Polish and allied aircraft were activated early today to ensure the safety of airspace after Russia launched air strikes targeting western Ukraine near the border with Poland, the Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces said.
“The steps taken are aimed at ensuring security in the regions bordering the areas at risk,” the Command said on X.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s drone attack temporarily halted production at an electronics company in Russia’s Volga river region of Chuvashia after two drones fell on the plant’s territory, the head of the region said.
Earlier, Donald Trump’s administration redirected at least 20,000 anti-drone missiles originally designated for Ukraine to American forces in the Middle East, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Ukraine was hoping to receive the missiles from the US to help counter relentless Russian drone attacks, which include swarms of Iranian-designed Shahed-type drones, Mr Zelensky said.
This comes as Russian forces continue to advance on the battlefield and have reportedly taken more than 190sqkm (73sqm) of the Sumy region of northeastern Ukraine in less than a month, according to pro-Ukrainian open source maps.
Coleen Rooney says Unicef support for Ukrainian families is a ‘lifeline’
Coleen Rooney has said Unicef support for Ukrainian families has been a “lifeline” that is “changing lives”.
The media personality recently travelled to Poland with Unicef to see how Soccer Aid donations have directly supported Ukrainian families who were forced to flee their homes.
The 39-year-old said she could not “imagine” what Ukrainian refugee families must be going through, emphasising how important it is to stand with them.
She said: “I can relate to being a mum and the first thing (you would do) in that situation is to get out of danger, to make sure that the kids are OK and we can find somewhere.
“I couldn’t imagine what was going through their heads… the emotions.”
‘The enemy does not abandon its intentions to enter the Dnipropetrovsk region’
According to the Russian defence ministry, units of the 90th Tank Division of the Central Grouping of Russian forces have reached the western frontier of Ukraine’s Donetsk region and are attacking the adjacent Dnipropetrovsk region.
“The enemy does not abandon its intentions to enter the Dnipropetrovsk region,” Ukraine’s Southern Defence Forces said on Telegram. “Our soldiers are courageously and professionally holding their section of the front, disrupting the occupier’s plans. This work does not stop for a minute.”
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said the Dnipropetrovsk offensive showed that if Ukraine did not want to accept the reality of Russia’s territorial gains in peace talks then Moscow’s forces would advance further.
The pro-Ukrainian Deep State map showed Russian forces very close to the Dnipropetrovsk region, which had a population of more than 3 million before the war, and advancing on the city of Kostyantynivka in the Donetsk region from several directions.
A Ukrainian military spokesman, Dmytro Zaporozhets, said that Russian forces were trying to “build a bridgehead for an attack” on Kostyantynivka, an important logistical hub for the Ukrainian army.
Editorial: Donald Trump was wrong – Ukraine still holds some cards
Donald Trump has been shown to be wrong, wrong and wrong again about Vladimir Putin. He was wrong again when he was asked if Ukraine’s “Spiderweb” drone strikes against Russian bombers had changed his view of the cards the Ukrainians have: “They gave Putin a reason to go and bomb the hell out of them,” he said.
This is the same logic to which President Trump has cleaved from the start: that the Ukrainian people provoked the full-scale invasion of their country by wanting to be an independent nation facing to the west.
Ukraine’s drone attack halts work at electronic plant in Chuvashia, Russia says
Production was temporarily suspended at an electronics company in Russia’s Volga river region of Chuvashia, some 1,300km from the border with Ukraine, after two drones fell on the plant’s territory, the head of the region said on Monday.
The strike – among the deepest into Russia by a Ukrainian drone in more than three years of the war – caused no casualties, Chuvashia governor Oleg Nikolayev said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
But “the responsible decision was made to temporarily suspend production to ensure the safety of employees” of the Vniir enterprise where the drones fell, Nikolayev said.
It was not immediately clear whether the drones caused any damage. Mr Nikolayev said that another drone fell onto some fields in the area of the capital of the region, Cheboksary.
Trump redirects anti-drone missiles meant for Ukraine, says Zelensky
Donald Trump’s administration has redirected at least 20,000 anti-drone missiles originally designated for Ukraine to American forces in the Middle East, Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
Ukraine was hoping to receive the missiles from the US to help counter relentless Russian drone attacks, which include swarms of Iranian-designed Shahed-type drones, Mr Zelensky said.
“We have big problems with Shaheds… we will find all the tools to destroy them,” Mr Zelensky said. “We counted on this project — 20,000 missiles. Anti-Shahed missiles. It was not expensive, but it’s a special technology,” he told ABC News.
The plan has been agreed upon with previous president Joe Biden’s administration and its defence secretary Lloyd Austin.
At least dozen civilian killed by Russian attacks over weekend
At least 12 civilians were killed and 65 injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine in the last 24 hours, according to local reports.
Russia launched nearly 50 drones overnight targeting civilians and infrastructure across Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s air force.
Six civilians were killed and 44 injured in Kharkiv Oblast alone, Ukraine’s national police said.
Watch: Zelensky says Russia is ‘ignoring all peace proposals’
Why Russia and Ukraine are facing a delay in the swap of prisoners of war
Russia has accused Ukraine of delaying the swap of prisoners of war and return of the bodies of 12,000 dead soldiers, though Ukraine denied those claims.
Russia said it was moving bodies towards the border and television showed refrigerated trucks containing the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers on the road in the Bryansk region.
Ukraine accused Russia of playing propaganda games and said that the exchange of prisoners of war and the bodies of fallen soldiers was scheduled for next week. Russia said Ukraine was playing politics with the dead.
The Russian defence ministry has released images of what it says are lorries carrying the refrigerated bodies of Ukrainian soldiers.
The lorries are at an ex-change area Novaya Guta, Belarus on the boarder of Ukraine.
However, it is scheduled for next week, Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine’s military intelligence chief (HUR), said.
“The start of repatriation measures following the negotiations in Istanbul is scheduled for next week, as authorised persons were informed on Tuesday (3 June),” Mr Budanov posted on Telegram.
Ukraine rejects Russian claims to have entered Dnipropetrovsk region for first time
Ukraine has rejected Russian claims to have entered the central-eastern region of Dnipropetrovsk for the first time.
With Vladimir Putin intensifying his push to seize further Ukrainian territory while paying lip service to peace talks brokered by the US, Russia’s defence ministry claimed yesterday that its forces had reached the western frontier of Ukraine’s Donetsk region and were now attacking the adjacent Dnipropetrovsk region.
But Ukraine strongly refuted these claims, with the country’s Southern Defence Forces saying: “The enemy has not abandoned its plans to enter Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Our soldiers are bravely and professionally holding their section of the front, thwarting the occupier’s plans.”
This was echoed by Major Andrii Kovalev, a spokesperson for the general staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, who told Ukrainska Pravda: “The information is not true. Fighting is ongoing in Donetsk Oblast. The enemy did not enter Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.”
And a spokesperson for Ukraine’s Khortytsia group of forces told CNN that “the Russians are constantly spreading false information that they have entered the Dnipropetrovsk region from the Pokrovsk and Novopavlivka directions, but [in neither place] is this information true”.
Poland scrambles aircraft as Russia launches strikes on Ukraine
Polish and allied aircraft were activated early today to ensure the safety of Polish airspace after Russia launched air strikes targeting western Ukraine, near the border with Poland, the Operational Command of the Polish armed forces said.
“The steps taken are aimed at ensuring security in the regions bordering the areas at risk,” the Command said on X this morning.
All of Ukraine was under air raid alerts as of 2am GMT today after the Ukrainian Air Force warned of Russian missile and drone attacks.
