Operation Spiderweb and Russia’s record drone assault – Ukraine in photos, June 2025
For Ukraine, June began with a celebration — not the one the whole country longs for, victory over Moscow — but a celebration of one of the most stunning drone attacks on Russia, known as Operation Spiderweb.
On June 1, Ukrainian drones targeted four Russian air bases – two of them thousands of miles inside the country – hitting the heavy bombers stationed there. According to estimates from Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), the drone strike disabled 34% of Russia’s cruise missile bombers, causing approximately $7 billion in damage.
Many in Ukraine saw the operation as one of the most morale-boosting events since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
Throughout June, Ukrainian forces kept striking targets inside Russia, while June 12 marked a grim milestone for Moscow — one million Russian soldiers killed or wounded in the 39 months of the full-scale war, according to Kyiv.
On the battlefield, Russian advances in Sumy Oblast accelerated significantly in June, with Russian troops capturing several villages and approaching within 20 kilometers of the regional capital of Sumy, according to territorial changes tracked by the open-source mapping project DeepState.
However, by the end of the month, Ukrainian forces had stabilized the situation in Sumy Oblast and pushed the Russian army farther from the regional capital, according to Ukraine’s General Staff.
This month, Russia intensified its assault on Ukrainian cities, with deadly missile and drone strikes hitting Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipro, and others. Moscow’s forces launched a record 5,337 Shahed-type drones against Ukraine in June, according to data from the Ukrainian Air Force and Dragon Capital, smashing the previous record of 4,198 set in March.
On June 29, Russia launched its largest aerial attack on Ukraine since the start of its full-scale invasion, targeting cities far from the front line with 477 drones and 60 missiles.
While Ukraine’s attempt to secure a 30-day ceasefire with Russia once again failed during peace talks in Istanbul at the beginning of the month, the negotiations led to an exchange of the bodies of fallen soldiers and the return of a number of Ukrainian prisoners of war — a long-awaited and deeply emotional moment for families who had spent years waiting for their loved ones to come home. The exchange of POWs was carried out in several rounds and largely focused on severely ill and wounded soldiers. The Ukrainian authorities didn’t reveal the total number of POWs released, citing security measures.
As the war rages on, so does Ukraine’s resistance – a reality vividly documented by photographers throughout the month of June.
The Kyiv Independent partners with the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers to look back at some of June’s most memorable moments through the eyes of Ukrainian photographers.
The Kyiv IndependentYuliia Taradiuk