Ukraine war latest: Ukraine destroys key railway bridge in occupied Crimea; Russian strike on Kryvyi Rih kills 3, injures 25

Key developments on June 23:

• Ukraine destroys key logistics bridge in Crimea, hits over 60 Russian military targets overnight
• Russian ballistic missile strike on Kryvyi Rih kills 3, injures 25
• Ukraine detains suspected intermediary in alleged Russian-backed plot to assassinate military intelligence official
• South Korea to accept all North Korean POWs from Ukraine at their request, ministry says
• Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov claims readiness for new peace talks at 'any time'
• Russia has illegally shipped nearly 90,000 tons of wheat through occupied Mariupol port in 2026, Ukraine says

A railway bridge across the North Crimean Canal, fuel facilities, and military infrastructure across Russian-occupied Crimea were struck in a large-scale overnight Ukrainian operation, Ukrainian military officials said on June 23.

The attacks are part of Ukraine's broader effort to disrupt Russian military logistics in occupied Crimea, which has intensified in recent weeks.

Ukraine's Special Operations Forces struck the railway bridge across the North Crimean Canal in the settlement of Razdolne overnight on June 22 for the first time, targeting a key route used to transport heavy cargo, including supplies for the Russian army. The strike destroyed part of the rail line and caused one of the bridge spans to collapse, the statement read.

After railway repair equipment arrived at the site, Ukrainian forces, together with members of local pro-Ukrainian resistance networks, carried out a second phase of the operation. On the night of June 23, Special Operations Forces drones struck both the repair equipment and the remaining sections of the damaged bridge.

"The railway bridge across the North Crimean Canal in Crimea no longer exists," the statement read.

In the latest overnight attack on June 23, Ukraine also hit more than 60 Russian military targets in occupied Ukrainian territories using medium-range drones capable of striking targets at distances of approximately 30 to 200 kilometers (20 to 120 miles), Unmanned Systems Forces Commander Robert "Madyar" Brovdi said.

According to Brovdi, the targets in occupied Crimea included three Orion reconnaissance and strike drones, a Nebo-U radar station, a Pantsir-S1 air defense system, an S-300 launcher and a ZU-23 anti-aircraft gun.

Russian ballistic missile strike on Kryvyi Rih kills 3, injures 25

A Russian ballistic missile strike on a civilian infrastructure facility in Kryvyi Rih killed at least three people and injured 25 others on June 23, local authorities reported.

Kryvyi Rih, one of the main industrial centers in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, came under a Russian ballistic missile attack at around 11 a.m. local time, according to Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the city's military administration.

Russian forces used an Iskander-M ballistic missile equipped with cluster munitions, according to Vilkul.

The three victims were identified as two men, aged 25 and 34, and a 54-year-old woman. The victims were killed up to 200 meters apart, reflecting the wide-area effects of the cluster munitions used in the strike, Vilkul said.

Among the 25 injured, 20 remain hospitalized. Four people are in serious condition, while a boy and an elderly woman remain in critical condition, Vilkul said.

"Every such day and every Russian strike prove that the pressure on the aggressor over this war is insufficient," President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X.

Emergency services were dispatched to the scene, where a fire broke out following the impact. The fire was extinguished at around 1:30 p.m. local time.

Russian attacks continue to cause civilian casualties across Ukraine on a daily basis. Overnight on June 23, regional authorities reported at least 5 deaths and 49 injuries nationwide.

South Korea to accept all North Korean POWs from Ukraine at their request, ministry says

South Korea will accept all North Korean prisoners of war (POWs) captured by Ukraine while fighting for Russia if they wish to do so, the South Korean Foreign Ministry said on June 23.

The announcement comes as Ukraine continues to hold two North Korean soldiers captured by Ukrainian forces in early 2025 after being deployed to Russia's Kursk Oblast to fight alongside Russian troops.

The two soldiers had previously expressed their intention to defect to South Korea rather than return to North Korea.

The ministry said it opposes any forced transfer of North Korean POWs to Russia or North Korea and has communicated this position to Ukrainian authorities.

South Korean and Ukrainian foreign ministers are scheduled to hold talks in Seoul on June 30.

Russia and North Korea have not publicly commented on Seoul's latest statement.

Ukraine detains suspected intermediary in alleged Russian-backed plot to assassinate military intelligence official

Ukrainian law enforcement authorities have detained a 34-year-old man suspected of acting as an intermediary in an alleged Russian-backed plot to assassinate a senior military intelligence official, the Prosecutor General's Office said on June 23.

The target was Andrii Yusov, a representative of Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR) and deputy head of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Yusov confirmed he was the target on June 8, after Ukraine's National Police first said that authorities had thwarted the assassination plot.

The detained man is the second suspect identified in the case,  after a 38-year-old Kyiv resident and former serviceman suspected of agreeing to carry out the killing was arrested on June 8. Investigators said the man had already begun preparations for the attack.

According to the Prosecutor General's Office, the newly identified suspect, a 34-year-old former serviceman, acted as a middleman between the organizers and the suspected hitman. The suspect was detained on June 18 and remanded in custody the following day.

Investigators believe the operation was coordinated under the supervision of Russian handlers.

The investigation is ongoing as authorities seek to identify the organizers and other participants involved in the alleged plot.

Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov claims readiness for new peace talks at 'any time'

Moscow is ready to hold peace talks with Ukraine at any time, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a group of ambassadors on June 23, as reported by the Russian state-aligned media outlet Interfax.

The claim follows EU leaders largely agreeing at a June 18 summit that Russia is not seriously pursuing peace talks, and weeks of Russian forces bombarding civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, including most famously the Dormition Cathedral of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra.

Lavrov's remarks also come after U.S. President Donald Trump told President Volodymyr Zelensky to act "more boldly" against Russia, according to a Ukrainian official who spoke to the Kyiv Independent.

"We are ready to resume (peace talks) at any time, picking up where they left off," Lavrov said, according to Interfax.

The comments contrast with Lavrov signaling only two weeks earlier that developments on the battlefield, rather than diplomacy, would determine the course of the war.

The Russian foreign minister added that he expects the terms for such talks to be based on agreements between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump at their meeting in Alaska in August 2025.

Russia has illegally shipped nearly 90,000 tons of wheat through occupied Mariupol port in 2026, Ukraine says

Russia has shipped 88,800 metric tons of wheat through the occupied port of Mariupol since the start of 2026, Mariupol's city council in exile said on June 23.

Twelve vessels transported wheat through the Russian-occupied port of Mariupol over the past five months, according to the statement, which cited Russia's Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor).

Since the start of Russia's occupation, Russian occupation authorities in Mariupol have worked to restore the port for large-scale grain shipments from occupied Ukrainian territories. Moscow intended to use the port as a gateway through the Volga-Don Canal to the Caspian Sea and, via the Black and Mediterranean seas, to the Atlantic and Indian oceans, according to the council's statement.

The port's operations were later disrupted by Ukraine's missile strike campaign targeting Russian logistics, the National Guard's 1st Azov Corps said on June 10.

According to the corps, the strike hit electrical substations, radar systems, repair facilities, a control tower, fuel storage tanks, and the sanctioned cargo vessel Lady Augusta, which is linked to Russia's shadow fleet.

The current operational status of the port remains unclear.