Ukraine attacked a barracks in the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol over the weekend, with some Ukrainian sources claiming scores of Russian casualties. According to witnesses, 10 explosions were heard, although some of those may have been from Russian anti-aircraft systems. Ukrainian officials claimed scores of Russian dead and injured while Russia conceded a handful of casualties. The strike on the south-eastern city – reportedly with Himars rockets – was one of several on Russian bases. Explosions were also reported early on Sunday in the Russian occupied Crimea including Sevastopol and Simferopol.
Emergency crews were working to ease power shortages in many parts of Ukraine after Russian attacks. Russian forces used Iranian-made drones to hit two energy plants in Odesa on Saturday, knocking out power to about 1.5 million customers. Zelenskiy said the port city was undergoing frequent power outages and Kyiv was still experiencing “very difficult” conditions with power supplies. “At this time, it has become possible to partially restore supplies in Odesa and other cities and districts in the region,” Zelenskiy said in a Sunday night video address.
Two people were killed and another five wounded after Russian troops shelled the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, according to local authorities. “The enemy again attacked the residential quarters of Kherson,” governor Yaroslav Yanushevich said on Telegram, adding the Russian forces hit a maternity ward, a cafe and apartment buildings on Saturday. “Last night, two people were killed due to Russian shelling,” Yanushevich said, adding that five others had been wounded.
Russia is likely still aiming to extend control over all of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions, according to the UK Ministry of Defence. Russian military planners are likely still aiming to prioritise advancing deeper into Donetsk, the latest British intelligence report reads, adding that Russia’s strategy is currently unlikely to achieve its objectives.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked his US counterpart Joe Biden for his “unprecedented defence and financial assistance” during a phone call on Sunday. “It helps not only to succeed on the battlefield, but also to maintain the stability of our nation’s economy,” he said. Zelenskiy added that Russian missile strikes have led to the destruction of about 50% of Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
Anofficial in eastern Ukraine has claimed Ukrainian forces attacked a hotel where members of Russia’s private Wagner military group were based, killing many of them. Serhiy Gaidai, governor of the Russian-occupied Luhansk region, gave a television interview on Sunday, alleging forces launched a strike on Saturday on a hotel in the town of Kadiivka, west of the region’s main centre of Luhansk. “They had a little pop there, just where Wagner headquarters was located. A huge number of those who were there died,” he said. Photos posted on Telegram channels showed a building largely reduced to rubble. The claims have not been able to verified.
Some Russian officers fighting in Ukraine are unhappy with the military top brass and president Vladimir Putin because of the poor execution of the war, an influential nationalist Russian blogger said after visiting the conflict zone. Igor Girkin, a nationalist and former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer, recorded a scathing 90-minute video analysing Russia’s execution of the war. Girkin said the “fish’s head is completely rotten” and that the Russian military needed reform. “It is not just me … people are not blind and deaf at all: people at the mid-level there do not even hide their views which, how do I put it, are not fully complimentary about the president or the defence minister,” he added.
An international team of legal advisers has been working with local prosecutors in Ukraine’s recaptured city of Kherson to gather evidence of alleged sexual crimes by Russian forces. A team from Global Rights Compliance, an international legal practice headquartered in The Hague, are conducting a full-scale investigation part of a broader international effort to support overwhelmed Ukrainian authorities as they seek to hold Russians accountable for crimes they allegedly committed during the conflict.
A neo-Nazi paramilitary group linked to the Kremlin has asked its members to submit intelligence on border and military activity in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, raising concerns over whether far-right Russian groups are planning an attack on Nato countries. The official Telegram channel for “Task Force Rusich” – currently fighting in Ukraine on behalf of the Kremlin and linked to the notorious Wagner Group – last week requested members to forward details relating to border posts and military movements in the three Baltic states, which were formerly part of the Soviet Union.
European Union foreign ministers and G7 leaders will meet on Monday to try to agree on further sanctions on Russia and Iran and an additional €2bn ($2.11bn) for arms deliveries to Ukraine. It remains unclear whether Hungary will block some decisions, resorting to what diplomats have denounced as “blackmail diplomacy” due to a dispute over locked EU funds for Budapest.
Russia’s ex-president Dmitry Medvedev has said the country is ramping up production of new-generation weapons to protect itself from enemies in Europe, the United States and Australia, Reuters reports.
The body of a 23-year-old Zambian student who died while fighting for the Russian army in the war in Ukraine has been returned home. Zambia’s government has requested that Russian authorities give details of Lemekani’s demise, foreign affairs minister Stanley Kakubo said.
Brittney Griner is undergoing physical and mental evaluation at a Texas army facility as part of her rehabilitation to the US. The American basketball star was released from almost 10 months of detention in Russia in a prisoner swap with the notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout.
