Saturday, June 29

Russia’s war against Ukraine

President Volodymyr Zelensky and Slovenia’s President Natasha Pirc Musar address the media during a joint press after their meeting at the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv on June 28, 2024. (Anatolii Stepanov/ AFP)

Finland announces $170 million in new military aid for Ukraine. The total amount of military assistance Finland has provided Ukraine now stands at 2.2 billion euros ($2.3 billion), the Finnish Defense Ministry said.

Ukraine hits Russian space communications center in occupied Crimea, military says. A series of explosions was reported in several settlements in Crimea overnight on June 23, including the town of Yevpatoria and the village of Vityne. Neither Ukrainian nor Russian officials commented on the attack. The 40th Separate Command and Measurement Complex is reportedly located there.

IMF approves $2.2 billion in funding for Ukraine through Extended Fund Facility. “Ukraine’s performance remains strong under the EFF despite challenging conditions,” a news release from the IMF read. “All quantitative performance criteria for end-March were met, and all structural benchmarks through end-June were implemented on time or with a short delay.”

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High-profile captives, kept in Russian prisons for years, freed in prisoner swap. Ukraine has brought back 10 people from Russian captivity, including Crimean Tatar activist Nariman Dzhelial, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on June 28.

Another Russian Su-25 downed, Ukraine’s National Guard claims. This is the second Russian Su-25 jet that Ukraine has claimed shot down this month.

Kremlin claims ‘provocations’ from US drones over Black Sea, prepares potential response. The Russian Defense Ministry said U.S. drones were being used to conduct reconnaissance and find targets for “high-precision weapons supplied to the Armed Forces of Ukraine by Western states.

Read our exclusives

With aid on the line, Kyiv pays close attention to US presidential debate

U.S. President Joe Biden and his predecessor, Donald Trump, faced off on June 27 in the first presidential debate in the lead-up to the country’s presidential election.

Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images

Ukraine war latest: Kremlin claims ‘provocations’ from US drones over Black Sea, prepares potential response

Moscow’s defense minister has ordered the Russian army to develop measures to deal with what the ministry called “provocations” from U.S. strategic drones operating over the Black Sea, saying they are increasing the risk of a “direct confrontation” between Russia and NATO.

Photo: Daniel Mihailescu/AFP via Getty Images

Human cost of war

Russia hits nine-story residential building in downtown Dnipro, killing at least 1, injuring 12. People are trapped in their apartments, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said. He added that one man was rescued from a car covered with debris.

Life in wartime Kyiv with blackouts

International response

Vienna has become ‘Russia’s new espionage hub,’ intelligence officials tell WSJ. “We are now becoming a liability for our neighbors because Russia is using us as an operational base,” an Austrian intelligence official told the Wall Street Journal.

US, Russia set for UN Security Council clash over North Korea arms embargo. A meeting of the U.N. Security Council on June 28 will see the U.S. confront Russia over violating a North Korea arms embargo, Deputy U.S. Ambassador to UN Robert Wood told Reuters.

Putin gifted Kim Russian-made luxury car made by company that uses South Korean parts, Reuters says. Aurus, the luxury car company in question, imported at least $34 million in South Korean parts between 2018 and 2023, according to customs data seen by Reuters.

Belarus says it is reinforcing security at Ukrainian border after claims of ‘security incidents.’ The Belarusian border service claimed earlier in the day that border police had intercepted a drone that had crossed into the country from Ukraine in order to obtain information about Belarusian border infrastructure.

Lithuanian customs discover scheme to violate sanctions, export cars to Russia. The EU instituted a ban on the export of all new and used cars above a certain engine size (greater than 1.900 cm³) to Russia in the immediate aftermath of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Opinions and insights

The Counteroffensive: Meet the energy workers keeping Kyiv from darkness

When the explosions hit the thermal power plant, senior machinist Ihor* was at home, preparing for his shift. Living close to the plant, he heard the explosions clearly. Unlike most, Ihor moved toward the explosions.

Photo: Oksana Parafeniuk/For The Washington Post via Getty Images

Opinion: Key takeaways from the European Parliament elections for Kyiv

Ukraine has been an important topic in this European election campaign and will continue to be so in the future. So, what do the 2024 European Parliament election results mean for Ukraine, and what should Kyiv focus on?

Photo: John Thys / AFP via Getty Images

In other news

Ukrainian partisans claim they located air defense system protecting Putin’s dacha in Sochi. Ukrainian partisans claimed on June 27 that they had located an air defense system covering the skies above Russian President Vladimir Putin’s luxury dacha in Sochi.

Spotify removes music by pro-war Russian singers. The removals impacted the band Lyube and singers Grigory Leps, Oleg Gazmanov, and Shaman, who sang at a concert in Moscow in September 2022 in support of the illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory.

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Today’s Ukraine Daily was brought to you by Dmytro Basmat, Nate Ostiller, Chris York, Kateryna Denisova, Kateryna Hodunova, Oleksiy Sorokin, and Toma Istomina.

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