Kiev talks about the operation in Bakhmut, Russia attacks the city in the Central region, announces the shooting down of 5 UAVs in Crimea

On June 4, Ukraine reported that Russian missiles had struck an airport near the city of Kropyvnytskyi in central Ukraine.

(05.22) Một binh sĩ thuộc Tập đoàn quân sự tư nhân Wagner tuần tra tại Bakhmut. (Nguồn: RIA Novosti)

Situation in Ukraine: Kiev talks about the operation in Bakhmut, Russian forces announced shooting down 5 UAVs in Crimea. Photo: Soldiers of the Wagner Private Military Group patrol in Bakhmut. (Source: RIA Novosti)

Speaking on television, Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ignat said Russia had deployed "six missiles and five drones."

Unfortunately, not all of them were destroyed. Of the 6 UAVs, 4 were shot down by air defenses and 2 hit the airfield near Kropyvnytskyi.

Kropyvnytskyi is a small city in the Kirovohrad region of central Ukraine, south of the capital Kyiv.

The attack comes amid increased Russian airstrikes on Ukraine, with the capital Kyiv under attack for several consecutive days this week. The conflict, which has lasted more than 15 months, has escalated as Kyiv announced its forces were preparing for a major counterattack. Several Russian border villages were also subjected to heavy shelling this week.

* Earlier that day, the Ukrainian Armed Forces announced that although fighting in Bakhmut had recently eased, clashes around the devastated city in eastern Ukraine continued, with Moscow suffering significant losses.

In its daily report, Ukraine's top military command said Russian troops carried out two unsuccessful operations around Bakhmut and carried out several airstrikes and artillery shelling of nearby villages.

On June 3, the head of Russia's private military group Wagner revealed that 99% of his fighters had left Bakhmut after a months-long offensive in the longest and bloodiest battle of the Ukraine conflict.

Kiev said late last month that fighting had eased in the area, but Ukrainian ground forces commander General Oleksandr Syrskyi said Ukrainian forces continued to fight in the flashpoint.

* Meanwhile, the head of the Russian-backed Crimean government, Sergei Aksyonov, said on June 4 that five unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were shot down and four were stuck and failed to hit their targets in the city of Dzhankoi in Crimea.

Mr Aksyonov said there were no casualties, but windows in some houses were broken. He added that an unexploded drone was found on the ground of a residential house, forcing the temporary evacuation of about 50 people in the area.

Russia has an air base near Dzhankoi. Ukrainian officials have long claimed that the city and surrounding areas have become Moscow's largest military base in Crimea.

* Earlier, Ukraine confirmed that it had stopped the airstrike on Kiev. Officials in the Ukrainian capital Kiev announced that Russia had launched an airstrike on the country in the early morning of June 4, but air defense systems in Kiev repelled all missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) approaching the city.

On the Telegram application, the head of the Kiev military administration Serhiy Popko stated: "According to preliminary information, not a single air target reached the capital. Air defense forces destroyed everything heading towards the city from a distance."

The whole of Ukraine was on airstrike alert for almost 3 hours. On Ukrainian social media, there were unconfirmed reports of explosions recorded in Kryvyi Rih, near the city of Kropyvnitskyi and Sumy.

Russia has repeatedly attacked Kiev since May, mostly at night, ahead of a long-planned Ukrainian counter-offensive to retake the territory, in what Ukrainian officials say is an attempt to stoke tensions among civilians.

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