Ukraine War News Today - Top Stories and Breaking Updates from Kyiv Post

This military transfer includes artillery, air defenses, and dozens of trucks, loaded with ammunition and personnel, in a major escalation, caught on video.

Russia has reportedly carried out its largest transfer of military equipment from occupied Crimea and the Kherson region toward the Sumy sector, according to Petro Andryushchenko, advisor to the exiled mayor of Mariupol.

“We are recording a massive and the largest transfer of military equipment from Crimea and the Kherson region,” Andryushchenko wrote on Telegram, along with a video showing a convoy of military vehicles.

Israeli Ambassador confirmed that Jerusalem transferred Patriot counter-missile systems to Ukraine – mobile units that were used to defend Israel since the 1990s.

Israel has supplied Ukraine with Patriot air defense systems, Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine Michael Brodsky has said.

In an interview published on the Ulizhku YouTube channel June 8, Brodsky recalled that Patriot systems, supplied by the US, were key to protecting Israel during the early 1990s, when Iraq targeted Israeli cities with missile strikes.

Ukraine is scheduled to make the first $171 million payment under IMF’s wartime credit facility after it changed the rules to accommodate a country fighting a defensive war.

Ukraine will transfer a $171 million payment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on June 9. This is the first of Ukraine’s repayments on loans received after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Forbes Ukraine reported.

The sum comprises 125.7 million SDR (Special Drawing Rights), the so-called IMF currency evaluated based on 5 major world currencies (US dollar, euro, Chinese yuan, British pound and Japanese yen).

HUR has unpacked Russia’s new V2U strike drone, revealing it uses AI for autonomous targeting and relies heavily on Chinese and other foreign-made components.

The Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) has published a detailed technical breakdown of the new Russian V2U strike drone, which is now actively used in the Sumy sector of the front line.

According to a report shared on Telegram, the key feature of the V2U is its ability to autonomously select targets using artificial intelligence (AI).

An intercepted phone call from Russia’s border regions describes constant drone strikes and a breakdown in daily life, with clinics closed, mail disrupted, and few residents remaining.

Life for ordinary people near Russia’s border with Ukraine, areas regularly targeted by drone strikes and shelling in recent months, were the focus of newly published intercepted phone calls released on June 9 by the Ukrainian project “I Want to Live.” The initiative, which operates under Ukraine’s Military Intelligence (HUR), is designed to help Russian military personnel safely surrender to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

The audio recordings, attributed to residents of Russia’s Bryansk and Belgorod regions, feature conversations describing widespread destruction, a collapse of basic services, and an overall sense of abandonment. According to the report, the interceptions were made over the past few months and “show how war has become a permanent backdrop to everyday life.”

Trump has replaced expertise with flattery and impulsive decisions, empowering authoritarian leaders like Putin. His misjudgments on Russia risk destabilizing Ukraine and poisoning his legacy.

In 2024, Americans voted for a plain-talking, bombastic, United States-centric president. He promised to end moral preening, cease American involvement in foreign conflicts, and stop much international bloodshed. Indeed, Donald Trump has taken the title of disruptor as a badge of honor. He’s had warm words for dictators like Russian President Vladimir Putin, while offering little sympathy for Ukraine. 

Nonetheless, upon returning to the White House, he promised to peacefully conclude Russia’s war of aggression within 24 hours. Now, 100 days into his presidency, the world is still waiting.

The exchange follows a second round of direct talks between Russia and Ukraine held June 2 in Istanbul. At the meeting, both sides agreed to exchange wounded and young prisoners of war.

Russia and Ukraine confirmed Monday, June 9, that they’ve begun a new prisoner exchange, starting with young captives under the age of 25.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the exchange began earlier in the day and would continue in stages over the coming days. He said the current group being returned includes the wounded, the seriously wounded, and those under 25.

From nightly air raid sirens to hopes for Western resolve – Editor-in-Chief of Kyiv Post, Bohdan Nahaylo, joins TVP World studio from Ukraine to break down Russia’s latest missile barrage.

Keynote conversation with Ben Wallace and Tom Tugendhat.

The Montenegrin government has signed an agreement to assemble UAVs for dispatch to Ukraine with a US technology company using funds provided by Washington.

Russia’s Kommersant news outlet reported on Sunday that Montenegro is to produce unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in partnership with the US ByLight technology company – the first batches of which are earmarked as military aid for Ukraine.

The announcement by the Montenegrin government at the end of May underlines the Balkan country’s intent to increase its military capability as a member of NATO and to establish itself as “a reliable supplier of the most modern military equipment.”

NATO head Mark Rutte is expected to urge a “quantum leap” in defence capabilities including a “400-percent increase” in air and missile defence to shield the alliance against Russia on Monday.

Russia on Monday slammed NATO as an “instrument of aggression” ahead of an expected call from the alliance’s chief Mark Rutte for a 400-percent increase in air defence spending.

NATO “is demonstrating itself as an instrument of aggression and confrontation”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about the plans, which Rutte was scheduled to announce in a visit to London on Monday.

Russia has the world’s third most powerful navy after the United States and China, according to most common rankings – but it has suffered a series of high-profile losses in its war on Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved a new naval strategy which aims to fully restore Russia’s position as one of the world’s leading maritime powers, Kremlin aide Nikolai Patrushev said in an interview published on Monday, June 9.

Russia has the world’s third most powerful navy after China and the United States, according to most public rankings, though the navy has suffered a series of high-profile losses in the Ukraine war.

Ukraine struck a factory producing key electrical components for Russia in Cheboksary, more than 1,000 kilometers from its border resulting in a large fire.

On the morning of June 9, Ukrainian drones targeted Cheboksary, the capital of Russia’s Chuvash Republic. Kyiv’s General Staff confirmed that its Unmanned Systems Forces, together with other Defense Forces units, struck the Russian enterprise “VNIIR-Progress” – a facility that manufactures components for Shahed-type drones. The plant is located more than 1,000 kilometers (625 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

One person was confirmed killed in Rivne. Russia’s attack hit far enough west that Polish fighters were scrambled. An attack objective may have been Dubno military airfield, a rumored home to F-16s.

Russia conducted another mass missile and drone attack overnight Sunday-Monday, assailing regions across Ukraine, but particularly the Rivne region, far from the front lines, in western Ukraine.

At least one person has been confirmed dead Monday morning, the chief of the Regional Military Administration, Oleksandr Koval, reported on Telegram.

Usyk invited Donald Trump to stay at his house near Bucha for a week to see how Ukrainians live with air attacks interrupting their activities and sleep day and night.

Unified heavyweight champion boxer Oleksandr Usyk invited US President Donald Trump to stay at his house for a week to understand the reality of war in Ukraine.

“Only one week. I will give him my house. Live please in Ukraine and watch what is going on every night,” Usyk told the BBC. “Every night there are bombs and flights above my house. Bombs, rocket. Every night. It’s enough.”

Ukraine says its Armed Forces struck the Savasleika airbase overnight, destroying MiG-31 and Su-34 jets – another attack targeting airfields deep inside Russia following Operation Spiderweb.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed two Russian warplanes in an overnight strike on a military airfield in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region – roughly 650 kilometers (400 miles) from the Ukrainian border – Ukrainian military officials said Monday, June 9.

The Savasleika airfield, the target of the attack, hosts MiG-31K fighter jets used to carry Kinzhal hypersonic missiles. According to Ukraine’s General Staff, the other aircraft destroyed besides the MiG-31 was either a Su-30 or Su-34; the full extent of the damage caused is still being assessed.

The Kremlin is trying to systematically turn the city of Kherson into a wasteland by targeting civilians. A UN report now documents Russian tactics and classifies them as war crimes.

Russian drones hit the home of a young couple near the Dnipro River in Kherson, a city in southern Ukraine, on a bright November afternoon.

Anastasia was in the kitchen, holding her Chihuahua puppy wrapped in a coat, when the first drone struck the roof. Shrapnel got stuck in the dog’s body, killing it and saving Anastasia.

2025 Canadian Shield Tournament – New Zealand vs Ukraine.

On June 7, the 2025 Canadian Shield Tournament began. Canada faced Ukraine on the opening day, while New Zealand played against Ivory Coast. Canada defeated Ukraine 4-2 while New Zealand earned a narrow 1-0 victory against Ivory Coast.

Following the conclusion of these matches, New Zealand will now face Ukraine on Tuesday, June 10. The winner of this match will have a serious possibility of winning the inaugural tournament, depending on how the game ends between Canada and Ivory Coast.

Officials say that over 70% of battlefield casualties in Ukraine are caused by drones.

Ukraine’s “creativity,” including its massive “Spiderweb” drone attack deep inside Russia, holds profound lessons for Western militaries, the top NATO commander overseeing battlefield innovation told AFP.

“What the Ukrainians did in Russia was a Trojan horse – and the Trojan horse was thousands of years ago,” French Admiral Pierre Vandier, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, said in an interview.

True to his campaign promises, Polish President Karol Nawrocki is retreating from Warsaw’s previously comprehensive support of Ukraine in its defense against Russian aggression.

The newly elected President of Poland, Karol Nawrocki, said that he opposes Ukraine’s bid to join the European Union.

Over the course of the Russo-Ukrainian War, Brussels has called for Ukraine’s accelerated EU membership. Nawrocki said in an interview with Mandiner, a right-wing Hungarian group of news publications close to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, that for the time being, he is against Ukraine joining the EU.

Russia claims it is advancing into Ukraine’s eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, not one of the regions they previously proclaimed as part of Russia in their unilateral constitution changes.

Russia said Sunday that it was advancing into Ukraine’s eastern Dnipropetrovsk region for the first time in its three-year invasion, a significant territorial escalation amid stalled peace talks.

Ukraine’s top political and military leaders did not immediately respond to the claim of the advance, which would be a symbolic and strategic blow after months of battlefield setbacks.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• Kremlin officials and the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) announced on June 8 that Russian forces reached the Donetsk-Dnipropetrovsk Oblast border and are conducting offensive operations into Dnipropetrovsk Oblast — an oblast that Russia has not illegally declared as annexed.
• Russian officials have repeatedly signaled that the Kremlin has wider territorial ambitions in Ukraine, including in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.
• Russia continued to baselessly accuse Ukraine of failing to repatriate the bodies of killed in action (KIA) soldiers on June 8 — part of the Kremlin’s efforts to undermine mutually agreed upon confidence-building measures with Ukraine.
• The Kremlin appears to have orchestrated a concerted media campaign that aimed to use the purportedly agreed-upon KIA exchange in order to discredit Ukraine and promote Russia’s justifications for its war to both domestic and international audiences.
• Russian officials appear to be setting conditions to withdraw from international arms control treaties, likely as part of preparation for a potential future war with NATO.
• Ukrainian forces reportedly struck a chemical plant in Tula Oblast on June 8.
• Ukrainian and Russian forces recently advanced near Toretsk, and Russian forces recently advanced in the Povrovsk direction.

Moscow’s troops are poised to cross into Dnipropetrovsk and, in the north, are now within 18 miles of the regional capital of Sumy.

Moscow’s forces have advanced southward to within 18 miles of the city of Sumy, the capital of the northeastern region that was completely liberated of Russian occupiers shortly after the beginning of the full-scale invasion.

At the same time, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported that Moscow’s forces are poised to cross the regional border between Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk, which could significantly interrupt Ukrainian ground lines of communications with defending forces in Donetsk.

Last week, a federal judge lifted an administrative pause on immigration applications for the Biden-era “United for Ukraine” program. Advocate highlights increasing anxiety among Ukrainian refugees.

WASHINGTON DC –  The Trump administration is expected to announce this week whether or not to comply with the latest federal court order to lift the administrative pause on immigration applications for parolees of the Uniting for Ukraine (U4U) program, two immigration lawyers told Kyiv Post’s Washington correspondent on Sunday.

U4U is the Biden-era streamlined process – started in April 2022 – for displaced Ukrainians and their immediate relatives to apply for humanitarian parole.

After both sides accuse each other of delaying an exchange of more than 1,000 prisoners and mortal remains, HUR chief says the transfer will happen next week

After Moscow and Kyiv exchange accusations of delaying the planned exchange of POWs, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate (HUR) said that a planned exchange of captured soldiers would start “next week,.”

“The start of repatriation activities based on the results of the negotiations in Istanbul is scheduled for next week,” HUR chief Kyrylo Budanov said on social media.