What did the days before 4 June 2023 reveal?
A look back at a week of missile and drone attacks, and competing claims, in the days leading up to 4 June 2023.
What was the picture on 4 June 2023, as the war entered another week? The days immediately before it were marked by repeated strikes on Ukrainian cities, Russian claims of Ukrainian attacks on its own territory, and a diplomatic oddity involving a United States senator.
Missiles over Kyiv and beyond
Kyiv was targeted repeatedly. On 29 May 2023, Russian forces struck the capital with Iskander ballistic and cruise missiles. Debris injured one civilian and damaged infrastructure, while Ukraine claimed to have shot down all of the missiles. A Russian drone attack on 30 May 2023 killed a civilian and injured several others. On 1 June 2023, cruise and ballistic missiles fired at the city killed three civilians and injured 12.
The day before the covered date, 3 June 2023, Russian forces hit a residential area in Dnipro Raion with Iskander cruise missiles. A two-year-old girl was killed and 22 other civilians were injured, among them five children.
Russian claims and counterclaims
Russia said it had destroyed the Ukrainian Navy warship Yuri Olefirenko at the Port of Odesa in a missile strike on 29 May 2023, a claim it made public on 31 May 2023.
On 30 May 2023, Russian authorities said they had intercepted eight drones over Moscow. Later accounts of the episode said five of the drones were shot down by air missiles and the other three were suppressed by electronic warfare systems, and that Russia blamed Ukraine.
On 31 May 2023, Russian authorities said a Ukrainian drone strike had caused a fire at an oil refinery in Krasnodar Krai and had also caused damage in Shebekino, Belgorod Oblast. The same day, Russian authorities said Ukrainian shelling in Karpaty, in Russian-occupied Luhansk Oblast, had killed five people and injured 19.
A warrant for a senator
On 29 May 2023, the Russian Interior Ministry issued an arrest warrant for United States Senator Lindsey Graham over comments he had made about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The shape of the week
Taken together, the reports from 29 May to 3 June 2023 show a pattern in which air attacks on Ukrainian cities, including the capital, continued almost daily, while Russia reported drone incidents on its own territory, including over Moscow. For civilians in Kyiv and Dnipro Raion, the human cost was set out in the casualty figures: deaths and injuries among residents, including children.
