Ukraine Army Chief Vows To Expand Strikes On Russia
Ukraine's top military commander vowed to increase the "scale and depth" of strikes on Russia in remarks made public Sunday, saying Kyiv would not sit idly by while Moscow prolonged its three-year invasion.
Diplomatic efforts to end the war have stalled in recent weeks.
The last direct meeting between the two sides was almost three weeks ago and no follow-up talks have been scheduled.
Russian attacks on Ukraine have killed dozens of people during the interim, including in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, according to officials.
"We will not just sit in defence. Because this brings nothing and eventually leads to the fact that we still retreat, lose people and territories," Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky told reporters including AFP.
Syrsky said Ukraine would continue its strikes on Russian military targets, which he said had proved "effective".
"Of course, we will continue. We will increase the scale and depth," he said.
Ukraine has launched retaliatory strikes on Russia throughout the war, targeting energy and military infrastructure sometimes hundreds of kilometres from the front line.
Kyiv says the strikes are a fair response to deadly Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure and civilians.
In wide-ranging remarks, Syrsky also conceded that Russia had some advantages in drone warfare, particularly in making fibre-optic drones that are tethered and difficult to jam.
"Here, unfortunately, they have an advantage in both the number and range of their use," he said.
He also claimed that Ukraine still held 90 square kilometres (35 square miles) of territory in Russia's Kursk region, where Kyiv launched an audacious cross-border incursion last August.
"These are our pre-emptive actions in response to a possible enemy offensive," he said.
Russia said in April that it had gained full control of the Kursk region and denies that Kyiv has a presence there.
Moscow occupies around a fifth of Ukraine and claims to have annexed four Ukrainian regions as its own since launching its invasion in 2022 -- in addition to Crimea, which it captured in 2014.
Kyiv has accused Moscow of deliberately sabotaging a peace deal to prolong its full-scale offensive on the country and to seize more territory.
The Russian army said Sunday that it had captured the village of Petrivske in Ukraine's northeast Kharkiv region.
Russian forces also fired at least 47 drones and three missiles at Ukraine between late Saturday and early Sunday, the Ukrainian air force said.
At least two people were killed in the attacks on Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, including a 17-year-old boy, the region's governor said. Ukraine has been working to strengthen its front-line defences AFP
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Int'l Business Times
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3 hours ago
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DW
5 hours ago
- DW
Iranian nuclear program 'devastated'— US defense secretary – DW – 06/22/2025
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What conclusion would you draw?," he wrote, in reference to Friday negotiations with the UK, France and Germany. "To Britain and the EU High Rep, it is Iran which must 'return' to the table. But how can Iran return to something it never left, let alone blew up?" The Israeli military says it has recovered the remains of three hostages killed and abducted during the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023. It identified them as Yonatan Samerano, 21, Ofra Keidar, 71, and Shay Levinson, 19, giving their ages at the time of their deaths. The remains were discovered on Saturday in a coastal area of Gaza during a joint special operation by the military and the domestic intelligence service, Shin Bet, the Israeli army said. The families of the dead hostages were informed after the remains were identified by forensic examination, the army reported. During the attack, the militants killed 1,200, mostly civilians and abducted 251 people. Hamas is still holding some 50 hostages, less than half of whom are believed to be still alive. Israel's subsequent offensive on Gaza has so far killed over 55,000, according to figures provided by health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave, which the United Nations considers reliable. Just hours after the US announced that it had attacked three nuclear sites in Iran, effectively joining Israel, digital alerts sounded in Israel, followed by air raid sirens warning of incoming missiles. In a large underground car park in central Tel Aviv, many people had slept there overnight in small tents pitched on the fourth underground floor. Others made their way to the shelter from the neighborhood. "I think we all waited for Trump to help us. I thought it would take more time, but here they are actually helping us now,' said Gabi, 32, who declined to give her last name. 'I feel safe here. I don't feel anxious, and we can't hear much down here." However, he admitted that the conflict had now moved in an unknown direction. "You can see on people's faces that they are worried. But I hope this will bring about change for the people of Iran too." Dakar Levi has also been sleeping in a small tent provided by Brothers in Arms, an organization that has set up the space as a shelter. She feels that this conflict is much more destructive than previous ones with the militant group Hamas in Gaza or the Lebanese group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Some missiles have evaded Israel's defence shield and hit residential areas, leaving a trail of destruction. "I think it was supposed to happen a long time ago, but I think our defence wasn't good enough to fight all those missiles. Now we have the defence, and this has to end. They have said for a long time that they want to destroy the Jewish state." Levi hopes that the US joining Israel in attacking Iran might shorten the conflict. If not, she is prepared to stay for weeks to come. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Sunday called a meeting of the government's security cabinet following the US attacks on Iran. According to his spokesman, Stefan Kornelius, Merz also urged Iran "to immediately start negotiations with the US and Israel and come to a diplomatic resolution of the conflict." Kornelius said the German government believed that "large parts of the Iranian nuclear program had been affected by the airstrikes," but added that a precise analysis of the damage would be possible later. The US has bombed three of the Islamic Republic's key nuclear sites in Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz, following Israeli strikes on Iran which have lasted for over a week, prompting a war between the two countries. The attack on the underground fuel enrichment site at Fordo used so-called bunker-buster bombs that are designed to penetrate into the ground before detonating, US media reported. The US is the only country with military capability of dropping the weapon. 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There have been mixed reactions to the attacks from other countries, with several calling for a return to diplomacy rather than military action. The EU's top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, has called on all sides in the US-Israel-Iran conflict to resume negotiations, while insisting that international security would be under threat if Iran developed a nuclear weapon. Kallas, who is also a vice-president of the European Commission, said in her post on X, formerly Twitter, that the EU's foreign ministers would hold a meeting on Monday to discuss the current situation. "Iran must not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon, as it would be a threat to international security. I urge all sides to step back, return to the negotiating table and prevent further escalation," she wrote.
