25 June 2023
War
This year of war should be a turning point, and the Ukrainian Armed Forces should win this war because they are fighting for their country, Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov has said in an interview with Fox News.
In a phone conversation US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Reznikov discussed the Ukrainian counteroffensive and further steps to strengthen the army. "Things are moving in the right action," he said.
Russian troops targeted Ukrainian positions in the Maryinka sector by deploying a prohibited chemical munition, specifically an aerosol suffocating agent, Valeriy Shershen, the spokesperson for the Tavriya Defence Forces, said, noting that the wind carried the chemical towards the enemy.
Last night, Russia used six S-300 anti-aircraft guided missiles against civilian targets in Zaporizhzhya Region. It conducted 25 air strikes during the day, and fired more than 30 times from multiple launch rocket systems, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said.
Russia continues to focus its main efforts on the Lyman, Bakhmut and Maryinka sectors, where over 20 combat engagements took place over the day.
Wagner
The situation in the northern operational zone remains stable and under control, with no build-up of enemy forces observed, the commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Lt-Gen Serhiy Nayev, has said commenting on reports of the possible participation of the Wagner PMC in an attack on Ukraine from Belarus.
The march to Moscow by Wagner PMC founder Yevgeny Prigozhin has so far become a nonlethal "knife in the back" for the Putin regime and the first stage in the dismantling of Putin's system, National Security and Defence Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov tweeted.
Prigozhin's attempted coup shows "there is no master in the house" in Russia, therefore it does not make any sense for Ukraine to hold negotiations with the Kremlin regime, according to an adviser to the presidential chief of staff, Mykhaylo Podolyak.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau discussed the Russian coup attempt and its impact on the front-line situation in Ukraine.
Occupied nuclear power plant
Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov told The New Statesman that the cooling pond of the occupied Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant has been mined by Russian troops. He believes Russia would be able to raise the voltage in the power supply lines to the plant, bringing about a nuclear accident at the lower end of that time frame. "Technical means could be used to speed up the catastrophe," he added. Ukrainian military intelligence has also been able to establish that Russian troops have moved vehicles charged with explosives to four of the six power units.
Death toll in Kyiv attack rises
Two more bodies were recovered from under the rubble of a block of flats hit by Russian missile debris in Kyiv's Solomyanskyy district in the early hours of 24 June. The initial death toll stood at three people.
Environment
As of today, the Dnipro River in Kherson returned to its normal course, with a water level of 0.33 m, according to the Baltic system, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources said. "The level has dropped by 4 cm over the day, with a total drop of 5.35 m since the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station was blown up," it explained.