June 4, 2023
1. More Russian civilians killed by AFU attacks across the border
Kiev expands its attacks against civilians in Belgorod Region – the original Russian territory that has never been Ukrainian territory and has been historically controlled by the Russian Federation.
On June 1, the Russian military repelled an attempted incursion by Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) into Belgorod Region. Kiev was aiming to carry out a terrorist act against the civilian population of the town of Shebekino, the Russian Defense Ministry said. Two Ukrainian motorized infantry companies, reinforced by tanks, tried to cross into Russia, but suffered heavy losses and were pushed back, according to the ministry. Two fatalities amongst civilians were reported initially during this raid.
Shebekino with the population of 40,000 citizens, is located 4 km from Russian-Ukrainian border.That is why it is heavy shelled by AFU. During last 24 hours the city was shelled by 519 projectiles. What was shelled? Local market, shops, kindergarten. It is usual Ukrainian practice. There are no electricity and water supplies.
Novaya Tavolzhanka village was hit by 102 munitions, Murom village was shelled 59 times.
Three civilians were killed and several others injured, including a child, in the other Ukrainian shelling of the village of Sobolevka, also in Russia’s Belgorod Region on June 2, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov announced. A total of 11 projectiles from a Grad multiple rocket launcher were fired at Sobolevka, located some 14km from the border with Ukraine, he said. Two local men were killed outside their homes in the attack, while a woman who suffered penetrating wounds to her abdomen and chest died on the way to hospital, according to the governor. Seven residents of Sobolevka were also injured in the strike, all but one of whom required hospitalization, he added. An 11-year-old girl was among the wounded after receiving “a shrapnel injury to the left eye.”
Two women were killed in a separate attack on Shebekinsky District after shell fragments hit their car during a cross-border strike on a road in the village of Maslova Pristan. According to Gladkov, a total of eight civilians were also injured in Shebekinsky District. Several other settlements in the region, including its main city Belgorod, have also suffered property damage as result of Ukrainian shelling, the governor said.
Between June 1-4 AFU has intensified howitzers and MLRS employment against several populated areas in Belgorod Region. The frequent attacks prompted Gladkov to announce the evacuation of several hundreds of children (600) and adults from the areas closest to the border with Ukraine to other cities located deep inside Russia.
In Crimea, its AAD shot down five Ukrainian UAVs overnight to June 4, while four more were jammed by ECM systems, region’s head Sergey Aksyonov announced. Nobody was injured or killed.
The UNO, NATO, the EU, the OSCE do not realize that a long time ago AFU has converted itself into not a real army capable to fight with its opposite number,
but rather into a group of gangsters lusting for killing armless civilians,
including old people and small kids.
2. Kiev demanded extra $55 billion worth of weapons from NATO
Ukraine needs dozens of US-made Patriot air defense system batteries if it hopes to protect its infrastructure and troops on the battlefield against Russian air superiority, president Vladimir Zelensky told the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) in an interview published on June 3.
In the interview, he maintained that as many as 50 Patriot batteries would be needed to sufficiently protect Ukraine’s cities and its troops on the battlefield ahead of the much-touted counteroffensive. Each Patriot battery costs around $1.1 billion, according to estimates by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, cited by Forbes.
The total cost of Zelensky’s demand thus translates to a military aid package
worth $55 billion, which is more than the total amount of US military aid
allocated to Kiev thus far in 39 packages.
Washington has provided Ukraine with $37 billion worth of military assistance since its conflict with Russia escalated in February last year. This has included only two Patriot batteries so far. The Ukrainian Air Force confirmed that both went on combat duty in last April.
Two of the three Patriot systems in Ukraine have already been destroyed by Russia – each by a single shot. Any quantity of this system to be delivered by the USA to Kiev will be destroyed by Moscow, all Russian military experts claimed.
New arms supplies to Kiev by the West will further escalate tensions, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Rossiya-1 TV Channel on June 4. "Now we are already seeing that discussion begins about deliveries, for example, from France, Germany of missiles with a range of 500 or more kilometers. This is a qualitatively different weaponry, which will eventually, let's say, lead to another spiral of escalating tensions," the spokesman cautioned, answering questions from journalist Pavel Zarubin.
Russia will continue its Special Military Operation till its final goals are reached, Dmitry Peskov stressed.
Active Russian military resistance to Ukrainian-NATO aggression against Russia have managed to disrupt Kiev’s ‘counteroffensive’ actively announced almost every day by Zelensky since last January to mislead his bosses.
Recently, it was announced by high-ranking officials in Moscow that the production of ammunition for heavy weapons in Russia has been tripled. The task has been outlined that the quantity of hypersonic arms with a pin-point accuracy will be doubled soon.
Russia has intensified its massive air strikes with long-range precision weapons against enemy targets at military airfields, the Defense Ministry said on June 4, adding that all strikes were successful. Russian heavy strategic bombers equipped with a long-range missiles with a powerful conventional warheads capable to travel more than 5,000 km, have already fired them. "Last night, the Russian armed forces carried out a long-range high-precision air-launched group strike against enemy targets at military airfields. The purpose of the strike was achieved. Command and control posts, radar posts, Ukrainian aircraft, and storage facilities with weapons and ammunition were hit," the ministry said.
Many Russian politicians and military experts urged the MoD to raid all Ukrainian military airfields and landing strips of civilian airfields, without hitting passenger terminals and aircraft. The motto articulated by the supporters of such move is: “Let us leave AFU without their airfields and their Air Forces!”.
3. One more “peace plan” to defuse Ukrainian-NATO aggression
Prabowo Subianto, Indonesia’s Defense Minister, presented a new peace initiative on June 3 aimed at resolving the conflict in Ukraine where he urged military officials from around the world to issue a declaration calling for a cessation of hostilities.
Speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue defense meeting in Singapore, Prabowo shared his multi-point plan, which would include a ceasefire and the establishment of a demilitarized zone, with both Russia and Ukraine withdrawing 15km (nearly 10 miles) from their respective forward positions.
Russian Defense Minister emphasized that the demilitarized zone should be monitored by a United Nations peacekeeping force. Additionally, he suggested conducting a UN-sponsored referendum in the disputed territory to objectively determine the wishes of the majority of the inhabitants. He didn’t specify the regions to which he was referring.
During the same panel discussion, Josep Borrell, the High Representative and Vice President of the European Commission, acknowledged that ending military support for Ukraine would lead to a swift conclusion of the war – in several weeks. However, he cautioned against such a move, as it could result in the country’s sovereignty being compromised by external force.
In February this year, the PRC also put forward a 12-point peace plan for Ukraine. The document largely restated Beijing’s stated positions on the issue. The plan urged all parties involved to avoid any escalation. Notably, however, it did not propose or suggest the withdrawal of Russian forces from the region. Recently, China asked Kiev to recognize all former five Ukrainian territories that voluntarily joined Russia in 2014 and 2022 wishing no longer to stay with a dangerous, insecure and inhuman state.
There many ‘peace plans’ forged so far by a number of countries and individuals.
However, many of them do not provide the end of Ukrainian-NATO aggression against Russia, but rather seek to froze it and to secure Kiev’s extraordinary militarism and neo-Nazism that has undermined security in Europe and on the entire globe.
Written by Vladimir P. Kozin
