According to the UK Foreign Office: As of June 10, Russian forces around Sieverodonetsk have not advanced south of the city. Intense street-to-street battles are ongoing and both sides are likely to have large numbers of casualties. The UK State Department also says Russia is resorting to ineffective weapons systems that risk “significant collateral damage and civilian casualties” because it does not have more accurate modern missiles: Since April, Russian medium-sized bombers have probably fired dozens of 1960s Kh-22 missiles (NATO-designated AS-4 KITCHEN) from the air, launching heavy anti-ship missiles against ground targets. These 5.5-ton missiles were primarily designed to destroy aircraft carriers using nuclear warheads. When used in a conventional ground attack role, they are extremely inaccurate and can therefore cause significant collateral damage and civilian casualties. Russia is likely to resort to such ineffective weapons systems because it lacks more accurate modern missiles, while the Ukrainian air defense continues to prevent its regular aircraft from carrying out attacks in much of the country.
The last from Ukraine
Hello, I’m Rebecca Ratcliffe and welcome to the rolling cover of the war in Ukraine. Here are some of the latest developments: Kyiv said it had launched new airstrikes in the occupied southern Kherson region while “very difficult battles” were under way, including in the eastern Donbass region and especially around the eastern industrial city of Sheverodonetsk. The UK Department of Defense said “intense street-to-street fighting is ongoing” around Siverdonetsk, but that Russian forces had not advanced south of the city. Both sides are likely to suffer heavy casualties, the UK Foreign Office has warned. The deputy head of Ukraine’s military intelligence service told the Guardian on Friday that Ukraine was losing ground to Russia and now relied almost entirely on Western weapons. “This is an artillery war now; and we are losing in terms of artillery,” said Vadim Skimitsky, deputy chief of Ukraine’s military intelligence service. The mayor of Mariupol, which was devastated by a Russian siege, said there was an outbreak of dysentery and cholera and that some wells were contaminated with corpses. Vadim Boichenko warned of thousands more casualties and called for a humanitarian corridor to allow the remaining residents to leave the city, which is now under Russian control. France was ready to assist a company in securing access to Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odessa, according to an adviser to French President Emanuel Macron. The port is under de facto blockade by Russia, with grain waiting to be shipped. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sparked warnings of a global food crisis. The World Chemical Weapons Control Agency said Friday that it was closely monitoring Ukraine to monitor “threats of the use of toxic chemicals as weapons.”
