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Zelenskiy Visits Troops, Displaced People In Zaporizhzhya After Explosions Rock Kyiv

By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service June 05, 2022

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has visited troops in the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhya to thank them for their service and sacrifice, his office says.

"I want to thank you for your great work, for your service, for protecting all of us, our state," the statement quoted Zelenskiy as saying. He also held a moment of silence for fallen troops.

After visiting the troops, the president went to a medical facility in the region and spoke with people who have been forced to leave their homes, Zelenskiy's office said. He promised action to ensure that housing will be found for all displaced people.

A regional official told the president that Russian troops occupy almost 60 percent of the territory of the Zaporizhzhya. He said 77 communities in the region were cut off due to the hostilities.

Earlier on June 5, explosions rocked the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, as Ukrainian troops battled Russian forces in the eastern city of Syevyerodonetsk.

"Several explosions in the Darnytskiy and Dniprovskiy districts of the capital," Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko posted on Telegram.

Klitschko said one person had been injured but no fatalities had been reported. The blasts were caused by Russian missile strikes, he added.

Dark smoke could be seen from many kilometers away after the attack, which Ukraine said hit a location where rail cars are repaired; Moscow said the strike had destroyed tanks sent by Eastern European countries.

Although air-raid sirens sound regularly in the city, there have been no strikes there in the last few weeks, ever since Russia withdrew its forces from the area to concentrate its military effort on the eastern Donbas region and southeastern Ukraine.

Kyiv was last attacked on April 28, during a visit by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Ukraine's nuclear-power operator Enerhoatom said in a post on Telegram on June 5 that a Russian missile, apparently headed for Kyiv, had flown dangerously low over a nuclear power plant some 350 kilometers south of the capital.

Russian forces "still do not understand that even the smallest fragment of a missile hitting a working power unit can cause a nuclear catastrophe and radiation leak," Enerhoatom wrote.

Meanwhile, intense fighting continued in the eastern city of Syevyerodonetsk, in the Luhansk region. Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said Ukrainian troops were "strongly resisting" the occupiers.

Syevyerodonetsk Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk refuted Russian claims that some Ukrainian forces were withdrawing from the city, saying on Telegram that "our soldiers have managed to redeploy, build a line of defense."

"We are currently doing everything necessary to reestablish total control" of the city," he said.

Fighting was also intense in the nearby city of Lysychansk. The Ukrainian military's General Staff said Russian forces used mortars, artillery, and multiple-rocket launchers to strike civilian infrastructure in Lysychansk and Slovyansk.

Numerous other towns and cities in the region were shelled, the statement said.

Russia has stepped up its offensive to take further ground in areas where Moscow-backed separatists already have a foothold as Western countries rush to get weapons to Ukraine.

The United States earlier this week approved another $700 million in military aid for Ukraine, including four powerful rocket systems that can destroy heavy artillery as far away as 70 kilometers.

Ukraine said on June 4 that self-propelled Norwegian howitzers had now been deployed to the front lines.

In an interview with state media on June 4, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that his army has been "cracking" Western armaments like "nuts."

Putin also played down the impact of the new rockets, saying the ones promised so far were comparable to Soviet-era weapons Ukraine already had.

"This is nothing new. It doesn't change anything in essence," Putin said. If Washington were to deliver longer-range rockets, "we will strike at those targets which we have not yet been hitting," he said.

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council and one of Putin's closest allies, warned the same day that Moscow could target western cities if Ukraine uses rocket systems supplied by the United States to carry out strikes on Russian territory.

The Biden administration said on June 1 that it received assurances from Ukraine that it would not use the new U.S. rocket systems to target Russian territory. The administration said it could send additional rocket systems as needed.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on June 4 that Western countries will discuss further aid to Ukraine at a meeting in Brussels on June 15.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced since Russia launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

With reporting by Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-kyiv- attacks-donbas/31883991.html

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Zelenskiy Visits Troops, Displaced People In Zaporizhzhya After Explosions Rock Kyiv