Ukraine's 3rd SOF Regiment Establishes Aerial Drone Control Over Melitopol–Chonhar Crimea Supply Route — Day 1,563

On June 6, 2026 (Day 1,563), Ukraine's 3rd Separate Special Purpose Regiment (Special Operations Forces) announced that it had established aerial drone control over the Melitopol–Chonhar road — the critical land supply corridor connecting Russian-occupied mainland Ukraine to Russian-occupied Crimea. The regiment stated: 'Drones of the Special Operations Forces unit are destroying equipment and breaking the enemy's logistics routes on the Melitopol-Chonhar route… This is just the beginning. More to come.' The Melitopol-Chonhar route is one of only three logistics corridors to Crimea: the Kerch Bridge (road and rail), the Donetsk rail/road corridor through Melitopol, and the narrow Chonhar crossing over the Syvash — a shallow lagoon with only narrow bridge crossings over flat steppe terrain. The open steppe geography makes vehicles in transit extremely vulnerable to FPV drone and loitering munition attack. This announcement escalated Ukraine's systematic drone interdiction campaign against Russian logistics to Crimea, which had already created fuel shortages on the peninsula from prior drone strikes on Crimea's storage infrastructure. The June 6 announcement preceded a direct Chonhar bridge strike the following day (June 7), which suspended traffic through the Dzhankoi checkpoint, demonstrating that the aerial interdiction campaign was coordinated and multi-day.