THE RUSSO-UKRAINE WAR BRIEF
Day 1197 of the full scale invasion
Slava Ukraini! In early 2022 I began a Telegram channel aggregating news from a number of sources daily on the war in Ukraine. In June 2023 I began providing a daily draft for the Ukraine War Brief Podcast collecting news from over 70 sources daily, which formed the basis of the script. While the Podcast no longer exists I have continued to make this Brief available for my followers here on Substack for those who wish to keep up with the news from the war.
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ALONG THE CONTACT LINE
GSAFU Morning Report
For: Jun 4, 2025
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in its Operational Information update at 08:00 on Jun 4 stated that day 1197 of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation against Ukraine had begun.
The situation on the line of combat remains tense in some sectors. Ukrainian defenders continue to actively counteract the Russian aggressor, causing them significant losses in personnel, equipment and technology. Exhausting the enemy along the entire front line and continuing to disrupt the plans of Russian occupiers to advance deeper into the territory of Ukraine.
Yesterday aviation, missile troops and artillery of the Defense Forces struck two unmanned aircraft control points, eight artillery, nine concentration areas of enemy personnel, weapons and military equipment, and one enemy ammunition depot.
During the past day, 178 combat engagements took place.
Over the past 24 hours, the enemy carried out 3 missile strikes, 77 air strikes, used 3,669 attack drones and fired approximately 6,100 artillery shells across the positions of Ukrainian forces and civilians.
Air Force Daily Report
61 ENEMY UAVS DESTROYED
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On the night of Jun 4 (from 10:40 p.m. on Jun 3), the enemy attacked with 95 Shahed-type strike UAVs and simulator drones of various types from the following directions: Kursk, Orel, Millerovo, Primorsko-Akhtarsk - Russian Federation, Chauda - TOT of Crimea;
The main areas of the air strike are Kharkiv, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Odessa and Donetsk regions.
The air attack was repelled by aviation, anti-aircraft missile troops, electronic warfare and unmanned systems units, and mobile fire groups of the Defense Forces of Ukraine.
As of 09:00, air defenses neutralized 61 enemy Shahed UAVs (and other types of UAVs) in the east, south, and north of the country. 36 were shot down by fire weapons, 25 were lost/suppressed by electronic warfare.
Enemy air attack targets were recorded in 7 locations.
Combat Operations in the Russian Federation
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US based think tank, in its Jun 3 Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment reported that:
Sumy - Kursk Border: Ukrainian forces recently advanced in Kursk Oblast.
Geolocated footage published on June 3 indicates that Ukrainian forces recently advanced east of Tetkino (southwest of Glushkovo).
Belgorod Incursion: Neither Ukrainian nor Russian sources reported ground activity in northwesternmost Belgorod Oblast on Jun 3.
The Khortytsia operational-strategic group
(Responsible for the northeastern part of Ukraine. )
There have been no major changes to the combat environment since our last report.
The Tavria operational-strategic group
(Responsible for the central-eastern and southeastern part of Ukraine.)
Kurakhove Sector: Russian forces recently advanced in the Kurakhove direction.
Geolocated footage published on June 1 indicates that Russian forces recently advanced northwest of Odradne (southwest of Kurakhove).
The Odesa operational-strategic group
(Responsible for Kherson, Qırım, (also known as Crimea) and the Black Sea.)
There have been no major changes to the combat environment since our last report.
TEMPORARILY OCCUPIED TERRITORIES
Nothing major to report.
THE HOME FRONT
Russia strikes Ukraine's Sumy during morning rush hour.
The Ukrainian city of Sumy was once again the target of a devastating Russian missile strike on June 3, with four people killed and 28 others, including three children, injured, the Kyiv Independent reported citing local journalists.
"The body of a man, killed in the attack, lay on the roadway. It was covered with a thermal blanket, weighed down by fire extinguishers and a bottle of water," Cukr journalist Artem Korol said. "The air was thick with the smell of fuel, likely spilled from ruptured tanks. Remnants of the munition protruded from the asphalt, and dozens of small potholes in the road emerged around it," Korol added
Russia launched the attack during rush hour. Anna Shpurik, also a journalist at Cukr, described how she saw the yellow number 55 bus stop at a red light moments before an explosion.
Shell fragments peppered the vehicle but all the passengers survived, the driver escaping with just an injured arm.
Four others were less fortunate, just the latest civilians killed in escalating Russian strikes on the oblast.
Sumy lies in northeastern Ukraine just over 30 kilometers from the Russian border, and has suffered relentless attacks from Russia since the start of the full-scale invasion.
"At about 9 a.m., the Russians launched an insidious attack on the city center. One of the shells hit a busy road, right during the morning rush hour. People were just going about their daily business," Oleh Hryhorov, head of Sumy Regional State Administration, said on Facebook.
Russia launched five attacks on Sumy using multiple launch rocket systems, according to local authorities.
The attack set two cars ablaze, destroying them completely. A medical facility and residential buildings, a private house, and non-residential buildings were also damaged.
Sumy Oblast has recently seen renewed hostilities as Russian forces ramp up activity along the northeastern border.
In late May, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia is accumulating 50,000 troops near Sumy Oblast, seeking to create a 10-kilometer buffer zone in the area.
But even with the escalating recent attacks and tensions, the timing and brutality of the attack still shocked those in Sumy.
"No one ever expects this," Ihor Klymenko, head of the Prolisok humanitarian center in Sumy Oblast, told the Kyiv Independent.
7 killed, 52 injured in Russian attacks on Ukraine over past day.
Russian attacks across Ukrainian regions killed at least seven civilians and injured at least 52 over the past day, the Kyiv Independent reported citing regional authorities on Jun 4.
Russia again attacked emergency workers in Zaporizhia. Emergency workers who were extinguishing a fire in one of the villages of Vasylivka district came under enemy fire. Fortunately, no personnel were injured. A fire truck was damaged in the attack.
In Chernihiv Oblast, a Russian drone attack injured a 43-year-old man in his yard in the Novhorod-Siverskyi community, Governor Viacheslav Chaus said.
In Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, an 87-year-old man was wounded when Russia attacked the Nikopol district with drones and artillery, according to Governor Serhii Lysak.
Russian attacks across Donetsk Oblast killed one person and injured two in the village of Serhiivka, said the regional governor, Vadym Filashkin. Five civilians were injured elsewhere in the region.
In Kharkiv Oblast, two people were killed and five injured as Russia launched missiles, drones, and bombs against Kharkiv and the region, Governor Oleh Syniehubov reported.
Russian strikes in Kherson Oblast wounded eight people, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported. Three high-rise buildings and 10 houses were damaged.
Russia launched a Kinzhal missile against port infrastructure in Mykolaiv Oblast, authorities said. No casualties were reported.
A civilian was wounded during a heavy Russian drone attack against Odesa, Governor Oleh Kiper said. While most of the drones were shot down, residential buildings were damaged in the city.
RUSSIAN WORLD
Fire engulfs US-sanctioned Yaroslavl facility In second fire in 2 days.
A fire broke out on Jun 4 at the Avtodizel motor plant in Yaroslavl, one of Russia's largest producers of diesel engines and a supplier to the Russian military, the Moscow Times reported, citing regional emergency officials.
Located roughly 280 kilometers (174 miles) northeast of Moscow, the Yaroslavl Motor Plant has been under U.S. sanctions since May 2024. The U.S. Treasury Department cited the facility's role in supplying engines for military equipment used in Russia's war against Ukraine.
The blaze engulfed a 400-square-meter workshop where 12-cylinder engines are manufactured. It took firefighters more than 90 minutes to extinguish the open flames, according to Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry.
No casualties were reported. The cause of the fire has not been disclosed.
This is the second major fire at a Russian engine plant in two days. On Jun 2, a blast and fire tore through a workshop at the Zavolzhsky Motor Plant in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast.
Local authorities said the cause was a tanker truck fire in a facility storing chemicals. That plant produces gasoline and diesel engines for civilian and military vehicles.
Ukraine has not commented on the Yaroslavl fire. Kyiv has escalated its campaign to strike military-industrial targets inside Russia as Moscow continues to reject calls for a ceasefire and expand its aerial assault on Ukrainian cities.
Ukrainian drone attacks in recent weeks have forced repeated shutdowns of Russian airports and struck military airfields and logistics hubs across Russia and occupied parts of Ukraine.
Russian authorities have not accused Ukraine of involvement in the fires, but the incidents come amid a broader pattern of unexplained industrial accidents and infrastructure damage inside Russia since the start of the full-scale invasion.
RELATED INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Pentagon chief will not attend Ramstein-format meeting of Ukraine's allies.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will not attend the June 4 meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG), the Associated Press (AP) reported, citing a U.S. official.
The news agency reported that Hegseth will not arrive in Brussels until the conference is over and will not participate in the event online either. This will be the first meeting of Kyiv’s roughly 50 military backers in the so-called Ramstein format that the Pentagon chief will not attend.
According to Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson, Hegseth's travel schedule precluded attendance at the meeting.
"The United States is focused on ending the war in Ukraine as quickly as possible, on terms that establish an enduring peace," she added.
The U.S. will instead be represented by its ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. Hegseth will also not be present at the NATO-Ukraine Council meeting on June 5, according to the outlet's sources.
The U.K. and Germany will chair the June 4 meeting, which will take place as Russia continues to reject a ceasefire and reportedly prepares new offensives against Ukraine.
Ukraine has called upon its partners to invest more in its arms production and to provide additional air defenses, namely Patriot systems, to help fend off intensifying Russian aerial attacks.
Hegseth's predecessor, former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, launched the UDCG after the outbreak of Russia's full-scale war in 2022 to coordinate assistance among Kyiv's allies.
The last Ramstein-format UDCG meeting took place in Brussels on April 11 under the chairmanship of London and Berlin, with allies committing more than 21 billion euros ($23.8 billion) in long-term military aid to Ukraine.
Hegseth attended the Ramstein summit on Feb. 12, but not as its chairman, a position held by Austin until then. His British counterpart, John Healey, presided over the summit instead. Previous reporting suggested that the defense secretary was to skip the April meeting, but he eventually joined via video link.
Since taking office in January, U.S. President Donald Trump has begun scaling down the U.S. presence in various international pro-Ukraine initiatives as he seeks to broker a ceasefire and a peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow.
As the peace talks stall, Trump has signaled he might walk away from the effort. The U.S. president has been notably silent on the most recent war developments, including the most recent peace talks in Istanbul or Ukraine's mass drone attack on Russian strategic aviation.
Kellogg says risk levels 'going way up' after Ukraine struck Russian bombers.
U.S. President Donald Trump's Ukraine envoy said the risk of escalation from the war in Ukraine was "going way up" after Ukrainian forces used drones to strike nuclear-capable bombers at several airbases deep inside Russia, Reuters reports.
Ukraine said it attacked airfields in Siberia and Russia's far north over the weekend, striking targets up to 4,300 km (2,670 miles) from the front lines of the conflict.
"I'm telling you, the risk levels are going way up - I mean, what happened this weekend," Trump's envoy, Keith Kellogg, told Fox News.
"People have to understand in the national security space: when you attack an opponent's part of their national survival system, which is their triad, the nuclear triad, that means your risk level goes up because you don't know what the other side is going to do. You're not sure."
Russia and the United States together hold about 88% of all nuclear weapons.
Each power has three main ways of attacking with nuclear warheads, known as the nuclear triad: strategic bombers, land-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles.
Kellogg said the damage to the Russian bombers at the weekend was less important than the psychological impact on Russia and that he was particularly concerned by unconfirmed reports of a Ukrainian attack on a naval base in northern Russia.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday that Trump had not been informed in advance of Ukraine's drone attacks on Russia's bombers.
Russia and Ukraine held talks in Istanbul on Monday but made little headway towards ending the war that has raged since Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine more than three years ago.
Kellogg said Ukraine had come up with a "very reasonable position" but Russia had come with a "very maximalist position", and that the aim now was to "try to bridge that".
MILITARY & TECH
Ukraine hacks Russia's Tupolev bomber producer.
Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR) has gained access to sensitive data of Russia's strategic aircraft manufacturer Tupolev, the Kyiv Independent reported on June 4 citing a source in HUR.
Tupolev, a Soviet-era aerospace firm now fully integrated into Russia's defense-industrial complex, has been under international sanctions since 2022 for its role in Russia's war against Ukraine.
Its bombers have been widely used to launch long-range cruise missiles against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.
According to the source, HUR's cyber corps accessed over 4.4 gigabytes (GB) of internal data, including official correspondence, personnel files, home addresses, resumes, purchase records, and closed meeting minutes.
"The significance of the data obtained cannot be overestimated," the source said. "Now, in fact, there is nothing secret left in Tupolev's activities for Ukrainian intelligence."
The intelligence includes detailed information about engineers and staff responsible for maintaining Russia's strategic bombers, such as the Tu-95 and Tu-160, which form a key part of Russia's nuclear triad.
"In particular, we have obtained comprehensive information about individuals directly involved in servicing Russian strategic aviation," the source added. "The result will obviously be noticeable both on the ground and in the sky."
Ukrainian cyber operatives also replaced the Tupolev website's homepage with an image of an owl clutching a Russian aircraft, likely referencing HUR's insignia and cyber warfare skills.
UK to Boost Drone Deliveries to Ukraine Tenfold.
The United Kingdom intends to increase drone production for Ukraine tenfold, Militarnyi reported on Jun 4 citing an official statement from the UK Ministry of Defence, during a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group in Brussels, co-hosted by the United Kingdom and Germany, UK Defence Secretary John Healey announced plans to supply Ukraine with 100,000 drones.
The delivery deadline is by the end of the 2025 financial year, that is, by April 2026.
The UK Ministry of Defence noted that this represents a tenfold increase over previous commitments, with total program costs amounting to £350 million.
“The UK is strengthening its support for Ukraine by delivering hundreds of thousands of additional drones this year and completing a crucial phase in supplying critically needed artillery ammunition,” said John Healey ahead of the meeting.
The allocated amount is part of a broader £4.5 billion military aid package.
In April 2025, the United Kingdom and Norway announced a joint military aid package for Ukraine worth £450 million (approximately $580 million) at the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting.
The funds will be used to purchase a large number of drones for the Ukrainian military. Their financing will come from existing funds.
Some of the unmanned aerial vehicles will be purchased from British and Ukrainian manufacturers. According to estimates, this type of drone is responsible for 60–70% of the damage inflicted on Russian equipment on the front line.
Militarnyi previously reported that member states of the International Drone Coalition committed to providing €2.75 billion in funding for Ukraine in 2025.
As of the end of May, coalition members had collectively contributed approximately €180 million to the UK-led joint procurement fund for unmanned aerial systems.
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