Ukraine war briefing: Zelenskyy declares 40-day Russia blitz to ‘influence the aggressor state’

Volodymyr ⁠Zelenskyy said after consulting ⁠the ⁠head of ​the Ukrainian security service that he had authorised a 40-day operation against Russian targets ‌to “influence the aggressor ‌state in order to press for ​an end to the war”. Ukraine’s president said on Thursday that Kyiv’s forces hit two more Russian oil refineries in Ufa, 1,500km (930 miles) from the frontline, and an oil depot in the Krasnodar region, 300km (180 miles) from Ukraine. Aleksandr Kharitonov, head of Krasnoarmeysk district in Krasnodar Krai, confirmed an oil depot at Poltavskaya was hit.

Authorities in illegally occupied Crimea will impose more power outages, the region’s Russian-appointed governor said Thursday. A day earlier Ukrainian strikes blacked out Sevastopol, Crimea’s largest city – coming as the peninsula grapples with gasoline shortages that have led to a complete ban on sales to the general public.

Power was fully or partially ⁠cut off across the Russian-held part of Ukraine’s ⁠Kherson region bordering ⁠Crimea, ​the Moscow-installed governor, Vladimir Saldo, said early on Friday. Meanwhile the number of trains to Crimea, ‌a popular summer destination for Russian tourists, was being cut back, Crimea’s Russia-installed governor, Sergei Aksyonov, said on Thursday.

Russian relay stations in Belarus used for attacks on Ukraine have been switched off, Zelenskyy said on Thursday, after last week warning neighbouring president Alexander Lukashenko to remove them “or we will do it”. Ukrainian intelligence had determined the repeaters were off, Zelenskyy said on Thursday, but “along our state border, Belarus is completing the construction of road infrastructure and storage facilities for ammunition and fuel, which have no purpose other than military use. Belarus knows what steps are needed on its part for peace. The development of border infrastructure for aggression from Belarus must be stopped.”

For his part Lukashenko on Thursday accused Ukraine rather than Russia of trying to drag his country into the war – at the same time saying he “stands with Russia”; calling for a “substantive” agreement; and declaring Belarus had no desire to fight Ukrainians. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based thinktank, said Lukashenko is walking a fine line. “Lukashenko continues to stall and deflect the Kremlin’s intensified attempts to drag Belarus into the war in Ukraine while maintaining relatively neutral rhetoric towards Ukraine.” Ukrainian military officials on Wednesday ordered a mandatory evacuation for the approximately 1,000 people still in the Chernihiv region bordering Russia and Belarus starting on 1 July.

Zelenskyy said Russia was moving air defences to protect key targets like Moscow from Ukrainian drones – potentially leaving other areas vulnerable. Russia was also moving air defences to protect the palatial residence of Vladimir Putin at Valdai, a town about 500km (300 miles) north-west of Moscow. Zelenskyy said the Kerch Bridge, connecting the Crimean Peninsula with the Russian mainland, was also being prioritised for air defence.

The Ukrainian army said on Thursday a unit commander was suspended over a probe into alleged abuse of soldiers, after a media report found alleged non-military deaths in the regiment’s training camps. Lt Col Yurii Garkavyi, the commander of the 425th separate assault brigade, known as Skelia, was under scrutiny after an investigation by media outlet Babel. “From June 24, for the duration of the inspections and investigations, the regiment commander was suspended from duty,” said the Ukrainian army’s media service, adding that anyone committing criminal offences would be “held accountable in accordance with the law”.

The Babel report alleged 26 deaths in Skelia’s training camps over the past six months, as well as alleged cases of abuse and torture of conscripts, citing relatives’ testimony. Ukraine’s state bureau of investigations said it had opened an inquiry. In a statement on Wednesday, the regiment said the Babel investigation raised “serious issues” requiring “verification”. It said that of the 26 deaths mentioned, 18 were in hospital or on the way to hospital, and attributed them to “illnesses or poor health” among mobilised soldiers.

An air raid alert was declared for Kyiv late on Thursday night and witnesses reported missiles being intercepted. Earlier, Russia attacked ​three rail locomotives, killing one driver, and hit two petrol stations across Ukraine, officials said. One strike hit a locomotive in the north-east Sumy region, and the others including the fatal one were in Zaporizhzhia region in the south, said Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, CEO of Ukrzaliznytsia, the state rail group. Local officials said ‌Russia also ​attacked petrol ​stations in Zaporizhzhia and Sumy.

Norsi, Russia’s fourth-largest oil refinery and second-largest gasoline producer, suspended operations on ⁠Wednesday after a Ukrainian drone attack, two ⁠industry sources told Reuters. The ‌attack damaged a primary refining unit. Lukoil, which owns the refinery, did not reply ‌to a request for comment. The governor of Nizhny Novgorod region, where the refinery is located, confirmed a drone attack.

The French navy intercepted an oil tanker in the Mediterranean suspected of being part of the “shadow fleet” shipping Russian oil in breach of sanctions. The Deliver, sailing under the flag of Cameroon, had departed from the Russian port of Primorsk, authorities said.

Ukraine’s Fire Point, maker of the Flamingo cruise missile and other airborne weapons, is accelerating plans to develop a European missile defence system after an agreement with German radar maker Hensoldt and hopes to have its first interceptors ready by the end ⁠of the year. Fire Point, which ⁠is using its own FP-7X ​rocket as the interceptor, said it signed a memorandum of understanding with the Munich-based company, which will provide its TRML-4D radar.

Denys Shtilierman, Fire Point’s co-founder and chief designer, said ⁠it was also signing an agreement with a European defence firm for an imaging infrared (IIR) homing device for the interceptor missile and talks were under way with another European firm for a radio frequency (RF) seeker that homes in on electromagnetic signals. Fire Point is aiming over the summer to test ‌its new FP-9 ballistic missile, ​capable of carrying an 800kg warhead up ​to 850km.