Ukraine’s latest long-range strikes on Russia hit a major natural gas
plant and satellite centers
[June 25, 2026]
By ILLIA NOVIKOV
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian forces struck a major natural gas
processing plant and two key satellite communications centers in their
latest nighttime attacks on Russia, Ukraine’s General Staff said
Wednesday.
The operation was part of Ukraine’s aerial campaign targeting energy
facilities and military industries that has intensified as Kyiv builds
bigger and better long-range weapons to ward off Russia’s full-scale
invasion, now in its fifth year.
In response, Moscow has ordered the redeployment of some air defense
systems from Russian regions to the capital and to Crimea’s Kerch
Bridge, a crucial link for supplying Russian troops, Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. The bridge connects the Crimean Peninsula with
the Russian mainland.
“It is important that as many Russians as possible come to understand
that it is the Russian leadership’s rejection of diplomacy that is
prolonging the war,” Zelenskyy said on X.
Zelenskyy has accepted an unconditional ceasefire demanded by U.S.
President Donald Trump but Russian President Vladimir Putin has refused.
In northern Ukraine, meanwhile, military officials ordered a mandatory
evacuation for communities and settlements in the Chernihiv region
bordering Belarus starting July 1, according to Viacheslav Chaus, the
head of regional military administration, in a statement on his Telegram
channel.
Last month, Zelenskyy said his intelligence services had learned Moscow
recently stepped up efforts to “draw Belarus much deeper into the war"
and launch operations from Belarusian territory. He said he ordered the
military and security agencies to prepare a response and strengthen
northern defenses. Belarus and Russia denied Zelenskyy's claim.
Ukraine says the stricken gas plant was among the world's largest
The overnight attack hit the Orenburg Gas Processing Plant, which is
part of a complex that also houses the only helium plant in Russia, the
General Staff said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app. The
attack set the complex on fire, it said.
Orenburg, in the southern Urals near Russia's border with Kazakhstan, is
more than 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) behind the front line in eastern
and southern Ukraine.
The plant is one of the largest gas complexes in the world, according to
the General Staff. It produces helium, used in liquid-fuel rocket
engines and guidance systems, and ethane, a key component in producing
solid rocket fuel and gunpowder, it added.
Overnight attacks also hit two satellite communication centers used by
the Russian military, according to the General Staff.
One was the Dubna Space Communications Center near Moscow, which it
described as Russia's largest ground-based satellite communications
complex, and the other was in the Vladimir region east of the capital.
It was not possible to independently verify the General Staff’s report,
and Russian officials made no immediate comment.
The General Staff's statement did not say whether the military used
drones or missiles in the assault, but drones have recently been used to
strike Moscow and St. Petersburg.
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In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency
services personnel work to extinguish a fire after Russia's air
attack in Druzhkivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Wednesday, June 24,
2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
Ukraine keeps hammering Crimea
Ukraine has recently focused its drone and missile attacks on
Crimea, aiming to cut off the vital Russian-held peninsula, and
overnight drone strikes knocked out power in Sevastopol, Mikhail
Razvozhayev, the city’s Moscow-installed governor, said Wednesday.
Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, sits in a
strategic location on the Black Sea. It has naval bases and also
provides an important supply line to Moscow's forces inside Ukraine.
Ukraine recently destroyed more than 60,000 tons of Russian
ammunition when it hit a Baltic Fleet arsenal near St. Petersburg,
Zelenskyy said.
Ukraine is trying to disrupt military supply lines in Crimea and
strike the peninsula’s power grid at the height of the summer
tourist season. Kyiv hopes the campaign will embarrass Putin and
increase public pressure on him to end the war, according to Western
analysts.
Ukraine’s Security Service said Wednesday it struck two military
airfields and destroyed missile systems in Crimea.
Attacks kill at least 6 people
Two staff members of Norwegian People’s Aid were killed during a
Russian attack in Ukraine, the demining organization said Wednesday,
although local officials said only one person was killed.
Four other workers with the organization were injured, two of them
critically, according to the head of the southern Kherson region’s
military administration, Oleksandr Prokudin.
Russian forces shot down 323 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russia’s
Defense Ministry said.
Two people were killed and two others wounded overnight in a
Ukrainian drone strike on Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region, east of
Moscow, regional Gov. Gleb Nikitin said. Also, a Ukrainian drone
strike killed one person overnight in Russia’s Belgorod border
region bordering Ukraine, local officials said.
Ukraine’s air force, meanwhile, said Russia launched 101 long-range
attack drones overnight.
Russian drones attacked the city of Balakliia in northeastern
Ukraine, killing a 56-year-old woman, according to Oleh Syniehubov,
head of the Kharkiv regional military administration. Also, a
57-year-old streetcar driver man died as a result of a Russian
guided aerial bomb that hit the outskirts of Sumy, said Oleh
Hryhorov, head of the regional military administration.
In addition, the death toll rose to four from Tuesday's ballistic
missile strike using cluster munitions on Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskyy’s
hometown, after a 62-year-old woman died from her injuries, said
Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of the city administration, said.
Both Moscow and Kyiv have deployed the controversial munitions
during the war.
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Elise Morton in London contributed.
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