LAST UPDATE | 15 Jul 2023
UKRAINIAN FORCES HAVE downed 10 Russian drones across the country overnight, the air force said.
In a Telegram post, the Ukrainian air force added that Moscow had fired six Iranian-made Shahed drones at Ukraine’s south and east during the night, four of which were shot down.
It did not immediately give details of any casualties or damage.
In southern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia province, where Ukraine has been engaged in a counter-offensive to take back occupied territory, there were 45 air and artillery attacks overnight, governor Yurii Malashka said.
Russian forces shelled neighbouring Kherson province 70 times over the same period, using mortars, artillery, drones, tanks, aviation and multiple rocket launchers, governor Oleksandr Prokudin said today.
No civilians were wounded, he added.
Russian shelling over the past day killed one civilian in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk province, governor Pavlo Kyrylenko reported.
Ukrainian forces have been pressing their counter-offensive in the area, inching their way from Velyka Novosilka down towards the Russian-occupied city of Mariupol.
South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol was in Ukraine today on an unannounced visit, his office said, where he visited the town of Bucha ahead of a summit with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“The president first toured the Bucha city massacre site near the capital Kyiv and the city of Irpin, where missile attacks were concentrated on civilian residential areas,” his office said.
“President Yoon will visit a memorial for the war dead to lay a wreath, and hold a summit meeting with President Zelensky,” it added in a statement.
South Korea, the world’s ninth-largest arms exporter, has sent humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and has also sold tanks and howitzers to Poland – a key ally for Kyiv as it battles invading Russian forces.
However, it has a long-standing policy of not providing weapons to active conflict zones, which it has stuck to despite repeated requests from the United States, European allies and Ukraine itself for more help.
Yoon’s meeting with Zelenskyy – who has previously urged Seoul to consider supplying weapons to Kyiv directly – is expected to focus on South Korea’s supply of aid to the country.
Seoul, which remains technically at war with nuclear-armed North Korea, produces significant volumes of NATO-compatible weaponry, including its tanks, howitzers and deeply sought-after shell ammunition.
Seoul has hinted that it could reconsider its policy of not supplying lethal aid, with Yoon saying earlier this year that a large-scale Russian attack on civilians could tip the balance.
But in May, South Korea dismissed a US media report that its artillery rounds were heading to Ukraine, saying its position on not providing lethal aid to Kyiv was unchanged.
But experts warn that South Korea is in a tricky position because of its economic ties with Russia – its 15th-largest trading partner as of 2022 – as well as Moscow’s influence over North Korea.
Zelenskyy has extended his condolences to Yoon, after South Korea was hit by flooding and landslides that killed 22.
“I want to express my condolences, the condolences of all Ukrainians in connection with the terrible flood that has now hit the Republic of Korea,” Zelenskyy told Yoon during joint statements to the press in Kyiv.
Additional reporting by AFP
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