WAR IN UKRAINE: June 4, 2022
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 101 - Today is also the 33rd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre in China, when untold thousands of innocent, pro-democracy protesters were slaughtered by the Chinese army. Commemorations in Hong Kong had to be held in secret as people observing the anniversary face arrest.
The Ukrainian military says fighting continues in the east of the country, specifically in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Officials said Russian forces are intensifying their attacks as they try to advance from several directions and take more of the area. The General Staff said Friday that Russian forces are preparing to resume an offensive towards Sloviansk. It said that the Russians are concentrating a force of up to 20 battalion tactical groups in the area. The Russians had tried to launch an attack on two towns north and northwest of Sloviansk — Barvinkove and Sviatohirsk — but had been unsuccessful, the General Staff said - CNN
A late night Russian missile strike in Lviv Oblast Thursday night cause severe damage to railway infrastructure and delayed several trains, local officials said. Some injuries were reported. The missiles were reportedly launched from the Black Sea. It goes to show that no inch of Ukraine can be regarded as safe until the country has the ability to protect its own skies. As I said Friday evening on ABC TV’s The World, the Kremlin will continue to use its cruise missile stocks to turn the heat up or down on Ukraine as it sees fit.
Wow! Ukraine’s ambassador accuses Turkey of buying Ukrainian grain stolen by Russia. Vasyl Bodnar also reportedly said on June 3 that he had “sought help from Turkish authorities and Interpol investigating who is involved in the shipments of grains transiting Turkish waters.” Earlier on May 31, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia had stolen half a million tons of Ukrainian grain and was trying to sell it - Kyiv Independent
At her first press conference as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink pledged to maintain Washington’s “steadfast commitment” to help Ukraine defend its sovereignty. Speaking in front of reporters, the career diplomat, who served as U.S. ambassador to Slovakia until recently, announced five objectives that she will be working toward with her team at the Kyiv embassy. Read the Kyiv Independent story here.
Russian President Vladimir Putin denied accusations his armed forces are blocking Ukrainian grain exports from the Black Sea and said his government would “guarantee" peaceful passage to ships leaving Ukraine's ports. But Glen Howard, a military analyst and president of the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation, said history shows Putin can’t be trusted to abide by his word. Howard said Ukraine now has anti-ship missile systems to defend its coast from invasion. However, he said that grain ships leaving Ukrainian ports would have no escort if they set sail and thus would be “trusting the Russians at their word.” - RFE/RL
Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations Sergiy Kyslytsya compared Russian President Vladimir Putin to Covid-19, saying it needs to be defeated. “If we do not defeat Putinism today, if we will be satisfied with just a military defeat of Russia in Ukraine we will let this dictator regrow his chopped back claws. They will hit all of you again, in 5, or 7 years from now, and we will all pay the triple price for it. So investing money in Ukrainian victory is investing money in your own security,” he said in his comment on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah on June 3, 2022.
