicles, as well as two US-made Patriot air defense batteries.
Russian officials have repeatedly warned that shipments of heavy weapons and other military aid to Ukraine make NATO members de facto direct participants in Moscow’s conflict with Kiev. Moscow also insisted that Western support would not change the course of the fighting and not derail the Russian forces from achieving their goals on the battlefield.
** Kiev lost over 26,000 during its so-called counter-offensive — Russian minister
Starting from June 4, the armed forces of Ukraine lost over 26,000 servicemen and more than 3,000 items of military hardware during their so-called counter-offensive, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has told reporters.
"The adversary’s losses beginning from June 4 have reached over 26,000 servicemen and 3,000 items of various pieces of armament," he said.
In his words, Russian troops destroyed 21 planes, five helicopters, 1,244 tanks and other armored vehicles, 17 German-made Leopard tanks, five AMX tanks produced by France and 12 US-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicles in the reported period.
Moreover, Russian forces eliminated 914 special automotive equipment, two air defense systems, 25 multiple-launch rocket systems (MLRS), 403 field artillery cannons and mortars.
Russian air defense systems shot down 176 HIMARS rockets, 27 Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missiles and 483 drones of the Ukrainian armed forces.
Shoigu underscored the damage done to the Ukrainian artillery.
"Once again, I repeat, 403 [artillery] weapons [have been destroyed], including 43 US-made artillery pieces and 46 self-propelled artillery weapons from Poland, the United States and France," the minister emphasized.
He added that Russian troops continue to strike the enemy’s reserves and West-supplied military equipment with its high-precision weapons, thus reducing the offensive potential of the Ukrainian armed forces.
According to Shoigu, foreign intelligence services, primarily those of the United States and NATO, are closely following and analyzing Russia’s combat operations and note "the high efficacy of our defense lines and barrier minefields, [and the] professional work of army aviation and ground-attack aircraft who carry out pre-emptive strike at the adversary’s targets.".
WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Ukraine, Russia report heavy fighting in east, south
Ukraine's military on Tuesday reported heavy fighting in the east and southeast, the main theatres of its drive to recapture land seized by Russian invaders, saying its forces had repelled dozens of enemy attacks.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who expressed a measure of frustrationwith NATO's failure to offer Ukraine a timeline for alliance membership, suggests that the early stages of a counter offensive in those two regions are going to plan.
But he also says he wishes the advances were faster.
Russian accounts from the front line also outlined clashes, including a successful defence of areas near the devastated city of Bakhmut, where Ukraine says its forces are recovering ground.
A spokesperson for Ukraine's General Staff, Andriy Kovaliov, said Ukrainian troops had beaten back a Russian advance backed by artillery strikes near two towns north of Bakhmut - captured by Russian mercenary forces in late May.
The fluid situation near Bakhmut has been the focus of much attention, with Ukraine noting gains on the city's southern fringe, particularly the strategic village of Klishchiivka.
Liberating the village, which lies on higher ground, would give Ukrainian forces operational advantage in potentially encircling Russian forces in Bakhmut, analysts say.
Ukraine said on Monday it controlled heights ringing the village, enabling it to fire on targets in Bakhmut itself.
The Russian Defence Ministry said its forces had repelled nine attempted Ukrainian advances in eastern Donetsk region, including one drive near Kliishchivka.
In the south, Ukraine says it has retaken a cluster of villages in the early stages of a drive towards the Sea of Azov - with the aim of severing Russia's land bridge linking eastern Ukraine to the Crimea peninsula, which it annexed in 2014.
Ukrainian General Oleksander Tarnavskyi, writing on Telegram, said battles were raging throughout the sector, with his forces repelling 27 enemy attacks. He estimated Russian losses over 24 hours at the equivalent of several hundred dead and wounded.
For all of Ukraine's gains in its counter offensive, Russian forces still hold vast tracts of land after more than 500 days of war - some estimates put it at 17% of Ukrainian territory.
Ukrainian military analyst Serhiy Hrabskyi said Ukraine's drive towards the coast was proceeding well, taking account of Russian defence preparations and extensive mining.
"We note that in a month and a half of offensive operations, we have brought in 25 percent of our resources," he wrote on the Espreso TV website. "By virtue of simple arithmetic, if we continue at this pace we are talking about four months.
** Russian ex-submarine officer on Ukraine blacklist gunned down
A Russian military officer who had commanded a submarine in the Black Sea and appeared on a Ukrainian blacklist of alleged war criminals has been shot dead by an unknown assassin while on his morning run.
Stanislav Rzhitsky, 42, was gunned down early on Monday in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar. His address, picture and personal details had appeared on the Ukrainian website Myrotvorets (Peacemaker), a vast unofficial database of people considered to be enemies of Ukraine.
On Tuesday the word "Liquidated", in red letters, had been superimposed on his photograph on the site.
Russia's state Investigative Committee said on Tuesday it had arrested a suspect in his early 60s who was found in possession of a pistol and silencer. It published a short video showing heavily armed security officers storming a house and detaining the man, who was wearing only boxer shorts.
Ukraine's GUR military intelligence agency published details of the killing on its website, without claiming responsibility or saying how it obtained the information.
It said Rzhitsky died on the spot when seven shots were fired at him from a Makarov pistol as he was running in a deserted city park at around six in the morning.
Baza, a Russian Telegram channel with links to the security services, said the killer could have tracked Rzhitsky's movements on an app where he posted details of his regular jogging route in Krasnodar and how long he took to complete it.
Russian state media and war bloggers said Rzhitsky was deputy head of military mobilisation in the city and had previously commanded the "Krasnodar" submarine in the Black Sea.
A Telegram channel used by self-styled pro-Ukraine partisans who have claimed hundreds of sabotage attacks inside Russia said - without stating evidence - that Rzhitsky was suspected of involvement in a submarine-launched cruise missile strike in July 2022 that killed at least 23 people including a 4-year-old girl in the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia.
Baza quoted Rzhitsky's father as saying he had resigned from the military at the end of 2021 and been discharged, after a delay, the following August.
At least two other pro-war Russian figures in the Myrotvorets database have been assassinated inside Russia since Russian forces invaded Ukraine nearly 17 months ago. Bomb attacks killed journalist Darya Dugina last August and war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky in April.
Russia has blamed Ukraine for the attacks. Kyiv has denied involvement, suggesting the attacks are the result of Russian infighting.