A Russian drone strike kills five in Pryluky, including a 1-year-old child, injures four children and a pregnant woman in Kharkiv. Ukraine hits three Iskander ballistic missile systems in Russia’s Bryansk region. ISW breaks down Putin’s claims to Trump that the Ukrainian government is a “terrorist organization.”
Russian drone strike kills five in Pryluky, including 1-year-old child, injures four children, pregnant woman in Kharkiv
Five people, including a 1-year-old child, his mother and grandmother, were killed Thursday in a nighttime Russian drone attack on the city of Pryluky, in Chernihiv region. The bodies of the two women and the child were pulled from under the rubble of a house, head of the regional military administration, Vyacheslav Chaus said. Nine more people were injured.
Six Geran drones hit the city, sparking fires in a residential area. The attack destroyed two private homes, two garages, an outbuilding and a car, Ukraine State Emergency Service said.
A Russian drone strike on Kharkiv overnight on Thursday caused damage to the city’s Slobidskyi district and injured 19 people, including four children, a pregnant woman and a 93-year-old woman.
Shahed drones struck two high-rise apartment buildings, causing fires and destroying several private vehicles. An apartment on the highest floor of a 17-story building and one on the second floor of the same house as well as the basement of a five-story building were on fire, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said.
Ukraine hits three Iskander ballistic missile systems in Russia’s Bryansk region
Ukrainian forces hit three Iskander mobile short-range ballistic missile systems in Russia’s Bryansk region, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Thursday, releasing a video of the strike. Ukrainian news site The New Voice of Ukraine said the footage was the first verified case of an Iskander-M system being destroyed since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The strike destroyed one missile launcher and damaged two others, the General Staff said. The 26th Missile Brigade of the Russian army intended to use the systems deployed to near Klintsy in the Bryansk region to launch a missile strike at a Ukrainian city, likely Kyiv, it added.
The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine issued a warning on Wednesday about “a continued risk of significant [Russian] air attacks,” urging U.S. citizens to “exercise appropriate caution.”
Russia launched 103 drones and an Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles at Ukraine overnight on Thursday. Ukraine’s air defense shot down or neutralized in flight 74 drones. The drones primarily targeted the regions of Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Odesa, the Ukrainian Air Force said.
Russia has in service around 160 Iskander missile systems, The New Voice of Ukraine said.
As of mid-May 2025, Russia had in stock almost 600 Iskander-M ballistic missiles and almost 300 Iskander-K cruise missiles, the Main Intelligence Department of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said, responding to an inquiry from the outlet.
Russia is constantly replenishing its stocks of missiles. According to Ukraine’s defense intelligence, it is capable of producing 60-70 Iskander-M ballistic missiles and 20-30 Iskander-K cruise missiles a month.
ISW breaks down Putin’s claims to Trump that Ukrainian government is “terrorist organization”
The Kremlin is fixating on recent train derailments in Russia in order to further long-standing Kremlin narratives claiming that Ukraine is an illegitimate negotiating partner that is uninterested in peace, likely to distract the broader information space from recent Kremlin officials’ statements about Russia’s own disinterest in a negotiated settlement, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in an update on Wednesday, June 4. The paragraphs below are quoted from the report.
Russian Presidential Aide Yuriy Ushakov stated that Putin later emphasized Ukraine’s alleged “terrorism” during a phone call on June 4 with US President Donald Trump. Putin also used his June 4 phone call with Trump to further falsely portray Ukraine as an illegitimate negotiating partner that is uninterested in peace. Ushakov stated that Putin talked with Trump about the May 31 train derailments in Russia, the June 1 Ukrainian strikes against Russian military air bases, and the June 2 Ukrainian-Russian negotiations in Istanbul. Putin alleged to Trump that Ukraine was responsible for the train derailments. Ushakov claimed that Russia “did not succumb” and attended the Istanbul negotiations despite Ukraine’s “provocations.”
Putin’s statements to Trump are also likely aimed at distracting from Russia’s own disinterest in negotiations and continued preparations for a prolonged war effort so as to avoid possible future US sanctions by painting Ukraine as a bad actor.
Kremlin officials have long alleged that the current Ukrainian government is “illegitimate,” and Putin previously questioned on March 27 how Russia can negotiate with Ukraine as “neo-Nazi formations” are allegedly ruling the country. Putin has also repeatedly used questions about Ukrainian force generation and Western weapons deliveries to reject Ukraine’s previous ceasefire proposals.
Putin’s June 4 claims that the Ukrainian government is a “terrorist organization” with which Russia cannot negotiate, and which will exploit any longer-term ceasefire, is the latest iteration of this Kremlin effort to justify delaying the negotiation process and prolonging the war by attacking Ukraine’s sovereignty as a legitimate negotiating partner. The Kremlin is likely linking its messaging surrounding the train derailments and Ukraine’s alleged perpetuation of “terrorism” in order to distract from Russian Security Council Deputy Chairperson Dmitry Medvedev’s claim on June 3 that Russia needs the negotiations in Istanbul to result in Russia’s “swift victory and the complete destruction” of the Ukrainian government and not a “compromise[d] peace on someone else’s delusional terms.”