Russia has transferred the first contingent of nuclear weapons to Belarus, and by the end of the summer and the end of the year, the transfer of tactical nuclear weapons will be completed, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg.
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At least two explosions resounded in Kyiv today at the moment when seven African leaders arrived in Ukraine on a peacekeeping mission where they will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and the day after that they will travel to Russia.
The mayor of Kyiv, Vitalii Klitschko, announced that the explosions took place in the Podil district and warned that more missiles were aimed at the city, the BBC reports.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Dmytro Kuleba announced on Twitter that the missiles at Kiev are a message to African leaders who are visiting Ukraine today.
"Putin is building confidence by carrying out the biggest missile attack on Kiev in the last few weeks, right during the visit of African leaders to our capital. Russian missiles are a message to Africa: Russia wants more war, not peace," says Kuleba.
The Air Force of Ukraine announced on Telegram that it destroyed six Kinzhal ballistic missiles, six Kalibr cruise missiles and two reconnaissance drones in the latest Russian attack on Kiev, but did not provide information about the explosions that occurred in the capital.
A little earlier, the African leaders went to the site of the mass grave in the town of Bucha, which is located not far from Kyiv.
They were welcomed this morning at the Nemishayevo railway station by the special envoy of Ukraine for Africa and the Middle East, Maksim Subh, as well as the South African ambassador to Ukraine, Andre Gronevald.
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The Russian Ministry of Defense said that its forces repelled multiple attacks by the Ukrainian army at several different locations, inflicting heavy losses on the attackers, Reuters reports.
The announcement states that many armored vehicles and other equipment of the armed forces of Ukraine have been destroyed, and that units that destroy German-made Leopard tanks and armored vehicles provided by the United States of America will be additionally rewarded.
Reuters could not independently confirm this information.
About a week after the start of a counteroffensive that Kiev hopes will turn the tide of the Russian invasion, Ukrainian forces continue to advance, claiming to have liberated at least six villages along the southern and southeastern parts of the 1.000-kilometer front line. Radio Free Europe in English.
Russia has reportedly retaliated in at least one location and the two sides are fighting fierce artillery and tank battles in several places. Deep Russian defenses with trenches and minefields inflicted serious damage on some Ukrainian units and slowed their advance.
Military experts, intelligence officials, historians and other observers say it is too early to make a definitive assessment of whether Ukraine's counteroffensive has been a major success or a decisive failure.
Ukraine has so far exceeded all expectations, first by thwarting Russia's attempt to seize Kiev in the first weeks of the invasion, and then with a swift counteroffensive in the Kharkiv and Kherson regions in the second half of last year.
Now Ukrainian forces have been bolstered with billions of dollars worth of Western weaponry—tanks, artillery, armored vehicles, drones, missiles—and empowered by months of NATO training and Western tactics. Western supporters of Ukraine hope that Kiev can break through Russian defenses and achieve some kind of decisive victory.
However, military doctrine says that offensive forces are almost always at a disadvantage compared to defensive forces - generally, it is more difficult to liberate or capture territory than to defend it.
For some observers, it is an open question whether the Ukrainian forces have even begun their main attack in the fighting so far.
"When it comes to the gains that the Ukrainians have made, you can't talk about them in terms of relative success or failure. It's too early," said Penti Forstrom, a retired Finnish lieutenant colonel who was also the Finnish military attaché in Moscow.
"I have the feeling that we haven't seen a real offensive yet," he told RFE/RL.
"Yes, they are fighting in many places, but in my opinion, not at full capacity. Ukraine has not yet engaged its larger brigades."
US President Joseph Biden supported NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg's proposal to announce that Ukraine does not need to implement a Membership Action Plan (MAP) to join NATO, the Akios portal reported, citing two people familiar with the matter. team, reports Kyiv independent.
The MAP envisages that the country is assessed step by step on its way to meeting specific criteria for joining NATO, which can take years or even decades.
If Stoltenberg's proposal is accepted by other allies, Ukraine will follow the path of new member Finland, which skipped the MAP process.
Initially, Biden was among those unwilling to go beyond the commitments made at the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest that Ukraine would one day join the alliance, reports Akios.
However, during a meeting between Biden and Stoltenberg on June 13, the NATO chief reportedly suggested declaring that Ukraine had made progress toward membership and would not have to complete the MAP process that other Eastern European countries have gone through.
During the night of June 15-16, Russia launched two Iranian-made drones in an attack on Ukraine, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced, and both were shot down by Ukrainian air defense, reports Kyiv independent.
The Ukrainian Air Force specified that the drones were shot down over the southern Nikolaev area.
It is added that on June 15, Ukrainian air defense destroyed four Russian Lancet, Orlan-10, Orlan-30 and Zala drones, as well as one unidentified drone.
The Air Force also reported that it had carried out up to ten group airstrikes on Russian troop positions over the past day.
Russia has been using Iranian-made kamikaze drones to attack Ukraine since September last year, carrying out attacks on civilians and destroying infrastructure across the country, according to the Kyiv Independent.
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