Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 06-04-2024

In this exclusive interview, Sen. Grassley lays out the case why the United States must stick with Ukraine.

Earlier this week, a 12-year-old boy was among the latest children reported killed after a Russian aerial attack on the eastern Donetsk region.

Ukrainians on Tuesday were mourning the hundreds of children killed since the beginning of Russia's invasion, hours after a fresh attack left two children wounded in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region.  

June 4 marks the UN's International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression. 

Ukraine’s largest bank is to offer corporate business loans building on its experience with SMEs and individuals, stretching the nerves of the banking sector which faces tougher competition.

Since its inception, PrivatBank has provided relatively small-scale financial services, focusing on card facilities for individuals and loans to small and medium-sized enterprises. Now it is expanding its business to the provision of credits for larger enterprises.

Dmytro Musiyenko, the member of the Board responsible for retail business, announced it during the presentation of an integrated report on the bank’s results on Thursday, May 30.

Nothing happened on Tiananmen Square in Beijing 35 years ago today, says China.

On June 4, 1989, the skies were ablaze over Tiananmen Square in Beijing as shots were fired and tanks came rolling in against the backdrop of student protestors singing the Internationale – the communist anthem that for some, would be their defiant last words. 

On Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Beijing said nothing happened.

The Kremlin maintains the line that everything is still going well and forcing Ukrainian forces to retreat, while most other sources tell of a Russian offensive out of steam amid crushing losses.

Fighting in Ukraine’s northern Kharkiv sector is continuing but Russian attacks are making no progress and often taking heavy casualties, spokesman for Ukraine’s Army General Staff (AGS) Andriy Kovalev said during a Monday evening news broadcast. Units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are repelling all attacks and the situation in the sector is tense but stable, he said.

Ukrainian milbloggers this week have widely echoed Kovalev’s statement that Russian forces are still attempting to attack around the town of Vovchansk and the village of Liptsy, in northeastern Ukraine, but gaining no ground. According to on-the-ground accounts, video, and independent news reports, recent assaults have frequently been weak, unsupported by heavy weapons, and almost always have been cut to pieces by Ukrainian mortar and artillery barrages, followed up by FPV drone swarms.

The US has twice practiced the deployment of the US Army’s Typhon containerized vertical missile launcher by air to the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea.

The Polish military issues discussion website Defence24 reported that the US twice delivered MK70 PDS (Payload Delivery System) containerized vertical missile launchers to the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea.

The equipment was delivered by US Air Force C-17 Globemaster III aircraft. In September 2023 the US army’s Typhon vehicle mounted version of the system and then in May when the normally ship-mounted US navy versions were placed on the island.

A video circulating on social media shows Russian soldiers forcing Ukrainian POWs to sing a Soviet war song, beating one of them, and discharging a firearm near his head.

Another video has been going viral on social media showing Russian servicemen who allegedly documented their own abuse of Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) in violation of international laws of conflict in their third year of the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In the released footage, Russian soldiers lead four blindfolded POWs. A uniform resembling a Ukrainian pixel was worn by the captured men.

Ukrainian army chief Oleksandr Syrsky said last week that French military instructors would soon arrive in the country, but Kyiv's defence ministry later walked back the claim.

Western army instructors who train Ukrainian soldiers in the country would have no "immunity" from Russian strikes, the Kremlin said Tuesday, amid reports that France could despatch military trainers to Ukraine.

Ukrainian army chief Oleksandr Syrsky said last week that French military instructors would soon arrive in the country, but Kyiv's defence ministry later walked back the claim.

Zelensky says his country urgently needs at least seven more systems, including two just to defend the eastern Kharkiv region, where Moscow recently launched a fresh ground offensive.

Kyiv said Tuesday that Italy would supply Ukraine with another air defense system, weapons that senior Ukrainian officials have been urging their allies to send to fend off Russian aerial assaults.

President Volodymyr Zelensky says his country urgently needs at least seven more systems, including two just to defend the eastern Kharkiv region, where Moscow recently launched a fresh ground offensive.

Russia is using an AI-generated Tom Cruise to front a fake documentary that reports Olympics corruption and threats of terror attacks in Paris this summer.

Researchers from the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC) released a report on Sunday, June 2 identifying pro-Russian propaganda efforts as part of a large-scale operation to vilify the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and “create the expectation of violence breaking out in Paris during the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.”

Security concerns around the Olympics have increased because of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza despite IOC President Thomas Bach saying in May that he had “full confidence” in France’s ability to safeguard the Games, with the introduction of enhanced special anti-terrorism measures.

As the Kremlin seeks to disrupt the upcoming peace summit in Switzerland, what are the real motives behind this move?

The Chancellor mentioned that the decision to allow Kyiv to use German weapons was carefully considered in collaboration with Germany's "friends and allies."

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz stated that he does not expect Ukraine's targeting of military assets within Russian territory using weapons supplied by Germany to lead to an escalation of the war.

 "As the US president said, we are talking only about the possibility of protecting a large city, for example, Kharkiv," he said on Monday, June 3, on the Antenne Bayern radio station.

The world in focus, as seen by a Canadian leading global affairs analyst, writer and speaker, in his review of international media.

Russia’s attempts to conclude a major gas pipeline deal with China have run aground over what Moscow sees as Beijing’s unreasonable demands on price and supply levels, according to three people familiar with the matter. Beijing’s tough stance on the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline underscores how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has left President Vladimir Putin increasingly dependent on Chinese leader Xi Jinping for economic support. The people familiar with the matter said China had asked to pay close to Russia’s heavily subsidised domestic prices and would only commit to buying a small fraction of the pipeline’s planned annual capacity of 50bn cubic metres of gas. Approval for the pipeline would transform the dire fortunes of Gazprom, Russia’s state gas export monopoly, by linking the Chinese market to gasfields in western Russia that once supplied Europe. Gazprom suffered a loss of Rbs629bn ($6.9bn) last year, its biggest in at least a quarter of a century, amid plummeting gas sales to Europe, which has had greater success than expected in diversifying away from Russian energy. While Russia has insisted it is confident of agreement on Power of Siberia 2 “in the near future”, two of the people said the impasse was the reason Alexei Miller, Gazprom’s chief executive, had not joined Putin on the Russian leader’s state visit to Beijing last month. - FT

Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky on Monday expressed gratitude to the Philippine government for its support for Ukraine's steps and measures in achieving peace. Wearing a black polo shirt and fatigue pants, Zelenskyy met with President Ferdinand ''Bongbong'' Marcos Jr. this morning at Malacañang Palace. ''Thank you for this invitation and we are very thankful to be in your country which supports Ukraine, our territorial integrity and sovereignty. Thank you so much of your big word, and clear position about us, about this Russian occupation of our territories and thank you on your support on the, in your nations, with your resolutions,'' Zelensky told Marcos. In response, Marcos said the Philippines is very much willing to continue helping Ukraine through multilateral platforms such as the United Nations and the European Union in order to achieve peace amid its ongoing conflict with Russia. ''We’ll continue to do all that we can to promote.... to promote peace and to bring an end to the fighting,'' Marcos said. Zelensky also told Marcos Ukraine would open an embassy in the Philippines this year. The Ukrainian president arrived in Manila on Sunday evening for a visit that was kept well under wraps. He flew in first to Singapore on Saturday, June 1, for what Reuters described as an "unscheduled" appearance at the Shangri-La Dialogue. The Philippines had expressed its support for Ukraine's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, voting at the UN General Assembly to denounce Russia’s invasion, expressing “explicit condemnation” against “the use of force against the political independence and territorial integrity of any state.” —KG, GMA Integrated News

Ukraine's capital has not hosted an LGBT+ pride event since Russia invaded the country on February 24, 2022.

Kyiv's city hall on Monday refused permission for an LGBT+ Pride event in the city's metro, citing security concerns, after organizers announced plans to hold a march there this month.

Ukraine's capital has not hosted an LGBT+ pride event since Russia invaded the country on February 24, 2022.

Europe's press debates the opportunities and dangers of the summit and any future peace negotiations.

Switzerland will host a Ukraine peace conference at the Bürgenstock Resort above Lake Lucerne in mid-June. Russia has not been invited, China has cancelled its participation for the time being, and Kyiv accusing Beijing and Moscow of putting pressure on other countries to prevent them from attending. Europe's press debates the opportunities and dangers of the summit and any future peace negotiations.

From a Ukrainian to a joint position

A group that took part in the exhibition said it “opened up a world of new opportunities,” where the Gulf region is “increasingly piquing the interest of Ukrainian businesses.”

A delegation consisting of Ukrainian IT representatives, including those from Sigma Software Group and IT Ukraine Association, visited the COMEX 2024 exhibition in Oman for the first time between May 27 and 30 and presented their products and services to the Gulf States market.

Anatoly Motkin, president of nonprofit tech advocacy group StrategEast that accompanied the delegation, said there’s an interest in Oman’s tech sector at utilizing Ukraine’s tech talent.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• Ukrainian forces struck a Russian S-300/400 air defense battery in Belgorod Oblast likely with HIMARS on June 1 or 2.
• The People's Republic of China (PRC) and Russia are reportedly in disagreement about economic issues such as the proposed Power of Siberia 2 (PS-2) pipeline despite publicly portraying themselves as diplomatically aligned.
• Putin also reportedly asked Xi in May 2024 to "snub" the upcoming Ukrainian peace conference in Switzerland amid continued Russian efforts to discredit and otherwise undermine the peace conference.
• Russian forces continue to abuse Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) in violation of the Geneva Convention on POWs.
• Russian military and political leadership continues to pursue increased military, political, and economic cooperation with several African states.
• The Russian military is reportedly forcibly sending Russian servicemembers who refused to fight to the front in Ukraine from Russia instead of standing trial for their refusal to participate in combat.
• Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili signed the Russian-style "foreign agents" bill into law on June 3 amid continued protests.
• Ukrainian forces recently advanced within Vovchansk and Russian forces recently advanced near Lyptsi, Avdiivka, and Velyka Novoslika and in western Zaporizhia Oblast.
• The family members of mobilized Russian personnel continue to protest for the demobilization of their relatives.

While hybrid warfare may seem less harmful than a direct military strike by the enemy, it is no less inimical to national security and poses a serious threat.

We go about our lives as hybrid warfare methods target the very fabric of society, making people paranoid and hostile to each other, weakening society before a potential military strike of the enemy.

From cyberattacks to terror attacks