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State energy operator Ukrenergo on Tuesday introduced forced power outages in several regions, including the capital Kyiv and front-line Donetsk and Kharkiv regions. Russian missile and drone strikes, including a major attack over the weekend, have damaged Ukraine’s energy grids and stretched its air defenses.
Air raid signals were announced in several regions of Ukraine on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning. All of Ukraine was put on alert after fighter jets flew into Russia.
Russian forces are concentrating their main firepower in the eastern region of Donetsk and not northeastern Kharkiv, where they launched an offensive last month, according to Volodymyr Zelensky. The UK Ministry of Defence said the Avdiivka-Pokrovsk sector north and west of Donetsk city “remained probably the main effort of Russian forces over the past 72 hours.”
Zelensky said he met with senior commanders in Kiev on his return to Ukraine from visits to several European capitals as well as Singapore and the Philippines in the past week. The Ukrainian mayor of Kharkiv, the regional capital and the country’s second most populous city, said Russia carried out 76 airstrikes against the city in May, almost three times as many as in April.
Ukrainian officials said eight people were wounded in Russian attacks in the central Dnipropetrovsk region and also in the eastern Kharkiv region overnight on Tuesday. The head of southern Kherson region separately said Russian artillery fire killed an elderly woman in her yard in the village of Veletinske. Two people were wounded in the shelling in the Sumy region, the local military administration reported.
French President Emmanuel Macron will host Vladimir Zelensky on Friday in Paris. “As Russian strikes intensify on the front line and against energy infrastructure, the two presidents will discuss the situation on the ground,” the Elysee Palace said. The meeting is scheduled to take place after the commemorative celebrations on the day D. Zelenski will also deliver a speech to the National Assembly of France.
All French military instructors in Ukraine will be a “legitimate purpose” for the Russian Armed Forces, Sergey LavrovForeign Minister of Vladimir Putin, said. Ukraine’s supreme commander said last week that he had signed documents allowing French military instructors to soon gain access to Ukrainian training centers. French President Emmanuel Macron said last week he would not comment on “rumours or decisions that may be taken”. He said he would explain more about France’s support during the 80th anniversary of D-Day this week.
A former Ukrainian civil servant is on trial for allegedly orchestrating the purchase of aircraft parts at a seven-fold inflated price while in charge of arms imports, the country’s anti-corruption agency said. It is about the time before the invasion of Russia in 2022.
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