Timeline: day 118 of Ukraine's defense against russia's aggression
Today is June 21. russia's military attack on Ukraine has been going on for 118 days. We're reporting on the current news. The article will be updated.
What about today?
Key points
Ukrainian defenders killed more than 100 occupiers in the east. Our soldiers from the East operational and tactical group report the enemy's losses in Ukraine's East. The occupier lost:
- 106 soldiers of personnel,
- one tank,
- one APC,
- two MT-LB vehicles,
- two artillery systems,
- five mortars,
- seven AT-T vehicles,
- two UAVs,
- two ammunition depots.
In the Kherson region, the russian military launched an air strike with a Ka-52 helicopter on the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. There were no losses. In response, Ukrainian helicopters also attacked enemy clusters.
Missile and artillery and other units of Ukraine's Defense Force destroyed:
- 25 russian military men,
- T-62 tank,
- Meteorit mine clearing vehicle,
- a robust communication station,
- a radar station and electronic warfare station,
- two military motor vehicles,
- three ammunition depots, the South Operational Command reports.
The key points from the Ukrainian General Staff's morning report:
- Enemy assaults were repulsed near Sloviansk, Bohorodychne, and Dolyna.
- The reports of the General Staff mentioned the Kramatorsk direction for the first time. There was no offensive, but there were MLRS shellings.
- In the Luhansk region, there is an assault on Syrotyno (southern outskirts of Sievierodonetsk) and Bila Hora (adjacent to Lysychansk in the south). Fights for Mykolaivka take place near the Bakhmut-Lysychansk route.
- There were strikes on Avdiivka, Niu York, and smaller settlements in the Donetsk region. There was an attempt to "ingloriously" assault Marinka.
- In the Pivdennyi Buh direction, the enemy suffers losses.
- Due to heavy losses in the command staff of airborne units, the enemy recruits reserve officers with short-term contracts for three months.
Ukraine neutralized the possibility of russia entering the Odesa region from the sea. After the sinking of the Vasily Bekh ship, the russians had difficulty with the supply of weapons to the island of Zmiinyi. The press service of the Ministry of Defense of the United Kingdom reported this, citing intelligence.
In Ukraine, a russian network of agents was exposed, including officials from the Cabinet of Ministers and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The FSB network carried out intelligence and subversive activities against the authorities, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) reports. As a result of the special operation, SBU officers managed to detain the head of the Cabinet Secretariat department and the head of one of the CCI directorates. These officials passed the enemy various intelligence information for money: from $2 to $15 thousand for the task. The detainees were declared suspected of treason and taken into custody.
On June 23-24, at the summit in Brussels, Ukraine and Moldova will receive the candidate status for EU membership, Bloomberg reported. All 27 countries of the union agreed.
Humanitarian missions
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk appealed to the residents of the Kherson region to leave the area by any means allowed by the russians (including through the occupied Crimea). She explained that it was necessary to speed up the process of de-occupation of the region.
Rescuers delivered 300 kg of food and 40 tons of water daily to Lysychansk residents. Two more tons of food are ready to be sent, the head of Luhansk Regional Military Administration, Serhii Haidai, said.
In addition, on June 20, the emergency service officers evacuated three city residents to safety.
Ukraine has set up a 51 POW detention center and a camp for russians. The detention conditions in the camp and pre-trial detention centers, and the rules of treatment of these persons, correspond to their status and are based on the requirements of international humanitarian law. Captive russians are engaged in woodworking and benefit Ukrainian society.
Ukraine returned the bodies of another 35 Ukrainian servicemen; the exchange occurred in the Zaporizhzhia region. The Ministry of Reintegration reported. "Today, the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War held another exchange of bodies under the 35 to 50 formula. Among them are 25 Ukrainian defenders of Mariupol," the Defense Intelligence added. The process of returning the bodies of the dead defenders continues.
Zelensky published another selection of photos on the 118th day of the war. "We are dealing with absolute evil. And we have no choice but to move on. Free our entire territory. Oust the occupiers from all our regions. And although now the width of our front is already more than 2.5 thousand kilometers, it seems that the strategic initiative is still ours," he signed the photos.
Who's coming to Ukraine?
On financial and information aid, weapons and politicians
The Ukrainian businessman handed over his helicopter to the needs of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Oleksandr Hromyko, the owner of Saturn, said on his Facebook page that the helicopter used to be military. It was intended for reconnaissance and evacuation of the wounded. After that, military equipment was removed from it, and it became a civilian. Now the owner will return the helicopter to its past life. Oleksandr noted that the helicopter in good condition would be able to rescue the seriously wounded from the front line and take them to the hospital.
Soldiers of the 82nd US Airborne Brigade have arrived in Poland to train the Ukrainian military. This was announced by US Ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink.
The Taiwanese government will allocate $500,000 to rebuild Bucha. "We know about the suffering, killings, and destruction of the war left in Bucha by the aggressors. The atrocities in Bucha are war crimes that need to be condemned, and the perpetrators punished," said Taiwan's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu during an online meeting with Bucha Mayor Anatolii Fedoruk.
In addition, financial and material assistance will be directed to the reconstruction of Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Odesa, Sumy, and Zaporizhzhia.
Canada and the Netherlands also promise to help rebuild Ukraine after the victory over russia. Prime Ministers Justin Trudeau and Mark Rutte stated this after a telephone conversation, Andrii Yermak, the head of the President's Office, said.
The Prime Minister of Luxembourg arrived in Kyiv today. "Showing Luxembourg's solidarity with the people of Ukraine. Because as long as Russia's war lasts, Luxembourg will stand with Ukraine," Xavier Bettel wrote on Twitter. He has already visited Borodianka and is stunned by what he saw.
He noted that Ukraine could count on Luxembourg's support in investigating war crimes.
Germany will hand over 30 Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft systems, the IRIS-T air defense system, the Mars MLRS, and several other weapons to Ukraine. Germany will provide military assistance to Ukraine for 2 billion euros, the website of the German government says. The list includes 3,000 Panzerfausts, 14,900 anti-tank mines, 100,000 hand grenades, 23,000 helmets, MiG-29 spare parts, 10,000 artillery shells, and 53,000 anti-aircraft shells.
Slovakia could not hand over Soviet T-72 tanks to Ukraine in exchange for more modern German Leopards from Germany. According to them, Berlin offered an insufficient number of them.
News from partners
Ukraine has received the status of a partner in the Three Seas Initiative. Polish President Andrzej Duda announced the newly created partnership format. This form of cooperation is addressed to potential EU member states. "We have decided to create a unique, new type of partnership with the Three Seas Initiative with partnership through participation besides the strategic partnership. It is a new type of partnership designed not only for Ukraine. We gave it to Ukraine today, but we assume that the same partnership can be shared by those countries in Central Europe and are not members of the European Union but seek to join it," Duda explained.
Finland is unlikely to join NATO before September because it failed to reach an agreement with Turkey. The President of Finland, Sauli Niinistö, announced this.
Sanctions on the aggressor!
Canadian authorities hope to pass a law in the coming days that would allow the confiscation of russian assets subject to sanctions, the Deputy Prime Minister said.
Kyiv and the region
Voting for new street names now linked to russia has ended in the capital. The expert commission submitted the voting results to the Kyiv City Council for further consideration. Subsequently, based on expert opinions, deputies of the City Council will decide on renaming.
Kyiv Customs has signed a contract to recruit a service dog. The dog, nicknamed Kord, entered the service immediately, looking for drugs, weapons, and other illicit goods.
Donetsk and Luhansk regions
At night, the enemy hit school 6 in Avdiivka. The head of the Donetsk Regional State Administration, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said that Grad MRLS shelled the building with incendiary missiles. There is no information about the victims. It is the third school destroyed by the russians in Avdiivka. The occupiers destroyed about two hundred schools in the Donetsk region.
Fierce fighting continues in Sievierodonetsk. The russians hit the building of the Azot checkpoint, fired on the territory of the brick factory, and opened fire in the area of three bridges, the head of the Luhansk Regional State Administration Serhiy Haidai said.
Five hundred sixty-eight people are still at the Azot plant, including 38 children, primarily employees of the company and their families, who refused to evacuate.
Kharkiv region
The russians are trying to keep their positions in the Kharkiv region and prevent the Ukrainian army from entering the rear of the russian grouping in the Sloviansk direction. Dmytrivka, Chuhuiv, Korobochkyne, Stara Hnylytsia, and Bazaliivka came under russian fire, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reports.
In the last 24 hours, three people died, and seven were wounded in the Kharkiv region from blows of the russian Federation. This information was reported by the head of regional military administration, Oleh Sinehubov.
About 200 occupiers are hiding in the forests of the Kharkiv region. This was reported by the Borivka village council, emphasizing that in recent days many enemy vehicles and troops have been moving through the community. The ruscists deserted near the village of Horokhavatka, refusing to fight the Armed Forces near Izium. As a result, they were wounded, hungry, and angry and fled into the woods with broken equipment, and now their commanders are looking for the occupiers. We hope the Ukrainian forces will find them sooner.
One of the russian ballistic missiles fired at Kharkiv on June 20 struck the Kharkiv Metro. One person was injured. At least three trains were damaged. Volodymyr Tymoshko, Chief of the Main Police Department of the Kharkiv Region, told journalists about this on June 21.
The enemy is mining the Kharkiv region remotely; the regional state administration warns the residents of the Chuhuiv district. The particularity is that mines self-destruct for a specific time; this time depends on the ambient temperature.
The occupiers are again shelling residential areas of Kharkiv and terrorizing the civilian population! In the afternoon, shelling was recorded in the Industrialnyi city district; according to preliminary data, there were seven civilian victims.
Sumy region
For the first time in recent weeks in the Sumy region, the night of June 21 was quiet. "Thank you to our defenders!" Dmytro Zhyvytskyi, the head of regional military administration, wrote.
Zaporizhzhia region
In the temporarily occupied Melitopol, almost all teachers refused to cooperate with the russian invaders. 90% of them made this decision. Mayor Ivan Fedorov announced this on the national telethon. The occupying power plans to import russian teachers and students of pedagogical universities to the city.
Zaporizhzhia Regional State Administration reports the shelling continuing in the region:
- russia struck at high-rise buildings and private homes of Orikhiv and Mala Tokmachka residents.
- Shelling of the district center and nearby settlements continues in the direction of Huliaipole. Some citizens were left without their homes.
- Also, in the village of Zaliznychne, Polohy district, the enemy destroyed sunflower warehouses that burned down last night due to a shell impact.
Kherson region
Leaflets in Kherson: "The Ukrainian troops are near!"
The russian-appointed "leadership of the Kherson region" is again making a statement about the "referendum." According to "Deputy Head" Kyrylo Stremousov, they may vote for joining russia in the fall.
"Preparation" for this illegal act is already underway. In the temporarily occupied Kherson, russians stole election documents with voter lists for 2019, the National Police of the Kherson region says. According to the preliminary version of law enforcement officers, the occupiers can use the personal data of Kherson and region voters to organize a pseudo-referendum.
Mykolaiv region
In the first weeks of the war, everyone In Ukraine bought virtual tickets to the Mykolaiv Zoo to support animals. Now the mass media publish the photos of the leopard who, in the heat of fights for Mykolaiv, was born on March 8 in the Mykolaiv zoo. Life wins!
Yesterday, a sea mine of the russian occupiers exploded near the coast of Koblevo. "The sea continues to eloquently persuade vacationers to stay away from the coast as far as possible. In Koblevo, waves brought another sea mine to the shore. At a distance of about 50 meters, it detonated uncontrollably," said the South Operational Command. No one was injured.
Since the morning report, the residents in Mykolaiv have reported at least three explosions. The mayor, Oleksandr Senkevich, confirmed outbreaks in Mykolaiv. According to unconfirmed reports, the launch was carried out from the Kherson region, which is temporarily occupied by russian troops. No details are available at this time.
Odesa region
Yesterday's russian missile hitting a logistics warehouse killed a security guard in Odesa, the South Operational Command reports. In total, the russians sent 9 Oniks missiles to the city in one day. The results are the damaged houses on the islands in the Danube Delta. Rockets also hit near the cemetery and the industrial infrastructure.
The occupiers have increased the presence of submarines in the Black Sea near Odesa, the press secretary of the Odesa Regional Military Administration, Serhii Bratchuk, said on a telethon. According to him, three of the enemy's five ships are submarines that can fire cruise missiles, and two are guided ships that also have a stockpile of such missiles. The probability of missile attacks is very high!
