On June 4, Ukraine said Russian missiles hit an airport near the city of Kropyvnytskyi in central Ukraine.
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| Situation in Ukraine: Kiev talks about the operation in Bakhmut, Russian forces announced the shooting down of 5 UAVs in Crimea. Photo: Soldiers of the Wagner Private Military Group patrol in Bakhmut. (Source: RIA Novosti) |
Speaking on television, Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuriy Ignat said Russia had deployed "six missiles and five drones.
Unfortunately, not all of them were destroyed. Of the six UAVs, four were destroyed by air defense forces and two hit the airfield near Kropyvnytskyi."
Kropyvnytskyi is a small city in the Kirovohrad region of central Ukraine, south of the capital Kiev.
The attack comes amid an escalation of Russian air strikes on Ukraine, with the capital Kiev under attack for several days this week. The conflict, which has lasted more than 15 months, has escalated as Kiev says its forces are preparing for a major counter-offensive. Several Russian border villages have also come under heavy shelling this week.
* Earlier in the day, the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced that although fighting in Bakhmut has recently eased, clashes around the destroyed city in eastern Ukraine continue with Moscow suffering significant losses.
In its daily report, Ukraine's top military command said Russian troops had carried out two unsuccessful operations around Bakhmut and carried out several airstrikes and artillery shelling of nearby villages.
On June 3, the head of Russia's Wagner private military group revealed that 99% of his fighters had left Bakhmut after a months-long offensive in the longest and bloodiest battle of the Ukrainian conflict.
Kiev said late last month that fighting had eased in the area, but Ukrainian ground forces commander General Oleksandr Syrskyi said Ukrainian forces continued to fight in the flashpoint.
* Meanwhile, the head of the Russian-backed Crimean government, Sergei Aksyonov, said on June 4 that five unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were shot down and four were stuck and failed to hit their targets in the city of Dzhankoi in Crimea.
Mr Aksyonov said there were no casualties, but windows in some houses were broken. He added that an unexploded drone was found on the ground of a residential house, forcing the temporary evacuation of about 50 people in the area.
Russia has an air base near Dzhankoi. Ukrainian officials have long claimed that the city and its surroundings have become Moscow's largest military base in Crimea.
* Earlier, Ukraine confirmed that it had stopped the airstrike on Kiev. Officials in the capital Kiev of Ukraine announced that Russia had launched an airstrike on the country in the early morning of June 4, but air defense systems in Kiev repelled all missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) approaching the city.
On the Telegram application, the head of Kiev's military administration Serhiy Popko stated: "According to preliminary information, not a single air target reached the capital. Air defense forces destroyed everything that was aimed at the city from a distance."
The whole of Ukraine was on air strike alert for almost 3 hours. On Ukrainian social media, there were unconfirmed reports of explosions recorded in Kryvyi Rih, near the cities of Kropyvnitskyi and Sumy.
Russia has repeatedly attacked Kiev since May, mostly at night, ahead of a long-planned Ukrainian counteroffensive to regain territory. Ukrainian officials say the attacks are an attempt to stoke tensions among civilians.
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