The Ukrainian Ministry of Health is observing the first suspected cases of cholera in Mariupol. The army meanwhile reports a success against the Russian fleet in the Black Sea – and also its own air attacks against the Russian soldiers in the south. All news about the attack on Ukraine can be found here in the ticker.
7:50 a.m .: The Ukrainian military says it has carried out several airstrikes on Russian positions in the south of the country. “Ukrainian helicopters struck against accumulations of enemy troops in the Kherson region – and planes against ammunition depots in the Mykolaiv region,” the General Staff said on Tuesday. Up until now, Ukraine has only used its own air force sparingly during the war due to Russian air superiority.
The Ukrainian troops recently recaptured several towns on the border of the Black Sea regions of Mykolaiv and Cherson. A Russian counter-offensive in the direction of Losowe – Bila Krynyzja was unsuccessful despite artillery and air force support, according to the General Staff report. The information could not be independently verified.
5:34 a.m .: In the battle for the strategically important city of Sievjerodonetsk in eastern Ukraine, the situation of the Ukrainian forces appears increasingly difficult. The city’s mayor, Oleksandr Striuk, said on Monday that the situation was changing “every hour”. There is “intense street fighting” and the Russian troops are also using “air strikes and heavy artillery”. The attackers “are about to destroy the city” after “failing to take it in a day or two.”
According to Striuk, evacuating the remaining civilians is “nearly impossible” because of the ongoing attacks. “We are holding out, but they are more and they are stronger,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told journalists in Kyiv on Monday.
According to the Ukrainian army, the current focus of the Russian offensive in the east of the country is on completely capturing the industrial city. According to their own statements, the soldiers retained “control” and only fought in the eastern part. However, the attackers worked to “block” the defenders in neighboring Lysychansk as well.
Sieverodonetsk is the last major city in the Luhansk region that Russia has not yet conquered. Moscow’s declared goal is to take over the entire Donbass region, which also includes the Donetsk region. Parts of the Donbass have been controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014.
Tuesday, June 7, 12:01 a.m.: “On the 103rd day, the Ukrainian Donbass is holding up strongly,” said the 44-year-old Zelenskyj with regard to the situation in eastern Ukraine. Everything is also being done to ensure that the front in the areas Zaporizhia and Mykolayiv resist Heavy fighting continues around Sieverodonetsk, Lysychansk, Sloviansk, Bakhmut, Svyatohirsk, Avdiivka, Kurakhove in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
According to Zelenskyy, almost 18,000 Ukrainian soldiers have received awards since the start of the Russian attack. This is a response of the Ukrainian people to the Russian invasion. The United Nations has counted more than 4,100 civilian deaths since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in late February, but the civilian death toll is believed to be far higher.
11:14 p.m.: The Russian military and Moscow-backed separatists are now completing the capture of the Ukrainian city of Svyatohirsk (Swjatogorsk) with its historic monastery. “Svyatogorsk is practically liberated. And the purge is underway,” said the leader of the Donetsk separatist region, Denis Puschilin, on Russian city television on Monday evening. There is the arch monastery of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, which was also recently shot at, which is one of the most important sanctuaries of Russian Orthodoxy.
Moscow Patriarch Kirill, who supports the war of aggression against Ukraine, has long had a reputation for wanting to keep Ukraine’s ancient religious sites for the Russian Orthodox Church under his influence. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov previously said the city’s capture was in its final stages.
The last soldiers of the Ukrainian armed forces left behind the military equipment and weapons and fled themselves. According to Konashenkov, around 80 Ukrainian soldiers crossed the city’s river, the Russian side let them flee and did not open fire, he said.
Initially, there was no confirmation from the Ukrainian side that Sviatohirsk had been abandoned. However, the Ukrainian general staff reported heavy fighting in the Donetsk region around the city in the morning.
10:44 p.m .: According to the Ukrainian army, the Russian Black Sea Fleet has to be driven more than 100 kilometers from the coast. The Russians had been “deprived of total control over the north-west of the Black Sea”. Kyiv announced the success via Telegram.
Civilian shipping will continue to be blocked, and the struggle for supremacy in the strategically important Black Sea will continue.
5:25 p.m .: According to the country’s president, the situation for Ukrainian troops in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sieverodonetsk remains tense. “We are holding the position, just holding the position,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday, according to the Interfax-Ukraine agency. The Russian troops are superior. “Nevertheless, we have every chance of continuing to fight in this direction,” emphasized the 44-year-old.
For the Ukrainian troops there are “gradual” successes in the adjacent Kharkiv region. However, the situation is most “threatening” in the Zaporizhia region, where the Russian army is threatening the regional capital, he said after a visit to the front.
Army spokesman Olexander Motusianyk reported intense fighting “almost along the entire front line in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions”. The Russian Air Force has flown 39 air strikes outside of eastern Ukraine. Targets in the country were also fired at with land-based missiles from the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Russia.
5:07 p.m .: The inhumane conditions in Mariupol, which has been bombed for weeks, could now have led to the spread of cholera in the city. This is reported by the Ukrainian Ministry of Health. Accordingly, the main reasons for the “critical situation” are the mass burials and the lack of access to clean water. The ministry has been observing the first suspected cases of cholera since the beginning of June.
Cholera is an infection of the gut caused by bacterially ingested water and food. It can cause severe diarrhea and vomiting and, if left untreated, can also be fatal.
11:39 a.m.: The Ukrainian General Staff confesses that Russian troops with Iskander systems have positioned themselves along the Belarusian-Ukrainian border. In addition, surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft artillery had been deployed there.
The Russian Iskander-M missile has a range of almost 500 kilometers. It can be equipped with different conventional as well as nuclear warheads. Ukraine and Belarus share a border of around 1,000 kilometers.
9:19 a.m .: The village of Tjotkino, located near the border with Ukraine in the Kursk region in western Russia, has been shot at again, according to the authorities. “There were no dead or injured,” said Governor Roman Starowoit on Monday on his account on the social network vkontakte car burned out.
Judging by the pictures, a railway bridge was destroyed by the impacts. The Russian military uses the railways in the border regions to resupply their own troops in Ukraine.
You can read more reports on the Ukraine conflict on the following pages.
