Ukraine's General Staff says it hit a Russian helicopter over the Sea of Azov. The strike was one of six Russian targets Ukraine's General Staff claimed in its 4 July report, alongside a railway bridge across the Siverskyi Donets river in occupied Luhansk Oblast and a repair unit in Starobilsk.
The strikes fit an intensifying Ukrainian campaign across occupied territory, and the Russian rear as Ukraine's 40-day operation to press Moscow toward ending the war enters its second week. Zelenskyy approved the operation on 25 June, and Ukrainian strikes over the past ten days have hit Russian aviation, air defense, oil infrastructure, and space communications assets across Crimea and Russian territory.
The Siverskyi Donets railway bridge strike targets a specific Russian logistics artery. The General Staff said the bridge is used by Russian forces to transfer personnel, weapons, ammunition, and material and technical supplies.
General Staff lists six struck targets
The General Staff listed six specific targets in its 4 July statement. Among those that haven't already been mentioned are two Russian command posts near Shakhtarsk in Donetsk Oblast, Russia's Luhansk UAV storage was struck in Tytarivka, and a Russian fuel and lubricants storage was struck in Luhansk city.
Ukraine's 40-day campaign enters second week
Recent claimed strikes include Security Service operations against Russian spy ships and an S-400 system in occupied Kerch on 26 June, the destruction of a Russian MiG-29 by the Ukrainian Intelligence at Belbek airfield on 26 June, strikes on Su-30 hangars at Saky airfield on 30 June, and a General Staff-confirmed strike on a Russian military space communications hub near Beloomut in Moscow Oblast on 26 June.
Ukrainian drones damaged at least seven Russian warplanes in a second Saky strike on the night of 2-3 July, per acting Security Service Head Yevhenii Khmara.
The 4 July operations broaden the pattern from strategic-target strikes on aviation and command infrastructure toward the sustaining logistics of railway crossings, fuel storage, and repair units.
