Key developments on June 7-8:
- US expects Russia's retaliation for Operation Spiderweb to proceed quickly
- Ukraine denies Russian troop presence in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast amid offensive, describes state of affairs as 'tense'
- Trump administration redirects 20,000 anti-drone missiles meant for Ukraine, Zelensky confirms
- Ukraine downs fighter jet in Russia's Kursk Oblast, Air Power says
- 'I’m in opposition to Ukraine's entry into the European Union,' Polish president-elect Nawrocki says
The U.S. believes Russia has not but totally responded to Ukraine's Operation Spiderweb and will quickly launch one other large-scale, multi-pronged strike following the large June 6 assault, Reuters reported on June 8, citing unnamed U.S. officers.
One official instructed Reuters that, whereas the timing stays unclear, a retaliatory strike could possibly be anticipated within the coming days and is more likely to be "asymmetrical." One other U.S. supply stated Russia would seemingly make use of missiles and drones to hit a mixture of targets.
The U.S. evaluation follows the June 1 assault by Ukraine's Safety Service (SBU) on 4 Russian air bases utilizing drones launched from vehicles hid inside Russian territory.
Kyiv's operation reportedly damaged 41 aircraft, together with Tu-95 and Tu-22M3 bombers — two of Russia's major platforms for missile assaults in opposition to Ukraine.
The Kyiv Impartial couldn’t independently confirm the variety of plane hit. A minimum of 21 planes had been broken or destroyed, in line with open-source intelligence analysts.
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A Western diplomatic supply instructed the outlet that the Kremlin's response may deal with high-value authorities websites, similar to administrative buildings or intelligence amenities.
Michael Kofman, a army analyst with the Carnegie Endowment for Worldwide Peace, instructed Moscow might purpose medium-range ballistic missiles at headquarters belonging to the SBU, which organized the operation.
On June 6, Russia launched one among its most intense aerial barrages of the full-scale conflict, firing 452 drones and 45 missiles at Ukrainian cities and infrastructure, in line with the Air Power. The assault was seemingly a part of Russia's response to Operation Spiderweb.
A minimum of 4 civilians had been killed, together with emergency service employees, and 80 others had been injured within the in a single day assault, President Volodymyr Zelensky reported.
The June 6 strikes adopted a phone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump on June 4, throughout which Putin reportedly vowed to retaliate in opposition to the Ukrainian drone operation.
U.S. officers say Moscow's June 6 barrage is probably not the complete extent of its response. Russia has carried out near-nightly air assaults in current weeks, a number of of which predated Spiderweb, making it tough to separate a focused reprisal from Russia's ongoing marketing campaign of attrition.
Shortly after the June 6 Russian assault, Trump seemed to justify the aggression in opposition to Ukrainian cities that was launched in response to Ukraine's Operation Spiderweb.
"They gave Putin a motive to go in and bomb the hell out of them final night time," Trump instructed reporters aboard Air Power One on June 6.
The Kyiv IndependentAbbey Fenbert
Ukraine denies Russian troop presence in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast amid offensive, describes state of affairs as 'tense'
Russian forces proceed their efforts to interrupt into Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine's Southern Protection Forces reported on June 8, saying that the state of affairs across the thirty first Separate Brigade's positions stays "tense."
"The enemy has not deserted its plans to enter Dnipropetrovsk Oblast," the Southern Protection Forces wrote on Telegram. "Our troopers are bravely and professionally holding their part of the entrance, thwarting the occupier's plans."
The remark follows the Russian Defense Ministry's June 8 declare that its forces had entered Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.
Regardless of the claims, Main Andrii Kovalev, a spokesperson for Ukraine's Normal Employees denied Russian troop presence within the area.
"The data is just not true. Preventing is ongoing in Donetsk Oblast. The enemy didn’t enter Dnipropetrovsk Oblast," Kovalev told Ukrainska Pravda.
In a separate statement to CNN, Viktor Trehubov, a spokesperson for for Ukraine's Khortytsia group of forces stated that "the Russians are always spreading false data that they’ve entered the Dnipropetrovsk area from the Pokrovsk and Novopavlivka instructions, however (in neither place) is that this data true.”
The thirty first Brigade is deployed within the Novopavlivka path, the place Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts converge. Since 2014, Russian aggression has closely impacted Donetsk Oblast, whereas Dnipropetrovsk Oblast has remained free from direct incursions.
The denials from Ukraine's militaary come amid persevering with Russian offensives in jap and northern Ukraine, together with escalating diplomatic efforts which have but to yield a ceasefire.
President Volodymyr Zelensky's Deputy Chief of Employees Pavlo Palisa stated on June 6 that Russia goals to occupy all Ukrainian territory east of the Dnipro River and advance towards Odesa and Mykolaiv in a broader plan to sever Ukraine's entry to the Black Sea, amid a renewed summer time offensive.
On Could 21, Ukrainian officers rejected similar claims that Russian troops had reached Dnipropetrovsk Oblast's administrative boundary.
Serhii Lysak, head of the regional army administration, known as the stories "faux," citing doctored photographs allegedly exhibiting Russian soldiers within the space.
The Ukrainian monitoring venture DeepState analyzed one such picture and decided it had been taken in Troitske, a village in Donetsk Oblast.
As a precaution, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast started mandatory evacuations of kids and households from 4 front-line villages in late April — Kolona Mezhova, Novopidhorodne, Raipole, and Sukhareva Balka — situated simply 5 to fifteen kilometers from Russian positions.
Regardless of the dearth of verified floor incursions, Dnipropetrovsk has endured frequent Russian missile, drone, and aerial attacks for the reason that full-scale invasion started.
The continuing Russian advance happens as peace efforts stay stalled, and U.S.-brokered negotiations have failed to realize a ceasefire.
The Kyiv IndependentTim Zadorozhnyy
Trump administration redirects 20,000 anti-drone missiles meant for Ukraine, Zelensky confirms
Zelensky confirmed that Trump's administration diverted 20,000 anti-drone missiles initially supposed for Ukraine to American forces within the Center East, in an interview with ABC Information revealed on June 8.
Zelensky stated Ukraine had counted on the missiles to assist counter relentless Russian drone assaults, which embody swarms of Iranian-designed Shahed-type drones. On June 1, Russia launched a record 472 drones in a single night time.
"We now have huge issues with Shaheds… we are going to discover all of the instruments to destroy them," Zelensky said. "We counted on this venture — 20,000 missiles. Anti-Shahed missiles. It was not costly, but it surely's a particular expertise."
Zelensky stated the plan had been agreed upon with then-U.S. Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin and was launched beneath President Joe Biden's administration.
The Wall Street Journal reported on June 4 that the Trump administration had redirected the munitions, which embody particular fuzes utilized in superior rocket techniques to intercept drones, towards U.S. forces stationed within the Middle East.
The Pentagon reportedly knowledgeable Congress in a categorised message that the reallocation of the fuzes for the Superior Precision Kill Weapon System was deemed an "pressing situation" by present Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth.
A Ukrainian army intelligence (HUR) supply instructed the Kyiv Impartial on June 4 that Russia is preparing to launch greater than 500 long-range drones per night time in future assaults, as Moscow quickly scales up drone manufacturing and constructs new launch websites.
The Trump administration has halted the approval of latest army assist packages to Ukraine for the reason that begin of his second time period in January.
The Kyiv IndependentTim Zadorozhnyy
Ukraine downs fighter jet in Russia's Kursk Oblast, Air Power says
Ukraine shot down a Russian Su-35 fighter jet in Russia's Kursk Oblast on the morning of June 7, the Air Power reported.
Though no particulars of the operation had been disclosed, the downing brings the whole variety of Russian plane destroyed for the reason that begin of the full-scale invasion to 414, in line with Ukraine's Normal Employees.
Ukraine launched a cross-border incursion into Kursk Oblast in August 2024, marking the primary large-scale invasion of Russian territory by international forces since World Struggle II.
Strengthened by North Korean troops, Russia launched a push to recapture the area in early March, with Ukraine being pressured to drag again from a lot of the initially taken territory, together with the city of Sudzha.
The downing of the Su-35 fighter jet additionally provides to the losses Ukraine has inflicted on the Russian Air Power over the previous week throughout Operation Spiderweb.
The Kyiv IndependentTim Zadorozhnyy
'I'm in opposition to Ukraine's entry into the European Union,' Polish president-elect Nawrocki says
"In the meanwhile, I’m in opposition to Ukraine's entry into the European Union," Polish President-elect Karol Nawrocki instructed Hungarian outlet Mandiner in an interview launched on June 7.
"On the one hand, we should assist Ukraine in its battle with the Russian Federation, however Ukraine should perceive that different international locations, together with Poland, Hungary, and different European international locations, even have their very own pursuits," he said.
Nawrocki gained the second spherical of the Polish presidential election on June 1 with 50.89% of the vote. He has beforehand voiced opposition to Ukraine's membership within the EU and NATO, regardless of supporting Ukraine's sovereignty.
"Poland has such an curiosity, for instance, within the exhumation of the Volyn (bloodbath) victims," Nawrocki stated.
Polish and Ukrainian researchers started exhuming victims of the World Struggle II period massacres on April 24 in Western Ukraine.
It was the primary such exhumation since 2017, when Ukraine imposed a moratorium in response to the destruction of Ukrainian Rebel Military (UPA) memorials in Poland.
"Throughout the marketing campaign, I didn’t agree, and as president, I can’t agree, to unfair competitors with Ukraine for Polish agriculture or the logistics sector," Nawrocki stated.
EU tariffs on Ukrainian agricultural exports resumed on June 6, amid opposition to Ukrainian exports and its EU accession from jap European members, together with Hungary and Poland.
"I see Ukraine as a rustic that, though it is rather bravely defending itself in opposition to the Russian Federation, should additionally respect the pursuits of different international locations that in any other case assist Ukraine," he stated.
In distinction to different Eurosceptic leaders in Europe, together with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Nawrocki doesn’t specific pro-Russian views, however has repeatedly accused President Volodymyr Zelensky of profiting from allies.
The Kyiv IndependentKate Tsurkan