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Over 2,000 Russian casualties in first six days of June, Madyar reports amid surge in drone strikes on occupied territories

7 June 2026 at 16:29

Russian soldier seen by Ukrainian drone before strike, June 2026. Screenshot from video: Madyar

Commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, Robert “Madyar” Brovdi, says Russian losses reached 1,006 killed and 1,090 wounded during the first six days of June, as Ukrainian drone forces continued strikes against targets on and beyond the front line.

The commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces published the figures on 7 June alongside an update on overnight operations targeting Russian logistics and infrastructure in occupied territory and inside Russia.

More than 2,000 casualties reported in six days

Brovdi said Russian forces suffered a combined 2,096 killed and wounded between 1 and 6 June.

He described the losses as equivalent to the combat strength of a full Russian assault brigade lost within a single week.

The commander also used a railway comparison to illustrate the scale of the casualties, saying the losses would add the equivalent of 20 refrigerated and medical railcars to Russia’s “one-way ticket” train over the six-day period.

Drone strikes target rear-area infrastructure

According to Brovdi, Ukrainian forces also struck 26 targets overnight on 7 June across occupied parts of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Crimea, as well as Russia’s Bryansk Oblast.

He said Ukrainian units destroyed an air defense system and damaged three locomotives, two railway fuel tanks, four electrical substations, and six telecommunications towers. The strikes also disrupted the movement of military cargo toward the front, according to the statement.

Earlier on 7 June, Ukrainian Special Operations Forces reported strikes on the Semikolodezyanska oil depot in Yedi-Quyu and a maritime fuel terminal in Feodosia. Ukrainian officials said the operation was intended to reduce Russia’s logistical and economic capacity to sustain military operations in occupied territory.

The reported targets fit a broader Ukrainian effort to degrade Russian logistics networks, transport infrastructure, and support systems operating behind the frontline.

Ukraine says it doubled the number of successful strikes on Russian targets more than 50 kilometers behind the front line in May under the “Logistics Lockdown” program, which prioritizes attacks on transport networks, fuel infrastructure, depots, and other systems supporting Russian military operations.

Russian pilot saw man in Ukraine’s Kramatorsk and chose to kill him. FPV drones are operated in real time

6 June 2026 at 19:23

Russian FPV drone operator.

A Russian FPV drone strike near a residential building in Kramatorsk on the morning of 6 June killed a man born in 1976, the Kramatorsk City Council reports. These types of drones are operated in real time, so the Russian pilot saw the target before launching the weapon at the person. 

The strike fits a documented pattern of Russian FPV-drone targeting of Ukrainian civilians in frontline cities that the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine formally classified as crimes against humanity in May 2025 in its findings on Kherson Oblast, and that Ukrainian authorities continue to document across other frontline regions, including Donetsk Oblast.

Ukraine has documented more than 11,000 Russian FPV attacks on civilians, including "double-tap" strikes that hit the same site after medics and firefighters arrive at an initial attack. 

Terrorism: no justification

"Each such crime will be documented, and the guilty parties will sooner or later answer for what they have done. No justification can explain the murder of civilians. This is not how military forces act — this is how terrorists act, for whom human life has no value," the Ukrainian authorities said.

UN findings: from Kherson to three-oblast pattern

In May 2025, the OHCHR-supported UN Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine concluded that Russian drone attacks against civilians in Kherson Oblast were "widespread, systematic, and conducted as part of a coordinated state policy" and constitute crimes against humanity of murder, as well as war crimes.

The Commission documented Russian targeting across more than 100 kilometers of the right bank of the Dnipro River, basing its findings on more than 300 videos, 600 Telegram posts, and 91 interviews with victims, witnesses, and local officials.

In its October 2025 follow-up report to the UN General Assembly, the Commission found that the same pattern had expanded across more than 300 kilometers covering Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, and Mykolaiv Oblasts. Russian FPV operators have systematically pursued specific civilians along defined routes, including at bus stops, supermarket entrances, pension queues, and residential courtyards. 

The Kramatorsk frontline context

Kramatorsk has been a focus of Russian targeting throughout the war, with repeated strikes including double-tap drone attacks on civilian infrastructure and first responders. The city's location near the contact line in Donetsk Oblast places it within FPV drone range. 

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