Deportation of Ukrainian civilians to Russia

The Russian military has said more than 307,000 children have been deported from Ukraine to Russia since the start of the war. Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the National Defence Management Centre of the Russian Federation, said a total of 1,936,911 Ukrainians have been deported to Russia since the beginning of the war; 307,423 of whom are children.

The Russians claim to have received more than 2.7 million applications from those wishing to move to Russia from more than 2,000 settlements in Ukraine.

Not all Russians want to fight, as Ukrainians do not want

Four months of war in Ukraine appear to be straining the morale of troops on both sides, prompting desertions and rebellion against officers' orders, British defense officials said Sunday.

“Combat units from both sides are committed to intense combat in the Donbas and are likely experiencing variable morale,” Britain’s defense ministry said in its daily assessment of the war.

“Ukrainian forces have likely suffered desertions in recent weeks,” the assessment said, but added that “Russian morale highly likely remains especially troubled. It said “cases of whole Russian units refusing orders and armed stand-offs between officers and their troops continue to occur.”

Russian troops have made little progress on the outskirts of Severodonetsk June 18, but largely stalled on other lines of advance. The occupiers are likely to face mounting losses of personnel and materiel, making it more difficult to attempt to resume offensive operations at other critical points as the sluggish fighting for Severodonetsk continues. This conclusion was reached by the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) in its report.

Researchers believe that Russian forces are likely to be able to capture Severodonetsk in the coming weeks, but at the cost of concentrating most of the available forces in this small area. Other Russian operations in eastern Ukraine, notably to seize Sloviansk and advance east of Bakhmut, have made little progress in the past two weeks.

According to Luhansk governor Serhiy Gaidai, Russia prepares a large-scale offensive in Donbas. “The Russians directed all their reserves to Severodonetsk and Bahmut. They try to institute full control over the regional center,” he said.

A long war is seen from London

Boris Johnson has urged western leaders to steel themselves for a long war in Ukraine or risk the “greatest victory for aggression in Europe. He stressed that Britain and other allies must ensure that Ukraine has the strategic resilience to survive and ultimately win.

Dutch PM Mark Rutte said the war in Ukraine is ‘our war’. “Ukraine must win, that is really important. In any case, we must ensure that we do everything we can to bring them closer to that victory,” she said, as cited by the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.

Mark Rutte said the country is evaluating whether it can join Germany, Belgium and the UK to supply more heavy weapons to Ukraine.

Major EU reform required

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz suggested that a major EU reform is needed to make it easier for new countries to join the bloc. He floated the idea in an interview with the news agency DPA.

“To do this, it has to modernize its structures and decision-making processes. It will not be always possible to decide unanimously on everything that has to be decided unanimously today,” he said.

Why Kherson region was lost swiftly

Ukraine named the reasons for the rapid loss of Kherson region. Allegedly it happened because of the work for Russia of the assistant head of the regional department of the SBU Igor Sadokhin, said the head of the Kherson regional council Oleksandr Samoilenko.

“It is believed that it was he who issued a grid of minefields and coordinated the actions of Russian aviation when he accompanied the Kherson SBU convoy to the evacuation. He was detained back in March. And after the inspection, as I understand it, the President of Ukraine dismissed Krivoruchko from his post as head of the SBU in the Kherson region and stripped him of his rank of general. Law enforcers are working there now as well,” Samoilenko said.

They speak about peace, but not at negotiating table

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba stated for Foreign Affairs that if the Ukrainian army advances in both the south and the east, it can force Putin to choose between abandoning southern cities, including Kherson and Melitopol, in order to cling onto the Donbas, and abandoning newly occupied territories in Donetsk and Luhansk so he can hold the south.

“When we reach this moment, Putin will likely become more serious about cease-fire negotiations. Our goal will still be to get Russian forces out of Ukraine, and keeping up the pressure may push Putin to accept a negotiated solution that entails Russian troops withdrawing from all occupied territories. Putin, after all, pulled Russian troops from the areas around Kyiv after encountering enough setbacks at the hands of our forces. If our military grows stronger and more successful, he will have good reasons to do so again.”

Kazaks no longer brothers with Russians too

Russia suspended the shipment of oil from Kazakhstan exported to Europe through the port of Novorossiysk, Kommersant reported citing sources.

More than 50 objects that may be a World War II-era explosive devices were found in the port waters, according to sources. After their discovery, the port water area was closed and as a result, the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which supplies oil from Kazakhstan for export, was suspended.