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Ukrainian F-16 pilot killed defending country from barrage of overnight Russian airstrikes — Novaya Gazeta Europe

Ukrainian F-16 pilot killed defending country from barrage of overnight Russian airstrikes — Novaya Gazeta Europe

Rescuers at the site of a Russian drone strike on a residential building in the town of Smila, in central Ukraine's Cherkasy region, 29 June 2025. Photo: t.me/cherkaskaODA
Russia launched a barrage of airstrikes on targets across Ukraine overnight Saturday, in a series of attacks that involved 477 drones and 60 missiles, the Ukrainian Air Force announced on Sunday.
In total, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) managed to intercept 211 drones, while a further 225 failed to reach their targets, and some 33 Russian cruise missiles were shot down, the Ukrainian Air Force added.
Intensive airstrikes were recorded in the Lviv, Zaporizhzhia and Cherkasy regions, as well as in the city of Kremenchuk in Ukraine's Poltava region and the southern ship-building city of Mykolaiv, according to breaking news Telegram channel ASTRA.
In the town of Smila in central Ukraine's Chekasy region, a Russian drone strike injured six people and caused significant damage to three nine-storey buildings, as well as the National University of Food Technologies campus in the town, according to Chekasy regional head Ihor Taburets.
In the western Ivano-Frankivsk region, one person from the village of Naraevka was hospitalised with injuries sustained in a Russian drone strike, Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne reported.

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Offensive? What offensive? Analysts react to the Ukrainian military chief's claim that a Russian offensive in the Sumy region has been halted — Novaya Gazeta Europe
Offensive? What offensive? Analysts react to the Ukrainian military chief's claim that a Russian offensive in the Sumy region has been halted — Novaya Gazeta Europe

Novaya Gazeta Europe

time14 hours ago

  • Novaya Gazeta Europe

Offensive? What offensive? Analysts react to the Ukrainian military chief's claim that a Russian offensive in the Sumy region has been halted — Novaya Gazeta Europe

Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi has compared the Russian summer offensive in Ukraine's northern Sumy region to its unsuccessful attempt to recapture territory in the Kharkiv region last year. According to Syrskyi, AFU units have now retaken the Ukrainian territory briefly held by Russian forces in the border areas of the Sumy region, cutting off approximately '50,000 Russian servicemen, including elite air force and marine brigades'. Syrskyi also said that an AFU offensive around the town of Glushkovo in Russia's neighbouring Kursk region had 'forced the enemy to send troops to defend their territory, significantly reducing their offensive capabilities' in the Sumy region. Syrskyi added that a special force had been assembled to defend the Sumy region and that work was underway to strengthen Ukrainian defences and create fortification barriers. 'In the Sumy region, the enemy advance hasn't been completely stopped,' an AFU serviceman who asked only to be identified as Serhiy told Novaya Gazeta Europe. 'The situation may no longer be critical … but it is still complex and far from stable. This is especially true for the villages of Yunakivka, Yablunivka, Varachyne and several others. These areas have seen tactical advances by the enemy, which has been repelled from Andriivka, but their attempts to regain control of these villages and positions they have lost are ongoing.' 'The situation in the Sumy region is definitely better than a month ago,' Russian military researcher Kirill Mikhailov told Novaya Europe. 'The Russians haven't been able to advance anywhere in recent days. It's difficult to analyse the effect of Ukrainian attacks on Tyotkino in the Kursk region, but there are several Russian units there, which are periodically being rotated due to losses.' 'There has been no Russian offensive in the Sumy region,' says Roman Svitan, a military expert and AFU reserve colonel. 'In fact, recent Russian activity was just a continuation of fighting following the AFU being squeezed out of the Kursk region. … The enemy was able to move a little deeper into the Sumy region and capture about 10 border villages. To paraphrase Syrskyi, the Russians have run out of steam and the AFU retreat is over.' Barbed wire on the front line in the Sumy region, June 2025. Photo: AFU General Staff Svitan added that the deployment of 50,000 Russian troops to the area by Russia's high command was insufficient for a full-scale offensive. 'Over 300,000 people live in Sumy. Storming a city like that would take years to organise.' 'The state of fortifications in the Sumy border region has been sharply criticised by Ukrainian analysts and military bloggers,' Mikhailov adds. 'During the Kursk operation, the AFU did nothing to strengthen the border while it was under their control,' he said, before suggesting that Syrskyi's sudden activity in the area had been fuelled by the public criticism he subsequently received. Svitan, however, said he believed that the damage inflicted by the AFU on border settlements in Russia's Kursk region would help to ensure that Ukrainian positions in the Sumy region could be defended. According to him, AFU defensive lines in the Sumy region are located in areas of forest and woodland, as building fortifications anywhere else would expose them to attacks from glide bombs or drones. So far, the Russians have been unable to reach the first line of Ukrainian defence structures. 'All this activity in the Sumy region is aimed at distracting the AFU from … Pokrovsk and at some point Zaporizhzhia,' says Svitan. 'The Russians are now preparing to expand their land corridor to Crimea. All other territorial advances are secondary concerns.'

Ukrainian F-16 pilot killed defending country from barrage of overnight Russian airstrikes — Novaya Gazeta Europe
Ukrainian F-16 pilot killed defending country from barrage of overnight Russian airstrikes — Novaya Gazeta Europe

Novaya Gazeta Europe

time14 hours ago

  • Novaya Gazeta Europe

Ukrainian F-16 pilot killed defending country from barrage of overnight Russian airstrikes — Novaya Gazeta Europe

Rescuers at the site of a Russian drone strike on a residential building in the town of Smila, in central Ukraine's Cherkasy region, 29 June 2025. Photo: Russia launched a barrage of airstrikes on targets across Ukraine overnight Saturday, in a series of attacks that involved 477 drones and 60 missiles, the Ukrainian Air Force announced on Sunday. In total, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) managed to intercept 211 drones, while a further 225 failed to reach their targets, and some 33 Russian cruise missiles were shot down, the Ukrainian Air Force added. Intensive airstrikes were recorded in the Lviv, Zaporizhzhia and Cherkasy regions, as well as in the city of Kremenchuk in Ukraine's Poltava region and the southern ship-building city of Mykolaiv, according to breaking news Telegram channel ASTRA. In the town of Smila in central Ukraine's Chekasy region, a Russian drone strike injured six people and caused significant damage to three nine-storey buildings, as well as the National University of Food Technologies campus in the town, according to Chekasy regional head Ihor Taburets. In the western Ivano-Frankivsk region, one person from the village of Naraevka was hospitalised with injuries sustained in a Russian drone strike, Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne reported.

Russian court sentences veteran to 18 years in prison for treason for posting anti-war leaflets — Novaya Gazeta Europe
Russian court sentences veteran to 18 years in prison for treason for posting anti-war leaflets — Novaya Gazeta Europe

Novaya Gazeta Europe

time2 days ago

  • Novaya Gazeta Europe

Russian court sentences veteran to 18 years in prison for treason for posting anti-war leaflets — Novaya Gazeta Europe

A court in the city of Nizhny Novgorod in central Russia has sentenced a veteran to 18 years in a maximum security penal colony after convicting him of treason, calling for terrorism and the illegal storage of explosives, human rights NGO First Department reported on Friday. According to the investigation, Gennady Artemenko, 57, contacted representatives of the Atesh organisation, a military partisan movement active in occupied areas of Ukraine, which has since been declared a 'terrorist organisation', in the early days of the war. At their behest, according to the prosecution, he received instructions to photograph the Russian Federal Security Service building in the city of Dzerzhinsk and to glue leaflets around the city saying 'Let's stop the war together'. The prosecution was not able to provide any evidence of the correspondence between Artemenko and Atesh, however, First Department said. 'We believe that this trial is politically motivated and is due to Artemenko being ethnically Ukrainian. His mother is in Ukraine, and he tried to get permission for her to be transferred [to Russia] so he could take care of her. Artemenko is not a political activist,' his lawyer told First Department. It is assumed Artemenko's contact with the Ukrainian authorities asking for permission to travel to the country to bring his mother to Russia is what aroused the authorities' suspicions. Artemenko was also given a fine of 350,000 rubles (€3,800) and banned from administering websites for three years.

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