This is how things stand on Friday, June 20:
Fighting
-
At least one person was killed, and 13 others injured, including three rescuers, when Russian drones attacked the Ukrainian Black Sea city of Odesa overnight, damaging high-rise buildings and railway infrastructure, Ukrainian authorities said.
- Odesa Governor Oleh Kiper reported damage to civilian infrastructure, including residential buildings, a higher education institution, a gas pipeline and private cars. Emergency services said at least 10 drone attacks were carried out in the area.
- Ukrainian state railways Ukrzaliznytsia reported that Odesa railway station was damaged during the attack, with power wires and rails damaged.
- Russian drones also attacked Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine overnight, damaging several private and multistorey houses, Kharkiv officials said.
- Ukraine’s air force said Russia had launched 86 drones on Ukraine overnight, with the air defence unit shooting down 34, while 36 others were lost, in reference to the Ukrainian military using electronic warfare to redirect them, or they were drone simulators that did not carry warheads. It said drones hit eight locations.
- Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defence systems had downed two drones en route to the Russian capital.
-
Russian forces have taken control of the settlement of Moskovka in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, the Defence Ministry said. Russia’s claim could not be independently verified immediately.
Military
-
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed Hennadiy Shapovalov as commander of Ukraine’s land forces, replacing Mykhailo Drapatyi, who resigned over a deadly attack on a training area carried out by Russia. Drapatyi was reassigned to the post of commander of the joint forces as part of a military shake-up.
-
Major-General Christian Freuding, who is in charge of coordinating German military aid to Kyiv, dismissed as “nonsense” repeated warnings by Russian President Vladimir Putin that delivering Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine might make Berlin party to the war.
Politics and diplomacy
-
Russia expects to agree with Ukraine next week on a date for a third round of peace talks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. He said that Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky, who heads the Russian delegation, is in contact with his Ukrainian counterpart about the details of the possible talks.
- Peskov also said he could not predict whether Putin would meet US President Donald Trump this year given how turbulent the world had become.
-
Ukraine and Russia exchanged more prisoners of war, officials from both countries said, the latest round of swaps under an agreement struck in Istanbul.
-
Zelenskyy said Russia’s defence of Iranian authorities amid the Israel-Iran conflict had underscored the need for intensified sanctions against Moscow.
-
Zelenskyy added that Russia’s deployment of Iranian-designed Shahed drones and North Korean munitions showed that Kyiv’s allies were applying insufficient pressure against Moscow.
- Zelenskyy also expressed willingness to meet Putin for talks.
- Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the conflict between Israel and Iran had exposed Russian hypocrisy, with Moscow defending Iran’s nuclear programme and condemning strikes against Tehran while “ruthlessly” attacking Ukraine.
-
The International Atomic Energy Agency said the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine cannot resume operations until challenges related to the availability of cooling water and off-site power are fully resolved.
Economy
-
Foreign direct investment into Russia has fallen sharply, the latest United Nations data showed, and Russia’s premier economic forum in Saint Petersburg this week is offering scant hope of a revival, with Western investors largely absent.
-
Soaring defence spending has propped up Russia’s $2 trillion economy since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
- Sergei Aleksashenko, a former deputy governor of Russia’s central bank now living abroad, said few serious businesses would consider Russia as an investment destination even if the war were to end tomorrow.
