On Tuesday, June 7, there are reports of towns outside the frontline being hit from artillery weapons and mortars. In the Donbas, Ukrainian forces have lost the part of the city of Severodonetsk they had recaptured. In the south, the invaders have hit Ukraine’s second largest grain terminal. As to weapon deliveries, Lithuanians vote on the name their Bayraktar combat drone to be donated to Ukraine should carry, according to Ukrinform, the Institute for the Study of War and Nexta TV.
Early on Tuesday, populated places in Ukraine were hit with artillery and mortar fire, according to regional military administrations as quoted by Ukrinform. In the northern Sumy Region, shells hit the city of Seredyna-Buda damaging setting alight six detached houses, a household building and a garage. A power transmission line was also damaged, but the attack did not result in casualties among civilians, according to preliminary situation.
To the east from the Sumy Region, the invaders were blamed for opening fire on Kharkiv’s Kyivskyi District, having caused a fire in a residential house. One person was rescued from under the rubble. An administrative building also caught fire, but no casualties were reported. Over the past day, four civilians have been injured in Kharkiv Region. Two people were killed in Derhachi and Chornohlazivka.
In the south, in the Mykolaiv Region, Russian troops shelled the Bashtanka settlement, killing two civilians were killed and one injured. The premises of district military administration and district council, city council, stadium and sports school were damaged, according to the regional military administration and Ukrinform.
In the southern Kherson Region, Russian forces continued to shell the temporarily occupied areas with artillery dire as they seek to regain control over the areas liberated by Ukrainian troops. The situation is especially difficult in Beryslav District’s populated areas as humanitarian aid cannot be delivered there. In the neighbouring Dnipropetrovsk Region, invaders were blamed for shelling a local community at the border with Kherson Region with the Uragan multiple launch rocket systems, leaving one person injured and houses damaged, according to the regional military administration and Ukrinform.
Situation in the Donbas sector increasingly difficult
Ukrainian forces outnumbered by the invading troops and facing Russian artillery and air power superiority lost the previously recaptured parts of the destroyed industrial city of Severodonetsk in the Luhansk Region. The invaders were also advancing from Popasna in Luhansk Region and Izyum in the Kharkiv Region.
The Luhansk Regional Military Administration stated on Tuesday morning that battles for Severodonetsk were raging. Russian troops were blamed for s shelled a market, mining college and school in Lysychansk, leaving two persons injured. Rescuers had been extinguishing fire at the market within an area of 1,000 square meters for several hours. The extensive fire was opened on Zolote, near Popasna, destroying 13 houses. On June 6, 2022, Russians shelled Hirske, causing damage to 11 houses. Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces repulsed attacks in the direction of Novookhtyrka and Voronove. Near Bilohorivka.
South-westwards from the Luhansk Region, Russian troops were reported to be firing along the front line with small arms, tanks, artillery, mortars, such multiple-launch rocket systems as Grad, Smerch and Uragan. The Russian military was blamed for firing missiles on Kurakhove and Avdiivka, shelling Mykolaivka with cluster munitions. As to civilian casualties over the past day in the Donetsk Regio, three civilians have been killed, including a child, and six injured, including two children.
Attack on grain terminal and Ukraine’s refusal to Belarus route
In the EU, its High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell Fontelles, blamed Russia for destroying a key grain terminal. «Another Russian missile strike contributing to the global food crisis. Russian forces have destroyed the second biggest grain terminal in Ukraine, in Mykolaiv. In light of such reports, the disinformation spread by Putin deflecting blame becomes ever more cynical,».
Russian President Vladimir Putin had called a «bluff» the fact that Russia hinders the grain exports from Ukraine, provoking a food crisis, and pointed out possible export options. Putin had evaluated that the simplest and cheapest option was the export through Belarus.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected this option, saying that Ukraine was not ready to consider the option of grain exports through Belarus. «As for the Belarusians, this is open information. We were offered to go through Belarus by rail. Yes. We understand what the volume is. We understand, why we were offered this. We are not ready to work in this format and help our «friendly» neighbours,» Zelenskyy said to journalists on June 6.
Watch Zelenskyy’s latest video address.
How to call combat drone donated in fundraiser?
As Lithuania prepares to organise sending a Bayraktar combat drone to Ukraine after people donated 5,9 million euros in a fundraiser, a vote to pick a name for it is taking place.
Laisves TV anchor Andrius Tapinas, involved in the fundraiser, stated on Twitter: «Lithuanians were voting to choose the name for our Bayraktar. Current front runners: Vanagas (Hawk in English, also codename of our prominent resistance leader [Adolfas Ramanauskas (1918-1957)] – 19 300 votes, Peace Дец (a call for peace) – 17 200 votes».
Reportedly, the maker of Bayraktar drones, Baykar Makina Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş., announced last week that the drone would be donated to Ukraine and asked the donated money to be sent to Ukraine for humanitarian purposes.