Chechen soldiers defend Belgorod; Kiev announces new progress

US general confident in counter-offensive, Swiss parliamentarian reacts unexpectedly to Zelensky's statement, are some of the latest news on the situation in Ukraine.

(06.16) Tổng thống Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky phát biểu trực tuyến trước Quốc hội Thụy Sĩ ngày 15/6, kêu gọi Bern nới lỏng xuất khẩu vũ khí tới Kiev. (Nguồn: Getty Images)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the Swiss Parliament online on June 15, calling on Bern to ease arms exports to Kiev. (Source: Getty Images)

On June 15, writing on Telegram , the head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov said that soldiers of the Chechen battalion “West-Akhmat” of the Russian Defense Ministry began to participate in the fight against sabotage groups from Ukraine in the Belgorod region of Russia. According to Mr. Kadyrov, Chechen soldiers are at the checkpoint near Nekhoteevka and are assigned to the checkpoint near the village of Kazinka, in the direction of Graivoron, the areas that were attacked earlier.

Meanwhile, RIA (Russia) reported that the Ministry of Defense announced that its forces had successfully attacked unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) production facilities in Ukraine with long-range, high-precision weapons.

For its part, TASS quoted the Ministry as saying that Russian air defenses intercepted five missiles launched by the US-made HIMARS system and shot down 25 UAVs.

* On June 15, speaking at a press conference, Ukrainian Brigadier General Oleksii Hromov announced that Kiev had regained control of more than 100 square kilometers ^{of territory} in the recent offensive. Mr. Hromov emphasized: “We are ready to continue fighting to liberate our territory, even with our bare hands.”

He confirmed that the first stage of the counter-offensive began last week. Currently, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (VSU) have taken control of seven settlements in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, and Zaporizhzhia region.

In addition, the country's military officials said that the VSU advanced 3 km near the village of Mala Tokmachka, Zaporizhzhia and 7 km near a village south of Velyka Novosilka, Donetsk.

* Assessing the new developments in this counterattack, speaking to reporters at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) headquarters in Brussels on June 15, General Mark Milley, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that Ukraine had attacked and was making steady progress. He highly appreciated the leadership, skills and spirit of the Ukrainian forces.

At the same time, General Milley said there was a lack of consistency in the leadership of the Russian military, the morale of the Russian military was low and they were in defensive positions. However, he also said that this would be a very difficult period and that Ukraine could lose a considerable amount of time, at a very high price.

* Also on June 15, the US, UK, Netherlands and Denmark issued a joint statement emphasizing that they will cooperate to provide air defense equipment, including hundreds of missiles, to Ukraine. The joint statement provided by London said that the transfer of the above equipment batch has taken place and will be completed “within a few weeks”.

Meanwhile, the German daily Handelsblatt cited NATO sources as saying that Ukraine will receive an additional 14 Leopard-2 battle tanks worth 3 million EUR from its Western partners, funded by Denmark and the Netherlands. According to the news, these tanks will be supplied and refurbished by the German defense group Rheinmetall.

* In related news, on June 15, many right-wing members of the Swiss Parliament did not attend the session that day to listen to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's online speech calling on Bern to export weapons to Kiev.

Accordingly, many members of the Swiss People's Party refused to attend the above event, in protest of the action of "interference in internal affairs". MP Alfred Heer of this party said: "We understand that the President of Ukraine wants us to help them defend. However, we cannot put ourselves under pressure due to issues related to sanctions or arms transfers."

For his part, writing on Twitter , Congressman Thomas Aeschi stated: “I object to the speech of the President of Ukraine in the House of Representatives. Ukraine is trying to directly influence our Congress to make decisions on the transfer of weapons or ammunition. If we do so, we will violate our neutrality policy.”

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