400 Russian Air Attacks on Ukraine Already in June

Russia hit Ukraine with 400 air assaults in the first week of June, a Kyiv Post analysis of Ukrainian military information has shown.

That figure comes to an average of about 57 air assaults per day, including bombing runs by planes and helicopters and individual waves of missiles and drones.

Additionally, Ukraine was hit 515 times by fire from Multiple Rocket Launching Systems (MLRS) during the week – or some 73 times per day.

Using data that is publicly released every day at 6 a.m. by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Kyiv Post also determined that 760 Ukrainian population centers were targeted by Russian bombs, missiles, rockets, drones, or artillery during the first week of June.

On a daily average basis, 109 Ukrainian cities, towns or villages were hit every day of the first week of June.

The targeted communities were found in nine Ukrainian oblasts – Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, and Mykolaiv – or nearly 40 percent of Ukraine’s total of 24 oblasts. 

Donetsk was targeted the most often by Russian forces. Population centers in Donetsk Oblast were struck 286 times or some 41 every day. Donetsk Oblast includes active combat areas such as Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Maryinka.

The eastern oblast accounted for 38 percent of the communities hit by Russia.

Kharkiv Oblast was the second most targeted, where population centers came under aerial assault 191 times or some 27 every day. Ukraine’s Kharkiv Oblast borders Russia’s Belgorod Oblast which has been subject to incursions for the last three weeks.

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The figure is only slightly lower than Kyiv’s official estimates, where the UK Minister of Armed Forces said there were “tens of thousands more have deserted” not included in the estimation.

The northeastern oblast accounted for 25 percent of the communities hit by Russia.

However, it is clear that Russian forces are also undertaking activities in Ukraine’s south – a potential battleground in Kyiv’s surging counteroffensive. Between Zaporizhzhia and Kherson Oblasts, there were 151 aerial assaults or some 21 per day.

The southern part of Ukraine accounted for 20 percent of the communities hit by Russia.

That includes regular attacks on Kherson city itself. The provincial capital was occupied by Russian forces for about eight months and is now partly flooded due to the destruction of the Kakhovka dam earlier this week.

Kyiv Post’s analysis also found that there were a total of 197 firefights or combat engagements between Ukrainian and Russian forces, as disclosed by the Ukrainian military, during the first week of June. This is a daily average of around 28 firefights per day.

The most intense day of fighting was June 6, with 40 firefights reported.

Finally, the analysis found that the Ukrainian Air Force undertook 99 missions during the first week of June – or approximately 14 per day.  

Russian targets included ammo dumps, logistics/fuel hubs, troop concentrations, command centers, telecommunications posts, and MLRS and artillery positions. This can be considered part of “shaping” prior to the further stages of Ukraine’s counteroffensive.

Depending on the source, Ukraine is thought to have some 80 multi-role and/or strike fighters in its Air Force at present, including approximately 40 MiG-29s. The air force is believed to have lost from 40 to 60 planes and helicopters of various types since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion.