Firefighters battle a blaze after a mass Russian missile and drone attack in Odesa, Ukraine, June 10, 2025

Russia’s Drones Are Hunting and Killing Civilians in Ukraine’s Kherson

Monday’s Coverage: Russia Strikes West of the Country

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1550 GMT:

The toll from the latest Russian strikes has risen to three murdered with the death of a woman in Kyiv.

Oksana Kodynets, 23, recalled the attacks. She was taking her 18-month-old daughter Maria for a walk after working an overnight shift in the city. She recorded the sounds of the nearby drone strikes on her phone, noting that she had heard nothing like them before.

Asked if she worried, she replied, “I did last night. I thought it was going to be the last day of my life.”

UPDATE 1533 GMT:

The European Union is expected to lower the price cap on Russian oil exports from $60 per barrel to $45.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen put forward. Strength is the only language that Russia will understand.”

The $60 price cap was agreed by the G7 nations and then the EU to reduce Russia’s revenues for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The proposal before the Commission also tightens measures against Russia’s “shadow fleet” which transports oil to circumvent the sanctions. For the first time, a tanker captain is cited, and 77 vessels are added to the sanctions list, bringing the total to more than 400.

An EU diplomat estimated last month that the fleet now has has around 800 tankers, up from 100 two years ago.

Von der Leyen’s plan also imposes restrictions on those doing business with the companies running the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines from Russia to Germany.

Measures are placed on any business with 22 banks, cutting them off from the SWIFT financial messaging system.

UPDATE 0901 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has commented on the latest Russian strikes on civilian areas:

Russian missile…strikes drown out the efforts of the United States and others around the world to force Russia into peace….

It is vital that the response to this and other similar Russian attacks is not silence from the world, but concrete action. Action from America, which has the power to force Russia into peace. Action from Europe, which has no alternative but to be strong. Action from others around the world who called for diplomacy and an end to the war – and whom Russia has ignored. There must be strong pressure for the sake of peace.

UPDATE 0843 GMT:

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has given an assurance of “the irreversible path of Ukraine” into the 32-nation bloc, even if it is not explicitly mentioned in the final communiqué of its summit on June 24-25 in the Netherlands.

Rutte said at Chatham House in London, “Whether it is again in the communiqué or not, I think that’s not relevant, because all the language we previously agreed on is there — until we decide it is no longer there.”

There is concern that with Donald Trump attending the summit, he may demand the exclusion of references to Russia and Ukraine.

UPDATE 0736 GMT:

US federal prosecutors have charged Russian citizen Yuri Gugnin, founder of the cryptocurrency company Evita, with “laundering of hundreds of millions of dollars for sanctioned Russian companies [to] obtain export-controlled technology for the Russian government”.

Gagnin faces 22 felony counts of bank fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States, violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, operation of an illegal money transmitter business, money laundering, and failure to file suspicious activity reports.

Prosecutors say Evita handled $530 million from abroad through American banks and cryptocurrency exchanges. Many of Gugnin’s clients were located in Russia, and he arranged transfer of funds stored in accounts in sanctioned financial institutions, including Sberbank, Sovcombank, VTB, and Tinkoff Bank (T-Bank).

If convicted, Gugnin faces up to 30 years in prison on each count of bank fraud’ 20 years on wire fraud, money laundering, and other charges; 10 years for failure to report and comply with anti-money laundering requirements; and 5 years for conspiracy to defraud the United States and operating an illegal money transmitting business.

UPDATE 0712 GMT:

At least seven civilians were killed and at least 34 injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past day.

Air defenses downed all seven missiles and 213 of 315 drones launched by the Russians overnight. Another 64 drones were lost to electronic counter-measures.

In addition to the two men killed in the Odesa region by drones (see Original Entry), three civilians were murdered in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, one in the Dnipropetrovsk region, and one in the Kherson region in the south.

UPDATE 0657 GMT:

The toll has risen to six murdered from Russia’s strikes on Sumy in northern Ukraine on June 3.

A 17-year-old boy died of his wounds.

Another 27 civilians were injured in the rocket assault on a densely populated area of the city.

Sumy Governor Oleh Hryhorov posted, “Russia is once again targeting what is most precious to us — our children, our future. Seventeen years old is just the beginning of life’s journey. And that journey has been brutally cut short.

The June 3 attacks came hours after the second set of Ukraine-Russia talks in Istanbul, which yielded no progress towards ending Moscow’s invasion.

UPDATE 0639 GMT:

Ukraine and Russia have begun a 1,000-for-1,000 prisoner of war exchange, agreed at their Istanbul talks on June 2.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that those swapped on Monday included wounded soldiers and troops under 25.

He did not give a number: “The process is quite complicated, there are many sensitive details, negotiations continue virtually every day.”

The exchange was supposed to take place last weekend but Ukrainian officials say Russia did not provide a complete list of the prisoners to be freed.

Russia’s Defense Ministry posted Monday, “In accordance with Russian-Ukrainian agreements, the first group of Russian servicemen under the age of 25 was returned from the territory controlled by the Kyiv regime.”

ORIGINAL ENTRY: A day after a record drone and missile assault on Ukraine, Russia has bombarded Kyiv and the port city of Odesa.

Two men were murdered and at least 8 other civilians wounded in Odesa in “massive” drone attacks overnight. Four people were injured in Kyiv.

Residential buildings in the city center and medical facilities, including a maternity hospital, were struck.

“The administrative building of an emergency medical station was also completely destroyed. There is a fire at the scene. Ambulances are damaged. There are no injuries among the personnel,” reported Odesa Governor Oleh Kiper.

An AFP journalist in central Kyiv heard at least a dozen explosions, buildings and cars burned and debris fell near a school.

Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv military administration, said:

Today, more than ever, it is necessary to be united….This night was difficult, but thanks to the incredible work of the Defense Forces, we managed to minimize casualties.

A difficult day lies ahead. Perhaps not one. It will take time to eliminate the consequences.

Early Monday, the Russians fired 479 drones and 20 missiles across Ukraine.

Air defenses downed 292 of the weapons, and 189 were lost to electronic counter-warfare. Air raid alerts lasted over ten hours, as two houses, a car, and an outbuilding were damaged.

Casualties were reported in the Rivne region in the northwest, amid the largest attack in the area during Russia’s invasion, and in the Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Sumy regions.