Ukraine Update June 11

2026 — No Bridges For You!

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So Goes the Invasion of Ukraine

So far in June, Ukraine has hit twelve Russian oil infrastructure targets. Twelve, in eleven days. On June 2, Krasnodar and Volgograd. June 3, St. Pete. June 5: St. Pete again and Ust-Labinsk. June 6, Tyumen. June 7, Volgograd and Novorossiysk. June 8, Hvardiyske and Yedy-Kuyu. June 10, Samara. June 11, last night, Afipsky terminal in Krasnodar was hit again. Below, Afipsky in the Krasnodar region this morning, and later this morning, after sunrise.

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The occupational government of Crimea has alerted residents that there were no fuel deliveries yesterday and that gasoline ration cards (aka QR codes) will not be issued today, but it promises that everything is under control and that there will be rations tomorrow.

There are a lot of spits in this area, so let’s just clear up the word: A spit or sandspit is a deposition bar or beach landform off coasts or lake shores. It develops in places where re-entrance occurs, such as at a cove’s headlands, through the process of longshore drift.

Ukraine has taken out another bridge leading from the occupied Ukrainian territory to Crimea, and this one is on the Arabat Spit.

This cuts off yet another road from mainland Ukraine into Crimea, although it was never ideal in the first place. It takes trucks way out of the way for travel to Sevastopol or Evpatoria, the two largest cities on the West coast of Crimea, adding about 200km to the trip. Henichensk is the last small town on the mainland when entering from the North. After that, it’s just beach resorts, fish farms, and air defense sites. The farther south one travels, the worse the road gets, and for the final third, it’s just a path on the sand. Traversable, probably, by ATVs and lighter vehicles, but heavy trucks will just get stuck in the sand.

Maps from 2024 show air and ground defense sites along the road, and the southernmost one I found is shown below. Beyond that, the roads get really bad.

The “road” becomes somewhat of a “drive wherever you can” for long stretches.

Thus, this strike was not so much to prevent the supply of fuel to Crimea as to prevent the supply of military assets to the spit, which would strengthen air defenses for the whole of Crimea and make an occupation of the spit difficult.

There are as-yet unsubstantiated claims that the bridge in Armiansk was also damaged. The Chondar bridge may have had a pontoon bridge installed to replace the concrete one, but it will not offer the same capacity. Another bridge in Krasnoperekopsk may also be damaged. If true, that would be ALL of the roads leading from the occupied Kherson region into occupied Crimea.

The Chondar bridge may have had a pontoon bridge installed to replace the concrete one, but it will not offer the same capacity. The Russians had set up a pontoon bridge there in 2023 as well, after Ukrainian forces damaged the Chondar bridge back then. Image below from 2023. Low-resolution satellite imagery from June 7th suggests that the pontoon bridge has been returned.

Since I started writing this morning, the Moscow Times has confirmed that all four bridges have been destroyed. There are no land routes, except for the pontoon bridge at Chondar, into Crimea.

Russia is considering using the rail bridge over Kerch to ship fuel, but this gives Ukraine the opportunity to create a much larger explosion, which could destroy the entire bridge.

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Ukraine conducted a series of strikes on the port at Mariupol, which is used to ferry supplies to Crimea and also to ship stolen grain out of the occupied territories. The strikes, released in a video montage by the Ukrainian Forces of Drone Systems (SBS), show hits on electrical substations, the port control tower, and other bits of port infrastructure.

The shadow fleet ship “Lady Augusta” was also damaged, and the fuel storage tanks at the port were as well.

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Russian social media is complaining about fuel shortages in Rostov. That’s where Prigozhin started his failed rebellion, and the launching point for Russian supplies into occupied territory.

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This Russian thought he could get away with wearing sandals and a t-shirt while taking a stroll next to a fuel truck, some 70km from the front lines.

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Find of the day! A Ukrainian drone finds a fully loaded Grad MLRS hidden in a building. Another drone flies by to inspect the results.

Ukrainian intelligence has identified the names of 10 Russian FPV pilots involved in the “human safari” in Kherson. The men betrayed their own identities by publishing their “accomplishments” on Telegram.

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Several of the OSINT accounts, including even Clement Molin, who is very conservative with claims of Ukrainian advances, are starting to ask questions about Ivanivka and Lyman. Ukraine isn’t publishing videos from those areas, but Russian videos are showing fighting in places far behind the front lines shown on mapping sites like DeepState.

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On the night of June 4, the General Staff reported on the destruction of the territory of Hephaestus-M LLC branch — Elastic gunpowder plant in the Ryazan region. One fewer workshop supporting Russia’s war.

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Images of the electronics factory “VNIIP Progress,” which was struck yesterday, have emerged. It was probably hit with a Flamingo missile.

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Madyar wishes everyone a “Happy Drone Services Day” in Ukraine and around the world. This is a real holiday, for those wondering.

At all available depths, across all the hated enemy! Happy SBS Day, Ladies and Gentlemen!”

Politics

The Times of London reports that mercenaries from Russia’s neo-nazi mercenary group “Wagner” are operating on ‘shadow fleet’ vessels. Their purpose is not to directly defend the ships but to prevent foreign officers aboard them from cooperating with Western authorities.

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I continue to be amazed at how Trump is avoiding the two easiest political victories offered to any president ever. Release the complete Epstein files, and help Ukraine win against Russia. Seriously, TWO political gifts like this have never been given to a US president before. Easy to do, and if Trump isn’t in the Epstein files, as he claims, then there would be no consequences.

Meanwhile, in Russia

Russian State Duma MP General Durulev admits that he shelled civilians in Donbas in 2014, claiming that “he had to, there was no other way, I had to save my men.”

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The war memorial in Balakovo, in Russia’s Saratov region, has been updated. There are 515 names in total, 480 of which are from Ukraine. It has a population of 185,000.

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A resident of the Leningrad district in Russia complains that her local hospital is in Russian condition.

And then Grammarly decided that I had used the wrong word in the sentence above…. Sometimes, AI is funny, but unintentionally.

Thanks, Grammarly.

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Russian bloggers got to take a look at the Potemkin village built by Russians in occupied Makiivka, just like they did in Mariupol. The buildings look nice from the street, but need capital repairs upon closer inspection.

The Russians know that they won’t be staying in Ukraine for very long, and they know that anything they build there isn’t for people, but for propaganda, so why invest the time to do it well?

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A Russian soldier tells us, yet again, what we have known for years. Russian commanders are taking the dog tags and passports of the dead so that they cannot be identified, preventing their families from getting money. This has been going on for three years now.

No ID tags, no paperwork. No paperwork, no inheritance. No inheritance, and the dead will not be counted by Mediazona/BBC in their casualty count. Russian soldiers have been reporting this for years, and it is widespread. This is done on a scale to almost make it an official policy, a “best practice” of the Russian army.

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Another Russian blogger has abandoned the world to its fate. Messages on “From Mariupol to the Carpathians” lament the death of the FPV-drone commander who ran the channel.

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ISW believes that recruitment is slowing down in Russia, with only 71,200 signing bonuses paid for the first three months of 2026. That is 20,000 or more short of the number of casualties.

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Russian historian Vladimir Pastukhov, who lives in the UK, wrote about the war in Iran. You can read the whole post (in Russian) <here>.

The actual achievement of Trump’s goals would seem to make a new war in the Middle East inevitable. But I don’t rule out the possibility that Trump will sell everyone out. Trump got himself into the Iran war, no worse than Putin got into the Ukraine war.

Putin overlooked drones and Javelins, while Trump overlooked the entire Strait of Hormuz. Both overlooked the willingness of nations to rally around their military leaders in a moment of aggression.

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Former Russian soldiers speaks out after prosecutors in Russia refused to listen to his case. He is speaking about his time in the Russian army.

“They put chains around our necks like large dogs. The sewer was about 9–10 meters deep; you can imagine the smell. They only dropped water on us — half a liter a day — and fed us only when we were pulled out of the pit to work — cleaning and sweeping the area,” the soldier said.

“They also handcuffed us, made us kneel, and beat us with whips similar to those used by the Cossacks. This punishment, like in Ancient Rome, where a person was forced to their knees, shackled, and beaten with a whip, was called flagellation. We usually received about 30 lashes, after which we were chained up, lowered back into the pit, or hung in a cage.”

“There, they found about twenty payroll cards on ‘Foma.’ “Obviously, no one returned the money, and he sold my phones: an iPhone 17 Pro Max and a Xiaomi 1. The documents were never returned; they were most likely burned or destroyed. In short, just like with Pechny, all the documents disappeared,” Dmitry says.

Meanwhile, in Iran

The NYT and a paper in Florida released more information about the Epstein files over the last two days, showing that Trump was funding and hosting underage sex parties at his Palm Beach Resort, so, of course, the USA started bombing Iran again.

From the NYT…

Dan Bongino, former podcaster and now deputy FBI director, has a funny part in all of this. He wanted the files released, but now that Trump is clamping down on them, because, as he told MTG, “a lot of my friends are in there,” Bongino is angry that he lost his podcast audience, family time, and millions of dollars.

Charlie Kirk’s role is also rather tragic, focused as he was on getting the files released. And then he was killed.

It is apparent, from the NYT reporting, that the President is the focal point for keeping the files hidden.

“The president could break institutions, redirect the federal government against his enemies and bring the world’s richest men into the Oval Office bearing tribute. But he could not, it turned out, make Jeffrey Epstein disappear.” — NYT

There are still millions of files that have not been released.

Meanwhile, in the USA

Yet another pedophile from the January 6th pardons has been caught. Theodore Middendorf was sentenced to 19 years for sexually assaulting a 7-year-old.

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Nike has launched a collaboration with a skateboarding brand founded by a Russian “designer”.

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Humor?

Late one evening, a traveler arrived at a hotel in the Soviet Union: — I’d like a room for one night, please. — Unfortunately, we only have one spot left in a five-person room. — That’ll do; after all, it’s just one night, the traveler replied and headed to the assigned room. He settled in comfortably and intended to fall asleep, but his roommates were playing bridge, telling each other jokes, and bursting into loud laughter every few moments.

The traveler got dressed and went down to the reception desk: — Could I please have five teas sent up in about ten minutes? He returned to the room and said: — Gentlemen, you’re so casually sharing jokes, but this room might be bugged! — What? In a hotel? — We can easily check, said the traveler, and he spoke clearly: “Comrade captain! Could I please have five teas sent to room 14?”

Sure enough, at that very moment, the tea arrived. His roommates, now with a touch of apprehension, went to bed. In the morning, the traveler got up and saw that the room was empty, aside from himself. He went down to the reception desk: — What happened to my roommates? — The militia took them away this morning. — But why didn’t they take me? — Because the captain liked your tea joke.

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Russian humor, from blogger Makcim Mirovich.

“Pynya” (Putin) declared his readiness to meet with Zelensky and discuss the cessation of hostilities, but only in Moscow. Judging by the latest events at the front, Zelensky accepted this proposal. By the end of the summer, the armed forces must reach Moscow so that the parties can agree on peace.

Thank you for reading!

[embed]Dylan Combellick is A holistic approach to war and everything else. I write and research themes around geopolitics and war. Retired intelligence analyst. World traveler.Check out the…buymeacoffee.com