Ukraine war latest: 'It was impossible to look at' — Russian mass missile, drone attack on Kyiv kills at least 9, injures 33
Key developments on June 23:
- ‘It was impossible to look at’ — Russian mass missile, drone attack on Kyiv kills at least 9, injures 33
- Ukraine strikes Atlas oil depot in Russia’s Rostov Oblast, General Staff says
- Ukraine returns bodies of 3 Russian soldiers repatriated as remains of Ukrainians, Interior Ministry says
- Norway’s Kongsberg opens office in Ukraine to co-produce air defense, drones
- After 40 months of waging full-scale war on Ukraine, Putin condemns ‘unprovoked aggression against Iran’
Russia launched a mass missile and drone attack on Kyiv overnight on June 23, killing at least nine people and injuring 33 others, including four children, local officials reported.
Kyiv Independent journalists heard explosions and kamikaze drones flying overhead from around 1 a.m. Louder explosions from ballistic missiles were heard an hour later, with the attack lasting around 3.5 hours in total.
The heaviest damage occurred in the Shevchenkivskyi district of the city, when a five-story building partially collapsed after being hit by a ballistic missile, Ukraine’s military reported. At least nine people died as a result.
An 11-year-old girl was confirmed as the ninth victim of the strike, Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said. Her mother’s body was recovered earlier from the rubble.
Casualties were also reported in other areas around the capital in Kyiv Oblast, including Bucha, a town just northwest of Kyiv.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia deployed 368 aerial weapons, including 352 attack drones, 11 Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles, and 5 Iskander-K cruise missiles, striking primarily Kyiv. Ukraine’s air defenses destroyed 354 of them.
President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the attack, noting that while Moscow had previously criticized strikes on Iran’s nuclear program, it remained silent following its own “cynical” bombardment of Kyiv with Shahed drones and missiles.
The attack on the capital comes just days after Russia launched one of its largest attacks on Kyiv, killing 28 people and injuring 134 others.
Russia’s latest round of large-scale attacks comes as Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi warned on June 21 that Russian forces are attempting to advance along almost the entire front in eastern Ukraine while trying to establish a buffer zone in northeastern Sumy Oblast.
The Kyiv IndependentDaria Shulzhenko
Ukraine strikes Atlas oil depot in Russia’s Rostov Oblast, General Staff says
Ukraine’s Armed Forces struck the Atlas oil depot in Russia’s Rostov Oblast overnight on June 23, the General Staff reported.
The attack ignited a fire at the site, with Ukrainian forces saying the strike had reached its intended target. The facility supplies fuel and lubricants to Russian military units.
Yuri Slyusar, the acting governor of Rostov Oblast, confirmed that a fire occurred at an industrial facility after the attack. He added that no one was injured.
The full extent of the damage is still being assessed, according to the military.
Located near the Azov Sea and bordering Ukraine, Rostov Oblast plays a crucial logistical role for Russia’s war effort due to its proximity to front-line operations. The same depot was previously targeted in November 2024.
“The defense forces continue to take all measures to undermine the military and economic potential of the Russian occupiers and force the Russian Federation to stop its armed aggression against Ukraine,” the General Staff said.
The strike is part of Ukraine’s broader campaign aimed at disrupting Russian supply chains and degrading its capacity to sustain the full-scale invasion.
Fuel depots, rail infrastructure, and ammunition stockpiles inside Russia and occupied territories have increasingly become targets for long-range drone and missile strikes.
The Kyiv IndependentDominic Culverwell
Ukraine returns bodies of 3 Russian soldiers repatriated as remains of Ukrainians, Interior Ministry says
Ukraine has returned the remains of three Russians who were handed over to Kyiv as part of an exchange of fallen soldiers' bodies, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko told Interfax Ukraine on June 23.
Ukraine has said the practice of passing off the bodies of Russian soldiers as Ukrainian is part of an attempt to obscure the scale of its military losses from the Russian public, and at least 20 such incidents have been recorded during recent repatriations conducted under the Istanbul agreements.
Russia did not comment on the discovery made by the Ukrainian side, while Klymenko said during a press conference on June 23 that it could be done to “sow chaos” during the identification of the soldiers' bodies.
Personal badges, chevrons, documents, military uniforms elements, and footwear typical of the Russian Armed Forces were found during the bodies' examination, transferred by Russia to Ukraine, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said.
According to Klymenko, the bodies were transferred to Russia after confirmation that they belonged to Russians. The other 17 bodies have not yet been handed over to Moscow, as examinations continue.
“We are waiting for the DNA of relatives. Therefore, we want the relatives (of Russians) to submit their DNA so that we can confirm,” Klymenko told Interfax Ukraine. “I gave an order to prohibit the release of these bodies to the Russians until there is a 100% confirmation."
The Interior Ministry’s experts conduct up to 10,000 examinations per month to identify individuals, and one fragment of remains can be examined up to five times, Klymenko said.
“The bodies of our heroes come back extremely mutilated. There are objective reasons for this, such as an ongoing war and widespread use of weapons. At the same time, we have recorded cases when the remains of one person were returned during different stages of repatriation, which complicates our work,” Klymenko said.
The June 2 negotiations in Istanbul resulted in the most expansive prisoner and body exchange agreement of the full-scale war, although no ceasefire was reached.
Ukraine received a total of 6,057 bodies of its fallen soldiers as part of the phased exchange. Russia, according to Kremlin aide and negotiator Vladimir Medinsky, took back 78.
Explaining the difference between the two numbers, President Volodymyr Zelensky on June 20 said that the bodies of the vast majority of Russian soldiers currently killed on the battlefield remain in Russian hands.
“They were advancing, and their dead remained in the territory where they were,” he said.
Russia accused Kyiv on June 7 of rejecting a proposed body return, publishing footage allegedly showing Ukrainian corpses stored in refrigeration units. Ukraine dismissed the claims, saying the footage was filmed on Russian territory, not at a designated handover site.
Kyiv has consistently called for an “all-for-all” exchange of prisoners of war, but Moscow has so far refused to agree to a comprehensive swap.
The Kyiv IndependentMartin Fornusek
Norway to invest $400 million in Ukraine’s drone, air defense missile production
Norway will invest $400 million in Ukraine’s defense industry to support drone and air defense missile production, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address on June 22.
The announcement followed a visit to Ukraine by Norwegian Defense Minister Tore Onshuus Sandvik.
“Today, Norway’s defense minister visited Ukraine. A decision has been reached to invest $400 million in our production – new funding, primarily for drones,” Zelensky said.
Zelensky added that the two countries are also working together to establish joint air defense production inside Ukraine.
“We are working together to create all the necessary conditions to produce air defense systems in Ukraine — jointly with partners, jointly with Norway,” Zelensky said.
He added that Norway’s largest defense company – Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace – has already opened an office in Ukraine as part of the cooperation.
“We are expediting all processes to the maximum extent,” Zelensky said.
On X, Norway’s defense ministry confirmed that Kongsberg has signed agreement with a major Ukrainian company to jointly develop and produce missiles for air defense systems in Ukraine.
The collaboration will focus on producing missiles for the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System, or NASAMS.
“The Norwegian NASAMS system saves lives in Ukraine every day, and is crucial in protecting critical infrastructure. That is why it is important for the Norwegian Government to finance this development of cheaper missiles for the NASAMS system in Ukraine,” said Minister Sandvik.
The announcement marks deepening ties between Kyiv and Oslo as Ukraine seeks to expand its domestic defense industry amid Russia’s ongoing full-scale invasion and reduced military aid from the United States.
The Kyiv IndependentNatalia Yermak
After 40 months of waging full-scale war on Ukraine, Putin condemns ‘unprovoked aggression against Iran’
Russian President Vladimir Putin has condemned U.S. strikes on Iran as “completely unprovoked aggression,” more than three years into his completely unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Putin made the comments at the Kremlin during a meeting with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on June 23, after U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of successful air strikes on three nuclear facilities in Iran, Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan, conducted in coordination with Israel over the weekend.
“The completely unprovoked aggression against Iran has no basis and no justification,” Putin said, adding that Russia “is making efforts to provide assistance to the Iranian people."
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has killed tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians, and the true extent of the death toll is simply not known.
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine was a clear and direct violation of both international law and the UN Charter.
Earlier on June 23, President Volodymyr Zelensky on highlighted Russia’s hypocrisy for describing U.S. strikes on Iran as “grossly violating international law” just hours before launching yet another deadly mass missile and drone strike on Ukraine.
“After the strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, there was an uproar from Moscow,” Zelensky said.
“The Russian leadership demonstratively condemned the ‘missile and bomb’ actions. Today, Moscow is silent — after its own army launched a cynical attack using Russian-Iranian ‘Shaheds’ and missiles on civilian infrastructure in Kyiv and other cities."
Moscow on June 22 condemned the recent U.S. strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities.
“The irresponsible decision to subject the territory of a sovereign state to missile and bomb strikes, no matter what arguments are used, is grossly violating international law, the U.N. Charter, and the resolutions of the U.N. Security Council,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Overnight on June 23, a devastating Russian missile and drone strike on Kyiv killed at least 7 people and injured dozens more, including children.
The attack was one of the largest air assaults on the capital this year, with 368 aerial weapons launched, including 159 Iranian-made Shahed drones and 16 missiles, according to Ukraine’s Air Force.
Russia has deepened military and political ties with Tehran since, and Iran has supplied Moscow with thousands of Shahed-type attack drones used in routine strikes on Ukrainian cities, as well as short-range ballistic missiles.
Russia and Iran have cooperated to develop their own nuclear programs as both countries face Western sanctions. Russia supplied Iran with the Middle East’s first nuclear power plant despite objections from the West.
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