Last news • War in Ukraine
77 fight engagements came about on the entrance, 29 of them within the Pokrovsk path – Basic Employees
For the reason that starting of the day, 77 fight engagements have taken place on the entrance line, 29 of them within the Pokrovsk path. Ukrainian defenders are repelling enemy assaults and holding their positions alongside the whole entrance line.
Editor's word: This story was printed along with Grist.
Twenty-two-year-old software program developer Artem Motorniuk has spent his total life within the Zaporizhzhia area of Ukraine, residing within the north and visiting his grandparents within the south. It’s been nearly 4 years since he’s seen them in particular person.
"My grandparents proper now are beneath occupation," he says. "We are able to attain them as soon as a month on the telephone."
Motorniuk and his household’s story is a typical one in japanese Ukraine. Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the nation in February 2022, the conflict has devastated each occupied and liberated areas. Over one million individuals have been killed or injured within the conflict, based on latest estimates. The overwhelming majority of civilian deaths have been Ukrainian. Complete cities and cities in Ukraine have been flattened and infrastructure destroyed, resulting in nearly 6 million individuals displaced internally and 5.7 million refugees taking shelter in neighboring European international locations. For many who stay, the psychological toll is mounting.
"They shoot rockets actually near Zaporizhzhia,” Motorniuk stated. “[Last August] they bought the area with artillery shells, and so they hit within the place the place youngsters had been simply hanging round and killed 4 youngsters."
The conflict has turn into extremely politicized within the U.S. in latest months. The U.S. in April signed a take care of Ukraine to determine a joint funding fund for the nation’s eventual reconstruction, in trade for entry to its wealth of vital minerals. On the identical time, U.S. President Donald Trump has more and more aligned himself with Russian President Vladimir Putin, at one time even questioning which nation began the conflict, and U.S. makes an attempt to advance a ceasefire have stalled.
Now, simply previous the three-year mark, the conflict’s long-term prices have gotten extra obvious, together with the harm to the nation’s pure assets. Missiles, artillery shelling, and explosive units, similar to land mines, have ravaged Ukraine’s landscapes and ecosystems. Over a 3rd of all carbon emissions in Ukraine stem from warfare — the biggest share of any sector within the nation.
Preventing has triggered harmful wildfires in closely forested and agricultural grassland areas of japanese Ukraine. From February 2022 by September 2024, nearly 5 million acres burned, practically three-quarters of that are in or adjoining to the fight zone.
However not all missiles explode once they’re shot, and mines solely go off once they’re tripped, which means these impacts will linger lengthy after the conflict ceases.
This is the reason a collective of forestry scientists in Ukraine and overseas are working collectively to review war-driven wildfires and different forest destruction, in addition to map unexploded ordnance that would spur degradation down the highway. The efforts intention to enhance deployment of firefighting and different assets to avoid wasting the forests. It’s welcome work, however removed from straightforward throughout a conflict, when their efforts include life-threatening penalties.
The Serebryansky Forest serves as a strategic passing level for Russian forces and a key protection level for Ukrainian forces. To utterly occupy the Luhansk and Donetsk areas, Russia has to go by the forest. Holding the road right here has allowed Ukraine to cease the Russian advance, however at a steep value.
"The shelling, it’s an explosive wave, the fireplace makes all the things unrecognizable," a medic with the Nationwide Guard thirteenth Khartiya Brigade informed the Institute for Battle & Peace Reporting in March. "After they rise up, the forest is completely different, it has all modified."
If you introduce conflict, you create fires that may’t be successfully extinguished.
"You can’t fly plane to suppress fireplace with water as a result of that plane will probably be shot down," Maksym Matsala, a postdoctoral researcher on the Swedish College of Agricultural Sciences, informed Grist.
Forests and agricultural land are woven collectively throughout Ukraine, which means wildfires additionally endanger the nation’s meals provide. Battle-sparked blazes destroy harvests and remove the timber that shelter cropland from drying winds and erosion that may result in drought — leaving these on the army entrance strains and Ukrainian residents susceptible to meals insecurity.
Preventative measures like eradicating unexploded ordnance that would ignite or intensify fires are actually unimaginably harmful and considerably slower when set to the backdrop of explosions or gunfire, stated Sergiy Zibtsev, a forestry scientist on the Nationwide College of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine and head of the Regional Japanese Europe Hearth Monitoring Heart. In a rustic as closely coated in mines as Ukraine, this turns small embers into out-of-control blazes.
Matsala added that forests beneath these war-ravaged circumstances could not ever really get better. Constant shelling, explosions, and fires depart a graveyard of charred timber that hardly resemble a woodland in any respect. Constant preventing since February 2022 has left the Serebryansky Forest an alien panorama.
"The native forest now appears to be like like some charcoal piles with none leaves, and it's identical to the moon panorama with some black sticks," Matsala stated.
In liberated areas of Ukraine, the wildfire administration technique includes eradicating land mines one after the other, a course of often called demining. It’s a multistep system the place educated professionals first survey a panorama, generally utilizing drones, to determine areas the place mines are more likely to be discovered.
They then sweep the panorama with steel detectors till the attribute sample of beeps confirms their presence. Subsequent, they need to disable and extract it. Even with out the chance of by chance triggering unexploded ordnance, demining in an lively conflict zone is extremely harmful. Deminers elsewhere have been killed by enemy combatants earlier than. And a misstep may cause an explosion that sparks a brand new fireplace, which may unfold rapidly in Ukraine’s war-denuded panorama. Demining is a "sq. meter by sq. meter" course of that should be executed meticulously, stated Zibtsev.
These challenges are what spurred Brian Milakovsky and Brian Roth, two skilled foresters with Japanese European connections, to discovered Forest Launch in 2023.
The U.S.-based nonprofit helps coordinate and disseminate monitoring analysis in Ukraine’s forests. Utilizing satellite tv for pc merchandise that take note of vegetation greenness, Milakovsky, Roth, and their collaborators can determine explicit forests in Ukraine that could be beneath essentially the most stress from fires. Forest Launch can then ship this data to native firefighters or forest managers in Ukraine to allow them to are inclined to these forests first.
It additionally collects firefighting security tools from the U.S. to donate to firefighters in Ukraine. Each of those actions permit Forest Launch and its Ukrainian counterpart, the Ukrainian Forest Security Heart, to help organizations in Ukraine who practice foresters to combat fires.
To make drone-based mine detection simpler and secure, two different American researchers launched an AI-powered mine-detection service in 2020 that’s being utilized in Ukraine: Jasper Baur, a distant sensing researcher, and GabrielSteinberg, a pc scientist, based SafePro AI to faucet synthetic intelligence to extra autonomously and effectively detect land mines in present and former warzones.
"I began researching high-tech land mines in 2016 in college,” Baur informed Grist. "I used to be making an attempt to analysis how we will detect these items which can be a recognized hazard, particularly for civilians and youngsters."
Floor land mines, as Baur defined, can appear notably innocuous, which makes them much more harmful. "They seem like toys," he stated. He and Steinberg labored to show their analysis undertaking right into a tangible utility that may assist deminers globally.
SafePro AI is educated on photographs of each inactive and lively unexploded ordnance — all the things from land mines to grenades. The mannequin works by differentiating an ordnance from its environment, giving deminers a precise location of the place a land mine is. When not being educated on photographs from Ukraine, it learns from photographs sourced elsewhere that Baur tries to make sure are as near actuality as potential.
"A variety of our preliminary coaching knowledge was in Oklahoma, and I've been gathering quite a bit in farmlands in New York," he stated. "I stroll out with bins of inert land mines, and I scatter them in farm fields after which I attempt to make [the conditions] as much like Ukraine as potential."
As a result of a number of land mines are in fields adjoining to Ukrainian forests, focusing removing efforts on the perimeter can cease fires earlier than they unfold. SafePro AI has workforce members within the U.S., the U.Okay., and likewise in Ukraine. In reality, Motorniuk, from Zaporizhzhia Oblast who additionally works for SafePro AI as a developer, stated that his work has proven him that he could make a distinction with out choosing up a gun. SafePro AI has obtained funding from the United Nations Growth Programme to deploy the expertise in Ukraine by humanitarian land mine motion organizations. To date, the corporate has surveyed over 15,000 acres of land, detecting over 26,000 unexploded ordnance.
A lot of the safety of Ukraine’s forests in and across the conflict relies on data. Can land mines be positioned? Can wildfires be slowed or stopped? In a geospatially data-poor nation like Ukraine, Matsala highlights that this type of work, and the creation of strong datasets, is important to make sure the survival of Ukraine’s pure ecosystems. It additionally presents an opportunity to rethink the nation’s forestry within the long-term.
"This can be a big alternative to alter a few of our… practices to make the forests extra resilient to local weather change, to those giant panorama fires, and simply [healthier]," Roth, of Forest Launch, stated.
Roth agrees with Matsala that Ukraine’s stands of extremely flammable pine timber pose a protracted menace to the nation’s forests — notably as local weather change will increase drought and warmth wave danger all through Europe. In Roth’s opinion, shedding a few of these forests to wildfires through the conflict will really permit Ukrainian foresters to plant much less flammable, native tree species of their place.
The scientific and humanitarian collaboration unfolding to guard Ukraine’s forests amid conflict can also present a file that may permit the nation to say authorized damages for ecosystem destruction sooner or later.
Matsala recalled what occurred within the aftermath of the Gulf Battle within the early Nineties. Amid preventing, invading Iraqi forces destroyed Kuwait’s oil amenities, resulting in widespread air pollution all through the area. Though Iraq was pressured to pay out billions of {dollars} to Persian Gulf international locations together with Kuwait, Iran, and Saudi Arabia for each damages and remediation, the funds could not have coated the totality of the environmental impacts.
Following the conflict, neighboring Iran requested tens of millions of {dollars} in damages for a myriad of environmental impacts, together with for acid rain brought on by oil fires. The United Nations Compensation Fee in the end discovered that Iran had "not supplied the minimal technical data and paperwork mandatory" to justify the claims for damages from the acid rain. Matsala worries that with out intensive knowledge and reporting on the conflict with Russia, future Ukrainian claims for environmental reparations would possibly go nowhere.
Whether or not that tribunal involves fruition, or the forests are correctly rehabilitated, stays to be seen. However the work continues. And with the conflict nonetheless raging, and no clear finish in sight, it should proceed to be harmful.
The Kyiv IndependentKollen Post
Zelenskyy revealed the true variety of Russian troops in Ukraine and the scenario in Sumy and Dnipro areas
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned that there are 695,000 Russian army personnel on the territory of Ukraine. Within the Sumy course, the enemy superior 200 meters, however the Armed Forces of Ukraine pushed them again 200-400 meters.
No less than 13 civilians had been injured in Russian assaults throughout Ukraine over the previous 24 hours, regional authorities reported on June 21.
Russia launched 272 drones in a single day, together with Iranian-designed Shahed-type suicide drones, together with two ballistic missiles and 6 cruise missiles, Ukraine's Air Pressure mentioned.
Ukrainian air defenses intercepted 140 drones, three Iskander-Ok cruise missiles, one Kinzhal air-to-air missile, and one Kalibr cruise missile. One other 112 drones reportedly dropped off radars — doubtless used as decoys to overwhelm Ukrainian methods.
The Air Pressure mentioned the mixed assault was repelled utilizing aviation, cellular fireplace teams, digital warfare items, and anti-aircraft missile methods.
In Kherson Oblast, Russian strikes on residential areas and social infrastructure injured seven civilians, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin mentioned. Kherson and surrounding settlements west of the Dnipro River face near-daily Russian assaults.
In Donetsk Oblast, three folks had been wounded in Russian strikes, Governor Vadym Filashkin reported. The area stays one of the closely focused areas amid ongoing Russian offensive operations.
In Poltava Oblast, one individual was reasonably injured after Russian assaults broken power infrastructure and open areas, in keeping with native officers.
A 75-year-old girl was injured in Sumy Oblast after a drone strike, regional authorities mentioned. A lady was additionally wounded in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Governor Ivan Fedorov reported, with out specifying the character of the assault.
The strikes come amid Russia's ongoing refusal to simply accept ceasefire proposals because it intensifies coordinated aerial assaults throughout Ukraine.
The Kyiv IndependentKateryna Hodunova
"There may be not even a considered refusing": in military aviation defined why Ukraine ought to modernize Soviet tools
In military aviation defined why Ukraine ought to modernize Soviet tools.
Russia has misplaced 1,010,390 troops in Ukraine for the reason that starting of its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, the Common Workers of Ukraine's Armed Forces reported on June 21.
The quantity consists of 1,060 casualties that Russian forces suffered simply over the previous day.
In line with the report, Russia has additionally misplaced 10,955 tanks, 22,865 armored combating autos, 52,617 autos and gasoline tanks, 29,393 artillery programs, 1,421 a number of launch rocket programs, 1,188 air protection programs, 416 airplanes, 337 helicopters, 41,422 drones, 3,369 cruise missiles, 28 ships and boats, and one submarine.
The Kyiv IndependentKollen Post
On the Novopavlivka axis, the enemy is attempting to develop an offensive – OSUV "Khortytsia"
Heavy combating continues within the Novopavlivka route. The enemy is concentrating offensive efforts within the areas of Vilne Pole, Bahatyr, Komar, Shevchenkove, and Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk Oblast.
Key developments on June 20:
Russian President Vladimir Putin mentioned "all of Ukraine" belonged to Russia in a speech on June 20 on the St. Petersburg Worldwide Financial Discussion board, amid more and more aggressive official statements about Moscow's remaining territorial ambitions in Ukraine.
Putin's declare was based mostly on the false narrative usually pushed each by himself as chief and by Russian propaganda that Russians and Ukrainians are "one folks."
The narrative has lengthy figured prominently in Putin's rhetoric, usually introduced up as justification for its aggression in Ukraine.
In July 2021, simply half a yr earlier than the full-scale invasion, the Russian chief stoked fears of a bigger assault when he wrote and revealed an essay on the "historic unity of Russians and Ukrainians."
In response to the speech in St Petersburg, International Minister Andrii Sybiha condemned Putin’s feedback as "cynical," saying it confirmed "full disregard for U.S. peace efforts."
"Whereas the US and the remainder of the world have known as for a direct finish to the killing, Russia's prime warfare prison discusses plans to grab extra Ukrainian territory and kill extra Ukrainians," he wrote in a put up on X.
Putin made a number of different statements on the discussion board, some contradictory, about Moscow's goals within the warfare going ahead.
"Wherever the foot of a Russian soldier steps is Russian land," Putin mentioned, instantly implying Russia's intention to proceed occupying extra than simply the 5 Ukrainian areas that Moscow has illegally laid declare to: Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts, in addition to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
Sybiha mentioned that "Russian soldier's foot" brings solely "demise, destruction, and devastation." He accused Putin of indifference towards his personal troops, calling him “a mass assassin of his personal folks.”
"He already disposed a million Russian troopers in a mindless massacre in Ukraine with out attaining a single strategic purpose. A million troopers. Two million ft," the minister mentioned.
"And, whereas Putin is busy sending Russian ft to invade different international locations, he’s bringing Russians contained in the nation to their knees economically."
As per the "peace memorandum" offered by the Russian delegation on the final spherical of peace talks in Istanbul on June 2, Moscow calls for Kyiv acknowledge the oblasts as Russian and hand over all territory not but managed by Russian forces into occupation, together with the regional capitals of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Requested whether or not Russia aimed to grab the regional middle of Sumy in Ukraine's northeast, Putin mentioned that whereas such a mission has not been assigned, he wouldn't rule it out.
Russian floor assaults into Sumy Oblast have intensified alongside the northeastern border prior to now weeks, having first crossed the border after Ukraine's withdrawal from most of its positions in Kursk Oblast in March.
Sybiha urged the West to ramp up navy assist to Ukraine, tighten sanctions towards Russia, designate Moscow a terrorist state, and "isolate it totally."
"His cynical statements serve just one objective: to divert public consideration away from the entire failure of his quarter-century rule," the minister added.
When requested if Moscow requires the entire capitulation of Kyiv and the Ukrainian management, Putin denied this, saying that Russia as a substitute calls for the "recognition of the realities on the bottom."
The Kyiv IndependentKollen PostUkraine, Russia perform 2nd prisoner swap this week beneath Istanbul dealUkraine has introduced dwelling one other group of prisoners of warfare launched from Russian captivity, President Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned on June 20, following one other prisoner change a day earlier.
"A lot of the warriors returning right now from Russian captivity had been held for over two years. And now, finally, they’re dwelling," Zelensky mentioned on X, with out revealing what number of captives had been exchanged.
Russia's Protection Ministry additionally mentioned {that a} group of Russian troopers had been launched by the Ukrainian facet, with out specifying the variety of personnel concerned.
This week's exchanges observe 4 related swaps carried out final week in accordance with Ukraine-Russia agreements reached at peace talks in Istanbul on June 2.
The most recent swap was one other in a collection specializing in critically sick and wounded prisoners, Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Remedy of the Prisoners of Battle (POW) mentioned.
"These are defenders of Mariupol, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Kharkiv, and Chernihiv areas. Warriors of the Armed Forces, the Nationwide Guard, and the Border Guard Service," Zelensky mentioned.
The launched POWs included privates and non-commissioned officers, a few of whom had been captured after the siege of Mariupol in 2022, in keeping with the Coordination Headquarters. The oldest one is 60 years outdated, mentioned Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets.
The Kyiv IndependentAnna Fratsyvir
"Large" Russian drone assaults on residential buildings in Odesa kill 1, injure 14Russian forces struck residential buildings in Odesa in a single day on June 20, killing a civilian and injuring no less than 14 others, together with three emergency staff, the Prosecutor Normal's Workplace reported.
The assault, which the service described as "huge," rang out round 1 a.m. native time. The assault drones struck over 10 targets, together with seven residential buildings, and led to a number of large-scale fires.
On the web site of one of many assaults, a 23-story residential constructing caught fireplace between the 18th and twentieth flooring, and led to the evacuation of over 600 folks.
In a separate assault on a four-story constructing throughout the metropolis, three firefighters had been injured when structural components collapsed on the responders. The constructing is described as being "utterly engulfed in flames," in keeping with the State Emergency Service.
The three injured firefighters are at the moment hospitalized in secure situation. Further info on the assaults, in addition to casualties, is being clarified as search efforts beneath rubble and particles proceed.
Along with the buildings, Odesa's foremost practice station additionally had infrastructure broken because of the drone assault, Ukraine's railway company Ukrzaliznytsia reported.
Odesa, a port metropolis on Ukraine’s Black Beach with a inhabitants of round 1 million, has been a frequent goal of Russian assaults all through the full-scale warfare.
"The overhead contact line and the rail and sleeper grid had been affected," the company wrote in a press release, including that no accidents had been reported.
Ukraine imposes new sanctions on Russian, Chinese language, Belarusian corporations concerned in drone manufacturingPresident Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree on June 20, imposing sanctions on 56 people and 55 Russian, Chinese language, and Belarusian corporations concerned within the manufacturing of Russian drones and sanctions circumvention.
Ukraine launched new restrictions as Russia has escalated drone assaults towards Ukrainian cities over the previous weeks, launching document 400-500 unmanned aerial automobiles (UAVs) per night time.
People and authorized entities topic to Ukrainian sanctions can not do enterprise and commerce in Ukraine, can not withdraw their capital from the nation. Within the meantime, their belongings are blocked, in addition to their entry to public and protection procurement, and entry into the territory of Ukraine, amongst different restrictions.
The brand new bundle of sanctions targets people and entities concerned within the growth and manufacturing of Russian drones akin to Geran, Orlan-10, SuperCam, and first-person-view (FPV) drones, in keeping with a decree revealed on the Presidential Workplace's web site.
The Belarusian Precision Electromechanics Plant and 6 Chinese language enterprises situated in Hong Kong and within the provinces of Shandong and Shenzhen are among the many sanctioned entities.
The sanctions record contains tools suppliers to Alabuga Equipment, a Russian producer of machine instruments and gears, and people who import parts for the sanctioned Kronshtadt JSC, a drone producer that developed Banderol UAVs with jet engines.
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The Kyiv IndependentKateryna Hodunova
Minus one other 1060 Russian occupiers: Normal Employees of the Armed Forces of Ukraine up to date information on enemy losses
Over the previous day, the Protection Forces eradicated 1060 Russian occupiers and 116 models of enemy automobiles. The whole enemy losses from February 24, 2022, to June 21, 2025, have reached over 1 million personnel.
President Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned on June 20 that Ukraine is quickly growing interceptor drones to defend in opposition to more and more frequent Russian drone assaults.
In his nightly deal with, Zelensky mentioned the brand new drones would assist strengthen Ukraine's defenses in opposition to Iranian-designed Shahed drones, which Russia has been deploying in rising numbers in current weeks.
"We’re… making separate efforts on interceptor drones, which should strengthen our protection in opposition to Shahed assaults," he mentioned, including that Ukraine's home drone manufacturing is "already delivering outcomes."
Zelensky additionally famous that "manufacturing volumes of interceptors are already rising."
Russian drone strikes throughout Ukraine have been breaking data in current weeks, with almost 500 drones and missiles launched in a single day on June 9 – highlighting the pressing want for efficient countermeasures.
To assist Kyiv's protection business, Zelensky mentioned that Ukraine is working with worldwide companions to safe extra funding and is making ready new agreements forward of subsequent week’s NATO summit.
Because the begin of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine has targeted closely on growing and deploying superior unmanned methods. As of April 2025, greater than 95% of drones utilized by Ukrainian forces on the entrance line are domestically produced.
Each Ukraine and Russia have more and more relied on drone warfare, using aerial, naval, and ground-based drones for reconnaissance and fight operations – making technological innovation a essential element of the struggle.
The Kyiv IndependentDmytro Basmat