The Ukrainian presidency announced that President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a decree forming a council for the liberation of Crimea, while Chechnya announced sending a new batch of special forces to Ukraine.
Zelensky’s decision came in conjunction with the Ukrainian intelligence’s announcement of targeting a railway in the Crimea that is used to transport ammunition, equipment and Russian soldiers to continue what it described as aggression against the country.
On the other hand, the pro-Russian Crimean authorities announced the completion of maintenance work on the damaged railway between Simferopol and Sevastopol, provided that transport traffic will be fully resumed today, Friday, after the trains were suspended after a freight train derailed.
The Railway Authority indicated that the accident occurred due to acts of vandalism by unknown persons, while the Speaker of the Crimean Parliament held Ukraine responsible for the accident.
The Russian State Security Service had confirmed the opening of an investigation into the causes of the accident, provided that its results would be announced after the completion of the investigation.
The Russian delegate to the UN Security Council, Vasily Nebenzia, accused Western countries of complicity in committing what he described as war crimes, due to their continued supply of heavy weapons to Ukraine.
Nebenzia confirmed – during an open session of the UN Security Council, which Moscow called for to discuss Western arms supplies to Ukraine – that the West wants to achieve a strategic defeat for Russia.
On the other hand, Robert Wood, the US deputy representative to the UN Security Council, said that the weapons provided by Washington and Ukraine’s other friends are not a reason for Russia’s unjustified war on Ukraine to continue, as he put it.
An American error in estimating the value of weapons sent to Ukraine
In Washington, the Wall Street Journal quoted informed sources as saying that the US Department of Defense miscalculated the value of the weapons it sent to Ukraine by at least $3 billion.
According to the newspaper, had it not been for the error, the Pentagon would not have needed to ask Congress for more money for Kiev.
The American newspaper’s sources added that the error came because the Ministry of Defense unintentionally approved a higher value for some of the weapons it sent to Ukraine, as it relied on evaluations of new equipment instead of old equipment that was withdrawn from US stocks.
Defense officials said the calculations used for military aid ads since the error was discovered were all correct.
Chechen forces to the front lines
While the fighting continues in Ukraine amid a state of “intractability”, the President of the Russian Republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, announced the dispatch of additional forces of the 96th Regiment of the Russian National Guard to Ukraine, wishing all fighters a victorious and safe return.
Kadyrov wrote on “Telegram”: “He set out from Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, to the area of the Russian military operation led by Muhammed Toshaev, soldiers of one of the most combat-ready and effective units of the Russian 96th Operations Regiment,” according to Russian media.
Kadyrov added, “The regiment’s fighters will join their brothers who previously replaced their comrades in this mission, noting that most of them participated several times in special tasks within the framework of the Russian military operation.”
On the other hand, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised his soldiers, after the successes achieved by the Ukrainian forces in the fierce battles in the town of Bakhmut, located in the east of the country.
“First, the defensive brigades did a good job, and they carried out the most important strategic tasks,” he said in his Thursday evening video speech. “The offensive brigades are doing a good job,” he said.
He deliberately avoided giving any details of combat operations or any other steps he discussed with his military council. He also said that the Air Force and Air Defense Forces did an “excellent job” in protecting civilians.
Ukraine announces the destruction of Russian missiles
On the other hand, the Ukrainian Air Force announced Thursday that it shot down 29 of the 30 cruise missiles launched by Russia in a new night attack on Kiev and other Ukrainian regions, which resulted in at least one death in Odessa.
Politically, new US sanctions targeting the Russian “war machine” were announced on Friday as part of the G7 summit’s efforts in Japan to tighten the screws on Moscow, according to a senior US official.
This ninth series of Russian missile strikes targeting the capital, Kiev, especially since the beginning of May, comes at a time when Kiev says it is finalizing its preparations to launch a large-scale counterattack to remove Russian forces from Ukrainian territory.
During this latest “night attack”, Ukrainian forces succeeded in destroying “33 air targets, including 29 missiles and 4 drones,” said the commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, Mykola Oleshchuk.
But the Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed that it had “hit” and “destroyed” all its targets in the night strikes.
The ministry did not specify the targets that were bombed, but only said that it targeted “large warehouses of foreign weapons and equipment, as well as enemy reserves.”
The Civil and Military Administration in Kiev said the attacks launched by Russian forces since early May were “unprecedented in their strength, intensity and diversity”.
She added that Russian strategic bombers fired cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea, while reconnaissance marches flew over the capital at a later time. And she added, “All enemy targets were detected and destroyed in Kiev airspace.”
In the Black Sea port of Odessa, one person was killed and two wounded during an attack on an industrial site, according to an army spokesman.
The army spoke of “cruise missile” attacks in the Vinnytsia region in the center of the country, while local media reported explosions in Khmelnitsky, about 100 kilometers to the west.