A “fiery” night over occupied Crimea: Ukraine’s drone forces logged a 60-target sweep

Jun 23, 2026 - 13:12
A “fiery” night over occupied Crimea: Ukraine’s drone forces logged a 60-target sweep

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A Ukrainian commander of the Army's drone branch has put an official tally on the overnight assault that monitoring channels flagged across occupied Crimea earlier on 23 June. Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces (SBS) said the strikes ran through air defenses, fuel sites, and three costly Russian drones on the groundThe count topped 60 targets.

Ukraine's middle-strike campaign, including stripping Russia of its air cover over the occupied territories, keeps widening, part of a push to destroy the Russian logistics in southern and eastern occupied parts of Ukraine and turn the Crimean peninsula into a logistical island.

"Moscow will go down in Crimea"

SBS commander Robert "Madyar" Brovdi said: 

"Moscow will go down in Crimea. The SBS Birds will keep at it," he wrote

He called the overnight assault a "fiery" night in the occupied peninsula. The strikes reached deep into Russian-held territory.

Air defenses, fuel, and drones on the list

The targets spanned occupied Crimea and the southern front. Brovdi counted four air-defense systems among them. SBS hit a Pantsir-S1 system, a Russian short-range air-defense vehicle, near Baherove. It struck an S-300 launcher, part of a long-range missile system, and an anti-aircraft gun at Kurortne. Drones also hit a Nebo-U radar at Kerch

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A Russian Pantsir-S1 air-defense system targeted by a Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Forces drone, the 20th Russian air-defense asset destroyed by the force between 1 and 23 June 2026. Screenshot from video: Unmanned Systems Forces
The footage put SBS's June count of destroyed Russian air-defense assets at 23. The latest strikes added two launchers, a radar, and an anti-aircraft gun. Each loss further thins the cover Russia relies on over the peninsula.
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A fuel storage tank at the Kerch oil depot in occupied Crimea moments before a Ukrainian drone strike, 23 June 2026. Screenshot from video: Unmanned Systems Forces

The commander confirmed the strikes on the Kerch oil depot, a gas-distribution station, and an electrical substation.

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Three Orion drones caught near Kerch

SBS destroyed three Russian Orion drones near Kerch, Brovdi said. The Orion is a reconnaissance-strike aircraft that carries guided bombs and small cruise missiles. 

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A Russian Orion reconnaissance-strike drone targeted by Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Forces near Kerch, occupied Crimea, 23 June 2026. Screenshot from video: Unmanned Systems Forces

Footage confirmed one drone fully destroyed, likely as crews prepared it to fly, Militarnyi noted. The other two sat under camouflage nets. That left it unclear whether they were real Orions or full-size decoys. Russia increasingly fields such decoys to waste Ukrainian strike drones.

Convoys and fuel across the occupied territories

SBS units also hit multiple Russian supply and fuel trucks.

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Russian military logistics vehicles in the sights of Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Forces drones in occupied territory, overnight on 23 June 2026. Screenshot from video: Unmanned Systems Forces

Strikes reached a fuel rail tanker in occupied Horlivka in Donetsk Oblast.

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A Russian fuel rail tank car targeted in occupied Horlivka, Donetsk Oblast, overnight on 23 June 2026. Screenshot from video: Unmanned Systems Forces

They hit supply transport at Pryazovske in Zaporizhzhia Oblast. More convoys went down across Crimea and four occupied oblasts. A Russian drone-pilot training ground near Debaltseve was also hit.

Part of a wider assault

The drone strikes reported by Brovdi formed part of a broader overnight attack on Crimea, setting a Kerch power plant ablaze and blacking out much of the peninsula. In the same push, the military intelligence hunted down the Russian supply trucks trying to enter Crimea from the north, while Ukraine's special forces also destroyed a railway bridge over the North Crimean Canal.

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Squeezing the crossings

Ukraine has battered the northern bridges to Crimea through June. It hit four bridges near the entrance on 11 June. It struck the Chonhar road bridge and rail bridge, then the bridges at Chonhar and Armiansk on 15 and 20 June. On 20 June, the drone force also struck Crimea's gas infrastructure.