Daily Ukraine Update: June 28, 2025
Russia Occupies Ukrainian Lithium Field
Russian Air Attack:
In last night’s air raid, the Russian military targeted an apartment building in Odesa killing a local teacher and her husband. Kate from Kharkiv wrote, “Tonight, Russia struck a 21-story residential building in Odesa. 5 people, including a child, have been rescued. 2 deaths have been reported, and at least 4 people are injured. Repeated air raid sirens complicated the rescue operation.”
Ground War:
At the front, Russia’s incremental advance reached an important milestone. The Kremlin’s forces captured a massive deposit of rare earth minerals. Visegrad 24 wrote, “The Russian Army has captured the Shevchenko deposit, Ukraine’s 2nd-largest lithium field.” Meaghan Mobbs explained that this is, “one of Europe’s largest lithium deposits near Shevchenko village in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. This is a critical metals jackpot. Over 1.2 million tons of ore with high-grade lithium, enough to power thousands of electric vehicles and dominate the battery supply chain.”
Visegrad 24 noted that deposits like the one near Shevchenko were an important component of the recent minerals deal signed between the US and Ukraine. He wrote, “Profits from the deposit were supposed to shared 50/50 by Ukraine and the U.S. under the minerals deal signed a few months ago.” Meaghan Mobbs noted, “We (the US) have designated lithium as critical to our economy and national security. Before the invasion, Ukraine was on track to become Europe’s lithium leader. That future got hijacked when Russia full-scale invaded.”
Russian Economy:
For Russia’s leaders, capturing assets in Ukraine is a vital war aim as the fighting and sanctions continue to push their economy to the breaking point. War Monitor reported recently that, “Putin announced plans to cut military spending, recognizing the excessive burden on the budget. A struggling economy.”
Russian losses, including soldiers killed and wounded, are also taking a toll. Chuck Pfarrer writes, “RU loses a full battalion of troops (>1000) every day, and losses are now well over 1,000,000 casualties. No army in history has ever sustained such losses and won a war. Russia’s army is in a slow collapse.”
Ukrainian Strikes:
The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are attempting to accelerate that collapse by targeting Russian military installations and industrial complexes. In their latest attacks, Visioner reported, “GUR drones struck targets at the 120th arsenal belonging to the Russian Defense Ministry’s Main Missile and Artillery Directorate in Bryansk, according to Suspilne.”
Ukrainian forces also launched a successful attack on an airfield in occupied Crimea. OSINT Intuit wrote, “The Ukrainian SBU is reporting that three helicopters and a Pantsir-S1 air defense system were destroyed in the strike last night on the occupied Kirovskoye Airfield (45.1668, 35.1842) in western Crimea, Ukraine.” Tendar specified that the three helicopters were an Mi-8, Mi-26 and Mi-28.
The attack came just hours after a successful Ukrainian drone strike that damaged or destroyed four modern Su-34 fighters in Russia. Some analysts described this as the Russian air force’s worst month since WWII as, in addition to these losses, Ukraine launched its successful drone operation against Russia’s strategic bomber fleet at the start of June.
