June 5, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Russia flew a cruise missile “critically low” over the South Ukrainian Nuclear Power Plant on Sunday, Ukraine’s state-run nuclear power station operator Energoatom said.

Energoatom said that Russian forces “still do not understand that even the smallest fragment of a missile that can hit a working power unit can cause a nuclear catastrophe and radiation leak.”

Russian troops continue to “storm” the city of Severodonetsk in eastern Ukraine, and they are “controlling the eastern part of the city,” Serhiy Hayday, the head of Luhansk regional military administration said on Sunday.

Russian forces are also “focusing on offensive operations to surround our troops” in Severodonetsk and neighboring Lysychansk, and to “block the main logistics routes,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a separate update on Sunday.

Around 40 kilometers (24 miles) southwest of Severodonetsk, Russia is also trying to “lead an offensive in the direction of Nyrkove – Mykolaivka,” Hayday said.

In Severodonetsk's industrial area: Russia again attacked the Azot chemical factory complex with “artillery shelling,” Hayday said, damaging one of the buildings.

Last Tuesday, a Russian air strike hit a tank of nitric acid at the factory and on Thursday, troops fired at the complex and hit an administrative building and a warehouse. Hayday said 800 people are currently sheltering in several Soviet-era bomb shelters underneath the factory. 

In the Hirske area: About 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of Severodonetsk, “significant damage” was sustained to 13 buildings.

Five buildings were also damaged in Lysychansk, the city next to Severodonetsk.

In Luhansk and Donetsk: In the past 24 hours, “five enemy attacks have been repulsed” and Ukrainian troops have destroyed “three tanks, four artillery systems, eleven armored combat vehicles and twenty-six vehicles,” Hayday said. Air defense units also shot down a Ka-52 combat helicopter and two Orlan-10 UAVs, he added.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said one person has been hospitalized after multiple explosions hit the capital on Sunday morning local time.

He said the city’s services are still operating in the affected areas. 

Several explosions were reported around the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv at dawn on Sunday local time. 

"A few blasts in the Darnytskyi and Dniprovskyi districts of Kyiv. The services are already working on site. More detailed information later," said Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko on Telegram.

A CNN journalist who saw the aftermath of the explosions said one north-east of Kyiv sent a thick column of smoke into the sky.  

There were also reports of missile strikes around the port city of Odesa early Sunday. 

The Russian state news agency TASS said five civilians were killed on Saturday as a result of multiple explosions close to the city of Donetsk. Meanwhile, hundreds of people are fleeing the eastern city of Sloviansk daily.

Here are the latest developments on the war in Ukraine:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian artillery has "destroyed" 113 churches during "the full-scale war" with Ukraine.

Earlier Saturday, CNN reported All Saints Church in Sviatohirsk Lavra was "destroyed" by Russian shelling.

Zelensky noted in his address it is "not the first shelling of the Lavra," and "three Lavra monks were killed by the Russian shelling on Wednesday. Worship services are forced to be held in the basement."

According to the President, the sounds of incoming Russian artillery are "constant" in the Lavra.

Zelensky pointed out Sviatohirsk Lavra "belongs to Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is still considered in Moscow to be connected with the Russian Orthodox Church, but even this does not stop the Russian army."

In the light of "the support of the Orthodox hierarchs in Russia for the aggression against Ukraine," Zelensky called on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church "to draw conclusions."

The Russian state news agency TASS said five civilians were killed and 20 were injured Saturday as a result of multiple explosions close to the city of Donetsk by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

The city is held by the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, but is rarely shelled by Ukrainian forces.

Ukrainian officials have not commented on the explosions. 

The DPR said on its Telegram channel 10 Grad rockets had been fired at the Kirov district of the city. The headquarters of the Territorial Defense of the DPR said, "as a result of the shelling in Donetsk, the number of wounded increased to 10 people."

Oleksii Reznikov, the Ukrainian Defense Minister, said it is "hard to predict when the war will end, but my optimistic projection is that it may end by the end of the year."

Reznikov was speaking at the GLOBSEC-2022 forum in Bratislava in Slovakia.

He said Ukrainian defense forces still "need heavy weapons, primarily MLRS, as well as other artillery, tanks, anti-ship systems, unmanned systems, missiles and air defenses."

"We need them quickly and in quantities commensurate with the scale of the threats. Ukraine found itself in a state of war without adequate support from the democratic world," he said.

"In the Kherson region, the Russian army is building a deeply echeloned defense. Our goal is to prevent Russian scenarios from being realized and to liberate our territories as soon as possible," he said.

The Russian army is "throwing all its reserves into" capturing the city of Severodonetsk in the eastern Luhansk region, according to Serhiy Hayday, the head of the regional military administration.

"They had previously managed to capture most of the city, but now our military has pushed them back," Hayday told Ukrainian television, claiming the Russians are "suffering huge losses."

Hayday also said Chechen forces who appear to have thought the battle was won had entered the city.

Earlier Saturday, Hayday said Ukraine now controls about half of Severodonetsk. He was responding to a question about the latest UK intelligence assessment, which had predicted Russia would control all of the Luhansk region within two weeks.

The humanitarian situation is difficult in the area, he added.

"Even in Lysychansk, we are shelled, but daily we continue to transport humanitarian goods by trucks. We may even evacuate people, but quietly, without publicity, because the Russian army is shooting at evacuation buses," Hayday claimed.

Oleksandr Striuk, head of the Severodonetsk military administration, said late Saturday that street battles continue in the city, and "our military is doing everything to drive the enemy out of the city."

Striuk said that residential areas of the city are now "divided in half." 

"Street battles are being fought, which is accompanied by constant artillery shelling. The situation is quite tense, but there is hope and confidence in our armed forces that everything will work out. The city remains Ukrainian,” he said.

He said there had been about 13,000 people in the city before it was stormed by Russian troops, but some had been "forcibly removed to the occupied territory."