News in Brief (2023-06-26)

Ukraine claims new offensives, advances

KYIV, June 25: Ukrainian forces have launched several new offensives on their eastern front, confronting Russian troops in the Donbas region, and have claimed more ground, a minister said Saturday. Deputy defence minister Ganna Malyar said Ukrainian forces had assaulted Russian lines near the towns of Orikhovo-Vasylivka, Bakhmut, Boda-nivka, Yagidne, Klishchivka and Kurdyumivka. The crews of assault helicopters of Russia's Battlegroup West unleashed 11 missile strikes on two Ukrainian brigades in the Kupyansk area, Battle-group Spokesman Sergey Zybinsky told TASS. Besides, Russian forces averted four attacks of Ukrainian subversive groups in the Kupyansk area and thwarted the rotation of enemy troops over the past day, Zybinsky reported. — AFP

Conservatives

eye majority in Greece polls

ATHENS, June 25: Greek voters headed to the polls again Sunday in an election where conservative front-runner Kyriakos Mitsotakis is seeking a second term and an absolute parliamentary majority to form a "stable government". The 55-year-old Harvard graduate, who steered Greece from the coronavirus pandemic back to two consecutive years of strong growth, had already scored a thumping win in an election just a month ago. But having fallen short of five seats in parliament to be able to form a single-party government, Mitsotakis chose to ask 9.8 million Greek voters back to the ballot boxes. Casting his vote, Mitsotakis, who hails from one of Greece's most influential political families said the country is "voting for a second time in a few weeks to get a stable and effective government". — AFP