Day 1581 War in Ukraine

Russian civilians lined up at Kerch railway station, trying to get out of Crimea before they have to compete with the army for food.

Ukrainian vs Russian drone launches.

Bridge at Kerch that connects Crimea to the mainland will likely not survive the war. Not just because Ukrainians didn't build it, but also because it was built without regard for the ground underneath it.

Russia pressuring Belarus to open up new front.

“Belarus relay stations Russia used to support attacks on Ukraine’s western regions have ceased operating....“  Zelenskyy told Lukashenko to stop running those relay stations. “The power dynamic between Ukraine, Belarus and Russia has changed, as Lukashenko's fold on the issue“

“Poland's Foreign Minister Sikorski warned that Russia may stage a false-flag attack”

Trump seems to warm up to the idea of switching sides away from his good buddy Putin.

When Russia launches strikes at cities, there are warning sirens. There are none in the countryside. “Russian drone bombed a house in Ukraine. Just a house. At 4 am , when the family slept.”

Highway in Crimea abandoned as there's no gas for driving.

Russian stuff blowing up.

Lots of Russian triumphalist postings on Xitter, but Russia oil production decreased 25% from last year at this time.

Russian gas processing facility hit from 1,500km away.

https://balloon-juice.com/2026/06/24/war-for-ukraine-day-1581-crimean-earthquake/ 

Day 1580 War in Ukraine

 Ukrainian farmer must keep drone detection device on his tractor and needs to monitor it while working.

Putin is convinced he's winning. Who's going to tell him otherwise?

“The European Court of Human Rights has ruled today that Russia tortured and killed Georgian soldiers during the 2008 war “

Georgian Droa Party leader is in deteriorating health in prison.

Hungary is backsliding into again becoming the one “No” vote for NATO.

British Army can react to a Russian attack upon N ATO within 30 minutes.

Senator Durbin asks why the US had a representative at the Russian Economic Dvelopment Conference while Ukraine bombed oil refineries within hearing distance.

The Atlantic reports on the Ukrainian underground resistance in Russian-occupied cities like Mariupol. Getting new phones is a major logistical effort as all commercial phones are sold with bugging devices built in.

Russian attacks on civilians.

Cutting Crimea off from the mainland. Amazingly, some Russians still try to get INTO Crimea!

Ukraine has carried out 21 strikes on road and railway bridges leading into Crimea.

Russian students who sign contracts to be drone operators then transferred to infantry to help with mass assaults.

Putin says he is ready for peace negotiations with Ukraine. Problem is that he wants to continue from the 2022 negotiations as though no time had passed.

Ukraine slams Russian industrial assets.

https://balloon-juice.com/2026/06/23/war-for-ukraine-day-1580-high-on-his-own-supply/

Day 1575 War in Ukraine

 I wouldn't be too hard on savk1128 here as Putin has been trying very hard to make the war in Ukraine seen very distant and abstract. He has a problem now as all of the sudden, the war is really impacting the previously-sheltered lives of citizens in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

The dramatic photograph of the top of an oil-storage unit blowing off was actually caused by an errant Russian anti-aircraft rocket.

The children's bus in Belarus that was destroyed by a “Ukrainian drone” was a false flag. Didn't happen.

The detained leader of the Droa party, Elene Khoshtaria, is in poor health.

Georgian media doing its best to hide the war in Ukraine from the people.

Looks like Bulgaria has taken over the role of Russia's stooge from Hungary.

G7 comments on the war in Ukraine.

Blogger refers to Deputy Secretary of War Colby as a “genteel isolationist.” “Washington's policy of shifting greater responsibility for supporting Ukraine to Europe” is NOT a policy that Congress has agreed to! What Congress wants is for the US to support Ukraine!
Relative of the late Leonid Brezhnev in Ukrainian captivity.

Ukraine has a drone that looks an awful lot like a Shahed.

Lots of Russian stuff blowing up.

574 flights from Moscow held up, stranding 12k passengers. With the Moscow refinery just hit, it's doubtful they can drive out.

Russian TV host Solovyev advises Russians they're in a long-term war that will call for lots of sacrifice.

https://balloon-juice.com/2026/06/18/war-for-ukraine-day-1575-what-russian-air-defense-doing/

Day 1574 War in Ukraine

 Russian airline passenger is terribly upset that her flight was forced to land far from its destination. It's “inhuman” for her to have to wait hours and hours to be flown out. There's a story elsewhere in the blog post about “Ukrainian drones struck a bus carrying a children’s soccer team from Belarus “ There are several possible reasons for this to happen, the least likely of which is Ukraine deliberately targeted the bus. It's certainly not okay for any civilians to be affected by warfare, but it DOES happen FAR more to Ukrainian civilians than to Russian ones. And yes, I've seen Russian civilian damage and casualties REALLY played up on Xitter!

Blogger considers it highly unlikely that Russia will pull in troops from other occupations to reinforce Ukraine as that would encourage opponents to think that a general retreat had started.

Another Georgian woman political prisoner develops health problems.

G7 imposes “targeted personal sanctions” on Georgian leaders.

Trump agrees with other G7 leaders that Ukraine should be supported and that Russia is losing. It's pretty clear that Trump doesn't really agree with this, but he's read the room and realizes that other G7 countries don't favor his good buddy Putin and that Zelenskyy is probably the most popular person a the meeting.

Ukraine's Defense Minister predicts that the situation in Crimea will get very bad for the Russian occupiers.

As with Churchill after World War II, Zelenskyy is expected to go back to being a regular citizen as soon as his term ends.

Wow! Russians have observations posts to try and catch drones? I can see them suffering a VERY high casualty rate!

Crimea is in a VERY bad situation for occupiers! As tourists can't drive anywhere due to gas shortages, they might as well go back home.

Flying is restricted around Moscow, combined with the gasoline shortage, many fewer people can travel into the city.

“The Russian army is facing an acute shortage of interceptor missiles for its S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems.”

“Russia is preparing to import fuel by sea to address growing gasoline shortages caused by extensive Ukrainian drone strikes...”

Interesting video. A quadcopter drone heads right for the driver's cab of a supply truck. Supplies are undamaged, but drivers know they're targets and might not survive driving a supply truck.

https://balloon-juice.com/2026/06/17/war-for-ukraine-day-1574-drone-swarms-ballistic-missiles-in-the-small-hours/

Day 1572 War in Ukraine

 Lavrov is convinced, CONVINCED I tell you!, that Russia is NOT losing!!!

Mourning First Responders.

Last night, Ukraine was attacked with 681 drones and missiles and shot down 632 of them.

Georgia has established the authoritarian playbook on how to quickly turn a society into a dictatorship.

KALLAS: “This direct assault on Ukraine’s 1,000-year-old heritage also exposed absurdity of Russia’s claims to be the defender of Christianity.” Referring to the Pechersk Lavra Cathedral.

Ukraine receives mine countermeasure ship from Holland.

Fiona Hill: War is a contrast of a strong society vs a strong state.

Trump has yet to pressure Russia and Ukraine has broken free of dependence on US military aid, so Trump is really pretty useless at the moment.

As a result of Russian drones “The largest costume collection of Ukraine was destroyed at the Dovzhenko film studio.”

The Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra was struck by a Russian drone, not by a Patriot anti-aircraft missile. The Lavra started construction in 1051. For context, the Norman conquest of England was in 1066. In addition, St. Nicholas Cathedral in Dnipro (1650) and a zoo in Kharkiv were also attacked.

UNESCO acknowledged the attack on the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, but was vague on just WHO was responsible!

More cutting off of Crimea.

Fuel crisis spreading across Russia.

“St. Petersburg will not hold the Russian Navy Day parade this year”

https://balloon-juice.com/2026/06/15/war-for-ukraine-day-1572-the-cost/

Day 1571 War in Ukraine

 Assumption Cathedral in Kyiv’s Pecherska Lavra bombed. It was founded in 1051. Moscow was mud huts at the time.

Massive, combined missile and drone attack underway.

For his birthday, Trump speaks with both Putin and Zelenskyy.

Russia reports 270 Ukrainian drones.

Soviet occupation of Georgia (including World War II) probably cost around 880k lives. There were only 4 million Georgians at the time.

How would NATO deal with a new member that was at war? Perhaps the same way East and West Germany were dealt with. Article 5 (we'll come to your wartime assistance) applied only to West Germany and would apply to only Ukrainian land that Ukrainians occupied.

Trump very clearly wants to start doing business in Russia again. He wants Ukraine to hurry up and surrender.

Ukrainian supply line interdiction is so successful that Russia is disguising military fuel trucks as civilian lumber trucks.

Ukrainian civilians using two-person tents in shelters for changing, light reduction and general privacy.

Russia strikes apartment buildings and markets. Also, the Kharkiv Art Museum and a film studio.

More First Responders killed by double-tap strikes.

Ukraine hits strategic fuel stocks. Flaming result looks like a volcano.

A Russian colonel falls out of a window and to his death.

https://balloon-juice.com/2026/06/14/war-for-ukraine-day-1571-the-small-hours-are-once-again-the-deadliest-hours-for-ukraine/

Day 1569 war in Ukraine

Trump meets Usyk, a Ukrainian boxer, who promptly lobbies Trump to send Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine. Thing is, Trump likes to be seen as a winner who backs winners. But Secretary of State Rubio just send Russia a message that made it sound as though Russia was NOT committing scores of atrocities in Ukraine against civilians! At this rate, will Trump be invited to Ukraine's victory party? Sure, but he'll arrive as someone who ALSO helped Ukraine to win!

Ukraine asks allies to chip in another $20 billion so they can exploit their successful push to victory!

The Georgian Dream Party came to power on a platform against police violence. Now the Georgian Dream police are committing acts of violence.

“And let me remind you that the Ministry of Internal Affairs has officially set up a “human rights” unit that prosecutes people over social media posts.”

EU opens up accession talks with Ukraine & Moldova. Georgians are bitterly disappointed because the Georgian Dream Party vetoed Georgia's membership application.

Hungary insists that if Ukraine becomes an EU member, hungarians within Ukraine will be respected. Ukraine agrees.

Swedish intelligence reports that Russia is preparing to strike within a few years. “At the same time, the Kremlin's position indicates that an attack on NATO could take place even 'even if the military balance of power does not meet the traditional criteria necessary to launch an attack.'"

Representative McCaul and Senator Kelly both note that Ukraine is winning.

DNI Gabbard is STILL pushing the long-debunked idea that Ukraine had bio-labs? Wasn't that dis-proven back in early 2022?

Lots of Russian stuff getting blown up, including especially crossings from the mainland into Crimea. All three main routes into Crimea are blocked or seriously throttled. Russia is trying to disguise military fuel trucks as civilian cargo trucks.

Brave, brave Russians! “Russians struck a farm in the Sumy region just as workers were herding livestock.” They've also been striking trains.

Russia's “economic nosedive just went supersonic.”

Putin rambles in delusions.

Ukrainian drones and cruise missiles can fly undetected for 100s of kilometers.

https://balloon-juice.com/2026/06/12/war-for-ukraine-day-1569-a-brief-friday-night-update/