Zelenskyy approves 40-day operation against Russia; strikes on oil infrastructure and other developments
Ukraine has launched a 40-day operation to pressure Russia into ending the war. Strikes hit Russian oil refineries, while Crimea faces power cuts and fuel shortages.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after consulting the head of the Ukrainian security service that he had authorised a 40-day operation against Russian targets to “influence the aggressor state in order to press for an end to the war”. On Thursday, Ukrainian forces struck two more Russian oil refineries in Ufa, 1,500 km from the frontline, and an oil depot in the Krasnodar region, 300 km from Ukraine. Aleksandr Kharitonov, head of Krasnoarmeysk district in Krasnodar Krai, confirmed an oil depot at Poltavskaya was hit.
Authorities in illegally occupied Crimea will impose more power outages, the region’s Russian-appointed governor said Thursday. A day earlier Ukrainian strikes blacked out Sevastopol, Crimea’s largest city – coming as the peninsula grapples with gasoline shortages that have led to a complete ban on sales to the general public. Power was fully or partially cut off across the Russian-held part of Ukraine’s Kherson region bordering Crimea, the Moscow-installed governor Vladimir Saldo said early Friday. Meanwhile the number of trains to Crimea, a popular summer destination for Russian tourists, was being cut back, Crimea’s Russia-installed governor Sergei Aksyonov said on Thursday.
Russian relay stations in Belarus used for attacks on Ukraine have been switched off, Zelenskyy said on Thursday, after last week warning neighbouring president Alexander Lukashenko to remove them “or we will do it”. Ukrainian intelligence had determined the repeaters were off, but along the state border, Belarus is completing the construction of road infrastructure and storage facilities for ammunition and fuel. Lukashenko on Thursday accused Ukraine rather than Russia of trying to drag his country into the war, while saying he “stands with Russia”.
Ukrainian military officials on Wednesday ordered a mandatory evacuation for the approximately 1,000 people still in the Chernihiv region bordering Russia and Belarus starting on 1 July. Zelenskyy said Russia was moving air defences to protect key targets like Moscow from Ukrainian drones – potentially leaving other areas vulnerable. Air defence was also being moved to protect Vladimir Putin’s residence at Valdai and the Kerch Bridge.
The Ukrainian army said on Thursday a unit commander was suspended over a probe into alleged abuse of soldiers, after a media report found alleged non-military deaths in training camps. Lt Col Yurii Garkavyi, commander of the 425th separate assault brigade, was under scrutiny after an investigation by Babel media. The report alleged 26 deaths in Skelia’s training camps, as well as alleged abuse and torture of conscripts. The regiment said the investigation raised “serious issues” and of the 26 deaths, 18 were in hospital or on the way, attributed to illnesses or poor health.
Russia attacked three rail locomotives, killing one driver, and hit two petrol stations across Ukraine, officials said. Norsi, Russia’s fourth-largest oil refinery and second-largest gasoline producer, suspended operations after a Ukrainian drone attack. The French navy intercepted an oil tanker in the Mediterranean suspected of being part of the “shadow fleet” shipping Russian oil in breach of sanctions. Ukraine’s Fire Point, maker of the Flamingo cruise missile, is accelerating plans to develop a European missile defence system after an agreement with German radar maker Hensoldt and hopes to have first interceptors ready by the end of the year.
