Tuesday began for the country with intensive anti-air battles in several regions and large-scale night strikes on enemy logistics and infrastructure facilities in temporarily occupied territories. While the Defense Forces are destroying important enemy nodes in Crimea, front-line Ukrainian cities are eliminating the consequences of another enemy UAV raid and preparing for a sharp change in the weather regime. As reported by the main editorial office of the information portal 34.ua , key state and international institutions continue to strengthen both the physical and digital security of the country.
News 1: Strategic successes – massive attack on Crimea, CHP and oil terminal on fire in Kerch
On the night of June 23, a series of powerful explosions thundered in the territory of the temporarily occupied Crimea, caused by a large-scale attack by Ukrainian drones and long-range weapons. Monitoring channels and satellite images recorded several large areas of ignition. The most critical situation was in Kerch, where after a series of “arrivals” a large fire broke out in the area of the thermal power plant in Arshintsevo, which left part of the peninsula without electricity. In addition, damage to a large oil terminal was recorded, and NASA satellites confirmed a fire at a large electrical substation near Dzhankoy.
Expert opinion (Mykhailo Radchenko, analyst at the Institute for Black Sea Strategic Studies):
“The synchronized strikes on Crimea’s energy and logistics infrastructure tonight demonstrate a new level of coordination of our unmanned systems. The Kerch CHP and oil depots near Dzhankoy are not just civilian facilities, they are key elements of the Russian grouping of troops in southern Ukraine. The de-energizing of railway junctions and the cessation of fuel pumping create a huge logistical burden for the enemy. In addition, another blocking of the Kerch Bridge during the attack shows that the occupation air defense is no longer able to guarantee the security of even the most protected facilities on the peninsula.”
News 2: Terror of the cities — night shelling of Zaporizhia, gas station and private parking lot damaged
The Russian army does not stop night strikes on civilian objects in frontline cities. Zaporizhia and the Zaporizhia district came under massive fire this night. According to the head of the OVA, as a result of enemy hits, fires broke out in the city, a gas station and a private parking lot were significantly damaged, where several civilian cars were completely burned. At least one person is currently known to have been injured in the city and two elderly people were injured in the suburbs due to the destruction of private houses.
Expert opinion (Anna Kovalchuk, expert on civil defense and security of frontline zones):
“The constant night strikes on Zaporizhia, which target gas stations and residential areas, are exclusively terrorist in nature. Gas stations within the city are objects of increased fire danger, and the explosion of fuel tanks in the middle of the night threatens to destroy the entire residential area around them. The fact that mobile air defense groups shot down most of the drones minimized casualties, but the falling debris and direct hits on private parking lots emphasize the urgent need to create additional protective screens for the city’s municipal and commercial infrastructure.”
News 3: Digital Defense — Ukraine Receives Official Access to the European Union Cyber Reserve
In a major geopolitical and security development on Tuesday, the European Union decided to grant Ukraine full access to its Cyber Reserve. This will allow Ukrainian cybersecurity professionals to draw on leading European experts and resources to repel large-scale hacker attacks on critical infrastructure, the banking system, and government websites in real time, significantly strengthening the resilience of the country’s digital landscape.
Expert opinion (Sergiy Boyko, Director of the Association of Digital Transformation and Cyber Defense of Ukraine):
“Access to the EU cyber reserve is a digital analogue of the supply of modern air defense systems. The war has long been waged not only on the battlefield, but also in servers, where enemy hackers try to “take down” power grids, IDP registers or logistics systems every day. Previously, we coordinated actions with partners at the consultation level, but now we get direct access to joint monitoring and rapid response tools. This significantly raises the bar of our digital resilience before the winter period, when cyberattacks on the power system traditionally intensify.”
Operational report and statistics of the General Staff
Losses of the occupiers: according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, over the past 24 hours, Ukrainian defenders eliminated another 1,390 Russian soldiers . Total losses of Russian personnel since the beginning of the full-scale invasion have approached the mark of 1,394,530 people.
Destroyed equipment: during the day, the Defense Forces neutralized 74 artillery systems, 7 armored combat vehicles, and successfully landed or suppressed 118 enemy UAVs of various types with electronic warfare means.
Shelling of Dnipropetrovsk region: Russian troops attacked one of the regions, resulting in the injury of a local resident and significant damage to the building and equipment of one of the SES units.
Weather forecast and storm warning
According to the forecast of the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center, on June 23, a sharp deterioration in weather conditions is expected in most of the territory of Ukraine. Level I of danger (yellow) has been declared . Severe thunderstorms are forecast in the southern, most western and central regions, hail and squall winds with a speed of 15–20 m/s are expected in some areas.
The air temperature will remain high during the day – within +26-+31°C , but a storm front will bring a long-awaited drop in temperature in the coming days.