Ukraine news: Russia starts maneuvers in the Baltic Sea

The essentials in brief:

• Russian Baltic Fleet starts maneuvers
• Moscow: Foiled major offensive in Donetsk region
• Selenskyj speaks of almost 500 killed Ukrainian children
• Kremlin to bypass international arms sanctions

NATO and Russia will test their fleets in the Baltic Sea in parallel over the next two weeks. 50 ships and boats and 45 aircraft with 6,500 soldiers from 19 NATO countries and Sweden are involved in the “Baltops” maneuver led by the USA.

The Russian Baltic Fleet announced this Monday that it wants to practice with 40 ships, 25 fighter jets and 3,500 soldiers at the same time. NATO had not been officially informed beforehand. Chancellor Olaf Scholz does not expect the situation between the two sides to escalate as a result of the maneuvers.

“I have no such fear,” he said during a visit to the frigate “Mecklenburg-Vorpommern” off the German Baltic Sea coast near Rostock. “It is handled very responsibly by our forces.” Nevertheless, the chancellor wants the NATO exercise to be understood as a signal of strength to Russia: “Of course, it is also a sign that we are starting with the maneuver, the exercise, namely that we have the strength to organize the defense of the alliance and the country . And that is what is understood.”

Russia allegedly thwarts major offensive

According to the Defense Ministry in Moscow, Russian forces have thwarted a major Ukrainian offensive in the south of the Donetsk region. “On the morning of June 4, the enemy launched a large-scale offensive in five sectors of the front towards southern Donetsk,” the ministry said on the Telegram news channel. “The enemy did not achieve their goals, they did not succeed.” Around 250 Ukrainian soldiers were killed.

16 Ukrainian tanks, three infantry fighting vehicles and 21 armored fighting vehicles were destroyed. The ministry released a video allegedly showing several Ukrainian armored vehicles exploding after being shelled in a field. The information cannot be verified independently.

It was initially unclear whether the fighting was the start of the major offensive that Ukraine had been planning for months. The daily report of the Ukrainian general staff only mentioned that there had been 29 battles in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. The Center for Strategic Communications did not comment on the Russian account, but accused Russia of lying: In order to mislead the Ukrainians and the Russian population, false information about the counter-offensive and the losses of the Ukrainian army was being spread.

Nearly 500 Ukrainian children killed

At least 485 children have been killed since the Russian war of aggression began, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Zelenskyy said in his evening speech on Sunday that these were exclusively victims whose data had been officially recorded in Ukraine. In reality, the number is significantly higher.

Zelenskyy also referred to the more than 19,500 children who had been deported to Russia from occupied Ukrainian territories. So far, the “little Ukrainians” have only been brought back in around 370 cases, he said.

Russia invaded the neighboring country on February 24, 2022 and currently occupies around 20 percent of Ukrainian territory. In mid-March, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants against Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lwova-Belowa, in view of reports of the kidnapping of Ukrainian children. The legal accusation is “war crimes”.

Kremlin circumvents international arms sanctions

According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russia is bypassing international arms sanctions. In his video message, Zelenskyy said some countries and companies are helping Russia acquire technology focused on missile production. Ukraine is aware of all efforts to circumvent the sanctions.

Russian forces have fired hundreds of missiles at Ukrainian targets since last October. In April, a senior Zelenskyy adviser pointed out that the Ukrainian military had found increasing numbers of Chinese components in Russian weapons deployed in Ukraine.

Belgorod: Fire in power plant

In the Russian border region of Belgorod, according to the region’s governor, a power plant caught fire during a drone attack. “In the Belgorod region, one of the power plants is on fire. The preliminary cause of the fire was an explosive device dropped from a drone,” wrote Vyacheslav Gladkov on the news app Telegram. There were no injuries.

The region bordering Ukraine has often come under fire in recent weeks. The leadership in Kiev denies responsibility for what is happening there, blaming Russian guerrilla groups for it.

Kremlin ready for nuclear arms control dialogue with US

Russia has shown itself open to a new dialogue with the US on nuclear arms control. The Kremlin praised a corresponding offer by US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, for talks without preconditions as an “important and positive statement”. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “We expect that it will be strengthened with steps through diplomatic channels.” Moscow remains open to dialogue.

In February, Russia suspended the so-called New Start treaty to reduce its nuclear arsenal. At the same time, however, it was emphasized that the intention was to continue to adhere to the upper limits of the disarmament treaty. New Start is the last remaining treaty of its kind between the US and Russia.

fab/se/wa/sti (rtr, ap, dpa, afp)

This article will be continuously updated on the day of its publication. Reports from the combat zones cannot be independently verified.