June 4, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine has moved here.

Ukrainian service members fire a howitzer near Avdiivka, Ukraine, on May 31.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky used his daily address Saturday to thank troops on the front lines or battling to control the skies above them — the fighters that would be particularly key in the counteroffensive that Kyiv is expected to soon launch.

Zelensky typically thanks specific units in his speeches, but yesterday he name-checked more than a dozen individuals, among them commanders, gunners, marines and infantrymen.

The Ukrainian president ended his speech by calling upon all Ukrainians to personally thank servicemen and servicewomen.

Concerns over aerial superiority: Zelensky’s address comes amid continuing speculation that Ukraine’s much-anticipated counteroffensive, which has seemed imminent for weeks, could be launched in the coming days. The Ukrainian President said Kyiv is ready to carry out the operation in an interview with The Wall Street Journal published Saturday.

Last month, Zelensky said that Ukraine needed a “bit more time” — likely to allow for the delivery of more Western military aid, including much-needed air defense systems.

Zelensky has spent months lobbying Western powers to provide Ukraine with fighter jets and weapons to help control the skies, as they would help limit the number of casualties to Ukrainian fighters during any potential counteroffensive.

In his interview with the Journal, Zelensky acknowledged that Russia retains aerial superiority on the front lines. He said that a lack of protection from Russian air power meant “a large number of soldiers will die.”

Two?dissident Russian military units?that claim they have captured Russian soldiers say they’ll transfer the prisoners to Ukraine’s military.

The Russian Volunteer Corps and the Freedom for Russia Legion had demanded a meeting with the governor of Belgorod, the Russian border region where they said they captured the fighters. But, despite appearing to express openness to the meeting, the groups claim Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov was a no-show for a parley.

According to a video update from the Russian Volunteer Corps, the groups have now decided to hand the captured soldiers over “to the Ukrainian side for the exchange procedure.”?

The Russian Volunteer Corps claimed they have “more captured soldiers now,” without mentioning how many.

CNN cannot independently verify the dissident groups’ claims.

About the anti-Kremlin Russian fighters: The Russian Volunteer Corps and the Freedom for Russia Legion are not officially part of Ukraine’s military but fight under Ukrainian command. They have made several recent incursions in Belgorod that have helped?bring the war to Russian soil.

Russian forces have repelled an attack in occupied southern Ukraine, Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-appointed official in the Zaporizhzhia region, claimed Sunday.

Rogov said the attack came around midnight as part of a “combat reconnaissance” attempt by Ukraine’s military to break through the front line in the southern region.

The bulk of the fight took place in a series of areas east of Zaporizhzhia city in the neighboring Donetsk region, Rogov said.

According to the Russia-backed official, Ukrainian forces managed to advance up to 400 meters (around a quarter-mile), but were then pushed back.?He reported “active hostilities” in the area and said Ukrainians “don’t stop their assault attempts.”?

Numerous pro-Russian military bloggers also reported clashes in the area.

The Ukrainian military’s General Staff did not refer to any fighting in the Zaporizhzhia area in their daily update Sunday.?

Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of the Ukrainian city of Melitopol, told CNN on Sunday that he “couldn’t comment” on the string of recent attacks in the Zaporizhzhia region, implying that it could “cause harm” to a much-anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive.?

Elina Svitolina of Ukraine is pictured during her match against Daria Kasatkina in Paris on?on June 4.

Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina called her opponent Sunday, Russian Daria Kasatkina, a “brave one” for her public comments on Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

Svitolina has proclaimed she will not shake hands with Russian and Belarusian opponents out of respect for the men and women defending Ukraine on the front lines. But she?told reporters she “acknowledged” Kasatkina after the Ukrainian’s upset win Sunday to advance to the quarterfinals of the French Open.

Last month, Kasatkina, Russia’s top-ranked women’s tennis player, expressed her sympathy for Ukrainian players who refuse to shake her hand after matches.

“Well, the saddest part is the war still going on,” Kasatkina said at the time. “So of course, players from Ukraine have got a lot of reasons to not shake our hands. I accept it and it is how it is. It’s a very sad situation and I understand.”

Svitolina will next face a Belarusian player, Aryna Sabalenka, if Sabalenka defeats American Sloane Stephens on Tuesday.?

Russia's Daria Kasatkina serves to Elina Svitolina during their match in Paris on June 4.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg meets with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul, Turkey, on June 4.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg met with?Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul on Sunday as they continue to work toward finding a path for Sweden to join the alliance.

Russia’s war in Ukraine prompted both Sweden and Finland to abandon decades of neutrality and seek to join the alliance, in what was viewed as a significant blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has sought to undermine NATO. But Turkey has held up Sweden’s accession for several reasons, mainly accusing Stockholm of allowing terrorist organizations to stay in the country.

Stoltenberg confirmed officials from Sweden, Turkey and Finland will meet the week of June 12?to discuss Sweden’s NATO membership bid.?

On Thursday, Sweden passed new anti-terrorism legislation amending its constitution, ending its arms embargo and stepping up its counter-terrorism operations including against the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party). In response to this new legislation, Stoltenberg said, “Sweden has taken significant concrete steps to meet Turkey’s concerns,” and that it has “fulfilled its obligations.”?

Stoltenberg said he believes?there is still time for Sweden to become a member by this year’s NATO summit in Vilnius on July 11-12, a goal set at last year’s summit in Madrid.

Read more here:

A photo shows member country flags in the arrivals area ahead of a NATO North Atlantic Council (NAC) meeting of Foreign Affairs ministers, at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, on April 4, 2023. (Photo by Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD / AFP) (Photo by KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP via Getty Images)

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Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov talks to the media on June 2.

Two dissident Russian military units said Sunday that they had captured two Russian soldiers in?the Belgorod?region and demanded a meeting with the local?governor?Vyacheslav Gladkov.

The Russian Volunteer Corps and the Freedom for Russia Legion, which are not officially part of Ukraine’s military but fight under Ukrainian command, have made several recent incursions in Belgorod that have helped bring the war to Russian soil.

Gladkov responded to the groups’ demand in a video message on his Telegram channel Sunday, saying?he?is?prepared?to talk to the?units if the two?soldiers they claim to have captured are still alive.?

The?head of the Wagner private military company, Yevgeny Prigozhin, claimed in a Telegram post Sunday that “he?is?ready to send one of his high-ranking deputies” to pick up captured Russian soldiers if no one comes to their rescue.

Prigozhin, who frequently needles the Kremlin establishment, challenged Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov to come to the soldiers’ rescue as well.?

Read more about the Russian fighters who have aligned with Ukraine here.

Ukrainian soldiers prepare to fire on Russian positions in Donetsk, Ukraine, on June 2.

Ukrainian forces achieved two small victories in the country’s east, the commander of the Ukraine’s Land Forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, wrote on an official army website.

One of those included an advance of 400 meters (1,300 feet) toward the town of Svatove in Donetsk. Svatove sits along key Russian supply routes, so its capture would have important strategic implications.

Here are other top headlines from Ukraine:

The head of Ukraine’s Land Forces said the country’s troops achieved two small victories along the front line of the battlefield with Russia in the contested provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk.

The commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, wrote on an official army website that Ukrainian forces had advanced 400 meters (1,300 feet) closer to the town of Svatove in Luhansk region. Svatove is situated along key Russian supply routes, so any eventual re-capture of the town would have important strategic implications.

While the front line has been static for months, hostilities in northern Donetsk and several parts of Luhansk “continue almost around the clock,” Syrskyi said.

Syrskyi said Russia had launched fresh offensives in several locations in Luhansk region and the northern part of the Donetsk region partially using former prisoners who had been specifically trained for assault operations.

While Russian troop reinforcements have given their forces a numerical advantage, Syrskyi suggested that Ukraine’s superior agility gives Kyiv the edge on the battlefield.

“Not even superiority in numbers helps the enemy,” he said.

Luhansk and Donetsk make up Ukraine’s Donbas region,?an industrial heartland when Russian-backed separatists seized control of two territories and declared breakaway republics in 2014. Shortly before the full-scale invasion?in February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the two separatist territories as independent states, ordering the deployment of Russian troops there in defiance of international law.

The latest from Bakhmut: Syrskyi also said that Ukrainian troops had successfully liberated some territory to the south of Bakhmut, the city in Donetsk where some of the war’s fiercest fighting has taken place.

Another Ukrainian official, army spokesman Serhii Cherevatyi, said Kyiv’s forces were mostly engaged in “preparatory activities” and “reconnaissance.”

“We are trying to preserve our personnel and counterattack only when we believe there are opportunities to achieve success,” Cherevatyi said.

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan speaks with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.

The United States believes the highly anticipated?Ukrainian counteroffensive?will result in Kyiv taking back “strategically significant territory,” Jake Sullivan, US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.

Asked if this meant he expected some form of negotiations by the end of this year, Sullivan wouldn’t provide any sort of timetable but said that developments on the battlefield will have a “major impact” on any future negotiation.

“But what I will say is this: President Zelensky himself has said that this war will end ultimately through diplomacy,” Sullivan said.

Read more from Sullivan’s interview here:

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Two Russian missiles struck an operational airfield near the central Ukrainian city of Kropyvnytskyi, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Air Force said Sunday.

Four missiles headed for the airfield were intercepted, according to the official, Yurii Ihnat.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said earlier Sunday that it had attacked a Ukrainian military airfield using “long-range precision-guided air-launched weapons,” though the Kremlin did not say where the strike took place.

Ihnat declined to share the consequences of the attack, but said the incident showed the necessity of strengthening air defenses across Ukraine. He said Kyiv needed more than the US-made Patriots, an advanced long-range air defense system, but also medium-range and short-range anti-aircraft missile systems.

Echoing Zelensky: Ihnat’s call for more air defense systems comes amid similar pleas by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Zelensky has continually urged western leaders to provide Ukraine with air defense equipment in part to protect its cities from Russian drones and strikes. These systems successfully shot down all of the missiles heading for Kyiv overnight Sunday, according to the head of the Ukrainian capital’s military administration, Serhiy Popko,

Fresh shelling from Ukraine rocked Belgorod overnight, the governor said in a video posted Sunday morning, as Russian dissidents ramp up pressure on the western border region.

Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said there had been Ukrainian attacks in several locations under his administration.

Due to the violence, 4,000 people are being housed in temporary accommodations. Children in the area are being moved to a camp in Crimea for their own safety, Gladkov added.

Dissidents appear near shelled area: Also Sunday, the Freedom for Russia Legion, one of two dissident Russian units fighting under Ukrainian command, posted a video which they said showed their fighters on the streets of a village on the outskirts of Shebekino, one of the areas Gladkov said was attacked.

The footage appeared to show the legion in Novaya Tavolzhanka, according to geolocation by CNN, and groups of people moving through the streets as a unit.

“We’re going in! The advance assault group of the Legion and the Russian Volunteer Corp entering the suburb of Shebekino,” the group said in the clip’s caption.

CNN cannot verify the legion’s claim, but the video’s release will be seen as a further attempt to destabilize Russia in the information space, as well as disrupting its military plans.

Meetings requested: In another bold move, the legion posted a video in which its leader and that of a second dissident group, the Russian Volunteer Corps, request a meeting with Gladkov. In exchange, they offered to release two Russian soldiers allegedly in their custody.

The video shows the purported soldiers giving their names and those of their hometowns in Russia. The dissident leaders — who have made no secret of their opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin — say they want to talk to Gladkov about the fate of the country and the war. No threat is made to the lives of the men they are holding.

Five drones were shot down over the town of Dzhankoi in Crimea overnight, a Russian-installed official said in a statement on Sunday.

In addition to the five interceptions, four other unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) jammed and failed to hit their targets, according to Sergey Aksenov, the Russian-backed head of Crimea’s administration.?

There were no casualties as a result of the incident, though “windows were broken in three private houses and two cars,” Aksenov said. He added one unexploded UAV was found on the territory of a private household, resulting in the temporary evacuation of around 50 people.?

Dzhankoi is a key railway junction on the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed by Moscow from Ukraine in 2014 in violation of international law.

Earlier this year, Ukraine said its forces were responsible for explosions in the same location. Officials said they were targeting cruise missiles while Russia was transporting them.

Rescue workers recovered the body of a 2-year-old girl from the rubble of a building following a Russian strike on the small riverfront town of Pidhorodne, in southeastern Ukraine, on Saturday, a Ukrainian military official said.

The official, Serhii Lysak, head of Dnipropetrovsk region military administration, added that the number of people wounded in the attack rose to 22, including five children.

Ten private houses, several gas pipelines, a two-story building and a store were damaged, Lysak said.

To the south, the city of Nikopol was struck by Russian artillery, though no casualties have been reported. A three-story building, gas pipelines and one restaurant were damaged, Lysak said.

Lysak added that the Ukrainian military had intercepted two cruise missiles and a drone over the region.

Three people were injured and received medical treatment in the village of Mirny, near the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol, in the?Zaporizhzhia region, a Russian-backed official said on Sunday, as both sides reported strikes in the area.

The official, Vladimir?Rogov, who is on the council of the Russian-backed civil-military administration of Zaporizhzhia region, and Ivan Fedorov, the Ukrainian mayor of Melitopol, said that explosions had struck the cities of?Melitopol and Berdiansk on Saturday.??

The Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, including the massive nuclear plant there, is partially occupied by Russian forces. The region is expected to be a major target in a possible Ukrainian counteroffensive this summer.

On Saturday, Rogov said that “6 rockets were shot down” by air defense systems in Berdiansk, and blamed Ukraine’s Armed Forces for the attack. A day later, he said that residential structures sustained some damage due to debris from an intercepted rocket.

The Russian-installed Berdiansk civil-military administration said on Saturday that even though “the enemy missiles were destroyed in the sky,” fragments of one of them fell?“in the area of the Catholic Church and the bus station” and damaged a car.?

Initial reports suggest that “not a single air target reached” the Ukrainian capital Kyiv overnight despite Russian missiles being launched, Serhiy Popko, head of the city’s military administration said Sunday.

US Ambassador to Poland Mark Brzezinski speaks in Warsaw, Poland, on February 21.

Finland’s accession to NATO highlights that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has been a “strategic failure,” according to US Ambassador to Poland Mark Brzezinski.

“What’s changed in the last week?is that NATO has expanded in a?way that just emphasizes the?strategic failure of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s?decision to invade Ukraine,” he said in an interview with CNN’s Michael Smerconish on Saturday. ?

His remarks echo those of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who visited Finland on Friday. Blinken also called Russia’s war a “strategic failure,” saying it has diminished the country’s influence and interests “for years to come.”

Finland officially became the 31st NATO member in early April. The Russian invasion drove traditionally non-aligned Finland and Sweden to abandon their neutrality and seek to join the alliance.

When asked if any possible peace negotiations are ongoing, Brzezinski said:

“We’re committed to a path of?making sure a lasting peace?includes a complete?reconstruction of Ukraine and a?drawing into it — as it wants —?into the Western institutional?orbit.?And that’s the opportunity here:?to have a renaissance, emerge out?of this crime of a war in?central and eastern Europe,” he said.

Brzezinski also said he believes the majority of US lawmakers remain committed to providing assistance to and showing solidarity with Ukraine. He noted that he’s hosted over 150 members of Congress from both parties, including former House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and current Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Smoke rises after shelling in Belgorod, Russia, on June 2.

Russian officials have reported deadly attacks in at least four locations in the Belgorod region and Ukrainian-aligned Russian units are ramping up their incursions, bringing the war to Russian territory.

At least seven people have been killed by shelling in Russian border regions since Friday, according to Belgorod’s regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov.

Two men and a woman were killed in a barrage of 18 rockets fired on the village of Sobolevka, Gladkov said in a series of posts on his Telegram channel. A gas pipeline and a power line were also damaged in the strike.

Sobolevka, which is located in the Valuisky city district, is the easternmost location to have been struck over the past two weeks. A rail line runs through the village and enters Ukraine in Russian-occupied territory south of the attack, suggesting it may have been targeting Russia’s supply lines.

To the northwest along Russia’s border with Ukraine, two women were killed in the village of Maslova Pristan when their car was hit by fire, Gladkov said. Two other women were killed in separate shellings on nearby villages.

Anti-Kremlin Russian fighters: Two units responsible for recent assaults on the border regions – Freedom for Russia Legion and the Russian Volunteer Corps – are made up of Russian soldiers opposed to President Vladimir Putin. Though not officially part of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, they effectively fall under the command of Ukraine’s security forces.

While the cross-border attacks have a military impact, forcing Russia to consider redeploying resources to protect what have been shown to be weak borders, they also appear designed to have an impact on Russian morale.

Legion spokesperson Alexei Baranovksiy appeared on Ukrainian television Saturday and was asked about the aims of the incursions.?

It was not about trying to “die heroically,” he said.

Zelensky is seen during a press conference at the European Political Community Summit in Moldova on Thursday.

Ukraine is ready to launch its much-anticipated counteroffensive in the war against Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an exclusive video interview with The Wall Street Journal published Saturday.?

“I think that, as of today, we are ready to do it. We would like to have certain things, but we can’t wait for it for months,” Zelensky said of the long-awaited military maneuvers.

The president said he believes the counteroffensive will be successful, but he’s not sure how long it will take.?

According to the WSJ, Zelensky acknowledged Russia’s superiority in the skies, adding that a lack of protection against Russian air power means “a large number of soldiers will die” during the counteroffensive.?

On NATO: Zelensky also told the newspaper he understood Ukraine would not be able to join NATO while its war against Russia is ongoing, saying, “We do not want to be in NATO during the war. It’s too late now. We should have been there before.”

All NATO allies agree that “Ukraine will become a member of the alliance,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday ahead of the alliance’s next summit, which is set to take place in Vilnius, Lithuania, on July 11 and 12.?

Zelensky, who hopes to secure a pledge at the summit that Ukraine can join NATO after the war, told the WSJ, “If some countries do not see us in NATO and we do not get a signal in Vilnius, I think there is no point for Ukraine to be at this summit.”

Asked if he thought that signal would be given, Zelensky replied, “I don’t know. I’ll be honest with you, I don’t know.”??