Kyiv: As Norway announced fighter jets for Kyiv, Ukraine said on Thursday that its forces had flown the national flag in Russian-occupied Crimea during a "special operation" to commemorate its second wartime Independence Day.

Kiev has stated repeatedly that it wants to retake Crimea, which is regarded as being a part of Ukraine by the international community but has been under Russian control since Moscow's forces seized the peninsula in 2014.

The western shore of Crimea is close to the towns of Olenivka and Mayak, according to the GUR intelligence agency of Ukraine, where its special forces had "engaged in combat."

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"As a result, the enemy experienced personnel losses. The document added that "state flag flew again in the Ukrainian Crimea" and claimed that "enemy equipment was destroyed."

Since the beginning of Moscow's invasion, Ukraine has launched numerous assaults on the Black Sea peninsula and has described the region as "temporarily occupied" in official statements.

Inflicting a "painful blow" on adversary air defences, Kiev claimed Wednesday that it had destroyed a potent Russian S-400 anti-aircraft system in that region.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store announced his nation would give Ukraine an unspecified number of F-16 fighter jets to help Ukraine's Soviet-era air force during a surprise Independence Day visit to Kyiv.

After Denmark and the Netherlands, Norway is the third nation to commit F-16s to Ukraine.

The Pentagon announced in Washington that it would begin F-16 training for "a few" Ukrainian pilots and "dozens" of maintenance workers next month, starting with English language instruction.

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According to Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder, the length of the training would typically range from five to eight months, depending on the pilots' prior skill sets.
In his Independence Day message, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged his fellow citizens not to "lose faith in these difficult times."

After visiting Kyiv's Saint Sophia's Cathedral with his wife, Zelensky wrote in a Telegram message, "We honoured the memory of the fallen defenders of our country."

He continued, saying that freedom is a "value for each of us, and we are fighting for it."
People snapped pictures next to burned-out and demolished Russian tanks and armoured vehicles that had been captured from the front lines on Khreshchatyk Street in the centre of the Ukrainian capital.

People stood around the street, admiring the equipment that had been set up in a long queue like war medals.
According to Kyrylo Budanov, the head of military intelligence in the nation, the struggle for independence "continues to this day — now with the imperial aggressor" Russia.

The national holiday comes as the conflict with Russia entered its 19th month and commemorates the 32 years since Ukraine proclaimed its post-Soviet independence from Moscow.

According to a regional administration official who posted on Telegram, a Russian missile strike in the central city of Dnipro left at least 10 people injured. Three or more needed hospitalisation.
The official shared several images of a transport facility that had been severely damaged, displaying demolished structures, broken windows, and debris.

According to regional administration official Oleksandr Prokudin on Telegram, a seven-year-old girl was injured by Russian shelling in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson and taken to the hospital.

After being recaptured by Ukrainian forces in November, the city is still under Russian bombardment.

One of DTEK's thermal power plants was hit by Russian bombardment, according to the largest commercial energy company in Ukraine. Despite the attack damaging it, no one was hurt, it added.

Last winter, numerous attacks on the energy infrastructure left Ukrainian cities in the dark and frigid. Maxim Katz, a political activist and Russian blogger, was given an eight-year prison sentence in absentia by a court in Moscow for disseminating "false information" about the Russian army.

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The conflict is frequently criticised by Katz, a Russian exile, on his YouTube channel, which has more than 1.8 million subscribers. Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal correspondent who was detained and charged with spying while reporting from Russia during the war, had his detention extended by a different Russian court by three months.

Additionally, on Thursday, the United States announced new sanctions against Russian officials and organisations in response to what rights organisations claim to be the forced removal of thousands of Ukrainian children since Moscow's Invasion