Ukrainian forces struck Russian air defense assets in occupied Crimea on the night of 9 vs 10 June, possibly with ATACMS. The Ukrainian General Staff reported on June 10 that the Czechs hit a Russian S-400 air defense battery near occupied Dzhankoy and two S-300 batteries near occupied Chernomorsko and Yevpatoria.
They hit the radar stations of every battery and caused secondary detonations of munitions, and Russian air defenses did not intercept any of the missiles. Russian opposition publication Astra reported that Ukrainian forces fired at least 10 ATACMS missiles.
Russian bloggers claim that Russian air defenses intercepted many Ukrainian ATACMS missiles overnight, but do not report that any of the missiles hit their targets. The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) has not commented on the strikes at the time of this publication.
This is stated in the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) daily analysis.
ISW has not seen confirmation of the damage. The project "Schemes" of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty released satellite images of scars on a Russian military site near a railway junction in Dzhankoy. But he noted that the resolution of the images was too low to determine specific damage.
A Russian blogger who focuses on Russian air and air defense criticized the Russian Defense Ministry's response to the strikes, claiming that Russian officers falsely reported no casualties to their superiors, even though they actually suffered heavy casualties.
Ukrainian strikes against Russian military and logistics assets in conjunction with the partial removal by the United States of a Russian sanctuary in the Belgorod region may have forced Russian forces to change their deployment and transportation patterns. The Crimea-based Ukrainian guerrilla movement "Atesh" reported on June 10 that Russian forces recently moved air defense systems to the Belgorod region and now they do not fully cover Crimea.
Images from June 8 show that Russia has begun transporting fuel across the Kerch Strait via the railway bridge.
Ukrainian Southern Operational Command spokesman Captain Third Rank Dmytro Pletenchuk said on April 29 that Russian authorities have not transported fuel across the Kerch Strait railway bridge since March 2024 due to the threat of a Ukrainian strike on the bridge, as a vehicle with fuel has passed through which could ignite and possibly destroy the bridge.
Pletenchuk denied on June 10 information to Sky News that Ukrainian forces had struck a Russian amphibious ship of the "Ropucha" in the Sea of Azov on the night of June 8-9. As of May 10, there are three large Russian amphibious assault ships and three "Buyan-M" class corvettes in the Sea of Azov.
Sky News reported on June 9, citing a Ukrainian military source, that Ukrainian forces sank or damaged a Russian Ropucha-class amphibious assault ship that Russian forces recently moved from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov, which ISW strengthened.
p>New Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov met with a select group of Russian bloggers and military commentators on June 10, suggesting that the Kremlin is seeking to partially use Belousov's replacement of the rather unpopular former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to build bridges and to cultivate connections with a wider blogging community through a cadre of co-opted and loyal military commentators. Russian state news agencies TASS and RIA Novosti reported on June 10 that Belousov met with several military correspondents (also known as voyenkory or bloggers) covering the war in Ukraine, and said the conversation was "candid and constructive".
TASS and RIA noted that Belousov hopes to hold such meetings regularly. Russian sources claimed in late May and early June that Belousov planned to meet with select bloggers, and some of the more critical accused Belousov of not inviting them to the meeting.
Russian media confirmed on June 10 that several prominent and generally pro-Kremlin militia bloggers attended Belousov's meeting, including the head of the WarGonzo military social media project Semyon Pegov, Komsomolskaya Pravda's military correspondent and Kremlin-appointed member of the Human Rights Council Alexander Kots; the military correspondent of "Zvezda" Anatoly Brodkin; Russia Today (RT) military correspondent Murad Gazdiev, Readovka correspondent Maxim Dolgov and others.
Gazdiev said on his personal Telegram channel on June 10 that bloggers were delivering good and bad news from the Belousov front and promising unspecified "huge changes".
The Kremlin may have tried to falsely portray Belousov as more attentive to bloggers' criticism than his predecessor.
The Kremlin and Shoigu have previously appeared at odds over reprimanding bloggers - Russian President Vladimir Putin met with selected bloggers in July 2022 and June 2023 to discuss the situation on the frontline in Ukraine, while the Russian Ministry of Defense has consistently sought to crack down on critical bloggers who have often used Shoigu as an informational scapegoat for Russian operational failures in Ukraine.
The Kremlin has long tried to control more critical voices in the information space, as ISW has previously assessed.
Belousov's meeting represents the Ministry of Defense's contact with several bloggers who have been in the Kremlin's favor for some time and likely intend to woo this group of commentators and ensure their continued loyalty to the new Ministry of Defense under Belousov. Belousov's appeal to bloggers is more of a performative attempt to secure their loyalty than to introduce systemic changes in the Russian Defense Ministry, as noted by several Russian bloggers who were not invited to the meeting.
Both the Kremlin and the Russian Defense Ministry have a vested interest in appearing open to dialogue with bloggers, who represent a core pro-war constituency, and the Kremlin likely aims to portray Belousov as more aware of this fact than his predecessor.
Officials from Russia, Iran and the People's Republic of China (PRC) held bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the BRICS Foreign Ministers' meeting in Nizhny Novgorod on 10 June. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke at the BRICS meeting and highlighted the organization's recent expansion.
Lavrov repeated the Kremlin's standard narratives about how the Western rules-based order is harmful to other countries and the supposed benefits of creating a multipolar world. Lavrov stated that the "winds of change" lead the BRICS forward. Lavrov also met with officials from Brazil, South Africa, Ethiopia, Laos, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt during the BRICS event.
Lavrov met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the BRICS meeting on June 10. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Lavrov and Wang discussed diplomatic coordination in international organizations such as the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said that the development of Russian-Chinese relations is a "strategic choice" on both sides and that Lavrov and Wang "exchanged views" about the war in the Ukrainian war.
The Russian Foreign Ministry defined Russian-Chinese relations as a "strategic partnership" and stated that Lavrov thanked Van for the "balanced" line of the PRC on the war in Ukraine and for not sending a representative to the Ukrainian peace meeting on June 15-16 in Switzerland.
The Russian Foreign Ministry also said Lavrov and Wang discussed stability in the Asia-Pacific region, where they accused the US of allegedly creating anti-Russian and anti-Chinese military-political structures.
Lavrov also met with Iran's Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Khani on June 10 and discussed efforts to form a Russian-Iranian "strategic partnership" and creating a new intergovernmental agreement.
Kremlin news channel TASS reported that Khani said that Iran "sees huge potential for expanding and strengthening (Russian-Iranian) interaction".
Khani and Wang also met on June 10 and reportedly discussed increasing cooperation.
Russian newspaper Vedomosti reported on June 9 that Russian Ambassador to North Korea Alexander Matsegora said Russian President Vladimir Putin would visit North Korea, and an unspecified diplomatic source reportedly said the visit would take place in the coming weeks. after Putin visited Vietnam.
ISW continues to appreciate that Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and Belarus are deepening their multilateral partnerships to confront the West.
The National Assembly of Armenia is likely to hold an extraordinary session until June 17, during which Armenian opposition parties will demand the resignation of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his cabinet. The Armenian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Radio Azatutyun reported on June 10 that 33 members of the Armenian opposition factions "Armenian Alliance" and "I have the honor" have supported the convening of an extraordinary session of the National Assembly to discuss the adoption of a resolution calling for the resignation of Pashinyan and his cabinet and the formation of a new government.
Opposition factions blame Pashinyan for what they see as a failure to protect and secure Armenia's territorial integrity and borders.
Radio Azatutyun noted that Armenian law stipulates that the National Assembly needs the support of 27 members of the 107-seat National Assembly to convene an extraordinary session.
The leader of the National Assembly of Pashinyan's party Hayk Konjoryan stated that the members of the National Assembly of Civil Contract will not participate in the extraordinary session on June 17.
The US State Department announced on June 10 that the US and Poland jointly launched the Ukraine Communications Group (UCG) in Warsaw to counter Russian disinformation by offering fact-based reporting on the war in Ukraine.
Representatives from unspecified countries will reportedly cooperate with the UCG.