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Vladimir Putin faced a rare protest in Moscow by Russian women who demanded his defence minister Andrei Belousov return their mobilised husbands from the frontline in Ukraine.
A group of 18 women gathered to appeal personally to Belousov, who was appointed to the role last month. They asked him to impose strict limits on how long soldiers could serve before they were rotated out of active duty, said Paulina, 20, whose husband is fighting in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Russian sources claimed that Ukraine fired American weapons at Belgorod for the first time after Washington lifted a ban on Kyiv using its weapons inside Russia.
The Ukrainians reportedly fired the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, at bordering Belgorod city, Russia’s defence ministry and military bloggers said.
The escalation comes as Norway’s top general warned that Nato’s window of preparing against Russia had dwindled from about 10 years to two-three years.
“At one point someone said it’ll take 10 years but I think we’re back to less than 10 years because of the industrial base that is now running in Russia,” said General Eirik Kristoffersen, head of the Norwegian Armed Forces.
Russian glide bombs successfully disabled by experts
Bomb disposal experts have defused two powerful guided aerial bombs that fell on a field near Kostiantynivka, Donetsk region, but did not explode.
The Ukrainian State Emergency Service’s directorate in the Donetsk region announced the update on Facebook.
Russia has been dropping hundreds, likely thousands, of the weapons in recent weeks. Moscow dropped 700 glide bombs in six days at the end of March, the Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said.
Ukraine also uses guided bombs similar to the FABs, known as the joint direct attack munition system (JDAM), but the US-made weapons are in much shorter supply.
Barney Davis3 June 2024 07:46
