U.S. Envoy to UN: Russia Wants to ‘Dissolve Ukraine from the World Map‘; "Putin's [...] overall purpose is to re-establish a greater Russia. First reuniting former Russian states — the Baltic countries, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine. Then [...] nations of the former Warsaw Pact — Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria."
Lukashenko "almost wholly dependent on Russia" as Belarus helps Putin: UK
Interactive map: arcg.is/09O0OS
Ukraine has claimed to have killed scores of Russian soldiers in the Kherson region where it has launched a counter-offensive.
The Ukrainian military said it had also destroyed two ammunition dumps as it attempts to retake the city of Kherson, which has been occupied by Russia since early March.
Ukraine has used long-range missile systems to badly damage three bridges across the Dnipro river in recent weeks, which has cut off Kherson city, a key link in Moscow’s supply lines in Crimea and eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine’s southern command said: “As a result of fire establishing control over the main transport links in occupied territory, it has been established that traffic over the rail bridge crossing the Dnipro is not possible.”
Ukraine also claims more than 100 Russian soldiers and seven tanks were destroyed in fighting on Friday in the Kherson region.
The UK Ministry of Defence said Russian forces have “likely established” two pontoon bridges and a ferry system to replace the damaged infrastructure to avoid being cut off.
Russian advances elsewhere appear to have been halted, with Ukraine successfully repelling small-scale Russian assaults from the “long-established front line” near Donetsk city in the Donbas region, the MoD said.
First observation is that, although we continue to see Russia failing -- failing on the battlefield, paying a high price for very little gain, and suffering domestic failures at home, I was really struck this week by how Russian rhetoric was trying to mask these losses, and what we saw was really very expansionist rhetoric coming out of Moscow.
A couple of examples of this -- we heard Foreign Minister Lavrov reversing his government's earlier denials that they were seeking regime change in Kyiv, and -- and he talked this week of getting rid of the regime in Kyiv. We also saw former Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev post a map on his Telegram channel depicting a Ukraine that has been swallowed up by Russia and its neighbors, leaving only a sliver of the country in Kyiv Oblast.
And even as we have heard this really imperialist rhetoric, we've learned more about how Russia is (inaudible) in the areas of Ukraine that it occupies. The National Intelligence Council released a chilling report that described at least 18 so-called filtration camps, where Ukrainians are subject to inhumane conditions, including abuse, and in some cases, executions.
So I'll conclude by, you know, highlighting that even as Russia is talking a big talk, even as Russia is menacing the Ukrainian population, the Ukrainians continue to bravely advance, they're making tremendous use of the $8.2 billion in equipment we've provided thus far.
Now, today, I don't have a security assistance announcement for you but I can say that we're working very hard and consulting closely with our Ukrainian Ministry of Defense counterparts and we will be preparing another assistance package soon to ensure that the Ukrainians have the munitions they need for their fight in the east and now also in the south.
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