ALT On 01 July 2025 Russia's former Deputy Defence Minister Timur Ivanov was convicted on charges of embezzlement and money laundering and sentenced to 13 years in prison. Prior to his arrest in April 2024, Ivanov had been responsible for significant military construction and procurement projects, including rebuilding in illegally occupied Ukrainian territories. Reports of Ivanov’s luxurious lifestyle had sat awkwardly with Russian President Putin’s calls for a new national elite comprised of so-called heroes of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.

ALT On 27 June 2025, Ukraine launched a successful Uncrewed Aerial System (UAS) attack on Marinovka airfield in Volgograd, Russia. The strike almost certainly destroyed at least two Russian Su-34 FULLBACK fighter bomber aircraft, with unconfirmed loss/damage of two additional FULLBACK. Marinovka airfield is over 270km from the Ukrainian border and 440km from the current front line. Marinovka is one of many Russian airfields in daily use for combat operations. It is also used as a fallback location for the dispersal of Russian aircraft when other airfields are threatened. FULLBACK aircraft were dispersed to here from Morozovsk airbase following a Ukrainian UAS strike in August 2024. Despite these dispersal efforts to protect their aircraft, Russian aviation remains vulnerable to Ukrainian UAS attacks. Over the same weekend, Ukraine also launched successful UAS attacks on helicopter operations based at Kirovskoye airfield in Crimea, and an artillery ammunition storage facility in Bryansk.

ALT Stock image of SU-34 Fullback from Defence Imagery.