What did Kyiv's long-range strikes signal by 29 June 2026?
A retrospective on a weekend of Ukrainian strikes inside Russia and Crimea, and of losses among Ukraine's own aircraft.
What did the run of Ukrainian strikes reaching 29 June 2026 amount to? In the days before that date, Ukraine pressed attacks on Russian industrial and energy targets, while absorbing losses of its own.
On 27 June, Ukraine's Security Service announced a strike on the Vtorovo oil pumping station in Russia's Vladimir Oblast. The service described it as part of a 40-day campaign by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, aimed at compelling Russia to end the war.
On 28 June, Ukrainian forces launched FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles at strategic targets in Russia. They struck the Titan-Barrikady complex in Volgograd, which produces launchers for Russia's Yars and Iskander missile systems. Authorities said ten people were wounded. A separate missile strike destroyed a Pantsir missile system in occupied Crimea.
Ukraine also took losses in the air. On 27 June, a Ukrainian Air Force MiG-29 was destroyed on the ground at an airbase in southern Ukraine by a Russian Geran kamikaze drone. Another MiG-29 was lost during a combat mission over Poltava Oblast; its pilot ejected and reached safety.
Taken together, the reports showed two sides of the same stretch of the war: a declared Ukrainian effort to target Russian energy and weapons-production sites, and continued Russian drone attacks on Ukrainian airfields.
