Have you missed the latest events on the war in Ukraine? 20 Minutes takes stock for you every evening. Here is the gist of this Friday, June 19, 2026, on the 1,576th day of the conflict.
Fact of the day
The facts were only revealed today but date from the beginning of the month. A man suspected of having spied on a French drone factory, for the benefit of Russia, was indicted and placed in provisional detention at the beginning of June, we learned from the Paris prosecutor’s office, confirming information from the Parisian.
This 48-year-old man, born in Belarus, was arrested on June 3 “while he was filming a drone prototype from a company supplying the French and Ukrainian armies,” the prosecution said.
“The investigations carried out by the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI) established that he would have sent a video to an interlocutor in Russia,” he added.
The number of the day
8. This is the age of the girl killed in Russian bombings in the Dnipropetrovsk region, in the center-east of the country, where three districts suffered Russian artillery and drone strikes, the regional official announced.
These bombings particularly affected the town of Pavlograd, where the little girl was, and injured a 49-year-old woman, said this official.
In the Kharkiv region in the northeast, aerial bombs hit the city of Kharkiv, as well as three other municipalities, according to Ukrainian rescue services, injuring ten people, including four children.
Today’s statement
« Ukraine resists with a valor, a capacity for innovation and military production that has amazed everyone since day one »
Emmanuel Macron highlighted, last night, the “astounding” production capacity of drones by Ukraine which is resisting Russia with “a valor that astounds”.
“Today we have a drone war and in this war, the Ukrainian production capacity is astonishing,” the French president noted on France 2, reacting to the vast drone attack launched the same morning by kyiv against Moscow.
The trend
Since the large-scale drone attack launched by the Ukrainian army on Moscow yesterday, which managed to bypass the Russian capital’s anti-aircraft defenses, reputed to be the best in the country, calm has returned to the area.
But the anxiety has not disappeared. “Of course there is concern for the future. “How will this all turn out and how will all this mess end?” wonders Antonina, a 65-year-old business economist. “The anxiety doesn’t go away, I’m trembling,” says Olga, who explains that she hasn’t been able to sleep well since. The attack appears to have reminded some Russians of the reality of war. As for Andrei Kondratiev, a 47-year-old salesman from Moscow, he believes that “we have to get used to” the fact that such attacks can now occur “everywhere” in Russia, even in the capital.
Because Ukraine has assured that it will continue its attacks. kyiv is targeting Russian oil infrastructure in particular, in an attempt to dry up the hydrocarbon windfall that finances the Kremlin’s war effort.
