North Korean leader Kim Jong-un with Russian Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova at a gala performance in Pyongyang, North Korea, June 29, 2025 (Reuters)

Monday’s Coverage: Russia’s Record Drone and Missile Strikes

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1744 GMT:

Russian forces have attacked an evacuation vehicle carrying three wounded civilians, killing one of them, near Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine.

The Russians attacked evacuation vehicles provided by chaplains three times: at the entrance to the city, in the city center, and during the evacuation of civilians. The police called Russia’s actions “targeted hunting”.

The car was struck by a Molniya drone.

We called for reinforcements and sent the injured civilian with them, hoping for a miracle. But it did not happen, Russia took another life,” said Hennadii Yudin, head of the White Angel police unit.

UPDATE 1740 GMT:

Despite Russian attacks, Ukraine boosted electricity exports in June to pre-invasion levels.

Exports rose by 150% compared to May, with more than 237,000 megawatt-hours. For the first time since October 2023, Ukraine exported more electricity than it imported.

Hungary was the largest customer, with deliveries jumping from 34,000 to 122,000 MWh between May and June.

In June 2024, Ukraine had no exports at all and imported 858,000 MWh, four times more than in June 2025.

UPDATE 1735 GMT:

The US Treasury has sanctioned the Russian IT company Aeza Group for hosting hackers and ransomware operations.

Restrictions were imposed on two subsidiaries and four members of the Group’s management.

Aeza Group also hosted the Russian-language dark-web marketplace for illegal drugs, BlackSprut. It sold access to specialized servers that help cybercriminals avoid detection and resist attempts by law enforcement agencies to suppress criminal activities, said the Treasury.

UPDATE 1728 GMT:

French President Emmanuel Macron has spoken with Vladimir Putin for the first time since September 2022.

The call lasted more than two hours. Macron noted France’s unwavering support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and appealed for “a ceasefire to be established as soon as possible and for negotiations to begin”.

Putin pushed the President aside, proclaiming Russia’s invasion “a direct consequence of the policy of Western powers” that “ignored Russia’s security interests and created an anti-Russian bridgehead in Ukraine”.

UPDATE 1052 GMT:

Despite the Trump Administration’s cutoff of funding, Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab will continue operations until at least October 1, thanks to the contributions of individual donors.

The Lab has been central in an international effort to track potential Russian war crimes, including the mass deportation of Ukrainian children, and to preserve critical evidence.

Last week the Lab released its report documenting Russia’s forced transfer of up to 35,000 juveniles. Ukraine has been able to arrange the return of only 1,366.

See also Ukraine War, Day 1,219: Russia’s War Crime — Deportation of Up to 35,000 Children

The Administration abruptly paused funding on February 27. The State Department granted the Lab a six-week extension to complete its preservation of evidence, enabling it to complete ongoing analysis and to prepare its dataset for transfer to Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency.

UPDATE 1030 GMT:

Ukraine’s military commander-in-chief, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, has announced a ban on the concentration of personnel and military equipment.

Syrskyi also forebade the placement of soldiers in tent camps at training centers.

The orders follow a series of deadly Russian airstrikes on Ukrainian troops gathered at training grounds.

Syrskyi said new shelters, dugouts, and other protective structures are being constructed at training locations: “Additional engineering solutions are being implemented to protect Ukrainian soldiers who are preparing, training and recovering there.”

UPDATE 0930 GMT:

Ukrainian drones have attacked the Izhevsk Electromechanical Plant Kupol in west-central Russia.

An official of Ukraine’s State security service SBU said at least two drone struck production and storage facilities, starting a fire.

With surgical precision, the SBU continues to carry out strikes against Russia’s military-industrial enterprises contributing to the war effort against Ukraine.

Each such operation weakens offensive potential, disrupts weapons production chains, and proves that no part of Russia is a safe zone for its military infrastructure.

The head of the local administration, Alexander Brechalov, said an industrial enterprise was attacked but did not give further inforamtion. He said responders are “eliminating the sources of fire”, with three people killed and 35 injured.

The internationally-sanctioned Izhevsk plant, more than 800 miles from the Ukraine border, produces produces Tor and Osa air defense missile systems, Harpy attack drones, and target training systems.

UPDATE 0857 GMT:

The UN reports that 968 Ukrainian civilians were killed and 4,807 sustained injuries from conflict-related violence from December 1 to May 31 — a 37% increase compared to the same time period last year.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights assessed that the vast majority of the casualties were from Russian military operations to seize territory, the use of explosives in urban areas, and the increased use of short-range combat drones.

The OHCHR recorded credible allegations of the execution of 106 Ukrainian POWs by Russian forces between late August 2024 and May 2025, with 35 of these executions likely occurring between December and May. Most of the executions were amid Russian advances in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine and the Kursk region in western Russia.

Interviews with freed Ukrainian POWs confirmed Russia’s “widespread and systematic” practices of torture.

UPDATE 0838 GMT:

Donald Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, has hit back after the Kremlin blamed the US and Kyiv for stalled negotaitions to end Russia’s invasion.

UPDATE 0835 GMT:

A Russian missile attack has killed and injured civilians in the Kamianske district of the Dnipropetrovsk region.

Two ballistic missiles, likely Iskander-Ms, landed at around 9:40 a.m. local time (0640 GMT). A cultural center, two shops, and several private homes were destroyed or damaged.

UPDATE 0817 GMT:

At least four civilians have been killed and at least 15 injured by Russian strikes across Ukraine over the past day.

Air defenses downed 14 of 52 drones launched by Russia overnight, and 33 were lost to electronic counter-measures.

In the Kherson region in southern Ukraine, two people were murdered and five injured. Three high-rise buildings and eight houses were damaged.

A 45-year-old man was killed and a 37-year-old woman injured in the neighboring Mykolaiv region. Houses, two schools, and a shop were damaged.

A 75-year-old man was killed and his 76-year-old wife was injured during another artillery attack.

Casualties were also reported in the Donetsk, Kharkiv, Sumy, and Zaporizhzhia regions.

UPDATE 0636 GMT:

Visiting Kyiv on Monday, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has said Vladimir Putin’s “alleged willingness to negotiate is just a facade”, as he “wants to subjugate the whole of Ukraine and at the same time spread fear throughout Europe”.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky posted:

UPDATE 0632 GMT:

The International Monetary Fund has completed its eighth review of the 4-year, $15.5 billion Extended Fund Facility for Ukraine.

The IMF will now send an additional $500 million to Kyiv, bringing total disbursements to $10.6 billion.

UPDATE 0626 GMT:

The European Commission has confirmed a new long-term trade deal with Ukraine, including imports of food products criticized by EU farmers.

The agreement maintains a maximum ceiling on some tariff-free products, such as cereals, poultry, eggs, sugar,and corn, that was introduced in 2024. In return, Kyiv will cut quotas for pork, poultry and sugar imported from the European Union, and it will align its food production standards with the EU by 2028.

The agreement still requires endorsement from the EU’s 27 members.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: North Korea has celebrated its support of Russia’s 40-month full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Photographs of leader Kim Jong-un were shown on a large screen at a gala performance in Pyongyang, which marked the first anniversary of a military treaty between North Korea and Russia. He rested his hands on six coffins of slain troops, draped in the North Korean flag, brought back from Russian territory.

Kim and other officials, including his sister Kim Yo-jong and Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui, are wearing winter clothing. That suggests the the soldiers’ remains were returned to the North several months ago.

North Korea has supplied Russia with missiles, around 6 million rounds of munitions, and around 12,000 troops. Last week South Korean intelligence said the North may deploy additional soldiers to Russia as early as July, coinciding with a large-scale Russian offensive.

Sunday’s event at East Pyongyang Grand Theatre combined performances by North Korean and visiting Russian artists with images celebrating the mutual defense pact agreed by Kim and Vladimir Putin, in Pyongyang in June 2024.

Footage on State TV showed Kim alongside Russian Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova and his daughter Kim Ju-ae. The event was the first time that State media has broadcast images of the soldiers in Russia.

State news agency KCNA proclaimed the gala had inspired confidence in the “ties of friendship and the genuine internationalist obligation between the peoples and armies of the two countries that were forged at the cost of blood”.

The photos of Kim and the coffins followed those of troops from both countries waving their national flags. One image was of a blood-stained notebook, purportedly from a North Korean soldier involved in Moscow’s campaign to regain the Kursk region in western Russia, part of which had been held by Ukraine since August 2024. His messages read, “The decisive moment has finally come” and “Let us bravely fight this sacred battle with the boundless love and trust bestowed upon us by our beloved Supreme Commander.”

Russia sent more than 100 officials and performers to the ceremonies. Days earlier Sergey Shoigu, former Defense Minister and now Secretary of the State Security Council, made his second visit to Pyongyang in June.