Weekend War Digest: 15th June 2025
Some of the stories and updates you might have missed this week.
A note: This is the first of a new weekly digest rounding up some of the most consequential updates from here in Ukraine, as well as some stories you might have missed.
Battle Update
Russia reportedly hits 1,000,000 personnel losses
In the twenty-four hours between Wednesday and Thursday Russia lost 1,140 personnel according the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, bringing the total Russian personnel killed or incapacitated to 1,000,340. The milestone, although impossible to independently verify was reached on Thursday the 12th of June, the same day Russia celebrates its national holiday “Russia Day.”
This week has seen some of the largest overnight air raids of the war
After last Monday’s overnight drone attack, the largest scale attack of the war according to Ukraine’s air force, Russia has continued to launch some of its biggest combined air raids across the country. Kharkiv has in recent days faced some particularly intense drone attacks. Civilian casualties and injuries remain relatively low, but the increasing tempo of attacks mirrors Russia’s increased efforts in other areas.
While Shahed type drones are generally pre-programmed with a flight path and target before launch, recent reports suggest the use of AI and satellite connectivity aboard the drones is becoming increasingly common. More reports have surfaced this week of Shahed type drones being fitted with shrapnel filled payloads, which can cause more damage to the human body and often inflict injuries over a wider area.
Frontline fighting now once again within 300km of Kyiv
Russian advances into Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy Oblast, bordering the Kursk region of Russia, have brought frontline fighting once again within 190 miles (300km) of Kyiv. In the last six weeks, having recaptured the areas seized by Ukraine in its surprise incursion last summer, Russia has pushed roughly three and a half miles into Ukraine. This puts Russian forces approximately fifteen miles (25km) from the city of Sumy, the oblast’s capital.
You Might Have Missed…
Fighting in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast for the first time
The Russian Ministry of Defence announced this week that its forces had “reached the western edge of Donetsk Oblast” and begun operations in the neighbouring Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Zelenskyy denied the claim, calling it a “Russian disinformation campaign.” Both The New York Times and the Washington based Institute for the Study of War have confirmed, “based on verified combat footage”, minor incursions by “small squads of Russian soldiers” who have gained a foothold “in tree lines” that straddle the oblast’s border. According to the ISW, “Russian forces appear to be attempting to advance along the Kurakhove-Novopavlivka T-0428 highway toward Novopavlivka from the southeast.”
This week marks the first time in three years of war that fighting has taken place in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, where Russia says it intends to implement a “buffer zone” between the territories it occupies and the rest of Ukraine. This development represents a significant achievement in terms of Russian information warfare in that Moscow has successfully brought ground fighting to a new oblast having successfully crossed the full width of the contested Donetsk Oblast.
More Clandestine Attacks
Following the success of Operation Spider’s Web in which Ukraine succesfully damaged or destroyed a number of Russian strategic bombers, Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR) claims Ukrainian operatives have caused millions of dollars worth of damage to an electrical substation in Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian semi-exclave on the Baltic Sea between Poland and Lithuania. According to HUR sources, in the early hours of Saturday morning saboteurs drained the station transformer’s coolant before setting the substation on fire.
In Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukrainian drones once again struck behind enemy lines. Ukraine’s Southern Forces Command reported destroying more than a dozen tanks and more than 150,000 gallons of fuel. Reports suggest the drones were released from grain containers aboard the train, hitting the locomotive and stopping the train before swarming the remaining carriages.
Putin has told US President Donald Trump he's ready to resume peace talks once agreed prisoner swaps have taken place.
Very little of note has come out of stalled peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in recent weeks besides agreements to exchange large numbers of PoWs (prisoners of war). On Friday both sides conducted the fourth round of exchanges within a week, swapping primarily wounded PoWs and PoWs under the age of 25. A viral video from Ukraine showed one prisoner relaying the memorised phone number of his former cellmate’s mother to bystanders so that they could let her know he is still alive. Kyiv has repeatedly criticised Russia for its lack of transparency in publishing lists of captured Ukrainian fighters. Russian President Vladimir Putin has indicated to Donald Trump that he will be ready to resume peace talks in Istanbul once the agreed PoW exchanges have taken place, which is expected to happen on or around June 20.