The Russian military has attracted 117,16 new troops since the beginning of this year, and while Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu inspected the battlefronts in Zaporizhia, leaks revealed that Western countries are supplying Kiev with US F-<> fighter jets, new data showed.

The Russian news agency quoted Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia's National Security Council, as saying on Friday, "According to data from the Ministry of Defense, 117400,19 people were registered in the ranks of the armed forces from January <> to May <>."

For his part, the head of the regional administration of the Kiev region, Ruslan Kravchenko, confirmed that last night Russian forces continued their attacks on the capital. He said air defenses were able to shoot down a number of drones over the province's forests.

Ukraine's air force said the Russian military overnight launched an attack using 22 suicide drones and six Kalibr missiles.

It confirmed that air defenses shot down 16 drones and 3 cruise missiles fired from Russian ships in the Black Sea.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian security service announced that 76 targets in 17 towns and villages in Donetsk were damaged by Russian shelling in the past 24 hours.

Battles of Bakhmut

To the east, the Ukrainian General Staff indicated that Russian forces were focusing their attacks on the Lehman, Baakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka axes.

Ukraine's deputy defense minister said Russian forces were making some progress in Bakhamut but not controlling it, while the leader of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, ruled out capturing the city within days.

Prigozhin said this was due to the concentration of heavy fighting in the southwestern suburbs of the city.


Field Tour

On the other hand, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that Minister Shoigu made a field tour during which he inspected the units of the Eastern Group in the Zaporizhia axis.

The Russian ministry said in a statement that Shoigu held a meeting with the leader of the assembly in this axis, in which he praised what he described as the high efficiency in identifying and destroying military equipment and concentrations of Ukrainian forces in the main axes of fighting in this country.

Shoigu – according to the statement – assigned the leader of the gathering the task of continuing active and comprehensive reconnaissance work, as he put it.

Crimean authorities loyal to Moscow said Russian defence forces shot down four drones north of the peninsula without causing casualties or damage.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has issued a decision to reconstitute an advisory council aimed at ending what he described as the occupation and reintegration of Crimea, and abolishing autonomy.

Under the resolution, Zelensky became chairman of the Consultative Council of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, which was included in the decision, and Tamil Tasheva, the permanent representative of the President of Crimea, was appointed secretary general of the council.

The Council includes in its membership the Director of the Office of the President of Ukraine and the Minister of Foreign Affairs as well as 9 ministers from the Government.


Leaks and drills

In addition, the German magazine "Handelsblatt" quoted European Council President Charles Michel as saying that the possibility of delivering US F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine will be discussed at the summit of seven in Japan.

CNN also quoted sources familiar with the matter that President Joe Biden's administration has signaled to European allies in recent weeks that the United States will allow them to export F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine if that is what the allies decided to do.

However, administration officials said they were not aware of any formal requests from allies on the matter.

For its part, Yahoo News quoted an internal assessment of the US Air Force that Ukrainian pilots could be trained to fly F-16s in just 4 months.

The assessment, which followed the training, said the performance of Ukrainian pilots exceeded Pentagon expectations.