RFE
09 Jun 2025

Ukraine said Russia launched almost 500 air strikes overnight, the largest total in more than three years of war, as Moscow continues to increase pressure on Kyiv ahead of an expected summer offensive and ongoing peace talks that have made little progress.

Ukraine's air force said in astatementthat 479 drones and 20 missiles targeted sites around Ukraine in the early hours of June 9, though there were no immediate reports of casualties.

The country's air defense systems destroyed 460 of the drones as well as 19 of the missiles launched in the Russian barrage, it said, claiming only 10 drones hit their target.

Yuriy Ihnat, head of the communications department of the air force, said the main target of the Russian strikes was one of Ukraine's operational airfields. He did not specify which airfield, but Russian news agencies quoted the Defense Ministry as saying a facility near the village of Dubno, which is used in long-range air-launched weapons operations, was hit.

"The main strike was targeting...one of the operational air fields. There are some hits," Ihnat said in an interview with Ukrainian TV.

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Kyiv said Ukraine launched its own overnight strikes, including an attack on a Russian electronics plant that manufactured weaponry for the Russian military.

Local officials in the Russian republic of Chuvashia confirmed that two drones hit a factory specializing in electronic warfare equipment in the region, located more than 600 kilometers east of Moscow.

Russia's Defense Ministry said on June 9 that it has intercepted 49 Ukrainian drones overnight in seven Russian regions. Kyiv has developed long-range drones that strike deep inside Russia.

A drone damaged a gas pipeline and caused a small fire in the Voronezh region, according to Governor Aleksandr Gusev, who also claimed 25 Ukrainian drones had been shot down in the region overnight.

Kyiv also claimed its special operation forces struck two Russian fighter jets stationed at the Savasleyka airfield in Russia's Novgorod region but did not say how the planes were attacked.

The claims by both sides cannot be independently verified.

Russia has escalated its aerial attacks on Ukraine in recent days, pounding the country with more than 400 drones and nearly 40 missiles on June 5. At least six people were reported killed and 80 others wounded across Ukraine on that wave of attack.