The Russian army is claiming complete control of Luhansk Oblast, while Kyiv continues its strategy of deep strikes inside Russian territory.
The night of June 30 marked another eventful evening in the Ukraine war. Russia claimed it had fully captured the Ukrainian province of Luhansk, making it the first region to fall entirely under Russian occupation since Crimea in 2014. Additionally, Russian forces reportedly captured Cahnoye, a village in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Meanwhile, a drone swarm launched by Russia targeted Kharkiv Oblast, while Ukraine carried out a deep-strike drone attack on Russia’s Izhevsk plant.
The Russian Army Made Territorial Gains
Russia is claiming complete control of Luhansk Oblast. If true, control of the region would mark the first time that an entire Ukrainian region had fallen to Moscow since the war began in February 2022. The claim has not yet been independently verified, and Ukraine has not yet confirmed the loss of all remaining territory in the region.
The fall of Luhansk would be strategically and symbolically significant for Russia. Luhansk is one of the four regions that Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed to have annexed in September 2022. Complete control of the region would allow Russia to consolidate logistics while pushing westward and potentially redeploying forces to pressure Donetsk and Kharkiv.
Moscow has also announced the capture of Dachnoye, a small village in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. If true, the capture would represent Russia’s first known foothold in the region, marking a southern extension of the Russian frontline. While the strategic value of Dachnoye itself is limited, its capture may indicate that Russian forces are now testing Ukrainian defenses further south, perhaps angling to stretch Kyiv’s lines or open a new pressure axis.
Russia and Ukraine Exchanged Drone Strikes
Russia launched a massive drone swarm overnight as part of its barrage targeting Kharkiv Oblast, where civilian and energy infrastructure was hit. Ukrainian officials confirmed that eight people were injured, including one child, and several fires broke out as a result of drone impacts. The drones—all believed to be the Iranian-made Shahed-136 models—struck buildings in Chuhuiv and the surrounding districts. The strikes were part of a sustained campaign of nightly drone harassment aimed at exhausting Ukrainian air defenses and degrading morale. Ukrainian officials described the overnight attacks as relentless, featuring successive waves of drones that lasted for multiple hours. Of course, the Khakiv drone swarm pales in comparison to the 500-plus drone swarm that Russia launched just 24 hours earlier, marking a clear trend in Moscow’s strategy.
Ukraine, for its part, launched a retaliatory effort in the form of a long-range drone strike against a key Russian military-industrial facility in Izhevsk, located 1,300 kilometers east of the front lines. The target of the strike was the Kupol Electromechanical Plant, which manufactures Russian air defense systems like the Tor-M2. According to Russian authorities, the Ukrainian drone crashed into the facility, causing a fire that killed three workers and injured at least 35 more. The attack marks one of Ukraine’s deepest strikes inside Russian territory since the start of the war, following a pattern in which Kyiv has increasingly escalated its long-range drone campaign to disrupt Russia’s weapons production facilities and force the Kremlin to divert its air defenses from the front to protect the homeland.
About the Author: Harrison Kass
Harrison Kass is a Senior Defense and National Security Writer at The National Interest. Kass is an attorney and former political candidate who joined the US Air Force as a pilot trainee before being medically discharged. He focuses on military strategy, aerospace, and global security affairs. He holds a JD from the University of Oregon and a master’s in Global Journalism and International Relations from NYU.
Image: Shutterstock / Melnikov Dmitriy.
