Russia's Defense Ministry announced on June 26 that its air defense forces had shot down 660 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in a single night. The barrage is considered one of the largest long-range strikes by Kyiv since the conflict began, aimed at putting pressure on Russia's air defense systems and energy infrastructure.
According to the statement, the drones were intercepted across 13 regions, including Moscow, the annexed Crimean Peninsula, and the Black and Azov Seas. A large-scale attack on the Tula region, about 180 kilometers south of Moscow, damaged a house and injured a woman, according to Governor Dmitry Milyaev.
Milyaev also reported that an industrial facility in Novomoskovsk, 200 kilometers south of Moscow, was damaged. Russian media outlet Astra identified the site as the Azot plant, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has described as important to Russia's explosives production.
Ukraine's large-scale drone campaign deep inside Russian territory and on Crimea is causing fuel shortages and disrupting Russian military supply lines. Analysts say this is slowing Moscow's advance on the eastern Ukrainian front.
Against this backdrop, President Zelensky said on June 25 that he had received intelligence indicating Belarus is building military infrastructure and storage facilities near the Ukrainian border. He accused Moscow of pressuring Minsk to prepare for an expansion of the war against Ukraine.
“Belarus knows what steps are necessary for peace. The development of border infrastructure for aggression from Belarus must stop,” Zelensky wrote on social media.
However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the claim on the same day, calling it “not consistent with reality.” For his part, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko insisted his country has no intention of entering the war and accused Kyiv of trying to drag Belarus into the conflict.
“I told them directly: 'Guys, tell your president: if he thinks he can talk to us like that — and drag us into a war — then he needs to understand that the nature of the war will change immediately,'” Lukashenko said in a televised address. He said he had received a response from the Ukrainian side that “the president and his team understand this.”
Although Belarus has not deployed troops to fight alongside Russia, it continues to hold joint military exercises and allows Russia to use its bases and training grounds. In 2022, Belarus permitted Russian forces to mass on its territory before crossing the southern border to attack Ukraine.
