{"id":22982,"date":"2022-06-05T07:02:08","date_gmt":"2022-06-05T07:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=22982"},"modified":"2022-06-05T08:23:00","modified_gmt":"2022-06-05T08:23:00","slug":"russia-ukraine-war-explosions-shake-kyiv-ukraine-counterattacks-have-blunted-russian-gains-macron-infamous-comment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2022\/06\/05\/russia-ukraine-war-explosions-shake-kyiv-ukraine-counterattacks-have-blunted-russian-gains-macron-infamous-comment\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia-Ukraine War: explosions shake Kyiv; Ukraine counterattacks have blunted Russian gains, Macron infamous comment"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"liveblog-body\" class=\"js-liveblog-body dcr-1kp3p5o\">\n<article id=\"block-629c25aa8f08c28a9854ccba\" class=\"block false dcr-f3pcia\">\n<p class=\"dcr-xry7m2\">If you\u2019re just waking up, or just dropping in to find the latest information, here\u2019s a summary of the main points of the past few hours.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"dcr-xry7m2\">\n<li><strong>Powerful explosions were heard early on Sunday in Kyiv<\/strong>, a Reuters witness said. Smoke was seen in the Ukrainian capital following the explosions. Earlier, air raid sirens were going off across much of Ukraine, including in the Kyiv region.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ukrainian forces have been managing to\u00a0push back against Russian troops in fierce fighting in Sievierodonetsk\u00a0despite Moscow \u201cthrowing all its power\u201d into capturing the key eastern city<\/strong>, Ukrainian officials said on Saturday<strong>.\u00a0<\/strong>In an interview aired online, the Luhansk regional governor, Sergiy Gaiday, said the Russian army has taken control over most of Sievierodonetsk, but that Ukrainian forces were still pushing them back.<\/li>\n<li><strong>But the Russian army claimed some Ukrainian military units have been withdrawing from Sievierodonetsk.\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cSome units of the Ukrainian army, having suffered critical losses during fighting for Sievierodonetsk, are pulling out towards Lysychansk\u201d, Sievierodonetsk\u2019s twin city, which sits just across a river, the defence ministry said in a statement.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has said Moscow\u2019s anti-aircraft forces have shot down dozens of Ukrainian weapons and are \u201ccracking them like nuts\u201d<\/strong>, in an interview that aired on Saturday.<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>According to Reuters, Russian news agency RIA, which first cited the comments, quoted Putin as responding to a question about US-supplied arms by saying Russia was coping easily and had already destroyed the weapons by the dozen.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Kyiv has rebuked the French president, Emmanuel Macron, for\u00a0saying it was important not to \u201chumiliate Russia\u201d<\/strong>. The Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, tweeted in response: \u201cCalls to avoid humiliation of Russia can only humiliate France and every other country that would call for it. Because it is Russia that humiliates itself. We all better focus on how to put Russia in its place. This will bring peace and save lives.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>Western sanctions would not have an effect on Russia\u2019s oil exports, the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said.\u00a0<\/strong>Lavrov also predicted a significant increase in profits from energy shipments this year, Russian news agency Tass reported.<\/li>\n<li><strong>A EU<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/live\/2022\/jun\/04\/russia-ukraine-war-latest-ukrainians-fight-back-sievierodonetsk-putin-macron-africans-victims-food-shortages-zelenskiy-eu?page=with:block-629b96f78f084d9060b74d1f#block-629b96f78f084d9060b74d1f\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">\u00a0<\/a>decision to extend sanctions against Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko to his wife is \u201cirrational\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0because she has never held Russian citizenship or resided in Russia, a representative for the couple said.<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>The EU sanctioned Melnichenko\u2019s wife on Friday as part of a sixth round of sanctions against Russia for waging a war against Ukraine.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Negotiations with Russia will only resume after new weapons arrive from the west and Ukraine\u2019s position is \u201cstrengthened\u201d<\/strong>, said David Arakhamia, a member of Ukraine\u2019s negotiation group with Russia.<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Another negotiator, Mykhailo Podolyak, said there was no point in talks with Russia until Moscow\u2019s forces are pushed back as far as possible towards Ukraine\u2019s borders.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ukraine\u2019s intelligence services are in communication with hundreds of captured Azovstal steelworks fighters<\/strong>\u00a0and Kyiv is doing all it can to ensure their release, according to Ukraine\u2019s interior minister, Denys Monastyrskiy.<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Ukraine wants the fighters to be returned in a prisoner swap. However, some Russian officials have said forces could be tried or executed.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The US expressed support for international investigations into war crimes committed in Ukraine, the US embassy in Kyiv announced. \u201c<\/strong>Those responsible for war crimes \u2013 including direct perpetrators and those who ordered them \u2013 must face justice,\u201d the embassy tweeted on Saturday.<\/li>\n<li><strong>A famous monastery in eastern Ukraine, Svyatohirsk Lavra, caught fire after it was hit by Russian shelling.\u00a0<\/strong>The monastery is affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate, which is run by Putin\u2019s ally Patriarch Kirill. There were reports that four monks were killed as a result of the attack .<\/li>\n<li><strong>The Ukrainian first lady, Olena Zelenska, and other officials commemorated 261 children killed by the Russian war against Ukraine by hanging bells near St Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv.\u00a0<\/strong>The bells symbolise the voices of killed children, Euromaidan Press reported.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<footer class=\"dcr-1eoy87d\"><\/footer>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"dcr-1k32900\" data-print-layout=\"hide\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019re just waking up, or just dropping in to find the latest information, here\u2019s a summary of the main points of the past few hours. Powerful explosions were heard early on Sunday in Kyiv, a Reuters witness said. Smoke was seen in the Ukrainian capital following the explosions. Earlier, air raid sirens were going [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":23011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[11363,5522,8217,5304,5881,5717,157,11583,12758,7227,287,8023,9331,6968,7516,6060,524,5494,159,9567,6159,2944,5345,5575,6351,12773,10954,11493,10419,9515,5342,6843,5721,6194,6618,414,5572,5340,9421,8000,5441,6967,6332,5396,3805,71,11774,6431,9110,3457,5217,8739,11233,5713,7211,11259,6809,11179,6966,10656,9178,5180,5521,5555,6348,8309,694,5251,5761,5724,3954,594],"class_list":["post-22982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-aircraft","tag-arms","tag-army","tag-attack","tag-azovstal","tag-billionaire","tag-boris-johnson","tag-capital","tag-captured","tag-cathedral","tag-children","tag-citizenship","tag-city","tag-denys-monastyrdkiy","tag-dmytro-kuleba","tag-embassy","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-energy","tag-eu","tag-explosions","tag-fire","tag-first-lady","tag-foreign-minister","tag-france","tag-french","tag-increase","tag-international","tag-interview","tag-justice","tag-killed","tag-kyiv","tag-lavrov","tag-losses","tag-luhansk","tag-lysychansk","tag-macron","tag-military","tag-moscow","tag-mykhailo-podolyak","tag-negotiations","tag-oil","tag-olena-zelenska","tag-online","tag-peace","tag-president","tag-putin","tag-raid","tag-release","tag-river","tag-russia","tag-russian","tag-russian-billionaire","tag-russian-troops","tag-sanctions","tag-sergei-lavrov","tag-shot","tag-sievierodonetsk","tag-smoke","tag-svyatohirsk","tag-swap","tag-troops","tag-ukraine","tag-ukraine-war","tag-ukrainian","tag-us","tag-us-embassy","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-war","tag-war-crimes","tag-weapons","tag-will","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}