Description: Russian air forces have launched the largest aerial assault to date on Ukrainian targets by dispatching more than 540 aerial weapons including drones, decoys and missiles. The attack targeted several Ukrainian cities in the western parts of the country while the city of Kherson on the south and the Kharkiv region sustained most infrastructural damage with one person reported to have died while several were injured. The attacks arrive a week after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced renewed initiative from their side to reengage in negotiations with the intelligence chiefs of Russia and the US holding a phone call in order to establish an open channel of exchanging information. The war has shown no signs of halting with the negotiations delivering no significant breakthroughs.
Impact: Last week’s reports by the South Korean national intelligence services supported by Sergei Shoigu’s visit to North Korea and recent Russian attacks and small – scale ground incursions indicates Russia is slowly engaging into their planned summer offensive. Ukraine’s Zelenskyy came from the NATO Summit with pledged military support from Europe and Canada in the amount of $35 billion, however, after Operation Spiderweb, last week’s halting of Russian forces in the Sumy region and the sabotage of the Crimean bridge, the Ukrainian defenses seem to have confronted their warfare limitations. Russia would continue to pressure the almost 1 thousand kilometers battlefront, gaining ground and exploiting the absence of concrete support for Ukraine by its western allies. Ukraine is moving to a forceful participation in the negotiations which puts the country on its backfoot when it comes to accepting concessions to end the war.