Ukraine war in the live ticker: +++ 01:33 Selenskyj appeals to Iran +++

Ukraine war in the live ticker
+++ 01:33 Selenskyj appeals to Iran +++

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urges Iran to reconsider sending deadly drones to Russia. “What benefit does Iran get from such cynical killing? At Russian hands, but with your guns, your guns… Your shaheds terrorizing Ukraine every night only means that the Iranian people are delving deeper and deeper into the dark side of the history is driven,” says Zelenskyj in his nightly video address. “The simple question is: What is your interest in being an accomplice to Russian terror?” Iran initially denied supplying the Shahed drones to Russia, but later said it had provided a small number of them before the conflict began. According to Ukrainian information, the air defense systems have so far shot down between 900 and 1,160 of the kamikaze drones.

+++ 23:45 Zelenskyj: Delivery of F-16 will signal Russia’s defeat +++
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has high hopes for the prospect of US F-16 fighter jets. Not only would they strengthen the country’s defenses, they would also send a strong signal that Russia’s aggression would fail, Zelenskyy said in his evening video address. On the fringes of the G7 summit of leading democratic economic powers last week, US President Joe Biden basically cleared the way for a coalition of allies to deliver F-16 jets to Ukraine.

+++ 22:18 NYT: Ukraine could be behind the drone attack on the Kremlin +++
According to a report in the New York Times, the drone attack on the Kremlin in Moscow at the beginning of May may have been orchestrated by special Ukrainian military or intelligence units. According to the newspaper, US authorities came to this assessment in part through intercepted messages. However, the US intelligence services did not know which units could be responsible and whether Ukrainian President Zelenskyy or his top officials knew about it. The secret service officials therefore consider it rather unlikely that the Ukrainian government approved the drone attack. The “New York Times” cites information from US officials. According to the report, the Biden administration is concerned that Russia is blaming the US for attacks like the one on the Kremlin and is expanding the war beyond Ukraine.

+++ 21:39 Kiev: troops are slowly advancing near Bachmut – Russians are probably exchanging units +++
According to Hanna Maliar, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, Kiev’s troops are “gradually advancing” near Bakhmut, as she writes on Telegram. In addition, the Ukrainian defenders would still control part of a district in the south-west of the city. The Russian side recently claimed to have taken Bakhmut completely. According to Maliar, attacks in the city have decreased. “The enemy is changing his units,” she writes as a reason. In addition, the Russian forces would try to reinforce flanks. Outside of Bakhmut, Ukrainian troops have recently had some successes, while inside the city Kremlin troops are gaining the upper hand.

Read earlier developments here.

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