Speaking at Friday's weekly Ministry of Defense press conference, Col. Kiviselg said the Russian Federation's armed forces attacks against Ukraine have increased slightly over the past week, and are now at around 200 per day.

"The Russian Federation has focused mainly on four lines of attack. First of all, on reaching the western border of Donetsk Oblast, then on advancing in the Kostyantynivka and Lyman directions, and on expanding the conquests of the border areas in Sumy Oblast. The level of hostilities has remained low but steady. The conquest of territories has also been steady, but the Russian Federation has no major progress to show of," he said.

Col. Kiviselg highlighted that, according to publicly available data, since February 2022, the Ukrainian Armed Forces and security agencies have already managed to capture more than a million people involved in Russia's war of aggression.

"This means that for wounded and killed together, the figure is already over one million. And between the beginning of this year and the start of June, the Russian Federation has lost 200,000 men, about half of them killed. And with this amount of casualties, Russia has only been able to occupy around 1,200 square kilometers. In some of the hottest battlegrounds, as many as 4,000 Russian invaders have died in the process of capturing a square kilometer," Col. Kiviselg said.

According to the EDF colonel, Ukraine has inflicted heavy losses on Russia with drone strikes on the front line, reducing their own losses as a result.

Kiviselg said that on the night of June 8 to 9, Russian forces carried out the largest combined missile and drone attack since the full-scale invasion began. According to the Ukrainian Air Force, 499 flying objects were launched, including 479 Shahed and decoy drones.

"Also from the territory of the Russian Federation, as well as the Black Sea and Crimea, ballistic missiles, anti-radar missiles and cruise missiles were launched in varying numbers. However, the Ukrainians have reported that their air defenses managed to shoot down all the missiles fired by the Russian Federation, as well as 277 Shahed decoy and attack drones. An additional 183 drones went off course due to electronic interference. So less than 5 percent of the shells fired by the Russian Federation during the attack reached their targets," Col. Kiviselg said.

According to Col. Kiviselg, while the Russian Federation has significantly stepped up its drone attacks in recent weeks, the military effect has been no greater than before.

"If these attacks are in retaliation for the Ukrainian attacks on strategic airfields in early June, then the level of this counter-attack has remained predictably low or weak," the EDF colonel explained.

"The combined air strikes by Shaheds and precision-guided missiles follow a well-established pattern, targeting Ukraine's energy resources first, then military industry and civilians. In the first four days of this year, 600 targets were destroyed, 75 percent of which were energy, industrial and civilian targets. The average number of Shaheds used has increased to 4,200 per month, with the aim of exhausting Ukraine's air defenses," Col. Kiviselg said.

"Once again, it has to be pointed out that there are no signs of a planned ceasefire or escalation in Russian military activity," Col. Kiviselg added.

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