Ukraine, Russian attack on Kharkiv: five dead, including a child

Units of the Ukrainian Defence Forces then struck a road bridge linking the Crimean peninsula to the mainland near Henichesk , in the Kherson region, the Ukrainian Army General Staff reported on Facebook. According to the army, this bridge is used by Russia for “military logistics between the temporarily occupied Crimea and Russian troop formations in the south”. The General Staff also stated that it had struck a missile complex in the Zaporizhzhia region.

On the political and diplomatic front, there are signs of new tensions between Kyiv and Warsaw. The Ukrainian President’s Chief of Staff Kyrylo Budanov announced on Facebook that he had renounced the Gold Cross of Officer of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, awarded to him in 2025 by the Polish President Karol Nawrocki. The decision came following the revocation of the Order of the White Eagle from Volodymyr Zelensky.

Budanov described Nawrocki’s decision as ‘a hostile act towards the Ukrainian people’, arguing that it amounts to ‘a gift to the aggressor in Moscow’, destined to be exploited against both countries. The revocation of the honour bestowed upon Zelensky has been linked to the Ukrainian president’s decision at the end of May to name a military unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), a nationalist organisation from the Second World War which, in Poland, is held responsible for the deaths of over 100,000 Polish citizens.

There was also room for provocation. “This gesture by the Polish president has nothing to do with justice or anything of the sort. After all, what justice can there be when, for example, the Order of the White Eagle has still not been revoked from the Italian fascist dictator and Hitler’s accomplice, Benito Mussolini?”, Budanov wrote in a post on Telegram. Zelensky, for his part, had awarded an army unit the title of “Heroes of the UPA”, whereas the UPA – Ukrains’ka Povstans’ka Armija, literally “Ukrainian Insurgent Army” – is considered in Poland to be responsible for war crimes.

Following Budanov, it was the turn of the Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha to protest against Nawrocki’s decision, stating that he too would return the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland. “We regret that emotions have got the better of Warsaw and led Polish political leaders to take unjustified, impulsive and contemptuous measures”, he wrote on Facebook, referring to a “needless escalation” between the two countries. The Ukrainian ambassador to Poland, Vasyl Bodnar, also said he intended to renounce the honour.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, has spoken out on the conflict in the Middle East, stating that an agreement between the United States and Iran could easily be undermined by new provocations and that expecting peace is “rash”, given that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is “pro-war”.

“An unstable agreement could easily collapse as a result of new attacks on Lebanon or other provocations. And that is exactly what the Netanyahu government needs, as it thrives on war. Therefore, expecting peace is reckless”, Medvedev wrote on the Russian social media platform Max.

Russia has strengthened its already close ties with Iran since the start of the war in Ukraine, with Moscow and Tehran expanding their military and economic cooperation. However, this partnership has shown some limitations: during Iran’s recent conflict with the United States and Israel, Moscow has offered mainly rhetorical support, without any more concrete involvement.

Medvedev also stated that, in light of the intensification of Kyiv’s attacks on Russian territory, no rules can be applied to the “regime” in Ukraine. “Given the enemy’s massive attacks on our cities, the intensity of which is increasing and will evidently continue to increase, the time has come to state openly that there are no longer – and cannot be – any rules when dealing with neo-Nazi Kyiv”, wrote Max, also on , according to a report by Interfax. “Only one thing must remain beyond the limits we can accept: the deliberate destruction of civilians. I emphasise: deliberate, that is, consciously intentional. The rest is entirely permissible”, he argued, going on to state that the Hague Conventions and the customs of war “are no longer relevant”.