"Much less time was dedicated to Russia and Ukraine, however this might be subsequent week," – Trump on the dialog with Putin
Donald Trump mentioned that he mentioned the battle between Israel and Iran with Putin. The difficulty of the battle in Ukraine is deliberate to be mentioned subsequent week.
Ukraine's navy intelligence (HUR) destroyed three Russian air protection techniques utilizing drones within the occupied Zaporizhzhia Oblast on June 14, HUR says.
"Strike drone masters of the Division of Energetic Operations of the HUR of the Ukrainian protection ministry found and destroyed costly air protection techniques of the Russian invaders within the quickly occupied territory of the Zaporizhzhia area," HUR reported in a publish to Telegram.
Ukraine's navy recurrently strikes navy targets in Russian-occupied territories and deep inside Russia in an try and diminish Moscow's combating energy because it continues its struggle towards Ukraine.
A Russian Buk-M3, a Pantsyr S1, and a 9S19 Imbir radar from the S-300V air protection system have been destroyed within the Ukrainian drone assault.
"The video reveals a shocking maneuver of a Ukrainian drone dodging a Muscovite anti-aircraft missile, in addition to episodes of profitable hearth strikes," HUR's assertion stated.
On June 1, Ukraine launched a game-changing drone assault on 4 key Russian navy airfields, damaging 41 planes, together with heavy bombers and uncommon A-50 spy planes.
Kyiv claimed it disabled 34% of Russia's strategic bomber fleet in what’s seen as one of the crucial daring operations throughout Russia's full-scale struggle.
Ukraine's navy intelligence company was behind explosions close to Desantnaya Bay in Russia's far japanese Vladivostok on Could 30, which reportedly broken navy personnel and gear, a supply in HUR advised the Kyiv Impartial.
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Russian Railways is quickly approaching chapter as a result of falling load ranges, workers shortages, worn-out rolling inventory and lowered funding for infrastructure tasks.
The Safety Service of Ukraine (SBU) has arrested two people in Kyiv accused of trying to extort $200,000 from a European protection firm, doubtlessly jeopardizing the supply of digital warfare (EW) techniques to Ukraine's army, the SBU reported on June 14.
The suspects allegedly demanded the cost in alternate for facilitating the profitable testing and adoption of 5 radio digital warfare techniques supplied to Ukraine for free of charge, in keeping with statements launched by the SBU and the Prosecutor Normal's Workplace.
The gadgets, provided by a non-public overseas producer, have been financed by Ukraine's worldwide companions. The producer had already delivered 5 techniques to Ukraine, with further contracts potential if the tools carried out effectively in fight situations, the SBU mentioned.
In line with investigators, the suspects falsely claimed to have affect inside Ukraine's Protection Ministry and promised to make use of their connections to make sure optimistic evaluations of the tools.
"Underneath the guise of getting contacts inside the ministry, the boys demanded $200,000 from the corporate in alternate for making certain no obstacles throughout official trials of the tools," the Prosecutor Normal's Workplace mentioned in an announcement.
Each males have been formally charged below Ukraine's Prison Code for alleged obstruction of the Armed Forces and receiving illegal advantages by means of affect peddling. The costs carry a potential sentence of as much as eight years in jail and asset confiscation.
The arrests have been made as a part of a broader investigation led by the SBU and carried out below the procedural oversight of the Specialised Protection Prosecutor's Workplace. Authorities say the investigation is ongoing to determine all people concerned.
Ukraine continues to rely closely on worldwide army help because it defends in opposition to Russia's full-scale invasion, now in its fourth yr. Ukraine makes use of EW techniques throughout Russian assaults on its cities and on the entrance line.
Kyiv and its Western companions launched an digital warfare coalition in April, which consists of 11 nations and comes on high of different eight Western coalitions to help Ukraine. Different comparable initiatives embody an artillery coalition, a fighter jet coalition, and a demining coalition, organized inside the framework of the Ramsteinformat.
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Putin knowledgeable Trump in regards to the change of prisoners of struggle and confirmed Russia's readiness to proceed negotiations with Ukraine after June 22. Earlier, Trump introduced the beginning of negotiations.
In March 2025, as Ukrainian forces made their closing retreat from Sudzha in Russia’s Kursk Oblast, new gray spots started to appear on open-source maps on the opposite aspect of the state border, in Ukraine’s Sumy Oblast.
For the primary time since 2022, when Moscow’s forces retreated frantically from northern Ukraine, Russian troops have as soon as once more set their sights on Sumy Oblast.
However for months, as Kyiv continued to say maintain of a skinny sliver of Kursk Oblast and Russia’s spring offensive escalated in japanese Ukraine, the combating across the border in Sumy Oblast was typically missed.
Over June, Russian positive aspects in Sumy Oblast have sped up considerably, taking a number of villages and coming inside 20 kilometers of the regional capital of Sumy, in keeping with territorial adjustments reported by open-source mapping undertaking DeepState.
As of June 12, combating has been reported to have begun for the village of Yunakivka, a key cease on the cross-border freeway between Sudzha and Sumy and a staging level for Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk Oblast.
Over spring and summer season, this a part of the entrance line has been topic to strict restrictions on media entry, with journalists barred from working with the navy north of Sumy.
On June 12, President Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned that Ukrainian forces had managed to “push the enemy again” in some components of Sumy Oblast, however these territorial adjustments are up to now not possible to confirm.
Chatting with journalists on June 13, Zelensky mentioned that the Russian advance on Sumy Oblast “had been stopped” no deeper than seven kilometers contained in the Ukrainian border, including that some floor had been regained across the village of Andriivka.
Murky intentions
With Russia now holding over 200 sq. kilometers in Sumy Oblast, just like that seized within the cross-border offensive on Kharkiv Oblast in Could 2024, evaluations of the operation are torn between it being a restricted escalation of combating within the border zone or a significant new Russian push.
Not lengthy after launching the Kursk incursion final summer season, Kyiv claimed that a part of the offensive’s purpose was to create a “buffer zone” to guard Sumy Oblast, though in actuality, the spike in Ukrainian navy exercise noticed elevated Russian strikes on border settlements the place Ukrainian troops and tools had been based mostly.
After coming back from a go to to Kursk Oblast in Could, Russian President Vladimir Putin introduced the creation of a “safety buffer zone” of his personal alongside Ukraine’s northern state border.
Map reveals Russia's advance into northern Ukrainian Sumy Oblast as a part of its ongoing spring-summer 2025 offensive.
The sentiment was repeated on June 11 by Alexei Zhuravlev, first deputy head of the Russian State Duma’s protection committee, including that Russia was not seeking to take all of Sumy Oblast (which isn’t one of many 5 areas illegally claimed by Moscow).
“A buffer zone of 100 kilometers alongside the Russian border will probably be sufficient,” Zhuravlev mentioned. “Allow them to evacuate, retreat in worry, ready in every single place for the assault of the Russian military.”
Even when Moscow needed to, mounting a direct assault on a big metropolis like Sumy – with a pre-war inhabitants of 255,000 – would nearly definitely be out of the attain of Russia’s capabilities for the second, mentioned analyst Emil Kastehelmi, a member of the Finland-based open-source intelligence collective Black Chook Group.
“The Russians haven't been in a position to truly seize any bigger cities in Ukraine since 2022 (with the encircling and seize of Mariupol in Donetsk Oblast),” he mentioned.
“What they will do is put heavy strain on the Sumy path and attempt to achieve as a lot land as doable, with a purpose to convey Sumy into vary of artillery and drones, tying Ukrainian troops into defensive battles and giving Russia some leverage in upcoming negotiations.”
Unrelenting strain
Russia’s push in Sumy Oblast comes amid a broader spring-summer offensive that has additionally seen important positive aspects in Donetsk Oblast, particularly on both flank of the embattled metropolis of Pokrovsk.
With the Ukrainian military considerably overstretched alongside tons of of kilometers of entrance line and affected by continual manpower shortages, particularly within the infantry, Russia’s strain on Sumy Oblast creates extra dilemmas.
“The Russians are probably making an attempt to create as many points for the Ukrainians as doable in a number of instructions concurrently,” Kastehelmi mentioned.
“They purpose to create a cascading state of affairs the place the Ukrainians have to reply to a disaster in a sure sector by throwing in models from one other place, leading to models not having the ability to do correct rotations.”
Nonetheless, with Russian forces counting on the identical formulation of creeping, infantry-based assaults employed all throughout a drone-saturated entrance line, sustaining strain additionally comes with sacrifices made in offensive potential elsewhere.
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Chatting with the Kyiv Unbiased, Volodymyr Martyniak, an organization commander within the twenty second Particular Function Battalion of Ukraine’s 1st Presidential Brigade, mentioned that Russia’s most important benefit in Sumy Oblast remained their potential to ship wave after wave of lightly-mounted infantry on the Ukrainian protection.
“They’re being organized into ultra-minimal groups, of simply a few individuals, utilizing the naked minimal of apparatus,” he mentioned,” issues like quad bikes, different motorized automobiles, bikes to maneuver rapidly by tough terrain.”
In keeping with Martyniak, Russian forces within the space use a mixture of expendable, cannon-fodder fashion infantry troops within the first waves of an assault, that are then adopted by extra skilled troopers, demonstrating ways refined for the reason that Battle of Bakhmut over two years in the past.
“At first, troopers go in merely to maneuver ahead and dig in,” he described. “Then, as soon as sufficient of them have gathered in a sure space, sufficient to justify bringing in one thing extra severe, a extra superior, better-trained, and correspondingly extra skilled unit follows.”
Simply as when Russian troops broke throughout the border towards Kharkiv final Could, the present advance in Sumy has raised issues among the many navy and society in regards to the preparedness of Ukrainian fortifications alongside the state border.
As per the Protection Ministry’s fortification-building initiative specified by late 2023 and executed over 2024, whereas Ukrainian brigades and fight engineers would construct the 2 strains of protection closest to the enemy, the third and strongest line of protection can be constructed by civilian contractors coordinated and paid for by regional administrations.
Fairly than coherent strains of protection, these fortifications had been constructed round platoon strongpoints — particular person fortresses consisting of a number of strengthened concrete bunkers related by trenches.
However as in Kharkiv and Donetsk oblasts, these fortifications have been criticized as poorly designed and constructed. Trenches and platoon strongpoints deliberate in 2024 had been typically constructed in open fields, with little regard for concealment or safety from drones.
One Ukrainian fight medic, who requested to stay nameless for safety causes, mentioned that in comparison with areas in Donetsk Oblast the place fortifications had been constructed upfront even when not ideally, nothing of the like could possibly be seen in Sumy Oblast. Though defending Ukrainian territory was simpler than holding positions throughout the border due to higher logistics routes, he mentioned, there have been nonetheless little to no ready strains of protection ready for them after the withdrawal.
Ukrainian protection strains between the village of Pysarivka in Ukraine and Sudzha in Russia s Kursk Oblast on March 16, 2025. (Picture by Philippe de Poulpiquet / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas/AFP by way of Getty Photos)The Ukrainian military has put in a 10km-long protecting internet on a street to guard civilian and navy automobiles from kamikaze drones despatched by the Russian military between the village of Pysarivka in Ukraine and Sudzha in Russia s Kursk Oblast on March 16, 2025. (Picture by Philippe de Poulpiquet / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas/ AFP by way of Getty Photos)
Finally, the energy of any line of protection depends not solely on the fortifications themselves, however on the power of the defending aspect to man them with sufficient fight efficient infantry.
Extra losses amongst Ukrainian models holding Kursk Oblast, the place Ukrainian commanders had reported politically-motivated orders to carry Russian territory regardless of logistics routes being managed by Russian drones, have made it simpler for Russian forces to proceed their advance throughout the border.
In these situations, Martyniak — whose battalion fought inside Kursk Oblast earlier than crossing the border — says the protection of territory inside Ukraine began straight after the withdrawal from Sudzha in March.
In keeping with the commander, Ukraine’s most important drawback in protection constantly stays the dearth of manpower within the infantry.
Efforts have been made to enhance coaching and focus extra on replenishing current brigades quite than creating new ones, however by 2025, nearly all new Ukrainian squaddies are mobilized quite than volunteer troopers. In the meantime, because the skies above the entrance line change into extra saturated with enemy drones with every passing month, the expertise of the foot soldier solely will get deadlier and tougher.
“Replenishments are available in, however they have to be educated, they have to be skilled, and, let’s say, they should have some type of motivation,” Martyniak mentioned.
Additional Russian positive aspects towards Sumy may progressively convey the town into vary of enemy first-person view (FPV) drones, which Russian forces typically use not solely to chop off enemy logistics, however to make whole cities unlivable by focusing on civilian automobiles, as has been executed with Kherson within the south.
With Russian forces continuously enhancing the vary of their FPV drones, together with these operating on unjammable fiber optic connections, the primary such drones may fly into Sumy sooner quite than later. Current strikes more and more deep behind Ukrainian strains in Donetsk Oblast together with on the cities of Sloviansk and Druzhkivka have proven how FPV drones can fly additional and additional into the Ukrainian rear even when the entrance line itself doesn’t transfer a lot.
Over 2025, amid Sumy’s growing proximity to the entrance line and continued intense combating alongside the border has seen the town topic to strikes from different weapons, together with a missile strike in April that killed 35 individuals and wounded 129.
On June 4, Russia struck Sumy with multiple-launch rocket methods, killing 4 and wounding 28, within the first assault with this sort of weapon recorded on the town because it was nearly surrounded by Russian forces on the onset of the full-scale invasion in 2022.
Because the summer season marketing campaign in Ukraine heats up, Sumy Oblast threatens to change into a brand new common hotspot alongside the entrance line, whether or not or not Russian forces can sustain their tempo of assault.
“Their actual benefit right here is that they’ve a large navy useful resource, before everything — a really giant one,” mentioned Martyniak, “the enemy, as at all times, is build up its forces; they don’t stand nonetheless, issues are at all times in movement on their aspect, they usually’re continuously developing with one thing new.”
“We, for our half, additionally attempt to reply with the identical abilities, the identical expertise, the identical functionality; we’re finishing up our missions and holding the road with dignity.”
Notice from the creator:
Hello, that is Francis Farrell, and thanks for studying this text. When eager about a significant new entrance opening in Sumy Oblast, I can solely hope that Zelensky is correct when he says that Russia's advance has been stopped, and that similar to with Kharkiv Oblast final yr, the strains will stabilize and no extra crimson will seem on the map within the space. Hope is sweet, however no matter occurs Russia solely stops if they’re stopped, and that comes at a worth. For that purpose, we is not going to cease what we’re doing for a minute. Please think about supporting our reporting.
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A "two week" deadline imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump to see if Russia is critical about peace in Ukraine has come and gone, with Moscow's escalation of assaults on civilians throughout this era failing to attract the slightest condemnation from the White Home.
"We're going to search out out very quickly. It'll take about two weeks, or per week and a half,” Trump informed reporters on Could 28, responding to a query on whether or not Russian President Vladimir Putin desires to finish the conflict.
His feedback got here two days after Russia carried out the largest drone assault of the full-scale conflict, which reportedly concerned 355 Shahed-type assault drones and decoys.
Because the deadline was imposed, this file has been damaged twice — Russia attacked Ukraine in a single day on June 1 with 472 Shahed-type assault drones, and on June 9, 479 drones and 20 missiles have been launched towards Ukrainian cities.
The figures are stark. In March 2025, Russia launched 4,198 drones at Ukraine, which is up to now the biggest month-to-month variety of drones launched throughout the full-scale invasion.
But when the depth of assaults up to now in June continues, that determine might attain almost 7,000.
Russian missiles and drones launched towards Ukraine Could 2024-June 2025. (Nizar al-Rifai/The Kyiv Impartial)
"That is terrorism towards the civilian inhabitants aimed to create a way of doom, war-weariness, and to place stress on the (Ukrainian) authorities," Rodion Rozhkovskiy, co-founder of Liveuamap, informed the Kyiv Impartial.
Regardless of beforehand hinting on the imposition of recent sanctions towards Russia if the Kremlin doesn't present a need to finish the conflict, Trump has up to now taken no motion towards the continued escalation of violence by Moscow's forces.
"Recently, each assault instills an enormous worry that doesn’t disappear till the air alarm is over."
As a substitute, Trump on June 6 excused Russia's escalating assaults, saying Ukraine's Operation Spiderweb, an assault on Russian bomber plane, "gave Putin a cause to go in and bomb the hell out of them."
Operation Spiderweb was a medical strike towards professional navy targets. Russia's drone strikes indiscriminately goal civilians, unlawful beneath worldwide legislation.
On June 12, for the primary time because the launch of the full-scale invasion, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio launched a press release to mark Russia Day.
"On behalf of the American folks, I need to congratulate the Russian folks on Russia Day," Rubio stated.
"The US stays dedicated to supporting the Russian folks as they proceed to construct on their aspirations for a brighter future."
In the meantime in Ukraine, a brighter future for these dwelling in cities beneath near-nightly bombardment by the Russian folks appears far out of attain.
"Recently, each assault instills an enormous worry that doesn’t disappear till the air alarm is over," Kyiv resident Oleksandra Pshenychna, 20, informed the Kyiv Impartial.
"The worst feeling that comes is despair accompanied by a way of vacancy, inevitability, and hatred for these people who find themselves behind the launch of Russian drones and missiles into residential buildings, cultural monuments, and crowds of individuals," she added.
Ukrainian civilians injured in Russian assaults Could 2024-Could 2025. (Nizar al-Rifai/The Kyiv Impartial)Ukrainian civilians killed in Russian assaults Could 2024-Could 2025. (Nizar al-Rifai/The Kyiv Impartial)
Russia's disregard for Trump's statements and threats lengthy predates his two week deadline — information on Russian drone strikes clearly point out that regardless of the U.S.-led peace course of initiated after Trump took workplace, Moscow has launched bigger drone assaults on civilians than it did throughout the presidency of Joe Biden.
That is regardless of Trump's a number of guarantees to finish the conflict in 24 hours, which then became 100 days. Trump has now been in workplace for 144 days.
His seek for a peace deal has seen a flurry of diplomatic conferences across the globe, extreme and sustained stress on Ukraine, and a reluctance to power any concessions from Russia.
Throughout this time, Russia has continued to assault Ukraine every day. Forward of the second spherical of direct peace talks held in Istanbul on June 2, Russia killed 9 civilians and injured 49 others.
"They [russians] are utilizing all they will use — if they might use extra, they might use extra."
Kharkiv resident Mykola Zhydkov informed the Kyiv Impartial that he has observed that significantly heavy bombardments typically really coincide with peace process-related occasions that the White Home portrays as constructive steps in direction of a possible ceasefire.
"On June 10, POWs have been swapped. On the identical evening, Kharkiv suffered a serious assault," Zhydkov stated.
An aged lady walks with the assistance of a rescuer amid rubble from a broken residential constructing after a Russian drone assault in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on June 12, 2025. (Viacheslav Mavrychev / Suspilne Ukraine / World Photos Ukraine through Getty Photos)
With Trump up to now failing to reply to Russia's escalating drone strikes, the Kremlin has little incentive to cease. All indicators level to Moscow's protection trade solely rising its potential to launch ever-larger mass assaults.
Based on Rozhkovskiy, the one limiting consider what number of drones Russian can launch in any given assault is what number of its factories can produce.
"They’re utilizing all they will use — if they might use extra, they might use extra," he stated.
The Russian manufacturing surge is being facilitated by imports of parts from China and the recruitment of low-skilled labor from international nations, together with from these in Africa.
Russia can be constructing new launch websites and can quickly be capable to deploy greater than 500 long-range drones an evening to assault Ukraine, a supply in Ukraine's navy intelligence (HUR) informed the Kyiv Impartial final week.
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Efforts are underway to quickly increase Ukraine's potential to counter Russian drone assaults, Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, mentioned on June 14.
In a press release shared on Telegram, Syrskyi mentioned he held a gathering targeted on strengthening defenses towards Russian strike drones, notably Iranian-designed Shahed drones utilized by Russian forces to focus on Ukrainian cities.
"Job primary is scaling up the techniques that already work successfully," Syrskyi mentioned. "At the start, meaning rising the variety of drone interceptors."
Russia has been escalating drone assaults towards Ukraine over the previous weeks, launching document 400-500 UAVs (unmanned aerial automobiles) per evening.
Syrskyi emphasised the necessity for a complete strategy that comes with all obtainable capabilities. "(Russia) is continually modifying the traits of its Shaheds and altering their techniques," he mentioned.
Ukrainian officers mentioned methods to enhance early detection of incoming drones and guarantee their well timed destruction. Syrskyi mentioned he had set clear priorities and tasked navy leaders accordingly.
Russia has repeatedly focused Ukrainian cities with waves of assault drones, typically placing power infrastructure and residential buildings in a single day. Ukraine's protection forces use a mixture of digital warfare, air protection techniques, and drone-on-drone interception to repel the assaults.
Drones have change into one of many defining instruments of the full-scale struggle, used extensively by each Ukraine and Russia for surveillance, long-range strikes, and tactical battlefield benefit. In latest weeks, Russia has intensified its drone and missile assaults on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.
Earlier on June 9, Ukraine's Air Pressure mentioned it intercepted 479 drones and missiles throughout one of many largest assaults for the reason that begin of the struggle. Russia launched 499 weapons in a single day, together with 479 Shahed-type drones and a number of ballistic and cruise missiles.