Liveblog: ++ Apparently power plant in Belgorod on fire ++

A power complex is said to be on fire in the Belgorod region of Russia after a drone strike. Mercenary chief Prigozhin accuses the Russian army of mining retreat routes. All developments in the live blog.

The Russian military has launched a new naval maneuver in the Baltic Sea. The exercise will involve 40 ships, 25 fighter jets and more than 3,500 soldiers, the Russian Baltic Fleet said. “As part of the maneuver, tasks related to the defense of maritime communications and fleet bases will be trained,” says the press release. The naval exercise is scheduled to last until June 15.

In addition to the Baltic Fleet, the Pacific Fleet has also set out on a major maneuver. According to the Pacific Fleet press service, more than 60 ships, 35 fighter jets and helicopters and more than 11,000 soldiers are taking part in the exercise in the Seas of Japan and Okhotsk.

Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, entrusted by Pope Francis with a peace mission, travels to Kiev this Monday. As the Vatican announced, the head of the Italian Bishops’ Conference and Archbishop of Bologna should discuss “possible ways to a just peace” with the Ukrainian government and talk about “humanitarian gestures” that “can help to reduce tensions”. The visit is said to last until Tuesday. At the end of May, the Pope appointed Zuppi to head a Vatican peace mission. Their goal is to reduce tensions between Kiev and Moscow and to show ways to peace. It is not yet known if and when the cardinal will also travel to Moscow. The 67-year-old is closely linked to the community of Sant’Egidio, which has repeatedly worked for the Vatican in delicate mediating roles in international conflicts.

According to British intelligence services, Russia carried out more than 300 attacks with so-called kamikaze drones against targets in Ukraine in May. That was the “most intensive use of this weapon” so far, said the Ministry of Defense in London. Russia is probably trying to get Ukraine to use valuable, modern anti-aircraft missiles. But it is unlikely that Russia was particularly successful. Ukraine neutralized at least 90 percent of incoming drones, mainly with its older and cheaper anti-aircraft weapons and electronic jammers.

The same applies to another likely Russian target: attacks on Ukrainian forces far behind the front lines. “However, due to its poor target acquisition processes, Russia remains very inefficient when it comes to hitting such dynamic targets from a distance,” it said.

According to the Ukrainian military, it has advanced further near Bakhmut. The armed forces managed to destroy a Russian position near the city, ground forces commander Olexandr Syrskji said on Telegram. “We keep advancing.” Syrskji does not respond to statements by the Russian Defense Ministry that its own troops have thwarted a major Ukrainian offensive in southern Donetsk. The destroyed Bakhmut is located in Donetsk Oblast in eastern Ukraine.

According to the governor, two drones have crashed in the Russian region of Kaluga. Vladislav Schapscha reported on Telegram that they fell on a freeway. “There was no detonation of explosives, the area was cordoned off.” The incident happened around 280 to 300 kilometers from the capital Moscow. Kaluga Oblast (territory) lies west of Moscow Oblast, but does not share a border with Ukraine. Both are in the larger Central Russia region.

A week before the major “Air Defender 2023” military exercise, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius emphasized the importance of the Luftwaffe maneuvers for the security of Germany and its allies. “Of course we are doing everything we can to keep the effects on the population and civil air traffic as low as possible. We have been coordinating this very closely with everyone involved for months,” said the SPD politician on the sidelines of a trip to Asia to the German press conference Agency.

From June 12 to June 23, 25 nations with 250 aircraft and 10,000 soldiers are taking part in the “Air Defender” exercise under German leadership. NATO is involved. “With Air Defender 2023′ as the largest air force deployment exercise since NATO was founded, we are strengthening the alliance and transatlantic relations. Together with our allies, we are showing that we can defend alliance territory quickly and effectively,” said Pistorius.

In the Russian region of Belgorod, according to the region’s governor, a power plant caught fire in a drone attack. “One of the power plants in the Belgorod region is on fire. The preliminary cause of the fire was an explosive device dropped from a drone,” writes Vyacheslav Gladkov on the news app Telegram. “There were no injuries.”

The head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has again raised serious allegations against the regular Russian army. In mid-May, soldiers mined a road on which his fighters wanted to drive out of the city of Bakhmut, which has since been conquered in eastern Ukraine, Prigozhin said on Telegram in the evening. He also published a document that is supposed to be an operational log from mid-May and in which there is also talk of exchanges of fire between Wagner mercenaries and soldiers. These allegations could not be verified. The Ministry of Defense in Moscow did not comment.

Prigozhin made similar allegations a few days ago. The US Institute for War Studies (ISW) sees it as a possible attempt by the 62-year-old to divert attention from recent tensions between his troops and fighters of Chechnya’s ruler Ramzan Kadyrov through the dispute with the Defense Ministry.

According to Russia, it has foiled a major Ukrainian offensive in the southern Ukrainian region of Donetsk. Ukraine opened the offensive on Sunday with six armored and two armored battalions, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

The alleged offensive began on Sunday morning on five front sections, it said. The Ukrainian armed forces lost more than 250 soldiers. The information could not be independently verified. Initially, there was no comment from Kiev.

Over the weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine was ready for a counteroffensive to recapture Russian-occupied territories.