Russia launches a record attack on Kyiv: missiles and drones from Moscow cause heavy casualties in the Ukrainian capital. The latest raid, one of the largest—if not the most violent—since the start of the war, signals the extreme strategy Vladimir Putin is favoring amid an increasingly difficult situation for the invading forces. On the ground, Russia has become bogged down. The pace of Moscow’s advance in Ukraine in June fell sharply compared with the same period last year, while battlefield losses have risen dramatically relative to the territory gained, according to analysis by the Institute for the Study of War in Washington.

Data judge Moscow’s performance poorly

Last month Moscow’s troops took control of, or managed to infiltrate (operations they began conducting since last summer), 30.42 square kilometers of territory: a fraction compared with the 481.25 square kilometers of the same month last year. Converted, this amounts to an average of 1.01 square kilometers per day (last year it was 16.04). The trend began last November, especially in the directions of Kupyansk and Oleksandrivka, where the Ukrainian counteroffensive has so far contained the enemy advance.

From January to June last year Moscow’s forces captured 2,189.87 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory, compared with 622.60 square kilometers for the same period of 2026: only 28.43 percent of last year’s result. In June, according to Ukrainian general staff figures, Russian forces suffered 39,490 casualties—equivalent to 1,298 casualties per square kilometer captured or infiltrated—while in June last year casualties were 32,680, an average of 68 casualties per square kilometer taken.

Also last June, the Russians lost 12,867 vehicles and tanks, compared with 3,395 in June 2025—an increase by a factor of 3.8. Russian losses of drones were between 60 and 849, versus 4,581 in June 2025, an increase by a factor of 13.3.

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