President Putin says Russia is ready for dialogue

Russian President receives delegation of African leaders.

Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted leaders from several African countries in St. Petersburg on June 17, following a meeting between the delegation and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv the previous day.

President Putin met with a delegation of African leaders in St. Petersburg on June 17.

According to Reuters, Putin told African leaders that Russia welcomed their balanced approach to the conflict in Ukraine and was ready for dialogue.

"We are ready for constructive dialogue with all those who desire peace based on principles such as fairness and consideration of the legitimate interests of all parties," Putin said after the meeting.

Leaders from South Africa, Senegal, Egypt, Zambia, Uganda, the Republic of Congo, and Comoros met with Putin at the Konstantinovsky Palace in St. Petersburg.

Comoros President Azali Assoumani, the current chair of the African Union, encouraged Putin to engage in negotiations to end the conflict with Ukraine.

In Kyiv on June 16, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa presented a "peace plan." According to this plan, both Russia and Ukraine would de-escalate hostilities, exchange prisoners, return children abducted from Ukraine, and allow the free export of grain and fertilizers to the world market.

However, in a joint press conference, Zelensky said he did not understand the "roadmap" proposed by African leaders, according to Reuters. At the same time, the Ukrainian president reiterated his position that Kyiv would only sit at the negotiating table after Moscow completely withdraws its troops from Ukraine.

Ukraine claims to have achieved a "tactical victory".

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on June 17 that the country's military is "actively" stepping up its counteroffensive in the south.

"In fact, in all the areas and directions where our units are advancing in the south, they are achieving tactical victories. They are steadily advancing. We have now advanced an additional 2 km in each direction," she said on Telegram.

On the eastern front, Maliar said Russian forces were trying to dislodge Ukrainian forces from established positions.

Earlier, Maliar revealed that the focus of the battlefield was shifting southward. She stated that the most intense fighting was no longer taking place around the city of Bakhmut (in the Donetsk region) but in areas closer to the Black Sea, particularly towards the two coastal cities of Berdyansk (in the Zaporizhzhia region) and Mariupol (in the Donetsk region), according to The Guardian.

In an intelligence update on Twitter that same day, the British Ministry of Defence stated that Russia had reinforced its attack helicopter forces in southern Ukraine since Kyiv began its counteroffensive. Images obtained by the British military showed that Russia had deployed an additional 20 helicopters to Berdyansk airfield.

British defense intelligence also believes that Russia is gaining a temporary advantage in southern Ukraine, particularly with attack helicopters using long-range missiles to target ground objectives.

Counterattack

A missile attack on a small village in the Kharkiv province of northeastern Ukraine on June 17 killed two people, according to the province's governor, Oleh Synehubov.

On Telegram, Synehubov accused the Russian military of shelling the village of Huryiv Kozachok and claimed that a guided anti-tank missile struck a car heading toward the village near the border with Russia, Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, on the same day, Alexander Bogomaz, the governor of Russia's Bryansk province, said that his country's air defense units had repelled a Ukrainian drone attack on a pumping station on the Druzhba oil pipeline. He stated that three Ukrainian military drones were destroyed in the attack.

Kyiv and Moscow did not immediately comment on each other's accusations.

Is Russia increasing the number of dolphins protecting its Black Sea Fleet?

Russia appears to have doubled the number of dolphins trained to protect its Black Sea Fleet based in Crimea from Ukrainian attacks.

In a new analysis published in Naval News , the official newspaper of the Royal Navy, author H.I. Sutton notes that the number of dolphins being trained at Sevastopol port has recently doubled, from 3 or 4 to 6 or 7. Sutton is an expert on submarines and underwater systems and technologies.

Sevastopol is a major port and the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. The city is located at the southern tip of the Crimean Peninsula.

Russian Defense Minister calls for increased tank production.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on June 17 called for the production of more tanks "to meet the needs of Russian forces" in Ukraine as Kyiv launched a counteroffensive with Western weapons, according to AFP.

Shoigu, who visited a military plant in western Siberia, stressed the need to "maintain increased tank production" and improved security features in armored vehicles, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Minister Shoigu emphasized that this was necessary "to meet the needs of Russian forces carrying out the special military operation" launched by Moscow in Ukraine last February.

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