Russia’s war in Ukraine could take years, said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. “We must be prepared for the fact that this may take years. We must spare no effort in supporting Ukraine.” “Even if the cost is high, not only for military aid, but also because of rising energy and food prices.”
Russia was sending a large number of reserve troops from other war zones to Svyarodonetsk Ukraine’s governor to try to gain full control of the besieged eastern city Luhansk area said on Sunday. “Today, tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, they will throw in all their reserves … because there are so many of them already, they are in critical mass,” Serhi Gaidai said on national television.
A major explosion occurred on Saturday near Svyerodonetsk. Rodion Miroshnik, an official in the self-styled separatist administration of the Luhansk People’s Republic, posted a video on the Telegram messaging app, which he said was a cloud.
Five civilians were killed in Saturday’s attacks on Ukraine’s eastern separatist city of DonetskAccording to local officials. “As a result of the bombing by Ukrainian forces, five people were killed and 12 others were injured in the Donetsk People’s Republic,” officials said in a statement posted on Telegram.
Several Russian missiles hit a gasworks in the Izyum district of eastern Ukraine, Kharkiv region governor Ole Sinyubov said on Saturday. “Massive fire broke out, rescuers localized the fire,” he wrote on the Telegram messaging app. Reuters told them that some other buildings were also damaged.
Russian missiles on Saturday destroyed a fuel storage depot in Novomoskovsk, a city in eastern Ukraine. According to the head of the regional administration, three people have been sent to the hospital.
Pentagon considering sending four additional rocket launchers to Ukraine, reports Politico. According to US Defense Department officials who spoke to the outlet when anonymised, the US could possibly send four more high mobility artillery rocket systems, bringing their total to about eight. The decision will be based on “Ukrainian urgent needs,” the official told Politico.
Russia and Ukraine have had a prisoner exchange, the Kyiv Independent reports. According to the Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, five captured Ukrainian persons were returned to Ukraine on 18 June in exchange for the five captured Russian persons.
Yulia Pyevska AKA “Tyra”, the Ukrainian captured paramedic who was freed from Russian captivity during the week, released a video thanking Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky for his release. “I always believed that everything would be just the way it was, and everyone who is on the other side now knows that everything will be all right,” she said.
Zelensky presented state awards to border guards in Odessa on Saturday while visiting troops in southern Ukraine. “I want to thank the people of Ukraine, on behalf of our state, for the great work you are doing, your heroic service,” the president said. “It is important that you are alive. As long as you are alive, there is a strong Ukraine wall that protects our country.”