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

Pentagon chief, under fire from lawmakers, appeared to admit that his department diverted thousands of anti-drone missiles originally intended for Ukraine to US forces in the Middle East.

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Wednesday admitted that Russia was the aggressor in its war against Ukraine, even as he refused to state that it was in America’s interest for Moscow to lose and Ukraine to win.

Hegseth, who appeared before the Senate Defense Appropriations subcommittee to defend his department’s budget planning, faced a second day of grilling - this time from senators, about the Trump administration’s effort to end the Ukraine war by drawing in Russia

The survey found that on average majorities from all countries surveyed disagreed with all of Trump’s key global policies including on Ukraine, Gaza, immigration and climate change.

The image of the United States has deteriorated sharply in much of the world since President Donald Trump’s return, with low marks both on his character and policies, a global survey said Wednesday.

The Pew Research Center found that favorability of the United States has dropped in 15 of the 24 countries surveyed.

Former Navy SEAL and Kyiv Post Special Correspondent, Chuck Pfarrer, explains why this could be the beginning of open chaos in Moscow.

The Ukraine-Southeast Europe Summit was launched in 2022 to strengthen ties between Kyiv and southeastern European countries amid the ongoing war with Russia.

Leaders from several southeastern European countries gathered in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa on Wednesday, June 11, for a regional summit, just hours after the city was hit by Russian missile and drone strikes.

The summit was announced through official websites of three countries, revealing the meeting to the public.

President Trump seems reluctant to get tough with Russia. Putin knows that and is playing him to the detriment of Europe’s security and Ukraine’s survival.

After 141 days of failed ceasefire negotiations between Ukraine and Russia led by the United States – namely Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Special Envoy Steven Witkoff, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio – President Donald Trump is acting more like a disinterested third party than the leader of the free world.

Shortly after Ukrainian attack drones, concealed in Russian cargo trucks, destroyed 34 percent of the Russian strategic bomber fleet used to launch cruise missile attacks against Ukrainian cities, the President reached out to Putin.

The Trump administration plans to move 9,000 undocumented migrants, including from Ukraine and Europe, to Guantanamo due to overcrowding, without notifying foreign governments.

The administration of Donald Trump is expected to begin transferring thousands of migrants who are unlawfully residing in the United States to the US military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba this week. According to The Washington Post, citing informed officials, those slated for relocation include citizens from various countries, including Ukraine.

Among those who may be transferred are nationals of the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Germany, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Poland, Turkey, and Ukraine, as well as individuals from other parts of the world, including Haiti.

Ukraine will recruit qualified locals from paramilitary and territorial defense units to shoot down Russian drones as part of a new experimental government project; pay would be up to $2,400/month.

Ukraine will recruit local volunteers to shoot down Russian drones under a new government program, offering up to 100,000 hryvnias (around $2,400) per month from local budgets.

The government representative in the Verkhovna Rada, Taras Melnychuk, announced on Telegram that the Cabinet of Ministers had approved the Ministry of Defense’s proposal to launch the experimental project.

For the Operation Spiderweb, SBU engineers secretly designed, built, and deployed unique long-range drones capable of striking Russian bombers from thousands of kilometers away.

For the execution of Operation Spiderweb (Pavutyana), which resulted in the destruction of dozens of Russian strategic aircraft, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) deployed drones of its own design. Sources within the SBU told Kyiv Post that these UAVs are a unique development by the intelligence agency, incorporating advanced technologies.

“These drones are a unique innovation by the Security Service of Ukraine, equipped with cutting-edge technologies that allowed them to be remotely operated in real time from thousands of kilometers beyond Ukraine’s borders. They successfully bypassed enemy defenses and delivered precise strikes on strategic aviation targets,” an SBU source said.

Poland faces another crucial vote on Wednesday.

Poland’s pro-EU government faces a confidence vote in parliament on Wednesday as it attempts to demonstrate that it still has majority support, even after suffering a major blow in this month’s presidential election.

The vote was called by Prime Minister Donald Tusk after nationalist Karol Nawrocki won the presidency, prompting expert predictions that the government could become fatally weakened, leading to early elections.

On June 1, Ukraine launched a bold drone operation deep inside Russia, claiming to have damaged or destroyed 41 strategic bombers. Moscow dismissed Ukraine’s success as “purposefully exaggerated.”

Russia on Wednesday downplayed the damage from Ukraine’s drone attack on its nuclear-capable bombers earlier this month, calling the impact “purposefully exaggerated,” according to Moscow’s most detailed comments on the strikes.

On June 1, Ukraine launched a bold drone operation targeting several Russian military airbases deep inside Russia, claiming to have damaged or destroyed 41 strategic bombers valued at around $7 billion.

The bodies will initially be transferred to law enforcement and forensic medical experts to confirm the identities of the fallen.

The bodies of 1,212 fallen Ukrainian defenders have been returned to Ukraine, including soldiers who fought in Russia’s Kursk Oblast.

The Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War (POWs) reported on Telegram that among the returned are defenders who died in:

Russia has been trying to conquer Pokrovsk since the summer of 2024, but it has failed when confronting Ukrainian forces effective defenses, yet it hopes to take all the Donetsk region in 2025.

The Russian Armed Forces are making advances towards Kostiantynivka and according to several sources this will be one of its main goals, next to Pokrovsk, of the Russian summer offensive, another attempt by the Kremlin to fully occupy the Donetsk region.

Ukrainian Armed Forces spokesperson Viktor Trehubov said that the Russian military command is focussing on advancing towards Kostyantynivka and Druzhivka. The Economist reports that Ukrainian Intelligence expects the Russian summer offensive will be aimed at Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka.

Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council, was once seen as a liberal, pro-Western who after the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine became social media’s “slavering attack dog.”

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty’s Sistema project carried out an investigation into the financial implications of the blogs of Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council – and what they found is staggering. It was summarized in a June 10 article by the Current Time media outlet.

The former President and Prime Minister of the Russian Federation was seen in this former incarnation as a liberal, Western-leaning politician whom the world could do business with.

An investigation uncovered ties between Telegram’s servers and FSB-linked companies. Telegram denies the claims. Here’s what it means for user privacy and security.

A recent investigation by the Russian outlet Important Stories, in partnership with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), has raised questions about whether Telegram, the popular messaging app, has links to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).

What did the investigation find?

Many of Telegram’s messages pass through servers controlled by a company called Global Network Management (GNM), the investigation found. Although GNM is officially registered in Antigua and Barbuda, it operates mainly from Russia.

Russian air strikes in the early morning hours of Wednesday kill 4 civilians and wound over 60 more as residential buildings and other houses are reduced to rubble. Local villages have been evacuated.

This news story will be updated as more information becomes available.

Renewed Russian air strikes early Wednesday morning on the Kharkiv region using bombs, missiles, and Shahed-type drones, killed two civilians and wounded 28 more, including three children, the capital city’s mayor said.

The Balkan nation with close historical links to Russia has maintained an official policy of neutrality throughout Moscow’s three-year offensive on Ukraine and has denied arming either side.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who maintains strong ties with Russia, will on Wednesday make his first visit to Ukraine since Russia invaded in 2022, the presidency announced.

The Balkan nation with close historical links to Russia has maintained an official policy of neutrality throughout Moscow’s three-year offensive on Ukraine and has denied arming either side.

The country’s rate of inflation is still accelerating – the central bank previously stated it might be close to its peak and then decrease if frosts and drought don’t spoil the forecast.

Inflation in Ukraine hit 15.9% year-over-year, up from 15.1% in April, according to data published by the country’s State Statistics Service on April 9.

Core inflation rose to 0.5% in May, compared to the previous month. 

A series of explosions in Russia’s Tambov region, suggested that Ukrainian strike drones had targeted a major propellant factory essential for Russian military ammunition production.

A series of explosions in the town of Kotovsk in Russia’s Tambov region early on June 11, with reports suggesting that strike drones targeted the Tambov gunpowder factory, which manufactures propellant forvarious types of ammunition used  by the Russian Armed Forced.

The area lies approximately 350 kilometers (219 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

Congressional Democrats rage against Pentagon head for “turning back on allies, such as Ukraine.” Military analyst highlights need for Trump’s team to submit supplemental request on Ukraine funding.

WASHINGTON DC – Pentagon head Pete Hegseth hinted on Tuesday that the White House was considering a budget reduction in its $300 million Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), saying that President Donald Trump’s administration “takes a very different view of that [Russia-Ukraine] conflict,” according to Kyiv Post’s Washington correspondent.

“We believe a negotiated, peaceful settlement is in the best interest of both parties and our nation’s interests, especially with all the competing interests around the globe,” Hegseth told lawmakers during a congressional hearing on June 10. His comments came amid growing uncertainty over the future of the Trump regime’s support for Kyiv.

Zelensky exposes Hungarian military intelligence operations in Transcarpathia, targeting Ukraine’s border vulnerabilities and testing locals’ response to “peacekeepers.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has uncovered details of a covert Hungarian military intelligence operation in Transcarpathia, and criticized Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban for using Ukraine as a political tool in his election campaign.

In an interview with the Hungarian publication Valasz, he also addressed the refusal of Western countries to impose additional sanctions on Russia due to Ukraine’s stance on military mobilization.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be switching between rhetoric focused on Russian ethnic nationalism and Russian multinationalism, but remains committed to promoting anti-Western sentiment and the militarization of Russia’s youth.
• Russia is reportedly working to increase the number of North Korean labor migrants in Russia, likely to support Russia’s workforce and to directly join the Russian military.
• Ukraine and Russia conducted the second round of prisoner of war (POW) exchanges on June 10, in accordance with agreements the parties reached in Istanbul on June 2.
• Ukrainian forces recently advanced near Vovchansk, Borova, Lyman, and Toretsk. Russian forces recently advanced near Kupyansk and Toretsk.

The European press analyses the US situation under the increasing authoritarianism of the Trump regime.

The US has seen a wave of violent protests against raids by immigration authorities. President Trump first mobilized the National Guard against the wishes of California Governor Gavin Newsom and has now deployed 700 Marines to Los Angeles in a move Newsom has labelled “unjustified” and “unprecedented.”

A constitutional crisis in the offing?

State Department’s spokesperson: “I certainly would dispute that we are not letting Ukraine do something.”

WASHINGTON DC – The United States hopes that the UK and other European countries will be willing to step up and lead a fresh bid to chase down more surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) for Ukraine in the coming days, a senior US administration official told Kyiv Post Tuesday evening.

The topic will be discussed “through different settings - both during bilateral meetings with various European allies, as well as at the leaders-level discussion at the G7 summit in Canada,” the official said.

The new sanctions would reduce the allowed price of exported crude from Russia from $60 to $45 to further pressure Moscow. “We need a real ceasefire,” the EC president said.

The European Commission (EC) on Tuesday proposed slashing the price cap on Russia’s global oil exports from $60 to $45 per barrel to add pressure on a Kremlin leadership that has been delaying meaningful peace talks with Ukraine.

“We are ramping up pressure on Russia, because strength is the only language that Russia will understand,” EC President Ursula von der Leyen said.