A factory owned by Delair, a French drone manufacturer that supplies Ukraine, was attacked with Molotov cocktails, the newspaper Le Parisien reported, citing unnamed sources.
Ukrainian drones damaged the Euro+ combined oil refining unit at the Moscow oil refinery in Kapotnya on June 18, Reuters sources said.
Russian air defense forces shot down nearly a thousand Ukrainian drones in a single day, a record, the independent Russian investigative outlet Agentstvo reported, according to calculations based on reports from Russia’s Defense Ministry.
A Ukrainian drone strike on the Moscow oil refinery has sent what residents described as an “oil rain” falling across the surrounding area. Residents of Zheleznodorozhny, east of Moscow, posted photographs showing a black film left on surfaces after rain mixed with petroleum combustion byproducts. In Lyubertsy, to the southeast, residents also reported a strong smell of burning.
Moscow came under its largest drone attack since the start of the full-scale war overnight, with nearly 200 Ukrainian drones shot down on approach to the capital, according to Mayor Sergey Sobyanin. Fires broke out at an oil refinery in the city’s southeast for the second consecutive day, while debris struck a shopping complex and damaged residential and commercial buildings in the surrounding region. All four of Moscow’s airports were temporarily closed, delaying dozens of flights.
Ukrainian drones struck Moscow and the Moscow region overnight, hitting an oil refinery in Kapotnya, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. Air defense forces intercepted 137 drones on approach to the city.
Lithuanian authorities deported a Russian military deserter to Kaliningrad on June 15 after he fled the front lines in Ukraine, the Slovo Zashchite project reported. Russian authorities arrested him after he crossed the border into Russia, and his fate remains unknown.
Polish prosecutors said two Belarusian nationals detained in connection with the killing of Russian artist Semyon Skrepetsky in Biala Podlaska were released after investigators found no link between them and the attack.
Officers from Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) have searched multiple addresses in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region tied to businessman Ilya Traber.
Russia’s National Payment Card System (NSPK), which processes all transactions in the country, plans to phase out Visa and Mastercard by cutting the interchange fees their cards earn to zero.
Ukrainian drones struck a bus carrying a children’s soccer team from Belarus, Yegor Kovalchuk, the acting governor of the Bryansk region, said. The children were traveling from Gomel to the resort city of Gelendzhik, Kovalchuk wrote in his Telegram channel.
On June 15, 2026, the roof of the Dormition Cathedral of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra caught fire after a Russian drone attack on Kyiv. In January 2026, the centuries-old monastery complex had already been damaged in Russian military operations — the first such harm to the Lavra since World War II. The monastery has been destroyed and rebuilt many times, yet this week’s mangling is exceptional, and UNESCO and European political leaders have already responded. Architecture journalist Asya Zolnikova...
A Ukrainian Su-24M frontline bomber crashed in Ukraine’s Khmelnytsky region on the evening of June 16, the Air Force command announced.
As Meduza has already reported, both Russia’s Presidential Administration and the ruling political party United Russia are concerned about a general climate of unpredictability in the country and its effect on their campaign ahead of State Duma elections scheduled for September 18–20. The ruling party plans to finalize and release its platform in late August.
Russian-installed authorities in occupied Crimea have banned mopeds, motorcycles, and other motorized two-wheelers from operating at night, effective June 17 and until further notice.
Russia’s Economic Development Ministry has drafted amendments that would fine online marketplaces up to 400,000 rubles for applying pricing pressure on sellers, Forbes Russia reported.
Tatneft has imposed a temporary cap on gasoline and diesel sales at all of its gas stations across Russia, the company’s hotline told Interfax.
Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said 60 drones were shot down on approach to the capital after 5 a.m. on June 16. All four Moscow airports — Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, Vnukovo, and Zhukovsky — were closed overnight; restrictions were lifted by morning.
A Russian artist was shot and killed in the Polish city of Biala Podlaska, local outlets Podlaski.info and wPolsce24 reported. The victim was identified as Semyon Skrepetsky. DzikMedia, a Belarusian opposition Telegram channel, was among the first to report the killing.
A Russian mathematician detained at the Yerevan airport on June 12 was released from custody, his attorney Vache Simonyan told RFE/RL’s Russian service. Simonyan said Mikhail Verbitsky was released because Russia had not submitted a formal extradition request to the Armenian prosecutor’s office.
On June 17, a drone struck a passenger bus in Russia’s Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine. There were 44 people on board, including 28 students at a sports school in the Belarusian city of Rechitsa, who were traveling to the Black Sea resort of Gelendzhik for vacation. A woman accompanying the team was killed and six more people were injured, including four minors. Russian officials blamed the attack on “Ukrainian terrorists,” while Ukrainian intelligence services called it a “provocation”...
Russia’s national television channels largely ignored the Ukrainian drone strike on Moscow. Neither Channel One, Rossiya 1, nor NTV included the topic in their morning newscasts.
Moscow and the Moscow region were struck on June 18 by the largest Ukrainian drone attack since the full-scale war began — and residents received no warning it was coming.
Russia plans to increase war spending this year by an additional 4 to 5 trillion rubles — roughly 40% above what the budget allocated — unnamed sources told Bloomberg.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the massive drone strike on Moscow a fully justified response to Russian attacks.
Ilya Traber — an oil port owner in Ust-Luga with sprawling commercial interests, known by the nickname “the Antique Dealer” — was detained in St. Petersburg on June 17. Russia’s Federal Security Service, the FSB, led the operation, and the country’s Investigative Committee opened a criminal case in Moscow linked to his alleged role in the murder of Alexander Petrov, a lawmaker. Traber’s business partner Vladimir Danilenko was also detained. Investigators also searched the home of Gennady Petr...
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Kazan on June 17 for a two-day visit to attend the Russia–ASEAN summit — his first trip outside Moscow and St. Petersburg in seven months, according to the independent Russian political newsletter Faridaily.
Russian diplomatic missions and consulates issued 1,112 visas in 2025 to foreigners who “share traditional Russian spiritual and moral values,” Alexey Klimov, director of the Foreign Ministry’s consular department, said in an interview with the state-run Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
A college student in Nizhny Tagil has been charged with promoting Nazi symbols after ordering a pizza under the name “Adolf Hitler,” the regional Interior Ministry directorate told RIA Novosti. He was detained.
Authorities in Vorkuta have dismantled a memorial marker for victims of political repression at the memorial cemetery in the settlement of Yur-Shor.
G7 leaders agreed at their summit in France to step up weapons deliveries to Ukraine and intensify pressure on Russia’s military economy, according to a joint statement issued by the countries.
Rybar, a Telegram channel with close ties to Russia’s Defense Ministry, has effectively acknowledged that Russian forces struck the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, a historic Orthodox monastery complex in Ukraine’s capital. The channel’s authors also accuse other pro-war bloggers of inconsistency and “muddled thinking” in their commentary about the attack.
Russia’s Federal Security Service plans to lower the minimum passing scores on physical fitness tests for contract military service candidates and applicants to its educational institutions, according to a draft order first reported by Verstka, an independent Russian news outlet.
The Russian frigate Admiral Grigorovich fired a warning shot in the direction of a civilian yacht flying a British flag after it came within about 500 meters (1,640 feet) of the warship in the English Channel, BBC News reported.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia faces a “harsh winter” if fighting is not stopped in the coming months.
A Russian artist known for his caricatures of politicians has been shot dead in Poland. Semyon Skrepetsky was attacked on June 15 in a parking lot in Biała Podlaska, a city several dozen kilometers from the Belarusian border, according to Polish media including wPolsce24. The attacker shot him multiple times at close range before fleeing. Police confirmed they had identified the victim but declined to release his name, saying only that he was a 44-year-old Russian citizen.
“Russia strictly adheres to its obligations under the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict” and does not strike civilian infrastructure, Russia’s permanent mission to UNESCO said in response to questions about the strike on the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery.
In an interview with Al Arabiya posted on his website, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said drawing Belarus into the Russia–Ukraine war would be unacceptable — and apologized to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In the early hours of June 15, Russia attacked Kyiv again. Nearly every district of the city was hit — and the roof of the Assumption Cathedral caught fire at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, one of the most important Orthodox religious sites in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A fire also broke out at the National Dovzhenko Film Studio, destroying Ukraine’s oldest collection of costumes. At Meduza’s request, film producer Alexander Rodnyansky wrote about the studio’s significance in the h...
A fundraiser for Russian political prisoners raised 14,217,998 rubles (167,271 euros) — more than the previous year’s event, when organizers collected over 12 million rubles.
Ukrainian drones struck the Gazprom Neft oil refinery in the Kapotnya district of southeastern Moscow for the second time in three days — the largest such facility in the capital region.
Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said it had intercepted a Russian document confirming that Ukrainian forces played no role in the attack on a bus carrying children in the Bryansk region.
On June 18, Moscow came under the largest Ukrainian drone attack since the start of the full-scale war: nearly 200 drones struck the capital overnight, and a fire broke out at the Moscow oil refinery in Kapotnya — the second in two days. Meduza examines how the intensity of Ukrainian attacks on Moscow has grown over the years of the full-scale war. Even by the authorities’ own official statements, it has increased by a factor of roughly one hundred.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said a suspect has been detained in Poland in connection with the killing of Russian artist Semyon Skrepetsky.
All four of Moscow’s airports — Vnukovo, Domodedovo, Zhukovsky, and Sheremetyevo — shut down arrivals and departures amid the largest Ukrainian drone attack on the capital since the start of the full-scale war.
On June 16, the Russian frigate Admiral Grigorovich fired warning shots at a small private yacht that had drawn close to it in the English Channel. No one was injured. Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the Russian sailors’ actions “reckless” but noted that the incident was unlikely to have been “malicious.” The yacht’s owners, meanwhile, said British authorities were deliberately trying to blame them to avoid further straining already tense relations with Russia.
Diana Shurygina became a public figure in 2017 when the Russian state-controlled television network Channel One devoted several episodes of its talk show Pust’ Govoryat (“Let Them Talk”) to her rape case, drawing enormous public attention.
Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency, Rosaviatsia, has banned flights by light and ultralight aircraft and civilian drones at altitudes up to 5.2 kilometers (3.2 miles) over several central Russian regions, acting on orders from the Defense Ministry.
Russia’s Unified State Exam (EGE) in English now includes questions about Victory Day, Russia Day, Defender of the Fatherland Day, and National Unity Day, the Telegram news channel Ostorozhno Novosti reported, citing students and tutors.
St. Petersburg businessman Ilya Traber has been detained, and searches are underway at his properties, Fontanka, a St. Petersburg-based news outlet, reports.
As mobile internet outages spread across Russia, advertisers began turning more frequently to promotional SMS campaigns, carriers told the Russian business daily Kommersant.
Most Russian regions are contending with some form of fuel problem, the business news outlet The Bell reports.
Nikolai Patrushev, former director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) who now serves as a presidential aide, has blamed rescue workers for the deaths of hostages during the terrorist attack at Dubrovka in 2002.
Rosneft and its subsidiaries Bashneft and TNK have stopped selling gasoline in canisters at stations across Russia, the independent Russian news outlet Verstka reported.
Ninth-graders in Voronezh were unable to sit the Basic State Exam (OGE) on June 16 after a drone strike threat prompted evacuations at all 54 exam sites across the city.
No invitation for Vladimir Putin to meet with Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the G7 summit was sent through official channels, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at a briefing on June 16.
Britain has prepared a new sanctions package targeting Russia — the first anywhere in the world to include measures against vessels carrying Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Last weekend, 28-year-old Russian Maria Ivanova cried twice. First, out of fear that she wouldn’t make it onto the political council of the first political party she had ever joined. Then, from joy, when she did.
Armenia will hold its annual Eagle Partner 2026 military exercises June 17–25, with three NATO member countries participating, as the country prepares its forces for international peacekeeping missions, the Defense Ministry announced.
Sverdlovsk Governor Denis Pasler has signed a decree ordering the creation of a named registry of soldiers from the region who were killed in Ukraine and in other armed conflicts, including the wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya. The Russian business daily Kommersant was among the first to report on the document, signed on June 11.