The Concis: Ukraine Frontline Edition

Saturday, June 28, 2025

Oh, boy.

It’s one of those weeks.

Every now and then, the diary I keep—meant to track only the most important developments—completely overshoots my bandwidth. Each line item we’re covering today could easily be its own standalone story. But the range is so wide, we need the panoramic lens today. Wide-angle. No zoom.

Here’s what we’re walking through:

• The 49 M1A1 Abrams tanks Australia promised to Ukraine have arrived in Poland. They could cross into Ukraine at any moment. At the NATO summit, Australia also announced it will deploy an E-7 Wedgetail early warning aircraft to Poland. It’s expected to arrive by August, along with 100 Australian personnel.

• On June 26th, the EU approved its 2025 aid package for Ukraine—€30.6 billion. Of that, €10.5 billion has already been delivered.

• Ukraine’s special services destroyed four Russian Su-34 fighter jets at the Marinovka airfield in Volgograd Oblast.

• Russia has massed close to 110,000 troops near the Pokrovsk axis. They’ve ground their way into Toretsk, a coal-mining town northeast of Pokrovsk—and are now pushing around the nearby lithium mines.

• Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi has declared he’s done playing defense. He’s moving to "active defense"—which now includes limited offensives. Right after that statement, Ukrainian forces began striking Russian positions inside Ukraine along the Sumy-Kursk axis. Several settlements have been liberated in recent days.