Russian mercenary leader Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin said that almost all of his fighters had withdrawn from the captured Bahmut in eastern Ukraine. Prigozhin said that 99 percent of his troops had left the city. The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that the attack was carried out by the Chechen special forces group Ahmat near the city of Marinka in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. Russia's pro-Ukrainian Freedom Legion said it was fighting Russian troops across the Ukrainian border outside a village in Russia's Belgorod region. "We have an active battle on the outskirts of the village of Novaya Tavolzhanka [Belgorod Region]. Unfortunately, Legionnaires are injured, but freedom is won with blood," read the Legion's statement. Ukrainian forces in Kiev said they fired 36 Russian missiles and drones in and around the capital overnight, injuring two people from falling debris. , before authorities lifted air strike warnings across most of the country. Russia has launched about 20 missile and drone strikes against Kiev since the beginning of May. According to Russian authorities, two people were killed and six others were wounded in the Russian border region of Belgorod after firing from the Ukrainian side.Two children were injured. At least three people were killed and four others were injured, including a three-year-old girl, in a shooting of a Russian official in Donetsk in the Ukrainian city of Makiivka. Russian forces bombed the Kharkiv region, killing two and injuring four people, The Kyiv Independent reports. An official in the Russian city of Zaporizhia said Ukrainian forces fired on the Russian-controlled port city of Berdyansk, wounding at least nine people.
The governor of Ukraine's Zaporizhia region said at least two people were killed and four wounded in a Russian attack on a village, Russian officials said Ukrainian forces hit a "hospital camp" in the occupied part of the Zaporizhia region. He did not give details. Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy complained of problems in air raid shelters in Kiev after residents reported bunkers, locked bunkers and limited access. "Such indifference in the city cannot be justified," Zelenskyy said, ordering the government to address the problem. Ukrainian police have arrested four people as they investigate the deaths of three civilians locked in air raid shelters during the Russian invasion. A nine-year-old girl, her mother and another woman were killed by falling debris after they rushed to a shelter in Kiev to find it closed.
DIPLOMACY
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US would not support peace talks in the war in Ukraine until Kiev gains the upper hand, possibly after a counter-offensive in Ukraine. Blinken said continuing negotiations between Russia and others, including China, aimed at a ceasefire and an end to the war will lead to a "Potemkin peace" that will not protect Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity or improve European security. Zelensky said he knew it would be "impossible" for 
Ukraine to join the NATO military alliance in the middle of a war. He said that Ukraine's accession to the alliance is still the best security guarantee. "And that's why we understand that we will not be a member of NATO during this war. Not because we don't want to. Because it's impossible." Russian President Vladimir Putin said "evil forces" were stepping up efforts to destabilize Russia, and he urged members of his government not to allow it under any circumstances. Putin said Russia's Security Council was discussing a security guarantee among the country's 190. ethnic groups. China's ambassador to Ukraine appealed to the government to "stop sending weapons to the battlefield" and start peace negotiations. "China believes that if we really want to end the war, save lives and achieve peace, it is it is important for us to stop sending weapons to the battlefield, otherwise tensions will only increase," Li Hui said.
AIDS
Switzerland's parliament rejected an exemption for arms shipments to Ukraine after a majority of MPs voted against a proposal that would have allowed other countries to supply Ukraine with Swiss-made weapons. The laws of neutral Switzerland prohibit support for countries engaged in hostilities. Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said training of Ukrainian forces to use Abrams tanks had begun.
POLITICS
Polish President Andrzej Duda took after critics, including the European Union and the United States, raised concerns about a new law creating an agency to investigate "Russian influence".
Source: Aljazeera
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