Russia’s war in Ukraine could last for years, said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. “We have to be prepared for the fact that it can take years. We must not let up in supporting Ukraine,” he said. “Even if the costs are high, not only for military support, but also because of rising energy and food prices.”
Russia sent a large number of reserve troops from other combat zones to Sievierodonetsk trying to gain full control of the besieged eastern city is the governor of Ukraine Luhansk This was announced by the region on Sunday. “Today, tomorrow or the day after they will use all the reserves they have…because there are already so many of them, they have reached a critical mass,” Serhiy Gaidai said on national television.
A large explosion shook an area near Sievierodonetsk on Saturday. Rodion Miroshnik, an official of the self-proclaimed separatist administration of the Luhansk People’s Republic, posted a video of what he said to the cloud on the Telegram messaging app.
Five civilians were killed in Ukrainian attacks on the eastern separatist city of Donetsk on Saturday, according to the local authorities. “Five people were killed and 12 others injured in the Donetsk People’s Republic as a result of the bombardment by Ukrainian forces,” the authorities said in a statement published on Telegram.
Several Russian rockets have hit a gas works in the Izium district of eastern Ukraine. That’s what the governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleh Synehubov, said on Saturday. “A large-scale fire broke out, rescue workers located the fire,” he wrote in the messaging app Telegram. Reuters reported, adding that some other buildings were also damaged.
Russian missiles on Saturday destroyed a fuel depot in Novomoskovsk, a city in eastern Ukraine. According to the head of the regional administration, three people were hospitalized.
The Pentagon is considering sending four more rocket launchers to Ukraine, reports Politico. According to US Department of Defense officials, who spoke to the outlet on anonymity, the US could likely send four more high-mobility artillery-missile systems, bringing their total to about eight. The decision will be made “based on Ukraine’s immediate needs,” the official told Politico.
Russia and Ukraine have exchanged prisoners, the Kyiv Independent reports. According to the Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, on June 18, five captured Ukrainian people were returned to Ukraine in exchange for five captured Russian people.
Yuliia Paievska aka “Taira”, the Ukrainian prisoner medic freed from Russian captivity during the week, released a video thanking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for her release. “I’ve always believed that everything will work out exactly like this, and everyone who’s on the other side now knows that everything will work out,” she said.
Zelenskyy presented state awards to border guards during a visit to troops in southern Ukraine in Odessa on Saturday. “I want to thank you from the people of Ukraine, from our state, for the great work you are doing, for your heroic service,” the President said. “It is important that you live. As long as you live there is a strong Ukrainian wall protecting our country.”