The Ukrainian strike on the Chonhar Bridge, the road bridge connecting Russian-occupied Crimea to Russian-occupied mainland Ukrainian territory, halted all traffic across the crossing, Commander of Ukraine's 1st Separate Assault Regiment Dmytro Filatov, call sign "Perun," told Army TV. The bridge was not fully destroyed, but damage to the roadway proved sufficient to fully halt traffic.
According to Filatov, Ukrainian assault units have built a cyber-intelligence network that provides real-time data from inside the Russian military environment, enabling Ukraine to strike Russian logistics nodes when the units are most dependent on them.
The Chonhar strike falls under Ukraine's broader "Logistics Lockdown" program, which was funded with $113 million in May to carry out systematic strikes against Russian rear-area infrastructure.
Strike worked
"The bridge has sustained damage such that movement on it has fully stopped," Filatov said.
Russian forces are now forced to seek bypass routes through Armyansk and other crossings, while Ukrainian forces watch where the enemy redirects supply flows.
The 37th Motor Rifle Brigade, operating on the Ukrainian-defined direction targeted by the strike, was specifically waiting for fuel via the Chonhar route on the day of the operation.
"On the day of the operation, they expected two trucks with fuel. We know exactly that those vehicles have still not arrived," Filatov said.
The commander emphasized that the targeting was not random: Chonhar was chosen because the 37th MRB depended on that route at that moment.
"No matter how the enemy tries to hide its movements or accumulation of forces, thanks to cyber-intelligence we have built such an active network that we have enough information for decision-making," Filatov explained.
Russian logistics network disclosed
Filatov also disclosed new information about the Russian fuel-logistics network supporting Russia's southern front. Russian fuel cargo, he said, is NOT being transported across the Crimean Bridge. Instead, it is delivered by ferry to occupied Crimea and then sent across the peninsula to the front, including to the Huliaipole direction.
Today, 10 June 2026, marks the 1,568th day of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine — exactly the same number of days that World War I lasted, ArmyInform observes. Russia has not achieved its strategic objectives to eliminate Ukraine, with the Kremlin's original "Kyiv in three days" planning now four years and three months past.
Russian losses across that period, as documented by Ukraine's General Staff, total more than 1.3 million Russian military personnel killed and wounded, tens of thousands of tanks, armored vehicles, and artillery pieces destroyed, and 33 Russian ships and boats sunk or destroyed.
The Black Sea Fleet is now operating only in a land-support capacity after Ukrainian strikes forced its retreat from operating bases in temporarily occupied Crimea.
The total cost of destroyed Russian equipment over four years is estimated at approximately $153 billion. May 2026 alone saw more than 31,500 Russian troops killed and seriously wounded, according to Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. These figures are Ukrainian estimates. Russian casualty data is not publicly released.
Strategic ledger after four years
Russia's stated strategic objectives at the start of the February 2022 full-scale invasion, including the capture of Kyiv, the change of Ukrainian government, the demilitarization and "denazification" of Ukraine, and the establishment of a Russian-aligned regime in the Ukrainian capital, have not been reached.
Russian forces retreated from the northern Kyiv and Chernihiv axes in spring 2022, and although Russia has incrementally occupied additional territory in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson Oblasts since then, the pace of advance has been limited.
Ukrainian fire control and deep-strike expansion
On the Ukrainian operational side, the past 12 months have seen a significant expansion of Ukraine's ability to strike targets across occupied territory and Russian rear areas.
The Ukrainian Defense Forces have established fire control over key logistics nodes in temporarily occupied Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and in Crimea, including bringing Donetsk Airport within range of regular strikes and striking the Chonhar Bridge.
In Crimea specifically, where Russia has concentrated air defense systems, 12 Russian Pantsir-S1 systems have been destroyed since the start of 2026.
Logistics Lockdown and 1,800-kilometer deep-strike envelope
These operations are conducted within Ukraine's $113 million "Logistics Lockdown" program announced in May, which provides for systematic strikes on Russian warehouses, equipment, command posts, and supply routes deep behind the front line. A separate Ukrainian Deep Strike track targets critical infrastructure inside Russia itself, with Ukrainian deep strikes reaching up to 1,800 kilometers into Russian territory and recent operations hitting Russian oil-logistics nodes from Volgograd to Novorossiysk.
Russia has made two significant modifications to its Kalibr cruise missiles since the start of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine's Ministry of Defense reported.
The cluster payload mirrors the one Russia already uses on its Kh-101 cruise missiles, expanding the lethal radius across dispersed targets like airfields, hangars, and open positions. Russia is not a signatory to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which 124 states have ratified.
From 2022 through early 2026, Kalibr missiles carried a fragmentation-high-explosive warhead. Researchers documented a cluster warhead for the first time on missiles shot down in spring 2026. Russia made the change to substantially increase the strike area and deploy the missile against dispersed targets, the ministry said.
Russia's failed attempt to replace imported electronics
The second modification concerns the missiles' onboard electronics. Between 2023 and 2024, Russia gradually shifted Kalibr production to domestic components. The attempt failed. Analysis of the onboard digital computing unit from a Kalibr manufactured in 2025 again found imported components. The homing boards are "more than 80–90% foreign-made," the ministry stated, calling it "a confirmed fact, not an estimate" — each part is marked and verified by military representatives.
The shift to domestic electronics likely degraded guidance accuracy, the MoD suggested, prompting the return to foreign parts despite sanctions exposure. A Russian Kh-101 that killed 12 people in Kyiv this May was built in the second quarter of 2026 — pointing to components still reaching Russia after 21 EU sanctions packages and years of Western export controls, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last month.
Manufacturers and designers identified for sanctions
The ministry said it had identified all electronics manufacturers supplying Kalibr production, as well as the chief designers and managers involved. "The Ministry of Defense has established all electronics manufacturers for the Kalibrs, as well as the chief designers and managers involved in missile production. This data is being transferred for further processing within the framework of sanctions policy," the ministry stated.
The MoD has previously published technical analyses of downed Russian Kh-101 missiles and North Korean KN-23 and KN-24 ballistic missiles used against Ukraine.
Ukraine attempted a missile strike on a bridge connecting Henichesk to the Arabat Spit early on 10 June 2026, according to Vladimir Saldo, Russia's installed head of the occupied part of Kherson Oblast, who posted the claim on social media.
The strike is the latest in a series of Ukrainian attacks targeting road links between Russian-occupied Kherson Oblast and Crimea. The Chonhar bridge—the main overland route—was first struck on 7 June, after which traffic resumed in reversible mode; a second Ukrainian drone strike on 9 June halted movement again. Saldo had advised drivers to use alternative routes through Armyansk and Perekop.
Traffic across the Henichesk–Arabat Spit bridge has been temporarily closed, Saldo said, with emergency services on site establishing the circumstances.
Power outages across eight districts
In the same post, Saldo reported that eight municipalities were left without electricity following a separate overnight Ukrainian drone attack: Henichesk, Novotroitske, Chaplynka, Kalanchak, Ivanivka, Hornostaivka, Kakhovka, and Nova Kakhovka. Utility and emergency crews were working to restore power, he said.
Broader logistics pressure
Russian pro-war bloggers have in recent weeks reported an intensified Ukrainian drone campaign against military transport in southern Ukraine, Hromadske reports. On 30 May, Russian-occupied Crimea imposed limits on sales of A-95 petrol, citing drone strikes on Russian oil refineries; occupied Luhansk Oblast followed with similar restrictions shortly after.
A fire broke out at the Kuibyshev oil refinery in Samara, Russia, following a drone strike on 10 June, according to OSINT analysis by Astra and Russian Telegram channels.
The Kuibyshev refinery is one of the largest oil industry facilities in the region and is part of Rosneft. The 10 June strike is the third reported attack on the plant since August 2025.
What happened overnight
Residents of Samara Oblast reported explosions during the night of 9–10 June. The regional governor wrote of a missile threat in the oblast.
Astra said its analysis of eyewitness footage established that the Kuibyshev refinery in Samara was struck and caught fire.
The same refinery halted operations in August 2025 following a drone attack, Russian social media channels reported. It was struck again in January 2026.
A fire broke out at what is reportedly the Progress defense plant in Cheboksary, Russia, following a missile strike on 10 June, the governor of Russia's Chuvash Republic said, according to Russian telgram channel Astra.
The incident marks the second reported strike on the same facility in under a week — on 5 May, Ukrainian FP-5 Flamingo missiles were reported to have struck the VNІIR-Progress defense enterprise in the same city, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirming the attack.
Oleg Nikolaev, governor of Chuvash Republic, confirmed on Telegram that Cheboksary had come under missile attack. He did not specify casualties or damage.
What the strike targeted
Photos and video of a fire following the strike in Cheboksary were published by Russian social media channels, including footage of a missile passing over the city. According to OSINT analysis by Astra, the targeted facility is the VNIIR-Progress defense enterprise.
The plant manufactures Kometa antennas — systems designed to protect drones from electronic warfare — as well as other components used in Russian Shahed drones and Iskander-M and Kalibr missiles.
Astra analysts also noted that the VNIIR-Progress premises had been fully covered with camouflage netting following the previous strike.
The weapon used
Monitoring channel Exilenova+ identified the missiles used as Ukrainian FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles. Denis Shtilerman, founder of the Ukrainian company FirePoint, which produces the Flamingo, published a photo of a launch on X on 10 June, without providing further details.
Previous strike
The 5 May attack on the same plant caused a large-scale fire after a missile struck the facade of one of the factory buildings, according to OSINT analysts. Zelensky confirmed the use of Flamingo missiles in that incident.
May was the deadliest month for civilians in Ukraine since April 2022, according to the United Nations, which presented updated casualty data to the UN Security Council during an emergency meeting requested by Kyiv, Suspilne reported.
Latvian UN envoy Sanita Pavļuta-Deslandes said preliminary figures show a sharp rise in civilian harm, warning that the final statistics for May are expected to be even higher.
She said attacks during the month included strikes on civilian gatherings, including a funeral in Sumy, which she cited as an example of Russia targeting “so-called legitimate objectives,” according to Suspilne.
She also noted that in the first quarter of 2026 alone, 190 attacks were recorded on medical facilities, including maternity hospitals, while more than 200 educational institutions were damaged or destroyed. The number of injured children increased by 49%, according to UN data cited at the session.
The Security Council meeting came on June 8 following a wave of Russian strikes across Ukraine.
Ukraine accuses Russia of systematic deception at UN
Ukraine’s permanent representative to the UN, Andrii Melnyk, used the session to sharply criticize Russia’s role at the United Nations, arguing that Moscow continues to deny responsibility while undermining international reporting on the war.
“Russia spits in our faces with lies, and we pretend it is just rain,” Melnyk said during the meeting, according to Suspilne.
He suggested that Russia should consider leaving the UN if it rejects its own obligations under international law and dismisses UN investigative findings.
Melnyk also called for Russia to be excluded from UN peacekeeping operations, pointing to its inclusion in UN listings related to sexual violence in conflict and repeated findings on violations involving children and armed conflict.
He urged member states to take action on these findings, saying Russia’s participation in UN structures undermines the credibility of the system itself.
The meeting highlighted growing tensions inside the Security Council as Russia continues to face accusations of escalating strikes on civilian infrastructure while maintaining its role as a permanent member of the body.
Ukraine and Latvia have signed a new “Drone Deal” aimed at expanding joint production and strengthening air and drone defense capabilities, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said following meetings with Nordic and Baltic leaders on 9 June.
The agreement was signed during Zelenskyy’s first meeting with Latvia’s new Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs, which he described as a “concrete result” focused on co-production and shared defense development.
Zelenskyy said the deal reflects a broader model of cooperation Ukraine is building with partners who have supported Kyiv throughout the war, combining Ukrainian battlefield experience with European industrial capacity.
He said the aim is to strengthen shared protection against Russian threats, including expanding domestic production and improving coordination in drone and air defense systems.
The “Drone Deal” is a long-term cooperation format focused on developing drone capabilities through joint production, technology exchange, and practical defense support between Ukraine and partner countries.
Ukraine offers drone expertise to European partners
Zelenskyy also said Ukraine is ready to expand cooperation on drone warfare expertise, including sending specialist teams to partner countries to share operational experience gained during the war.
He said similar cooperation has already been carried out with partners in the Middle East and could now be scaled across Europe under the new drone cooperation framework.
Zelenskyy said Russia is attempting to escalate tensions across Europe, including through drone-related incidents near NATO borders, underscoring the need for coordinated defense responses among allies.
Air defense and drones central to talks with Nordic and Baltic partners
The announcement came during a series of meetings in Tallinn with leaders from Finland, Norway, Estonia, and other Nordic and Baltic states.
Zelenskyy said partners are increasingly recognizing stronger Ukrainian positions on the battlefield, while Russia continues to compensate for losses by striking civilian infrastructure.
He said air defense remains a key priority, including securing additional missile supplies and advancing work on European anti-ballistic defense systems.
Ukraine pushes for stronger sanctions and EU accession progress
Zelenskyy also discussed increased sanctions pressure on Russia, including measures targeting the shadow fleet, alongside continued support for Ukraine’s EU membership bid.
He urged rapid progress on opening EU accession negotiation clusters, saying Ukraine has met the necessary requirements and expects political decisions in the coming months.
“There is no reason to delay,” he said, calling for momentum in EU decision-making processes.
Ukraine has approved a long-term concept for the development of its rocket forces and artillery, outlining plans to build up capabilities through 2030, Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said.
Syrskyi said the concept defines the main directions for modernization while Ukraine continues fighting a full-scale war, stressing that long-term force development must run in parallel with current battlefield needs.
He said Ukrainian artillery units are already conducting thousands of fire missions daily and inflicting significant losses on Russian forces, supported by a mix of domestically developed systems and weapons supplied by international partners.
According to Syrskyi, Ukraine operates one of the most diverse ranges of artillery systems globally and uses nearly all available types of ammunition, gaining continuous combat experience against a numerically superior adversary.
War experience drives shift in artillery and drone integration
Syrskyi said Russia’s invasion has significantly changed the character of modern warfare, with growing use of drones, guided bombs, and other precision strike systems reshaping battlefield dynamics.
He said artillery remains a core component of the battlefield despite evolving technology, but its effectiveness now depends heavily on reconnaissance quality and the speed of information transfer.
At the same time, he pointed to several challenges affecting Ukraine’s rocket and artillery forces, including dependence on foreign ammunition supplies, complex logistics linked to multiple systems, limited range in some platforms, and shortages in artillery reconnaissance capabilities.
Ukraine to phase out outdated systems and expand domestic production
The concept foresees a gradual transition toward Ukrainian-made artillery systems as the backbone of future force structure, while aging Soviet-era systems that cannot be upgraded will be phased out.
Ukraine will also retain units equipped with modern foreign systems and streamline its overall artillery inventory to improve efficiency and logistics.
Syrskyi said a key priority is the creation of a modern artillery reconnaissance system to improve targeting speed and battlefield coordination.
Focus on long-range strike capability up to 2,000 km
A separate priority is the expansion of Ukraine’s missile forces to increase deep-strike capability across operational and strategic depth.
Syrskyi said this includes completing development and scaling production of domestic ballistic and cruise missiles, which – together with unmanned systems – would form a layered long-range strike capability with a reach of up to 2,000 kilometers.
He said artillery will remain a decisive element of battlefield effectiveness and a central factor in deterring further Russian aggression, regardless of terrain or conditions.
Russia went back to using imported electronics for their Kalibr cruise missiles’ guidance system after failing to replace them with homemade alternatives, according to Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense.
The ship-launched missile’s homing boards “are made up of more than 80–90% foreign-made components,” the MoD wrote. “This is a confirmed fact, not an estimate: each part is marked and has been checked by military representatives.”
Starting in 2023, Moscow began to transition to domestic components in manufacturing their Kalibr missiles, which may have worsened their performance. As a result, the Russians went back to what works, the MoD wrote, citing an analysis of Kalibrs that were shot down.
The announcement did not disclose the manufacturers of these systems. However, according to the General Intelligence Directorate’s website that tracks foreign parts in Russian’s weapons, most chips that went into Kalibrs prior to 2024 came from the US.
Diagram of a Kalibr missile. (Ukraine's Ministry of Defense)
Russia has routinely used foreign electronics in the missiles it fires against Ukraine throughout the course of the war.
A Russian Kh-101 cruise missile that killed 12 people in Kyiv in May was built in the second quarter of 2026, which points to components continuing to reach Russia despite 21 sanctions packages from the EU and years of Western export controls, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last month.
Cluster munitions added
Russia has also started using cluster munitions for the Kalibrs' payloads—the first such use was recorded in the Spring of 2026, according to the announcement. Previously, Kalibrs tended to be armed with high explosive fragmentation loads.
Cluster payloads can widen the destructive radius and allow the missiles to more effectively hit spread-out targets. The MoD described them as analogous to the cluster munitions found on Kh-101 missiles.
The use of weapons that cover an area with bomblets is controversial around the world because of the lingering danger they pose to civilians. A total of 124 countries have ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions, outright banning the use of such weapons, though Ukraine and Russia are not signatories.
Moscow’s army has repeatedly used cluster munitions, including against cities, since the opening days of the full-scale invasion.
The European Union has proposed a 21st sanctions package against Russia that includes a visa ban on current and former Russian military personnel, as Brussels expands pressure on individuals and entities linked to Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the package is part of a broader push to increase economic and political pressure on Russia.
“We are depriving Russia of the means to fund its war,” Kallas wrote on X.
Package includes over 170 proposed sanctions listings across sectors
The sanctions package will target Russia’s financial, energy, and industrial sectors, with more than 170 proposed listings.
These include banks, weapons manufacturers, oil traders, refineries, and crypto-related services, as well as entities in third countries accused of helping Moscow bypass existing restrictions.
Energy measures include a temporary freeze of the Russian oil price cap mechanism, alongside new restrictions on LNG transactions and additional action against Russia’s shadow fleet, with 30 more vessels proposed for designation.
Officials said the aim is to further reduce Russia’s export revenues and disrupt maritime logistics networks used to move sanctioned energy products.
Brick by brick, we are collapsing the foundations of Russia's war economy.
Today, we are presenting our proposals for a 21st sanctions package against Russia.
This includes a temporary freeze of the Russian oil price cap and designations of institutions used by Moscow to…
Measures expand to export controls and financial restrictions
The package also expands export controls on materials used in weapons production, including metals, alloys, and high-performance inputs, with companies in countries such as China, Türkiye, Kazakhstan, the UAE, and India included in the proposals.
Financial restrictions remain a central pillar, with expanded sanctions planned against banks and crypto platforms linked to sanctions evasion and war financing.
EU visa ban on Russian military personnel
The sanctions package includes a “comprehensive” visa ban proposal that would prohibit entry into the EU for current and former members of Russia’s armed forces, as well as “proxy groups,” marking an expansion of sanctions beyond economic measures to individuals linked to military operations.
“Europe’s door should not be open to Russia’s (ex-)combatants,” Kallas wrote.
Our sanctions are working.
They are weakening the economic foundations of Russia’s war effort.
Today we double down.
With a 21st package.
Covering energy, banks & crypto, trade including fisheries and visa for Russian soldiers ↓ https://t.co/fTIkATOSfN
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) June 9, 2026
Sanctions already cost Russia up to $1.5 trillion, EU says
The same day, Kallas told journalists that existing sanctions continue to intensify pressure on Moscow’s economy. Kallas noted that Western sanctions have already cost Russia an estimated $1.2 to $1.5 trillion, adding that “brick by brick, we are collapsing the foundations of Russia’s war economy.”
She said the aim remains to increase costs for Moscow across multiple sectors while maintaining unity among EU member states.
The package requires unanimous approval from EU member states before it can take effect.
Ukraine's drone campaign targeting Russian logistics is moving to sea
Ships carry supplies between Russia and occupied southern Ukraine
Striking the ships can force more supplies to move over land in vulnerable trucks
One-way attack drones from Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces struck five Russian cargo ships on the Sea of Azov on 5 June.
The strikes, which left at least one ship a burned-out hulk, are a kind of corollary to Ukraine's escalating campaign of middle-distance strikes on Russian supply lines on land in occupied territories. Aiming to weaken Russian regiments before they can attack across the disputed gray zone, Kyiv's drone units aren't only hitting trucks and vans on land—they're also hitting ships at sea.
"There's a method to the madness here," Ukraine Control Map explained. "Take out the ships, force Russia to use more trucks, more logistic bottlenecks." Then hammer the bottlenecks with drones.
The ultimate goal is to make it more difficult for the Kremlin to resupply and reinforce its 700,000 troops in occupied Ukraine. It's cheaper and easier to defeat an attack before it even begins by starving the attacking troops of food, fuel, batteries, ammunition and other vital supplies.
The ships the USF hit with Fire Point FP-1 drones on 5 June were spread out across a wide area. They were in occupied Mariupol and Berdiansk and along the coast of occupied Ukraine — the same Berdiansk port where Ukrainian drones struck a Russian munitions cargo ship on consecutive nights at the start of June.
What they had in common was their disguise. Civilian-owned but allegedly illegally working on behalf of sanctioned Russian entities, the ships sail without obvious markings or easily tracked radio transponders. There could be scores of such ships plying the Black Sea on Russia's behalf every day.
Two of the ships hit on 5 June, the dry cargo vessels Natra and Zirkon, were inbound from Türkiye to Rostov-on-Don when Ukrainian drones struck them in Taganrog Bay—empty, heading to load grain at a port Western governments and Ukraine identify as a transit hub for grain looted from occupied Ukrainian territory. Five Azerbaijani crew members on private contracts were killed and three wounded, Azerbaijan's foreign ministry said. Brovdi didn't address the deaths.
Telling apart a ship hauling Russian military fuel from a ship empty and heading to pick up looted grain is the kind of distinction that's hard to make from a drone's-eye view.
Ships that can haul thousands of tons of supplies every trip are much more efficient than trucks that can haul just a few tons apiece. Cargo ships can't deliver supplies to inland forces, of course, but they can move cargo between ports in southern Russia and ports in occupied Ukraine, bringing that cargo as close as possible to the gray zone before trucks must take over the shipping effort.
Map: Euromaidan Press
A thick-skinned ship is a tougher target than a thin-skinned truck, of course. But Ukraine's FP-1 drones carry a 100-kg blast-fragmentation warhead, with a TNT main charge boosted by the more powerful OKFOL explosive. The combination throws fragments outward and starts fires inside the target—the same mechanism that left the corvette Boikiy burning for hours at Kronstadt on 3 June.
— Special Kherson Cat (@bayraktar_1love) June 8, 2026
Sitting duck trucks
Russia's thousands of military supply trucks are already squarely in the crosshairs of Ukrainian drone units. Since launching their coordinated counterlogistics campaign this spring, the Ukrainians have increased their monthly truck strikes nearly tenfold, from around 60 per month to nearly 500, as per the Ukrainian general staff.
But a comprehensive assault on Russian logistics requires raids on sea traffic, as well. That effort may have begun in earnest on 5 June. "Cargo ships and tankers with their names painted over by Black Sea looters and their transponders switched off, used for the quiet theft of Ukrainian grain and the transport of military cargo and fuel, can no longer count on either long service lives or uninterrupted schedules," the 414th Unmanned Strike Aviation Brigade crowed.
If they can disable enough ships, the Ukrainian drone teams may compel Russian logisticians to shift more supplies by land. To reach Russian regiments in southern and eastern Ukraine, those supplies normally travel east to west along the M-14 highway that runs close and parallel to the Black Sea coast.
That highway and connecting roads have become a kill zone for Russian trucks as more FP-1, FP-2, Hornet and Bulava drones take to the sky, increasingly unbothered by Russia's collapsing air defense network. Ukrainian industry now churns out tens of thousands of middle-strike drones every month, some for as cheaply as a few thousand dollars apiece.
The Russians are trying to find alternate routes that avoid the most heavily droned roads, but once a truck gets close to its destination, it has no choice but to follow a dwindling number of paths. Ukrainian intelligence knows where the Russians' main divisional bases are; they know the trucks must eventually turn into these bases. The near approaches are now becoming kill zones alongside the M-14 and other main roads.
It'll take many more strikes on Russian ships to seriously dent the sea logistics and force more supplies onto land routes. But the effort is underway. "The occupier's smuggling logistics must be stopped," the 414th Unmanned Strike Aviation Brigade explained.
Explore further
Russia keeps four field armies fed through three southern towns. Ukraine’s drones just arrived.
Russia plans to make 72 Mi-8 helicopters at their Kazan plant over the next two years, more than offsetting their total full-scale invasion losses of 56 units as of March, Dallas Analytics reported, citing leaked Russian documents. It is also double the production rate from earlier estimates.
Russia also has another Mi-8 factory at Ulan-Ude. In 2024, both plants jointly delivered 40 helicopters, according to Moscow’s defense conglomerate Rostec. A December analysis by Frontelligence Insight, also based on leaked documents, estimated that Russia can make 20 Mi-8s at each plant per year.
The number of helicopters the Ulan-Ude plant can produce is unknown. However, if it has similar capacity to the Kazan plant, Russia’s production rate could be substantially higher.
Mi-8s are versatile workhorses, able to transport troops and cargo, conduct reconnaissance, electronic warfare, and attack missions. Due to heavy losses, their role moved away from frontline missions during the battle of Kyiv, towards evacuation, and subsequently indirect fire roles and hunting Ukrainian UAVs and USVs on the Black Sea.
War has changed significantly since before the full-scale invasion, largely due to the invasion. The ubiquity of drones means that Russia could hardly risk attempting large-scale airborne assault operations.
However, if Russia plans to escalate its hybrid war against NATO into more direct aggression, as some Alliance military officials predict, the Mi-8s would come in handy for ground incursions.
The production plan also hints at Russia’s priorities. The leaked document, minutes from a meeting involving Russian Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Gennady Abramenkov, states that the National Wealth Fund would contribute financing, which means that Moscow's reserve cash is being poured into maintaining and rebuilding its war machine.
On the other hand, the documents revealed some potential hiccups in Russia's plan to rebuild the Mi-8 fleet. Many details seem to hang on contractors securing advance payments and contracts that have yet to be signed. The United Engine Corporation is expected to only start delivering engines for the Mi-8s beginning in September.
One clause calls for an estimate of how many helicopters can "actually" be built in 2026, suggesting that there's a gap between expectation and reality.
Ten Russian soldiers from a single regiment are accused of hunting civilians in Kherson with attack drones, and now face war-crimes charges filed in absentia, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) reported. Investigators say the operators tracked people through the streets and struck ambulances and rescue crews. The 10 are among those participating in a Russian long-lasting terror campaign against Khersoners known as a "human safari."
Kherson lies on the Dnipro River's west bank, with Russian-occupied land directly opposite, and the invading force has made it among the deadliest places to live in Ukraine by deliberately hunting civilians across the city for years.
The drone hunters of one regiment
Counterintelligence officers built a case against 10 drone operators from the 404th Motorized Rifle Regiment, a territorial-defense unit in Russia's "Dnepr" Group of Forces, the SBU reported. The investigation found that the men tracked residents as they moved along Kherson's streets and launched drones at them. The drones carried shaped-charge and high-explosive fragmentation munitions.
Kherson city (Russian-occupied area in red). Map: Deep State
Residents and rights monitors call this campaign a "human safari," the hunting of people going about their ordinary days.
Kherson: human safari rages.
A Russian fiber optic FPV drone chases a car in a residential area; after civilians cut the cable, the drone falls, catches fire.
The documented episodes include attacks on civilian cars and residential blocks, the SBU said. Operators dropped explosives on ambulances at a city hospital. They also carried out a "double" strike on State Emergency Service (DSNS) rescuers who were clearing the aftermath of an earlier Russian shelling.
UN investigators have described this Russian method in Kherson: a first strike, then a second aimed at the people who come to help. Victims suffered shrapnel wounds, burns, and concussions, and civilian infrastructure took significant damage.
Russian soldiers attacked an ambulance in Kherson with a drone.
Based on the evidence, SBU investigators notified all 10 of suspicion under Article 438 of Ukraine's criminal code, which covers war crimes. The notices were issued in absentia. SBU officers in Kherson Oblast led the investigation with the 79th Border Detachment of the State Border Guard Service (DPSU), under the oblast prosecutor's guidance. The agency said efforts to hold the operators accountable continue.
The case fits a wider pattern Ukrainian prosecutors have documented across the oblast in thousands of proceedings.
Bulgaria's new government plans to stop supplying weapons to Ukraine, a shift that breaks with the European Union's push to pressure Russia, Bloomberg reported. The country's Defense Minister tied the move to a call for negotiations rather than arms, echoing a prime minister who has long been hostile to military aid for Kyiv.
A falling and rising tide of Russia-friendly governments across central Europe has steadily frayed the bloc's united front on arming Kyiv amid the ongoing Russian invasion, turning each national capital into a potential brake on support.
Government's excuses
Bulgarian Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov told reporters in Sofia on 9 June that his government would end weapons deliveries to Kyiv.
"Ukraine needs more people, not more armament," he stated, and called instead for a "just peace that will be defined by both sides participating in the conflict."
He added that the EU's role in any peace process is "extremely important." But the Bloc would struggle to act as a mediator, he claimed, after assisting Ukraine throughout the war.
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Hungary unblocks $7.7 billion in EU arms payments after dropping two-year veto on Ukraine aid
A prime minister who opposes arming Kyiv
The stance reflects Prime Minister Rumen Radev, who has long held that the war cannot be won on the battlefield. Radev, a former air force commander and president until January, has repeatedly opposed the EU's military support for Ukraine. He has also called for lifting sanctions on the Kremlin, arguing they damage Europe's economy. In office for only a month, the Prime Minister has promised to expand Bulgaria's weight in joint European decisions.
A quiet arms pipeline now set to close
Bulgaria ranks among the EU's biggest producers of Soviet-standard ammunition. Those older Soviet-caliber shells proved crucial to Ukraine early in the war. The government officially refused direct military aid in 2022. Even so, Bulgarian shells reached the front through exports to other EU countries. Since 2022, Sofia has sent 13 packages of military aid, keeping their value and contents classified.
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Bulgaria approves new cabinet led by Rumen Radev — the ex-president who called Crimea Russian
The timing
The plan surfaced days after the leaders of France, Germany, and Britain urged the Kremlin to accept an immediate, complete ceasefire that would open talks on a lasting deal. Moscow has rejected Kyiv's offer to meet and negotiate an end to the full-scale invasion, launched more than four years ago.
The Times earlier called the rise to power of pro-Russian Radev a strategic success for Putin.
If you want to understand how Ukraine’s interceptor drones are evolving and improving but don’t have a lot of time, you can just take a look at the Litavr interceptor announced by the Ministry of Defense on 8 June.
F-Drones’ Litavr has been in serial production since the fall but its specs have been classified until now. While its capabilities do not appear to be brand new or exclusive to itself, the features list reads like a map of all the ways Ukrainian engineering and battle testing of the past few years made their various interceptors so highly sought-after.
That includes autonomous last-mile guidance, non-GPS navigation, radar integration, and the ability to control the drone from thousands of kilometers away. The company reportedly manufactures most of its own components, reducing dependence on China.
All these things are instrumental to Ukraine’s goal of “closing the sky” to Russian weapons. The Defense Ministry set a goal of shooting down no less than 95% of Russian drones and missiles and has been steadily climbing towards that goal: from just over 80% shot down late last year, to 92% shot down in May.
Last-mile autonomy
According to the MoD, the Litavr's key ability is the automatic pixel lock last mile guidance, in which a pilot controls the speed, while the drone does the rest.
Semi-autonomous weapons are one of the major achievements of Ukraine’s military-industrial ecosystem. Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov emphasized autonomy as a key technology.
“Autonomy is one of the key areas of development of modern air defence,” he said in a 8 June statement.
“Technologies like this enable faster responses to large-scale attacks and more effective protection of Ukrainian cities. We are scaling solutions that have already proved their effectiveness in combat conditions.”
Fedorov claimed that a Brave1 company has already created tech that automates 95% of the "entire interception process, from launching a drone to destroying a Shahed," which has been battle-tested in Kharkiv Oblast.
AI-assisted navigational and target lock tools are present in a plethora of Ukrainian drones: from deep and middle strike UAVs, to FPVs, to interceptors, which were reportedly getting anti-Shahed modules in December.
Across Ukraine and around the world, companies and volunteer cooperatives are using the country’s archive of battlefield footage to train models to become progressively more accurate and deadlier in combat.
Navigation and controls
Besides its daytime and thermal cameras, the Litavr has its own non-GPS navigation tools and integrates into existing radar systems through a proprietary software package.
The announcement was light on details, but this is another demonstration of Ukraine creating solutions to the realities of Russia’s war. The skies and battlefields are full of jamming and spoofing, which makes GPS a highly-unreliable solution.
Adaptations have included visual-inertial odometry, like the kind NASA's Mars drones use, beacon-based systems, AI that image matches preloaded terrain data, and tapping into nearby radar systems, like the Litavr does.
The drone also incorporates a system that allows operators to steer them from hundreds or thousands of kilometers away.
This system has been in development for over a year and announced in April, with more than 10 manufacturers integrating it into their systems. Wild Hornets made a splash online with their announcement that an operator took down a target from outside Ukraine's borders.
Speed and range
The Litavr has a reported top speed of 350 kilometers per hour. This isn’t the first drone with such a claim—the MoD said the same thing of the JEDI Shahed Hunter presented in March—and other drones before it had similar claims made about them, like the Furia.
However, 350 km/h is on the upper end of most interceptors in use these days. The more famous drones of this class like SkyFall’s P1-SUN has a reported top speed of 310 km/h and Wild Hornets’ Stinger reportedly hit 315 km/h in tests, though the website says it tops out at 280 km/h. This was a massive upgrade from earlier Sting, which could reportedly go up to 160 km/h.
Ukraine is pushing that ceiling higher. As early as December, the Brave1 Defense Cluster announced that Ukraine can now mass-produce a motor that can accelerate an interceptor to 400 kilometers per hour. The manufacturer, Motor G, makes more than 100,000 motors per month, according to the announcement.
The growing speed is needed to combat jet-powered Shaheds, whose speeds can climb up to 600 kilometers per hour, which is a drum MoD adviser Serhiy “Flash” Beskrestnov has been beating constantly. Ukrainian devs are working on the problem: for example, General Cherry and STRIX are reportedly integrating chemical boosters into their Bullet interceptors.
Litavr’s operational range of 40 kilometers appears to be comparable to the Sting, though the MoD claimed a record flight of 80 km for the former. The flight ceiling of 9 kilometers appears to be higher than many interceptors of Litavr’s type, which range from 3 to 7 km.
Reducing reliance on China
The manufacturing is also indicative of what Ukraine is trying to accomplish. F-Drones reportedly builds most of its own electronics, engines and flight controllers.
Ukraine's government has a stated goal to reduce its dependence on Chinese parts, which, while cheaper, also pose a security risk. If China stops the flow of parts for whatever reason, Ukraine's entire weapons industry can be in trouble. China also supplies many of the parts for the very Shaheds these interceptors are meant to stop.
According to a December report by Zmiinyi (Snake) Island Institute, Ukraine's domestic manufacturers covered 70% of the need for communication systems for controlling drones, and 55% for analog video transmitters. The institute believes that Ukraine has the potential to cover 100% of the market in these three categories.
At the time of the report, Ukrainian manufacturers produced just 25% of flight controllers for domestic FPV drones, 14% of the thermal cameras and 12% of the electric motors. However, the Institute projected that Ukraine can produce as much as 75% of flight controllers, 90% of thermal cameras and 50% of electric motors over 2026.
Russia has begun moving gasoline to its frontline units in occupied Ukraine in convoys of civilian cars, the Ukrainian defense outlet Militarnyi reported. Soldiers filmed themselves loading jerrycans into ordinary trunks, an improvised workaround after Ukrainian drone strikes made fuel tankers too risky to run. Russian forces are also disguising army trucks as civilian vehicles along the supply route to occupied Crimea.
This comes amid Ukraine’s ongoing “Logistics Lockdown,” a campaign by several Ukrainian military branches and the Security Service to target Russian fuel, logistics, and other supplies across occupied territories, at depths of up to 200 km.
Soldiers filmed the fuel run themselves
A video on the Exilenova+ Telegram channel showed Russians describing a convoy of passenger cars assembled to carry one metric ton of gasoline, Militarnyi reported. A man off-camera says the cars left the city of Kizilyurt in Dagestan, Russia, on the local head's orders, with the fuel destined for Russian units in occupied Tokmak, Zaporizhzhia Oblast. The footage shows jerrycans filling the trunks:
Besides the fuel, the drivers carried 1.5 million rubles ($20,900) to buy another batch of gasoline. Fuel keeps Russian frontline positions running: generators power electronic-warfare systems, charge batteries for reconnaissance and strike drones, and run communications gear in dugouts and observation posts.
Disguised trucks and a strained supply line
Russian forces have also begun disguising army trucks as civilian transport because of Ukrainian drone attacks deep in the rear. In northern Crimea, monitors spotted a freshly painted blue Ural truck driven by a man in civilian clothes, still carrying military plates, its oversized body posing as a dump truck.
The command of Russia's Dnepr grouping ordered mass use of civilian vehicles to move fuel along the route linking Rostov-on-Don with occupied Crimea, the Krymsky Veter monitoring project reported. That improvisation tracks the M-14 corridor, now within Ukraine's deepening drone range.
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Why Russia is improvising
Ukraine's Defense Forces have intensified drone strikes on logistics trucks and fuel tankers on the roads from Russia to occupied Crimea. The attacks have already forced the occupiers to limit cargo traffic through the occupied part of Kherson Oblast toward the peninsula, and Russia has closed stretches of its own land corridor to keep them clear of strike drones.
Russian occupation authorities closed the Chonhar bridge linking occupied Kherson Oblast to Crimea for the second time in two days on 9 June, with the Russian-installed governor, Vladimir Saldo, claiming another overnight Ukrainian drone strike. The same night, drones swept across occupied Crimea, where a Crimea-monitoring channel reported explosions at a military airfield. Moscow claimed it downed scores of drones, while Ukraine stayed silent.
Occupied Crimea — a peninsula in southern Ukraine, occupied by Russia since 2014 — is the logistical heart of Russia's war in Ukraine's south, and its airfields, air defenses, oil depots, and supply roads draw Ukrainian drones almost daily.
A bridge to Crimea closed for the second time in two days
Saldo claimed the overnight strike caused fresh damage to the Chonhar bridge and that 20 drones were shot down on the approach. He asked drivers to use alternative routes, and traffic was rerouted through Armiansk and Perekop.
The bridge carries the R-280 highway, which the Russians built to link their Rostov-on-Don to occupied Crimea through occupied Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, one of their main supply lines to the peninsula.
Drones over Crimea
The strike on the peninsula came the same night, according to RFE/RL. The Crimea-monitoring Telegram channel Krymsky Veter reported an explosion in the Saky district (western Crimea) at 21:14, then an incoming strike in Dzhankoi (northern Crimea) before midnight. Drones also reached Sevastopol (southwestern Crimea), where a strong explosion hit the Kacha airfield at 00:36, followed by a second and third blast in the early hours.
The Kacha military airfield near occupied Sevastopol, Crimea. Archive photo: wikimapia.org
Sevastopol's Russian-installed head, Mykhail Razvozhaev, claimed the military was repelling the attack with air defense and mobile fire groups. The city declared air alerts three times, at 22:33, 00:08, and 06:52, and lifted the last at 07:20. In its morning report, Russia's Defense Ministry claimed its air defenses destroyed 140 drones over seven regions, occupied Crimea, and the Azov and Black seas.
The 7 June Chonhar strike and the wider campaign
The first closure came overnight into 7 June, when Ukrainian FP-2 and Behemoth drones struck the Chonhar bridge. The Falanga multidomain operations center of the 1st separate assault regiment and the 475th separate assault regiment Code 9.2 carried out the strike. Militarnyi reported it was the first known combat use of the Behemoth kamikaze drone, unveiled in late May 2026 by the companies GLEFA and Culver Aerospace. The same day, the occupiers also halted traffic through their "Dzhankoi checkpoint."
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The Crimean Bridge is heavily guarded. Ukraine struck its maritime security layer in the Kerch Strait.
Ukraine's head of the Office of the President, Kyrylo Budanov, said in early June that the strikes on Crimea's land corridor are a systematic campaign meant to complicate Russian plans. Ukraine's forces are also hitting the sea routes: the General Staff reported a Russian ship struck near Crimea, and overnight into 4 June, a Russian patrol boat was destroyed near the peninsula. Days before, occupation officials in Sevastopol had reported a similar overnight attack on the city.
Russia's overnight drone and missile barrage on 9 June killed and wounded civilians in the Kharkiv Oblast cities of Chuhuiv and Kharkiv, regional officials reported. More strikes over the past 24 hours left several people dead and dozens wounded elsewhere in Ukraine. Ukraine's Air Force said air defense stopped most of the drones, though missiles and others still reached homes.
Russia has pounded Ukrainian cities with nightly aerial barrages since 2022, sending waves of drones and missiles that air defenses can thin but not fully stop. Such daily attacks mainly target residential areas and civilian infrastructure.
Chuhuiv and Kharkiv bear the brunt
A series of Russian missile strikes on Chuhuiv overnight on 9 June killed at least three people and wounded six, the city's mayor, Halyna Minaieva, reported. Fire crews stayed at the impact sites as emergency services worked, she wrote, and the strikes damaged about eight apartment buildings and more than ten detached houses.
Police officers film the aftermath of a Russian strike in Kharkiv Oblast, 9 June 2026. Photo: National Police of Ukraine
In Kharkiv—the regional capital—Russian drone strikes set off fires, damaged at least 18 cars, and blew out windows and facades in residential high-rises, Kharkiv Oblast head Oleh Syniehubov reported.
Police officers film the aftermath of a Russian strike in Kharkiv Oblast, 9 June 2026. Photo: National Police of Ukraine
He said 15 people were hurt, among them three children, including a one-year-old boy, and three women were hospitalized.
A multi-story residential building wrecked by a Russian strike in Kharkiv Oblast, 9 June 2026. Photo: National Police of Ukraine
Both cities sit dozens of kilometers from the Russian border and have been struck repeatedly through the war.
A barrage of two missiles and 166 drones
Russia launched two Kh-59/69 guided air missiles from Voronezh Oblast and 166 strike drones overnight, Ukraine's Air Force reported. The drones included Shahed types, some jet-powered, along with Gerbera, Italmas, "Banderol" loitering munitions, and "Parodiya" decoys, launched from Oryol, Kursk, Bryansk, Primorsko-Akhtarsk, and Millerovo in Russia, occupied Donetsk, and Hvardiiske in occupied Crimea.
By 08:00, air defense had downed or suppressed 146 of the drones. Two missiles and 17 drones struck 18 locations, and debris from intercepted drones fell at eight more.
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Zaporizhzhia counts the damage from the day before
A Russian drone attack the previous day damaged 11 residential buildings across three districts of Zaporizhzhia, the city council reported. Six apartment blocks and five detached houses in the Khortytskyi, Zavodskyi, and Kosmichnyi districts lost windows, balconies, doors, and roofs to blast waves and debris. No one was hurt, and priority repairs were finished.
A nationwide wave
Russian attacks over 8 June killed two people in Sumy Oblast and wounded 13 across 21 hromadas, the regional police reported. A 78-year-old woman died in the Konotop hromada and a 71-year-old man in Seredyna-Buda, with a two-year-old boy and an eight-year-old boy among the injured.
In Donetsk Oblast, Russian forces killed two residents, in Bilozerske and Druzhkivka, and wounded 11 more, nine of them in Sloviansk, Oblast head Vadym Filashkin reported. Police recorded 1,309 attacks on the oblast's front line and residential areas, damaging 53 civilian sites. Hours later, Russia dropped three FAB-250 glide bombs on Sloviansk's outskirts, destroying one home and damaging more than 20.
In Kherson Oblast, drone and artillery attacks killed one person and wounded 13, including a child, Oblast head Oleksandr Prokudin reported.
Drone strikes in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast wounded three people.
Russian forces also hit 12 villages in four border hromadas of Chernihiv Oblast, the local border detachment told Suspilne.
The Russians also attacked communities in Mykolaiv Oblast with drones, where the administration reported no casualties.
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