Maria Tril

Russia’s Belgorod came under missile attack overnight into 7 July, sparking large-scale fires at a gas transport infrastructure facility and, reportedly, at the local airport, according to local Telegram channels. The same night, Moscow was targeted in a mass drone attack, the channels reported. Kyiv wages a systematic deep-strike campaignContinue Reading

Italy has joined Bulgaria in objecting to a proposed EU visa ban on Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church and a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to three EU diplomats, Politico reported. The visa ban, proposed by EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas asContinue Reading

Half of Russia’s primary oil refining capacity is now offline, according to Ukrainian energy analyst Mykhailo Honchar, president of the Centre for Global Studies “Strategy XXI,” after a year of intensifying Ukrainian drone and missile strikes on the country’s refineries. Honchar’s calculation, published 30 June in ZN.UA, puts the figureContinue Reading

The UK is set to publish a Defence Investment Plan on 2 July that redirects military spending away from large warships and toward drones and uncrewed systems, modeled on tactics used in Ukraine’s war against Russia, the Ministry of Defence said on 29 June, according to Politico. The shift marksContinue Reading

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told German Chancellor Friedrich Merz that Ankara is actively working to resume negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, Türkiye’s Directorate of Communications reported on 29 June. The call comes weeks before the NATO Leaders’ Summit in Ankara, where alliance members are expected to commit to newContinue Reading

The superyacht Graceful, described by international media including Forbes as the personal yacht of Russian President Vladimir Putin, passed through Danish waters on 29 June under escort of a Russian destroyer and a patrol vessel, DR reported. The convoy had been monitored by the German coast guard and the RoyalContinue Reading

Latvia will build a joint drone manufacturing facility with Ukraine near its border with Russia, Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs said on 29 June, Delfi reported. The agreement providing for joint production was signed in early June, when Kulbergs met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the Nordic-BalticContinue Reading

Ukraine’s FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles hit the Titan-Barikady defense plant in Volgograd, Russia, on the night of 27 June, starting a fire on the facility’s grounds, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed on 27 June. The plant is one of the core enterprises of Russia’s military-industrial complex. It produces launch systems, artilleryContinue Reading

The Moscow oil refinery in Kapotnya will need at least six months of repairs and is unlikely to resume production this year, after two Ukrainian drone strikes, Reuters reported on 24 June, citing two sources. The strikes on 16 and 18 June disabled both of the refinery’s primary processing units,Continue Reading

Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said its Alpha special operations unit struck Russian air defenses near the Kerch Strait and the military airfields of Saky and Hvardiiske in occupied Crimea, in an operation the agency reported on 24 June. By preliminary data, four hangars used to store aircraft were hit atContinue Reading

Ukrainian drones struck the railway bridge over the North Crimean Canal near the village of Rozdolne, Sovetskoye district, in occupied Crimea overnight on 18 June, setting off a large fire, the Crimea-monitoring Telegram channel Krymsky Veter reported. Residents heard around 20 explosions in the area. The bridge carries the Kerch–DzhankoiContinue Reading

G7 leaders agreed to send Ukraine more air defense systems and interceptor missiles, and said they are ready to consider licensing Ukraine to build them domestically. The commitment came in the bloc’s joint statement on 17 June, the final day of the summit in Évian-les-Bains, France. Ukraine’s problem is arithmetic.Continue Reading