United24 Media Telegram Highlights
Russia has amassed more than 700,000 troops in Ukraine and is preparing for a large-scale expansion of drone warfare, Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrskyi warned.
According to Syrskyi, exactly 721,300 Russian troops are currently deployed along the front line, while the Russian army continues large-scale infantry assaults.
“They are using a strategy of gradual advancement, seeking to penetrate as deeply as possible into our defenses,” he said.
Syrsky also noted that, as of June 2026, Russian forces were deploying between 6,000 and 7,000 FPV drones daily along the front line.
According to Ukrainian intelligence, Moscow aims to increase that capability significantly, with a target of deploying up to 33,000 drones per day by the end of the year.
Russian “hawks” urge Putin to abandon peace talks to end the war and “scare them with a nuke,” Reuters reports.
“Outraged by Ukrainian drone strikes and angered by what they see as the unfulfilled US promise to help end the war on favorable terms, Russian hardliners are urging Putin to abandon diplomacy and escalate the conflict,” the article says.
These calls are not new. Among the options being proposed to Putin are general mobilization in Russia, the destruction of Kyiv’s government quarter, the assassination of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, strikes on European drone factories, and even the use of tactical nuclear weapons.
However, Ukraine’s strikes deep inside Russia, including attacks on Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as what the Russian side claims was an attack on a bus in the Bryansk region, have made these voices louder.
UPD. Dnipro OSINT says three facilities were hit at the Volgograd plant, workshops No2, No38 and one unidentified. The regional governor confirmed production damage and 10 casualties.
Ukraine's 25th Airborne Brigade is hitting the Donetsk-Selydove-Pokrovsk logistics route with Hornet drones, with confirmed kills of 14 artillery pieces, one SPG, one Grad, three checkpoints and four trucks and engineering vehicles, the unit reports.
All seven confirmed Flamingo missile strikes in 2026 were along the Volga and Kama rivers, Oko Gora analysts note. The waterways serve as a free navigation aid for low-altitude flight, making detection and interception much harder, they say.
SBU Alpha hit the Vtoroye pumping station in Vladimir region for the second time this month, part of Zelensky's 40-day operation on Russia. The station feeds Moscow's ring pipeline and Baltic export ports. Drones hit technical buildings, triggering a detonation.
🇫🇮 Finnish President Alexander Stubb signed amendments to the Atomic Energy Act on June 26, repealing the ban on the import and deployment of nuclear weapons on Finnish territory, according to DW.
The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) has allowed Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete in international competitions under their national flags and anthems.
Infographics of the changing balance of power between Ukraine and the Russian Federation in drone launches to strategic depth.
On the night of June 26, Russian forces attacked gas stations in the Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv regions.
In Zaporizhzhia, a gas tank and an administrative building caught fire as a result of the strike.
At one of the gas stations in Kharkiv region, a building was destroyed and a fire broke out over an area of 400 square meters. Ten pieces of equipment were damaged.
At another location, an enemy strike damaged the operator’s building at a gas station.
Sergei Ivanov, a close associate of Putin and former head of his administration and former Russian Defense Minister, has died.
From 1976 to 1977, Ivanov served in the KGB Directorate for Leningrad and the Leningrad Region, the same city where the Russian dictator began his career. Moreover, Ivanov and Putin served in the same unit.
Under Russian President Boris Yeltsin, Sergei Ivanov served in the Foreign Intelligence Service (1991–1998), and in 1998 he was appointed deputy director of the FSB and head of the Department of Analysis, Forecasting, and Strategic Planning. Putin was then head of the FSB.
From there, he moved to the post of Secretary of the Russian Security Council.
In 2001, Putin, who had recently assumed power, appointed Ivanov Minister of Defense. He held this position until 2007.
During the Putin–Medvedev reshuffle (2008–2012), he served as Deputy Prime Minister in Putin’s government.
From 2011 to 2016, Ivanov headed the Russian Presidential Administration and was later appointed by Putin as the President’s Special Representative for Environmental Protection, Ecology, and Transport.
He supported Russia’s occupation of Crimea in 2014 and the so-called “independence” of the self-proclaimed “DPR” and “LPR” in early 2022, for which he was placed on sanctions lists by the EU, UK, US, and several other countries.