In today's summary:
- In the direction south of Orekhov, the Armed Forces of Ukraine remained one and a half kilometers to Rabotino;
- The Ukrainian military has temporarily stopped using heavy armored vehicles and is landing troops from armored cars;
- Prigozhin said that the Ministry of Defense launched strikes on the training camps of Wagner PMCs;
- Strikes on the Russian rear continue: in Genichesk, the base of the National Guard is hit;
- Rocket attack on a military airfield in the Khmelnitsky region, where Storm Shadow missile launchers are believed to be based;
- Under the damaged Chongarsky bridge, a pontoon crossing was built;
- The Russian serviceman fastened the tourniquet to the bulletproof vest with cable ties and died from blood loss;
- Horses of the Bashkir breed are sent to Ukraine as vehicles.
The situation at the front
One of the founders and the main public representative of PMC Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, published the first part of the “big interview” lasting over half an hour. The main theses from it regarding the current situation at the front and the course of the entire so-called "Special Military Operation" ("SVO"):
- Ukrainian troops, together with NATO, were not going to attack the “LPR”, “DPR” or Russia before February 24, 2022, stories about this are an attempt by the Russian Ministry of Defense to deceive the public and the president;
- The Russian army entered the "Northern Military District" ill-prepared, with poor management and lack of weapons;
- The operation was planned mediocre: in the first days, Defense Minister Shoigu killed the most combat-ready part of the army;
- “The war was needed in order for a bunch of creatures to simply triumph and promote, showing what a strong army it is”;
- On the territories of Ukraine occupied by Russian troops, looting flourishes;
- Due to "organizational chaos" the losses of the RF Armed Forces are 10 times greater than they could be;
- The president receives reports of enemy casualties that are in no way true;
The Russian army is retreating today in the Zaporozhye and Kherson directions, "we are washing ourselves with blood."
The matter did not end there. In the evening, Prigozhin announced that "the evil that the country's military leadership is carrying must be stopped." According to him, the Ministry of Defense is hitting the rear of the Wagner PMC, and the time has finally come to get rid of Shoigu. For this, Prigozhin has a reserve of 25,000 people. A little later, he published a tirade with the following content:
Shoigu just cowardly fled from Rostov! At 21:00, he ran cowardly, like a woman, in order not to explain why he raised helicopters to destroy our guys! Why did he launch missile strikes! This creature will be stopped!
Prigozhin urged not to resist, and also promised to "consider any roadblocks, any aircraft over our heads a threat." In addition, he advises against going out into the streets – probably in front of the advancing Wagnerian forces.
Russian "military correspondents" admit ( 1 , 2 ) that there are no Russian troops in the settlement of Pyatikhatki , for which there have been fierce battles for the past few days. In the Telegram channel of the volunteer units from North Ossetia "Storm.Ossetia" and "Alania", stationed in the area, they write about the defense of the neighboring village of Zherebyanki .
Also, “military correspondents” report ( 1 , 2 , 3 ) about heavy fighting in the Orekhovsky direction – on the approaches to the settlement of Rabotino . Z-channel "Dead Heads" writes about the advance of the Ukrainian military near Rabotino for 1.5 km. Attacks are being carried out on strongholds of the Russians by the forces of the infantry of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It is reported that there is no activity of Russian artillery and aviation, and that the Ukrainians still have the same distance to Rabotino – that is, one and a half kilometers. It is worth noting that this channel was created on June 18.
The former head of the state corporation Roskosmos, and now the head of the military advisers group "Tsar's Wolves", Dmitry Rogozin, writes on the Telegram channel about the change of tactics during the attacks on the positions of the 291st regiment in Rabotino :
On the Hummer, the landing force is brought as close as possible to the forest belt at high speed, it is dropped and returned again for a new landing force. Heavy equipment is not visible during the day, it waits for the offensive at night, counting on the shortage of night detection and destruction equipment in our army.
Before the attack, there is a massive use of cannon and rocket artillery with the aim of either burying our companies forever in the Zaporizhzhya land, or forcing us to leave positions that are being fired from all possible barrels.
The change in Ukrainian tactics in favor of an offensive on foot was also mentioned in a recent CNN article .
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announces the continuation of the offensive operation in the Melitopol and Berdyansk directions .
The Ukrainian OSINT project InformNapalm reported that for the first time the Ukrainian military was able to recapture part of the territory occupied back in 2014 near Maryinka in the Donetsk region .
South of Velikaya Novoselka , where the Ukrainian Armed Forces have so far achieved the most success during the initial stage of the counteroffensive, the Russians are reliably present in the village of Urozhaynoye ( video from there).
A well-known military analyst, retired Australian Army Major General Mick Ryan, gave an interesting assessment of the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Here are some of Ryan's important points:
- the "slow" pace of the counter-offensive is partly due to the late delivery of Western military equipment;
- the Russian command built a deep and well-prepared system of defensive lines;
- the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, due to objective factors, is forced to act on a wide front, without concentrating significant strike forces.
Answers to the main questions related to the counter-offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine can be found in The Insider's detailed material .
Mutual shelling and sabotage
The Telegram channel of a certain Mikhail Solomin (probably related to the Russian air defense forces) posted two videos ( 1 , 2 ), confirming, according to him, the successful interception of the Franco-British air-launched cruise missile Storm Shadow by the crew of the anti-aircraft missile and gun complex "Shell -С1". The same user posted a photo of a cake, according to the description, made in honor of the interception.
At the same time, judging by the recording from the outdoor surveillance camera in the Chongarsky bridge area, at least one Storm Shadow missile hit the designated target (actually, the bridge).
Commander of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Mykola Oleshchuk announced the defeat of the Russian military base in Genichesk and called it a response to Russian missile terror. The Nikolaevsky Vanek Telegram channel wrote about the arrival on the territory of the former winery, where the National Guard was located, as well as in the Genicheskaya Gorka area, where the Kadyrovites were allegedly located.
The "head" of the occupation administration of the Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, announced , in addition to the attack on Genichesk , also about the attack on Skadovsk . They were applied, according to Saldo's assumption, using Storm Shadow missiles.
From the recent long-range strikes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the rear, the following picture is emerging : the Ukrainian military has focused on destroying supply bases and important transport hubs of Russians in the occupied parts of the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions . This is reminiscent of the situation prior to the de-occupation of the right bank of the Dnieper in November 2022, except that now we are talking about a much larger area.
After the “arrival” of the Chongarsky bridge, the Russians built a pontoon crossing under it. In the meantime, traffic flows from Crimea have to be directed to the Armyansk and Perekop checkpoints. Previously, more than 70% of military and civilian traffic went through Chongar . Telegram channel "Rybar", associated with the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, praises the command for "prompt response to the threat." At the same time, Vladimir Saldo admits that the bridge is much more damaged than previously thought, and it will take much longer to restore it: only "research work" will take 15-20 days.
On the night of June 23, a drone was shot down over Kursk . The governor of the Kursk region reported on the work of air defense. Videos of a bright flash are published on local channels, followed by the sound of an explosion.
The command of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine wrote about the night launches of 13 Russian air-launched cruise missiles with the help of Russian strategic aviation from the Sea of Azov . All missiles are reported to have been intercepted, mostly in the skies over the Khmelnitsky region , where they were trying to hit a military airfield, as well as the destruction of one UAV of an unidentified type.
In turn, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, in its daily report , spoke about the strike on the places of storage of missile weapons of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (as usual, all designated objects were hit).
Most likely, both departments are referring to the Starokonstantinov airfield in the Khmelnytsky region , which Russia already tried to hit last month (apparently more successfully). This airfield is the point of permanent deployment of Su-24 aircraft, which act as carriers of Storm Shadow missiles. Thus, it is possible that the shelling of the airfield was an attempt by the Russian response to the shelling of the Chongarsky bridge , which took place the day before.
In the morning, a blow was struck on Kherson , a public transport enterprise was damaged. Three people were killed, three more were injured.
Losses
The day before, several Z-channels at once disseminated information about the first confirmed loss of the M270 type multiple launch rocket system by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In their conclusions, the authors of these channels relied on a blurry photograph of a car standing in the middle of a highway. In fact, it turned out that we are talking about the Ukrainian engineering obstacle blocking machine IMR-2.
A video is published with a Leopard 2A4 tank abandoned by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, according to Russian Telegram channels, after a mine explosion. Now it is used by the Ukrainian military as a digging knot. Ukrainian sources claim that the tank was not blown up, but simply stuck in a trench and was abandoned by the crew.
It was possible to return to Ukraine the bodies of 51 servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This was announced by Oleg Kotenko, Commissioner for Missing Persons under Special Circumstances.
Russian Telegram channels publish a video of the destruction of a Ukrainian Soviet-made tank with the help of the Lancet loitering ammunition. The author of the channel "Tanks. History and Modernity" notes that this is the first case known to him not of damage, but of the destruction of a tank by such a means of destruction. It is worth noting that the tank on the footage looks abandoned, that is, most likely, it was hit in order to prevent the Ukrainians from evacuating.
A demonstrative video from the front line appeared: a Russian soldier fastened a turnstile to a bulletproof vest with zip ties. The result – after receiving a gunshot wound, he bled out, not having time to rewind and use the agent to stop the bleeding.
Armaments and military equipment
The German concern Rheinmetall announced a contract worth 8 million euros for the supply of two Forward Surgical Team (FST) mobile field surgical operating rooms to Ukraine at the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024.
In addition, Rheinmetall will supply the Armed Forces with 20 Marder infantry fighting vehicles. Deliveries will take place during the summer, 10 cars per month. Now in service with Ukraine are 40 Marder.
A photo of American 203-mm high-explosive shells used by Ukrainian artillerymen to fire from the Soviet 2S7 Pion self-propelled howitzer appeared on social networks. As the blog of the Russian AST Center explains, Pion is compatible with the shots of the old Soviet B-4 howitzer, which, in turn, was developed taking into account the ballistics of the British 203-mm Vickers Mk VI howitzer of the 1915 model. Since the British during the First World War willingly shared artillery systems not only with the Russian Empire, but also with the United States, the same British howitzer became the prototype for the American M115 and M110, for which these shells are intended.
Deputy Assistant US Secretary of Defense Laura Cooper spoke in favor of supplying Ukraine with cluster munitions. According to her, the analysis made by the experts made it possible to substantiate their effectiveness against the Russian military entrenched in defensive positions. However, supplies to Ukraine are hampered by restrictions imposed by Congress and obligations to international partners.
The supply of American precision-guided munitions GLSDB is postponed until the fall. The Pentagon attributes the delay to development and production difficulties.
A special investigation by the Swiss authorities into the appearance of MOWAG wheeled armored vehicles in Ukraine showed that the delivery was organized by the former managing director of the German company FWW Fahrzeugwerke, Thomas Bockhold. He bought them in 2018, and in 2022 he sold them to Ukraine on his own.
Newsweek, citing a report by the Kiev School of Economics, writes about imports to Russia from March to December 2022 of electronics and components related to military production in the amount of more than $20 billion. Thus, the drop in this import item in Russia was only 15% compared to with figures as of February last year. 64% of the total is dual-use products made by American companies.
The Netherlands will supply FN MAG machine guns to Ukraine. They will be ordered from the Belgian manufacturer, and the total amount of the contract will be 111 million euros.
A Chinese company imports gunpowder to Russia, which is used to make ammunition. The New York Times is aware of at least two batches of gunpowder delivered to the Barnaul Ammunition Plant. It will be enough to produce at least 80 million small arms ammunition.
The Insider has repeatedly written in military reports about the lack of linear road transport on the front line, which forces the Russian military to buy cars, ATVs and other wheeled vehicles on their own. In Bashkiria, an original solution to this problem was proposed in one single regiment – reportedly , in the "NOR" zone, a horse of the Bashkir breed named Abzelil is being trained ("gets used to loud noise, sounds of shooting and exploding shells"). Judging by the video of the BST TV channel, at least two horses were handed over. It is assumed that the animals will be used "for silent detour of positions and transportation of essentials."
About the main events of the war on June 22 – in the previous report: “The strike on the Chongar bridge, the West is dissatisfied with the counteroffensive, Cyprus can exchange Soviet tanks for Merkavas. What's going on at the front .
