By This was CNBC’s live blog tracking developments on the war in Ukraine on June 5, 2023. See here for the latest updates.
Hostilities intensified over the weekend, with Russia’s Defense Ministry stating it repelled a large-scale Ukrainian offensive near the eastern region of Donetsk that Russia illegally annexed last year. Kyiv meanwhile said it has destroyed a Russian position near the long-embattled Bakhmut, a strategically and symbolically significant Ukrainian city.
On Russian soil, the governor of Belgorod on the border with Ukraine said an energy facility caught fire following a drone attack. On Sunday, pro-Ukraine Russian paramilitary forces had offered Russian captive prisoners in exchange for a meeting with the Belgorod leader — which reportedly did not take place.
On the diplomatic front, Turkey, Finland and Sweden will meet June 12 to discuss Stockholm’s bid to join the NATO alliance, whose progress has been stalled by Ankara’s security concerns.
Kherson, a southern port city in Ukraine, was occupied by Russian troops for more than eight months before they were driven out by Ukrainian forces in November.
Reuters reports that the area is now the focus of relentless Russian bombardment.
And on Monday, Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of the Kherson RMA, said the region was shelled again overnight.
— Michele Luhn, Adam Jeffrey and Svitlana Horieva | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
The United Nations said that at least 8,983 Ukrainian civilians have died since the start of Russia’s war nearly 500 days ago.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, or OHCHR, added that at least 15,442 have been injured due to the ongoing conflict.
“OHCHR believes that the actual figures are considerably higher, as the receipt of information from some locations where intense hostilities have been going on has been delayed and many reports are still pending corroboration. This concerns, for example, Mariupol, Lysychansk, Popasna and Sievierodonetsk where there are allegations of numerous civilian casualties,” the U.N. group wrote in a statement.
About 94% of the deaths and injuries were caused by explosive weapons with a wide impact area, according to the U.N. report.
— Amanda Macias
Mario Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said he will visit Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant “soon.”
Grossi has previously visited the Russian-occupied nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, twice since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion began last February.
“The site’s fragile power situation continues to be a source of deep concern,” Grossi said in his latest statement released by the IAEA. “There is a need for intensified efforts to ensure a more stable and predictable external electricity supply,” he added.
— Amanda Macias
Photos show members of the Ukrainian Army Forces handling Valkyrja drones at undisclosed locations in the Donetsk region. Aviation Systems of Ukraine produces the Valkyrja unmanned aircraft system to provide aerial surveillance and mapping services to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, National Guard and Special Operations Forces.
— Getty Images
The Kremlin said Monday that an apparent radio address by President Vladimir Putin in regions bordering Ukraine was fake and the result of an attack.
Russia’s state-owned news agency RIA said several Russian radio stations had carried the broadcast, which Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described as “an utter fake.”
Independent Russian media reported that the announcement had told residents of the Rostov, Belgorod and Voronezh regions that Kyiv’s forces had crossed the border with Russia.
The Voronezh regional government said in a Telegram statement that a hack had taken place and that local radio stations were under the control of law enforcement agencies and local authorities.
It comes after Russia claimed Sunday it had thwarted a large-scale offensive in Donetsk, something Ukraine later said it had no information on.
— Karen Gilchrist
Ukraine’s military said Monday that it had no information about a major offensive which Russia said Kyiv had launched along the front line in the Ukrainian region of Donetsk.
“We do not have such information and we do not comment on any kind of fake [news],” a spokesperson for the Ukrainian armed forces’ general staff told Reuters.
— Karen Gilchrist
Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said Monday that Ukrainian forces have retaken part of the settlement of Berkhivka, north of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.
“Now part of the settlement of Berkhivka has already been lost, the troops are quietly running away. Disgrace!” Prigozhin said in an audio message published by his press service.
Prigozhin urged Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the chief of the general staff, Valery Gerasimov, to come to the front to rally the troops.
“Come on, you can do it!” he said. “And if you can’t, you’ll die heroes,” he said.
Prigozhin’s private Wagner militia captured Bakhmut last month after the longest battle of the war and handed its positions there to regular Russian forces.
The businessman has repeatedly denounced Russia’s regular military for abandoning ground captured earlier by his men.
— Karen Gilchrist
Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, who has been assigned by Pope Francis to conduct a peace mission to end the war in Ukraine, traveled to Kyiv on Monday to sound out government authorities.
The purpose of the two-day visit is “to listen carefully to Ukrainian authorities on the possible ways to reach a just peace and support humanitarian gestures that may help ease tensions,” the Vatican said.
It was not clear if Zuppi would meet President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
At a meeting in May, Zelenskyy asked the pope to back Kyiv’s peace plan, which calls for restoring Ukraine’s territorial integrity, the withdrawal of Russian troops and cessation of hostilities, and the restoration of Ukraine’s state borders.
Following the meeting, the pope described the return of occupied territories as a “political problem.”
— Karen Gilchrist
Turkey, Finland and Sweden will meet June 12 to discuss Stockholm’s bid to join the NATO military alliance, which has so far been stalled by Ankara’s objections, according to a NATO statement released Sunday.
The announcement followed a meeting of NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and newly reelected Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul.
Finland and Sweden renounced their long-standing policy of political neutrality following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and jointly applied for NATO membership in June of last year. Finland was accepted and joined the military organization in April.
Stockholm’s accession has been delayed by Turkish concerns that Sweden harbors militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which Ankara, the United States, the EU and others designated as a terrorist organization.
An energy facility was set on fire following a drone attack in the Russian city of Belgorod, by the Ukrainian border, Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram overnight, according to a Google translation.
He added that services were not shut down.
Belgorod has suffered both Ukrainian and domestic offensives in recent days. Earlier, an anti-Kremlin Russian paramilitary group, the Russian Volunteer Corps, on Sunday offered on Telegram to surrender two captive Russian soldiers to Gladkov, if the governor arrived in person to receive them in the Novaya Tavolzhanka locality.
Reuters reported that Gladkov had said he accepted the offer — but the pro-Ukraine group later said the meeting never took place, according to a Google translation.
— Ruxandra Iordache
The commander of Ukraine’s ground forces on Monday said Kyiv had destroyed a Russian position near the embattled city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.
“The defense forces are working. We continue moving forward,” Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Telegram, according to a Google translation.
CNBC could not independently verify developments on the ground.
Bakhmut is of both symbolic and strategic importance to Russia, providing a stepping stone for Moscow’s forces to advance into the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in the Donetsk region.
— Ruxandra Iordache
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said on Telegram that its forces on Sunday morning fought back a large-scale Ukrainian offensive along five points in the southern direction of the annexed Ukrainian region of Donetsk, according to a Google translation.
Russia said Ukraine deployed six mechanized and two tank battalions as part of the offensive.
“The enemy’s goal was to break through our defenses on the most vulnerable, in his opinion, sector of the front,” the Russian ministry said. “The enemy did not achieve his tasks, he had no success.”
CNBC could not independently verify those claims.
The daily report of the Ukrainian General Staff only stated Monday that 29 clashes took place near the Luhansk and Donetsk regions on Sunday, according to a Google translation.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense published no public statements linked to the alleged attack. Kyiv’s minister of defense, Oleksii Reznikov, on Sunday posted on Twitter lyrics of Depeche Mode’s song “Enjoy the Silence,” stating “Words are very unnecessary / They can only do harm,” alongside a GIF of a soldier miming a bid for silence.
— Ruxandra Iordache
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pressed NATO to allow Ukraine’s membership in the alliance — a topic of contention that has divided the group of 31 countries.
“This year is for decisions,” Zelenskyy said at the European Political Community summit in Moldova on Thursday. “In summer in Vilnius at the NATO summit, a clear invitation from members of Ukraine is needed, and security guarantees on the way to NATO membership are needed.”
Ukraine and those who support its bid say that NATO membership is needed to deter Russia from attacking the country again, while others warn that the move could further provoke Moscow, which sees Kyiv joining the Western alliance as a major red line.
Zelenskyy also made a push for European Union membership, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen expressing strong support. Ukraine would still need to meet a set of standards, including weeding out its well-documented corruption, in order to join the economic bloc.
— Natasha Turak
The city of Nikopol in the southern Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine came under heavy shelling by Russian forces overnight, regional Gov. Serhiy Lysak reported.
“The aggressor does not stop. Nikopol region came under attack again. At midnight, the Rashists shelled Nikopol,” Lysak wrote on his Telegram channel, using a term many Ukrainians use to refer to Russian armed forces members.
“Shells from heavy artillery flew into the city,” he wrote. “People are unharmed. Rescuers are examining the area. The enemy is insidious and does not abandon its tactics of terrorizing the civilian population.”
— Natasha Turak
Villages in Russia’s western Bryansk region were shelled, regional Gov. Alexander Bogomaz wrote on his Telegram channel, saying the attackers were Ukrainian. He identified the two hit villages as Lomakovka and Novaya Pogoshch, saying that one house was set on fire, but that there were no deaths, according to Reuters reporting.
CNBC could not independently verify the claims.
Reported offensives on Russian soil have jumped in recent weeks, with drone attacks taking place in Moscow and shelling and incursions into Russia’s western region that borders Ukraine. The Kremlin blames Ukraine’s government for directing the hostilities, while Kyiv denies involvement.
Most of the recent attacks and attempted incursions into Russian territory have been claimed by the Freedom of Russia Legion and Russian Volunteer Corps, which describe themselves as pro-Ukraine ethnic Russians fighting Russia’s government.
— Natasha Turak
Zelenskyy ramps up pressure for NATO membership; Russia says its border villages shelled.
