Ukraine fears attack from Belarus in north, as Russia fears Ukraine offensive in south (Ukraine Batt

Every day, the Ukraine Battlefield update newsletter offers a clear look at how the war is unfolding on the ground. Subscribe for free here to get the full text delivered to your inbox. The legendary Mala Tokmachka is worrying the Russians – they “captured” it, but it is controlled by Ukrainians, who are reportedly preparing an offensive in the south.

Maps of the day: northern Ukraine; Zaporizhzhia region. Videos of the day: this is what the work of Slovak F-16s will look like – Russian Su-35s making close passes at a British aircraft; strikes on the land corridor to Crimea; the Russian Molniya drone trying to set anti-drone nets on fire; a mid-20th-century Bofors gun shooting down Russian drones; what the Russian interceptor drone looks like and how it works. Large nuclear exercise, activity in Belarus and warnings from Ukrainian intelligence – Russia is not winning, but may again be preparing something in the north. Desperate people do desperate things, and Russia is not far from desperation. That is why, in recent days, a great deal of attention has been paid to an unusually large exercise of Russian nuclear forces, as well as to reports of a new threat to northern regions of Ukraine – including from Belarusian territory. The Russian nuclear exercise is the easier topic. Strategic nuclear forces also took part in it, such as a Borei-class submarine in the following video. Nevertheless, this part of the programme can be seen merely as traditional Russian sabre-rattling. 2/2 Pacific Fleet footage shows the Borei-class SSBN Imperator Aleksandr III departing with support of Kamchatka residing ships. pic.twitter.com/kb9cNNZDlT The same applied to the video from the Russian military television channel Zvezda, which showed ground-based launchers, with RS-24 intercontinental missiles. The situation is less clear in five regions in northern Ukraine, where the Ukrainian security service is carrying out a series of measures it itself described as “ unprecedented ”. This was a response to the conclusions of a meeting of Ukraine’s high command on 20 May, after which Ukrainian pesident Volodymyr Zelensky announced that the Russians were considering a new attack from Belarusian territory towards Chernihiv and Kyiv, as well as from Russia’s Bryansk region.

Key points

• Maps of the day: northern Ukraine; Zaporizhzhia region.
• Videos of the day: this is what the work of Slovak F-16s will look like – Russian Su-35s making close passes at a British aircraft; strikes on the land corridor to Crimea; the Russian Molniya drone…
• Large nuclear exercise, activity in Belarus and warnings from Ukrainian intelligence – Russia is not winning, but may again be preparing something in the north.
• Desperate people do desperate things, and Russia is not far from desperation.
• That is why, in recent days, a great deal of attention has been paid to an unusually large exercise of Russian nuclear forces, as well as to reports of a new threat to northern regions of Ukraine –…